Bryan Cave

Incoming Bryan Cave Associates: Welcome to 2012.

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Do you remember the scene in the Amityville Horror House movie where the toilet says to the family, “Get out”? That seems to be what firms are telling incoming associates when they defer first-years until 2012.

Today, we’ve got another firm that has decided to put some of its incoming associates on the long march towards nowhere in particular. Missouri Lawyers reports:

St. Louis-based Bryan Cave is among the firms that have pushed off start dates on new associates to 2012.

The firm’s St. Louis office made 14 total offers last fall to 2010 law school graduates, but told seven of them at the time that they wouldn’t be starting until January 2012, said managing partner Peter Van Cleve. The other seven were extended offers to start in January 2011.

Remember, Bryan Cave is still trying to absorb the members of the class of 2009 — at least the ones who didn’t already take the firm’s offer to split…

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Career Alternatives: Internship Market Maker

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Every now and then, we like to offer our readers some career alternatives — things you can do with your law degree and legal training that don’t involve, say, working in a large law firm or as a contract lawyer. We’ve profiled a wide range of individuals, from lawyers who have left the law for everything from football coaching to CEO-ing to therapy (giving, not receiving).

A number of past profiles have involved attorneys turned entrepreneurs. We’ve looked at lawyers who have started restaurants and gone into college admissions consulting. We’ve profiled a lawyer who makes hot tamales, and a lawyer who is a hot tamale.

Today we continue down the path of attorneys who have gone from representing companies to launching them. Our latest interviewee has started a company, Urban Interns, that might be of interest to any ATL readers who are looking to hire interns — or any ATL readers who are looking for internships, which can provide valuable experience and/or a paycheck (of great value during these times of still-high unemployment).

Meet Cari Sommer, a Biglaw alum who last year launched Urban Interns….

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An Exorcism at Bryan Cave?

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Last month, Midwestern firm Polsinelli Shughart raided Bryan Cave. Approximately 22 attorneys from Bryan Cave’s Phoenix, D.C., and Chicago offices spread their wings and flew over to Polsinelli. The Phoenix flock was the largest, consisting of 12 partners and associates.

When a big group of attorneys leave, it sometimes spooks those left behind. We hear that one partner at Bryan Cave was really spooked.

The attorneys that left had all been on the 22nd floor, the main floor of the Phoenix office on which clients are greeted. Their departure left the floor eerily vacant, so the firm asked some partners and attorneys to move into the empty offices. One of those asked to move was longtime partner Bob Shely. He felt his new office was tainted, though; according to reports circulating widely at the two firms, he said it had an “evil feeling.”

I see defected people?

According to the rumor mill, he wanted the carpets torn out and the office renovated. But a recruiting coordinator at the firm offered a cheaper solution: a do-it-yourself spiritual cleansing kit….

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Bryan Cave: Set for the Dreaded Double Freeze?

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Bryan Cave logo.jpgWay back in November 2008, Bryan Cave became one of the first firms to freeze associate salaries. At the time, the firm said that it was only delaying its planned salary increase by three months. But firms said a lot of things back in 2008 that proved unworkable in 2009.
A tipster reports that the freeze is on again at Bryan Cave for 2010. The firm hasn’t made a formal announcement about it or issued an internal memo, nor has it responded to our multiple requests for comment. But a few people have been informed internally that the freeze is on again for 2010 — and we have not heard from anyone who has had a pay raise so far in the new year. If you have additional information on how widely this “no pay raise” message has been disseminated, let us know at tips@abovethelaw.com.
UPDATE: Although there was no memo, there were meetings at which a continued salary freeze was announced.
But that’s not all. If you look at the full scope of Bryan Cave’s actions, the firm appears to be in some very special company.

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This Week In Layoffs: 09.13.09

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pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgEd. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
We’ll actually be hitting a week and a half in this roundup, going back to August 1. As we’ve been saying for a while, September is not likely to be as tranquil as August was (3 layoffs, 126 people in total), and the layoffs have already started. Eleven days in, and twice as many firms have laid off almost twice as many people.

Let’s step back and start with the big picture.

The really bad news came just before the Labor Day weekend, as unemployment hit 9.7%, a 26-year high. If you really want to find a silver lining, the net job loss for August was less horrible than expected, coming in at 216,000 jobs lost for the month. The decrease in total unemployment in July is now just a blip on a 16 out of 17 month streak of worsening employment numbers. It’s not even like the improvement in July was a result of actual new jobs, either — it came from people becoming so disaffected that they stop looking for jobs entirely, which takes them off the rolls of the unemployed. Hurray for government math!

Coincidentally, BLS reported 100 jobs lost in the legal sector for the month, which is right in line with the tracker (although they’re measuring two entirely different things).

Overall, 6.9 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2008 — which, coincidentally, is also the beginning of the Law Shucks layoff tracker (we count from Cadwalader’s first round). Major firms account for just over 13,000 of those.

So what has been going on so far this month? After the jump, we analyze the looming surge.

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Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 71 – 80 (2010)

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comparing.jpgWe continue our slog push through the nation’s 100 top law firms, as ranked by our friends over at Vault. Here are the next ten firms, to be discussed in the comments to this post:

71. Reed Smith
72. Bryan Cave
73. Perkins Coie
74. Hunton & Williams
75. Patton Boggs
76. Arent Fox
77. Schulte Roth & Zabel
78. Howrey
79. Chadbourne & Parke
80. Crowell & Moring

Assorted observations about these firms, after the jump.

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Bryan Cave Offers Incoming Associates ‘Go Away’ Money

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Bryan Cave logo.jpgMy friends, we have a trend. Bryan Cave has become the third firm we know of to offer its incoming associates money to simply go away instead of starting at the firm.
Tipsters report that the firm is offering some associates $70,000 to “walk away” instead of showing up for work. That’s the carrot. This tipster reports the stick:

[A Bryan Cave letter] stated that they are unable to guarantee a start date at this time .. The letter [also] said was that they are unsure if they will need any first year associates before 2011. Shady, shady, shady…

Stroock — the first firm to offer incoming associates go away money — offered $75,000. Pillsbury offered $60,000. So Bryan Cave is keeping up with the market for these kinds of things.
After the jump, a reader poll, and Bryan Cave’s strategy for incoming associates.

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Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Bryan Cave(s) to the Salary Cut Phenomenon

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Bryan Cave logo.jpgAt least the salary cutting craze is staying localized in the lower echelons of the Vault 100. But that probably doesn’t mean very much to associates at Bryan Cave. Today, the firm announced that it was cutting salaries. The cuts were announced via firm wide email from firm chairman, Don Lents:

Annual compensation levels for existing associates will be reduced by 10% across the board (but where applicable to not less than the newly established entry-level compensation). Annual compensation levels for certain other lawyers (e.g., certain staff lawyers) will also be reduced. Information regarding your new annual salary will be available under the Comp Adjustments tab in the “My HR Information” section of eCave by 12:00 noon EDT today. The reductions will become effective in all of our U.S. offices other than those located in the State of Missouri on July 1, 2009. Due to legal notification requirements in Missouri, the reductions will become effective in our Missouri offices on July 13, 2009. In the U.K., a one month consultation period will commence immediately with a view to implementing the proposed 10% reduction to compensation with effect from July 13, 2009.

Bryan Cave is ranked #77 in your Vault Guide. But at #76, Chadbourne & Parke has already cut salaries. At #78, Thacher Proffitt & Wood no longer exists. So at some level Bryan Cave is keeping up with the competition.
The new base salaries for all offices after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Bryan Cave’s Official Statement

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Bryan Cave logo.jpgEarlier today, we reported that Bryan Cave laid off 58 attorneys.

The firm just released a statement with the official numbers. In addition to the 58 attorneys, 76 staffers were also let go today. The numbers account for 5% of the firm’s attorneys and 6% of the firm’s support staff:

We have regretfully now concluded that we must reduce our attorney and staff ranks, by 58 attorneys and 76 staff. These reductions represent about 5% of our attorneys and 6% of our staff. The attorneys and staff affected have been advised of this decision.

Bryan Cave also took this opportunity to inform the survivors that salaries will be frozen for all of 2009. Previously, the firm indicated that raises would be made in April, 2009.

Read the full statement from firm Chairman Don Lents after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: 58 Bryan Cave Attorneys Let Go

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Bryan Cave logo.jpgIt wasn’t that long ago that Bryan Cave acquired Powell Goldstein, aggressively expanding during the recession.

But then came news of a salary deferral. At the time, a Bryan Cave tipster said:

I hope this actually means no layoffs, though, as many junior associates have been really hurting for work. I also hope it means they won’t have to be too stingy with raises when the deferral period ends, since Bryan Cave is not lockstep with the Simpson 160k scale after the first couple years.

Well, today layoffs have come to Bryan Cave. The news first started leaking out on Tuesday. As we understand it, Bryan Cave is letting people go today. Our sources report that 58 attorneys have been laid off.

Some additional details after the jump.

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