Kaye Scholer

Fall Recruiting Open Threads: Vault 61 – 80 (2011)

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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….

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The 100% Summer Associate Offer Rates Keep Rolling In

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This was a year of small summer classes. Fewer summer associates mean a greater likelihood that all will get offers… unless a law student does something egregious. (Good news for rising 2Ls: There are signs that next year’s classes will be larger.)

Latham & Watkins and Gibson Dunn had the biggest summer associate classes this year, with 110 law students each. We’re told that Latham gave offers to all of its summer associates. What about Gibson? Will it match Latham one for one? One commenter claims that 24 in the firm’s NYC office have already gotten offers. What about the rest?

We have heard 100% news from a few other brand-name firms. Some came with champagne, others with firm-wide emails…

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Kaye Scholer Shifts Pro Bono Associates Back to Doc Review
And some reflections on the changing Biglaw business model.

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An article in today’s New York Times, by former WSJ Law Blog writer Dan Slater, discusses changing law firm business models. Much of the piece covers ground that will be familiar to ATL readers. But the article contains some interesting new information about Kaye Scholer (where Slater once worked).

According to the Times article, it appears that the firm essentially lied to some of its new associates:

In the summer of 2008, Kaye Scholer’s New York office extended offers of full-time employment to 31 students, many from top schools. They would return to law school for their third years, they thought, then graduate, take the bar exam and begin at the firm in January 2010, at a base salary approximating the current level of $160,000.

About two months before the start date, however, the firm notified 18 of the 31, a group including law graduates from Columbia, New York and Northwestern Universities, that they would be relegated, upon arrival, to the firm’s public interest group. There, they would work on pro bono matters and make $60,000 a year.

All 18 accepted the revised offer.

In March, about two months after starting, 17 of the 18 were assigned to a document review project, for a paying client, and told to bill 40 hours a week. For this, these associates will make an extra $30 an hour, approximately the hourly rate of their base salary.

We reported on Kaye Scholer’s $60,000 a year, pro bono associate plan back in October. How did the firm characterize it to us at the time?

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And some reflections on the changing Biglaw business model.“

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Morning Docket 03.11.10

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ncaa video game.jpg* Former U.C.L.A. basketball star Ed O’Bannon has recruited some key players for his class-action lawsuit against the NCAA. [New York Times]
* Kaye Scholer’s attempt to score litigation points for Bank of America results in BofA paying a bankrupt developer’s Kasowitz Benson attorney fees. [AmLaw Daily]
* Is it okay to use unwitting customers as bait in “upskirting” sting operations? It was for a TJMaxx in upstate New York. [On Point News]
* To our surprise, those ubiquitous Classmates.com banner ads have actually convinced a good number of people to join the site. And now they’re suing for violation of their privacy. [Wired]
* The legal community — from left to right — is not happy with Liz Cheney. [Associated Press]
* Ben Roethlisberger’s 28th birthday present is a criminal investigation. [Fox]
* Patent wars. [Apple Insider]

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Kaye Scholer: Salary and Bonus Follow-Up

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Kaye Scholer LLP logo Above the Law legal blog.jpgYesterday, we reported that Kaye Scholer would be paying market busting bonuses to associates who hit their hours.
Today, associates are telling us that “hitting hours” is kind of like shooting the moon in hearts. A tipster reports:

Bonus hour requirements were moved up from 2,000 to 2,200 this year, with the “superbonus” at 2,400 (unchanged from last year). Bonus amounts were $20,000 for 2,200 hundred hours and $40,000 for 2,400 hours, across the board, which is only above market for the 2008-2006 crowd (it would equal other firms at the 2005 year, assuming those other firms had also raised their requirement to 2,200 hours, and below market for anyone after that.)

Well then. Before bonus season started, we mentioned that we would have to pay attention to hours requirements hidden under bonus announcements.
Did any Kaye Scholer associates hit 2,400 hours this year?
After the jump, our tipsters further explain Kaye Scholer’s hours requirements for its lockstep pay raises.

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Kaye Scholer: Back to More Simple Methods for Cutting Salaries, Plus a Big Time Bonus

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Kaye Scholer LLP logo Above the Law legal blog.jpgAfter being inundated with firms that are trying to cut salaries through the implementation of a merit-based associate compensation structure, it’s refreshing to see a firm cut salaries the old fashioned way. Tipsters report that Kaye Scholer is just going about its paycut in a straightforward manner:

Associates will be paid on a 145K scale for 11 months, and then, provided they are above some level of hours, will have a “keep what you earn” December.
This comes months after Kaye Scholer told half the class they would be making 60K and doing pro bono work for the first year.
Kaye Scholer’s got them by the balls and knows it.

Clean, crisp, this is how your father taught you to cut costs.
Remember, Kaye Scholer cut salaries and then offered a similar clawback provision last year. But our tipsters report that the hours requirements are far from onerous. If you hit 1600 hours by the end of the year, you’ll get your $160K.
The system has the feel of a DLA Piper-esque 10% salary holdback. But, unlike DLA, making the money back is tied to objective factors (hours) instead of subjective ones. And Kaye Scholer won’t be grading on a curve.
And, for 2009, Kaye Scholer will be making a bonus payment that is above the market for associates that hit their hours. More details after the jump.

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Hope for Second-Year Law School Students?
(And: If Hitler Were a Berkeley 2L)

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hitler as a 2l berkeley.jpgIn parsing the fate of law school students, there’s no point in talking about the 3Ls. Their chances of success in the job hunt are about as bright as Obama’s prospects of winning the war in Afghanistan. In other words, abandon hope all ye who enter here.
The 1Ls can actually pray the economy will improve. And unlike the poor 3Ls, they knew what they were getting into when they enrolled this fall.
But what about the 2Ls? They have a year and a half more to stay in the law school bunker. Is that long enough for the economy to pick up and for firms to open their wallets doors to draw them close to the Biglaw bosom? Many 2Ls report that their dance cards for the summer are empty.
But there may be hope for current 2Ls without summer suitors, reports Zach Lowe at AmLaw Daily. Some firms are coming back for another round:

[A] small number of those 2Ls stand to benefit from an added mini-round of recruiting, which law school officials and firm recruiters attribute to the cautious stance some firms took the first time around in August and September. The reason, according to about a dozen sources we interviewed: Firms shooting for smaller class sizes limited their offers to the best of the best in the class of 2010. The students in that group found themselves with several offers to choose from, leaving firms short of the already smaller-than-usual targets they’d set. Now those firms are going back to top law schools and asking about candidates who have not yet secured a gig for summer 2010, according to career services deans at law schools, law firm recruiters, and industry groups.

Which firms are still looking? What are they looking for? And, if Adolf Hitler was a 2L, what would he do?
Find out after the jump.

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(And: If Hitler Were a Berkeley 2L)“

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This Week in Layoffs: 11.01.09

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pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgEd. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
Last week we wrote that jobless claims were higher than expected and that predicting anything with any degree of confidence seemed pointless. This week, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits was lower than expected, the lowest levels in seven months, and that was before announcement that benefits will be extended again. Still, the best that can be said is that the cuts are slowing:

Companies are cutting fewer jobs as they see more evidence of a recovery, helped by government stimulus efforts and less weakness in housing and manufacturing. While a separate report today showed the economy expanded for the first time in more than a year, a rebound in hiring may take longer to materialize

So while things bounced around unpredictably in the broader market, we had two notable announcements in law-firm innovations this week. We’ll cut right to them after the jump.

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Kaye Scholer: Splits First Year Class into Two Groups

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Kaye Scholer LLP logo Above the Law legal blog.jpgKaye Scholer has announced that its incoming first year associate will still be starting in January. All of them. But there is a catch. Kaye Scholer will split the class into two groups of full time associates. One group will work for the firm’s paying clients and get paid the normal first year starting salary. The other group — roughly half of the class — will work exclusively with the firm’s public interest group and will make $60,000.
Above the Law spoke with Kaye Scholer managing partner Barry Wilner about the program. He emphasized that the firm wanted to invite everybody in its first year class to start at the firm because the class is “excellent.” But he acknowledged that the demand for legal services isn’t what it used to be. Instead of sending half of its class back out on the street to look for public interest work, Wilner wanted to put them to work under the umbrella of Kaye Scholer’s pro bono efforts:

It’s incredibly difficult to get public interest work in this environment. … It’s a good thing from the standpoint that the firm is providing excellent public interest training and mentoring.

Wilner also told us that the public interest associates would still have access to all of the training other first year associates have, and they would be eligible for full firm benefits.
Associates weren’t asked to volunteer to be in the public interest group. Wilner said that the firm had to make difficult decisions about how to split the class. Practice group preference was one factor. But Wilner also said that because the incoming class was strong across the board, some amount of arbitrariness also played a role.
After the jump, incoming associates in the public interest group weigh in.

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Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 61 – 70 (2010)

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comparing.jpgAs 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.

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