COVID-19’s effect on your practice check in Forum

[Anonymous User]

Bankruptcy midlevel

We've already been very busy given state of retail and energy industries. Have heard a lot of talk about how extra busy we are going to be, but haven't seen it yet. Will see how it all plays out, but think lenders are a little hesitant to push companies into bankruptcy given the circumstances.

Still very fluid, but think we might see a lot of forbearances in the near term (at least I can hope).

[Anonymous User]

V50 mid-level in insurer-side insurance coverage practice. Business as ususal the past couple of weeks. Once the worst of the virus passes and people get back into the office more, we will get slammed with business interuption and other coronavirus-related claims.

For any commercial lit associates who are looking for work, def reach out to any partners in your firms that handle insurance coverage claims. On both the policyholder and insurer sides, coronavirus claims are going to be a hot mess for the rest of the year.

[Anonymous User]

Plaintiff-side employment junior here. Lit deadlines are getting pushed since there is no way we are taking any depos soon. Worried that the pre-suit settlement machine will be grinding to a halt b/c I'm assuming paying off disgruntled (ex-) employees is not top of the list for most companies in the months to come. We're sizable (nat'l firm) so I hope there is enough cash on hand to keep this place in operation for the foreseeable future.

What are examples of national plaintiff-side employment firms? I didn't really know that was a thing.

I think there's exactly two firms that fit this description; I work at one of them. We're not truly national like defense side firms of course, but you'll find us on both coasts.

Susman and....Boies? HH?(sorry to the other firm that apparently fits this description).

Litigator at V10 in NYC. We are still very, very busy. Litigation deadlines are getting pushed, but we are continuing to prepare. I.e. depo in March got pushed, so we are turning to make outlines for depos in April and May. Then, whenever this lifts, we are ready to do any and all the depos.

[PeanutsNJam]

I don't think anybody would characterize Susman, Boies, or HH as "employment firms" lmao

[Anonymous User]

Biglaw estate and tax planning junior. No change in workflow so far (death and taxes). Probably an increase in work coming as clients jump to leverage depressed asset values and low interest rates.

[RaceJudicata]

I don't think anybody would characterize Susman, Boies, or HH as "employment firms" lmao

Yeah, definitely not. Outten & Golden, Lieff Cabraser, etc. handle some big employment class/collective actions. But not a ton of nationally focused Plaintiff-side L&E firms.

[PeanutsNJam]

oops that was an accidental anon

[LS989]

Does anyone working in project finance have any insight into the impacts of this? I know 2008 was not so great for the field.

[Raiden]

Plaintiff-side employment junior here. Lit deadlines are getting pushed since there is no way we are taking any depos soon. Worried that the pre-suit settlement machine will be grinding to a halt b/c I'm assuming paying off disgruntled (ex-) employees is not top of the list for most companies in the months to come. We're sizable (nat'l firm) so I hope there is enough cash on hand to keep this place in operation for the foreseeable future.

What are examples of national plaintiff-side employment firms? I didn't really know that was a thing.

I think there's exactly two firms that fit this description; I work at one of them. We're not truly national like defense side firms of course, but you'll find us on both coasts.

Susman and....Boies? HH?(sorry to the other firm that apparently fits this description).

Litigator at V10 in NYC. We are still very, very busy. Litigation deadlines are getting pushed, but we are continuing to prepare. I.e. depo in March got pushed, so we are turning to make outlines for depos in April and May. Then, whenever this lifts, we are ready to do any and all the depos.

The reality is that a lot of are still busy. The market was hot before COVID-19 and its not like that work just disappeared in two-weeks (especially since litigation-time is at a snails pace). The only concern I have is that, sure, I may be billing all of these hours and catching up on some work...but are the clients even going to pay for it?

[Anonymous User]

NYC fund formation associate. It's been a crazy couple weeks, both on the LP and GP side particularly for co-investments and funds of one. Special sits and distressed managers that haven't done much recently are all coming out of the woodworks and hedge funds are looking to launch new products. No one knows where the bottom is but everyone's looking to put dry powder to work and take advantage of market dislocations. Everyone wants vehicles set up and agreements finalized on insane timelines before the next 10% move. At least it's nice when both sides are working under the same time constraints.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone working in project finance have any insight into the impacts of this? I know 2008 was not so great for the field.

Busy af, while new/ongoing deals are on pause - all prior deals are being reopened for refi, restructuring, payoff etc. If your firm was busy, I think it'll stay busy for the time being. But, there's obvious hesitancy to enter new deals right now. I wasn't around for 2008, so no idea on that front. But from my understanding PF has changed a lot from then and not sure 2008 is a good looking point for the market/PF in general.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone working in project finance have any insight into the impacts of this? I know 2008 was not so great for the field.

Busy af, while new/ongoing deals are on pause - all prior deals are being reopened for refi, restructuring, payoff etc. If your firm was busy, I think it'll stay busy for the time being. But, there's obvious hesitancy to enter new deals right now. I wasn't around for 2008, so no idea on that front. But from my understanding PF has changed a lot from then and not sure 2008 is a good looking point for the market/PF in general.

PF midlevel. I'm seeing the same; similarly wasn't around for 2008. Anything with new construction is slowing. Refinancing have been busy for a while, although some of our clients are starting to get concerned about market appetite and are looking into what other options they have available. Someone else mentioned this up-thread, but we have been hemorrhaging junior associates -- we were working on hiring more, but I'm not sure how that will proceed if things slow.

[LS989]

Does anyone working in project finance have any insight into the impacts of this? I know 2008 was not so great for the field.

Busy af, while new/ongoing deals are on pause - all prior deals are being reopened for refi, restructuring, payoff etc. If your firm was busy, I think it'll stay busy for the time being. But, there's obvious hesitancy to enter new deals right now. I wasn't around for 2008, so no idea on that front. But from my understanding PF has changed a lot from then and not sure 2008 is a good looking point for the market/PF in general.

PF midlevel. I'm seeing the same; similarly wasn't around for 2008. Anything with new construction is slowing. Refinancing have been busy for a while, although some of our clients are starting to get concerned about market appetite and are looking into what other options they have available. Someone else mentioned this up-thread, but we have been hemorrhaging junior associates -- we were working on hiring more, but I'm not sure how that will proceed if things slow.

Thank you both, this is at least somewhat encouraging (I have an SA offer with a firm this summer and I'm hoping on focusing on PF, of which they do a considerable amount)

[Anonymous User]

I am the guy on banking (origination mostly) side of MBS.

Things basically came to a crashing halt for us over the last few days. No closings were canceled and we're going to ram the closings soon ASAP. It is however pretty clear the leadership doesn't see new originations coming in. I know my boss already had conversations with the group that deals mostly with distressed assets with getting us work.

We're basically on standby meanwhile. Got a budget to buy new monitors though.

[Anonymous User]

securities mid-level. luckily we don't hold the pen on most proxies. deals are largely dried up but there is some ongoing governance stuff.

[Anonymous User]

Regional biglaw corporate/M&A mid-level. I was staffed on three active deals as of Monday. Two have died and the other one has been awfully quiet. Have talked to other associates and it seems that some deals are still in process, but the large majority are on hold or worse. Was on a call with a large private company client yesterday and the basic point was that they are not willing to take on any debt to fund acquisitions until they have some certainty re: COVID-19, and the market. I see corporate being very slow for at least a couple of months, since even if we get certainty in the next month or so, it will take time for the deals to get going again.

[Anonymous User]

General IP Practice, major market. Still have been strong so far. Worried what happens in 3 weeks though.

[Anonymous User]

I don't think anybody would characterize Susman, Boies, or HH as "employment firms" lmao

Yeah, definitely not. Outten & Golden, Lieff Cabraser, etc. handle some big employment class/collective actions. But not a ton of nationally focused Plaintiff-side L&E firms.

^ This person is thinking along the right lines, the other poster was not. Anyway, apparently my firm's leadership believes the economic downturn will mean that boom times are coming for plaintiff-side employment work. We'll see; mass lay-offs will certainly lead to more people calling us I guess. So far, though, things have been mercifully slow.

[Anonymous User]

V50 lit. Way slower since all our depos and hearings got cancelled or postponed for basically the next several weeks.

[Anonymous User]

LE Junior at V100 in secondary market - agree with people above that advice and counseling work is going strong and litigation deadlines are being pushed. Have been told from above that, because of the nature of the practice, LE work will continue despite slowdowns elsewhere. How true this is idk and would appreciate more insight from people who were around 2008.

[PeanutsNJam]

Bump, petition to have this or a a COVID-19 thread stickied so we can consistently update each other.

Lit here, no major movements, but some settlements are happening that probably wouldn't have happened without COVID-19. Everything else is business as usual, but the tenor on client calls is ~uncertainty~ or ~wait and see~, so who knows what's going to happen in a few months.

Highly interested in recession/depression-related layoff news if and when that happens.

[Anonymous User]

Regional biglaw/midlaw M&A (healthcare-focused). It seems/sounds like things are at least getting delayed if not dying, which is not surprising given the client base. Some coronavirus advisory work coming through. No other deal work starting, from what I can tell. I get the vibe that partners are getting anxious, but haven't seen/heard anything concrete.

[Anonymous User]

I am the guy on banking (origination mostly) side of MBS.

Things basically came to a crashing halt for us over the last few days. No closings were canceled and we're going to ram the closings soon ASAP. It is however pretty clear the leadership doesn't see new originations coming in. I know my boss already had conversations with the group that deals mostly with distressed assets with getting us work.

We're basically on standby meanwhile. Got a budget to buy new monitors though.

Same person. Two of the remaining maybe 8 deals just... died. They are making the decision despite having to pay what will end up being millions in liquidated damages. We're expecting rest of the deals to follow. Some yelling (whelping more like maybe?) was involved on the call but it's been decided way above even above my department's head that we're killing any origination related to debt until there is more clarity on what's happening with the debt markets and real estate.

That's 90+% of what I do. I am legitimately worried for my job. I had to network pretty hard to get out of law/tax into the banking side and I just started to find my footing. Now this.

My peers still in biglaw, especially guys in project finance and capital markets, are very concerned too. It's a quick crescendo of deals trying to close before people change their minds. But the crescendo is crashing. We're having trouble even getting some people to reply to emails. Beyond the crescendo, all we see is a void of no origination work afterwards. I am sure groups that do a lot of the monitoring are going to have some really interesting times dealing with what will soon be very distressed assets but origination heavy groups are not in for a good time and we are really worried about potential layoffs though we haven't heard anything yet.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

I am the guy on banking (origination mostly) side of MBS.

Things basically came to a crashing halt for us over the last few days. No closings were canceled and we're going to ram the closings soon ASAP. It is however pretty clear the leadership doesn't see new originations coming in. I know my boss already had conversations with the group that deals mostly with distressed assets with getting us work.

We're basically on standby meanwhile. Got a budget to buy new monitors though.

Same person. Two of the remaining maybe 8 deals just... died. They are making the decision despite having to pay what will end up being millions in liquidated damages. We're expecting rest of the deals to follow. Some yelling (whelping more like maybe?) was involved on the call but it's been decided way above even above my department's head that we're killing any origination related to debt until there is more clarity on what's happening with the debt markets and real estate.

That's 90+% of what I do. I am legitimately worried for my job. I had to network pretty hard to get out of law/tax into the banking side and I just started to find my footing. Now this.

My peers still in biglaw, especially guys in project finance and capital markets, are very concerned too. It's a quick crescendo of deals trying to close before people change their minds. But the crescendo is crashing. We're having trouble even getting some people to reply to emails. Beyond the crescendo, all we see is a void of no origination work afterwards. I am sure groups that do a lot of the monitoring are going to have some really interesting times dealing with what will soon be very distressed assets but origination heavy groups are not in for a good time and we are really worried about potential layoffs though we haven't heard anything yet.

Damn, I’m imagining those calls/meetings like the scene in Margin Call where Jeremy Irons basically tells them we’re all fucked, sell now. He gets push back that they’ll lose millions or even billions of dollars and he says that’s the preferable alternative.

[Anonymous User]

General IP Practice, major market. Still have been strong so far. Worried what happens in 3 weeks though.

Mid level IP Lit, SF/SV. Aside from various deadlines being pushed out, its business as usual for ongoing litigation. The pipeline isn't great for upcoming matters though. On the bright side, lateral hiring is booming even with COVID-19.