Things Are Looking Up: More Summer Associate Classes Get 100% Offer News

We feel like we’re taking magic Biglaw pills today and having hallucinatory flashbacks to 2006. The good news has been rolling in. Just today, we covered raises at Sheppard Mullin, and a 100% offer rate for D.C. summer associates at Latham & Watkins.

And over at Am Law Daily, Zach Lowe predicts good things for 2011. There will be more summer associate spots to go around next year, law school kiddies:

On-campus interviewing starts in two weeks at some schools, and early indications are that hiring at premier law firms will jump–in some cases by a lot–after plummeting this summer, according to sources at law schools and firms.

Cravath, Skadden, and Ropes & Gray, among others, plan to hire more warm bodies next summer than this one. This summer was dismal, after all, in terms of summer associate hiring, as demonstrated by these charts from the National Law Journal and Am Law Daily.

The upside of hiring fewer summer associates, though, is an increase in the likelihood of all of them getting hired. We’ve had more reports of 100% offer rates from a few firms today, along with fun ways of spreading the good news. Eyewitness accounts, after the jump.

Ropes & Gray, which had a summer class of 82 rising 2Ls and 3Ls, extended offers to all. Helen Long, Ropes’s director of legal recruiting, tells us:

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I am happy to confirm that we have made 100% offers in all of our offices. We were fortunate to have an exceptional, talented group of summer associates, and we look forward to their return to the firm.

We hear that the New York office celebrated out on the town last night. A tipster says:

I ran into them at R Bar for their celebratory party or afterparty. They were pretty tame, though — no dancing on the stripper poles, but I think the associates got them bottle service.

Stay away from those poles, so you can ride those offers.

Meanwhile, a block away from Ropes, we’re hearing reports of a 100% rate for the 20 summer associates in the New York office of Proskauer Rose. The news was shared individually during exit interviews today. So no chest-bumping.

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Shearman & Sterling summer associates in New York also got the good, 100% news yesterday. From a tipster:

All the summers were called into the conference room for an “administrative meeting” this morning . . . with all the hiring partners. They informed them that all were receiving offers, and brought out some mimosas to celebrate. Everyone is pretty happy here.

We understand that includes 27 summer associates.

The offers conveniently came the day before our big finale event at the Central Park Boathouse, which was last night (Thursday). Suffice it to say, I think all the summers are feeling a bit under the weather today.

Under the weather, but over the moon.

The Washington outpost of Latham wasn’t the only LW office to get good news this week. The 20 summer associates in Los Angeles got their champagne this morning. From a tipster:

Latham summers at the LA office (who had somehow not seen the post about the DC office prior to this morning) all unexpectedly received offers at our last summer breakfast. The Deputy OMP wheeled in a cart of champagne under the guise of toasting the recruiting committee. The recruiting committee chair stood up and protested, and said a better use of the champagne would be to toast the summer class because they had all received offers. We were very surprised since we had been told it might take until mid-August to hear about our offer status. More than half the class jumped to accept on the spot.

Congratulations to the summer associates at these firms. If you know of other offer rate news, please email us.

Signs Of Hope For Summer 2011? [Am Law Daily]

Earlier: Latham & Watkins: 100% Offers to Summers in D.C.
Pepper Hamilton Surprises Its Philly Summers with a 100% Offer Rate