Did Elie write that letter?

Guys in my high school wrote letters they didn't proofread all the time, , it was no big deal.

Fenwick, where we aren't good enough business people to find work and not good enough lawyers to fix typos in termination letters.

Fenwick & Westtt is the festering toilet of Silicon Valley.

Where is the typo? I don't see it.

What is this "3L recruiting" you refer to?

Fenwick will be following in Heller’s footsteps by the end of the year.

what 3L recruiting?

HLS teaches use of the double comma. Everyone else is TTT.

The two comma mistakes (second paragraph, first line; third paragraph, third line) make the letter look like a fake - who would show that to a prospective employer?

The double comma after regrettably for one....

That's what they call a serial comma, right? It's also known at the Harvard comma.

Definitely not a fake. The letter is that bad

There is no 3L recruiting. As such, I haven't been prejudiced by my no-offer.

Cute Irony: Elie calling somebody out for a typo.

Hilarious Irony: Elie calling somebody out for a single typo, when there are in fact two.

We should all remember the basic rule: double-comma, TTTriple T. This rule was repeatedly drilled into us at STTTanford Law School: http://www.fenwick.com/attorneys/4.2.1.asp?aid=662

what does "peer firm" mean?

Just another pitiful group of people who got Latham'd.

Once again proof that human resources people are completely useless. Five minutes to proofread dumbasses.

did no one see the second typo in the third paragraph???? ",as" Jay Pomerantz learned how to proofread at a TTT, I'm not even sure where to start on this one.

For the few mistakes that Jay Pomerantz makes, he does a hundred things right. He finds lost luggage, locates mandolin strings in Austin, and prices the rent out of the local Hebrews. There's no sex and drugs for Jay Pomerantz, he sleeps two or three hours a night.

Letter is worthless. The question will still be on the table: "Why didn't you get an offer?"

Yup. There is a spacing issue with one of the commas, too.

I find it odd that fenwick is recruiting out east this year. They no offered all the summers east of the mississippi.

I carry around letters from girls explaining why they did not sleep with me. I show them to every attractive woman I meet.

What's the word in philadelphia. Any additional layoffs looming?

Well played, 26. And I beat you to it, 21.

-16

This firm is pathetic ;the no-offereds are lucky.

Rather than passing out copies of this letter,,I suggest removing your summer employment from your resume. Telling employers you spent your summer following Panic, shrooming, and up to your nuts is sticky balls and granola groupies is bound to be just as---if not more--helpful than this letter.

Do you think Mystal the Walrus wacks off to pictures of Obama?

I really can't believe that this is the letter they offered.

While I seriously doubt Fenwick would go to such lengths to identify who leaked this letter....I must say that the glaring typos in this remind me of something I read in an early Tom Clancy novel (maybe it was Cardinal of the Kremlin? The Sum of All Fears? Not sure) where it was discussed how when an organization thinks they have a leak but aren't sure who, and there is a fairly finite universe of leakers, they will individualize documents for each potential leaker, with the only difference being minor typos/punctuation edits that are specific to each letter. Therefore, if the agency ultimately finds a given version of the document is leaked, they can figure out (by the specific typos, etc.) the person to whom such document was given.

Again, seriously doubt that Fenwick would be so cloak-and-dagger, and probably this is just really lazy drafting....but still....

Mission Accomplished!

@32 - that's likely exactly what happened here.

Comments are not funny. Please try harder.

Dom D

what does "peer firm" mean?

The ship be sinking...

Dear no-offered Fenwick & West summer associates:

How does is it feel? I mean, , you paid so much money, incurred so much debt, , and spent so much time for law school hoping to get that $160k to start, , and you almost had it. But it was yanked out of your grasp right as you were about to enjoy it. How do you cope?

How do you explain it to your parents, family, and friends? I mean, , until a little while ago, , they thought you were going places. Now, the only place you are going is moving back in with dear ol' mom and dad. How do you answer their questions? How do you tolerate their quizzical expressions, their sideways glances? How do you handle the awkward silence in conversation whenever the subject turns to work or career?

@32 - So what? It's not like the firm can retaliate in some way. What are they going to do? Send another letter not offering a job?

39, 32 here, not saying that the firm would do anything (or even that this was deliberate), only that the multiple, glaring punctuation errors reminded me of a technique to out a leak. And firms don't like leaks. But again, this was probably just sloppy drafting.

Either way, now go get your fucking shinebox. ;)

The entertaining tantrums are a thing of the past. This is what we have come to, people no longer get upset by the news that their careers are over even before it began. Progress has been made. But have the young ’uns really accepted that they will not be as rich as their parents? Do they understand the shit storm of debt that they will have shoulder above and beyond the student debt that they already carry because American politicians cannot bear to impose discipline on an economy that is out of control? What will they do when they finally learn the cold hard truth of their bitter futures?

How ,can any potential employer be impressed with this letter? The amount of time and empathy displayed by Mr. Pomerantz in providing this "explanation" is embarassing.

Also,,I would be embarrassed to show this letter to a prospective employer, but a Fenwick peer firm would have to feel schadenfreude from the posting of this TTT correspondence ,on the interwebs.

Is it just me, or are there several typos in that letter? I would have expected better.

Apart from the typos, I think the letter is pretty shi-tay. I mean, it certainly is not a ringing endorsement of the addressee and doesn't say anything concrete at all. I doubt many of those folks are going to laminate this letter and carry it with them to job interviews, or enclose copies with their resume.

Fenwick: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

40, why would they want to out a leak from someone they had already no-offered? so they can then send them another letter telling them they were just kidding, we really had a job for you, but we wanted to test your loyalty? Probably not likely. Although I do find it incredible that a partner or senior administrator who likely has a professional assistant would sign their name to such a short letter with such egregious mistakes.

If they had no-offered EVERYONE, this letter would be meaningful.

However, since half of the class DID get offers, the letter means bupkus. If you got the letter rather than an offer, you were in the bottom half of the class. Say goodbye to a career in BigLaw - and maybe that's not a bad thing.

Firms should put hidden identifiers in letters they send out to Summers so they can catch these leakers.

The real question is: what schools do the people who got offers go to?
Did Fenwick no-offer everyone outside the T14?

FWIW, their summer program is back to 10 weeks in this upcoming summer. Still, getting increasingly upset this is my only offer...
-nervous 2L

"we really enjoyed meeting you" is lollerz material

32 - Do you also believe that Bush and Cheney knew about and/or planned 9-11 ahead of time. I know I do.

Jesse The Body

Typical BigLaw, "first-tier law school" trash letter that serves no useful purpose to the applicant. I knew Harvard never taught their law students basic writing skills, but I guess they don't teach grammar or proofreading at Stanford either.

This sorry attempt to make things right reminds me of the endless letters of recommendation I read for applications to clerkship positions:

Dear Judge, (not even the courtesy of the Judge's name)

I am a big-swinging dick at [BigLaw here]. [Candidate] was very good and completed [insert low-level tasks here] when I asked.

I have no doubt s/he will make a great addition.

Sincerely,
[Partner]

Also add at least five typos to those two trite, non-descript , wholly unhelpful paragraphs that wouldn't suffice for a McDonald's application.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh, since after all, it is BigLaw full of FTTers, where people are expendable, profit is king, and the ethically-challenged idiots who run the firm into the ground can take their incompetence out on the law students/low-level associates instead of being accountable themselves.

To the folks who have "hidden identifier" theories. Guess what? Fenwick already decided they aren't hiring these people. There is ZERO chance that they will EVER hire these people. Therefore, I doubt the summers fear Fenwick much.

Also, if you provide a nice "We like you but we didn't hire you to _everyone_ you didn't hire, (1) clearly these people were not as desired as others that the firm did hire and (2) the letter becomes meaningless if it's a form letter sent to all rejected summers. It's the same as ANY rejection letter from a firm along the lines of "While your qualifications were impressive, we were unable to pursue your candidacy at this time". It's a kiss off letter, pure and simple.

I would bet that the double commas were intended to have the first name of the letter recipient between them.

I would guess that this form letter came from someone "in house" at Fenwick, and that the original simply had blank spaces where the form fields were to be inserted. The black lines and excessive paper fodls were added to try and suggest that the source was an actual letter recipient.

26 ftw

I just love the last sentence: "We hope to stay in contact with you." What disingenuous bullshit! Look, asshole, it's obvious that you didn't "want to stay in contact" or you would have given this person a job offer. Why is it that law firms insult people's intelligence with that kind of garbage?

If they expect the market to be that much better in a year (as they say in par. 3) - why shouldn't they make more offers?

I was at first harsh on the conspiracy theorists but then who would have ever thought that the managing partner at an am law 100 firm would launch an investigation and review video to see who had been pissing on a toilet seat. I guess anything is possible. 54's theory also makes some sense.

56 IA...it reads like a breakup letter. "Really, let's stay friends."

56 and 59 - Wouldn't it have been and more genuine to have said - P.S. Go fuck yourself.

I, too, am skeptical of the "hidden identifier" theory. Anyone seeing this letter who isn't in on the plan would have good reason to think that this firm is full of sloppy idiots. The apparent purpose of the letter is for the no-offered 3L's to present it to other legal professionals. Why would a firm send out correspondence saying essentially, "We can't proofread!" when people at the firm expect the letter to make its way into the hands of other other legal employers?

Also, since I am old fashioned, let me point out another problem with this letter, which people haven't been addressing in the comments. Any official written correspondence using "they" with a singular antecedent is embarrassingly unprofessional. (See above: "We sincerely believe that legal employers will...not take exception to *someone's* candidacy because *they* did not receive an offer." The word "someone" is singular; the word "they" is plural.) It's one thing to do that in a crappy blog post, an IM chat, or an informal e-mail, but doing it in a letter on firm letterhead indicates a lack of understanding of basic grammar.

Kind of crap how it doesnt say anything positive performance wise- ive dated enough girls to know compliments are free.

60 -- It absolutely would have been more genuine. It would be refreshing for a law firm to just come out and say, "We know we're fucking you over, tough shit, deal with it" rather than, "We hope to stay in contact with you."

To all those who are skeptical out there, this is the exact letter they sent to all the no-offered summers. Also, from what I've heard from others, they no-offered two HYS kids and 5 other kids in T5 schools.

64:

You know what they call dumping two HYS and 5 other T5s? A good start.

An associate from F&W told me a WHILE ago that not only do they plan to give offers to about 50% of their summer class but that the summers were told that only 50% of them would get an offer on the first day of the summer.

"When the market turns around, as we believe it will, we expect that those who graduate law school in 2010 will be in demand."

Kind of sucks to graduate in '09, then, I guess....nice typos, too. Very professional. Not.

It would be great if we could get some of the info from the comments (which is true, btw) promoted to the body of the post so that 2Ls who are considering the firm can make an informed decision

a) Fenwick DID no-offer everyone east of Mississippi
and
b) They also no-offered everyone at top schools as a result.

What anyone over there is thinking is anyone's guess.

Also, there were only 16 offers from what I heard. 8 corp, 7 lit, 1 patent.

I got the same letter but the typos were different. weird.

Just to clarify some facts:

- There were 3 offers out of 17 that were to non-west coast summers. Not much but not "none".
- Summers were paid on the 160k scale.

It's better to admit that summers were no-offered due to economic circumstances than to say nothing at all (thus implying that the summer sucked). Fenwick's summer offer rate has always been over 90%. The only real mistake they made this time was extending the normal number of summer offers without realizing that there would be a huge acceptance rate and then failing to warn offerees about the huge summer class. It's unlikely that Fenwick will make that same mistake this year.

My advice to 2Ls who have Fenwick offers:
- Ask about the targeted summer class size.
- Ask about how many offers have been made, how many they are planning to make, and how many have been accepted.

61 -- Regrettably, I think grammar rules have been modified to accomodate that. I agree that it's still a hideous way to write.

How classy of them to do something like that with the letters explaining the situation. Better than O'Melveny where it is against policy to even act as a reference for someone not hired when they're offer rate was only slightly better being the in the mid 60s. Times sucks for everyone but the good firms do all they can like this.

Thanks for the info, 70. Can anyone confirm the 160k payscale, since we've got conflicting information on it? They haven't told the current 2Ls what the planned compensation is this summer, and I'm worried they'll cut it on us.

Latham fired 500 associates and all I got was a stinking FU letter. Latham did not even have the balls to give us a letter like this - rats of new york.

Latham treated us very well with excellent severance pay...far better than other firms. I am grateful for my time at Latham and how professional they were to me.

Kelley Drye & Warren did the same thing - did not pay on the $160K pay scale (which they decided last minute) and only offered 3 out of 14 summers in the New York office. No-offers included students from Columbia and NYU.

74 - face the fact that you are a failure.

71, no lawyer who spent thirty seconds reading that letter would have missed the "someone...they" error. It jumped right out at me too.

My secretary wouldn't make that error either, and what's more, she would correct the error in the letter if I were to make it. Apparently a high school educated secretary who is now 60 years old is better educated than either this firm's HR representative or, sadly, the lawyer who signed the letter.

Top ten student at a T1 law school. No offered because I didn't kiss up to the associates on the hiring committee....

70, I have no idea where you got your facts. As a summer at this shithole firm, I can confirm that ALL summers got paid on the 145 scale. We received a phone call early in the winter informing us that "we (fenwick) are reducing the number of weeks of the summer program to 8 and that the pay will be based on a 145k pay scale." During this phone call we were also informed not to worry b/c "fenwick has every intention of keeping in line with our normal offer rate."

Also, in regards to the East Coast offers... there was one on the actual East Coast. I believe 2 were given offers from schools in b/t Cali and the East Coast.

As far as this letter being "classy," it is worthless, would you actually want to bring this letter into an interview. In a meeting we had during orientation we were informed that the firm was going to release a statement to the press stating that the offer rate was strictly due to economic reasons... have I missed this or is this ATL post it?

I am yet another Fenwick summer and I am going to confirm that we got paid on the 145K scale. I just pulled out my paystubs and did the math. It came to 145,000.08.

Firms should put hidden identifiers in letters they send out to Summers, , so they can catch these leakers.

This firm is garbage... All the partners here are riding Gordy Davidson. Without him, this firm fails... Also, probably the nerdiest group of losers I've ever met

I can't help but feel wonderful about myself for going to a tier 3 mid-west law school that all of you uppity elite law school types would snub your nose at. My law firm gave offers to all of its summers, and I'll be making $100,000.

Yes, I know, it’s not $160,000, but then again I never had the entitlement chip that you "elites" have on your shoulders. The fall from the top must hurt even more.

When I realize that I'll be making more money than 70% of people coming out of the top twenty-five law schools (based on what I hear about big-law hiring), and I consider the fact that I earned a 100% scholarship covering my 2 and 3L years that saved me $60,000 in debt, well that just makes me smile!

GO STATE!