Squire, Sanders & Dempsey already deferred its incoming class of 2009 to January 2010. Yesterday, the firm informed half of those incoming associates that they were getting the Bird — i.e., the firm indefinitely deferred half of its incoming class.

But before the firm decides what it will do with half of its incoming associates, Squire Sanders needs to make a decision about whether to keep its current associates. SSD’s chairman, James J. Maiwurm, told associates to expect layoffs over the next 45 days.

Above the Law has received the official Squire Sanders statement. Take a look after the jump.

Here we are. The end of the Vault 100.

To be on the Vault 100 is to be a well-known firm. Sure, maybe not well-known to law students or junior associates who can’t see past the mountain of doc review boxes in their windowless conference rooms. But known to partners … and clients. Look down your nose at these firms if you wish, but remember the old African proverb: “The smallest elephant can still crush your Lexus.”

Here is the final batch of top law firms for discussion:

91. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
92. Blank Rome
93. Seyfarth Shaw
94. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
95. Manatt Phelps & Phillips
96. Squire Sanders & Dempsey
97. Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
98. Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler
99. Wiley Rein
100. Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo

What say you about these fine firms? Some final thoughts after the jump.

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has already canceled its 2010 summer program. We received information that Squire Sanders decided not to extend offers to anybody in its 2009 class. A tipster reports:

SSD no-offered EVERYONE this year. This isn’t that surprising given that they’ve deferred this year’s class, canceled their 2Ls who were supposed to return for a cameo and have scrapped summer 2010 already. The hiring partner cited the economy and said that they are making no offers at this time but are keeping everyone on an “offer eligible” list for a potential look again some time in the future.

Our tipsters report that this decision came down yesterday.

Above the Law asked the firm about its decision. Apparently, the firm has had a change of heart.

After the jump, Squire Sanders’s new offer plan, and reports of additional stealth layoffs at the firm.

Just last week, Ballard Spahr was sending around inspirational messages to its associates. Today, the firm has decided to cancel its 2010 Summer Program.

Thompson Hine has also decided to cancel its 2010 Summer Program. If nothing else the move should give Rogue Associate an opportunity to comment.

It’s one thing to cancel your entire summer program. But what is surprising about Ballard Spahr and Thompson Hine is that the firms did not make any formal, official announcement about the decision. Instead, students learned the information from their respective law school recruiting offices.

Update (1:04): Now Squire Sanders is also canceling its 2010 Summer Program. More details after the jump.

Here’s the Ballard Spahr “announcement” (via Penn Law School):

Dear Students, As we near the close of bidding, we wanted to provide you with an update on schedule changes that we received so far today. Akin Gump went from 40 interview slots in NYC and 40 interview slots in DC to 20 interview slots in NYC and 20 interview slots in DC.

Paul Weiss went from 80 interview slots to 60 interview slots.

Ballard Spahr will not have a 2010 summer program and, as such, has canceled on campus interviews.

All of this information is updated in Symplicity. Please note that we will continue to provide you with updates as is feasible. However, it may not be possible for us to email you with all changes so please be sure to check Symplicity before bidding closes tomorrow, July 21st at 11:59 p.m.

After the jump, we see that Duke students were the first to learn about the Thompson Hine cancellation.

Since the recession began hitting the legal industry, we at Above the Law have received various reports alleging gender or racial discrimination when it comes time for firms to fire associates. Some of our sources have claimed that the rounds of layoffs have disproportionately affect women or racial minorities. Usually, these sources have sparse statistical evidence to back up their claims.

Conversely, other sources have claimed that the layoffs are disproportionately affecting white males. They claim that firms are loath to fire women or minorities, for fear of employment discrimination lawsuits. Again, these sources lack numbers to support their fears.

Well, this week we received some hard data.

In April we reported that Squire Sanders laid off around 30 associates. The final official number of layoffs turned out to be 32 attorneys. But of those 32 attorneys, 20 of them were women. It’s surprising to see 62.5% of firm layoffs affect women.

Did the Squire Sanders layoffs have a disparate impact on women? Of course, numbers don’t tell the full story. And Squire Sanders has some numbers of its own that helps to explain this situation.

Check out the details after the jump.

Yesterday, we reported that Orrick has decided to end lockstep compensation in 2010. Today, the Orrick effect claims its first soul. Above the Law has learned that Squire Sanders & Dempsey also intends to do away with lockstep compensation in 2010. They just aren’t quite sure what they will replace it with.

But why let the details of the new system stay the execution of the old system? Yesterday, SSD associates received this email from the firm:

As you will recall, when we addressed the issue of associate compensation adjustments earlier this year, we indicated that a re-thinking of our approach, generally, to associate compensation would also be in order and that we would focus more broadly on supportive associate growth and development underlying compensation decisions. We are pleased to report to you that efforts in this direction are well underway.

To provide an overview of this important initiative, we are sharing with you the enclosed memorandum summarizing our efforts to date and projected next steps. In doing so, we would appreciate your respecting the confidential nature of this internal memorandum. As emphasized in the memorandum, this initiative will be, and needs to be, a collaborative effort. We welcome your comments and suggestions, and your participation as we move forward.

Above the Law has also obtained the “enclosed memorandum.” It’s heavy on the ills of lockstep, light on the benefits of the new compensation regime.

More details after the jump.

Way back in December, long before the cool kids started doing it, Squire Sanders & Dempsey froze associate salaries.

Having already frozen salaries, Squire Sanders is now cutting them outright. Tipsters report that the firm has announced a 10% reduction in associate salaries across the board. The cuts will start in May.

You’ll remember that Squire Sanders was very reluctant to raise salaries in the first place. So it’s not entirely surprising that the firm is showing no hesitation to cut salaries given the opportunity.

But just in case some Squire Sanders associates think about complaining, the firm also fired a number of people.

Additional details after the jump.

Squire Sanders was one of the first firms to figure out freezing associate salaries would be tolerable given the current economic situation. I don’t know if the firm will be a trend setter here as well, but the latest news from the firm seems to be in keeping with the general theme of terrible market conditions.

We’ve already reported that Squire Sanders pushed back start dates for its incoming first year associates.

Now the firm is shortening its summer program to seven weeks. But that’s not all. More details after the jump.

As we mentioned earlier this week, it looks like firms are taking a small break from layoffs to focus on people who aren’t even employed yet. 3Ls who hoped to start working this fall and 2Ls who dream about summer lunches in bunches continue to be sorely disappointed.

The latest firm to push back start dates for incoming first years is Squire Sanders. The firm confirmed the news earlier today. A firm spokesperson released this statement to Above the Law:

We moved start dates to January 19, 2010. As we have advised those affected by our decision, while this is unwelcome news, we know you are aware of the unprecedented challenges facing businesses around the world, including law firms. Though we believe our firm is well positioned in the long term to deal with the current severe economic downturn, we are not immune from it. Our client base remains a very strong one, and we are actively pursuing and achieving new opportunities. We hope to emerge from this economic downturn as an even stronger firm.

Squire Sanders was one of the original gangsters on the salary freeze front. But this time, they are rolling right along with many firms that have already pushed back start dates.

After the jump, we move onto the 2Ls.

As we noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, even the New York Times has taken note of the salary freeze trend at law firms. The Times reached out to Above The Law’s own David Lat for the story:

Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, a blog about law firms and the profession.

“There is this sense that firms didn’t act prudently during the boom and now they are getting religion, and that it’s better late than never,” Mr. Lat said. “Many associates we have spoken to think the freeze probably saved jobs.”

At the beginning of the month, we did a round-up of firms that have frozen 2009 salary rates at 2008 levels. That list was 16 firms long. Since then, quite a few other firms have announced freezes. Due to frequent requests, we’re updating the round-up list since the number of firms with freezes (that we know of) has more than doubled, to 33 32. Check out the as-comprehensive-as-we-can-make-it list, after the jump.

Recently announced salary freezes include “solid ice freezes” at Blank Rome and Townsend and Townsend and Crew; and “Slurpee freezes” at Bingham McCutchen, Fish & Richardson, and Texan firm Andrews Kurth.

Memorandums, as well as a new list of all firms with “solid ice” and “Slurpee” freezes, after the jump.

Yesterday’s staff layoff post generated a lot of tips and rumors. Please keep them coming. It appears that staffs are taking it on the chin even worse than associates and partner profit margins.

While we are still playing “fact or fiction” with some of the rumors, we can now report these additional staff reductions around the world of Biglaw.

First off, Julie Kay at the National Law Journal reports that Squire Sanders laid off a number of staff from a variety of positions:

Alvin Davis, managing partner of Squire Sanders’ Miami office, said on Friday that Miami employees laid off at the firm on Thursday include “a couple runners, some staffers and a few people in accounting.”

Times are so bad firms can’t even afford the accountants who tell them how bad times are.

There were conflicting reports as to whether any attorneys got caught in the crossfire:

But while Davis said no lawyers were laid off, sources inside the firm said that lawyers indeed had been laid off, but were still working at the firm until they find jobs elsewhere.

After the jump, more staff layoff news.

The memo below was sent to us by a tipster, with this prefatory comment: “No one really knows what the f*** the second half of the first sentence of the memo means.”

So, dear readers: What does this language mean? The most literal interpretation is that Squire Sanders will resist associate pay raises in 2009 — e.g., it won’t go along with any “NY to 190” movement started by another firm. The overall associate pay schedule will remain unchanged, at least at SSD.

But that’s a bit obvious. Given the dire economic conditions, reflected in Squire’s decision to lay off 30 employees last month, it makes more sense to view this language as a poorly worded attempt to announce a year-long salary freeze (i.e., not giving associates the customary January increases in base salary to reflect their greater seniority).

If it’s a pay freeze announcement, SSD isn’t the first firm to travel down this path (although they are going the farthest). McDermott Will & Emery is freezing salaries until March (at least); Bryan Cave is freezing them until April. Womble Carlyle is freezing salaries for the first half of 2009 (at least).

We have an inquiry in to Squire Sanders partner Timothy Sheeran, who sent the memo. In the meantime, your attempts to parse this language are welcome in the comments.

P.S. Presumably all the bailout-related work the firm is getting isn’t making up for lost work in other practice areas.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of salary freezes

More bad news today, this time from Squire Sanders.

Multiple sources reported massive layoffs at Squire Sanders yesterday. The firm has confirmed that 30 associates and paralegals were let go:

We have completed annual reviews of all of our associates and, as a result of that process and with regret have advised some of our associates that they should explore career opportunities elsewhere and we are giving them time to do so. About 30 associates and paralegals will be affected firmwide,including three associates in Phoenix. This is a higher number than usual leaving following performance reviews. Admittedly, current and projected business conditions influenced the timing of these decisions. Like all firms, we are forced to align our resource capabilities with project client service levels and make some hard personnel decisions. That may sound harsh to some and sound like a ‘lay off’ to others but we are working closely with all professionals affected and providing support and assistance.

The Phoenix news is significant. Markets like Phoenix (and Tampa, another Squire branch location) are hurting (because of the housing market) but have not yet felt the brunt of Biglaw layoffs.

We understand that the targets of the cuts were more expensive senior associates. We don’t have any word on what severance package Squire Sanders is offering.

From the firm’s statement, it looks like another case of “forced attrition.”

After the jump, we look into the recent past of Squire Sanders.

The latest bailout news is making Simpson Thacher’s $300,000 contract to advise the Treasury Department on the $700 billion bailout plan look even more like chump change.

We wrote before about firms that were offered bailout love. Well, Reuters reports that Hughes Hubbard and Squire Sanders are going to get mad bailout love, to the tune of $11 million:

Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP have each been awarded a contract for roughly $5.5 million to help shepherd about 2,000 financial firms through the program that would see the government buy company shares, the Treasury Department said on Monday.

Looks like Hughes Hubbard’s strategizing with the acquisition of boutique bankruptcy firm Luskin, Stern & Eisler may have paid off.

Two law firms to help U.S. Treasury dole out aid [Reuters]
The End of Bailout Transparency Already? [BailoutSleuth via WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: The Firms That Were Offered Bailout Love
Musical Chairs: Hughes Hubbard Is Ready For Some Action

Here is yet another rumor — somewhat better sourced than the Thacher Proffitt / King & Spalding rumor, but a rumor nonetheless — about a possible law firm merger.

Word on the street is that Seyfarth Shaw is seeking a merger partner. This should not come as a shock, since Seyfarth has been stumbling a bit due to the downturn. As previously reported, the firm has pushed back start dates and trimmed its lawyer ranks.

The Seyfarth partnership recently returned from its retreat, where strategic opportunities were discussed. The scuttlebutt is that the firm is in “serious” merger talks with another firm of roughly equal size. Upon information and belief, that firm is Squire Sanders.

Both firms hover around the 800-attorney mark. The product of their merger — nicknamed “S4” by one tipster, standing for either “Seyfarth Shaw Squire Sanders” or “Squire Sanders Seyfarth Shaw” — would be a 1600-lawyer behemoth. The combination would give Seyfarth a coveted foothold in Bratislava.

Associate meetings were held in all Seyfarth Shaw offices earlier this afternoon. Associates were briefed on the retreat and told about ongoing merger talks with another firm. Details are scarce; the confidential nature of the merger talks was stressed to the associates “about a dozen times.”

Whether these talks will bear fruit is anyone’s guess. Lately law-firm merger talks have been falling at a high rate.

We’ll keep you posted. If you have any info to share, please email us. Thanks.

Earlier today we reported that Squire, Sanders & Dempsey extended offers to 76% of their summer class, but that an untold number of those summers received staff attorney offers.

Well, after an initial “no comment” on the staff attorney question, Squire Sanders decided to clarify their statement:

The firm made one staff attorney offer. The offer was extended to accommodate a law student’s interest in a practice area that was only hiring staff attorneys for 2009. We did not include the staff attorney offer when we reported to you that 76% of the summer associates received associate offers. We intend to report associate offer numbers to NALP excluding the staff attorney offer as well.

There you go. At least the 24% of the class that was no-offered do not have to feel as bad about themselves as some commenters suggested.

I guess I can stop screaming at NALP about the purity of their report.

Earlier: Nationwide No Offer Watch: Squire Sanders

The no-offer reports keep rolling in from our readers, but one tip about Squire, Sanders & Dempsey stopped us in our tracks:

[A summer associate] at Squire Sanders got offered a staff attorney position. Apparently one-third of the class got real offers, some got staff attorney offers, and the rest?

Staff attorney — i.e., a job with a significantly lower salary than an associate position, featuring endless document review and discovery work, and without any prospect of promotion to partnership. Is that a cold offer, or a coldcock?

Or is it “creative accounting” for purposes of reporting to NALP, which collects and publishes data about summer associate programs? Presumably Squire Sanders will count the staff attorney “offers” in the number of full-time employment offers made to summer associates that it reports to NALP. But bringing the summers on as staff attorneys rather than associates will save the firm a lot of money. This is one of the most creative ways of dealing with the downturn that we’ve come across.

Squire Sanders spokesperson Drez Jennings provided us with a prompt and direct response:

[W]e made offers to 76 percent of the summers, and no offers to 24 percent.

Ouch. No-offering a quarter of your class is already pretty harsh.

Jennings declined to comment on the staff attorney question (even though it was explicitly presented), leaving ATL readers to speculate on how many, if any, of Squire Sanders summer offers were for staff attorney positions.

More on Squire Sanders and staff attorneys, after the jump.

This marks the end of our review of the firms in the Vault 100. This is the final bunch up for discussion (with prestige scores in parentheses):

91. Lovells (4.494)
92. Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP (4.489)
93. Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP (4.478)
94. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP (4.459)
95. Kilpatrick Stockton LLP (4.452)
96. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP (4.439)
97. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP (4.421)
98. Seyfarth Shaw (4.399)
99. Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC (4.394)
100. Fenwick & West LLP (4.373)

Discuss. Dissect. Compare. Contrast. Most of all, enjoy.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

From the Department of Astute Observations:

“Some former Steel Hector partners suggested it may have been unwise to make a large loan to a partner allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy.”

Ya think?

Firm Sues Estate of Dead Lawyer for Loan Repayment [Daily Business Review (Miami / South Florida)]

In late March, we made a special shout-out to Squire Sanders & Dempsey. It hadn’t participated in the latest round of associate pay raises, and several of you had complained about that to us. So we highlighted their presence on the LIST OF SHAME.

Weeks and weeks passed. But now, after taking its sweet time about it, the firm has followed suit. From a tipster:

Squire Sanders raised salaries last Friday. In Miami, they joined Holland & Knight, among others, at $130k for first years (a $15k raise). They raised senior associates by $20k.

All associates in Miami are still well behind Weil Gotshal and Boies Schiller (at $160k), somewhat behind Hunton & Williams and McDermott Will (at $145k), and just behind Greenberg Traurig (at $135k). Apparently, they’re content to be third-to-fourth tier. But something is something.

No idea how the raises shook out at other offices, but I do know that they occurred.

If you happen to know what Squire Sanders did in its other offices, please add comments to this post.

Earlier: Skaddenfreude: What’s Up With Squire Sanders?