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Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:29 am
by Anonymous User
With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:37 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.
K&L Gates is having issues (no idea what), this from two independent sources, one in Seattle, one in Pittsburgh.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:54 am
by DeMihiNonCuratLex
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.
K&L Gates is having issues (no idea what), this from two independent sources, one in Seattle, one in Pittsburgh.
Is this firmwide or specific to those offices?

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:00 am
by Anonymous User
DeMihiNonCuratLex wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.
K&L Gates is having issues (no idea what), this from two independent sources, one in Seattle, one in Pittsburgh.
Is this firmwide or specific to those offices?
No idea.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:06 am
by Anonymous User
Finnegan. Financial issues and mass departures from partners over the past 5 years.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:35 am
by Anonymous User
Cadwalader. The firm has been slowly but painfully falling apart the past few years. Their vintage shtick tricks people into choosing them over better firms each year, but don't fall for it.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:43 am
by Anonymous User
Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:07 am
by Anonymous User
Dechert - laid off many of its first years without even giving them 3 months severance, and time on the website because of financial trouble. Despite downsizing, the firm subsequently denied having financial trouble and told people the first years were incompetent. Starting here without your eyes wide open is reckless and a potentially career altering mistake.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:20 am
by Anonymous User
DeMihiNonCuratLex wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.
K&L Gates is having issues (no idea what), this from two independent sources, one in Seattle, one in Pittsburgh.
Is this firmwide or specific to those offices?
K&L Gates is always having issues.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:21 am
by SFSpartan
DeMihiNonCuratLex wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:With interview season ramping up for 2L's, I figured it would be a good time to get a thread going where people can share if there's any firms that they've heard rumors about being on shaky financial ground. Definitely a nightmare for a summer to have their offer revoked, or to have their firm go under.
K&L Gates is having issues (no idea what), this from two independent sources, one in Seattle, one in Pittsburgh.
Is this firmwide or specific to those offices?
Pittsburgh is the mothership, so I'm guessing the issues are firmwide. Also, K&L has reportedly had firmwide issues for years...

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:22 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:40 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."
For the record, they no-offered nearly a quarter of their summers in 2016. When most firms have offer rates in the 95%-100% range and NRF is at 77.5% (38 of 49), the decision is easy to skip them if you have another offer.

ETA: I was one of those that were no-offered and I know it wasn't the quality of my work.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:42 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."
The Texas offices are bleeding litigation partners and associates and the associates who have lateraled often come relatively inexperienced because they weren't getting work. I don't know if NY is significantly different from TX but the associates I've talked to here have all said to stay far away.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:44 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."
The Texas offices are bleeding litigation partners and associates and the associates who have lateraled often come relatively inexperienced because they weren't getting work. I don't know if NY is significantly different from TX but the associates I've talked to here have all said to stay far away.
Nope, I can confirm that at least 10 NY partners have left in the last month as well.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:26 pm
by SmokeytheBear
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."
The Texas offices are bleeding litigation partners and associates and the associates who have lateraled often come relatively inexperienced because they weren't getting work. I don't know if NY is significantly different from TX but the associates I've talked to here have all said to stay far away.
Nope, I can confirm that at least 10 NY partners have left in the last month as well.
Jesus.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:32 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Norton Rose Fullbright. They are super shaky financially, and have no offered a good chunk of their class in recent years. If I was going into OCI, I'd only go here if I had no other option.
NY office had 20 Summers after the merger and offered 100% this year...Yes I'm defending my firm but its not "super shaky financially."
The Texas offices are bleeding litigation partners and associates and the associates who have lateraled often come relatively inexperienced because they weren't getting work. I don't know if NY is significantly different from TX but the associates I've talked to here have all said to stay far away.
Nope, I can confirm that at least 10 NY partners have left in the last month as well.
A pretty significant group of 6-8 NRF TX transactional partners left for Baker Botts.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:33 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:Finnegan. Financial issues and mass departures from partners over the past 5 years.
Could you share more, anon? Very curious.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:05 pm
by Anonymous User
Does anyone know what's going on with Sidley DC?

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:10 pm
by Anonymous User
Anyone with anything specific to Boston offices?

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:28 pm
by Anonymous User
Dykema no offered a huge chunk of their summer class last year, and waited until early September to do it.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:32 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know what's going on with Sidley DC?
Sidley in general is weird with offers. They never have a 100% offer rate at all their offices. And based on prior NALP history, they have no-offered at least one person at every office at some point in the past few years.

Good firm, but they definitely seem to be more strict on offers than their peers.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:34 pm
by Anonymous User
Anyone have details about San Diego offices. Nalp states that Sheppard gave 4/5 offers in 2016. Not sure if that's because they over-hired or just a very poor summer associate. Also read somewhere here a while back that the Paul Hastings SD office should be avoided because of its toxic environment. Any details would be appreciated. Also on DLA Piper too. Thanks.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:37 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:Anyone with anything specific to Boston offices?
Dechert Boston is obviously struggling like the rest of the firm. Ropes & Gray is still the best in town, but they recently kicked out their entire patent prosecution group.

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:57 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Anyone with anything specific to Boston offices?
Dechert Boston is obviously struggling like the rest of the firm. Ropes & Gray is still the best in town, but they recently kicked out their entire patent prosecution group.
Don't think this bodes well for Nixon Peabody either:

http://abovethelaw.com/2017/08/biglaw-f ... nterviews/

Re: Law Firms to Stay Away From

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:58 pm
by Wild Card
Everybody is always shitting on Paul Hastings, but plenty would be happy to accept an offer from a V22 firm.