Mayer Brown

Kasowitz Benson’s Benovelent Dictatorship

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We’re surprised that more people in the legal profession don’t know about Kasowitz Benson. The firm is relatively young by Biglaw standards — founded in 1993, as a spin-off from Mayer Brown — but very successful. Much of this success is traceable to the leadership of Marc Kasowitz, who continues to run the firm with an iron hand (even though it’s twenty times larger today than at its founding; it started with 18 lawyers and is now up to 350).

Earlier this week, Nate Raymond of the New York Law Journal took a detailed look at the Kasowitz firm. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights….

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Fall Recruiting Open Threads: Vault 31 – 40 (2011)

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We’ve gotten away from plowing through the latest Vault Rankings, but fear not. Your firm is coming up soon.

We’ve been through the top 30 firms. But now we’re getting into a group of firms that really utilized the cost-cutting measures of salary cuts and layoffs to weather the recession of 2009. Did these guys take a big prestige hit? Not really. Here’s the next batch of firms:

31. Mayer Brown
32. Milbank
33. Paul Hastings
34. Akin Gump
35. Allen & Overy
36. Fried Frank
37. Irell & Manella
38. Freshfields
39. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
40. Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Just off the top of my head, does anybody else think that Irell is coming in a little low?

Anyway, let’s get into these firms…

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Mayer Brown and Simmons Call Off Their Courtship

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Earlier this month, we mentioned the possibility of a merger between Mayer Brown and the U.K.-headquartered firm of Simmons & Simmons. Today we learn that the merger won’t be happening. Legal Week reports:

Simmons & Simmons and Mayer Brown have called off merger talks, the two firms have confirmed in a joint press statement sent today (29 June). The statement confirmed that the two firms have held preliminary talks about a potential merger but have jointly decided not to go through with a combination.

So what are the reasons behind termination of the talks?

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Musical Chairs: BuckleySandler Snags Talent from Mayer Brown

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The financial services boutique of BuckleySandler, which launched just a little over a year ago, is expanding at a rapid clip. At the time of launch, it had about 50 attorneys (most of them from the firm formerly known as BuckleyKolar); now it’s approaching 100.

The two latest hires are noteworthy. From the BLT:

BuckleySandler is continuing its push to recruit top-level lateral partners. Today, the firm brought on David Krakoff, who previously co-chaired Mayer Brown’s white collar litigation practice, and Christopher Regan, also a former Mayer Brown partner.

Let’s learn a little more about them, shall we?

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Mayer Brown Looks Into the Transatlantic Merger Thing

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First Hogan & Hartson merged with Lovells. Then Sonnenschein merged with Denton Wilde. Now comes news that Mayer Brown is looking for a transatlantic partner — again. (Mayer previously merged with London-based Rowe & Maw.)

The Lawyer reports:

Mayer Brown and Simmons & Simmons have resumed merger talks, with both firms’ management set to brief their respective partnerships next week on the merits of a potential union.

Will this go merger go through? You know what they say: one is an accident, two is a trend, three is a problem…

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Family Friendly Law Firms

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For the past five years, Yale Law School has produced a list of the top “family friendly” law firms. And for the past five years, men have acted like “family” issues are something only women need to worry about.

Maybe that’s true if you are a committed bachelor who never intends to procreate or know the love of a real woman. Maybe that’s true if you subscribe to some kind of 1950′s television ideal where the man works and the woman is exclusively a stay-at-home mom. Mind the pool boy, fellas.

But the majority of men will one day marry and spawn. In many cases, they’ll marry a woman of equal career ambitions. At that point, being able to take some paternity leave might be very important. Maybe their wife won’t even be a lawyer, and thus make more money than her husband (have you seen what legal salaries are like these days). Most likely we will see more and more male primary care givers, and the firms will have to adjust. We’ve heard a lot about the “mommy track,” in our professional lifetimes one expects the “daddy track” to become just as important.

So which firms are already ahead of the family friendly curve?

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Mr. Chuck Vindicated: Mayer Brown Notifies Incoming Associates of Their Fates

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Congratulations to Mr. Chuck and his co-conspirators. It appears that their efforts to exert grassroots pressure on Mayer Brown, with the goal of getting the firm to inform them of the terms of their offers, have borne fruit.

As first mentioned in the comments on our post from yesterday regarding Winston & Strawn, incoming associates at Mayer were recently informed of their offer terms. Their time in limbo is now over.

So, what are the terms of their offers?

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Mayer Brown Start Date Follow-Up: The Magnanimous Mr. Chuck

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When we reported on the silence of Mayer Brown regarding start dates for incoming associates, I specifically mentioned that Mayer Brown’s greatest gadfly — Mr. Chuck — had nothing to do with the story. Alas, that did not stop other people from assuming that Mr. Chuck was continuing his crusade to force Mayer Brown to say something about start dates.

Never one to shy away from the limelight, Mr. Chuck decided that the fact that he wasn’t a part of the story shouldn’t preclude him from making himself part of the story. Here’s the subject line of the email he sent to all Mayer Brown incoming associates last night:

Pls, This Was Not Initiated By Me (Today’s Mayer Brown Above-The-Law Fiasco))

No, Mr. Chuck didn’t start it, but damnit he’s going to end it make sure it continues…

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Was Mr. Chuck Right About Mayer Brown?

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Back in March, a couple of 3Ls took it upon themselves to try to pressure Mayer Brown into letting them know their start dates. You know them as “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” though Rosencrantz later revealed himself to be NYU 3L, Chuck Egbuonu (a.k.a. Mr. Chuck).

Chuck and his cohort were widely criticized for essentially threatening the firm with a “public relations nightmare” unless Mayer Brown told them when they could start. Eventually Mr. Chuck reported that he had spoken with Mayer Brown regarding start dates:

I just received a phone call from partners at Mayer Brown informing me that decisions are being made as we speak, and we will be informed of the decisions in a timely manner.

We published that story on March 5th. Today is April 21st. Apparently Mayer Brown’s understanding of the phrase of “timely manner” is much like the South’s comprehension of the phrase “with all deliberate speed.”

Incoming Mayer Brown associates are about to graduate and need to know where they are going in a couple of months. But Mayer Brown seems content to make their new hires wait, and wait, and wait…

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Mayer Brown Reducing Its Force by 75

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Mayer Brown associates got a disturbing email this morning:

After careful consideration, the firm has decided to implement a job reduction in our US offices that will affect 28 associates and counsel and 47 staff members.

This can’t be good news for the firm’s incoming mutineers who are still waiting to hear back about their start dates. Though the memo, available in full after the jump, suggests that despite laying off these 75 people, things look bright there:

Despite this necessary action, we see encouraging signs for 2010. Thus far, the year is off to a positive start. Taking this step will enable us to maintain our financial strength and continue investing in our practices, our global platform and the professional development of our people – and thereby enhance our ability to provide clients with the high standard of legal work and service that defines Mayer Brown.

We hope the 75 people losing their jobs today were left off the distribution list, because that smarts…

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