5 Years After The Collapse Of Dewey & LeBoeuf: Career Advice For Associates From A Dewey Associate-Turned-Recruiter

Amid an evolving Biglaw landscape, associates now more than ever must stay informed, build key relationships, and carefully consider their career plans.

Andrew Clyne

Andrew Clyne

Ed. noteThis is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Andrew Clyne is a Senior Director of Legal Recruiting focusing on law firm and in-house placements in New York and throughout the Northeast. Before starting his recruiting career, Andrew was a litigation associate in the New York office of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, where he was involved with associate and diversity hiring. Andrew holds a J.D. from Fordham Law School and a B.A. from Boston College. Outside the office, Andrew is a trivia junkie — and recently taped his appearance as a contestant on Jeopardy! Tune in September 11, 2017, to see him in action! He can be reached at aclyne@laterallink.com or 347-647-9482. 

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

It’s a question associates are often asked during interviews. And while many of you reflexively answer, “up for partner, of course,” the reality is almost always less clear. Between changes in personal circumstances, new career goals, and the evolving structure and practice of Biglaw, five years can seem like a lifetime and it’s difficult to predict where you might end up.

As a former associate at the once-thriving Dewey & LeBoeuf, I know this truth well. At the start of 2012, I was a third-year associate, relatively happy and focused on my growing litigation caseload. Buried in deposition prep, I was blissfully unaware of the early rumors circulating about widespread partner dissatisfaction. Of course, as we all now know, those early whispers exploded into revelations of firm mismanagement, an avalanche of partner defections, and rampant speculation about Dewey’s continued survival. In a matter of two short months, I found myself laid off as my firm collapsed into bankruptcy. And never could I have imagined then that five years later I would have left the practice of law for a career as a legal recruiter.

With the fifth anniversary of the Dewey bankruptcy now upon us, it’s hard to see the firm’s collapse as anything but inevitable. However, like so many of my then-colleagues, I was caught completely flat-footed by the rapidly changing events at Dewey. Partly blinded by naive optimism, I was slow to react. But even then, I was unprepared to act effectively or quickly, as I had never really considered my broader career plans — or even updated my résumé since OCI!

Of course, the Dewey story remains a spectacular outlier and most of you will never face something so drastic. However, the reality is that less explosive events can have an equally significant impact on your career, derailing even the best-laid plans. As a legal recruiter who speaks with associates every day, I’m surprised to see how many of you, at all levels, are repeating some of the mistakes I made: being ignorant of or unconcerned about events unfolding around you and throughout the larger legal industry; lacking strong relationships within the firm; and having given little thought to your career beyond your current billable matter.

So, with the hope that you all manage the likely twists and turns of your own legal careers better than I did, here are a few pieces of simple advice I wish I had heeded when I was an associate.

  1. Stay Informed

As an associate, your fortunes are largely tied to the decisions of partners and law firm management. Their decisions, in turn, are guided by broader developments in the legal industry and the markets. So, it’s important that you stay informed at many levels. Though the events at Dewey showed most developments will be out of your control, you may be able to anticipate some changes and plan accordingly.

  • Your Practice Group: Naturally, the events most likely to affect you immediately are close to home — your own practice group. Most commonly, I speak with associates who are caught off-guard when a key partner in their group leaves the firm. They are unsure of how the departure will affect workflow and are often concerned that they have lost a valuable advocate within the firm — both legitimate concerns. Sometimes these partner departures are a surprise; other times the writing was on the wall. So, pay attention. In fact, take note of all partners and more senior associates leaving your group. Where are they going? Do you know why?
  • Your Firm: Pay attention to what’s happening across the firm, not just your practice group. After all, you may be buried in billable hours, but others could be struggling. Have those other groups lost key partners? Not every departure is significant, but many are — particularly the rainmakers and smaller groups leaving at once — and they may warn of more trouble to come. On a larger scale, as firms seek greater efficiencies and stability, we are seeing more law firm mergers. While they may seem great on the surface, the professed compatibility of practices and cultures may not materialize. How will that affect your workflow and your working environment? Did an influx of peer associates just hurt your chances at partnership?
  • Practice Trends: Your practice choice may have been wise years ago, but do you feel the same way now? A lot can change in just a short time, impacted by a range of factors, including: the cyclical nature of a practice (bankruptcy matters often flourish in a market downturn, while M&A and IPOs follow a bull market); unforeseen political events (think Brexit and the election of Donald Trump); and  legal developments themselves (e.g., the 2012 introduction of Inter Partes Review to challenge patents, which significantly curtailed the filing of more costly infringement litigation). Are there changes you can make to your practice? New skills you can acquire or focus on? Is there even a long future in your practice?
  • Legal Industry Trends: Finally, have an understanding of some of the larger industry trends. It’s no secret Big Law has undergone a sea change. Largely gone are the days of making partner as a seventh-year associate and staying at your firm for decades. Partners move frequently, taking clients with them. Technology advances have cut into attorneys’ workloads, particularly discovery work for litigators. Clients are keeping more work in-house and are more aggressively pushing back on costs and the staffing of junior associates. Are you considering how these changes affect your long-term career prospects or plans?
  1. Build Relationships

Your legal career will be long and its backbone will be the people you meet and the relationships you build. As an associate, you’ll naturally spend the most time with your colleagues on billable matters. But as you embrace the ever-present pressure to network (with an eye towards client development, of course), consider making these particular connections:

  • Find Mentors — Both Inside and Outside the Firm: Most firms will formally assign you a mentor. Additionally, you may simply develop a mentor-mentee relationship with an attorney in your group with whom you click. These relationships are worthwhile, providing guidance and support as you weather the ups and downs of life in your shared law firm. However, don’t stop there, since finding a mentor outside your firm may prove equally beneficial. This person can offer an outsider’s perspective on your career, unburdened by any subtle biases that come from sharing a firm and sharing colleagues.
  • Find a Sponsor Within the Firm: Like a mentor, a sponsor can provide guidance and support. But a sponsor does more than that. They are in a position to influence and advance your career, from staffing you on that high profile case or marquee deal to nominating you for partnership if your time comes. They know you well and can vouch for your abilities and your value to the firm. Unlike a mentor, though, they largely know the ups of your careers and not so much the downs.
  • Be a Good Firm Citizen: Get involved in your firm beyond your billable matters: join the Associates’ Committee; recruit at your alma mater; interview lateral candidates; join your firm’s sports team; go to Summer Associate events; join an affinity group; or just show up at that monthly happy hour or trivia night your firm or practice group might host. While easier said than done during a 200+-hour billable month, even just a few hours a month can pay dividends. Such participation will introduce you to a wider range of attorneys and non-attorneys who can provide valuable information about the firm and provide client and job leads if the time comes. And getting to know partners outside your own practice group never hurts when you’re up for partnership vote.
  1. Have a Plan — But Be Ready to (Re)Adjust It

In the years since Dewey went under, I’ve spoken with dozens of my former Dewey colleagues as they’ve charted new legal paths. Some were well prepared for the change, while others like me were admittedly not. But across both groups, numerous associates told me that despite the initial disruption brought on by Dewey’s collapse, they have become happier in their careers since. In fact, many admitted that they were forced to adapt and make the very changes — including new practice areas, smaller firms and clients, and different cities — that they had previously considered but had been unwilling to act on for various reasons.

One of the key takeaways from these conversations is that having a plan is still better than none — but you must revisit it periodically. As obvious as that sounds, many associates do not do that. Instead, they blindly follow an outdated career plan or simply let inertia guide their career decisions. Of course, things will continue on as you expect them to… until they don’t. So, as you revisit your career plan, consider the following:

  • Self-Assessment: Do not wait until your annual performance review to assess your development and goals. Try to do it periodically, whether at the end of each quarter or the close of a big deal or case. You should be taking stock of your skills and experience: What are your strengths and weaknesses? What practice benchmarks have you not hit? What excites you about your practice? What’s lacking? Can changes me made? Can they be made now instead of waiting until a new year? And equally important is an honest assessment of your goals: Have they changed? Are your current practice and career plans still supporting those goals?
  • Keep your Materials Updated: A simple task: update your résumé and deal sheet / representative matters list as you go. Trust me — you will be frustrated when you are not ready to submit quickly to that dream job or you want to beat out a flurry of similarly situated candidates (as was the case when a flood of Dewey résumés hit the market in Spring 2012!).
  • Take that Recruiter Call: And finally, the shameless recruiter plug — take my phone call! Seriously, though, recruiters can provide valuable service as you assess your career plan and particular opportunities. Among other things, we can: provide insight into your market value and the steps you should take to better set yourself up for a particular move or job; provide Intel on the practices and cultures of companies and law firms you are interested in; help you draft and polish your resume; and assist you in preparing for interviews and negotiating offers if the time comes. As a recruiter, I often connect with junior associates well before they are ready or interested in moving, aiming instead to build a relationship with them as they grow more senior. Of course, I’ll take your call anytime, but the long-game approach has proved most productive for me and the many candidates I have assisted over the past few years. Frankly, it is an approach I wish I had taken myself when I was a junior associate — well before Dewey unraveled.

Undoubtedly, the demands of a Biglaw associate are many. But beyond your billable work, you must find the time to manage your career. No one else will do it for you, and you are the only one who has your back 100% of the time, no matter what. Ideally, your career will unfold smoothly as you planned; but given the uncertainties of today’s legal practice, that may not always happen. To help you anticipate and better respond to the unexpected wrinkles, consider following the advice discussed above.


Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.