What’s Going on at Akin Gump?
(Some staff cuts, plus news on offer rates.)
So what’s happening at Akin Gump these days? There has been some happy news — e.g., a thriving energy M&A practice, lawyers honored by the Washington Business Journal as top D.C. lawyers, and a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index of the Human Rights Campaign.
And there has been some less happy news. We’ve heard there have been a number of cuts to the staff ranks in Akin’s D.C. office in the past few weeks, as well as a few attorney dismissals here and there (not couched as “layoffs”).
Through a spokesperson, the firm confirmed some trimming of staff ranks, but declined to provide numbers:
While we do not discuss specific personnel matters, we continue to review and streamline our operations to fit the current size of the firm. This has resulted in a small number of staff reductions across the firm. We are not involved in a larger effort aimed at reducing our staff or lawyer workforce.
We hear the severance was around three months, although the firm would not confirm this.
The firm did, however, respond to our inquiry about offer rates.
Some of the rumors about offer rates at Akin Gump — e.g., on AutoAdmit — are incorrect. The Akin spokesperson reported a firm-wide offer rate of 65 percent, which is not fantastic, but certainly fair for 2009.
The spokesperson also confirmed what we had previously heard about the D.C. office: 11 out of 12 offers. This works out to a 92 percent offer rate, which is quite high — nice news for Washington, but perhaps less nice for other offices (which must have had significantly lower offer rates to reach a firm-wide offer rate of 65 percent).
Feel free to discuss offer rates in other Akin offices, or what you know about possible personnel reductions at the firm, in the comments.
(82) Comments
Comments
The fact that Soul Caliber 4 advertisements litter this website only serves to prove that the game’s marketers know something which I have hypothesized for months: ATL readers are unsightly and nescient.
Get to work, hoi polloi.
More like "Akin HUMP"
Am I right, people? AM I RIGHT??!!??
turd
1 wins for appropriate use of HOI POLLOI.
WHO CARES ABOUT STAFF????? DID STAFF PAY 180K FOR 3 YEARS OF NON-EMPLOYMENT?
FIRST!!....aw wait...damn
4 = 1
Akin looks like they gave offers to 2/3 of the class, but a fair number of the people with offers (Around half? Really not sure...) are deferred for at least a year. No word on stipend.
Any word on NY OFFER RATE?
NY offer rate is around 2/3... 16 or 17 for 23, or thereabouts.
I love how the "Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers" post is used to fill ATL's one-post-per-hour policy.
JaKe - how obscenely wealthy are you?
1 also wins for good use of NESCIENT (hell, the word isn't even recognized by my spell check!)
5, did staff put a gun to your head to force you to go $180K into debt for 3 years of non-employment? Just curious.
Baby powder or gold bond for your ballsack?
Discuss
This post is addressed to Commenter #12:
I am the reason why the phrase "No man can have enough wealth" is no longer accurate.
Jake wishes. Lawyers may be well off (those who still have a job and a chance at paying off their loans), but lawyer is obscenely wealthy unless they were obscenely wealthy before becoming a lawyer. Besides Jake is not obscenely wealthy unless I am underestimating the pay scale of used car salesmen in New Jersey
18, haven't you recognized that JaKe was born into astounding wealth and privilege? Yet, uncannily, all of his present success is due only to his great intelligence and hard work.
Fifty cent = JaKe
I make sex with you now?
Shafeef
JaKe was pretty good in Sixteen Candles.
Goldbond?
What is the difference between JaKe Emeritus and a Rubik's cube?
More like "Akin GRUMP"
Am I right, people? AM I RIGHT??!!??
Jakes describes ATL readers as "unsightly and nescient." yet Jake has commented twice on this post and was the first person to comment thus making him unsightly and nescient.
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT STEPTOE RESCINDING OFFERS!!!
This post is addressed to commenter no. 18:
Aside from the fact that you are incongruously addressing yourself, I must reiterate my son's pronouncements regarding our obscene wealth. My substantial proof of that fact is the manner in which jake and I can pick up potential concubines. There is simply no limit for those of us with obscene wealth. I might also point out that our obscene wealth grants us many privileges beyond that of mere mortals. For one, despite the fact that I habitually drive over 100 mph, I have never been convicted of speeding. No sniveling municipal judge would dare convict me. Further, my obscene wealth affords me the opportunity to expand my sexual horizons beyond what might be considered "normal", yet I can remain, in good faith, fully not hypocritical when I criticize gays.
only 14 of the 21 ny full-summers got an offer. sad sad sad place
houston 3/12
I'm surprised at Akin's low NYC offer rate- even among Texas firms, the NYC rate is usually higher, no?
This is at least the second post in the comments of which JaKe has complimented himself on the use of "hoi polloi." Lame.
An even more relevant question is, why on earth did Hunton & Williams buy Richard Wyatt at the exact wrong time. I think there are like 25 former Akin folks there at this point and they have not exactly produced the work they promised.
I think Akin's BK and litigation practices are busy, as is the NY and DC corporate groups. The LA and Texas corporate practices are really hurting, however.
This post is addressed to Commenter #17:
You said: "but lawyer is [sic] obscenely wealthy unless they were obscenely wealthy before becoming a lawyer." I was obscenely wealthy before becoming a lawyer.
Done and done.
Akin Gump has not been given its fair share of shame since the onset of the capital markets crisis. Poorly managed stealth layoffs and a predictable, yet pathetic approach to the layoff trend--aspiring to match the lowest common denominator among peer firms while patting itself on the back for adherence to its firm values and respect for its people. A small scratch through the superficial reveals the flimsy moral spine of the perennial follower afraid to step out and lead.
Hiring and firing decisions at this firm are less based on merit and seem rather to be based on random chance and the whims of erratic under performing partners. Continually, associates, partners, and summers engage in questionable moral and legal behavior that strikes more of carelessness and unawareness than an effort to cut corners for any given purpose. The decisions of this firm are best described as reckless and chaotic. Only a few partners seem to realize this, or care, but those who do have been leaving the firm steadily, since the mass exodus of over 40 partners last year.
Particular layoff stories highlight the lack of direction of this firm when associates billing high hours were let go without their partners' knowledge, while under-producing associates are allowed to remain, further straining the failing business model Akin has adopted of losing their partners and top associates to asinine behavior.
The revelation of a poor summer offer rate at this firm should be reconciled with the fact that this firm rescinded offers for 2L summer jobs to many candidates in violation of NALP rules last October, and cased this act in a promise that those who did accept, would be given an offer among rates similar to previous summer programs. This did not hold true, as obvious in the recent offer rate in many of their offices.
A word of warning: those who accepted offers to this firm for future employment or a future summer program should know this firm has a habit of "re-evaluating" their staffing needs at the drop of a hat, and should not be relying on any unenforceable promise of employment. New associates should also be aware of this as they see senior associates scrambling for the few parachutes remaining for a safe exit, especially in some of their "low earning" satellite offices.
Few large law firms can be trusted in this economy, but Akin, a firm which has for decades been a symbol of biglaw mediocrity and inanity in terms of quality, prestige, and creativity, has finally managed to excel above its peers in something. Unfortunately, that is only the speed at which they abuse, lie to, and screw over associates and prospective hires.
27 = 2009 Akin SA who probably didn't deserve an offer yet is shocked he/she didn't get one. Better to blame it on the firm being a sad sad sad place, though.
33 = 27.
25 - Why don't you go ahead and talk about it? What's going on?
Jesus, 33. If you were one of Akin's no-offers, the fact that the firm didn't hire you kind of flies in the face of your assertions that the firm's hiring committee doesn't know what it's doing, doesn't it? You're the posterchild for the kind of ass-hat SA that every other SA (and junior associate) prays won't get an offer.
33 is a joke. Bashing Akin? Ha! I can see you now, weeping as you type a snide reply. Sad.
Re: 33:
"Hiring and firing decisions at this firm are less based on merit and seem rather to be based on random chance and the whims of erratic under performing partners."
(Runs through Babelfish to translate)
"I was not hired" (or "I was let go" or "I was no-offered")
Also, "[C]ontinually, associates, partners, and summer engage in questionable moral and legal behavior that strikes more of carelessness and unawareness than an effort to cut corners for any given purpose."
Continual questionable behavior? I must be in the wrong group.
Other good news: an Akin lit partner was named chief of the criminal division of the USAO for the Southern District of New York.
33, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on ATL is now dumber for having read it. I award you no offers, and may God have mercy on your soul.
*snort*
Much of what 33 writes is true. The firm's decisions on who to lay off and when have been remarkably devoid of logic or coherence. A few rainmakers seem to have control of the process and are intent on slashing the ranks of any practice whose profits are below the firm's average, even when that group is seeing an uptick in work.
A few sections cut so deep that they have no associates, so counsel and partners are left doing junior associate work. Either that, or they scramble looking for help from other sections and get people without any knowledge of the subject matter. Many of the regulatory practices are a complete mess after the 2008 partner defections and March layoffs.
Most corporate folks are still pretty slow. Much of the energy transactional work is done out of Houston, so they're the ones who should get credit for the scrap of good news at the firm.
Also, as 33 points out - but everyone else seems to have forgotten - the NY and LA offices pulled summer offers from 2Ls once they hit their targeted number of summer associates. At the time, the firm explicitly said this was done to ensure that everyone who deserved an offer at the end of the summer would get one. Whoops.
Akin's BK practice is not surprisingly doing very well right now as is its IP practice.
"houston 3/12"
Ouch, glad I didn't wind up going there...
I was an associate at Akin Rump before moving on to greener pastures. Akin is an incredibly dysfunctional, miserable place, even for BigLaw standards.
Oh, my akin gump!
Yes, but is this firm hiring laterals?
43 and 44 are, in fact, 33. Ha!
How are the other BigTex firms doing?
43 and 44 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_Chop_%28puppet%29.
Way to go, 33!
I got out while the getting was good, and moved on to greener pastures.
I was kidding with my spouse the other day, that the best thing I got from Akin, besides the $$, was the Lands End duffle bag they gave out several years ago. Very handy, and the perfect duffle bag size!
I will never cease to be amazed at some of the questionable moral behavior that I saw while there. Not that everyone was bad, but there seemed to be a higher percentage of bad people in power.
50 - Nope. Sorry. There are many people who have watched Bob Strauss' firm change from a fine - if unspectacular - place to a complete disaster.
44 - How is that a contradiction? Why is it that every SA is entitled to an offer? Of course, it's not about entitlement, is it? It's about "deserving" an offer. And unlike summer interns in every other profession and industry, EVERYONE who interns in BigLaw "deserves" an offer just for showing up, because BigLaw attracts only the brightest and hardest-working future employees.
A more likely scenario: 1/3 of all T1 law students are and always have been talentless douches no one really wants to work with, but until the economy went south, firms were still willing to hire them because they had plenty of doc review to do and knew that most -- if not all -- of the undesireables would leave on their own accord in a year or two, anyway.
55 - I never said it was a contradiction. But the screening process at AG is pretty rigorous, and it's almost impossible that nearly half the NYC summer class didn't do work at a high enough level to receive an offer.
AG is one of the few firms that actually looks at writing samples, so they usually ding the crappy people before they show up. The one big exception was when they participated in diversity programs for 1L summer associates (now it's "pro bono scholars"). A lot them would end up getting no-offered after their 2L summer because of their crappy work product.
And yeah, 53, those duffle bags are sweet. Don't forget about the fleece blankets too. I've got a closet full of them...
56--
Ahhh, the fleece blankets.... I never got my hands on one of them, for some reason, but I was jealous.
Akin Gump has a history of saying one thing and doing another.
During the years of milk and honey, bonuses were severely undermarket and pretty random. The explaination was that the bonus pool would stay the same, year after year, in good times and bad. How did that hold up? Anyone at Akin get bonuses of any size lately? Anyone? I really am curious.
And the whole reducing the summer offers so that all who "deserved" an offer at the end would get one... How did that work out? Were the DC summers better on average than the summers in other markets? I laughed out loud when I heard that one!
"The one big exception was when they participated in diversity programs for 1L summer associates (now it's "pro bono scholars"). A lot them would end up getting no-offered after their 2L summer because of their crappy work product."
Sadly, this is true.
"Akin Gump has a history of saying one thing and doing another."
This IS a lawfirm we're talking about, right?
I was an associate at AG. Glad they are finally cutting the incompetent and ghetto staff members.
Houston is universally considered one of the worst places on earth by humanity.
Akin historically does not have a great offer rate for its Texas offices. This was true in better economies.
Did Akin give bonuses this year?
Let me guess 56, is "diversity" code for minorities who couldn't hack it?
why is this dinged SA trolling? We get it, you got no offered. A lot of people did at biglaw, although apparently not so much at Akin as was previously reported.
You're young. You'll get over it. Unfortunate as it may be, spend more time seeking out gainful employment, and less time bashing your former employer (Yes you, original 33) and you'll do just fine.
The market will pick up and you'll be employed again. Until then, chill with the firm bashing and maybe take up a hobby. (Needle point? Hmmm?)
61 - Not so sure about that.
62. Yes - Half-Skadden.
Also, "slurpee" pay freeze at 2008 level, but at the end of each quarter, associates on track for 2000 billable hours (inclusive of up to 100 pro bono hours) receive 1/4 of what their 2009 lock-step increase would have been. So if you're busy, you end up whole at the end of the year. Not surprisingly, there are some sections where no one is on track. But there are others where everyone is.
Like every other firm, no word yet on 2009 bonuses or 2010 salaries.
An autoadmit rumor was wrong? Shocking!
This would never happen in Texas, no?
66:
Did layoff victims get bonuses if they were with the firm at the time bonuses came down?
62 - Bonuses were half-skadden in NYC, but determined by section heads in other offices. Most people in DC got a fraction of what they would have at DC offices of NYC based firms for comparable hours. Very few second or third years (returning fed clerks aside) got more than $10k. Stub years always receive $1,000 - no more, no less.
63 - At many firms, the only 1L summer hiring is through diversity programs. And yes, that means bringing in black and occasionally latino students with the hope that they'll work out and increase the firm's diversity scores. But at AG, the program was a disaster due to all of the no-offers, so they moved to the new pro bono scholars program instead.
60 - Bonuses were paid at the end of January. The big layoffs were in March. And yes, some of the people let go made their hours in 2008 and did receive bonuses.
70, I'm an associate in the DC office of Akin (I swear) and I didn't see " black and occasionally latino students." do you really work here?
Lat posts about Akin Rump? It's like rain.
72 - I was speaking of corporate firms generally. At AG DC there were, I believe, 3 black summer associates in the ~35 person 2008 SA program. At least two, if not all three, were no offered.
74 - I have to stand up for a lawyer I admire. The only black male working in the Los Angeles office as an associate in 2009 was a gentleman named Brandon Tatum. He's an awesome guy who had worked for the firm during the entire summers after his first and second years in law school. He earned his LL.M at the London School of Economics during his third year in law school, then he came back and finished his J.D. in the same year. He was at least top 15% of his class at USC and in London. And, he chose to return to the Los Angeles office upon passing the Bar. Clearly, this smart and accomplished black man would have been hired many places. But, he remained loyal to Akin Gump. He is one of the best guys I know, however he was laid off within a year of working there. I am biased, but I just can't support that decision to let him go.
Clearly diversity, loyalty, even talent is not a focus. The last remaining black partner in the Los Angeles office also left this year. He actually was one of the founding partners.
Go figure. Akin Gump is a good firm, but I agree with 33 that its choices in workforce reduction do not make a whole lot of sense.
My party has been running the show since we took over Congress in 2006!
How ya like me know?
That's change we can believe in!
Sounds like a great place to work. How do these firms get away with things like this?
74 - If you're Brandon, that stinks that you got let go, but it sounds like you won't have any difficulty landing on your feet. If you're not Brandon, you must really think the world of him to post his name on ATL like that. I hope you had his permission, because you've just guanteed that your post -- and the fact that he was fired at his first firm -- will come up near the top of any Google search for his name and law or lawyer. Dick.
77 - I don't know! It's like these firms just hire and fire their employees at will!
No 74, one black associate was no offered at AG DC. This no offered associate was the only SA who didn't get an offer. 2 other black associates got offers. I know because I really work here. You don't because you are a smarmy law student pretending like you do.
Go study for Torts, Skippy!
Oh, my bad 74. There were 4 black summers in 2008. 2 were offered and 2 weren't.
I am a bit surprised at the defensiveness in some of the Gumpers' responses to the criticism. I didn't think that much loyalty to the Strauss house still existed. I have watched morale steadily decline over the past three years, and most of the remaining decent partners and sr. associates I know are hanging on for the paycheck but are disgusted at the atrocious management of human capital routinely on display. Many of the junior folks ostensibly remain in denial, putting on the good show externally while silently scrambling to polish up their resumes. For those SAs who did not receive an offer, move on to your public service opp and don't look back. You don't need AG's issues. For those who received an offer and actually have other opportunities, run from AG and do it fast.