Was the NYC office affected? If so, anyone know how many were let go?

ouch. tough way to start the fall season. come back from the beach trip and - whamo- pink slipped.

Wow. Finally, a well written press release that doesn't insult the people you are having to let go, like the Q&B one did.

Does anyone know how many of the let go are former TPW?

Practice groups and locations?

To the tipster: Would you prefer having been laid off in August rather than September?

i got laid off while on vacation... sonnenschi-za/sonnenschi-t heads

Tough stuff.

Check out their nalp stats. Low leverage, especially in Chitown, not a ton of fat to trim from the firm. It's a shame, and probably a worse sign re: the economy than layoffs in the boom-bust leverage model firms.

Good luck to all who were lost. Things will get better, have faith.

This is not news. Sonnenschein is a loathsome firm, and the hirings and firings of their wretched "lawyers" should not be reported.

Incidentally, I have an outstanding offer at my father's preeminent peer law firm.

Forgive me, but I didn't realize this firm had any associates left after the 25 previous rounds of layoffs.

I warned many of you cogs that my blend of hybrid tough love would be making the rounds at many non-peer firms this fall. All this talk about Commissar Obama's economic recovery is pure gibberish. Commissar Obama is the grim reaper of our economy and his ineffective leadership will continue to plague our markets and profession. It will only be a matter of time before hybrid tough love converts to no love at all.

Whooaaaa. 10 just owned the commenters. Ah man, you told them. Bammmmm!!!!!!!

Take the lay-off as a blessing in disguise.

Is there anyone actually left at Sonnenschein?

They were the first to rescind offers to incoming associates over a year ago and layoff people every round.

Anybody know where we can find stats about the financial security of law firms? I am particularly interested in figuring out which of the Am100 use a credit line and which rely on their own cash reserves.

13 (aka 10) Get over yourself, we did long ago.

More hybrid tough love for non-peers!!!!

I am loving this.

ATL not ABL

first, i doubt 10 and 12 are the same person.

Second, they are ironic and witty. if you don't find them humorous, you lack a brain.

NEVER FORGET THE MORGAN LEWIS 74 AND THE PEPPER HAMILTON 13 AND THE BLANK ROME 12

Whomever the "tipster" at Sonnenschein is, they deserve to be fired too, since they cannot read or spell. Abbreviating "Above the Law" as ABL is surely a sign of mental retardation. Why not ALa or AthL?

Whooaaaa. 17 just told 13 off! Bammmmm!!!!!!!

entitlement

Whooaaaa. 17 just told 13 off! Bammmmm!!!!!!!

Fewer than two dozen, not less than two dozen.

Shit, it looks bad out there. TPW kids are safe - they are actually busy. Oh yeah, use Chrometa and maximize those billable hours.

Did this affect any TPW hangers on? I hear Sonnenwhatever is being patentyl chinsy with things like free coffee at the former lavish TPW offices.

Ain't no Sonnenschein when she's gone
Only darkness every day

This is nowhere near how many Latham fired (400 associates)

Geez. Latham Latham Latham. Give it a rest. Was a terrible bloodbath, but proportionately the same as some other firms. Esp. the overleveraged ones.

Come on, Elie...like working a couple dozen more hours over Labor day weekend is going to make any difference in whether a firm gives you the axe...

Any rumors to report regarding other law firms looking to cut associates this month?

. ▲
▲ ▲

Sonnenschein can't triforce, thus layoffs

Between Cooley Godward, Sonnenschein, and Quarles & Brady, I am having more fun than a two-pecker goat in a field full of nannies!

Layoff...whats that?

c/o Small Firm Secure

34 -- Go back to where you belong. Newfag.

I heard that a large firm has been reducing compensation of select associates and non-equity partners by nearly 50%.

random -------- did elie mystal ever work for the suffolk legislator...does he hate hispanic day laborers or is elie mystal a common enough name...doesnt sound like ATL's mystal....but then again who knows?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/nyregion/03suffolk.html?ref=nyregion

The report also highlighted a comment by Elie Mystal, a county legislator from Amityville, who said during a hearing in 2007 that if day laborers started gathering in his neighborhood, “I would load my gun and start shooting, period.” He later apologized for the remark and said he had been joking, according to news media reports.

37 - nice

34

39-- Elie must have represented "District 15", as per his antecessor http://legis.suffolkcountyny.gov/legislators.html

Racist!

41 - Elie would represent a bunch of fookin prawns

Is it Elie's Dad?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://assembly.state.ny.us/member_files/011/20060803/7748pic01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://assembly.state.ny.us/member_files/011/20060803/&usg=__Daqgpb6qGguXJYcwMJBs6uBEA1c=&h=236&w=343&sz=18&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=fwqVSTsGFhbGUM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522elie%2Bmystal%2522%2B%2522amityville%2522%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Apparently this "mystery" Mystal was a real character.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/amityville-ny/TRDBCMOLGBU15BAUO

http://www.amityvillerecord.com/news/2008-05-28/opinion/010.html

Apparently this "mystery" Mystal was a real character.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/amityville-ny/TRDBCMOLGBU15BAUO

http://www.amityvillerecord.com/news/2008-05-28/opinion/010.html

Lat, Elie, and Kash,

With a new year of law school upon us it seems that complete fucktards (I'm looking at triforce) have found your site. If you don't want this site turning into douchetroll central, I suggest immediate bannership.

The Amityville Elie Mystal is NOT the ATL Elie Mystal. They may be related but then, my dad was something of a fuckwad sometimes so you cannot presume that even if the two are related that young Elie is like Old Elie (hopefully).

46, ATL was always douchetroll central

where is Future Ellie???

Does anyone know if Sonnenschein made offers to its summers?

1,

We get it. You're too dumb to actually do anything thinking. You can engage in knee-jerk reactions, a la wild animals running from preditors.

What are the TPW people doing? There is no mortgage securitization left.

The TPW people are acting like they are busy and kissing as much ass as possible. Prediction. This time next year, half of them will be gone. I have no idea what Sonnenschein was thinking they were getting into with that acquisition.

For anyone to be feel "secure" at Sonnenschein means that their particular practice group has been magically untouched by the current downturn in the economy. Meaning that you specialize in something involving unicorns and trolls that live under bridges.

This comment is addressed to Number 53.

Here is my prediction: This time next year, we will all be gone. I mean all of it: you, me, Wachtell, Skadden, the Federal Judiciary, Coca-Cola and the sun.

We will all start roaming the land looking for deserted corn fields and bartering gasoline for sexual and political favors. Those without gasoline will have to resort to cannibalism.

A huge earthquake will cause California and Maryland to float out into the middle of the ocean. The rest of America will rejoice.

The dead will rise from their graves and the rapture will begin. The day of judgment will be at hand and the sinners will be cast into the lake of fire.

Now, I base the above prediction on absolutely nothing which I suspect is roughly the same basis for your prediction. I am correct?

T14 1L with recession-proof sense of entitlement here-- really interested in getting into Unicorn Law as I worked at a unicorn orphanage for a year after graduating from Brown

Dear T14 1L,

The Unicorn market is booming. Unicorn law is also about as realistic as the notion that Biglaw's transactional practice can continue without a stable of mildly competent but well compensated soulless associates to file the 8-K's.

Please send your resume to me at once.

Sincerely,
Troll under the Verrazano

53: you don't know what you're talking about, for the most part the TPW people are busy enough. Considering that less than 1/3 of TPW's peak number of attorneys came over, it's not that surprising.

Disappointing to learn about this on ATL, though.

Does anyone know how many were affected in their Charlotte office.... oh wait, never mind......

36 --

The words "firm" and "secure" do not belong in the same sentence, no matter the size of the "firm." Don't kid yourself, anyone can and will get the axe if needed.

Can't believe there are any associates left there. Check the DC office--there are like 4 partners to every associate. Poor miserable bastards. That place is the missing tenth circle of Dante's hell.

Elliott is nothing but a baby running around with power tools. Completely in over his head.

When are they going to figure out that it is time to throw the baby out with the douche water.....

Staff IS affected. Don't let the nice terminology fool you. They are using terms such as "attorney to secretary ratio" to justify their staff head-chops. Stay tuned...

staff only counts when attorney layoffs are slow (full snark on) but yes it does appear the pendulum is still at the ready; word is one IT person got hit and one from records/files; still no word on actual attys in ny offices; penis stain in carpet remains safe under current budget.

what a douchy firm. they are in the Sears Tower in Chicago and the greaseballs that work for them are quite sleazy. one of their energy lawyers comes to mind - greased hair and a look that is straight out of the Hitler Youth. what a collection of waste

"53: you don't know what you're talking about, for the most part the TPW people are busy enough. "

I certainly do know what I am talking about. on target for 1600 or less is not "busy enough" and the overbillers got away with it at TPW proper. With Uncle Sonnenwhatever looking over your shoulders as to realization rates, best of luck.

Frankly, all the TPW partners should rot in the hottest parts of hell for all I care. Any Associate willingly staying there is fooling themselves.

Sonnenschein's Washington office numbers don't make sense. . How can a 118 lawyer office function with just 18 associates?

SN@R merged with RubinBaum and then chopped away. Why on earth did they do THAT merger? Makes no sense. So why question the TPW deal???
It seems to me that SN@R has been merging with NY firms and then realizing they made a "mistake".
Go figure.

Sonnenschein's Washington office does not have 118 "lawyers." It has "118 lawyers and other professionals." "Other professionals" for them means lobbyists and their entourage of clerks and technicians, all with strange titles you can't understand. Only about 75 of the 118 total are "lawyers," and that number is shrinking--because Portnoy's strategic plan calls for phasing out lawyers to the greatest extend possible. His theory is that Sonnenschein can't compete for serious "book of business" lawyers, but can for serious "book of business" lobbyists. Of course, as the Washington Post reported the other day, the lobbying industry is drying up because companies can't afford to pay both lobbyists and their own work force. As usual, Portnoy is chasing yesterday's rainbow.

OK, so Sonnenschein has 75 "lawyers." Of the 75, 18 are "associates." So that's 3-1 negative leverage. Three partners for every associate. Unless everyone is working 4000 hours per year, how does the firm make any money with that structure?

To number 70: It doesn't.

I sure hope you all are not attorneys. So pathetic!

With Health Care Reform sure to be enacted, there will be huge amounts of health care regulatory legal work. Too bad for Sonnenschein's Washington office that all its health care regulatory lawyers who brought in business left for McDermott and for Morgan Lewis. And all its business-generating partners in corporate and securities, environmental, employee benefits, international trade, antitrust, consumer protection, real estate, FDA, patent prosecution, patent litigation, labor and employment, trademarks--all gone to places that put a premium on lawyers who practice real law.

With Health Care Reform sure to be enacted, there will be huge amounts of health care regulatory legal work. Too bad for Sonnenschein's Washington office that all its health care regulatory lawyers who brought in business left for McDermott and for Morgan Lewis. And all its business-generating partners in corporate and securities, environmental, employee benefits, international trade, antitrust, consumer protection, real estate, FDA, patent prosecution, patent litigation, labor and employment, trademarks--all gone to places that put a premium on lawyers who practice real law.

With Health Care Reform sure to be enacted, there will be huge amounts of health care regulatory legal work. Too bad for Sonnenschein's Washington office that all its health care regulatory lawyers who brought in business left for McDermott and for Morgan Lewis. And all its business-generating partners in corporate and securities, environmental, employee benefits, international trade, antitrust, consumer protection, real estate, FDA, patent prosecution, patent litigation, labor and employment, trademarks--all gone to places that put a premium on lawyers who practice real law.

It is surprising that no one mentions Sonnenschein's mistreatment of women. In Washington, they don't have even one woman equity partner left, and they belittle and humilate women associates and it amuses them when they cry.

I went to a 1st year reception (back in booming times) at Sonnenschein, NY. A douchebag 1L somehow got an even bigger douchebag partner to start yelling and cursing at me. This partner was 70lbs overweight, had crooked yellow teeth, labored breathing, and hair plugs that looked like a badly done costume job. An associate took a fork and stabbed a huge piece of meat and shoved it onto my plate. This was really all I ever needed to know about law firms.

It's not just all the lobbyists in DC. SNR partners think they know marketing! Check out the guys in their Venture practice...they make, like, 200 gigs a year pontificating at rubber chicken lunches. They even host a website for startup jobs...who knew a law firm was an employment agency? Come to think of it, who needs to practice law?

Interesting that in all the Sonnenschein comments, no one has mentioned the closing of the West Palm Beach office. This office was a Tax/ T&E acquisition of Marty Rosen's practice. They took 3500 sq ft of prime waterfront office space for one partner and one associate and no one in Palm Beach County knew Sonnenschein was in town. They talked a good game of growing, but at the end, were charging the remaining attorneys for parking privileges! Hello! Parking was covered in their lease. The two attorneys are now over at Gunster, Yoakley. Swell move. Won't go very far there. So many malpractice suits I don't know where to begin...

That's a real shame and a lost opportunity. Rosen & Reade was the best acquisition Sonnenschein made, in the terms of quality of lawyers as lawyers and people. Marty Rosen is a prince. And, if Sonnenschein had a genuine commitment to the expansion of a financial services litigation practice beyond New York, this was a great place to have an office. Particularly in a recessionary economy, West Florida is a financial services litigation hotbead. It's too bad Portnoy is so focused on "political intelligence" (aka "arbitrageur") work that he forgets that litigation used to be the engine that fueled the firm.

That's a real shame and a lost opportunity. Rosen & Reade was the best acquisition Sonnenschein made, in the terms of quality of lawyers as lawyers and people. Marty Rosen is a prince. And, if Sonnenschein had a genuine commitment to the expansion of a financial services litigation practice beyond New York, this was a great place to have an office. Particularly in a recessionary economy, West Florida is a financial services litigation hotbead. It's too bad Portnoy is so focused on "political intelligence" (aka "arbitrageur") work that he forgets that litigation used to be the engine that fueled the firm.

That's a real shame and a lost opportunity. Rosen & Reade was the best acquisition Sonnenschein made, in the terms of quality of lawyers as lawyers and people. Marty Rosen is a prince. And, if Sonnenschein had a genuine commitment to the expansion of a financial services litigation practice beyond New York, this was a great place to have an office. Particularly in a recessionary economy, West Florida is a financial services litigation hotbead. It's too bad Portnoy is so focused on "political intelligence" (aka "arbitrageur") work that he forgets that litigation used to be the engine that fueled the firm.

That's a real shame and a lost opportunity. Rosen & Reade was the best acquisition Sonnenschein made, in the terms of quality of lawyers as lawyers and people. Marty Rosen is a prince. And, if Sonnenschein had a genuine commitment to the expansion of a financial services litigation practice beyond New York, this was a great place to have an office. Particularly in a recessionary economy, West Florida is a financial services litigation hotbead. It's too bad Portnoy is so focused on "political intelligence" (aka "arbitrageur") work that he forgets that litigation used to be the engine that fueled the firm.