As we recently mentioned, our view is “better late than never” when it comes to bonus news. With this in mind, we are pleased to bring you the bonus announcement of Willkie Farr — which came out in December.
Given Willkie Farr’s status as a top New York law firm, you can probably guess what they did in terms of bonuses….
Willkie Farr is getting raided.
But it’s not an entirely bad thing. Instead of losing talent to a rival law firm, Willkie is losing talent to a top client. Bloomberg LP has decided to beef up its in-house presence, and it’s doing it with a boatload of Willkie attorneys.
Is this a good thing for Willkie? The firm will remain Bloomberg’s outside counsel, but there could be much less work coming from the client.
And Willkie did feel the need to send an email to all their people to make sure nobody freaked out….
Continue reading “Bloomberg Raids Willkie Farr For In-House Talent”
We recently reported that at least 22 partners have left O’Melveny & Myers in 2011 thus far. That number continues to grow.
Earlier this week, two more partners announced their imminent departures from OMM: Ilan Nissan, former firmwide co-chair of the firm’s M&A and private equity practice, and Christian Nugent, also an M&A partner. Like several of the other O’Melveny defectors, Nissan and Nugent arrived at OMM’s New York office via O’Sullivan Graev & Karabell, the highly regarded corporate boutique that O’Melveny absorbed in 2002, in an effort to build its NYC transactional practice.
Nissan and Nugent will be joining the New York office of Dewey & LeBoeuf. A spokesperson for Dewey confirmed the news to ATL. (A spokesperson for O’Melveny declined to comment.)
In addition, readers brought to our attention two O’Melveny partner departures from this year that didn’t appear in our earlier list. Let’s take a look….
Continue reading “More O’Melveny Partner Departures
Dewey get more talent? Yes.“
LEWW is back, plus one more adorable kid and minus a lot of sleep. Prime wedding season is nearly upon us, but today our task is to get you caught up on some of the nuptial fabulosity that occurred in our absence.
(And by the way, if you missed the NYT’s December feature on the bride and groom who met at their kids’ nursery school and left their spouses to be together — and the whole should-we-celebrate-infidelity uproar that ensued — get your fill here. Good stuff.)
Today’s finalists:
Lauren Tortoriello and Jason Ertel
Check out these newlyweds’ pictures and résumés, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: The Turman Show”
We recently wondered, in the wake of Cadwalader announcing spring bonuses, whether Willkie Farr (and several other top New York firms) might follow suit.
Well, the wait is over. Willkie has announced spring bonuses, on the top-of-the-line Cravath scale….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Willkie Matches the Cravath Spring Bonuses!”
Ed. note: Gabe Acevedo will be covering LegalTech for Above the Law this year. If you are interested in communicating with someone from ATL about LegalTech coverage, please contact Gabe at gabe@gabesguide.com. Thanks.
The pregame show for LegalTech New York 2011 has been in full swing the last few weeks. Vendors and their PR reps have been constantly reaching out via emails, text messages, phone calls, and smoke signals, to contact industry experts, “thought leaders,” law firm decision makers, members of the media, and, perhaps most importantly, knuckleheads like me. All are doing their best to generate “buzz” before they announce their new products, alliances, services — fill in the blank as you see fit — at the conference.
Then, at 9:00 AM on Monday, LegalTech New York will open with what I am certain will be a riveting keynote address from Gabriel Buigas, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Hewlett Packard, entitled Legal vs. IT: Turn the Battle into a Solution to Meet Compliance. At that point, everything will reach a crescendo.
Well, not exactly.
Don’t get me wrong; I am sure Gabriel Buigas will give an excellent speech. But the real action will begin at 10 AM, when the doors to the exhibit hall open. That is when all hell breaks loose, and hundreds of technology vendors will be eagerly waiting to share with you the great news about their respective companies.
With that as a backdrop, here is some of what I expect to see at this year’s LegalTech….
The memo is just coming in now, but the news is not shocking. Willkie Farr has decided to match the Cravath bonus scale, continuing the trend of everybody mindlessly doing whatever Cravath tells them to do.
The bonuses will be paid on December 17th, so Willkie associates will still have some time to put the bonus towards holiday shopping.
Let’s check out the full memo…
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Willkie Farr Matches Cravath”
The American Lawyer just released its annual summer associate job survey. Back in the day, law students paid a lot of attention to how summers before them enjoyed their summer associate experience. Of course, back in the day the summer associate experience used to be a 12-week-long recruiting event.
Now, it’s a 12 (or 10, or 8) week job interview. And the stress of that showed up in the summer associate surveys.
But despite a difficult job market, some summers still found time to bitch about the lack of lavish recruiting lunches. And Am Law looked at all the surveys and came up with a ranking of the top summer program.
Let’s take a look at the best (and the whiniest) summer programs…
Continue reading “Summer Associate Job Survey: The Kids Are Still Stressed”
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…
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Threads: Vault 31 – 40 (2011)”
At the end of the summer, Willkie Farr & Gallagher told offerees that they would be able to start at the firm on time, in the fall of 2010. It turns out that Willkie’s promise wasn’t something intelligent law students should have relied on. Here’s the email that went out to the summer class, yesterday:
Hope everyone is enjoying this summer-like weather. We are looking forward to your return and wanted to provide you with details about arrival date, salary advance and other important matters.
Orientation Date: The orientation date for the new associate class is Wednesday, January 5th.
Salary Advance: The Firm offers a salary advance for all incoming associates. You have the option of receiving up to $20,000 (payable in any month from June to October) as an advance on your first year salary. The amount advanced will be deducted from your salary over a period of one year. If you are interested in taking an advance, please complete the attached form and return it to me.
What a breezy, matter-of-fact email communicating that you don’t intend to keep your promises. But associates headed to Willkie weren’t bothered by the tone. The substance, now that pissed them off…
Continue reading “Willkie Farr: Defers Incoming Associates to 2011, 3Ls Pissed by Late Notice”
On Friday evening, we created an open thread for discussion of which firms are providing their associates with the customary salary raises, now that a new year is here. We cited Willkie Farr as one notable example of a firm that had not yet told its associates whether they’d be getting the usual salary bumps.
Time to take Willkie off the list of salary laggards. From a WFG tipster:
It appears that Willkie has raised salaries for all classes in keeping with the standard NY scale ($170k for 2008, $185k for 2007, etc.).
The news was transmitted via a one-line email this morning from the Chief Legal Personnel Officer, sent to each class separately, which stated:
“The 2010 salary for the class of [ ] is $[ ].” The recipients were BCC’d and no names were included on the TO or CC lines.
Called out on ATL on Friday evening; raises announced by Monday morning. Anything else we can help you out with?
Earlier: Open Thread: Firms That Have Raised Salaries As Usual
We’ve been reporting on firms that have announced pay freezes for 2010, but at some firms, the salary outlook for 2010 is still unclear.
For example, associates at Mayer Brown and Willkie Farr are huddled in the dark, not sure if they’re freezing. From a junior Willkie associate:
I’m a second-year associate at Willkie. I just learned that traditionally, associates are told about their imminent salary bumps at their year-end evaluations. I’ve discussed it with some friends, and nobody has heard anything about salary freezes or bumps at WFG.
And from an MB associate:
Mayer Brown’s still frozen. Granted they’ve put off addressing salary raises until February in the past, but we got our first 2010 paychecks today with no raises, and not a peep from the partnership to let us know they’ve even considered the issue. As of now I’m two years behind where I’d be at Dechert. This sucks.
We can’t confirm whether salaries at these firms are frozen for the year, but we can encourage a conversation about firms that are raising salaries. We hear from a Paul Weiss associate, for example, that an email went out letting them know salaries there are warm. Our tipsters says that PW checks this month will have the “usual bump” up.
Here’s an open thread for discussion of raises as usual. Who’s warm and toasty this January?
Holy crap.
We did not Photoshop this picture. It actually appeared in a New York Times wedding announcement. Chuckle at it, if you must. But know that when you do, you’re fiddling while a venerable institution goes up in flames.
December isn’t a great month to get married, and this December was particularly bad. Still, our final Legal Eagle Wedding Watch couples for 2009 have some surprisingly strong Biglaw credentials. Here they are:
1. Nicole Schreier and Matthew Kaplan
2. Rachel Lu and Jimmy Gao
3. Elizabeth Cronise and Joe McLaughlin
Check out these couples’ bios, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: Rabbit, Rabbit”
Bonus season is now in full swing. Sources report that Willkie Farr has announced bonuses that match the Cravath scale.
Here’s the breakdown:
From: The Executive Committee
To: ASSOCIATES – NY; ASSOCIATES – DC
Cc: PARTNERS – FIRMWIDE
Sent: Fri Nov 20 11:11:01 2009
Subject: 2009 Associate BonusesThe Executive Committee is pleased to announce the following year-end bonuses for associates:
Class of 2008: $7,500
Class of 2007: $10,000
Class of 2006: $15,000
Class of 2005: $20,000
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003: $30,000
Class of 2002 and senior: $30,000Bonuses will be paid on December 18, 2009, consistent with our customary practices. The Firm greatly appreciates the efforts of our associates over the course of the year.
Don’t feel bad, guys; there are a lot of great things you can do with $7,500.
More on Willkie’s bonuses after the jump.
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Willkie Matches Cravath and Full-Cravath”
As we roll through the next segment of the 2010 Vault rankings, we get into some firms that have been caught testing the stealth layoff waters. To refresh your memory, here is the next list of firms:
31. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy
32. Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker
33. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
34. Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
35. Winston & Strawn
36. Allen & Overy
37. Willkie Farr & Gallagher
38. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
39. Baker Botts
40. Munger Tolles & Olson
Check out the big move by Munger. It’s up 11 spots on this year’s list. And let’s not forget about the firm’s #1 A-List ranking by Am Law earlier this year. Munger’s managed to do all of this without laying off a massive number of associates. Hopefully other Biglaw firms (and current 2Ls) will take note.
We know people have strong opinions about some of the firms on this list. Let’s get into them after the jump.
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 31 – 40 (2010)”
Rejoice, wedding fans! We have some compelling mid-summer material for you this week: Wachtell, SCOTUS, lesbians, French nobility — read on for the details on all of that and more, as reported in the New York Times and filtered by us.
Our finalist couples:
1. Rebecca Gutner and Rodman Forter Jr.
2. Laura Hammond and Christopher Hemphill
3. Laure de Vulpillières and Vanessa Dillen
Admire these couples’ achievements, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 7.12: French Kissing”
Last week, a very angry comment appeared in one of our threads:
Well its official Wilkie [sic] Farr Gallagher has started the rounds of FIRINGS. It is utterly despicable that these firms can turn around and fire people under the guise of “poor performance”. After treating their associates as two bit whores for years they sending them out when the fleet is in. As soon as the ships leave the harbor the partners at these firms toss their associates out like the used prophylactic used to service their clients. Its understandable that in a bad economy that belts have to be tightened but to have the outright GALL to place the blame on the associates who have worked 80 hour weeks and worked through weekends for you, just to stamp them with “sub-par” is outrageous.
The truly troubling point is that the Mayor of New York Mr. Bloomberg seems to be ok with such behavior. Since he has no in house council he attorneys are Wilkie attorneys, so in a sense his own employees. I for one am not sure I can vote for or abide by a man that allows his own employees to flat out degrade associates like that. Since there is a growing number of individuals who seem to come across a similar situation maybe a statement needs to be made. Bloomberg wants to be mayor again, maybe he should side those of us that need his help and damn the disreputable firms, otherwise we’ll have to find someone who will.
For those of you who are not fluent in ATL commenter-speak, allow me to translate: “Willkie is doing stealth layoffs. I’m voting for Bill Thompson because I got fired from Bloomberg News for poor performance. I think sailors look so cute in their little hats.”
After running down sources for almost a week, Above the Law can now confirm that stealth layoffs have actually occurred at Willkie Farr, and more formal moves could be coming.
We get into the details after the jump.
Continue reading “Stealth Layoff Watch/Impending Layoff Watch: Willkie Farr”
Yesterday’s staff layoff post generated a lot of tips and rumors. Please keep them coming. It appears that staffs are taking it on the chin even worse than associates and partner profit margins.
While we are still playing “fact or fiction” with some of the rumors, we can now report these additional staff reductions around the world of Biglaw.
First off, Julie Kay at the National Law Journal reports that Squire Sanders laid off a number of staff from a variety of positions:
Alvin Davis, managing partner of Squire Sanders’ Miami office, said on Friday that Miami employees laid off at the firm on Thursday include “a couple runners, some staffers and a few people in accounting.”
Times are so bad firms can’t even afford the accountants who tell them how bad times are.
There were conflicting reports as to whether any attorneys got caught in the crossfire:
But while Davis said no lawyers were laid off, sources inside the firm said that lawyers indeed had been laid off, but were still working at the firm until they find jobs elsewhere.
After the jump, more staff layoff news.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher will be matching Cravath’s low bonuses this year.
The email didn’t bother to explain why, since it’s pretty clear that market conditions have beaten associates into submission with a giant, invisible hand.
The Executive Committee is pleased to announce the following year end bonuses for associates:
Class of 2008: $17,500 (pro-rated)
Class of 2007: $17,500
Class of 2006: $20,000
Class of 2005: $22,500
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003: $27,500
Class of 2002: $30,000
Class of 2001 and senior: $32,500
Bonuses will be paid in December, consistent with our customary practices.
The Firm appreciates your efforts during these challenging times.
Commentary and context, after the jump.
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Willkie Follows the Plan of Cravath”
Welcome to another post in the 2009 Vault 100 open thread series. You all seem to like having the law firms listed in groups of ten, so we’ll keep it up. Here are the thirty-something firms from the Vault 100, with prestige scores in parentheses:
31. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (6.461)
32. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (6.327)
33. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (6.313)
34. Winston & Strawn LLP (6.275)
35. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP (6.235)
36. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP (6.174)
37. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (6.173)
38. Allen & Overy LLP (6.147)
39. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (6.131)
40. Proskauer Rose LLP (6.102)
Fried Frank and Cadwalader have been on the ATL radar of late. We broke news of staff layoffs at Fried Frank earlier this week, and news of the attorney bloodletting at Cadwalader last month. As noted in Cadwalader’s notable perks: “ouch, layoffs.” (Speaking of, in going through the Vault 100 list, we’ve discovered that Vault’s definition of “perk” is very different from ours.)
In the comments, the curious can pose questions, and the insiders can share insights. More threads to come.
Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads – 2009
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com
Happy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.
As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.
Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong
We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).
Please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.
In 2009, a small group of Harvard Law School students noticed an absurd monopoly in the bar prep space, held by an unchallenged leader with a non-evolving product. In response, these students teamed up with Harvard Law alumni to launch BarMax on January 14, 2010.
The mission: democratize bar prep by embracing new technologies to provide the very best bar exam review courses at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these courses.
Since then, with the encouragement of thousands of students and an unwavering commitment to their success, BarMax has established itself as a comprehensive alternative to the stagnant, over-priced status quo.
As we continue to expand, we do not want to lose sight of the basic premises that led us to create BarMax in the first place. If you are a law student who believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with being forced to take out yet another loan to pay for a $4,000 bar exam prep course, you are not alone.
