Kirkland (Houston) Associate - Taking Questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

[Anonymous User]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

Did you think that they were going to tell you if you should panic? I don't think i'm particularly self-serving and tend to believe that telling summers the truth is the right approach, but unless you are personal/family friends with me from before law school, there is no way I tell a summer if i'm panicking or think there is a reason they should panic about my firm. Again, not saying that you should necessarily panic about Latham, just saying that you should take everything they say in that regard with a huge grain of salt. Everyone has seen what Latham did to its incoming associates during the last recession. You're kidding yourself if you think they wouldn't consider doing it again if they needed to.

As to the yearly numbers, they don't mean much and can be easily manipulated. As an example, imagine how the relationship with a big client like ETP works--it is very unusual that a single partner is truly responsible for that relationship (and indeed the original relationship partner may be older and magnanimous in that he/she gives credit to younger partners for some of the work as they do most of the servicing of the work). As a result, when you present numbers about one individual's value relative to the rest of the office, you can skew it either way depending on who you want to say the client belongs to. Will that big relationship leave (again, no idea if ETP is a Wheeler client, just using them as an example I found in a quick look at his bio page online) with him immediately, slowly or not at all--hard to say. Just a warning to take everything you hear (on all sides) with a grain of salt and a bit of skepticism.

[OneTwoThreeFour]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

Again, I'm sure you'll be fine but not because of the yearly numbers you were shown. But rather because I think the market is doing well in Texas and it will (hopefully) be some time before a serious correction.

In fact, after losing a major rainmaker the phrase "past results do not guarantee future performance" should be front-and-center in your mind. Past yearly numbers mean nothing. Latham (and other firms) had great numbers in 2007. It did not mean shit in 2009, when they laid off 12% of associates (including a significant number of first years). (SOURCE: https://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/nationw ... 250-staff/).

Other firms downsized too. But please don't believe that past financial health is indicative of future stability, at any firm.

[BlackAndOrange84]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

Again, I'm sure you'll be fine but not because of the yearly numbers you were shown. But rather because I think the market is doing well in Texas and it will (hopefully) be some time before a serious correction.

In fact, after losing a major rainmaker the phrase "past results do not guarantee future performance" should be front-and-center in your mind. Past yearly numbers mean nothing. Latham (and other firms) had great numbers in 2007. It did not mean shit in 2009, when they laid off 12% of associates (including a significant number of first years). (SOURCE: https://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/nationw ... 250-staff/).

Other firms downsized too. But please don't believe that past financial health is indicative of future stability, at any firm.

I've heard this from other summers and associates at other Latham offices, that some partner or senior associate convincingly told them that Latham was done Lathaming and would take care of its people in the next downturn. Don't believe it. Latham gonna Latham.

[Anonymous User]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

Again, I'm sure you'll be fine but not because of the yearly numbers you were shown. But rather because I think the market is doing well in Texas and it will (hopefully) be some time before a serious correction.

In fact, after losing a major rainmaker the phrase "past results do not guarantee future performance" should be front-and-center in your mind. Past yearly numbers mean nothing. Latham (and other firms) had great numbers in 2007. It did not mean shit in 2009, when they laid off 12% of associates (including a significant number of first years). (SOURCE: https://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/nationw ... 250-staff/).

Other firms downsized too. But please don't believe that past financial health is indicative of future stability, at any firm.

I've heard this from other summers and associates at other Latham offices, that some partner or senior associate convincingly told them that Latham was done Lathaming and would take care of its people in the next downturn. Don't believe it. Latham gonna Latham.

If O&G goes bad a lot of firms that have been growing Texas offices over the last few years are going to do their own version of Lathaming. I need a minimum of 2 years and I feel confident at this point that I'll be able to get that at Latham

[BlackAndOrange84]

If I'm supposed to be starting work at Latham Houston in the next few months should I be concerned with that Houston office right now? I was taking and then recovering from the bar so I just saw the Sean Wheeler announcement.

this post was me and I know everyone looking at houston is looking at this thread so I want to hijack for a second and follow up about Latham.

I ended up calling 2 associates that I felt close with and who encouraged me to speak with a partner (my primary partner-recruiter) and I'm feeling much better and very confident about the office. They gave me yearly numbers and i'm not worried about the Latham Houston now.

Again, I'm sure you'll be fine but not because of the yearly numbers you were shown. But rather because I think the market is doing well in Texas and it will (hopefully) be some time before a serious correction.

In fact, after losing a major rainmaker the phrase "past results do not guarantee future performance" should be front-and-center in your mind. Past yearly numbers mean nothing. Latham (and other firms) had great numbers in 2007. It did not mean shit in 2009, when they laid off 12% of associates (including a significant number of first years). (SOURCE: https://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/nationw ... 250-staff/).

Other firms downsized too. But please don't believe that past financial health is indicative of future stability, at any firm.

I've heard this from other summers and associates at other Latham offices, that some partner or senior associate convincingly told them that Latham was done Lathaming and would take care of its people in the next downturn. Don't believe it. Latham gonna Latham.

If O&G goes bad a lot of firms that have been growing Texas offices over the last few years are going to do their own version of Lathaming. I need a minimum of 2 years and I feel confident at this point that I'll be able to get that at Latham

There will be layoffs, yes, but as far as I know, no firm cut loose so many associates in their first and second years as Latham did. Don't fool yourself into thinking that Latham just did what all firms did. They didn't. It was different. If you want to brush up on why "to Latham" has become a verb take a look at a couple of the older threads on it:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=124209
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=166517
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=159535

ETA: See also http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... t#p3243463