Shearman & Sterling Forum

[Anonymous User]

On their way down and out? Screamers who make all their associates miserable? They seem fabulous and nice and have the perfect mix of international practices to be my top choice, yet... can anyone address the 2 concerns I mentioned?

[Old Gregg]

I don't know enough about the second point, but I do know the first point is true. There is nothing to address. Look at the data, look at the rankings, look at the league tables, etc. Shearman has been in decline for a long, long while.

[Anonymous User]

I don't know enough about the second point, but I do know the first point is true. There is nothing to address. Look at the data, look at the rankings, look at the league tables, etc. Shearman has been in decline for a long, long while.

Globally or just in the US?

[Old Gregg]

I don't know enough about the second point, but I do know the first point is true. There is nothing to address. Look at the data, look at the rankings, look at the league tables, etc. Shearman has been in decline for a long, long while.

Globally or just in the US?

In the US, of course. Globally, it never was a top firm to begin with, so there's technically nothing to decline from.

[Anonymous User]

So its agreed that Shearman is not among the highest tier as it once was. What do people think of its future trajectory though? I mean its still a very stable firm with a lot of high level work. Do you guys think it'll stay about where it is now for the foreseeable future?

[Anonymous User]

On their way down and out? Screamers who make all their associates miserable? They seem fabulous and nice and have the perfect mix of international practices to be my top choice, yet... can anyone address the 2 concerns I mentioned?

I can't speak of the NY office, but based on my perceptions the DC office was great - friendly people and laid back atmosphere, yelling not tolerated by managing partners.

[imchuckbass58]

So its agreed that Shearman is not among the highest tier as it once was. What do people think of its future trajectory though? I mean its still a very stable firm with a lot of high level work. Do you guys think it'll stay about where it is now for the foreseeable future?

I don't think anyone knows. But as a general rule (with many exceptions), the nature of the legal market makes trends likely to continue.

Shearman has lost some key clients and talented lawyers over the last couple of decades. Not to the point that its financial stability is in question (I don't think), but the overall caliber of the practice has declined. How do you fix this? Well, you need to either attract or train high quality partners who have or can attract high quality clients/work. But if you're a top partner, why would you want to work for Shearman, when presumably you can go to a reputationally "better" firm (and probably get compensated more as well). Similarly, you won't have as good native talent coming through the law school recruiting pipe.

This is why there is very little change at the top of the legal market - it's a chicken/egg problem where you need top talent to move up, but you need to move up to attract top talent. It's very hard to move up unless you (1) buy a bunch of top partners on the lateral market (which creates a whole other set of problems), (2) come up with some unique business model/culture to attract lawyers (i.e., Quinn or BSF), or (3) create a very successful model of developing talent internally (harder than it sounds).

So I have no idea if Shearman will continue to decline, stay where it is, or rebound. But I'd say at the very least the last possibility is pretty unlikely.

[Anonymous User]

Shearman has lost some key clients and talented lawyers over the last couple of decades.

Where do they tend to go when leaving S&S - are there certain firms snapping up their talent and key clients?

[imchuckbass58]

Shearman has lost some key clients and talented lawyers over the last couple of decades.

Where do they tend to go when leaving S&S - are there certain firms snapping up their talent and key clients?

I don't think one place in particular. If you're interested, these articles are a pretty good summary:

http://www.thelawyer.com/shearman-and-s ... 02.article

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLL ... 0602710524