Nixon Peabody

Nixon Peabody Deferral Extension: Can Somebody Check A Calendar?

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGDear law firms:
It is December 15th. Christmas is ten days away. January 4th is a mere 20 days away.
I bring this up because some of you seem to be having trouble with the Gregorian calendar. Some of you have incoming associates that are set to start at your firm on January 4th or soon thereafter. These incoming associates have already been deferred by your firm.
Perhaps you have the desire to defer these people again? Sorry, but you missed your chance. It’s too late. You should have deferred them (again) sooner. To do so now is just cruel. A lot of these people have signed leases, bought plane tickets, and truncated holiday plans — as you would expect of good employees.
Evidently calendar mastery is not something that can be taught on the fly. So just take my word for it. It is too late to defer January starters again. It’s time to suck it up, clear out some office space, and get your pro bono partner on the ball. Trust me.
Your friend,
Common sense and basic decency.
The above message came too late to help incoming Nixon Peabody associates, but maybe we can teach other firms that mistreating incoming associates is wrong.
Details after the jump.

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Nationwide (Stealth) Layoff Watch: Nixon Peabody

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGBack in February, Nixon Peabody laid off 56 employees. The firm was public about its decision to lay off people at the time.
But sources report that over the past few months Nixon has been conducting additional layoffs — only this time the firm is being very stealthy about the departures. Multiple sources state that the firm casts these reductions as performance-based, but the performance issues are simply low hours during the recession. One tipster puts it like this:

[S]tealth layoffs of associates are happening in a number of different including San Francisco … and D.C. A number of second and third years (since we have no first years yet) have been told to pack their bags. They are being called performance-based though the associates who have been let go have low hours because of lack of work. … Associates are terrified to report to work [lest] they get a call from human resources.

We also have reports of stealth layoffs in New York. And still other tipsters tell us that junior partners are being forced out as well.
This time, Nixon Peabody declined to comment about the layoffs.
But after the jump, we have information that might explain why Nixon is going the stealth route with these cuts.

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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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Chicago Is Hiring? Lawyers?

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Chicago skyline.JPGThe National Law Journal reports that some firms are hiring lawyers — including associates — in Chicago. The ABA Journal summarizes the good news:

Three law firms are moving into new offices in Chicago and seeking to fill the space with new lawyers.
The firms getting new digs are Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Nixon Peabody; and Cozen O’Connor, the National Law Journal reports.

Happy Friday indeed.
According to the NLJ, despite all the hits the Chicago legal market has taken during this recession, the city is in an expansionary mood:

While law firm expansion has slowed in Chicago during the recession, particularly compared to the accelerated growth in the prior five years, many national firms that set up shop in the city since 2000 are still looking to add lawyers. Efforts to recruit partners with business has been a constant, but firms in the past month have started to look for associates in certain practice areas, including finance, banking, litigation and bankruptcy, said Amy McCormack, who leads the Chicago recruiting firm McCormack Schreiber.

Does that include Kirkland & Ellis? Let’s take a look inside (its new offices), after the jump.

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Nixon Peabody’s Proposed Bonus Structure

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGWhen we reported on the salary cuts at Nixon Peabody, we mentioned that the firm would allow associates to make up some of the money come bonus time. Here’s how the firm explained the opportunity:

With our new levels of base pay in place, we will be introducing a bonus program that offers the potential of up to 30% of base pay based on firm and individual performance. We believe this innovative pay structure will reward our highest performing associates while lowering total compensation for those who perform at lower levels.

We’ve gotten a look at Nixon’s proposed “up to 30%” bonus structure. This hasn’t been finalized, but here is what is going around the office:
Nixon Peabody proposed bonus structure.jpg
Let’s break this down, after the jump.

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Nixon Peabody: Salary Cut Follow Up

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGLast Monday, we reported that Nixon Peabody would be cutting salaries. We noted that the pay cuts would be reflected in the May 21st paycheck.
Over the weekend, a source sent us detailed salary information about all of Nixon’s offices. Is this the shape of things to come? According to our tipster, here’s the new first year pay scale:

* $145,000 in NYC, Boston, Chicago, DC and California; ($20k cut)
* $95,000 in Upstate NY, Manchester, Providence ($10k cut)
* $110,000 on Long Island ($10k cut)

These new salaries will also be applied to Nixon Peabody summer associates.
But after the jump, we check out the cuts further up the pay scale.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Nixon Peabody Lays off 20 Attorneys, 36 Staff

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGNixon Peabody announced layoffs of 56 employees today. Nixon Peabody adds its name to the growing list of firms that are eschewing stealth reductions in favor of open communication during an obviously difficult time. Managing partner and CEO, Richard F. Langan, Jr. furnished ATL with a statement minutes after the first reports surfaced of layoffs at Nixon Peabody:

While we enter 2009 with a solid platform to build upon, we are also faced with many business challenges that other law firms face-reductions in client demand for legal services which result in reduced work volumes for attorneys and paralegals, in the face of an increasing cost of doing business. Prudent management of our business requires that we downsize our associate, legal support, and administrative ranks, with the result that 20 attorneys will be leaving the firm, and we will be reducing our staff by 36 people through a combination of staff reductions and the creation of new positions.

One of our sources also reports:

A few unlucky first years who were in wrong group at the wrong time and never got the chance to prove themselves. It’s shocking that Nixon Peabody gets recognition as one of the better places to work…

Perhaps this kind of open communication from the firm is one reason Nixon is typically well regarded by the attorneys who work there?

We don’t know if any of the 56 employees let go from Nixon today were recent laterals from Thelen. Remember back in November, Nixon threw Thelen refugees a major life boat as Thelen was dissolving:

But now it is looking like Nixon is picking up 90 ex-Thelen lawyers (partners and associates), former Thelen support staff, and tripling its presence in Silicon Valley.

Good luck to all the former Nixon (and all the former Thelen) people looking for work. Please read the full statement from Mr. Langan after the jump.

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Open Thread: It’s Going to be an Interesting Summer

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no offer factories.jpgThe summer of 2009 should be very different from past summers of fun and excess. Many are expecting this summer to be a twelve week (or ten week, or eight week) “job interview” that current Biglaw associates didn’t really have to go through.

This shouldn’t come as a galloping shock to A) regular ATL readers, B) casual ATL readers, C) people who can read, or D) anybody at all that has been paying the slightest bit of attention to the legal industry.

But it is time to ask “how bad is it going to be?” We started receiving reports this weekend on perhaps a new paradigm for summer associates. Here’s a rumor that has been swirling around Nixon Peabody:

Nixon Peabody [has] informed their summer class they will only be hiring 50% of the summer associates?? Basically they said…only HALF of you are going to make it and we are going to give you real work to see who is worthy.

After the jump, Nixon Peabody unequivocally shoots down this rumor.

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San Francisco Attorney Sues Nixon Peabody Los Angeles for Sexual Discrimination

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Nixon Peabody logo.JPGWith all the layoffs rippling through the Biglaw community, we are likely to see more lawsuits from attorneys directed at their former employers.

Right now, Nixon Peabody is in the spotlight. A former associate is suing the firm. The National Law Journal reports:

Henry Har, now an associate in Holland & Knight’s San Francisco office, claims that he was wrongly fired from Nixon Peabody in 2008 because of his sex and gender, and because he is Asian-American. …

Har, a graduate of New York University School of Law, originally worked in Nixon Peabody’s San Francisco office and moved to the Los Angeles location in September 2007. His complaint states that the Los Angeles office had a “drastically different working environment” from the San Francisco office and that attorneys in the office “demonstrated inappropriate and offense behavior towards ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals.”

The firm responds after the jump.

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Nixon Peabody Picks Up 90 Thelen Attorneys
(This is Different From a Merger How?)

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Thelen LLP new logo.jpgWe’ve previously reported that Nixon Peabody was acquiring 60 ex-Thelen attorneys, but only Thelen refugees located in Manhattan.

But now it is looking like Nixon is picking up 90 ex-Thelen lawyers (partners and associates), former Thelen support staff, and tripling its presence in Silicon Valley.

Yesterday’s press release from Nixon reported:

The new attorneys are joining all four of Nixon Peabody’s departments: business, intellectual property, litigation, and real estate. The firm also plans to hire a number of associates and staff from Thelen to help support the new partners. With the addition of these new attorneys from Thelen in Silicon Valley, which will triple in size, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Shanghai, it is anticipated Nixon Peabody will have more than 825 attorneys worldwide in 19 cities.

After the jump, remember when Nixon and Thelen were supposed to merge?

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(This is Different From a Merger How?)”

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