Schulte Roth & Zabel

Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Admissions Consulting and Academic Coaching

By

tutoring test preparation test prep hot for teacher.jpgIn these difficult times for the legal profession, it’s more important than ever to know all your options. So we resume our series on career alternatives for attorneys — jobs for J.D. holders that don’t involve working as a Biglaw associate or contract attorney.
In a prior post, we discussed the career alternative of entrepreneurship. If you’re tired of working for a boss, then become the boss: start your own company.
Today we focus on two lawyers who, interestingly enough, have started their own businesses in the same area: admissions consulting and academic coaching. Perhaps this is the start of a hot new trend? Cf. the cupcake craze sweeping the nation, which another lawyer is capitalizing on.
Adam Nguyen, formerly of Paul Weiss and Shearman & Sterling, is the president and CEO of Ivy Link. Jon Palmer, formerly of Schulte Roth & Zabel, is the president and founder of The Admissions Experts.
Both businesses are headquartered in New York — which makes sense, given how obsessive Manhattan parents can be about getting their offspring into elite educational institutions. NYC ≠ TTT!!!
Read more about these gents and their new enterprises, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Admissions Consulting and Academic Coaching”

45 Comments

This Week In Layoffs: 10.04.09

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgEd. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
For a while there it would look like the first consecutive weeks without layoffs since this time last year (by our reckoning, you have to go back to the weeks ending October 9 and October 2, 2008). Alas, one firm did come through with staff layoffs, about which more after the jump.

As usual, we begin with the US macroeconomic picture, and as usual, it ain’t pretty. For the week, the S&P 500 was down about 2%. That was the second straight week of losses, and the DJIA had its biggest weekly decline in three months. 263,000 net jobs were lost in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, despite perhaps the technical end of the recession. As with the stock market, bad results are one thing, but results worse than expectations are another, and that was the case here. Consensus estimates were net losses of 175,000, so the actual results were way short. August’s revised numbers were slightly better than original reports, though.

The poor results are creating pessimism around when things will start to turn around:

[T]he report also buttressed fears that economic expansion would be weak and hesitant, with scarce paychecks and economic anxiety remaining prominent features of American life well into next year.

“This is a weak report,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. “The rate of job loss has tapered off, but we still haven’t reached the point where businesses are willing to hire.”

Could this create political difficulties for the president?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “This Week In Layoffs: 10.04.09″

40 Comments

Nationwide No Offer Watch: Schulte Roth Summer 2009 Recap

By

schulte logo.JPGJust the other day, we told you that things were looking pretty good for 2Ls who want to be part of Schulte Roth & Zabel’s 2010 summer program.
That positive report is of no consolation to participants in Schulte’s 2009 summer program. It looks like those kids had the bad fortune of going to law school a year too early. Their summer program was only eight weeks long, and yesterday Schulte finally got around to making offers. A tipster reports:

We’re all talking. Seems like Schulte was about 2/3rds [offer rate] or so … We had a listserv of everyone. Seems like a ton of no offers. They did no offers first.

The two-thirds of Schulte summers who received offers were not given a start date. But the benefit of having a listserv is that they are still pretty excited to have offers in comparison to their colleagues that were rejected by the firm.
Schulte declined to comment for this story. But we understand that it is full steam ahead for summer 2010.
Earlier: Schulte Roth Feeling Good About 2011

48 Comments

Schulte Roth Feeling Good About 2011

By

schulte logo.JPGA tipster pointed us in the direction of Schulte Roth & Zabel’s Frequently Asked Questions page for its 2010 summer program. While other firms are canceling their 2010 summer programs entirely, Schulte seems quite optimistic about its summer program. Check out the firm’s answers to three key questions every 2L is wondering about:

Will you hire more summer associates than you expect to be able to make offers to?
We will hire the number of summer associates we want for our fall class starting in the fall of 2011.
What is your summer associate salary?
In 2009 summer our summer associates were paid a weekly salary of $3,077. The salary is based on the first-year associate annual salary of $160,000.
How many weeks will your 2010 Summer Program be?
Our 2010 summer program will be 11 weeks.

The 2009 summer program at Schulte was only eight weeks long. But the firm is already committing to an 11 week summer program for 2010. And at the firm is sticking to the $160K payscale, and it’s planning on making full offers.
Schulte Roth is ranked #77 on the most recent Vault list. Arent Fox — the firm that just revoked offers to a number of its incoming associates — is ranked #76.
People sitting on a summer offer from Schulte have to feel pretty good right now.
Earlier: Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 71 – 80 (2010)

66 Comments

Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 71 – 80 (2010)

By

comparing.jpgWe continue our slog push through the nation’s 100 top law firms, as ranked by our friends over at Vault. Here are the next ten firms, to be discussed in the comments to this post:

71. Reed Smith
72. Bryan Cave
73. Perkins Coie
74. Hunton & Williams
75. Patton Boggs
76. Arent Fox
77. Schulte Roth & Zabel
78. Howrey
79. Chadbourne & Parke
80. Crowell & Moring

Assorted observations about these firms, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 71 – 80 (2010)”

95 Comments

Blind Item Follow-Up: Denials of Upcoming Layoffs from Dewey, Schulte, and White & Case

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgOn Monday, we tossed out a blind item about future layoffs at a Manhattan law firm, mentioned in the Washington Post as a client of the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement firm. On Tuesday, with the help of Law Shucks, we narrowed down the list of suspects.
We’re happy to report that we can advance the ball on this. Three firms should be cleared of suspicion:
1. Dewey & LeBoeuf: A spokesperson from D&L stated that it is not the firm in question and has no layoff plans.
2. Schulte Roth & Zabel: A spokesperson from SRZ stated that it is not the firm in question and has not hired a layoff consultant or outplacement consultant.
3. White & Case: A reader pointed out to us that White & Case is listed as a Five O’Clock Club client (PDF). [Update: Looks like the client list has been removed, but we downloaded it; check it out here.]
This caused us to wonder if White & Case might be the firm at issue. But White & Case denies it.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item Follow-Up: Denials of Upcoming Layoffs from Dewey, Schulte, and White & Case”

97 Comments

Schulte Summers: Try To Chill Out and Work The Problem

By

schulte logo.JPGThe Above the Law tips line achieved a critical mass of Schulte Roth chatter after a summer associate meeting at the firm yesterday. We’ve contacted various parties who were at the meeting and the firm itself. Here is what went down.
Over the course of the meeting Jeffrey A. Lenobel, a member of the firm’s executive committee, told summer associates that offers would not be extended at the end of the summer program. Schulte traditionally makes offers to people on their last day at the firm — and this year the firm’s summer program ends this Friday. Lenobel told associates that Schulte would be making a decision on how many offers to extend at a later date, but some summers took that as an indication that Schulte would not be extending any offers.
When we spoke to Mr. Lenobel, he assured us that some summers got the wrong idea:

Of course we’ll be making offers. We just don’t know when we will and how many we’ll be making.

But will those offers be for 2010, or will Schulte join the ranks of firms that are deferring associates to 2011? More details from Lenobel after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Schulte Summers: Try To Chill Out and Work The Problem”

114 Comments

The New Schulte Vacation Policy

By

schulte logo.JPGMaybe work is booming at Schulte Roth & Zabel? The firm is changing its vacation policy to make it more stringent. Could it be that the firm wants all hands on deck? A tipster reports the major changes:

* Personal days are now limited to 5 per year (there was previously no limit). Any days in excess of 5 count as vacation.
* SRZ previously reimbursed attorneys for nonrefundable costs associated with vacations that the firm cancelled due to work obligations. The new policy states that reimbursement will now be considered on a case-by-case basis.
* Weekend trips will only be reimbursed when the firm requires them to be cancelled if the trip has been previously approved by the partner appointed to approve vacations. The firm previously did not require attorneys to request approval for weekend trips.

Another tipster quips:

Schulte Tries Increasing Egg Production by Choking the Chicken

But it could also be that Schulte’s new vacation policy has an eye towards layoffs.
Read more, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The New Schulte Vacation Policy”

134 Comments

Schulte Salary Cuts are In the System

By

Salary Cuts.jpgAccording to the just released AmLaw 100 numbers, Schulte Roth & Zabel ranks 10th in terms of profits per partner. The average take home for partners was $2,290,000 in 2008.
But that might not stop Schulte from cutting associate salaries.
There hasn’t been any official announcement. But according to multiple sources now, the memo is in the system. According to one of our sources:

If you search on the document system, there is a memo in there. It’s titled “Associate Salary Reduction” or something. … I haven’t clicked on it, but it seems self-explanatory.

Another tipster explained to us that nobody has clicked on the actual document. Schulte can see who opens which documents on the firm system, and nobody wants the firm to know that they looked at the internal memo.
More details after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Schulte Salary Cuts are In the System”

99 Comments

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Schulte Roth & Zabel (Redux)
(Plus info on SRZ’s summer program and start dates.)

By

schulte logo.JPGWe’re a little late in reporting this news about Schulte Roth & Zabel (just as we were the last time around). But the firm once again handled the situation quietly — stealthily, you might say — so it took us a while to get adequate confirmation and corroboration.

But we did eventually. We’re now in a position to report the following about SRZ, based on reports received from multiple sources:

1. Earlier this week, approximately 20 attorneys were let go at Schulte Roth & Zabel. Cuts were made in corporate, real estate, litigation, and possibly other departments.

2. How to characterize the cuts is unclear. It seems that some lawyers were told they were being let go for performance-related reasons, while others were told they were being let go for economic reasons.

3. The affected attorneys are receiving a two-month notice period — i.e., two months in which to find new jobs — and outplacement assistance. This is consistent with Schulte’s past practice (see our most recent severance package table).

Additional info, about the summer program and start dates, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Nationwide Layoff Watch: Schulte Roth & Zabel (Redux)
(Plus info on SRZ’s summer program and start dates.)”

82 Comments
Page 3 of 512345