Latham's 68% Drop Puts Firm Atop List of Shrinking BigLaw Summer Programs in N.Y.
After earlier news that some BigLaw firms are shrinking their summer programs by as much as 49 percent, or even, in a few cases, eliminating their summer programs entirely this year, comes word that some major law offices in New York are cutting their summer associate rosters even more.
The biggest drop is at Latham & Watkins, which has only 26 summer associates in New York this year, for a 10-week program. That’s down 68 percent from last year’s 80 summer associates, reports the New York Law Journal in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
The more than 2,000-attorney firm earlier announced layoffs of 190 lawyers and 250 staff in February, and subsequently offering incoming first-year associates $75,000 to take the year off.
Two other New York law offices have cut their summer programs by more than 50 percent. They are: Shearman & Sterling, which brought in 133 summer associates last year and now has “less than half of that number” working for nine weeks and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, which has 32 summer associates working for 10 weeks in New York this year, compared to 69 last year.
The approximately 650-attorney Fried Frank announced in late March that it was letting go 41 lawyers and 58 staff members.
Shearman & Sterling, which has just under 900 lawyers, laid off 60 support staff members in its U.S. offices in March. It also offered incoming first-years $65,000 to take the year off.
Related earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Shrinking BigLaw Summer Programs Down By As Much As 50%”
ABAJournal.com: “Will Summer Associate Programs Go by the Wayside?”
ABAJournal.com: “Are the Parties Over for Summer Associates? Firms Expected to Trim Perks”
