Some people in the class of 2010 will see this before they see a job.
Don’t look now, but in a few weeks, on-campus interviewing will get started on law school campuses across the country. That’s right — in about a month, law firms will start interviewing people they think they’ll have work for in the fall of 2013. I don’t know where the north pole will be in fall 2013, but law firms are supposed to know how many junior associates they’ll need more than two years from now?
Was this system designed by Nostradamus?
Under this employment system, there are winners and there are losers. Most of the people in the class of 2011 who have contacted us about their start dates have reported that they’ll be starting their Biglaw careers on time in the fall of 2011. That is good news. But even though we’ve moved far from the worst of the recession, there are still firms that are deferring their incoming classes.
In fact, at one firm, some members of the class of 2011 will be starting before members of the class of 2010…
Continue reading “Firms That Are Still Deferring People Into 2012″
Ray Carey
You don’t see this everyday. Raymond Carey, a 57-year-old white male partner at Foley & Lardner, is suing the firm, alleging that it paid him less than it would have paid a “female, non-Caucasian, younger partner.”
Sadly, it appears the only evidence Carey has for his claims is that he wasn’t paid as much as he feels he was promised. That’s disappointing. When women, gays, or minorities make discrimination claims, there are usually juicy tidbits about inappropriate jokes and statements made to the alleged victim. But I just read through a 63-page complaint and there wasn’t a single alleged “cracker” joke. Apparently nobody at Foley told Carey he needed to show “more bulge.”
But hey, if the brother’s not getting paid as much as other people in his office, maybe he has a point. And even if you don’t find the complaint particularly salacious, one of Carey’s attached exhibits is the Foley & Lardner partnership agreement….
Continue reading “Old White Man Sues Firm, Alleging Racial, Gender, and Age Discrimination”
It’s November 1. That’s supposed to mean it’s time for Biglaw bonus season. Here at Above the Law, we’re ready for it. Not only are we expecting emails to flow in about bonuses which should be better than last year (tips@abovethelaw.com), we’re also using our Google Voice account (646-820-TIPS) to accept text messages about bonuses.
We expect bonus season to get rolling in earnest soon. Last year, Cravath announced on November 2nd.
But while we wait for bonuses, it seems we still have some firms that are trying to catch up in regards to base associate compensation. After spending most of the year as salary stragglers, Foley & Lardner seems ready to come back to the pack…
Continue reading “Foley & Lardner: Back to $160K In Major Markets”
The Human Rights Campaign has released its annual Corporate Equality Index, which assesses corporate America’s progress towards equal treatment of the LGBT community.
It’s a pretty great day to be gay and searching for career advice. Gawker has a list up right now on the top ten gay colleges, and the Human Rights Campaign is trying to help you figure out where to work when you’re done with law school.
This year, 97 Biglaw firms (out of 130 who responded to the survey) received a perfect score from the HRC. That’s up from last year and makes the legal field the best industry when it comes to LGBT issues. Banking was next and retail finished third.
Check here to see if your firm made the list.
Granted, you’d expect law firms — what with their expert understanding of “laws,” and such — to be leaders when it comes to gay and lesbian equality. But the legal field was able to achieve this distinction notwithstanding a somewhat controversial rating philosophy that may have prevented other firms from achieving perfect scores…
Continue reading “Almost 100 Biglaw Firms Are Perfectly Gay”
With fall recruiting gearing up, and the lateral market warming up, we continue our annual series of open threads about the law firms featured in the Vault prestige rankings. These threads provide ATL readers with a forum to discuss the different firms and their various strengths and weaknesses.
The end of the Vault 100 is in sight. We’re covering the firms in batches of 20 now. Here are the firms ranked #61 to #80, which will provide today’s discussion fodder:
61. Greenberg Traurig, LLP
62. Holland & Knight LLP
63. Fish & Richardson P.C.
64. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
65. Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
66. Foley & Lardner LLP
67. Perkins Coie LLP
68. Nixon Peabody LLP
69. Patton Boggs LLP
70. Kaye Scholer LLP
71. Hunton & Williams LLP
72. Reed Smith LLP
73. Steptoe & Johnson LLP
74. Chadbourne & Parke LLP
75. Howrey LLP
76. Bryan Cave LLP
77. Lovells (US) [now part of Hogan Lovells]
78. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
79. Crowell & Moring LLP
80. Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
This is a very eclectic group, including a few New York-centric firms, some D.C.-dominated places, and a bunch of national and even international giants.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these shops….
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Threads: Vault 61 – 80 (2011)”
We’ve done a number of reports over the last few weeks on salary cuts of 2009 that are being reversed in 2010. Sure, some firms are still trying to be cute when it comes to associate pay. But many Biglaw firms are back on the $160K scale for associate salaries, at least in major markets.
Apparently Foley & Lardner hasn’t received the memo. While New York associates will start at $160K, associates in other big-market Foley offices (like D.C., California, and Chicago) remain stuck at $145K.
We’re not exactly sure why….
Continue reading “Biglaw Salary Stragglers: Foley & Lardner”
Yesterday, we told you about a law firm that left a war veteran without an offer. Today, we are able to confirm that the firm in question was Foley & Lardner. But we also have a correction and some additional details about the situation.
Let’s get to the correction first. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported:
Matt Nelson graduated last week from the University of Minnesota with a law degree and an MBA. Nelson, 36, was on track to earn $145,000 his first year at a Milwaukee firm. But duty called, and while he was serving as an Army paralegal in Iraq, Milwaukee withdrew its offer.
The Minneapolis paper got it wrong here. Matt Nelson was a summer associate at Foley & Lardner in 2008 and 2009. Foley no offered him at the end of his 2009 summer at the firm, which was after he had returned from Iraq. The firm did not pull his offer while he was serving overseas.
That’s lucky for Foley. As many commenters pointed out, yanking an offer while Nelson was in Iraq (as the Star-Tribune reported) might have gotten Foley into legal trouble. As it stands, Foley’s actions are just a depressing statement about insufficient respect for our war veterans.
Above the Law reached out to Matt Nelson, and he made it clear that he doesn’t want anybody feeling sorry for him just because of one no offer….
Continue reading “Foley & Lardner: The Firm That No Offered a Summer Associate War Veteran”
Late last week, Foley & Lardner released its new salary structure. Honestly, I can’t tell you what they’re doing. I’m a professional firm double-talk decoder, but trying to pull out key phrases from this memo made me feel like John Nash.
The memo starts off similarly to other announcements from firms that want to move to merit-based compensation. The firm has conducted a major review, the recession sucks, you know the drill.
Foley is breaking associates out into three tiers, similar to Orrick and other firms that have moved away from lockstep. But when the memo turns to “specifics” — like how much money people will actually make — the Foley & Lardner memo turns to mush:
Within Tier I, the compensation structure will be similar to what has been in place for the last several years. Specifically, there will be a set starting salary in each office for the stub year and the first full fiscal year following law school graduation. During the second and third full years, associates will have a base salary and a 1950 billable hour deferred salary payable at year-end if they achieve a minimum of 1950 billable hours and 150 investment time hours during the year.
The starting Tier I salary is the one thing that’s clear:
Salary schedules will be distributed in each office. The starting salary in New York this year will be $160,000. In our other major city markets (Boston, Chicago, Washington and all of our California offices), where the recently announced starting salaries of the major law firms have varied to a greater extent, the starting salary will be $145,000. The starting salaries in our other offices will generally maintain the differentials from the major city amounts which have existed in recent years.
Salaries for everybody else are not at all clear. See if you can understand what Foley is doing with Tier II and “Senior Counsel” associates.
Continue reading “Foley & Lardner: New Salary Structure Leaves More Questions Than Answers”
Earlier this month, we reported on layoffs at Foley & Lardner. Foley later confirmed the news.
Maybe Foley is just clearing out room so it can bring on its class of incoming associates? Right. Maybe if I had wheels I’d be a wagon? Foley has already deferred its incoming associates until February 2010. Now it is deferring associates again. Tipsters report:
I know every office has been talked to about the *possibility* of changing start dates. … [In Chicago] it’s complicated:
* all incoming IP associates are deferred until September, 2010, with a $5K/month stipend (no health care) beginning February 1;
* half the litigation associates will start in February as planned; the other half will actually start *earlier*, this December;
* the incoming transactional associates haven’t been told anything yet. My guess is they’ll be summarily shot.
The firm has not responded to our multiple requests for comment.
Incoming associates are asking firms to let them know when they will be starting. But does it really matter? Are there opportunities that incoming associates are really passing up this fall because they plan on starting this after the first of the year? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Foley & Lardner Lays Off 39
We’re getting multiple reports that Foley & Lardner is laying off 39 people today. Our sources report that associates are being told right now. If you work at Foley, I hope your phone is not ringing.
One tipster tells us that the IP group could be the hardest hit:
Foley announced associate/senior counsel/etc. layoffs today. Exact number not entirely clear, but about 39 folks are supposedly being informed today. There were others informed earlier that could take the total up to 50+. Not sure which offices, etc. Rumor has it that Foley’s IP group is especially vulnerable — very little work in that group.
I guess cutting the soda subsidy wasn’t enough of a cost savings.
Spokespeople at Foley & Lardner did not respond to an immediate request for comment. We’ll keep you posted as more news develops.
UPDATE: In other Foley news, the ABA Journal reports that the firm is claiming it’s the victim of vexatious litigation filed by a patent holding company. See also The BLT.
Earlier: Reversed Perk Watch: Soda Subsidy Slashed at Foley & Lardner
As we get back to the Vault rankings, we encounter more firms that have engaged in stealth layoffs. And a firm that conducts mass transit layoffs.
To refresh your memory, here’s the next group:
61. Cooley Godward
62. Pillsbury
63. Sonnenschein
64. Cahill
65. Holland & Knight
66. K&L Gates
67. Nixon Peabody
68. Foley & Lardner
69. Kaye Scholer
70. Steptoe & Johnson
The penalty for having a partner announce layoffs on a train was six spots according to Vault. There have been other Pillsbury cutbacks. But the Acela incident happened when associates had Vault surveys sitting on their desks.
After the jump, let’s take a look at some of the other firms in this group.
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 61 – 70 (2010)”
* A disappointing ruling from the 3rd Circuit for sports gamblers in Delaware. [USA Today]
* L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich wants to make hanging out illegal. [Los Angeles Times]
* Judge Jed Rakoff is becoming a media darling. Another article singing the BofA-bench-slapping judge’s praises. [New York Times]
* Foley & Lardner sued for allegedly revealing trade secrets. [National Law Journal]
* Connecticut prosecutor John H. Durham has been chosen to lead the Justice Department’s investigation into CIA torture of detainees. [Talking Points Memo]
* Four more years for Bernanke. [Washington Post]
First they came for the Kleenex. Then they came for the coffee.
All around the country, law firms large and small are cutting costs by revoking perks. Today we heard from an unhappy camper — perhaps deprived of their customary caffeine? — at Foley & Lardner:
I can handle them taking away the Christmas party and giving us a 10% pay cut. But ratcheting up the cost of my soda by 150% is where I draw the line!
From an internal memo that went around this morning:
Vending machine prices – It has been several years since we last changed the price of beverages in the vending machines, yet our costs have increased steadily over those years. In order to bring the prices we charge in line with current costs, the price for soda and water will increase to $.75 and the price for juice will increase to $1.00. The new prices are still well below those found in public vending machines or stores, but will reduce or eliminate the need for the office to subsidize these items.
Frankly, we’re a bit puzzled. Isn’t it in Foley’s business interest to have well-caffeinated associates? Could the associates deprived of discounted Dr. Pepper have a Good Samaritan claim — oh, never mind….
The full memo — apparently there’s no such thing as a free lunch, at least at Foley & Lardner — after the jump.
Continue reading “Reversed Perk Watch: Soda Subsidy Slashed at Foley & Lardner”
While firms seem to be focused on dealing with their summer associates and future summer associates over the past couple of weeks, there are still regular full time associates working at Biglaw firms. They’re not extinct. And they still get paid. It’s just that they are getting paid less.
Foley & Lardner has become the latest firm to cut associate salaries. Multiple independent sources report that the firm as instituted a 10% pay cut for all associates in all offices.
The firm declined to respond to our multiple requests for comment.
But the move is not totally surprising. The firm is ranked #67 on last year’s Vault rankings. Many firms at that general level have cut salaries. And if you look at #66 on that list, you’ll see it’s Heller Ehrman. And we know how things worked out there.
So take heart, Foley friends. Things could be a lot worse.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of salary cuts
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”
Full disclosure: we do not know exactly what is going on over at Foley & Lardner. But we are hearing a lot of chatter.
By way of a quick summary: we posted information that Foley offered only 43% of their summers out the Chicago office. Then Foley issued a firm wide email saying that they offered 81% of their Chicago summers (we posted that too). Meanwhile, the firm has rebuffed multiple attempts to verify any of this information directly. For more details read here and here.
After we updated Foley’s hiring numbers and posted Foley’s CEO Ralf Boer’s statements, our tipsters wagged their fingers and said “oh no he didn’t.” This email is indicative of many comments we received:
Just FYI–Ralf Boer’s email is a load of crap.
Hmmm …
Many believe that Foley did in fact tell summers that they would not be receiving an offer, but then reversed course early this week, after our initial post on Foley’s no offers went up. The thought from these tipsters is that the public backlash was so bad that Foley had to rethink their hiring decisions. Initially we found it hard to believe that a firm would have the gall to no offer somebody, only to call them up weeks later with an offer. But the tips kept rolling in.
We are happy (rolling around like a pig in sweet, sweet slop, happy) to think that ATL had some small role to play in securing additional summer associate jobs in this economy. But there are two sides to every story. Some tipsters think that Foley’s delay in completing the offer process is par for the course:
I just want to say that I know first hand that .. many people had not yet heard either way about offers. That is for both 1Ls and 2Ls. … I think you should update your main posting for the sake of all the comments calling b.s. on Ralf Boer’s statement that they only just finished making all the decisions. … I know for a fact first-hand that several people had yet to hear as of yesterday and even today.
On an historical note, right about now is exactly how long it took Foley to get back to many folks last year.
So did Foley ding people and then change their mind, or did they just take a long time to finish their hiring process? More tipsters weigh in after the jump.
Continue reading “Foley & Lardner: Where the Wild Things Are”
Last week, we reported that Foley & Lardner no offered 43% of their 2008 summer class from their Chicago office.
The firm has still not contacted us directly, but multiple tipsters passed along a clarification email sent to all Foley associates late last night.
Straight from the horse’s mouth (CEO Ralf Boer):
Many of you may have heard about blog comments critical of Foley’s hiring decisions from this year’s summer program which just concluded. Some of those comments indicate that we have extended offers to fewer than 50% of this summer’s 2L participants. The purpose of this e-mail is to set the record straight so that all of you have the facts, rather than the rumors which started as we made our first offers and before we completed our offer process.We literally have only completed our offer process at the office level today, and additional offers may yet be made.
As we pointed out in our initial story, some tipsters mentioned that Foley could still have been reviewing summer candidates as of last week. We couldn’t confirm those reports with the firm, but they appear to have been correct.
So what are the final numbers shaping up like?
If we look at the number of offers made to date, the offer percentage is 84% (89 offers to the 106 2Ls in the summer program). That number may go up as we complete our offer process. Thus, the percentages reported in the blogs were calculated as we were in the middle of our offer process and, accordingly, were inaccurate. Some of the blog reports related to our Chicago offer rate. We have, in fact, to date made 17 offers to a 2L class of 21, for an offer rate of 81% in Chicago, not the 50% reported on the blogs. Again, that percentage may also go up.
84% overall, 81% out of Chicago. That is a bit lower than the 90% many firms are reporting, but far better than the bloodbath it looked like last week.
More on Foley after the jump.
Continue reading “Update: Foley & Lardner Sets the Record Straight.
And They’re Still Looking For 3Ls”
Foley & Lardner. You’ve heard the rumors. We’ve heard the rumors. Foley & Lardner have heard the rumors and chosen not to respond. But the smoke screen cannot obscure the summer structure fire.
Multiple tipsters coalesced around these numbers: 9 of 21 Foley Chicago summers received offers. But six of those offers went to IP attorneys, leaving non-IP summers with a stunning 3 of 15 success rate.
I’m no mathlete, but that doesn’t look like the 90% offer rate like we’ve been hearing from other firms.
And as we’ve seen with other firms, going to a top school was no summer offer safety net. Again, thus far the firm isn’t talking so we can’t know for sure, but it appears that HYS summers went 0 for 4 at Foley Chicago.
Read what people are saying below the fold.
Continue reading “Nationwide No Offer Watch: Foley Didn’t Get the Memo.
43% Offer Rate? Tastes Like Burning. “
Judging from our traffic, readers are enjoying this rundown of the Vault 100. We do aim to please here at ATL. We appreciate those who have offered insights about firms in the comments.
Moving on to the next group (with prestige scores in parentheses):
61. Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (5.608)
62. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (5.583)
63. Bingham McCutchen LLP (5.583)
64. Greenberg Traurig, LLP (5.478)
65. Holland & Knight LLP (5.416)
66. Heller Ehrman LLP (5.346)
67. Foley & Lardner LLP (5.266)
68. Steptoe & Johnson LLP (5.252)
69. K&L Gates LLP (5.242)
70. Kaye Scholer LLP (5.230)
As we move down the Vault list, “notable perks” are becoming less elaborate. This group is dominated by tales of free food, from endless soda at Greenberg Traurig to weekend doughnuts and muffins at Foley. And it appears that Pillsbury lacks a monopoly on cookie benefits; over at Cahill, lawyers are plied with “twice daily cookie trays.”
We note this food-related perk at Bingham: “If any lawyer takes out a more junior lawyer for drinks/dinner, he/she can submit the expense to the mentoring budget AND the senior person can get creditable hours.” Can you expense the roofies?
We invite you to compare and contrast these firms’ work, lifestyle, benefits… and cookies, in the comments.
Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads – 2009
This latest bit of associate pay raise news is not particularly new. It was conveyed last week, via hard copy letter (in envelopes marked “professional and confidential”).
But we never met a pay raise announcement we didn’t like, so we’ll pass it along. Foley & Lardner — which, by the way, recently announced its new partnership class — has raised the salaries of its non-IP associates in the Milwaukee, Miami, and Detroit offices.
Numbers and tables, after the jump.
Continue reading “Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Foley & Lardner”
