Comments on: Grade Report http://lawshucks.com/2009/08/grade-report/ A self-deprecating look at life in and after BigLaw Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:10:05 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Superfly http://lawshucks.com/2009/08/grade-report/#comment-1747 Superfly Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:34:17 +0000 http://lawshucks.com/?p=2691#comment-1747 My firm has laid off many good associates and kept a surfeit of bad ones. Why that is I have no idea. My take is that the smart people who are likely to leave anyway are the ones who get cut here. But many lawyers are pompous and dumb, so they need to rely on the perceived assessment of someone else in trying to decide whether to hire someone. I've heard several recruiters state "many firms have used the economy as an excuse to layoff poor associates." Yeah, whatever, like a legal recruiter - who is more times than not a failed lawyer - knows anything. Can you imagine Morgan Stanley not interviewing a Goldman Sachs banker doing securitization work if Goldman had laid that person off? It's absurd - it won't happen. Morgan will make their own assessment of the candidate. People are cut for a lot of reasons n addition to performance. My firm has laid off many good associates and kept a surfeit of bad ones. Why that is I have no idea. My take is that the smart people who are likely to leave anyway are the ones who get cut here. But many lawyers are pompous and dumb, so they need to rely on the perceived assessment of someone else in trying to decide whether to hire someone. I've heard several recruiters state "many firms have used the economy as an excuse to layoff poor associates." Yeah, whatever, like a legal recruiter – who is more times than not a failed lawyer – knows anything.

Can you imagine Morgan Stanley not interviewing a Goldman Sachs banker doing securitization work if Goldman had laid that person off? It's absurd – it won't happen. Morgan will make their own assessment of the candidate. People are cut for a lot of reasons n addition to performance.

]]> By: Anna http://lawshucks.com/2009/08/grade-report/#comment-1058 Anna Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:33:23 +0000 http://lawshucks.com/?p=2691#comment-1058 I really hope that the "currently employed" comment is just an oversight left over from "typical" language used during the boom times, and that it was just a thoughtless move on the part of the recruiter to use that language instead of adjusting it for the times. I haven't gone on that many interviews with small firms (there haven't been that many places hiring period and I'm focusing on non-private sector employment), but I know that for the one I did, their attitude was "BIGLAW is in a big mess of their own doing and taking it out on associates." I had hoped that this attitude would be more prevalent than the "only the bottom 10% get fired" attitude sometimes demonstrated on Above the Law. I really hope that the "currently employed" comment is just an oversight left over from "typical" language used during the boom times, and that it was just a thoughtless move on the part of the recruiter to use that language instead of adjusting it for the times. I haven't gone on that many interviews with small firms (there haven't been that many places hiring period and I'm focusing on non-private sector employment), but I know that for the one I did, their attitude was "BIGLAW is in a big mess of their own doing and taking it out on associates." I had hoped that this attitude would be more prevalent than the "only the bottom 10% get fired" attitude sometimes demonstrated on Above the Law.

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