What's going on in Texas? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Malonson updated his LinkedIn!!!!

well sorta. hes still very much unemployed. but he updated his profile to include all the deals he has been a part of. LOL at all that free time he has on his hands when he's def not talking to other firms about bringing him on. talk about desperation.

1) how do you have so much time on your hands?

2) you don't work in TX, why is this such a concern to you?

3) This guy is a person. You are literally sitting here shitting on him for no reason. Do you know that after working for almost 17 years in an intense environment, he didn't want some time off after things went wrong? I know tons of associates in Houston biglaw (it feels like a pretty small world) and most everyone is extremely busy right now. There might not be tons of equity offerings, but there is tons of M&A going at the moment.

I guess the tl;dr is this, get a life, you don't know this guy's situation and you don't know the TX legal market.

[Anonymous User]

Bump for the end of March. Anyone willing to give Jan/feb/March hours numbers (and practice area)? Curious if we can start seeing a trend/gain any insights. Anecdotally, can say that associates are slow in my Houston big law firm.

[Anonymous User]

Transactional midlevel at a big 3 firm. Wrapping up back to back 200+ hour months. This would normally be my slow time of the year and I would be expecting to bill around 100 hours/month right now. YTD I think I'm a little over 550 hours.

[Anonymous User]

200/200/220. litigation. mid-level.
i wish johann knew what the hell he was talking about.

[Anonymous User]

120-88-90.

Slow as fuck. Junior corporate associate.

[Anonymous User]

120-88-90.

Slow as fuck. Junior corporate associate.

How are other juniors in your office?

[Anonymous User]

120-88-90.

Slow as fuck. Junior corporate associate.

How are other juniors in your office?

Appear to be the same, but it is a small sample size given I'm at a smaller satellite of a NY firm.

[Anonymous User]

One phenomenon in slow environments is for the lower-level work to be pushed up. So - a midlevel starts doing junior work and a partner starts doing midlevel work to build up hours. Could explain the above. Keep that data points coming all

[Anonymous User]

Transactional Junior at Big 3 - Had 130-150 for Jan. and Feb. but it's heating up now

[Anonymous User]

i think the effect of the economic slowdown wont be immediate. when energy revenue shrinks theres probably some lag before law firms feel the effect because companies usually have to take special measures (sell off less profitable subsidiary etc.) to increase profit margins at least temporarily. I dont think it's crazy to think that the legal market in Texas (maybe to a lesser extent in Austin and Dallas in that order) will eventually shrink for a couple years until energy and commodity prices go up again. And its a fact that some companies are already filing for banruptcy (these co. are in what I think you guys call the upstream segment of the oil industry) and I remember reading somewhere that many more will go bankrupt within the next few months but the big/established players will remain.

[Anonymous User]

corporate junior at Big 3, 140/250/250 feel is that everyone here is pretty busy (but that could be wrong).

[Anonymous User]

For those in corporate that are busy - would you mind elaborating what sector within corporate you are working (debt finance, M&A, etc.)? Also whether people are in Dallas/Houston/Austin would be interesting as well.

[Anonymous User]

real estate mid level at a non-big 3 firm.

150 jan/80 feb/200ish march.

[Anonymous User]

Had a sloooooooooooooooow January. Talking less than 70 hours (including some pro bono matter work). Feb was around 185, and March so far is around 130, so with a couple days left, will probably end up around 140-145.

70/185/~140. Corporate junior at non-TX based firm. Some peers are busier at the moment; others are about where I'm at. Word in the halls that work is picking up (or will in the coming weeks).

[Anonymous User]

For those in corporate that are busy - would you mind elaborating what sector within corporate you are working (debt finance, M&A, etc.)? Also whether people are in Dallas/Houston/Austin would be interesting as well.

over 550 YTD, Houston, mixture of everything. two M&A deals, one public one private, two debt offerings, and a bunch of general corporate governance for clients random requests. Plus you always have tons of 10-K/compliance work in the beginning of the year.

[Johann]

200/200/220. litigation. mid-level.
i wish johann knew what the hell he was talking about.

your firm probably collected 1/3 of this.

[Anonymous User]

Considering offer at a litigation shop in Houston. Anything to be worried about?

[Pneumonia]

Considering offer at a litigation shop in Houston. Anything to be worried about?

I'm only a 2L, but due to OCI/etc can share no-offer rates etc. Worked at a Houston Lit shop last summer, and I have several friends that did the same. Feel free to PM me if interested.

[Johann]

Considering offer at a litigation shop in Houston. Anything to be worried about?

litigation is way safer than transactional at this point in texas. if you have another tempting offer, it might be a debate, but you are probably ok.

[Pokemon]

200/200/220. litigation. mid-level.
i wish johann knew what the hell he was talking about.

your firm probably collected 1/3 of this.

I mean unless the firm is going down they will not consider layoffs if their associates are going to Bill 2400+.

[Anonymous User]

Bump for the end of March. Anyone willing to give Jan/feb/March hours numbers (and practice area)? Curious if we can start seeing a trend/gain any insights. Anecdotally, can say that associates are slow in my Houston big law firm.

Bumping this for more check-ins.

[Anonymous User]

(Anon b/c i would be outed if posted) So I talked to my buddy who is a mid level at one of the "Big 3". Apparently, the market is a tale of multiple streams. Oilfield services has been thrashed by the downturn, so firms/ practices operating with those clients are incredibly slow. By contrast, some of the PE juniors are running around with their heads on fire because of a lot of restructuring and private acquisitions.

Energy and project finance is a bit slower, but massive deals regarding new refineries, biofuels, and LNG export facilities are offsetting some of the slowness from upstream E&P.

Midstream is also heating up with consolidation, construction, and restructuring (the industry is fee-based)--so transactions there seem to be steady. But then again this is a tale of two cities as well. Levered MLPs are getting hammered on their dividend payouts. MLPs with more stable capital structures are still doing fine.

By contrast, petrochemical firms (think all of the plastics manufacturers/ any one who uses petroleum as a manufacturing input) are having a field day because the cost of their input has fallen so dramatically. Many firms in this industry slice are spending billions on capital expenses for new facilities. The thinking here is that because variable costs are so low, firms may be able to amortize away a lot more of the financing on these facilities upfront than the normally would be able to do under 'normal' circumstances.

Also, with the relaxation on exportation, there's a fair amount of international work to be had. Texas crude is less costly to refine than the trash from Canada and Venezuela

As more EPs go under, restructuring and funds who vulture in to snap up assets from ch 11 will be busy.

It's more complicated than it seems; but, if you're doing bread and butter for midcap e&p's, oilfield services, or are siloed into some sort of specialized Capital Markets practice, things are not rosy.

[Serett]

(Anon b/c i would be outed if posted) So I talked to my buddy who is a mid level at one of the "Big 3". Apparently, the market is a tale of multiple streams. Oilfield services has been thrashed by the downturn, so firms/ practices operating with those clients are incredibly slow. By contrast, some of the PE juniors are running around with their heads on fire because of a lot of restructuring and private acquisitions.

Energy and project finance is a bit slower, but massive deals regarding new refineries, biofuels, and LNG export facilities are offsetting some of the slowness from upstream E&P.

Midstream is also heating up with consolidation, construction, and restructuring (the industry is fee-based)--so transactions there seem to be steady. But then again this is a tale of two cities as well. Levered MLPs are getting hammered on their dividend payouts. MLPs with more stable capital structures are still doing fine.

By contrast, petrochemical firms (think all of the plastics manufacturers/ any one who uses petroleum as a manufacturing input) are having a field day because the cost of their input has fallen so dramatically. Many firms in this industry slice are spending billions on capital expenses for new facilities. The thinking here is that because variable costs are so low, firms may be able to amortize away a lot more of the financing on these facilities upfront than the normally would be able to do under 'normal' circumstances.

Also, with the relaxation on exportation, there's a fair amount of international work to be had. Texas crude is less costly to refine than the trash from Canada and Venezuela

As more EPs go under, restructuring and funds who vulture in to snap up assets from ch 11 will be busy.

It's more complicated than it seems; but, if you're doing bread and butter for midcap e&p's, oilfield services, or are siloed into some sort of specialized Capital Markets practice, things are not rosy.

Michael?

[Foghornleghorn]

Tag.

[Anonymous User]

Bump