Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:12 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Many law school graduates are preparing for an endless summer. Endless in that they won’t be starting work until well into the winter. At this point, the majority of firms are starting 2009 graduates in January 2010. There are some outliers though — some firms are starting new associates as early as September 2009, and some are offering them start dates as late as January 2011.
Here are a few of the latest additions to the deferred start dates list from the past week:
Foley & Lardner pushed its start date back from September 8, 2009 to February 1, 2010, offering a $10,000 stipend. “The firm did it to protect incoming associates from swine flu,” one of our Foley sources joked.
Paul Hastings has deferred all incoming first-year associates from October 2009 start date to January 19, 2010. They’re providing a $10k stipend, optional health insurance coverage starting in October and an optional $5k salary advance to cover required loan payments in the interim.
A tipster tells us: “Faegre & Benson (Minneapolis) just called their incoming associates to let them know that some get to start at the beginning of October and some don’t get to start until January. The unlucky ones who are deferred until January are mostly Real Estate and Corporate types. $7500 stipends. Earlier they said ‘at least October, 2009.’”
Andrews Kurth has pushed back starting dates to January 2010. Per a firm statement, “The firm will pay each of the new associates in the class a deferral stipend of $10,000; the stipend is not a salary advance or a loan and is not expected to be repaid after starting employment. The firm will also honor its commitment to pay the bar and moving expenses for this class. “
After the jump, we’ve got a new round-up of start dates at firms nationwide, sorted two ways: alphabetically by firm name and chronologically by start date (per popular demand).
Continue reading "Nationwide Start Date Round-up: More Firms Join The List"
Thursday, April 23, 2009 4:34 PM - By Elie Mystal
There are still firms that are just now announcing start dates, even though we’re nearing the end of April.
Kilpatrick Stockton has the most interesting news. Yesterday, incoming first years were informed that they would not be able to start until April 2010. It’s a mandatory deferral. Above the Law received this statement from co-managing partner Diane Prucino:
Kilpatrick Stockton announced today that it will delay the start date of the firm’s Fall 2009 entry associates class. Entry associates are scheduled to join the firm in April 2010. Firm departments will have flexibility to have their entry associates join their teams earlier, depending on work levels. All entry associates will be offered a two-month salary advance.
Though the firm remains strong in this challenging and volatile business environment and had a solid financial year in 2008, this difficult decision is structured to further improve the long-term success of the firm and to enhance the achievement of our strategic goals through more efficient use of personnel and realignment of our expense structure. We, like other leading law firms, believe these measures are necessary to adapt to changes in the economy and to the demand for certain legal services. There is an intense commitment to enhancing the firm’s first-rate, innovative and cost-effective client service. With these goals in mind, Kilpatrick Stockton is dedicated to continuing to identify strategic growth opportunities to expand our world-class firm and improve our competitive position in the marketplace.
Kilpatrick’s deferral stipend isn’t very competitive compared to what other firms are offering for shorter deferment periods. As we understand it, Kilpatrick is only offering $17,000 to its incoming first years. It’s not even a deferral “stipend,” it is a deferral advance. Associates will have to pay the money back once they start at the firm.
Hopefully Kilpatrick Stockton won’t cut salaries over the next year on its incoming first years who suddenly have more debt.
News from Andrews Kurth, Bingham McCutchen, and Dechert after the jump.
Continue reading "Start Date Watch: More Firms Deferring Associates"
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