It’s been a while since a firm asked people to voluntarily fire themselves. Maybe with the economy getting better it’s time to dust that strategy off?

Apparently, that is what Crowell & Moring is hoping for. The firm just asked its staff to voluntarily help them get down to a 4 to 1 attorney to staff ratio:

Our goal remains to handle this necessary reduction in a humane and generous way. Accordingly, effective today, we are offering a voluntary opportunity for our support services employees to elect to resign from the firm in exchange for payment of six months of each employee’s annual salary. We are hopeful that this opportunity may be of interest to a number of our secretaries and will bring the firm closer to achieving its goal of an average lawyer to support services ratio of 4 to 1 across our offices. This voluntary package will be available through October 23. At the end of that period, we will reassess our staffing levels and determine whether involuntary reductions are necessary.

Six months severance is a nice package, especially for staff who don’t typically receive as much severance pay as attorneys. If you assume that the firm will not be offering six months to people that are “involuntarily” laid off after October 23rd, the package could be a pretty powerful motivator.

Of course, if there are still no jobs in six months, then does it really matter? If you are a rock star secretary maybe you should just roll the dice and try to hang on.

Tough decisions abound during a recession. Good luck, Crowell & Moring staff.

Read the full internal memo after the jump.

Our Vault 100 series is winding down. We hope that the insiders have enjoyed the opportunity to brag (or to vent) about their firms. And that the curious have appreciated insights into life at various firms in the top 100.

Here is the next bunch up for discussion (with their prestige scores in parentheses):

81. Crowell & Moring LLP (4.763)
82. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (4.754)
83. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP (4.735)
84. Arent Fox PLLC (4.726)
85. McGuireWoods LLP (4.697)
86. Venable LLP (4.676)
87. Dorsey & Whitney LLP (4.575)
88. Dickstein Shapiro LLP (4.554)
89. Baker & Hostetler (4.531)
90. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P (4.503)

Are the following statements true or false?

Okay, you know the drill.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

We continue to cover summer associate news closely. Summer associates, after all, are faithful readers of ATL. Many of them have lots of time to spend in front of their computers, and not enough work to keep them busy.

Yesterday we posted a memo of advice for summer associates, from NYU Law School’s Office of Career Services, featuring an amusing list of “Real World Examples of Career Limiting Behavior.” If you missed it, check it out by clicking here.

Today we turn our attention to summer associate programs here in Washington, DC. They’re the subject of a very interesting article in this week’s Legal Times. Writes Marisa McQuilken:

The paychecks still top $3,000 per week, and most summer associates are still expecting an invitation to come aboard their firms at six-figure salaries. But this year, worries about the rotten economy are likely to infiltrate small talk around the open bar at summer associate events.

“Everybody, I think, is at least psychologically affected,” says Georgetown University Law Center’s assistant dean of career services, Gihan Fernando, adding that his first- and second-year law students are “more thoughtful, more alert” about the job market.

Most large law firms in the nation’s capital hired summer associate classes that were the same size or smaller than last year’s classes. For detailed, firm-by-firm data, see here.

Discussion continues, below the fold.

Thanks for your responses to our recent call for memos. Here are two more firms that have announced associate pay raises:

1. Crowell & Moring: Starting salaries to $160,000, effective August 1. Minimum billables to 1900 hours, effective September 1. Associates who do not wish to meet the new minimum are invited to reach “alternative arrangements” with the firm.

2. Dow Lohnes: No, Rupert Murdoch is not trying to buy them. Dow Lohnes is an AmLaw 200 law firm with a significant presence in Atlanta. Will their move to the $160K scale encourage other Atlanta firms to follow suit?

Full memos, after the jump.

Law Firm Mergers:

Actually, they’re really acquisitions:

* Washington-based Crowell & Moring is building up its New York office by acquiring King Pagano Harrison, the health care/labor-and-employment boutique, and by picking up partners from IP boutique Morgan & Finnegan.

* Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath is “merging” with Chicago-based Gardner Carton & Douglas. The new entity will keep the Drinker Biddle name and will be chaired by Drinker Biddle’s current chairman, Alfred W. Putnam Jr.

(Translation: Gardner Carton = Drinker Biddle’s beeatch.)

Out the Door:

* Casualties of the options backdating scandal: Bruce Karatz, CEO of KB Home (and a lawyer by training), and Richard Hirst, KB Home’s chief legal officer.

Crowell & Moring Acquires 20 Lawyers From Litigation Boutique [Legal Times via Law.com]
Firm Boosts NY Office With Boutique Acquisition, Raid [NYLawyer.com]
Firms Merge [NYLawyer.com]
Backdating Scandal Fells Top Homebuilding CEO [WSJ Law Blog]

The latest news on the most notable moves within the profession:

Government to Private Sector:

* Seth Silber, to Wilson Sonsini (as counsel), from the FTC. (Quips our tipster: “What a lovely week to join that particular firm!”)

New Office Openings:

* Crowell & Moring — aka “Cruel & Boring”*** — is opening a New York office. They’ve grabbed litigator William McSherry, from Arent Fox, and patent lawyer Janet McLeod, from Dorsey & Whitney, to kick things off.

* The exceedingly profitable, Houston-based Susman Godfrey is opening a New York office, headed by name partner Stephen Susman.

Lateral Private Sector Moves:

* Bankruptcy guru Paul Basta, to Kirkland & Ellis, from Weil Gotshal & Manges.***

* Patent litigators Joseph O’Malley and Bruce Wexler, to Paul Hastings (NY), from Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto.

*** “Cruel and Boring” is just a silly nickname for Crowell & Moring that we’ve heard around town. We have no idea as to whether it has any factual basis. We just think using nicknames for law firms is fun.

Other law firm nicknames we’ve heard: Weil Gotshal & Manges = “We’ll Getcha & Mangle Ya” (self-explanatory); Cravath Swaine & Moore = “The Death Star” (self-explanatory); Davis Polk & Wardwell = “The Teahouse on Lexington Avenue” (for their penchant for hiring geishas attractive Asian-American females — don’t get mad at us, we didn’t make it up).

(Feel free to add more law firm nicknames in the comments to this post.)

On The Move [Antitrust Review]
Basta Says Hasta to Weil Gotshal [WSJ Law Blog]
DC Firm Opens NY Office [NYLawyer.com]
Houston Firm Opens Manhattan Office [NYLawyer.com]
Firm Adds NY Patent Litigators [NYLawyer.com]