Proskauer said months ago that they're only planning on making 50 offers. I really can't understand the 28 others who still decided to go. Does anyone really get an offer from Proskauer and absolutely nowhere else?

I am at a firm where we have NOTHING TO DO.

3 - what firm? vault range at least?

4 - V10 (I am in the capital markets group however.)

- 3

I'm an ass at debevoise and the summers here who are doing corporate work are being kept very busy. (can't speak for litigation.)

Actually, 5 is not the original 3; I am.

Also V10, but M&A.

For the record, Jones Day is NOT a firm that is familiar from posts re: layoff coverage. Thank you JD for lowering the number of SAs INSTEAD OF doing layoffs and/or no offering 50% of the class. Seems both smart and fair to me.

-JD atty

8 - It says "many," not "all."

So you put the bad news above the fold and the good news below the fold?

Any reason for that?

9-precisely, which is why i said 'for the record' instead of 'fail'

Biglaw firms lag behind more efficient and intelligently-run enterprises, but they eventually follow what everyone else is doing. The economy is still getting worse, business is still declining at a frightening pace, and there's nothing on the horizon that looks likely to change that.

At some point PPP will dictate more layoffs, and these summers are the most worthless in the pyramid of worthless associates. They will be fired or no-offered, just a matter of time.

I wouldn't go to any Jones Day office other than DC.

Actually 7 is not the original 3, I am and like I said V-10, Capital Markets Group. 7 - stop pretending, it's rather infantile to answer for someone when I was asked a serious question.

- 5

Also, am I the only guy that caught the Debvoise kid calling himself an 'ass'...WTF

Wow 12, did you seriously take the time to post that:

1) the economy is down, and
2) SAs are the least productive of "lawyers" since they are not even legally lawyers, but rather "clerks"

You provide no new insight or information. Your "theory" that bigger businesses are conservative in business model changes is beyond elementary. I know of 5th graders who understand that concept.

Please feel free to shut the fuck up as your "news" about the economy and brilliant business "theories" are known by 5th graders across the nation. Seriously retarded.

Fail 12

papa cravath has 118 summers and the vast majority seem busy.

13 - Cleveland and Columbus are sweet gigs for Ohio, no?

Proskauer has a record number of SAs but fired a record number of first years really early on. Whats the point of going to a place only to be axed within 6 months?

i saw a group of SA from Schulte (btw nice moron name tags..you guys look like you were about to get on a short bus) walking down 3rd ave. They were all staring at the floor and completely silent. Sad...

15 ever consider an anger management course?

19 - 3rd Avenue has a floor?

the NALP numbers are bogus; they are LIES.
Unemployment has been rampant for large percentages of new law school grads for years now.

I am a summer at Simpson Thacher and have very little to do. The atmosphere is jittery to say the least.

I am a summer at Simpson Thacher and have very little to do. The atmosphere is jittery to say the least.

I aM a sTudeNt of WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW.

ToP WsU sTudEnTs RuLe!!!!!!

My GoLe iz tO bEe a AtToRnaY. I wiLL mAkE LotZ of MuNny!!!!!

whats the prediction on the 2010 class size tho?

25,

I need YOUR OPINION!!

WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW Law Review OR two-ply???

ATL, would be great to see summer figures for firms in other major markets like SF/SV, LA, DC & Chicago.

hey STB summer, arent summers SUPPOSED to have very little to do?

25,

I need YOUR OPINION!!

WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW Law Review OR two-ply???

I like SA's they do good works

25-

Is it UNETHICAL for a law school to DROP OUT "poor performing" students for the sole reason of increasing its bar sucess rates?

Isn't a law school suppose to teach "poor peforming" students, since they're SUPPOSE to help a student learn and become better at learning and knowing the law?????

I almost went to WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW.

I took some orientation class and the professors and 2L-3L's kept talking about how great they were (profs kept talking about how they were "gods" and students kept talking about how they were good at getting top grades).

It was horrendous s***. Good thing I dropped out before classes started.

Now, I bang hot chicks on weekends and no law student, professor, or lawyer can ever do that. My wang grew to 8 inches from all the exercise, while law students do practice essays. LOL.

32.....i SUPPOSE

34-

Your mom SUPPOSE to blow me last night.

Who's cares how angry 15 is. He's so right. I get tired of reading the same stupid comments on every thread (except the few decent schticks of course). If you don't have anything new or entertaining to add, try to keep your comments to a minimum!

35...

34's mom is SUPPOZED to blow you last night.

Some of these firms who have increased their summer class sizes may just have been forced to do so because they sent out their usual number of invites without realizing that a much larger percentage would accept this year than have in the past. For that reason alone, if I was one of the summers in these increased classes, I would be very very nervous about the end of the summer.

13...

I didn't know that Megan's Law was that restrictive.

J/K.

I go to Western State University College of Law and never liked any of the 3L's who graduated.

Many of the top students thought they were hot sh** when the real reason they were in law school was probably because they are like other law students on this board: Making a bitch move in life

I am glad that they are likely to have a hard time getting a job.

That's what they get for laughing at me when the teacher called on me, yelled at me and made me cry and doo-doo my pants. No one even asked me to the Barrister's Ball. I never got to see the guy's balls! They had no right to laugh at me. No right!

The Class of 2009 is truly the Lost Generation, but the Class of 2010 is just collateral damage.

I guess that makes you '10 grads two-time losers.

The Class of 2009 is truly the Lost Generation, but the Class of 2010 is just collateral damage.

I guess that makes you '10 grads two-time losers.

I go to Western State University College of Law and never liked any of the 3L's who graduated.

Many of the top students thought they were hot sh** when the real reason they were in law school was probably because they are like other law students on this board: Making a bitch move in life

I am glad that they are likely to have a hard time getting a job.

That's what they get for laughing at me when the teacher called on me, yelled at me and made me cry and doo-doo my pants. No one even asked me to the Barrister's Ball. I never got to see the guy's balls! They had no right to laugh at me. No right!

I go to Western State University College of Law and never liked any of the 3L's who graduated.

Many of the top students thought they were hot sh** when the real reason they were in law school was probably because they are like other law students on this board: Making a bitch move in life

I am glad that they are likely to have a hard time getting a job.

That's what they get for laughing at me when the teacher called on me, yelled at me and made me cry and doo-doo my pants. No one even asked me to the Barrister's Ball. I never got to see the guy's balls! They had no right to laugh at me. No right!

41-42...

I think that 2010 grads will have a better chance at getting a job because by then, the economy should lighten up a bit.

The 2009 grads are likely to go out for jobs between now until the beginning of 2010. That will be rough for them because the economy is not predicted to get any better until mid-2010.

By mid-2010 and onward, the economy should be better and so should the job market for lawyers. As a result, 2010 grads will not have the "rocky roads" 2009 grads did.

Do you have big breasts?

41-42...

I think that 2010 grads will have a better chance at getting a job because by then, the economy should lighten up a bit.

The 2009 grads are likely to go out for jobs between now until the beginning of 2010. That will be rough for them because the economy is not predicted to get any better until mid-2010.

By mid-2010 and onward, the economy should be better and so should the job market for lawyers. As a result, 2010 grads will not have the "rocky roads" 2009 grads did.

Do you have big breasts?

41-42...

I think that 2010 grads will have a better chance at getting a job because by then, the economy should lighten up a bit.

The 2009 grads are likely to go out for jobs between now until the beginning of 2010. That will be rough for them because the economy is not predicted to get any better until mid-2010.

By mid-2010 and onward, the economy should be better and so should the job market for lawyers. As a result, 2010 grads will not have the "rocky roads" 2009 grads did.

Do you have big breasts?

2010 grads are the current summers. So no, they will not have an easy time getting jobs. Ditto for 2011.
09 grads were the last lucky ones, got of the sinking ship with only loss of a limb or so.

By late 2009, things wil be worse!!!

Sure, the stocks are rebounding, but employment rates are still high.

High employment rates means that people will spend less, so there will be less consumption. With less consumption, there will be less production. Thus, you USA will turn, not into a third world country, but a modern day France or UK.

When all this happens, people will come to their sense and will not longer hate each other. They will no longer want to sue each other and so lawsuits will decrease.

People will then join each other hands and sing "This land is your land." Next, lawyers will be depressed, wearing bow ties and suspenders to show that they are big stinky, ass***** and proud of it, making them modern day douchefaces.

This site is such a shithole. The only commentators are (1) laid off associates attempting to make others feel as worthless as they do at the moment, (2) associates with so little work to do that they try to deflect their insecurity and generally terrified moods to others, (3) secretaries who whine about lawyers getting paid too much, (4) paralegals who whine about lawyers getting paid too much, and (5) law students who have no fucking clue what's going on with anything at all. For all you jealous doomsayers: enjoy the next couple years. The economy is going to rebound, and everything will be AOK once again. The fact that you people seem to revel in others' misfortunes is truly pathetic, but hey, whatever keeps you happy.

lol the at Western University College of Law flame

50...

I take it that you do not like people who "revel in others' misfortunes..."

This means that you will never be a great lawyer. LOL.

Get it!? Because lawyers and law students are big tools!

50 - Gee, thanks, Dad. Your claim that "everything will be AOK once again" will pay my bills for the next few years while I wait this out, huh?

I remain unconvinced that BigLaw is coming back, and certainly not within a time frame that will enable most of the layoffees to jump back on the ship. We're FUCKED, and there are many hundreds of us in every major city...way more than there are openings in house or with His Highness. Obviously you're not practicing corporate in my former firms (V25), or the 10 or so firms (all V50+) where good friends have/had practiced.

M&A: DEAD; cap mkts: dead; banking/lending: Hahaha; structured finance: they were the first to go; bankruptcy: not nearly as busy as they're supposed to be.

Whatever it takes to make yourself feel better, though, right?

44,

I am one of those people who graduated Western State University College of Law.

Clearly, you are just jealous of people like me who work hard and are able to become the best of the best at WSU. We get good grades because we are hard workers. So, we are likely to pass the bar and more likely than poor students like you to become wealthy and successful. The statistics prove this.

While I will be eating cheese and drinking wine as a prestigious lawyer, you will be taking the bar for the 35th time.

The digested cheese and wine will give my farts a refined smell; thus, my farts will smell good. Ah yes, I will truly live the great life, smelling my own farts, while giving off false pretentions that I am a great lawyer (in real life, I am just a fart smeller who does things to impress people because I am a big tool).

43,

If the students laughed at you while you were getting grilled by the teachers, you should pretend to be distracted.

When the teacher says, "What's wrong" or whatever, point to the students laughing at you and say, "Oh, I thought [name of student] was telling me something."

This will make the student look like a jerk because now he will likely stay quiet, making him look like a bitch. If he talks, then he will look like an arsehole gunner.

As for teachers who try to grill you (professors usually like to pretend that they were real trial lawyers) and they get out of hand, become a "hostile witness." Ask them to clarify everything.

Answer the relevant stuff, but for the non-relevant stuff where you are hostile, they can't ding you because you are an "inquiring mind." Even the appeals process will be in your favor. What will the professor say, "I lowered his grade because he was asking questions"?

43, STFU...Let's get back to the Western State University College of Law flame. LOLOLOLOLLOLOL

43, STFU...Let's get back to the Western State University College of Law flame. LOLOLOLOLLOLOL

50 - which one are you?

Guess kaye scholer is the place to be

According to republican gospel, the domestic terrorist who murdered Dr. Tiller in his church should be waterboarded.

I believe any firm that does not honestly review its SA program will soon find itself unable to compete with the firms that have made drastic changes to their SA programs as dictated by the broader market.

That is also true in regards to runaway associates' salaries. Latham's partnership has elected me to an unprecedented 4th term as Firm Managing Partner to address this very situation. I've already address our over capacity problem by right-sizing our associate population commensurate with available client work as well as provided guidance to our recruiting department on the size of this year's SA program. The problem of associates' salaries is next on my plate.

I honestly didn't know there was such a place as Western State University College of Law, but I checked out their website and I'm pissed that I went to a top 10 school. From what I see, if you go to WSUCL, you can write your own ticket. Wish I'd gone there!

I honestly didn't know there was such a place as Western State University College of Law, but I checked out their website and I'm pissed that I went to a top 10 school. From what I see, if you go to WSUCL, you can write your own ticket. Wish I'd gone there!

61:

Didn't Latham already address "runaway associate salaries" when they became the first elite firm to freeze salaries back in 2008? None of their "peer" firms matched their freeze, and yet you think Latham partners still feel the need to put their hands deeper into the pockets of their hapless and beleagered workforce?

If Latham ever wants to compete for top recruits at any point in the next decade, they are going to have to unfreeze salaries, and do it fast. Any more bad press (whether it stems from a salary cut, or a 2nd round of layoffs) will doom its reputation among law students forever. It will unquestionabl lose its status as an elite firm destination for top law grads (that is, if it hasn't already).

64:

The answer is no. The salary freeze was simply the appropriate response at the time, based on the best information we had. If you haven't noticed already, Latham does not do what our "peer" firms do unless we determine it's the best course of action for the firm. When it became evident that a salary freeze was not enough, we did the hard, but right thing for the firm and let go 10% of our associates. We also gave all of our laid off employees, associates & staff alike, 6 months of severence PLUS 6 months of paid medical. No other "peer" firm had the courage to do what was right and necessary. That is to their detriment. If you don't think that our partners had a rough year, I invite you to look at the drop in their take home pay.

From your response I take it you're a law student. I suggest you take the time to learn how a top tier firm works before you spout off. Aside from asinine comments on legal blogs, most outside observers know we did the right thing.

Our reputation is fine with top clients and that's all that matter. Our clients have already applauded the moves we've taken to make an already strong firm even stronger. The perception of law students means absolutely nothing and will not even be a factor in my decision making. Let me give you a quick lesson why. As long as our current clients and potential clients perceive that Latham is a top tier firm capable of handling their work, we will continue to receive that work and continue to rank near the top in Chambers, etc. That means Latham will be very profitable which will in turn attract top tier talent. These top talent will recruit for us because despite what you or other pissant law students think, they will in the end choose to go with top talent for the experience, the networking and all the other benefits one gets in working with top tier talent. Your opinion on our business decisions thus far means absolutely nothing since you know absolutely nothing about running a law firm.

Good day.

Just so everyone knows (looking at you 41/42), a class does not constitute a "generation."

65, all that sounds pretty reasonable. Sure.

But it's still very much the case that a law student who wants to work in California will factor in the decisions made at Latham. Law students tend to do a rough ranking/hierarchy of firms they want to join.

Latham has gone down a few notches for sure.

This may be irrelevant to your calculus, 65. I understand you're comfortable with that.

I'm just saying, that's how law students think. What else do law students have to go on in their decision-making?

I can tell you for sure that PW corporate summers have a lot of work and unlimited lunches.

Here's what I don't understand (V10 first yr assoc here)... If they want to test summers and give them work, and there's a shortage, why not just give summers the identical assignment you give a first yr and see how they perform it? Will also let you know if you have a worthless first yr to can..

On second thought, lets not do that.

69 - you sound like you work at one of the fake V10s (Latham, Skadden or Weil)

In my two weeks as a summer associate, I've billed approximately 150 hours doing complex commercial litigation at a V10 firm. This 150 hours has been spent writing a critical legal memo for a fortune 100 company. The memo is now 68 pages, and I'm sure the partner will love it. He thought it might only take 5-7 pages to address the issue he asked, but boy was he wrong!

68 -- What the eff is "PW"? Is that supposed to be DPW?

71 -- I need that memo asap!

72 - I believe it's Paul Weiss. You may have heard of them.

Obligatory Paul Weiss = slave labor comment.

As a summer associate at debevoise, I can confirm that it's been very busy.

Hey, why is the Comcast ad woman that replaced the Dealbreaker Asian chick not 25 and banging hot? Do they know their audience at all?

too bad that list gets some of the numbers wrong for actual length of summer terms. Cravath isn't 13 anymore, it's 10. I don't think simpson or sullcrom are 13 weeks either.

where does kash get the assertion that "New York offices appear to be in the coldest waters" from? That chart covers ONLY new york firms. We have NO IDEA what other firms in other markets are doing from that chart.

Everything I have heard from other markets leads me to believe that they are just as screwed, if not worse off, than new york. NY is just more visible because it has more firms. But firms in every market are cutting back. Look at what's happening in chicago, CALIFORNIA, even ohio firms. Why is new york taking all the heat?

Our summers have indicated that several firms have told their law school colleagues that only 50% will be receiving offers after the summer (at best). Thus, it is not necessarily encouraging that some firms are increasing their class sizes. I'd rather be at a firm with a small summer class (where the firm actually thought ahead) and be pretty certain I'm going to get an offer rather than in a big summer class with no offer going into 3L. Note that BigLaw does not go to OCI to hire 3Ls as new associates (at least not in this economy). Good luck, and be careful out there!

As a staff member JD at D&P, I find it greatly offensive that they increased their SA hiring and have frozen hiring, salaries, eliminated bonuses and curtailed OT for staff. And our reviews are due in a few weeks. We are supposed to be rewarded with a new evaluation policy which we have all been begging for, but I suspect that it will be used instead for "performance" layoffs. Thanks D&P.

13 and 17:
I like Jones Day, any office. When it comes to cut backs, the worst they've done is push back first-years' start dates. Still giving SAs 12 weeks at regular pay. Cleveland and Columbus Jones Day are good gigs, especially if you factor in cost of living differences. I'm at an Ohio firm, and we are being kept very busy. Some firms are making it.

Wasn't Western University the school from Blue Chips?

74- Slave labor (not true btw) is better than no labor

74- Slave labor (not true btw) is better than no labor

Are any of you familiar with "Masque of the Red Death" by Poe? Seems like something biglaw associates and lawyers should read.

(grim chuckle)

61/65 ("Bob Dell") is doing a better job of staying in character than Partner Emeritus. And, whoever he/she is, 61/65 is quite accurate in explaining how firms think. Law students overrate their leverage at the best of times, and these aren't those times. By the time things turn around, Latham's current actions will have been largely forgotten and a non-factor in the firm's ability to attract law students.

2--Proskauer has a "relationship" at a couple of lower tier law schools where others don't hire. But the suspicion is that a number of the summers may be effectively no offered, either directly or through an extended "deferral" plan.

71 - Probably half of those hours will be written off and your 70-page memo probably could have been done in 10. What partner has time to read a 70-page memo?

Bob_Dell sounds like he might be John McCain.

If this is the case, all I can say is...

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOHN MCCAIN!

-71

You have to be a flamer. If the partner said it should take 5-7 pages, that is what it should take. You have wasted your time and more importantly the patner's time. You will be no-offered. Give him a body bag, yeahhhhhhhhhhh!

71 is clearly a troll that hopes to capitalize on the fiery hate that everyone has for self-entitled and clueless summer associates.

All of our Summer Associates are so boring this year! Current associates looking for free drinks on the firm are being shortchanged by these nervous-nellies!!!

Debevoise is quite possibly the best firm on Earth

The fact that there is a system where summer associates, with no proven ability, are expected to receive offers is ridiculous. Offering employment based on merit is not the downfall of Biglaw; it is a correction.

boies in nyc overoffered and has its biggest summer class yet. i'm sure the associates are thrilled.

Pretty sure 71 was a JOKE....

Pretty sure 71 was a JOKE....

Pretty sure 71 was a JOKE....

94, you got your offer because of that broken system. They should off the associates that were hired under that system before offing the summers.

S&C is 13 weeks

amen, 93.

amen, 93.

amen, 93.