Latham & Watkins

How Did Latham Become the Poster Child for Layoffs?

By

Back in February 2009, Latham & Watkins laid off 440 people. They weren’t the first firm to lay people off, they weren’t the last, and you can even argue that they didn’t even lay off the most associates in percentage terms.

But somehow Latham has taken a bigger public relations hit because of its layoffs than any other firm. The firm fell ten spots in last year’s Vault rankings. It’s been referenced in New York Times movie reviews in connection with lawyer layoffs. Hell, people turned Latham into a verb, and not a nice verb.

Now, the latest ignominy. The verb “Lathamed” isn’t just in Urban Dictionary; it’s in the Latham & Watkins firm description in the Chambers guide:

In 2008 gross revenue slipped to $2 billion and profits per equity partner were down by 21 percent, according to 2009 Am Law data. The initial response was a number of performance-related layoffs which was followed, in February 2009, by the laying off of another 190 associates and 250 support staff members. Such was the severity of the cuts that the expression “to be Lathamed” (which, by its most polite definition, means “to be laid off”) was coined.

How did it come to this for Latham?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “How Did Latham Become the Poster Child for Layoffs?”

210 Comments

Quote of the Day: Latham Layoffs in a Movie Review?

By

I wasn’t the only viewer taken aback by Miranda’s impulsive decision to quit her law firm in a climate in which a powerhouse like Latham & Watkins lays off hundreds.

– New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, writing about reviewers’ reactions to Sex and the City 2.

6 Comments

Unbillable Hours: A True Story

By

Ian Graham is the author of Unbillable Hours: A True Story, which was published earlier this month. The book is a memoir of Graham’s time at Latham & Watkins, where he spent about five years as a litigation associate.

Unbillable Hours is not, however, a Latham exposé (which I’d eagerly read, by the way). Rather, the book centers on Graham’s work on a major pro bono case. The book’s publisher describes it as follows:

Landing a job at a prestigious L.A. law firm, complete with a six figure income, signaled the beginning of the good life for Ian Graham. But the harsh reality of life as an associate quickly became evident. The work was grueling and boring, the days were impossibly long, and Graham’s main goal was to rack up billable hours.

But when he took an unpaid pro bono case to escape the drudgery, Graham found the meaning in his work that he’d been looking for. As he worked to free Mario Rocha, a gifted young Latino who had been wrongly convicted at 16 and sentenced to life without parole, the shocking contrast between the quest for money and power and Mario’s desperate struggle for freedom led Graham to look long and hard at his future as a corporate lawyer.

Yesterday I chatted with Ian Graham about his book, his time at Latham, and how he made the transition from a legal career to a writing career.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Unbillable Hours: A True Story”

67 Comments

Law Firm Wikipedia Wars

By

On Sex and the City, Samantha was never seen scrolling through comments on news blogs to make sure her clients’ reputations weren’t being maligned. Instead, she attended fancy New York parties and talked up her roster of good-looking clients.

But SATC is dated. The work of public relations professionals has been made harder (and less glamorous) by the explosion of online news sources. We know that law firm PR folks spend a healthy amount of time monitoring the legal blogosphere to do damage control for their firms. Another place they need to watch is Wikipedia.

The crowd-source encyclopedia has become the go-to reference site for most Internetters. Society’s sages often warn people not to take everything they find in Wikipedia at face value — since the information does not necessarily come from experts and is not systematically vetted — but that advice often goes unheeded.

Because Wikipedia is such an important source of information, and so easily edited, some try to manipulate entries to give them a positive or negative spin. Lawyers at certain firms have been found guilty of this before (e.g., Wachtell). Sometimes dueling manipulation of an entry reaches the level of what Wikipedia calls an edit war — when two or more editors are continually overriding one another’s changes.

The Wikipedia gods ordered an end to the war on the page of Latham & Watkins. BLY1 noticed that the page was put on lockdown. A note from the Wikipedia war god says:

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE COME HERE TO EDIT ABOUT LAYOFFS, THINK TWICE. EDITS MUST BE FACTUALLY VERIFIABLE, AND NEUTRAL. IF YOU ARE CONNECTED TO THIS COMPANY IN ANY WAY WE ADVISE YOU *NOT* TO TOUCH IT.

Someone kept inserting references to Latham’s layoffs and how hard hit first-year associates were. That info has now been scrubbed from the page.

We decided to take a stroll though the revision history of other law firm pages to see who needs to do clean up, and who has done clean up. Cravath, for example, had a very interesting description for a short time…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Law Firm Wikipedia Wars”

59 Comments

Skadden Sets the Pace for Start Dates and Salary Advances Instead of Stipends?

By

start date 3Ls ready for Biglaw start dates.jpgClass of 2010 graduates with offers in hand want to know when they’ll have firm-issued BlackBerrys in hand too. Last week, we had an open thread on start dates for 2010 graduates.

Shortly thereafter, we heard from Skadden-bound associates. They’ll be starting in the new year, and they’ll have some money to keep them afloat til then. But it’s money from their future earnings:

[Skadden] says “start date and orientation in mid-January 2011.” No stipend — just 15k salary advance — 5K in April, rest with receipt of final law school transcript. Repaid out of first year salary.
Honestly, I was hoping for more…

Skadden is a market leader. Does this mean stipends are no longer in fashion? Sorry, 3Ls, money for doing nothing is so 2009.
UPDATE: We’ve noticed some confusion in the comments. We’re not talking about the bar stipend; we’re talking about the deferral stipend for January start dates. If you look at our 2009 round-up, you’ll see that many firms offered a $5,000 – $25,000 “deferral stipend” along with January start dates. (Last year was a different ballgame, though, with deferrals taking incoming associates by surprise. This year, offering salary advances instead of stipends might not be unreasonable.)

What’s the policy at other firms? Some firms, such as Sidley Austin and Milbank, are reportedly still offering stipends. A round-up, and more chatter from Skadden-ites, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Skadden Sets the Pace for Start Dates and Salary Advances Instead of Stipends?”

48 Comments

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: Couple of the Year! (Plus New January Couples)

By

Nyenke-Robinson.jpg
LEWW congratulates Caroline Nyenke and LaRue Robinson, who narrowly edged out Tracy Zuckerman and Ryan Van Grack in Couple of the Year voting to take the 2009 crown. Unfortunately, we have no trophy to award them, but maybe someone will be moved by this honor to buy Caroline and LaRue that cutlery set they still need.
On to our remaining January couples:

1. Chingwin Pei and Adam Pyonin
2. Emily Scharfman and David Menchel
3. Michelle Ko and Tony Wong

Read all about these lawyer newlyweds, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: Couple of the Year! (Plus New January Couples)”

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 2.15: First-Rate

By

champagne glasses small.jpgThere was no LEWW last Friday because last week’s wedding pages were even bleaker than the Biglaw employment news. We’ve bounced back nicely, though, because Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, making this week’s weddings section a February feast of premium nuptial news.

We present three outstanding couples for your consideration:

1. Parisa Sabeti and Ted Zagat

2. Jessica Holzer and Hans Nichols

3. Kendall Burman and Eric Volkman

Check out these newlyweds’ résumés and pictures, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 2.15: First-Rate”

Musical Chairs: Kathy Ruemmler from Latham Back to DOJ

By

Kathryn Ruemmler Kathryn H Ruemmler Kathy Ruemmler Latham Watkins.jpgSuperstar litigatrix Kathryn Ruemmler, a litigation partner at Latham & Watkins and an Enron prosecutor before that, has been picked to serve as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Obama Justice Department. That title is a mouthful, but lawyers inside the Beltway know it’s a Big Deal.

The revolving door between the DOJ and Latham swings again. Ruemmler has traded places with another fierce female litigator: Alice Fisher, who rejoined the firm after heading up the Criminal Division.

As for Ruemmler, the government’s gain is Latham’s loss. Says one LW tipster: “She’s a really good lawyer, and a genuinely nice person. We’re very sorry to lose her.”

Kathy Ruemmler isn’t just a genial genius; she’s stylish, too. From the WSJ Law Blog, reporting on a day of the Ken Lay trial:

Speaking of footwear, the boldest fashion statement of the day — possibly rivaling O’Melveny paralegal Bill Evans’s goth getup for the gutsiest sartorial move of the week — came from the government’s Ruemmler. The deputy director of the Enron Task Force, who won convictions against four Merrill Lynch bankers in the 2004 Nigerian Barge case, paired a conservative gray suit with stunning 4-inch bright pink stiletto spikes.

Litigatrix indeed. Just because you work for the DOJ doesn’t mean you have to shop at DSW.

There’s a lot of diversity in Obama’s Department picks so far. Eric Holder, nominated to serve as Attorney General, is African-Amercan. Elena Kagan and Dawn Johnsen, nominated to serve as, respectively, Solicitor General and head of the Office of Legal Counsel, are women.

The full memo about Ruemmler’s move, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Musical Chairs: Kathy Ruemmler from Latham Back to DOJ”

40 Comments
Page 7 of 71...34567