Nationwide No Offer Watch: Is Dechert Trying to ‘Trade-Up’ Its Summer Class?
Let’s say you leased a $25,000 car with an option to buy it a few months later. But when your option matured, you realized that automobiles previously priced at $50,000 were available for what you would have to pay for your $25,000 car. Wouldn’t you at least go back to the showroom and take a look around?
According to some Dechert summer associates, that is essentially what Dechert is doing to its summer class. As we understand it, Dechert has made offers to half of its summer class. But it told the other half of the class that they’ll have to wait until January 2010 before the firm even decides if it will give them offers. January!
In the meantime, Dechert is one of the few firms we know of that is going full speed ahead with 3L recruiting. So Dechert looks to be interested in hiring some 3Ls for its next class of incoming associates, before it even tells all of its 2009 summer associates where they stand with the firm.
I know, nobody is “entitled” to a job. But is it reasonable for a firm to treat its summers like fungible commodities? To quote the late Charlton Heston: “It’s people! Soylent Green is made out of people.”
Tipsters who summered at Dechert reported that the firm’s reason for delaying their offer decision until January was “purely economic.” But if that is the case, then why is the firm looking to hire additional people for the same incoming class?
Dechert summer associates weigh in after the jump.
Above the Law brought all of this information to the attention of Dechert management. A firm spokesperson told us:
This is incorrect.
But we’ve seen the recruiting information and OCI postings for law schools where Dechert is interviewing 3Ls. And we’ve spoken to people who summered at Dechert who did not receive offers. Many of those summers claimed half (or more) of the class was in a similar situation. When we pressed the firm to clarify what specific part of our information was “incorrect,” we did not receive a response.
Summers themselves told us what they thought was going on at the firm:
[Before my offer decision was delayed] I thought [Dechert’s recruiting of 3Ls] meant one of two things: either Dechert needed more people (great!), or it was scavenging other firms and possibly looking to “trade-up” from its current associates to more prestigious associates (better grades, law review, even better law schools, etc.) who may not want to be deferred from firms like Cravath or Skadden. The latter possibility is awful. We agreed to accept Dechert’s summer offer; for them to just abandon us because they can get some people with more prestigious backgrounds is a major breach of trust, one that would make them look awful to applying 2Ls. I had a choice of being a summer associate elsewhere, and chose Dechert — if Dechert was trying to trade-up, it seems like this is something current 2Ls should know about. There is no way I would have chosen Dechert if I had known there was even a chance that they might try to trade-up for a prestigious person. So I thought that they couldn’t no-offer us — that would look terrible for their recruitment.Then I got a call from one of the hiring partners. I was told that they were deferring making a decision … until next year in January.
Another summer who will not hear about an offer until January felt this way:
MysTTTal (sorry) Elie, I have been a critic of your work and intellect. You tried to warn me about Dechert. I didn’t listen, too many typos. Now I feel like the idiot.
But some tipsters had a more philosophical response to the news:
I appreciate not having to job-hunt with a no-offer weighing me down. I’d expected a much higher number of us to get offers, since Dechert already cut its summer class down by a lot … But I guess I can’t fault them for trying to get a better deal than me. I would have done the same to them if the market had been better.
Will Dechert be able to recruit 3Ls despite the way the firm is dealing with its former summer associates? Most likely. But those 3Ls forfeit their ability to complain should Dechert look to “trade-up” again.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of No Offers
Prior ATL coverage of Dechert
(144) 
Comments
First.
Dehcert.
Second...
Mehchert
Dechert Blows.
-Cravath Secure
what a bunch of fuckin douchebags. Dechert's summers could have summered elsewhere and gotten offers. basically, Dechert has locked these people in just to see if it needs them in case they don't trade up. the Dechert partners are a bunch of fuckin Lathams.
Dear Dechert,
You really think any T14 3L that you hire now is going to be there in 2 years?
WAIT! Before answering, please write me an essay explaining the phrase "lipstick on a pig."
Unless Dechert plans to "trade down" this information does not help me.
"one of the few firms we know of that we know of that is going full speed " = pls proofread me
"Soylent Green" is really based on the book by Harry Harrison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room!_Make_Room!
and yeah Dechert stinks
Arent a lot of firms doing this? It seems, from comments on ATL, that many NYC firms are doing OCI and have not offered anything yet to their 09 SAs. I dont think its trading up, I think its its trying to save face.... there probably will not be a lot of honest offers made to either group
Smart move by Dechert. Some students accomplish more during their second year of law school than they did in their first. And even in this economy, some 2Ls are dumb enough to take their foot off the gas once they have an offer. Firms should have been doing this a long time ago.
Good. It will teach you ATL children some humility.
Like Elie said, unless you check the ethnicity box, you don't deserve anything.
Moronic post. Plenty of firms that have not yet notified summers are still participating in OCI. In fact, that's not new. Some firms have always been slow to get everything through the various committees and communciate with the SAs, while at the same time OCI gets earlier and earlier every year (what's left of it). So again...moronic post.
DecherTTT
hate to say it, but in better times didn't we all try to "trade up" biglaw jobs? interviewed on the quiet in 3L fall, with a permanent offer in our back pocket?
And weak ass analogy too. How is a 3L vs a current summer fungible? One will be available a full year earlier. You douche.
15, you're an idiot. 2009 summers are the 3L's now. The 3L's they're recruiting will be available at exactly the same time as the summers they're deferring.
from tomorrow's Legal Intelligencer--
Dechert, Others Delay Making Decisions on Summer Offers
By Gina Passarella
August 27, 2009
It looks as though large law firms are asking their most recent summer associates for a little patience as the firms try to figure out how they want to make offers this year.
While all eyes are on how many summer associates will receive offers from their respective firms, law school career counselors are hearing some firms are anticipating taking longer with their decisions even though summer programs were shorter on average this year and wrapped up weeks ago.
Normally, this would be the time to track offer rates, Melissa Lennon, assistant dean for career planning at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, said. But 2009 is not normal.
Of the 20 or so firms she is tracking in and around the area, Lennon said only four have given offers so far. Large law firms typically want to give offers to summer associates as quickly as they can once completing evaluations and assessing practice area needs, she said, because they then have to begin recruiting on campus for next summer’s class. They want the students who received offers in the summer to act as advocates during the fall recruiting season, Lennon said.
With some firms not hiring for next summer and others questioning the lead time between hiring summer associates and bringing them in as full-time attorneys two years later, firms are taking their time this year.
"Now, here in the real world in 2009, I think firms generally are going to wait as long as they can to make these decisions," Lennon said.
Firms will weigh these decisions much more carefully and many are still deciding what their future hiring practices and needs will be, she said.
The latest example of a firm holding off on some of these decisions comes from Dechert, where there is a bit of a hybrid approach when it comes to making offers this year.
"We are extending offers to begin in fall 2010 to well more than half of our 2009 summer associates," the firm said in a statement. "Hiring decisions on the balance of our 2009 summer associates will be deferred until after the first of the year. At that point or perhaps sooner, we expect to have a better understanding of the fall 2010 demand for entry-level associates. We hope and expect to be able to offer some of the deferred [summer] associates positions that would also start in fall 2010."
Dechert had deferred the first-year associate class set to start in the fall of 2009 until either October 2009, March 2010 or the fall 2010. So the firm is looking to manage the number of associates it has beginning next fall.
"One of the challenges that I think the large firm folks would say has been a factor in this particular downturn has been a tradition in making those commitments so far in advance," said Elaine Petrossian, Villanova School of Law’s assistant dean for career strategy and advancement. "By definition, if they have framed that early hiring as one of the factors that has made these economic circumstances so difficult, continuing to repeat that would seem a tough proposition."
Petrossian said she would rather see more stable decisions occur later rather than firms make premature hiring decisions simply because that’s the way they had always done things.
"Waiting to see how things go might potentially, in their view, make sense," she said. "I do not think entry-level lawyers are the factor that is causing the unraveling to the large law firm model, but I think that certainly there’s a feeling that trying to predict so far in advance is very difficult so that would explain to me in a very reasonable way why they would need to wait."
"And weak ass analogy too. How is a 3L vs a current summer fungible? One will be available a full year earlier. You douche."
A current summer is a rising 3L (which is comparable to other rising 3Ls). Both groups are available at the same time...
Elie
I leased a Lexus for $25000 when I got a job at Baker Botts in Houston. I also married a really hot chick with DD tits and big hair. I was laid off from Baker Botts yesterday, my Lexus was repossessed and my wife's tits deflated and it turns out she is a he.
My question is whether Lat would be interested in taking my wife off my hands.
I haven't heard anything from Dechert, weired.
14 here.
15, your a dumbass.
OMG!!! WHERE is ROXANA.. I have a ton of hate I need to spew and no targets for it at the moment.
Isn't Latham doing the same thing in recruiting at 3L OCI across the nation while laying off and deferring hundreds of would be associates?
Nice job, 15.
Who's the douche again? Don't type without thinking.
Which firms havent offered yet but are doing OCI?
15, you are an idiot (for the reasons explained by the other commenters).
People just put into limbo by Dechert = Law School Class of 2010.
People going through 3L recruiting = Law School Class of 2010
So they ARE functionally equivalent. Dechert just wants to "trade up."
12 - No. Most firms with high no-offer rates are NOT recruiting 3Ls.
3L recruiting is different from 2L recruiting.
23
Is Latham doing 3L OCI? So basically they're spitting in the faces of the first years they Lathamed after only four months of work. Over half the class was Lathamed at Latham NY.
The partners at Latham truly are douchebags. No wonder they're in freefall. Nobody wants to go to a firm just to get Lathamed after four months. That's why no other V20 firm has Lathamed first years.
The tone of this article is what is wrong with the legal profession today, such a sense of entitlement. So what if this firm wants to wait to give offers to see if there are any more qualified 3Ls out there? It sucks for the summer associates, but why should these summer associates be entitled to a job? They shouldn't, stop acting outraged.
I suppose I should know this, but are Dechert attorneys fully licensed and allowed to practice law in New York?
If Dechert thinks that anyone from Cravath or Skadden would go to Dechert just because they are facing a deferral next year, than the firm is far more stupid than I (already) thought they were.
People who want to work at Cravath want to work at Cravath, and the same goes (albeit possibly to a lesser extent) for Skadden.
Willkie, White and Case, Jones Day, and firms of that ilk could try and pull something like this, and still probably not be successful. But Dechert?? Dechert isn't even on the radar of someone at Cravath or Skadden.
You can call this post "douchey" all you want, but it's the truth. If you can't deal with the truth without resorting to name-calling, then you're the douche.
If you think my economic policies are working, talk to a Dechert 2009 summer associate who isn't.
I'm Barack Obama?
15 pwn3d by 18.
12 pwn3d by 27.
Please get a clue before commenting. Kthxbai.
"But is it reasonable for a firm to treat its summers like fungible commodities?"
Unfortunately, yes, if the firm regards them that way.
Your law firm does not care about you as a person.
I'm terribly confused about this word "douchebag." Doesn't "douchebag" include anyone who racks up $200,000 in debt for a chance to get rich working morning, noon and night screwing over the American public? Just looking for some clarification here.
At least none of us has Michael Vick's problems. He owes his creditors 20 million dollars and part of his bankruptcy agreement is to "limit" himself to only spending $300,000.00 per annum. Poor Michael Vick.
DecherTTT
PeTTTrossian
DecherTTT
PeTTTrossian
You can get into CWT and Katten Corporate NYC without even summering there.
You can get a pussy pass if you are a hot female TTT grad.
Dechert is weak. Since when did general discussions about firms not in the top 5 tiers become of interest?
38 - Why are you hating on Petrossian? They have great caviar.
Morgan offers are out
Woe that I live to see such things.
Doesn't the law firm have to sign up for OCI well before they give out offers for the summer class? If so, then it's not fair to slam a firm for backing out of an OCI commitment (as some firm was a couple of weeks ago) and then also slam a firm for going ahead with OCI even though they don't actually want to hire anyone. Why don't we wait until we see whether Deckert actually hires any of the 3Ls before jumping to conclusions.
44 - It varies from school to school, but in answer to your question, no.
The responsible firms canceled their 3L interviewing schedules before bids were due and/or schedules were finalized.
I hope someone has posted this already, but I don't feel like reading all of the comments.
But...
Isn't it obvious that the firm is interviewing just to give the impression that things are a-ok at Dechert?
I wouldn't look too deeply into this.
MysTTTal
And the self-entitled are struck down again!
I guess we can narrow it down to Dechert SA's as the retards who criticize Elie for typos on a FUCKING BLOG.
44, go back and read the post about Reed Smith and Fordham.
ATL didn't slam the firm; the Fordham dean did (which is what made the story newsworthy).
Dechert is the only big firm that posted an ad online on symplicity looking for 3Ls to apply to start work in Fall 2010.
Latham is definitely doing this as well.
46 - Not really. Most top firms aren't bothering with 3L recruiting. So you don't lose prestige by refusing to go through with the charade.
44- for purposes of 3L OCI, plenty of firms have backed out right up until OCI itself. Which sucks for the 3L who wasted a precious bid on an interview slot with that firm.
Dear God please make these TTT grads/students spouting off this entitlement bullshit go away.
You are all irrelevant.
12 and 44 - See 51.
55
I agree. These "entitlement" spouting TTTs are getting fucking annoying. They're so irrational they don't get that "entitlement" isn't a real argument at all. That's why they're TTTs and weren't getting hired even when the economy was good.
I went to Harvard.
Decherttt is worse than Latham. 2 and 3Ls beware of this firm
How can we be at post 56 without a single comment regarding the three blind mice: The Winokurs (BarTTTTT and "I will lateral from Cleary associate to Dechert Partner" Derek), and Ricardo Jones.
I am quite disappointed in Dechert associates. Or has the firm scared you all silent?
Latham NY hired at least 10 2008 grads as 3Ls. These people turned down offers from solid biglaw firms at which they'd summered to go to Latham.
When they got to Latham, they were given no work, and then laid off. They were at a disadvantage when it came to surviving because they didn't have that summer to build those connections.
In short, do not take that Latham 3L offer unless you don't have an offer from your 2L summer firm. Latham is not above bringing you in as a 3L, giving you no work when you start, then laying you off. This happened to a large number of people, and is one of the reasons Latham is freefalling in the rankings.
Dechert is not recruiting at Harvard... they just have a resume drop...
Comment removed by moderator.
60 - Dechert still has associates left after 5 (or is it 6? i've lost count) rounds of layoffs?
I just got an email from the editors of urban dictionary. They have rejected my proposed entry of MysTTTal into their prestigous product. MysTTTal= TTToo TTT for the Urban Dictionary.
I'm really curious to know how far down the rankings this "entitlement" bullshit starts.
Does start as high up as Fordham? (now tied with Alabama, making it a TTT until it inevitably recovers) or does it start all the way down with the Stetson, Cooley, DePaul ilk? Or somewhere in between?
Dechert's Charlotte office will be closing shortly--
31-
There are a lot of people on law review or with top grades at top-5 or 10 schools who are at V10 or V20 firms and got deferred for a year. Probably well over a hundred. Believe it or not, they didn't all choose their firms to maximize prestige. Some of them may prefer to start making market pay at Dechert over waiting a year. How much is prestige worth? Especially for anyone who has a family or otherwise feels a need to start making money ASAP, this may be a very tempting choice.
68
Dechert has laid off a crapload of people. They hired like mad for corporate when many indicators of a looming recession were already present. They're a poorly managed TTT. A deferred V20 3L would be a fool to trade down for that Dechert offer.
66- This would never hapen at Widener
Bart is an immoral money-grubbing pimp, and all the equity partners are his complicit whores.
Dechert is AIG, Enron, and Countrywide wrapped up in a third-tier Philly brand.
Comment removed by moderator.
71-72: A third-tier Philly brand with Skadden billing rates, you mean.
It is clear that Dechert views all clients as ATM machines. Once they get their hooks into a client, especially on large matters, management explicitly pressures the partners to lard up the bill with tons of associates doing marginally useful, but unnecessary work.
This is particularly true for matters on which clients would have difficulty switching to another firm, due to the transition expense or time constraints.
Dechert management has expectations of what matters should cost, and partners routinely get reprimanded if matters are concluded for less than anticipated.
It happens on a daily basis.
Dechert clients are nothing more than fat hosts, and Dechert is a financial parasite.
No wonder it's going down . . .
how dare you give away the plot of one of the best scifi movies ever! even if it was almost 40 years ago. edward g robinson's last film, and a darn good one.
and oh, btw, several partners at the biglaw firm i used to work at openly referred to associates as "fungible garbage."
I was thinking about when firms were going to start doing this the other day, apparently, they've already started but i cant imagine the shithouse that is Dechert is the first one.
"Dear God please make these TTT grads/students spouting off this entitlement bullshit go away. "
Wow, it must hurt to realize that you aren't entitled to a six-figure salary at a "prestigous" firm simply by dint of attending a certain school. You were insulated from a true competitive environment, and now that you're being pummelled for being inexperienced and unqualified for any real position, you're attacking people that you judge are inferior. Sucks to be you.
just got a call from Dechert. they extended me an offer, kind of surprised.
Elie, good job ramming that Soylent Green quote into your post. It made the post so much more enjoyable. You're hilarious!
76 -
Insulated from a competitive environment? Were the ones who competed against you in high school, on the SAT, in college, and on the LSAT. We beat you at every turn. We will continue to.
Dechert did have summers from T14 law schools. This happened to them too.
76 - all law schools are competitive. I didn't go to a T14, but ask anyone at Harvard how competitive it was at OCI, for judicial clerkships, to get onto law review, etc...
This is where your entitlement arguments fails so miserably. Very few people feel entitled to anything. Most of us have worked our asses off for everything we have.
Latham has already notified all summers of offer decisions and is not recruiting at 3L OCI. The firm deserves most of the bashing it gets, but get your facts straight.
76, 81
TTTs feel entitled to complain about those superior to them (T14ers)
73 --- have you witnessed this personally?
sounds like ethical and possibly criminal violations by Dechert
The whole point of Dechert doing this is that associates aren't fungible commodities. If they were, they wouldn't waste their time with 3L recruiting, they'd just stick with those they have.
Anybody that takes an offer with a firm right now is a fool.
FED GOV SECURE
MysTTTal,
blog was better when you left for vacaycay
82
So you're saying Latham won't be destroying 3L hires this year? That's very charitable of them.
Many Philly firms cut their class sizes significantly. If the firms cannot even make offers to the significantly smaller class sizes, it must be a sign of trouble...
Dechert is flexible enough to blow itself.
And it does.
What Dechert is doing is in poor form, but they are within their rights to do this if they want to. However, can we get rid of the NALP guidelines students are forced to adhere to under threat of OCI death, since it's clear the firms feel no real scruples when it comes to decisions like this. oh yesh, DecherTTT
91, I'm with you. It's truly unfair that firms can delay decisions, recind offers but we cannot hold two or more offers to see what is going to happen in the future.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
"We beat you at every turn. We will continue to. "
Apparently not, since so many of you are being fired. The ability to regurgitate crap doesn't equate to success. Thanks for trying.
"Most of us have worked our asses off for everything we have. "
So do most people; no one hands them a six figure salary just for showing up.
morgan summers are getting SLAUGHTERED today....
95, were they self-entitled too?
"Let's say you leased a $25,000 car with an option to buy it a few months later. But when your option matured, you realized that automobiles previously priced at $50,000 were available for what you would have to pay for your $25,000 car."
How the Christ did this guy get into Harvard Law? Elie, you have got to post you law school essay for us. You owe it to us for putting up with your drivel.
94
I got laid off and now have a 100K job with a small firm a semi-good TTT would normally have taken.
Get this through your head, Biglaw layoffs hurt TTTs such as yourself because now that T14 grad is taking YOUR job, and it's straight up unemployment or selling your ass for you.
Agree with 91 and 92.
I guess I'm not as familiar with the NALP guidelines as I thought I was, but I'm shocked that a firm can do something like this and be in compliance with them, while would-be associates have definitive deadlines for offer narrowing, acceptance and the like.
This is nothing. At my buddy's TTT firm in NJ 2 years back, they raised salaries for first years but not 2-4th years thus paying first years more than second and third years.
CLS 3L here. Latham definitely interviewed 3Ls at Columbia's EIP (which is everyone else's OCI). I think for several offices, including New York and New Jersey ones.
CLS 3L here. Latham definitely interviewed 3Ls at Columbia's EIP (which is everyone else's OCI). I think for several offices, including New York and New Jersey ones.
Or it could be that they are simply going through the motions and doing 3L recruiting to maintain law school relationships. My estimate is that your score on the Games portion of the LSAT was pitifully low, Mistake-al.
it's a competitive world. get used to it, WATBs.
A different CLS 3L here.
Latham was scheduled to interview 3Ls at Columbia. We could bid on it. After I bid on it, I got an interview.
Latham later canceled all 3L interviews, so that our bids were completely wasted.
One more step in Latham's plan to fuck over the whole world.
98,
I have a good job, and I didn't have to insult anyone else along the way to make myself feel better. Too bad you couldn't cut it at the big firm. Bye now.
106
This laid off first year who "couldn't cut it" still makes more than you.
107,
Assuming so much...just like a crappy lawyer. Next you'll probably insult someone's appearance or sexual prowess. See ya on the playground!
Way to spoil Soylent Green for us, Elie.
I haven't heard a thing from Dechert. Guess that means no-offer.
99, if we violated the NALP guidelines, what would they do to us? kill us?
110: you might hear from them later today or in January. I also heard from them after this post
My firm seems to use 3L recruiting to add "diversity" to its incoming class and I'd guess they may do the same.
That said, I agree that Dechert is a dump. A backwater firm that thinks it can play with the big boys and ends up looking foolish.
21--
i agree that 15 is a dumbass. but if you want to call someone else a dumbass, please don't make a dumbass mistake yourself.
"your a dumbass"
YOU'RE a dumbass. why can't people understand the difference?
"I know, nobody is "entitled" to a job. But is it reasonable for a firm to treat its summers like fungible commodities?"
Umm, when the work of most corporate and litigation associates can be done by well-trained monkeys, yes, they are all fungible. For those of you that thought you were special and unique, welcome to the real world.
15 here. Thanks for the love everyone!
About time. Believe it or not, DecherTTT used to pull top students and clerks from HYS,UofC,CLS and clean up at UPennState. For last 15 years, recruiting has tumbled steadily downhill. Too many grads from The Ohio State University, Temple (they could go anywhere, but they chose DecherTTT) and Villanova (the backup school for all those dolts who failed to get into UPennState. Once upon a time, there were a lot of smart lawyers there. Now the place has been dumbed down and many of the partners are now just relationship partners managing clients but are shitty technical lawyers themselves and the overall quality levels continue to sink.
It IS Dechert, after all. What else could you expect?
I can only deduce that Dechert thought that half its summer class was very weak and surmised that surely they could do better looking at th 3L "scrap heap."
Also, good firms would have no offered a lot of people who Dechert never could have recruited straight up. Dechert will look to capitalize on that opportunity amongst the 3L cast offs who were discarded by good firms.
69- 68 here.
So Dechert is a TTT because they hired too many people and laid some off? Didn't Cravath and many other top firms also massively overhire? Haven't other prestigious firms had layoffs? (Aside from Latham, of course).
The problem with Dechert isn't that it's a "TTT" or a shitty firm. The problem is that the management has no loyalty at all to its lawyers or summers, and no sense of decency.
I like Dechert and I think the mud-slinging going on here is ridiculous.
What Dechert is doing sucks. There's no denying that. But to be clear, they did not sign up for ANY 3L OCIs. They only posted a listing for 3L write in submissions. It's a big difference, but it's still wrong that they are even collecting resumes.
I agree with 120. the management is TERRIBLE. they should at least keep people at the firm informed. no announcement has been made and people who you would expect to give you answers - like recruiters - don't have a clue because the hiring partners haven't told them what's going on either.
67 - what leads you to believe that the Charlotte office will be closing?
62- you're an idiot and a faker. Dechert has four rooms are HLS. and they are listed on both the 2L and 3L lists (sheets of who is recruiting for what class are on each floor of the hotel)
Dechert is completely trying to trade up. What offices are doing this? Any of the California offices?
Dechert's Charlotte office only has two partners--
One partner has no work coming in and the second partner has been strongly rumored to be leaving the firm for greener pastures. The second partner brings in all the business, if he goes, which is likely, the office must close.
Law students are (for the most part) a bunch of whining brats deluded by their irrational feelings of self importance and entitlement. Only in the irrational world is it the general practice to give offers of employment a year before the students graduate (or, as it now seems, two years before the employer intends to have the employee begin working). Why do students feel that they should be able to keep multiple offers in their back pocket for security sake. A rational employer would never agree to let a prospective employee sit on an offer indefinitely and hedge their bets. Get over yourselves.
Where is that partner in Charlotte going to go where he can do better than he is doing at Dechert?
You can no longer assume that getting a SI means an offer of employment. It is a ridiculous concept in a good economy and obsurd in a poor economy.
The ordeurves at Latham's OCI reception are made out of people; the Lathamed first years.
126 - I didn't think that you could name anywhere, which is exactly why the office isn't going to close.
128
I think Dechert has always had an unwritten policy to the effect that there's always room for exceptional canidates (even if they have to "make" room). Despite all the layoffs in 2009, the firm has still hired a decent numbers of lateral associates and partners. And without exception, they've had pretty stellar credentials .
The upside is that Dechert has a chance to recruit out of it's league this year and next. The downside is that it'll take a reputational hit with law students once the economy returns to normal. Given that Dechert's reputation with law students is already shot after 7 rounds of layoffs, it sounds like they made a conscious choice to stock up now. WIth morgan lewis on the verge of collapse and Dechert being among the handful of firms to neither cut nor freeze salaries, my guess is that they'll do pretty well.
132 -- Dechert has laid off many 1st/2nd-year associates (both litigation and corporate) with excellent credentials, so I'm not sure why it would be inclined to hire more entry-level associates with similarly excellent credentials
133,
I'm not arguing. I obviously know a ton of people who were laid off, and more often then not they were really good attorneys with really good credentials. But I've noticed that the handful of lateral associates that they've hired have been in a different league in terms of resume. The first time I saw one of thier bios I was hit by a wave of nausea, because I knew they'd fire me in a second to pick up more people like that.
I guess the reason to lay off first and second years now and still hire more entry level people is that it doesn't cost them $200K a head to hire new people while they wait for the economy to improve.
132
As a labor lawyer's observations, why should Dechert, or any other firm, company or syndicate, not follow the advice it gives its clients? What do you think employers do once they use someone's youth and throw it on the factory floor when they can get newer, better and possibly cheaper? Plus, its not like summer 2L's were underpaid for their troubles and thus are owed sumthin'.
just goes to show that "BigLaw" firms like DecherTTT are TTToast!
3Ls being recruited by Dechert, know what you're getting into. this firm has thrown its own associates -t14s included- under the bus (laid them off stealthily and then publicly denied layoffs)
128 / 131
You are kidding - right?
138-
Actually, no. Dechert is set up so that all the money goes to the equity partners who bring in the clients. It probably has the least equal distribution of profits between its partners of any big firm. I don't know about Charlotte in particular, but if he is a real rainmaker, he would probably do better at Dechert than anywhere else.
Re Charlotte office - the partner with business makes more money at Dechert than he could at any other firm for the size of its practice (in Charlotte or if he moved to NYC). As does every one of the top 10 - 15 guys at the top of the charts there. Its how the place works. The top partners earn $5 - 8 M per so they won't leave. The next group below them wants to earn that much so they have something to aspire to. That gets to about a third of the equity partners and that's what holds the place together.
140--
I think he will stay with Dechert--but relocate to New York, thus leaving Charlotte without a viable partner and thus, the office will close.
141 - I'm sure that he has been free to move to NYC since day one at Dechert. Why would he change his mind and move now?
142--Personal Reasons (that people outside of the firm would not be aware of)
143 - I am inside the firm. I don't think that is an issue anymore.
142