Proskauer Rose

Summer Associate Offer Rates: Open Thread

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Summer offer rates are back and better than ever.

Last week, summer associate programs began to draw to a close. After a summer of fun extravagance work, summer associates are eager to find out if they’ll be getting offers of full-time employment.

We expect the answer to be yes at most places. Sure, during the height of the recession, no offer rates spiked. But Biglaw firms seem to have corrected that problem. As almost any jobless 3L can tell you, firms simply started hiring fewer people to be summer associates in the first place.

What’s bad news for many 3Ls is good news for those who were lucky enough to snag summer associate positions. You know what they say: getting in is the hardest part. Right?

Above the Law has received various reports from summer associates at Biglaw firms, crowing about 100 percent offer rates….

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Celebrity Summer Associate: An Ex-Colleague of Lindsay Lohan

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Earlier this month, we asked you: Who are this year’s celebrity summer associates? In recent years, major law firms have hosted famous figures as summer associates, including a successful author and reality TV hottie.

This summer, sadly, the celebrity wattage seems to be considerably lower. Biglaw is less big than it was a few years ago, and landing a summer associate gig isn’t easy, even for the famous. But we still have a few names to pass along (and welcome additional submissions, by email).

This morning Elie referenced one of my favorite films: Mean Girls, starring the talented but now tormented Lindsay Lohan. This reminded me of one of our celebrity summers, who has had the pleasure of acting alongside LiLo. Unlike his famous co-star, however, he is now studying the law rather than breaking it.

Who is he, where is he a law student, and where is he working this summer? Let’s find out….

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Firms That Are Still Deferring People Into 2012

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Some people in the class of 2010 will see this before they see a job.

Don’t look now, but in a few weeks, on-campus interviewing will get started on law school campuses across the country. That’s right — in about a month, law firms will start interviewing people they think they’ll have work for in the fall of 2013. I don’t know where the north pole will be in fall 2013, but law firms are supposed to know how many junior associates they’ll need more than two years from now?

Was this system designed by Nostradamus?

Under this employment system, there are winners and there are losers. Most of the people in the class of 2011 who have contacted us about their start dates have reported that they’ll be starting their Biglaw careers on time in the fall of 2011. That is good news. But even though we’ve moved far from the worst of the recession, there are still firms that are deferring their incoming classes.

In fact, at one firm, some members of the class of 2011 will be starting before members of the class of 2010…

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Associate Bonus Watch: Proskauer Rose Will Pay Spring Bonuses

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On Friday, Ropes & Gray and Latham announced spring bonuses. This morning we heard from Kirkland & Ellis. Firms are finally getting the message: spring bonuses are what big firms are doing this year.

So let’s keep the good times rolling. Earlier today, Proskauer Rose announced that it would be joining the spring bonus mania. And like many of the recent spring bonus firms, Proskauer is spreading the love beyond New York: L.A., D.C., and Chicago are all getting in on the spring bonuses.

(You hear that, Gibson Dunn?)

Let’s learn more about the Proskauer spring bounty, and see the memo….

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Latham Officially Launches Its Boston Office

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It’s about time. We’ve been writing about the new Boston office of Latham & Watkins for weeks now (here and here), revealing a number of their top lateral hires.

On Wednesday, Latham made its official announcement — and confirmed the accuracy of our prior reporting. All of the partners we previously named as Latham-bound, taken from such top firms as WilmerHale, Proskauer Rose, and Bingham McCutchen, are mentioned.

Let’s take a closer look at the L&W crew, and also learn about additional attorneys who are joining up (including associates)….

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More About Latham’s Boston Office

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Last week we reported on global megafirm Latham & Watkins heading into the Boston legal market. The firm will officially announce the opening of its Beantown outpost later this month.

We mentioned that Latham snagged Alex Temel, a prominent partner from Proskauer, to help start up LW’s Boston office. Now we’re hearing additional reports about attorneys who will be joining Latham in Boston, as well as the location of the office….

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Latham & Watkins Enters the Boston Market

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No, wrong Boston Market.

The global megafirm of Latham & Watkins is in full expansion mode. The firm recently picked up a trio of real estate partners from Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, for example.

And even though it’s not yet listed on the firm website, we understand that LW has quietly opened a Boston office. The official announcement will be made later this month, according to the Boston Business Journal.

This news shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Latham loves geographic reach, and it has been mulling over a Beantown presence since late 2007, as noted by Am Law Daily.

Tipsters tell us that Latham has already been scooping up talent from different firms around town. We have at least one name that we don’t believe has been publicly announced yet….

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Associate Bonus Watch: Proskauer Rose Matches

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Proskauer Rose just announced its 2010 bonuses.

Drama? Suspense? Tension? Please. A rose by any other name still smells like Cravath. Proskauer matched the Cravath bonus scale. Had Proskauer beaten the market, It would have been more surprising than learning that life can use arsenic as a fundamental building block.

We don’t have the full memo, but multiple tipsters tell us that Proskauer isn’t going to be breaking any market trends this bonus season. It’s getting to the point where we only have three real questions left this bonus season…

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A Hiccup for the Transatlantic Trend: Proskauer and SJ Berwin Call Off Merger Talks

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Bridget Jones found herself a super-fit Brit, but Proskauer is still looking for a U.K. mate.

In 2011, lawyers at Proskauer Rose will enjoy snazzy, firm-provided iPads. But they won’t be able to look forward to an influx of British colleagues with super-posh accents.

As reported by Legal Week, Proskauer and SJ Berwin have called off their merger talks, after nine long months of discussions. The extensive snogging will not culminate in shagging.

This year has seen lots of action on the transatlantic merger front — e.g., Hogan Lovells, SNR Denton, and Squire Sanders Hammonds. But it looks like Proskauer Berwin — or Berwin Proskauer, or SJ Proskauer? — will not be coming to pass.

(Unless the firms pull a Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton or a Newsweek Daily Beast, and merge with each other anyway after declaring their talks dead.)

So what led to the demise of the Proskauer / SJ Berwin merger talks?

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Associate Benefits Watch: Proskauer to iPads

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It feels a little bit weird to talk (and bitch) about the high-end lifestyle enjoyed Biglaw associates on Veterans Day. We’re all very thankful for the people who risk their lives to keep us safe, secure, and free.

Okay, random moment of conscience over. Where are the goddamn bonuses?

The first Biglaw bonus memo still hasn’t dropped — when it does, please email us at tips@abovethelaw.com or text us at 646-820-TIPS, ASAP — but we do have associate benefits news. Yesterday, Proskauer Rose told its associates that they would all be getting a free iPad and a desktop PC. Or a free laptop with a docking station. And candy floss. And free Rock Band 3 peripherals.

Okay, I made the last two items up, but you get the point. We don’t know what Proskauer’s cash bonus will be, but we do know that Proskauer associates won’t have to spend it on fancy gadgets…

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Things Are Looking Up: More Summer Associate Classes Get 100% Offer News

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Pop the Biglaw Bubbly

We feel like we’re taking magic Biglaw pills today and having hallucinatory flashbacks to 2006. The good news has been rolling in. Just today, we covered raises at Sheppard Mullin, and a 100% offer rate for D.C. summer associates at Latham & Watkins.

And over at Am Law Daily, Zach Lowe predicts good things for 2011. There will be more summer associate spots to go around next year, law school kiddies:

On-campus interviewing starts in two weeks at some schools, and early indications are that hiring at premier law firms will jump–in some cases by a lot–after plummeting this summer, according to sources at law schools and firms.

Cravath, Skadden, and Ropes & Gray, among others, plan to hire more warm bodies next summer than this one. This summer was dismal, after all, in terms of summer associate hiring, as demonstrated by these charts from the National Law Journal and Am Law Daily.

The upside of hiring fewer summer associates, though, is an increase in the likelihood of all of them getting hired. We’ve had more reports of 100% offer rates from a few firms today, along with fun ways of spreading the good news. Eyewitness accounts, after the jump.

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Lawyerly Lairs: Proskauer Prospers Through Property

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A few blocks west and south of Orrick’s nice new offices, another law firm is planning to make a move: Proskauer Rose, currently on Broadway between 47th and 48th Streets. Proskauer’s move even made the New York Times:

A prominent law firm is expected to sign a lease next week for a new home in the vacant 40-story tower called 11 Times Square, ending months of speculation about the deal and providing another sign that the commercial real estate market may have hit bottom. The developer of the 1.1-million-square-foot glass tower, which is nearing completion at the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, is also negotiating with several companies who want to build an aquarium filled with sharks, rays and penguins….

Sharks and penguins. So Weil and Cleary are moving into the building too?

According to the Times, the Proskauer name might be displayed at the entrance to the tower, and possibly at the top, too. Given the high-traffic location of the building — in the heart of Times Square, across the street from Port Authority — it’s a nice bit of free publicity.

In addition to getting to brand the building, there are many other reasons — tens of millions of reasons, in fact — behind Proskauer’s move….

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