How to handle Dewey (or similar firms) Forum

[randomdandom]

The NYT article is not entirely consistent with the way things have been playing out over the past two weeks. The article says that out of dozens of firms contacted, only 1 expressed any interest. Depending on when the article was written + research, things could have changed once Dewey official cancelled the summer program. Other firms could be more willingly to take on jobless former-SAs than poach potentially jobless current-but-shaky-SAs.

Maybe that's because the supposed SA for the article went to GULC. At my school, OCS has been very active, and more than a dozen firms have indicated some interest - taking resumes, scheduling phone interviews and callbacks. I am still hopefully of securing a SA at a different V50 firm, with a couple callbacks lined up in and around final exams.

I think the article was written less than 24 hours ago, it went up yesterday sometime. Who knows what is really happening? Firms aren't willing to commit to anything to a newspaper reporter. The firm doesn't want to say sure we have room/ will consider taking someone because if they end up not taking anyone, the firm look bad. I think firms are probably willing to help but they aren't going to say anything on the record. Still it isn't going to be easy to find another job at this late date.

Imagine the summers that have zero prospects are more anxious to talk to reporters. Summers that have been able to generate options are too busy studying for finals and prepping for interviews to talk to reporters.

[094320]

..

[LawIdiot86]

Imagine the summers that have zero prospects are more anxious to talk to reporters. Summers that have been able to generate options are too busy studying for finals and prepping for interviews to talk to reporters.

This is the wrong approach. Even if they have zero prospects, they should be ringing up alum partners at firms in their former Dewey city. "Hey, my name is X and I saw you also went to Y. I'm calling because I had an offer to work at Dewey this summer, but they have canceled their program. I was wondering if you could help a fellow School Nickname or knew of anyone who could?" Given that nearly all of the Dewey SAs were from schools that have massive numbers of alumni partners, you shouldn't stop until you've made at least 100 of these calls.

[Anonymous User]

My OCS has been very active, but I haven't been contacted by any firms for interviews. Is there any way for a mod to put us in contact with each other to exchange information?

Considering that half of you have 0 posts, I'm not sure exactly why you're posting anon since there's no history of posts to tie you to who you are. You could simply do an un-anon post asking that others contact you. If you're afraid that ppl who aren't actually who they say they are will contact you, we wouldn't have solved that problem for you either.

It's not just about past identification, it's about future identification as well. I don't want people to know my handle and then seeing what I'm doing, if relevant to my job search.

[Guchster]

My OCS has been very active, but I haven't been contacted by any firms for interviews. Is there any way for a mod to put us in contact with each other to exchange information?

Considering that half of you have 0 posts, I'm not sure exactly why you're posting anon since there's no history of posts to tie you to who you are. You could simply do an un-anon post asking that others contact you. If you're afraid that ppl who aren't actually who they say they are will contact you, we wouldn't have solved that problem for you either.

It's not just about past identification, it's about future identification as well. I don't want people to know my handle and then seeing what I'm doing, if relevant to my job search.

Why don't you just notify acrossthelake that you're setting an alt up to avoid past/future identification and post publicly under the alt? Abandon it when you get the connections breh.

[randomdandom]

My OCS has been very active, but I haven't been contacted by any firms for interviews. Is there any way for a mod to put us in contact with each other to exchange information?

Considering that half of you have 0 posts, I'm not sure exactly why you're posting anon since there's no history of posts to tie you to who you are. You could simply do an un-anon post asking that others contact you. If you're afraid that ppl who aren't actually who they say they are will contact you, we wouldn't have solved that problem for you either.

It's not just about past identification, it's about future identification as well. I don't want people to know my handle and then seeing what I'm doing, if relevant to my job search.

Why don't you just notify acrossthelake that you're setting an alt up to avoid past/future identification and post publicly under the alt? Abandon it when you get the connections breh.

Wish I knew about this! i was posting anon and then forgot and posted under my name a few times. at this point I'm like, whatevs.

[imchuckbass58]

Great post on Adam Smith, Esq. about what he thinks went wrong: http://www.adamsmithesq.com/2012/05/dewey-1909-2012/

Edit: The best part of which is the fact that evidently Dewey reported revenue on a 14-month year, including both a full year's revenue, plus outstanding accounts receivable, in effect double counting AR. Aka accounting fraud (if Dewey were a public company, which granted, it's not).

[xcountryjunkie]

The American Lawyer is reporting that Dewey will close by 5/15.

[Anonymous User]

He probably has great grades, maybe even good enough to clerk. The t14ers don't have great grades and are going to be pwnd.

This is in poor taste and, at least in my case, false.

It is in poor taste, but the Dewey median GPA at my T14 was below the class median.

Sure, at my T10 the average offer was slightly above median from the old days of pre-merger Dewey. In last summer's class the largest contributing law schools for SAs were Yale, followed by Harvard - these two schools collectively accounted for 1/3 of the SAs. Some pretty un-impressive students, right DF?

[Anonymous User]

all of the dewey sas at my t14 - t10 already have offers at other v50s and more interviews. even if firms aren't willing to go on the record saying they have space, many are considering former dewey sas. keep hustling!

[094320]

..

[nygrrrl]

Yeah this is what I meant by it. You have two options:

1)Use this handle for this thread, post and ask ppl to PM you, then contact the mods when you want to start an entirely new identity and we'll lock this one and sanction your new one. Nobody but us will know the continuity.

It really only takes one of you with like 0 posts to do this(and there are many), and then ppl who already have identities can just PM you.

This.

[sunynp]

Not to complicate things but:

1. Don't the SAs already know each other's names? I saw a redacted list posted here that just had the schools but it appeared to be in alphabetical order, indicating that names and schools are known to each other.

2. If so, why don't you set up a private facebook group or some google +circle or something? You should be able to find each other online.

3. If you want to use email, someone can create a fake gmail account and post it here. After you figure out how to communicate you can just abandon the account.

It should be easy to figure this out, even if you don't want to share specific leads, you guys can help each other out a lot with moral support and reports of what you are doing to find jobs. You were colleagues, a few weeks away from maybe spending the next few years together, you might as well continue. If you guys end up working at different firms in New York, you could still meet. Having contacts at other firms is always a good thing.


4. Keep posting in this thread and let us know how you are doing. I have been watching this debacle with disbelieving horror over the past few months. I have and my family has friends at the firm. I had no idea that the firm wouldn't make it through the summer..

I just read all the reports on the Adam Smith, Esq. site about Dewey, I realize that there is no way people could have really known the true situation (not that we know even now the real story, usually the picture just keeps getting worse.) Even the partners didn't know how bad it was, how could law students know?

Don't let the Times story discourage you. I only posted it because it was the first mainstream story I had seen that addressed the fact the SA program was cancelled.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have access to this? Another "rainmaker's" possibilities....

http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA. ... 2551055305

[Anonymous User]

Not to complicate things but:

1. Don't the SAs already know each other's names? I saw a redacted list posted here that just had the schools but it appeared to be in alphabetical order, indicating that names and schools are known to each other.

2. If so, why don't you set up a private facebook group or some google +circle or something? You should be able to find each other online.

3. If you want to use email, someone can create a fake gmail account and post it here. After you figure out how to communicate you can just abandon the account.

It should be easy to figure this out, even if you don't want to share specific leads, you guys can help each other out a lot with moral support and reports of what you are doing to find jobs. You were colleagues, a few weeks away from maybe spending the next few years together, you might as well continue. If you guys end up working at different firms in New York, you could still meet. Having contacts at other firms is always a good thing.


4. Keep posting in this thread and let us know how you are doing. I have been watching this debacle with disbelieving horror over the past few months. I have and my family has friends at the firm. I had no idea that the firm wouldn't make it through the summer..

I just read all the reports on the Adam Smith, Esq. site about Dewey, I realize that there is no way people could have really known the true situation (not that we know even now the real story, usually the picture just keeps getting worse.) Even the partners didn't know how bad it was, how could law students know?

Don't let the Times story discourage you. I only posted it because it was the first mainstream story I had seen that addressed the fact the SA program was cancelled.

That's a great idea. Is there a way to have private threads here on ATL? I know not everyone has FB in the summer class and even fewer have Google+ i imagine.

[sadsituationJD]

The entire situation is beyond ROTFL-worthy. The evidence that law school is a terrible idea, and law itself a pathetic, has-been "career," has been about as well publicized the past 5+ years as the link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking.

Yet these kids chose to go anyway. They had this shit all figured out: they were going T14 to SA to 160 K, and spend a few years pushing bale upon endless bale of incredibly boring makework shitpaper around for 90 hrs a week for what they thought was big $$$ (actually if parsed out per hour it's really just 2 full time 80 K a year jobs, not a 160 K job), then "lateral" into some other sweatshop or do whatever it is these kids think people do with a J.D. (Joke Degree).

Hell, it sounded "prestigious," and beat driving a truck or working the register at 7/11. But now the dream is over. If these kids choose to even continue onwards and get their JD's, they'll be grinding it out in some miserable shitlaw boiler room for 40 K a year doing landlord tenant, trip n' fall, or good old insurance defending. No other Biglaw shop is hiring them, and the midlaw shops want two things none of these kids have: 5+ experience in a niche practice area and/or portable business.

Dewey is just the opening act in the truly epic "Round Two" of Biglaw meltdowns to come. The business model is a dead man walking. Large corporations now realize how foolish it was to cough up big $$$ to these unproductive paper churners, and simply stopped paying the bills period (which is pretty funny in itself). The real question is why anyone ever thought these losers had any value in the first place? It's not like these clowns were working on a cancer vaccine, cold fusion, or anything of any import, utility, or promise. Like every other lawyer, they pushed paper from one side of a table to the other. That's all.

[dailygrind]

The entire situation is beyond ROTFL-worthy. The evidence that law school is a terrible idea, and law itself a pathetic, has-been "career," has been about as well publicized the past 5+ years as the link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking.

Yet these kids chose to go anyway. They had this shit all figured out: they were going T14 to SA to 160 K, and spend a few years pushing bale upon endless bale of incredibly boring makework shitpaper around for 90 hrs a week for what they thought was big $$$ (actually if parsed out per hour it's really just 2 full time 80 K a year jobs, not a 160 K job), then "lateral" into some other sweatshop or do whatever it is these kids think people do with a J.D. (Joke Degree).

Hell, it sounded "prestigious," and beat driving a truck or working the register at 7/11. But now the dream is over. If these kids choose to even continue onwards and get their JD's, they'll be grinding it out in some miserable shitlaw boiler room for 40 K a year doing landlord tenant, trip n' fall, or good old insurance defending. No other Biglaw shop is hiring them, and the midlaw shops want two things none of these kids have: 5+ experience in a niche practice area and/or portable business.

Dewey is just the opening act in the truly epic "Round Two" of Biglaw meltdowns to come. The business model is a dead man walking. Large corporations now realize how foolish it was to cough up big $$$ to these unproductive paper churners, and simply stopped paying the bills period (which is pretty funny in itself). The real question is why anyone ever thought these losers had any value in the first place? It's not like these clowns were working on a cancer vaccine, cold fusion, or anything of any import, utility, or promise. Like every other lawyer, they pushed paper from one side of a table to the other. That's all.

Incredibly off-topic and not at all useful. Take it somewhere else.

[IAFG]

But now the dream is over.

Sorry that their fall isn't what you dreamed of, but tons of them already have another SA. What is with these scambloggers hoping and praying for others to fail?

[Anonymous User]

Incredibly off-topic and not at all useful. Take it somewhere else.

Sorry that their fall isn't what you dreamed of, but tons of them already have another SA. What is with these scambloggers hoping and praying for others to fail?

^ these. a million times these.

[Anonymous User]

Good friend's friend who works/worked at Dewey said her entire group got picked up by Covington. Notbad.jpg.

do you happen to know what practice group?

[Morgan12Oak]

lol @ sadsituationJD. I know a couple Dewey people with offers already also. Just another butthurt TTT aspie who missed out on the boat and is trying to prevent other people from boarding.

[dixiecupdrinking]

Good friend's friend who works/worked at Dewey said her entire group got picked up by Covington. Notbad.jpg.

do you happen to know what practice group?

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/04/30/mor ... rd-chance/

Looks like two capital markets partners. No mention of associates coming with them, but, it's certainly possible.

[Anonymous User]

so do you guys think that most 2L SAs will be picked up by other firms?

[romothesavior]

so do you guys think that most 2L SAs will be picked up by other firms?

This has been discussed ad nauseam for pages. I think the general consensus is that some may be able to sneak into a summer class now at the last minute. While this may be very tough, some have been able to get interviews, and a few have even gotten jobs. For those who don't get SA jobs, schools are working hard to place people into something for the summer, and hopefully these folks will have success at 3L OCI.

[Anonymous User]

I made a throwaway account:

dlsummerthrowaway@gmail.com

Anyone that has any leads or knowledge on firms that are still hiring, let me know. If you have info on people with offers, let me know that too -- that way we can focus on other firms that are still hiring.

Edit: If you have nothing to contribute, I'd be happy to share what others have given me (once the ball is rolling).
Edit 2: Does anyone have an offer from Cahill?