Biglaw Litigation Culture Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m a Latham lit midlevel in NY and I think we are about as good as it gets for big law litigation in terms of culture/wlb. Chicago is even better, but at LW we really do work on cross office teams. I have plenty of matters out of DC, SF, and CH in addition to my NY work.

Don’t let the recession stuff deter you. Business is booming at LW in all practice areas and I think we are extremely well positioned in the event of another down turn.

Sr associate here. I cannot imagine a better place to do lit in big law than LW chicago.

[thisismytlsuername]

I’m a Latham lit midlevel in NY and I think we are about as good as it gets for big law litigation in terms of culture/wlb. Chicago is even better, but at LW we really do work on cross office teams. I have plenty of matters out of DC, SF, and CH in addition to my NY work.

Don’t let the recession stuff deter you. Business is booming at LW in all practice areas and I think we are extremely well positioned in the event of another down turn.

Sr associate here. I cannot imagine a better place to do lit in big law than LW chicago.

I bet if you graduated in 2008 you'd feel differently!

[Anonymous User]

I’m a Latham lit midlevel in NY and I think we are about as good as it gets for big law litigation in terms of culture/wlb. Chicago is even better, but at LW we really do work on cross office teams. I have plenty of matters out of DC, SF, and CH in addition to my NY work.

Don’t let the recession stuff deter you. Business is booming at LW in all practice areas and I think we are extremely well positioned in the event of another down turn.

Sr associate here. I cannot imagine a better place to do lit in big law than LW chicago.

I bet if you graduated in 2008 you'd feel differently!

Sure, although the spin (which has some but not complete persuasive force) that the firm notes is that they were not the the only ones laying people off during the recession, but they were the first to call them layoffs as opposed to pretending they were merit-based, and gave rather generous separation packages. Doesn't relieve the harm done to first years, but the singling-out is probably not fair. And that was also a decade ago, and firm management and financial health are in different places. Regardless, even if there were increased risk of layoffs at Latham in the event of a downturn (and I'm really skeptical there is but granting the premise) I would take (obviously, as I have taken) the trade-off on my WLB as well as general enjoyability of work environment compared to what my friends at peer firms have had.

[Sackboy]

Phenomenal, over a decade later and we've arrived at the Latham defense "well, they called them layoffs"! I posted on some other thread about the firms who culled, and Latham culled the hardest by a good margin, iirc. Whatever they said about who they laid off is besides the point.

[Anonymous User]

Phenomenal, over a decade later and we've arrived at the Latham defense "well, they called them layoffs"! I posted on some other thread about the firms who culled, and Latham culled the hardest by a good margin, iirc. Whatever they said about who they laid off is besides the point.

There is a post (TLS, blog, I forget) that I read years ago about the Lathaming. Written from an associate's perspective, the thing that I remember about it is that associates came in to the office having no work to do and just sat at their desk waiting for the phone to ring. If it rang, it meant they were being summoned to a conference room to be fired. The writer said they could hear the rings coming from nearby offices and knowing that was it for whichever colleague the ring was coming from. Can't find it now but it really is chilling and all of it so that Latham partners could maximize their profit.

I have little doubt that most biglaw partners would WANT to do that if we had another crash, but there could be enough public pressure and bad publicity to hopefully stop it. That's the whole point of the term Lathaming and the bad PR that that firm (rightfully) still takes from many corners.

[Anonymous User]

Phenomenal, over a decade later and we've arrived at the Latham defense "well, they called them layoffs"! I posted on some other thread about the firms who culled, and Latham culled the hardest by a good margin, iirc. Whatever they said about who they laid off is besides the point.

Fair enough, I suppose. It all happened six years before I graduated law school and wasnt a factor at all for me, and strikes me as odd that it is still being brought u. In any event I perceive that I am much much happier with my job than most of my non Latham big law friends and acquaintances, but people have to decide for themselves how they’ll weigh different factors.

[Anonymous User]

My contribution to the Latham discourse is that in 1L I had a coffee with a Latham associate who was really convincing about how the culture there was better than other biglaw. I looked him up before OCI to reconnect and he'd already left the firm to go in house. I'm sure this isn't unique to Latham but it's still funny to me.

[Anonymous User]

My contribution to the Latham discourse is that in 1L I had a coffee with a Latham associate who was really convincing about how the culture there was better than other biglaw. I looked him up before OCI to reconnect and he'd already left the firm to go in house. I'm sure this isn't unique to Latham but it's still funny to me.

I’ve had a dozen or so of these coffees with 1Ls from my alma mater, and I’ve tried to delicately walk the line between being honest and not saying something to a stranger who is likely to be talking to my firm partners soon. Sorry random 1L, but I don’t know if you’ll be in a room with Big Partner and say “I was talking to (my name) and he said (frank thing about why firm sucks), do you think that’s the case?”

[Anonymous User]

This is the first NY LW midlevel that posted chiming back in to say again that LW associates really do drink the koolaid. Our WLB just seems so much better than 99% of the people I know (well) in other firms. I agree with the other poster that I just don’t see a risk of us letting people go again, not only because of the terrible press it got them (which as you can see is still haunting peoples thoughts of us over a decade later) but also just because it’s a completely different firm than it was then. Say what you will, but LW has EXPLODED since 2008 and is now firing on all cylinders. Consistent rise in rankings from vault to chambers to peer ranking systems on big law Instagram accounts. Revenue through the roof and our book of business is so heavily diversified. Truly think this was a case of the firm massively fucking up in 2008 and trying to figure out how to avoid ever having to do that again. And in my view, they’ve likely succeeded.

[Elston Gunn]

I don’t think Latham’s partners saw any material negative consequences to the Lathaming. They were easily filling their classes as soon as they started hiring again.

I’m genuinely glad the Latham poster is happy with their job, and things are so good right now it’s hard to worry too much about who would be shittiest during a downturn. But it is pretty funny to hear people say that Latham is doing so well/the PR was so bad, they would never do it again. Latham was doing incredibly well leading up to the crash. That’s why they had so many juniors to fire in the first place.

They’ve been doing incredibly well since then, with no economic reasons to fire anyone—though the persistent rumors I’ve heard are that they tend to be a lot more aggressive about pushing out “underperforming” juniors than similar firms.

[Anonymous User]

What is the Biglaw litigation culture like in Chicago as compared to other major markets? I get the sense it's a little slower and more amiable. T/f?

[Anonymous User]

What is the Biglaw litigation culture like in Chicago as compared to other major markets? I get the sense it's a little slower and more amiable. T/f?

This is entirely dependent on where you are. For example, Kirkland is generally seen as a sweatshop for not just corporate but also lit. Other firms (esp those not based in Chicago) aren’t quite as bad but it depends largely on the partners you are working with instead of the firm.

Broadly speaking, i wouldn’t assume that it’s too much different than NY. After all it’s still the third biggest legal market

(Anon bc i’m a V30 senior lit associate in Chicago)