Hell Hath No Fury Like Ex-Bingham McCutchen Associates
Remember those Bingham McCutchen associates who took buyouts and left the firm? They're royally p.o.'ed about this article, and they want to set The Record[er] straight about the circumstances surrounding their departures.
Check out their angry letter to The Recorder, plus additional information from an ATL tipster concerning how these buyouts were mishandled, after the jump.
According to an ATL source, here's what REALLY happened with the associate buyouts:
The real story that the Recorder just got wrong. The SF office has been very slow, and there was talk about creative solutions to avoid laying off associates. An associate during a senior class meeting suggested voluntary departures with severance. The suggestion went up the chain, and it was approved, but wink wink, there was no program. Associates had to ask for the deal individually. Once they requested the deal, they got it, unless they were on probation or in bad standing, etc. This was done to insure that no one would get burned if they requested it.Here is the key: management was expecting associates they wanted out to request the deal. But the 6 associates that requested and got the deal were a complete shock. The SF partners were absolutely pissed that they were losing their best associates and [were stuck with] associates they wanted [to leave]. They were also surprised that the management didn't think it through more.
Finally, most of these associates were asked to stay and were told that the doors were open if they wanted to come back. These associates wanted out because of several management decisions from the East Coast affecting the SF office including pro bono, the departure and forced departure of female partners, diversity issues, etc.
We have no difficulty believing that some of the associates who took buyouts were top performers. From another source:
Look up the biographies of the "contract attorneys." One clerked for a prominent judge in the N.D. Cal., and another is a looker with a Harvard JD. Also, one of four attorneys who recently left also has a Harvard JD....
If you have anything to add, please email us (subject line: "Bingham McCutchen"). Thanks.
Bingham McCutchen Offers Buyouts to Some Associates [The Recorder via Law.com]
Comments
see, now this is actually something i would expect to find on a "legal tabloid," as opposed to SCOTUS clerk crotch-sniffing.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 19, 2007 05:07 PM
First!
Sucka.
Posted by: FIRST | June 19, 2007 05:09 PM
DAMN YOU 5:07!!
Posted by: 5:09 | June 19, 2007 05:10 PM
Atlanta to $145k!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | June 19, 2007 05:19 PM
Definitely a looker: http://www.bingham.com/Lawyer.aspx?LawyerID=390
Posted by: Anonymous | June 19, 2007 05:31 PM
I'd hit that white chick.
Posted by: Asian Guy | June 19, 2007 05:36 PM
We had a discussion in the office when the original article came out about how it was pretty low-brow to print the names of associates who (as the article led us to believe) may have been let go for possibly negative reasons. Especially when few of them (one, I think) would provide any comment to them.
Spank the Recorder!!! Spank them!!! HARDER!!!
Posted by: Spanky | June 19, 2007 05:46 PM
how much extra severance did BM pay them to write that piece...
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 05:47 PM
5:31 - Mmmmmmmmm... yummmmmy.
Posted by: LOL | June 19, 2007 05:48 PM
No azn guy you cannot has white chick.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 19, 2007 05:51 PM
eleventh!!!
Posted by: 11th | June 19, 2007 05:55 PM
eleventh! booyah!
Posted by: ELEVENTH | June 19, 2007 06:18 PM
argh! damn you 5:55!
Posted by: 6:18 | June 19, 2007 06:19 PM
why do vault and bingham both use the same weird "A" in their logos?
Posted by: hmm | June 19, 2007 06:20 PM
This whole affair is beyond pathetic.
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 06:22 PM
Any midlevel associate who still brags about their Harvard JD can't be very good.
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 06:27 PM
They were laid off. Anyone who responds like that has something to hide . . .
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 06:38 PM
better yet, why does bingham having the dumbest pictures and ads on its website
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 06:39 PM
Dayum, Mizz Gai is a hotty pitotty. I think even Lat would hit that!
Posted by: Larry's Homey | June 19, 2007 06:41 PM
Is dude's last name really Pickles? That's tremendous.
Posted by: anon | June 19, 2007 07:32 PM
Wow. I had always suspected lawyers were naturally unfit to run businesses, but I never thought it could get this bad. What were these "managers" thinking? That their dumbest, laziest, least marketable associates were going to be the ones to take the buyout? While the most competent, marketable and (in one case) good looking associates stick around? HELLO?! The ones who take the buyout are going to be the ones who can just as easily work elsewhere. Idiots. No wonder investment banking and other "business side" positions are so tough to get for attorneys. The whole business world thinks we have no common sense, much less business sense. Maybe they're right.
Posted by: Linus | June 19, 2007 07:44 PM
Todd Pickles changed his name to get away from the stain left on it by the recorder. He is now known as Buck Phutt.
Posted by: izatso? | June 19, 2007 07:44 PM
why White Girl? you'll be hungry to get drilled again in 15 minutes (next time correctly)
ps - good luck finding it
Posted by: reee heallly now | June 19, 2007 11:48 PM
6:20
That's not a weird A; it's actually a Lambda; and it represents the TriLambs from Revenge of the Nerds. The founder of Bingham and the Founder of the Vault were both in Black fraternities.
Posted by: anon | June 20, 2007 12:40 AM
I'd hit that white girl, too. Over and over. And I'd make the white guys watch and weep.
Life is beautiful.
Posted by: Black Guy from Lambda, Lambda, Lambda | June 20, 2007 01:24 AM
Lamba- good for you, take them!
More importantly, how much would you all take in severance to become a "contract attorney"? Numbers, please.
Posted by: Dude | June 20, 2007 03:19 AM
at least 100k
Posted by: a lot | June 20, 2007 03:20 AM
Do you think I can get a job as a contract attorney??? O happy day!
Posted by: Loyola3L | June 20, 2007 03:21 AM
how is a 2002 harvard JD working as a "contract attorney"?
just wondering..
Posted by: oddjob | June 20, 2007 12:43 PM
12:43 - why don't you read the article...
Posted by: Anonymous | June 20, 2007 12:46 PM
The black guy from Lambda Lambda Lambda was lamar, unless you mean one of the guys from the national office.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 20, 2007 11:47 PM
Nothing has been reported on whether the problems in the SF office of the law firm are in any way related to questions re: Title 18 U.S.C. § 2 and § 3 casting a wide net regarding alleged criminal violations under Title 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and § 153 and § 157 or Title 11 U.S.C. § 327(a). Certainly, I'm not saying that it was or that anything currently is pending on the criminal front. But assuming for the sake of argument that there was a possible big problem for some at the firm, it wouldn't seem strange for some to abandon ship. Especially for those associates with good prospects elsewhere. Perhaps AboveTheLaw's contacts can illucidate for us?
Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2007 12:40 AM