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Re: Layoff Predictions

Post by Anonymous User » Sun May 03, 2020 10:37 am

Anonymous User wrote:
The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Joachim2017 wrote:
The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Joachim2017 wrote:I doubt BSF will last beyond 2021.
I agree with the rest of your post but this is a bit extreme, unless your definition of "won't last" includes things like getting absorbed by a bigger full-service firm.
If BSF gets absorbed by a bigger full-services firm, it will cease to be the elite litigation boutique it currently tries to market itself as. And it's associate comp structure, which is a huge factor in distinguishing it in the crowd, will not survive under that circumstance.
Fair points. But from a junior/midlevel perspective it wouldn't be a complete slaughter either.
Ironically it actually would be. (I've got a law school friend at BSF so I'm pretty in tune with it.) Their associate comp is designed so that you make the most $$ relative to your peers on the lockstep market scale when you're a junior and midlevel. As you get more senior the differences get leveled out. So even if BSF is absorbed by a larger firm with market pay, it's the juniors who will have lost the most $$, in terms of comp relative to their peers.

Although, its kind of a moot point because I assume their comp end of this year will be terrible anyway.
Current BSF associate comp is unaffected as associates are grandfathered in to formula comp. only future associates will be on a new plan which will still beat market, but operate in brackets as opposed to formula.

Firing LA associates and staff is a pathetic move for which the firm should be fairly criticized. But there’s a lot of misinformation on this website about BSF especially surrounding comp and earnings, which, for what it’s worth, have definitely not been declining over the past several years.

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Re: Layoff Predictions

Post by Anonymous User » Sun May 03, 2020 10:44 am

Joachim2017 wrote:
VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:What is going on Boies Schiller? https://www.law360.com/competition/arti ... -departure

"The firm also stopped providing health and other firm-sponsored benefits and declined to offer severance pay, according to a termination letter sent to employees Monday."
As others on this site have noted, we are watching Boies Schiller implode in front of us. The change in leadership combined with Covid-19 to create the perfect storm for them. The new leadership is not as popular and well-supported as the old; business has been steadily declining for multiple years; associate pay is about to undergo a huge shift (undercutting a big reason why top young associates originally saw the firm as attractive); and their greatest draw, David Boies, is soon to retire.

Some of us have been saying these things about BSF for months now, but others are too wedded to the status quo to be willing to see it in advance. A change from first-generation to second-generation management at a lit firm without reliable large-scale corporate clients is hard; this group is clearly not up to the task. Once associate comp drops at the end of this year and the current stable of associates see the hard dollar declines on their pay stubs, I doubt BSF will last beyond 2021.

I feel sort of sorry for the associates who joined in the last few years thinking it was an elite firm on par with SG or KH, but the warning signs have been there all along.
There is some truth to the criticism of the new management and the challenges of transitioning from first to second generation; but most of the rest of this post is speculative if not verifiably false. BSF has had steadily increasing revenues and profits. Current associates will not see a decline in their pay (and incoming associates will still have the opportunity to beat market). David Boies is not the firm’s biggest draw and has not been necessary for business development for years. Ect. ect.

That being said, I would not go to BSF over Susman. That’s crazy and has always been crazy. Generally speaking BSF is and will remain a car better place to be a junior or mid level litigator than any of the non-boutique big corporate firms.

Joachim2017

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Re: Layoff Predictions

Post by Joachim2017 » Sun May 03, 2020 12:16 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Joachim2017 wrote:
VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:What is going on Boies Schiller? https://www.law360.com/competition/arti ... -departure

"The firm also stopped providing health and other firm-sponsored benefits and declined to offer severance pay, according to a termination letter sent to employees Monday."
As others on this site have noted, we are watching Boies Schiller implode in front of us. The change in leadership combined with Covid-19 to create the perfect storm for them. The new leadership is not as popular and well-supported as the old; business has been steadily declining for multiple years; associate pay is about to undergo a huge shift (undercutting a big reason why top young associates originally saw the firm as attractive); and their greatest draw, David Boies, is soon to retire.

Some of us have been saying these things about BSF for months now, but others are too wedded to the status quo to be willing to see it in advance. A change from first-generation to second-generation management at a lit firm without reliable large-scale corporate clients is hard; this group is clearly not up to the task. Once associate comp drops at the end of this year and the current stable of associates see the hard dollar declines on their pay stubs, I doubt BSF will last beyond 2021.

I feel sort of sorry for the associates who joined in the last few years thinking it was an elite firm on par with SG or KH, but the warning signs have been there all along.
There is some truth to the criticism of the new management and the challenges of transitioning from first to second generation; but most of the rest of this post is speculative if not verifiably false. BSF has had steadily increasing revenues and profits. Current associates will not see a decline in their pay (and incoming associates will still have the opportunity to beat market). David Boies is not the firm’s biggest draw and has not been necessary for business development for years. Ect. ect.

That being said, I would not go to BSF over Susman. That’s crazy and has always been crazy. Generally speaking BSF is and will remain a car better place to be a junior or mid level litigator than any of the non-boutique big corporate firms.
You can try to spin some of it, but these are facts from public sources:
"Revenue per lawyer, often considered the best measure of a law firm’s financial health, took a dip from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2017, causing the firm to fall from the top 10 in RPL rankings down to No. 21. While RPL recovered some over the next two years, it wasn’t enough to regain its former elite status among the top-grossing firms. Meanwhile, Boies Schiller saw its overall revenue decline in 2019 for the first time since it was included in the Am Law rankings 17 years ago... [T]he firm’s relative growth of revenue per lawyer falls behind peers. From 2012 to 2019, the average RPL for the Am Law 100 grew by 18.6%. For Boies Schiller, it grew by 7.1%...The firm also fell behind its peers in gross revenue growth. In 2017, it ranked No. 82 in the Am Law 100, and by this year it was down to No. 93 after gross revenue declined by 3.6%.
That's from https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2020 ... ransition/

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