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anyone have any insight as to why Shearman lost 10% of its partnership last year?

i know numbers and everything else have been great as of late, so is this a move to kick out non performers? or am i missing something?

see: --LinkRemoved--

68 reads... no answers?

cmon man

You'd have to look at who they lost. But ATL says "defections" not partner layoffs. That implies these people left to go somewhere else.

WatcherWall wrote:You'd have to look at who they lost. But ATL says "defections" not partner layoffs. That implies these people left to go somewhere else.

this was a non contribution.

no thanks

A little bird told me that word on the inside was that it was the next Howrey/Dewey. Check back in 6 to 9 months.

The recently had a change in their partner compensation model. Maybe some folks were unhappy

Probably due to the closing of two of their three German offices -> a bunch of their German partners lateraling to other firms

wow, a surprising amount of interest in this thread.

during interviews there last year, they were talking about rearranging the office/making a number of changes in office structure maybe people haven't liked the change?

hard to tell if this would be a good thing or a bad thing from the outside

Anonymous User wrote:during interviews there last year, they were talking about rearranging the office/making a number of changes in office structure maybe people haven't liked the change?

hard to tell if this would be a good thing or a bad thing from the outside

i took a look and it seems like the other firms on the list are in obv trouble. but shearman is killing it, so something else must be the case.. i think the germany comment and the pay structure changes probably explain.

still, though.. 10% is significant

http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120264 ... und-Pledge :

On the head count front, Shearman's equity partner population ticked up by one, from 158 to 159, while its total number of lawyers dipped about 4 percent, to 809, mainly as a result of the firm's decision to trim associates in China and close two offices in Germany.

The firm has hired 18 lateral partners over the last 14 months in the targeted areas of litigation and investigations, project finance, leveraged finance and private equity. A total of 16 partners departed over the same period, including 10 based in Germany who left the firm as a result of the office closings there.

According to the article, 20 partners left in 2013. If 10 partners left because of Germany, that means 10 other partners left because of other reasons. The other churn is 5% of total partners. This year is an outlier for Shearman in terms of partner departures because of the German office closures.

This is what I heard too. Profits were great this year and there is more work than people know what to do with.

About the small cutbacks in China, heard secondhand that they really regret this. A lot of firms including Sidley, OMM, and PH made cuts when the IPO market went dry but Shearman's gotten some big business since then so yeah. Not surprising....Shearman has unbeatable prestige in China and HK

lonerider wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120264 ... und-Pledge :

On the head count front, Shearman's equity partner population ticked up by one, from 158 to 159, while its total number of lawyers dipped about 4 percent, to 809, mainly as a result of the firm's decision to trim associates in China and close two offices in Germany.

The firm has hired 18 lateral partners over the last 14 months in the targeted areas of litigation and investigations, project finance, leveraged finance and private equity. A total of 16 partners departed over the same period, including 10 based in Germany who left the firm as a result of the office closings there.

OP - Don't worry about the partner figure too much. All because of Germany. I'd actually recommend Shearman if you care about partner stuff cause they have a reputation for promoting from within and not just relying on laterals

Ditto about China. SS has been getting in on a lot of the tech IPOs including Weibo which was massive

i had a meeting with my cso to prep for oci and they actually flagged shearman as a firm on the upswing that has street cred and prestige far beyond its vault ranking. they didn't mention anything about the partners though so i can't tell you what the deal is there