Proskauer Rose Defers Current Summers to 2011

Proskauer Rose has joined the growing list of firms to defer current summer associates to 2011. But unlike other firms on that list, the Proskauer deferral pushes the 2010 class to “fall” 2011. Other firms have at least told their summer associates that they could start in January 2011.
Proskauer has already deferred its incoming class of new associates to March 2010, and the firm only gave those new hires a $20,000 stipend for their trouble. And the firm has asked incoming associates to voluntarily defer until January 2011 with a $60,000 stipend. Maybe participation in the voluntary deferral program by the class of 2009 has been so great that the firm felt it had to involuntarily defer its current summers to the fall of 2011?
But at this point, it doesn’t appear that Proskauer is offering any kind of deferral stipend to the class of 2010, and that has some summers grumbling.
Some summer reactions after the jump.


Right now, summers are still concerned with whether or not they will receive offers from Proskauer. Apparently, the firm has told them that “most” summers will receive an offer, but we don’t yet know what that means.
But it’s the apparent lack of a deferral stipend that seems to be rankling most summers. One tipster put it this way:

“Fall” (probably November) 2011
No stipend
No salary advance
No healthcare
But they’d really. really like us to come back… Oh, and doing public interest work in the interim would be great, they say, but it doesn’t seem like they’ll be doing all that much to help us find somewhere to work for a year. Why bother? Every other firm is sending out eager new law grads to public interest organizations who will work for them for free. The summer was miserable, too, by the way.

Proskauer did not respond to Above the Law’s request for comment.
Just because Proskauer hasn’t told summers about a deferral stipend doesn’t mean the firm won’t eventually pay one. It took Ropes & Gray a little while to announce its deferral stipend, but the firm did eventually decide to offer deferred summers $60,000.
Of course, one would hope that Proskauer will be more generous than that, since it is asking current summers to be out of work all the way until the fall of 2011.
We’ll see how this progresses and whether Proskauer’s decision to defer its current summers has any affect on its recruiting efforts with the class of 2011 this fall.
Earlier: Deferral Friday Rolls On: Next Stop White & Case
The Latest and Greatest Nationwide Start Date Round-up
Good News for Ropes & Gray’s Future Associates

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