The Shark

two more firms cut summer programs for 2010.

[cynthia]

Summer program cancelation update: the latest firms to axe their OCI schedules or shutter programs entirely are Dorsey & Whitney and Quarles & Brady. 

The former is canceling OCI in all cities but Minneapolis, and the latter has canceled its 2010 program, according to Above the Law. 

You can find out more information about other firms who have taken similar steps by visiting our 2010 table of doom.

As we close in on fall recruiting season, there is an expectation that more firms will be following suit and making similar announcements. If you hear any information you'd like to share with The Shark readers, please email us.

proskauer rose defers to fall 2011.

[cynthia]

I've just added Proskauer Rose, who, you might have heard, just deferred current summers to fall 2011, to our 2010 table of doom. The firm has not announced a public interest program or any deferral stipends.

Don't forget to email us with tips on start date deferrals and summer program cancelations. 

dla piper mixes and matches recessionary cost-cutting measures.

[cynthia]

According to Above the Law, DLA Piper has announced a deferral/summer program cancelation plan that mixes other firms' previously announced plans. Much like Weil Gotshal, DLA will defer current summers until Januar 2011 at the earliest, and will encourage said summers to take a voluntary deferal until January 2012.

DLA also announced that it will push back its recruiting to spring, similar to the plan announced by Orrick.  As ATL points out:

"Of course, assuming that firms like DLA and Orrick still hire summer associates for 2010, and defer them to 2012 or beyond, eventually all of these deferrals are going to have to catch up with the firms. Either the firms will have to greatly reduce the number of summers hired or offers extended, or at some point they will have to accept a huge class of first-year attorneys. Nobody really wants to turn law school into a four-year experience where the fourth year is spent hiding out in a public interest organization."

DLA would-be first years can participate in a public interest fellowship through January 2012 with a stipend of $60k. Unless I can't read (possible), DLA did not announce if it plans to offer a stipend for all those who choose to enter the firm in January of 2011. 

You can check out the firm's full memo to law school deans and career services offices, after the jump. You can also check out our ever-growing list of firms who have deferred 2010 offers and/or modified summer programs and recruiting policies here.

milbank shutters 2010 summer program in la, quinn defers 2009 offers in the bay area.

[cynthia]

I hate to be one of those people who complains about something most people think is amazing. 

Living in Califonia has a lot of perks. But right now, it also kind of sucks. All I have to do is read Cal Law reporter Cheryl's tweets about state budget hijinx (if you can call them that), and I start feeling down on the homeland. And today brings news that just makes it worse for California young lawyers.

Via Above the Law, we have news that Milbank has shut down its 2010 summer program in Los Angeles. The program that has historically had about 10 participants each summer (according to ATL). It does not appear that the firm will be closing the doors on summer classes in any other cities. We've updated our 2010 deferral/summer program cancelation chart to reflect this firm's news.

In San Francisco and Silicon Valley, our sister blog Legal Pad brings news that Quinn Emanuel has deferred eight of its 2009 first years (yes, you read right) to January, 2010. That must've been a really nice present to get not even a week before the bar exam. Quinn Emanuel has cited insufficient work as cause for deferring the associates. Also a nice present for the ones who didn't get deferred $#151; is this just round one?

Quinn admits this is a shitty move.

“We should have made the decision sooner--we were hoping that the issue would go away,” [firm chariman John] Quinn wrote. Ok, this wasn't a great excuse when I neglected to dump my gross college boyfriend for six months, and it doesn't work here, either.

Well, at least the deferrees might get some money to go drinkin with after the bar, right? Not so fast.

"We will start paying them when they start work.”

Well! Being a Californian right now isn't so totally awesome, see? To quote Mark Leibovich in his NYTimes story "Who Can Govern California?"

"Calamity is just part of the equation here, as if God gave California so much glamour and grandeur and great weather that he had to throw in some apocalyptic menace to provide a little balance."

biglaw doom & gloom: it's just what we do.

[cynthia]

Good afternoon. As if I opened the floodgates last week by starting our 2010 table of doom (not that I think I'm god, or anything), more firms have announced various cost-cutting measures that put law students and newly minted JDs on the front lines. A few glimpses:

Ballard Spahr, Thompson Hine, and Squire Sanders have all announced that they are canceling their 2010 summer programs. According to ATL, Thompson Hine chose to keep it real classy, not issue any formal announcement, and put the onus on law school recruiting offices to let students know.

Penn Law School sent this email out to its students, to aprise them of various changes in firm involvement in OCI:

"Dear Students, As we near the close of bidding, we wanted to provide you with an update on schedule changes that we received so far today. Akin Gump went from 40 interview slots in NYC and 40 interview slots in DC to 20 interview slots in NYC and 20 interview slots in DC. 

Paul Weiss went from 80 interview slots to 60 interview slots. 

Ballard Spahr will not have a 2010 summer program and, as such, has canceled on campus interviews."

In offer deferral news, we've got Weil Gotshal and White & Case. The former has deferred to 2011 or 2012, according to AmLaw Daily.

"[Weil Gotshal] is giving all of its current summers... the option of deferring their start date from January 2011 until January 2012, and it will pay any summer who chooses the 2012 option a $75,000 stipend and health benefits--provided the summer gets a firm-approved public service job."

White & Case has announced the current summers who are in receipt of offers will be able to join in fall 2011. The firm "fully expects" that "most, if not all" current summers will receive offers. No word on whether or not most, if not all will receive deferral packages.

Despite all this, there's Covington & Burling. Not to gloat and preen, of course, but the firm sent a memo to all its current summers in exultation of the fact that it has no plans to defer and will conduct fall recruiting in a "typically robust" fashion.

I've received some email tips about some other major firms canceling summer programs, so while we look into those, please take a moment and email me about anything you've heard.

hoping for an end-of-summer offer? chances are getting bigger that it'll come with a deferral

[pam]

OK, I think we are seeing the harbingers of critical mass. Morgan, Lewis did it. Orrick followed, and so did Hogan & Hartson. And now Weil Gotshal is telling its current summer associates, Hey, if you're lucky enough to get a full-time offer at the end of this summer, don't think you're lucky enough to be start within a year of graduation.

ATL reported this morning that Weil has jumped on the second-round-of-deferrals bandwagon. (And that Covington & Burling swears it won't.)

One thing that seems to set Weil apart, though, is that it's calling this deferral -- until January 2012 -- optional.

We paraphrase the Weil highlights, culled from the ATL item:

* Each summer associate who gets an offer at the end of the summer will have the option of deferring his or her start date from January 2011 to January 2012.

* Those who elect to defer will receive health care benefits.

* If you wanna use your year off to travel or something, health care is all you get.

* But if you spend 1,000 hours during the deferral year performing some form of firm-approved public service, you'll get a $75,000 stipend, too.

Pam Smith is an associate editor for Cal Law.

morgan lewis, hogan & hartson: asking you to the deferral dance.

[cynthia]

Hot on the heels of Ropes & Gray and Cravath, two more biglaw firms have announced that they're going to rock the worlds of law students and young associates. In a bad way. ATL has broken the news that both Morgan Lewis and Hogan & Hartson are deferring current summer associates' offers by a year. 

The former is also cutting its summer 2010 program, eliminating lockstep (for 2010), and canceling appearances at OCI this fall. Whew. According to ATL "the firm plans to pass on some of these savings to its clients." Yeah, yeah.

In an internal memo, Hogan & Hartson honchos explain the firm's deferral of current summers:

"The specifics of the deferral program have not yet been decided -- only that the start date will be in 2011, not 2010.. The summers learned this news this morning; we hope you will make yourselves available to them to discuss the issue if, or when, they come to you for advice about their deferral year."

By "specifics," I'm assuming that they haven't yet decided if they're going to give you guys any money.

We'll have more on this news as the story progresses throughout the day. In the meantime, check out our brand new table of doom.

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.