Law Practice Management
K&L Gates Chairman Says Fordham Dean Needs to Join the 21st Century
Posted Aug 21, 2009 8:06 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The chairman of K&L Gates is blasting Fordham’s law dean for his decision to ban Reed Smith from campus interviews for five years.
“Someone should welcome the dean of Fordham Law School to the 21st century,” K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis wrote the Pittsburgh Business Journal in an e-mail.
Fordham Dean William Michael Treanor imposed the five-year ban on Reed Smith earlier this month because of the firm’s late cancellation of on-campus interviews. Treanor said in a memo to students that the move conveyed a “lack of professionalism” and the firm should have made its decision earlier.
Reed Smith managing partner Gregory Jordan struck a conciliatory tone in an interview with the Pittsburgh Business Journal, saying he planned to meet with Treanor and noting “issues generated by the global recession.”
But K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis wasn’t reluctant to criticize.
“There was nothing wrong with Reed Smith’s cancellation of interviews,” he told the Business Journal. “By contrast, there is plenty wrong with the law school establishment making law firms guess about their hiring needs a couple of years ahead of time. What other industry operates in such a foolish way? None I can think of.”
- How B of A’s GC Got Fired: Leave Now, and Leave Your BlackBerry Behind
- Schools Ranked by 'Super Lawyers' Produced
- Law Firm Price Wars Break Out as Some Try ‘Loss Leader’ Bids for Work
- Five Questions for Law Firms Abandoning Lockstep Compensation
- Judge Jails 2 Attorneys for Contempt in 4 Days
- Reed Smith Will Ask Nonequity Partners to Pony Up Possibly 15% of Pay
- Court Deputy Ordered to Apologize or Face Jail After Taking Lawyer's Paperwork
- Skadden Jumps on the Bonus Bandwagon
- ABA Executive Director Resigns
- Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs
Should Supreme Court Justices Be Able to Review News Accounts Before Publication?
Comments
Asha
Aug 21, 2009 8:15 AM CST
It’s not the LAW SCHOOLS that make the process occur so early…it’s the FIRMS! Get over yourself.
Flag this comment
Michael
Aug 21, 2009 9:39 AM CST
Asha is right. These firms use up young lawyers and spit them out. Cancelling at the 11th hour is unprofessional. It is just evidence of how expendable the Reed Smith’s of the legal world view young lawyers and their furures. Glad the Dean called them out on it.
Flag this comment
da guv
Aug 21, 2009 9:46 AM CST
Would the Dean prefer that the law firm conduct charade interviews—wasting the time of 20 Law students—rather than cancel, even if it concludes it will not be hiring next year?
Flag this comment
Esq.
Aug 21, 2009 10:01 AM CST
I agree with Kalis. Fordham Law is absolutely biting the hand that feeds it. Especially in an economy where legal jobs are already scarce, and because there is so much competion from grads from the half-dozen higher ranked northeastern law schools.
If Fordham wants to take a stand, it ought to be against those firms that rescind offers made to students. But to insist that a firm for whom Fordham students are not a priority to go through the motions of interviewing its students is a pointless exercise.
And I frankly can’t understand why Fordham even started a press war on this issue.
Flag this comment
Smarter Than Debra
Aug 21, 2009 10:17 AM CST
The author misleadingly uses the word “another” when she states: “The chairman of K&L Gates is blasting Fordham’s law dean for his decision to ban another law firm from campus interviews for five years.” Because of her use of “another,” I fully expected Fordham’s out-of-touch dean to have kicked another firm off campus for 5 years.
Flag this comment
Joe
Aug 21, 2009 10:36 AM CST
I think Reed Smith should just never worry about Fordham ever again. It is not like they can not fill the spots with other well qualified law students from other schools. Fordham is a joke. It is the most overrated law school in NYC. Maybe some of the other big firms, like K&L Gates, should walk away from Fordham too. Show Fordham who needs who! Fordham is just trying to get their name in the press. How many firms that have rsecinded offers have they also banned?
Flag this comment
Bart
Aug 21, 2009 10:50 AM CST
Fordham may have made a decision that was economically imprudent and may have a negative impact on its student’s job prospects in the short term, but that certainly does not make Reed-Smith’s arrogant last minute cancellation right. Nor does it make Kalis’ comments correct. Reed Smith was wrong and should apologize - Fordham’s Dean should have acted with more prudence in expressing that, in a manner less likely to cause harm to the students’ job prospects.
Flag this comment
Fordham Alum
Aug 21, 2009 10:50 AM CST
Dean Treanor may have a valid point. Then again, Dean Treanor may think he’s looking out for his students’ best interests, but the only people going to get hurt will be Fordham students.
Joe, I think you’re right on the money about Fordham getting its name in the press. Do I think that was a primary motivating, factor? No, but I didn’t ignore it.
The question remains to be answered: Who in their right mind hires bodies >12 months in advance of their availability to work?
Flag this comment
RS Alumnus
Aug 21, 2009 11:21 AM CST
I fail to see how Fordham is biting the hand that feeds it. First of all Reed Smith is hardly the most appealing choice of Tier 1 law school students in a healthy economy (it’s not even among the appealing choices for the higher ranked Tier 1 law schools) and, short of a coup in the firm’s management, that’s not likely to change in the next 5 years.
Second, Fordham Law School students can still directly solicit RS with their resumes. It’s not as if the firm is going to penalize the students for the actions of the law school administration and OCI interviews don’t really give any appreciable advantage to law school students.
It’s a symbolic gesture and apparently RS was concerned enough to initiate some damage control.
Kalis sounds like he is talking out of his bottom orifice but then again he has a history of doing that. It’s not the canceling of OCI participation that was at issue but the timing.
To those who ask whether it would have made sense to participate when there was no longer any intention to hire I would have to say yes. If you have a choice between doing that and canceling in the eleventh hour it’s simply a matter of professional courtesy to honor the commitment. A commitment to participate is not a commitment to hire and it’s not as if law firms have never participated in OCI programs of schools where they know they are unlikely to make any summer associate offers. It’s a 10 minute cab ride from the office to the campus and they can’t spare an associate to spend a few hours interviewing when they don’t even have enough work to give to their associates?
Flag this comment
Dagz
Aug 21, 2009 12:45 PM CST
I guess #6 is still bearing an axe because of his rejection letter from Fordham. :)
Flag this comment
K&L Refugee
Aug 21, 2009 12:58 PM CST
I’m not really surprised that Peter Kalis doesn’t understand the concept of professional courtesy. When your the global managing partner of a firm that believes loyalty is a one way street and that it is perfectly acceptable to consistently bill clients attorney fees for secretarial and clerical work, the impropriety of not honoring commitments to law schools doesn’t even show up on your radar screen.
Flag this comment
Add a Comment
We welcome your comments, but please adhere to our comment policy.
Commenting has expired on this post.