Latham's layoffs were particularly noteworthy for the fact that they laid of first year associates - losing a big firm job after even 2 or 3 years often still leaves one with an impressive enough resume line item to lateral to another firm or opportunity, but being laid off right after starting left a lot of people high and dry.
Prior to Lathaming (yes, it's a verb now) its associates Latham was very much on the rise, with an extremely positive vibe and colutre for being 'laid back'. The firm had (has?) a CA headquarters but was expanding heavily into NYC during the boom. It was ranked for years in the Vault 10 - not especially meaningful on its own, but when people refereed to 'V10' firms as a proxy for desirability and prestige they were referring to Latham as recently as a few years back.
Consider this an open thread for things many firms would rather the class of 2012 had forgotten about going into our fall recruitment program.Career Center/Lateral Link, the Above the Law law firm information center, wrote:In February 2009, Latham instituted massive layoffs, terminating 190 associates and 250 staff. In the New York office, over half of the first-year class was laid off less than four months after starting, and in the Los Angeles office, a third of the first-year class was laid off. Lateral Link Members report that management has "not been entirely open about layoffs and business prospects at the firm" but report that morale, which was at an “all-time low,” is “improving.” Despite the economic downturn, in January 2010, the firm announced it would be opening two new offices, in Beijing and Houston.
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From a later post in the thread I made:
Wow... I just came across this ATL article from that era. I never really thought about how brutal the logistics of a decision like that must have been. It's a really sobering read:
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/nationwi ... ng-for-it/
An ATL story from before the layoff announcement wrote:Last Wednesday, managing partner Bob Dell gave his State of the Firm address via videoconference. Dell went over the firm’s great financial success for 2007 (firm revenue went up a whopping 23%, far exceeding all other major firms).
He also addressed the challenges ahead for 2008. He specifically addressed the issue of layoffs. He said multiple times that he believed it would be a bad business decision to lay off associates. Latham made that mistake in 1990 and Dell said the layoffs hurt their profitability after the recession was over. Dell said “there will be no layoffs” and that it was not even on the table for discussion.
