Top Law Schools

http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120276 ... -35K-Bonus

One year after mostly doing away with its summer associate program, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced Wednesday that third year law school students who apply and are hired at the firm will get a $35,000 signing bonus. Quinn Emanuel will accept applications this fall to fill the ranks of its 2017 first year associate class.

Also, this quote:

One student who’s now a summer associate at an elite Wall Street firm said Quinn Emanuel’s pitch had caught his attention.

“I’m already tempted to apply to them because of the reputation in litigation and the politically liberal reputation,” the summer associate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in an email. “I’m concerned though about their reputation for working people very hard.”

MCFC wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120276 ... -35K-Bonus

One year after mostly doing away with its summer associate program, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced Wednesday that third year law school students who apply and are hired at the firm will get a $35,000 signing bonus. Quinn Emanuel will accept applications this fall to fill the ranks of its 2017 first year associate class.

Also, this quote:

One student who’s now a summer associate at an elite Wall Street firm said Quinn Emanuel’s pitch had caught his attention.

“I’m already tempted to apply to them because of the reputation in litigation and the politically liberal reputation,” the summer associate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in an email. “I’m concerned though about their reputation for working people very hard.”

Free ride on the cost of a summer program and dole out a rough approximation of a summer salary as a signing bonus... makes sense for some, though 35K seems a bit cheap. For larger offices though, I would not discount the change of pace that a summer program brings to cube life (well, office life, unless you have glass walls and live the fish bowl life).

Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

WhiteCollarBlueShirt wrote:

MCFC wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120276 ... -35K-Bonus

One year after mostly doing away with its summer associate program, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced Wednesday that third year law school students who apply and are hired at the firm will get a $35,000 signing bonus. Quinn Emanuel will accept applications this fall to fill the ranks of its 2017 first year associate class.

Also, this quote:

One student who’s now a summer associate at an elite Wall Street firm said Quinn Emanuel’s pitch had caught his attention.

“I’m already tempted to apply to them because of the reputation in litigation and the politically liberal reputation,” the summer associate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in an email. “I’m concerned though about their reputation for working people very hard.”

Free ride on the cost of a summer program and dole out a rough approximation of a summer salary as a signing bonus... makes sense for some, though 35K seems a bit cheap. For larger offices though, I would not discount the change of pace that a summer program brings to cube life (well, office life, unless you have glass walls and live the fish bowl life).

Do you mean the change that happens when the summers arrive and you get to wine and dine them? Yeah I'm looking forward to that once I start. Some of the juniors at my firm seemed like they were having a blast with us so it's clearly a nice change.

However you couldn't make me go to Quinn even if they had summers there all year. Fuck em.

sublime wrote:Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

Yea but it's bad for everyone else. Because if firms follow suit, it'll drastically reduce the number of SAs available which is bad for everyone but maybe partners.

lawman84 wrote:

sublime wrote:Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

Yea but it's bad for everyone else. Because if firms follow suit, it'll drastically reduce the number of SAs available which is bad for everyone but maybe partners.

Why is it bad? $35k is what summers make now at the typical program (10 weeks paying 180k scale). It's essentially a wash. But we all know that law firms as a whole are too risk-averse to wholesale ditch their SA programs and follow QE, so meanwhile the more intrepid litigation law students will pull down 35k at DPW or STB in 2L summer and then go grab the 35k signing bonus at QE immediately after. If anything this will be good for firms if QE poaches too many and they start paying signing bonuses or something (a man can dream).

Anonymous User wrote:

lawman84 wrote:

sublime wrote:Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

Yea but it's bad for everyone else. Because if firms follow suit, it'll drastically reduce the number of SAs available which is bad for everyone but maybe partners.

Why is it bad? $35k is what summers make now at the typical program (10 weeks paying 180k scale). It's essentially a wash. But we all know that law firms as a whole are too risk-averse to wholesale ditch their SA programs and follow QE, so meanwhile the more intrepid litigation law students will pull down 35k at DPW or STB in 2L summer and then go grab the 35k signing bonus at QE immediately after. If anything this will be good for firms if QE poaches too many and they start paying signing bonuses or something (a man can dream).

Quinn is using that $35,000 to get people to leave the firms they summered at. If the majority of firms stop having SAs, what do they need the signing bonus for? Quinn is doing this to cut costs. They will continue to move forward with that mindset if they can. And other firms might follow suit.

Firms aren't going to start paying signing bonuses on top of SA salaries to keep Quinn from poaching their people.

I also am not sure how taking Quinn's money makes a person "intrepid."

Yes, odds are that firms are too risk-averse to do anything. But if Quinn's model catches on, it's not good for the law world. As more firms ditch their SA programs, there becomes less of a need for a signing bonus.

I don't think other firms are going to follow QE on this. This is just Quinn being Quinn.

Anonymous User wrote:

lawman84 wrote:

sublime wrote:Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

Yea but it's bad for everyone else. Because if firms follow suit, it'll drastically reduce the number of SAs available which is bad for everyone but maybe partners.

Why is it bad? $35k is what summers make now at the typical program (10 weeks paying 180k scale). It's essentially a wash. But we all know that law firms as a whole are too risk-averse to wholesale ditch their SA programs and follow QE, so meanwhile the more intrepid litigation law students will pull down 35k at DPW or STB in 2L summer and then go grab the 35k signing bonus at QE immediately after. If anything this will be good for firms if QE poaches too many and they start paying signing bonuses or something (a man can dream).

OK but a wash? c'mon

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

lawman84 wrote:

sublime wrote:Pretty sweet deal if you do a 2L SA somewhere else, bank that $35k, then start after grad at QE.

Yea but it's bad for everyone else. Because if firms follow suit, it'll drastically reduce the number of SAs available which is bad for everyone but maybe partners.

Why is it bad? $35k is what summers make now at the typical program (10 weeks paying 180k scale). It's essentially a wash. But we all know that law firms as a whole are too risk-averse to wholesale ditch their SA programs and follow QE, so meanwhile the more intrepid litigation law students will pull down 35k at DPW or STB in 2L summer and then go grab the 35k signing bonus at QE immediately after. If anything this will be good for firms if QE poaches too many and they start paying signing bonuses or something (a man can dream).

OK but a wash? c'mon

yeah this is dumb. summer programs cost way more than summer salaries. those hamilton tickets don't come cheap, and the babysitting ain't free

imalreadyamember? wrote:Do you mean the change that happens when the summers arrive and you get to wine and dine them? Yeah I'm looking forward to that once I start. Some of the juniors at my firm seemed like they were having a blast with us so it's clearly a nice change.

However you couldn't make me go to Quinn even if they had summers there all year. Fuck em.

Exactly. Also, for those not big on attending firm socials (like me), generally having fresh-faced youth around the office is more fun and a nice change of pace in it of itself. And, while 35K is significant, it's also more than slightly insulting in many ways. I forget what the number is, but recruiting each individual associate at the old firm was somewhere in the 120-240K range.

And, likewise would never work at Quinn, but only because I don't litigate. I actually don't have any issue with them if they plan to do more mid/senior-level recruiting. If their plan is to poach 3Ls, then this is transparent, cheap, and lazy.

MCFC wrote: Also, this quote:

One student who’s now a summer associate at an elite Wall Street firm said Quinn Emanuel’s pitch had caught his attention.

“I’m already tempted to apply to them because of the reputation in litigation and the politically liberal reputation,” the summer associate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in an email. “I’m concerned though about their reputation for working people very hard.”

what? you mean liberals don't like working hard? ba dum tishhhh

the interesting part of this is that if any other firms start following suit, it might endange the complete summer prgoram. think about the firm that has its summer poached to Quinn. Pretty big huge sunk cost loss on their part. If it happens enough times to firms (Quinn isn't enough, need other firms) they will be incentivized to do away with the summer program completely because the only reason the summer program exists in the first place is to lure top talent at the earliest sign possible.

still not sure if this is good or bad for law students/associates overall. right now this is good, because its more money to top law students that should/might have to force other top firms to offer signing bonuses and compete with Quinn's. It's bad if enough firms follow suit, ditch summer programs in favor of just a signing bonus because the later and later top talent is recruited the more of a bargaining power position the employer has rather than the employee.

Should be interesting to see play out in the coming years.