The Shark

2010 table of doom: start date deferrals, summer program cancelations, other perks of biglaw.

[cynthia]

We'll update this table as more information comes in, according to the same procedure as our 2009 table. So please be sure to email us when you or your roommate gets deferred.

Firm	2010 Start Dates	2010 Summer Programs	More Info
Ballard Spahr		Canceled	Above the Law
Cravath	Mandatory deferment to fall 2011; $65,000 plus health care and $1,000 in loan assistance		Above the Law
DLA Piper	Mandatory deferment to January 2011; optional deferment to January 2012, $60,000 stipend	OCI pushed back to spring 2010	Above the Law
Eckert Seamans		Canceled	Above the Law
Hogan & Hartson	D.C. and Northern Virginia offices deferring to 2011, other U.S. offices considering deferments as well; no stipend announced		The Shark
Howard Rice		Canceled	Above the Law
Loeb & Loeb		Canceled, indefinitely	Above the Law
McCarter & English		Canceled	Above the Law
McGuire Woods		"Likely to reduce number of summer programs"	Above the Law
Milbank		Canceled in Los Angeles	Above the Law
Morgan Lewis	Deferment to 2011; no stipend announced	Canceled	The Shark
Orrick	Deferment to 2012	OCI pushed back to spring 2010	The Shark
Paul Hastings	75% offers to current summer class; most offers will be defferred until January, 2011		Above the Law
Pillsbury Winthrop		Summer programs canceled in California; reduced in East Coast cities	Above the Law
Proskauer Rose	Deferment to fall 2011; no stipend announced		Above the Law
Ropes & Gray	Deferment to at least January 2011, with possibility of deferment even longer; no stipend announced		The Shark
Seyfarth Shaw		Canceled	Above the Law
Squire Sanders		Canceled	Above the Law
Thompson Hine		Canceled	Above the Law
Weil Gotshal	Optional deferment to January 2012; public service stipend of $75k and benefits		AmLaw Daily
White & Case	Deferment to fall 2011		Above the Law

orrick defers current summers, pushes back OCI.

[cynthia]

As if the firm got together and read the AmLaw Daily item on the subject, Orrick has announced that they will move OCI to late fall/early spring next year. Additionally, they have announced that they will defer current summers' offers to 2012. For those of you keeping track at home, that'd be firm #3. Really, I will start a chart here in a sec.

You can read the full memo at Above the Law or after the jump. Shark contributor Petra has more on this story at Cal Law (free reg. req.).

2010 class deferrals: already rolling in.

[cynthia]

Above the Law reported earlier today that Ropes & Gray is deferring current summer associates to 2011. 

The firm has indicated that although it does not aniticpate that it will make fewer offers to current summers than previous years, it will not be setting start dates to earlier than January 2011, leaving open the possibility that it could defer associates even more than that.

No deferment stipends have been announced. Looks like Ropes & Gray summers should ready themselves for some sitting on their hands. Take heart, though. It's happening to every overachieving kid, in every industry.

Ropes deferred its 2009 first year start dates to January 2010 back in March.

With this news, and the news of Cravath announce mandatory deferrals to this year's class of summers, looks like the 2010 deferral party has begun. We'll ready the new table of doom.

biglaw: the new law school. vocational training in exchange for pay cuts hits orrick.

[cynthia]

Orrick is taging a page out of Howrey's book! No more lockstep.

According to our sister blog, Legal Pad, Orrick has just released an announcement of changes to its associates' pay structures, along with plans to implement more training for associates on tracks that don't resemble the traditional partner track. 

Orrick calls this a "revolutionary change" in "lawyer development" and client services. Not sure about all that first one, but the r-word is probably pretty attractive in itchy client times like these.

From the release:

"The traditional associate lockstep staffing and compensation model is based upon out-dated assumptions," said Laura Saklad, Orrick's Chief Lawyer Development Officer. "Our new Talent Model recognizes that not all associates advance at the same pace, tenure is not a proxy for advancing skill, and clients should not bear the cost of training associates. In the end, our goal is to deploy the right lawyer or professional for the right task at the right cost. "

As Amanda notes in the Legal Pad item, this announcement comes on the heels of a survery of in-house departments that incdicates that people perceive law firms to be uninterested in change.

The full release from Orrick can be found after the jump.

howrey forgoes high first year salaries, instead intends to train its associates to be lawyers.

[cynthia]

Our sister blog, Legal Pad, reported on the Howrey first year reorganization yesterday.

If you haven't heard, Howrey's cutting first year salaries (pretty substantially) and also upping (pretty substantially) the amount of on-the-job training they'll receive, in the form of workshops and pro bono work, in effect using the first year as an opportunity to educate associates in the practice of law.

The salary cuts (to $100K) have resulted in a fair amount of buzz on the blogosphere. You can check out The National Law Journal's lengthier story on the new program, including an interview with managing partner Robert Ruyak, here, and you can check out Legal Pad's ever-evolving list of California firms that are engaging in associate salary cuts here.

Still no word on what, exactly, law school is for.

top PPP firms manage to keep promises to incoming first years.

[cynthia]

Beyond the shining exception that is Cravath, most of the nation's top-earning big law firms have escaped the PR nightmare of start date deferrals.

According to the AmLaw Daily, nine of the top ten firms (ranked by profit per partner) will be starting their first years on schedule. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges; Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Sullivan & Cromwell; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Kirkland & Ellis; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have all dodged the deferral party bullet.

Poor Cravath, out there all alone!

big law is over.

[cynthia]

So says the New York Times, anyway. Jennifer Lee, of the NYT's City Room blog, attended a NY Bar Association event for unemployed lawyers that featured hiring partners and Above the Law's David Lat, and heard from attendees and panelists alike about the demise of the industry.

It seemed to be a commonly agreed upon that regulatory work will be on the upswing through Obama's administration, and that networking is the key to getting back into "big law" as it stands now.

It begs the question, though: If everyone is unemployed, who exactly should you be networking with?

this year's court clerks, brought to you buy corporate america.

[cynthia]

One might thing it would be a little conflict-y to put deferred (and still salaried) biglaw associates to work in courtrooms. But Legal Blog Watch is reporting that the Massachusetts Judicial Ethics Committee of the Supreme Judicial Court approved the practice last week. The chief administrator of the state's courts appealed to the governing body for permission to hire deferrees as "volunteer interns" while these "interns" remain on the payrolls of biglaw firms. The committee agreed it would be ok, sending images of corporate-sponsored court employees rippling through the heads of the blogosphere.

What makes it ok for these "interns" to be biglaw associates, you ask? Only this gargantuan catch: they must keep their associations secret, in what strikes me as a bit of Fight Club trickery.

"The committee acknowledged that allowing law firms to pay the salaries of judicial law clerks would implicate judicial ethics rules that require judges to avoid impropriety and appear unbiased. The interns' services could also be seen as inappropriate gifts to the judges from the law firms, the committee said. But all this could be circumvented, the committee concluded, if the clerks are forbidden from telling anyone -- even on Facebook or Twitter -- about their connections to their law firms."

Ahso so!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're a deferred associate right now, don't most of your friends know? Your family? Your blog's readers? Are you supposed to un-tell them to get a job with Massachusetts' courts?

Although the judicial ethics committee handed down its approval, despite outrage from members of the legal community, the plan will not go into effect until the State Ethics Commission issues its opinion on the matter. As Legal Blog Watch notes, it could be so long until this happens that "deferrals may well expire before the plan can ever be implemented."

And in other clerkship news, check out this Above the Law item on whether or not $250K signing bonuses for SCOTUS clerks are outrageous in this economy.

cravath: the biggest name to announce deferrals?

[cynthia]

Oh dear. Cravath is offering a year-long deferral to October 2010. The monolith of big law is admitting times are tough. The deal is pretty good, though. As reported by the AmLaw Daily, the deferral is optional and deferrees will receive $80k, health insurance, and $1k per month for loan repayment. All no strings attached.

"As Cravath's memo.. states: 'While the firm's level of work is at or near its level before the continuing economic decline, there are many more associates at the firm today than our plans anticipated, as the poor economy and the disruption at many financial institutions have reduced the rate at which our associates have left.'"

So whilst everyone is hunkering down and trying not to get fired, turns out they're clogging up the spots for new talent. I suppose it makes sense, but it's still a bit of a shock that the mighty would "fall" like this. 2009, you are full of surprises.

Current summer associates' offers will also include deferrals.

a view of the profession, from summer associates' eyes.

[cynthia]

Are you worried about being a good summer associate? Are you worried about what other summer associates think of your "soft skills"? Are you bored as hell at work and want something to "integrity is important" you to sleep? Well! Look no further than the Young Lawyers Blog's Summer Associate Interview series.

In four installments, the somewhat tedious Q&As cover all the predictable territory, but I'm never one to underestimate the power of synergy, so I've collected some highlights below.

1.  Why did you want to become an attorney?
Becoming an attorney was just always something that I wanted to do as a child.  It was always there in the back of my mind. I've always viewed being a lawyer as a respectable profession where you could also make a difference.

2.  What do you think makes a great attorney?
Integrity. Being an attorney requires many traits: dedication, drive, sharp analytical skills, stamina, an ability to think outside the box, to name a few. These traits are, for the most part, common to all attorneys. However, I believe the characteristic that sets the great attorneys apart from the average is integrity.

3.  What do you see is the greatest challenge facing the Class of 2010?
Another challenge is a general feeling that firms can view associates as temporary revenue-generating workhorses. The feeling is that firms sometimes do not view associates as assets who should be able to become partners if both sides keep up their side of the bargain. (An associate puts in the time, works the hours, and learns the craft. In exchange, the firm provides mentoring, training, exposure, experience, and ultimately the ability to join the firm for life). This deal no longer exists. I heard a statistic that 80% of associates leave their first firm within 5 years. Finding a firm where both the associate values the firm, and the firm values the associate, will be a challenge for the class of 2010.

4.  What do you see is the greatest opportunity for the Class of 2010?
I am not convinced that the old model, or the "billable hour" is dead. So long as the class of 2010 is just the one more class, as all of the classes before it, I struggle to think of any real opportunities that are unique to the class.

Any thoughts? Please feel free to weigh in with your answers to these questions in the comments. Non-summer associates welcome!