Biglaw, Cold Offers, Layoffs, NALP, National Association for Law Placement (NALP), No Offers, Summer Associates

Nationwide Layoff and No-Offer Watch: In Defense of Winston & Strawn

We covered recent associate layoffs and summer associate no-offers at Winston & Strawn. Here's some follow-up -- including words in support of the firm.

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This is what we’re hearing about the summer program. First, even if most satellite offices had robust offer rates, it seems that at least one other office beside Chicago may have had a low summer associate offer rate (i.e., less than 90 percent). If you can enlighten us, about this or any other Winston-related matter, please email us or text us (646-820-8477; texts only, not a voice line).

UPDATE (3:00 PM): It seems that the offer rate in New York was somewhat low. We’re hearing around 75 percent, or 9 out of 12 summers, got offers.

Second, the process by which offers were given out (or denied) to summers may have had some… irregularities. Here is what one of them told us:

Offers went out on Monday nights, rejections on Tuesday. In a truly s**t, but understandable move, the firm allowed no-offers to “withdraw from consideration” after being told that they wouldn’t get an offer. The firm says it is to try to help us find work; I think it is a completely transparent effort to massage their numbers for NALP.

We’ve reached out to National Association for Law Placement to get the organization’s views on such a practice. If and when we hear back from them, we will update.

We note that NALP condemns the giving of cold offers, which is one way that firms can artificially inflate their offer rate. Allowing summers to “withdraw from consideration” before getting officially no-offered sounds not unlike the practice of issuing cold offers.

UPDATE (5:45 PM): James Leipold, the executive director of NALP, provided us with this helpful explanation:

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As you might have guessed from a perusal of our website, NALP does not have a policy or position on the specific fact pattern you describe. The closest thing is the Principles and Standards interpretation on cold offers, which you have already discovered.

In terms of NALP survey research and the NALP numbers that are derived from the NALP Directory of Legal Employers, I am not sure that these actions as described will have any impact at all. We ask firms for the number of summer associates in the program and how then many received offers and what the outcomes of those offers were (e.g., were they accepted). If a survey taker were to ask if they should count in their summer program someone who withdrew from consideration for personal reasons, our answer would be Yes. (We don’t recall getting that actual question though.) If a survey taker were to ask if they could downsize their summer program count by the number who weren’t going to get offers (through “withdrawal”), our answer would be No. My point is that I doubt the main goal or even a conscious goal of the firm in question in the instance of the behavior in question was to improve their so-called NALP numbers.

It seems to me at the end of the day it is indeed most akin to a cold offer, another way around a no-offer without having to starkly no-offer a candidate. I think firms often operate with an intent, however misguided it might be, to soften the blow to summers. It is hard to see how this particular situation, as described, would advantage the summer in the subsequent job market. Having to explain a “withdrawal from consideration” is at least as dicey as having to explain a no-offer. In the end, a straightforward no offer from the firm would likely serve the firm and the student best, but the plan doesn’t seem calculated to sway NALP numbers, at least not effectively.

Back to our Winston source:

Reasons for the no-offer were not given. We were told the head of the hiring committee would reach out to us to answer why we were rejected, but as of yet, nothing. Apparently one partner is a bit peeved about the manner we were dealt with and has voiced some concern. The firm told us again and again over the summer about how it intended to offer all of us despite the fact they were reducing next year’s summer class size. They have not been very good to us, I think. So here we are.

According to this source, the no-offers were concentrated among the ranks of summer associates interested in litigation — historically an area of strength for Winston, but perhaps an area where the firm is overstaffed right now. “I don’t know of a single corporate summer who didn’t receive an offer,” this tipster told us.

It’s a very unfortunate situation. As one commenter on our prior post put it, “I knew a bunch of the summers that got no-offered. They didn’t deserve this. I know several of them had other options. They just were terribly unlucky to pick Winston. Morale is brutal around here.”

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So, to those of you who are law students lucky enough to have multiple summer associate offers for summer 2013, pick your firm wisely. It’s not reasonable to expect 2Ls to get access to a law firm’s finances — heck, even lateral partners can’t always get such information (at least not accurate and comprehensive information) — but as law students, many of you excel at research. You should at least be able to pick up warning signs about different firms. Use all of the resources available to you, including the pages of Above the Law and the firm profiles in our new Law Firm Directory, in your job searches.

Good luck. And remember that there is life after the no-offer or the stealth layoff. To quote a commenter on the last Winston story: “Getting canned as part of Biglaw stealth layoffs is NOT the end of one’s career, or one’s Biglaw career. I was part of a large stealth layoff at my Biglaw firm back in ’03 in a large, East Coast market. Ironically, I went in-house before the severance ran out and had these same law firm partners kissing my ass for work.”

“Now I am a Biglaw partner at a better firm,” this commenter concluded. “It can be done, with some rehabilitation, and a solid book of business.”

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff and No-Offer Watch: Winston & Strawn

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