SA Questions for Dallas
I'm an incoming SA this year at a Dallas-area biglaw firm. I'm interested primarily in doing transactional work, but considering the current market conditions, I'm a little hesitant to rotate through corporate areas for fear of not getting offered.
Has there been a noticeable slow-down in the corporate practices of Dallas-area biglaw firms? If so, is it bad enough that I should just rotate through litigation in hopes of improving my chances of getting offered?
Finally, any word on the expected percentage of full-time offers to SAs? Do ya'll expect it to be normal, or will there be more no-offers this year?
(8) Comments
I think you are fine with testing out the transactional work, but getting an offer based on the economy will be firm specific. If you are good enough, they will offer you a job in litigation if they don't have a job in the transactional sections. My recommendation is that you keep in contact with the litigation practice groups during your summer so the partners in that section will have a face to go with your name when they vote on whether to extend a permanent offer in their group in case there is no work in the other sections. Also, getting a job in a firm in general is harder to gauge, particularly in today's economy. A firm is not going to base its hiring decision on the economy as it stands today, but what it will project its needs to be a year later - after you pass the bar and start practicing next Fall.
The rest of it will be based on your firm. Some firms are doing OK, some are not.
- Winstead had to lay off a considerable number of folks from their real estate transactional group (I was told that there was not enough work for the associates and most associates only had 20 hours/week MAX billable because of the real estate market).
- Strausburger has been having trouble as well. While I haven't heard of anything specific, there are rumors pointing to their current partnership compensation which is running the firm dry (similar to what is happening in Winstead).
- Patton Boggs just lost its entire Dallas IP group to Sonnenschein. Even though it only consisted of 10 attorneys, IP has been the bread and butter for Patton for years.
- Brown McCarroll has been having problems with its litigation group - apparently they have too many associates and are starting to either let them go or transfer them to their transactional groups.
- I know Locke Lord did not offer all of its associates in its Dallas office, but it was due to personality problems and not because the firm couldn't afford it. But Locke Lord is also tied into the real estate industry as well.
These are just some of the firms I know about with some recent problems. I don't have solid leads nor do I claim to, but these are the rumors I have heard and something to consider (or at least question) when you come to Dallas. The recent salary hike and the downturn in the economy have both hit firms in the DFW metroplex harder than expected so firm's will probably be more conservative in its hiring, but I don't think it is something to get worked up about.
12:34
Thanks for the info. I actually know a guy who will clerk at PB Dallas this summer in IP. After the IP group left, nobody from the firm contacted him about his status. He found out about it from the school's career services office, and then had to initiate contact with the firm to find out if he still had a summer offer.
Do you know why the group left? According to recent post's on this site, Sonnenschien doesn't seem to be doing that much better.
I only summered in Dallas, so I can't provide much insight on the current market there. I will say, though, that I saw some bigger TX firms non-offer an alarming percentage of summers even when the market was good. The advice above is solid, and I wouldn't be too alarmed. But I would know where you stand relative to the rest of your summer class (cynical, I know).
Big-Tex can be sketchy with no-offers, that is true. But if you are at a national firm's Dallas office, you may be better off because there will be some non-local work. But I have heard that Weil Dallas had its first-year corporate associates doing doc review for a while. But from what I've heard, most firms seem to have kept the same size summer classes as in years past. That should be a good sign.
Another thing to consider regarding the large number of "non-offers" at Texas firms is that these firms had split summers. I know that second half firms did worse because both the firms and SAs were tired of the clerkship process and both sides weren't working as hard. Since the SAs come in with the notion that they have two firms to select from, they might not put as much emphasis in their work at the firm didn't like as much. Plus the firms can gauge which people were really interested in their firm or if they just wanted a second half paycheck.
Yes -- the number of first-half acceptances is like 60% and second-half is around 30%, from what I've heard. This year, though, most firms are going to first-half only. There are some Texas firms that no-offered extremely qualified summers, leading some of us to believe it was a) because the summer had a much better option already or b) because a partner had veto-power over them based on personality conflicts. Those are our guesses, here in TX at least.
There is no such thing as "Biglaw" in Texas.
6:02
You sound like a bitter New Yorker trying in vain to monopolize biglaw prestige.
Of course there's biglaw in Texas. Although, your sentiment is understandable; working more hours for (roughly) the same pay in a city where the cost of living is double that of Dallas would suck. Sucks for you, at least.