The American Lawyer Student Edition has published the results of its 2009 Summer Associates Survey.
Not surprisingly, the summers are stressed out and scared.
After the jump, we put the Law Shucks spin on it: correlating the summers’ rankings to the firms’ layoffs.
As usual, the layoff numbers are based on the Layoff Tracker. We know there are lots of layoffs that haven’t been reported (or confirmed), but we do the best with what we have.
First up, the Top 10 best firms, as ranked by the summers:
Not bad! Only two of the top ten have laid lawyers off, and five haven’t had any layoffs at all.
The picture at the bottom isn’t nearly so nice:
Nine of the bottom ten have had confirmed layoffs, seven of which included lawyers. It’s also some of the bigger hitters. What did Faegre do to the kids?
Turning it around, here are the top ten firms by total layoffs and their corresponding ranks in the summer survey.
Fish & Richardson wasn’t included in the summer survey for some reason.
Orrick has done the best job of avoiding layoff stigma, squeaking in at #31, just inside the top quartile. DLA Piper, Holland & Knight, and Baker & McKenzie are the only other firms to be in the top ten for layoffs and the top half of summer-associate satisfaction. That’s actually better than we expected.
Not surprisingly, White & Case, Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters, which were in the top seven of total layoffs, fared poorly, coming in near the bottom of the rankings.
So the correlation is stronger at the top – the absence of layoffs was more likely to lead to summer satisfaction than layoffs were to lead to dissatisfaction. Somehow, a few firms with significant layoffs were able to achieve decent rankings. Still, there is also some correlation at the bottom, with some of the most-visible offenders getting slammed in the rankings (although only Dechert and Faegre really plummeted from last year’s rankings – the others are habitual bottom dwellers).
Related posts:
I summered at one of the Latham offices and you'd better believe I regret my choice to go there. I wish there was a 3L OCI this year.
The internet has changed everything. Gone are the days when you can sweep 190 laid off associates + the stealths under the rug.
which office?
I was stealthed at Jones Day New York.
Is the general rule that this year's summers have "deferred" start dates, or are those the exceptions and most of this year's summers expect to start fall 2010?