NY GOES TO 180k! IT HAPPENED!!!! (CovingTTTon does a 180! Holder wept.) Forum

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Lines at Subway outside CovingTTTon looking longer than usual.

Salvation Army workers unloading boxes from truck parked at 10th and I, why

[arklaw13]

With Skadden and Kirkland matching in DC, doesn't everyone else basically have to follow? Kirkland is already pulling some of the best talent away from Covington, AP, WH, etc.

[Anonymous User]

The goal of every single person in this thread should be to push for as much associate wage inflation as possible.

National (as opposed to regional) increases in associate pay = more pressure on top firms to differentiate pay as soon as possible from 'lesser' participants (for example, NY to $200k in one year, rather than nine) = justification for higher hourly fees across the spectrum of top firms = higher pay for counsel in Fortune 500 companies to lure away top associates = legal industry taking a larger share of GDP = better experience for all industry participants.

Now that inflation in associate salaries is happening, let's keep pushing for more. NY to $200k people.

[Anonymous User]

Any rumblings from Sidley Chicago?

Seriously. They can (PPP >$2m) and they should (KE, Skadden, f'ing Winston already).

They will. It's apparently in the works. Think early next week.

[Anonymous User]

I don't know if the Wilmer and Hale wings of the firm are fully coordinated yet. If anything, the DC side still probably dominates the Boston side.

The latter statement might be correct, but the merger happened over a decade ago. They're coordinated (whatever that means). Whether they move will be about whether they want to spend the dough, not whether they communicate.

[imalreadyamember?]

To reiterate:

Jones Day is such a bullshit firm.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Already, their email is doing irreparable damage to their reputation.

No it isn't. Y'all are hilarious. Law students/associates have ridiculously short memories. Latham laid off hundreds of first-year associates on the same day--in many cases, ending their legal careers--and yet the firm still has no problem attracting good law students from top schools. Covington's dumb email is trivial by comparison.

If Covington matches market eventually (and I'm sure they will), life will go on as before.

Weil was completely booked up at CLS OCI a year after laying off 60 attorneys in a halfway decent economy.

I watched multiple people pick Cravath over Boies.

Never forget how dumb law students are.

[Desert Fox]

With Skadden and Kirkland matching in DC, doesn't everyone else basically have to follow? Kirkland is already pulling some of the best talent away from Covington, AP, WH, etc.

TBf, there is essentially no practical different in the quality of associates. Having to hire YHS grads with one less high pass grade will have no effect on their business at all. The only impact will be on midlevel retention. They'll have to match eventually, but they can wait until their retention issue gets bad.

Plus until this march, Covington was paying probably 15-30k less to midlevels than KE and Skadden because of TTT bonuses. The firm didn't collapse.

The real problem will be if all the national firms in DC go to 180k standard. Because Covington won't lose that many laterals to the likes of K&E and Skadden (mostly because they don't hire than many laterals). But if they start losing them to a bunch of other firms, they'll have to match. Most lateralling is down the prestige scale, so that doesn't insulate them at all.

[DELG]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

[Big Shrimpin]

Lines at Subway outside CovingTTTon looking longer than usual.

sad

I knew Subway valued top tier management but I didn't think GMs made that much. Are they leaving their time at Cov off their resumes?

probably

wouldn't want the stain of CovingTTTon to run an otherwise sterling rezzie

might not be an issue at Quiznos tbh tho

cov refugee unable to enjoy employee CIABATTA TOASTIE on park bench after overhearing milbank bros sipping MOMOFUKU COLD BREW discussing FAT Govt Ks

this never gets old

[jbagelboy]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

[soj]

.

[Anonymous User]

Weil was completely booked up at CLS OCI a year after laying off 60 attorneys in a halfway decent economy.

I watched multiple people pick Cravath over Boies.

Never forget how dumb law students are.

Many of the Weil attorneys laid off were in Bankruptcy and Corporate. The former is counter-cyclical, so it's not at all surprising that they were laid off in an improving economic environment. The latter were working on matters related to the financial crisis that had run their course.

Boies only does litigation and accrues considerably less prestige than Cravath, so that's not surprising at CLS.

Anyway, laying off associates is a bad thing, to be sure; I agree that it should stain firm reputations. But adverse busienss decisions in a bad economy are a lot more understandable to me than failing to raise salaries in a relatively good one. Covington is actively seeking to cap the market in DC in a malicious way. It's heads partners win, tails associates lose. Nobody with options should tolerate that. My view is that the market is efficient and that they won't.

[5ky]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

if those firms all go to 180, so will Covington, and it's a moot point

[soj]

.

[Anonymous User]

With Skadden and Kirkland matching in DC, doesn't everyone else basically have to follow? Kirkland is already pulling some of the best talent away from Covington, AP, WH, etc.

Not really - they have a decent footprint, but I think both are thought of as "satellite" offices.

I've maintained - Gibson will be the one that really changes the market. Yeah it's a west coast firm, but they have enough of a big dick rep in DC to move the needle for firms like CovingTTTon and A&P. I don't expect any other DC firms to start the move (except for an outside chance of Wilmer).

[Desert Fox]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

But it isn't a dangerous wager. If the DC market truly goes to 180k, they'll pay it. It's not like they said WE ARE NEVER RAISING SALARY.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

Oh no, how will they possibly get good candidates when in August people are going to think "didn't they wait 2 weeks to issue a 12% pay increase?"


As someone mentioned earlier, if Lathaming couldn't kill a firm's recruiting apparatus, I don't see how this possibly could.

[rpupkin]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

That's not quite right. Covington made the wager that going out on a limb (i.e., that letter) might give those other firms cover not to raise salaries, which will save all of those firms--including Covington, of course--money. If those other firms end up raising salaries anyway (which seems very likely at this point), Covington will follow.

[Big Shrimpin]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

if those firms all go to 180, so will Covington, and it's a moot point

CovingTTTon associates FURIOUSLY updating resumes while recruiters RAPIDLY robo-dialassociates listed on CovingTTTon website

[Anonymous User]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

if those firms all go to 180, so will Covington, and it's a moot point

CovingTTTon associates FURIOUSLY updating resumes while recruiters RAPIDLY robo-dialassociates listed on CovingTTTon website

You laugh - I updated my resume.

[soj]

.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Weil was completely booked up at CLS OCI a year after laying off 60 attorneys in a halfway decent economy.

I watched multiple people pick Cravath over Boies.

Never forget how dumb law students are.

Many of the Weil attorneys laid off were in Bankruptcy and Corporate. The former is counter-cyclical, so it's not at all surprising that they were laid off in an improving economic environment. The latter were working on matters related to the financial crisis that had run their course.

Boies only does litigation and accrues considerably less prestige than Cravath, so that's not surprising at CLS.

Anyway, laying off associates is a bad thing, to be sure; I agree that it should stain firm reputations. But adverse busienss decisions in a bad economy are a lot more understandable to me than failing to raise salaries in a relatively good one. Covington is actively seeking to cap the market in DC in a malicious way. It's heads partners win, tails associates lose. Nobody with options should tolerate that. My view is that the market is efficient and that they won't.

*managing partner of "top-tier" billion-dollar firm incapable of figuring out orderly transition of out recession without mass layoffs like all the other firms ending your legal career by assuring you that "it's not at all surprising that they were laid off in an improving economic environment"*

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

CovingTTTon associates FURIOUSLY updating resumes while recruiters RAPIDLY robo-dialassociates listed on CovingTTTon website

*LinkedIn operations manager alerting boss that source of crash appears to be surge in traffic from single office building*

[Anonymous User]

Law students take prestige >>> money. It won't hurt them.

covington isn't more prestigious than gibson, wilmerhale, arnold & porter, williams & connolly, ect. Covington is making a dangerous wager that these firms won't up them; it's a bad one.

Exactly - if you are looking at other Vault 50 firms with strong DC presence (or really, this applies to any analogous situation), a law student will ABSOLUTELY take the money and a reputable firm.

It's not like the choice is between $20k more your first year murdering kittens versus Covington. You can work at Arnold & Porter or Williams & Connolly and make $20k and have the same resume prestige.

And that's not even getting into the mid-level situation and lateral recruiting...