Posted on 01/26/2009 1:28:39 PM PST by Gracey
Edited on 01/26/2009 1:30:08 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
For years, the law firm Heller Ehrman LLP used a goofy coat of arms inside its offices: a laurel wreath, the scales of justice and a Latin quotation, elvem ipsum etiam vivere. Rough translation: Elvis Lives.
In late September, Heller Ehrman went the way of Elvis. Just two years after its most profitable year ever, the freewheeling San Francisco firm expired, closing its doors after 118 years in business.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are they civil defendants?
Hooray! Put these reprobates out on the street collecting aluminum cans.
I agree.
The reason I thought ambulance chaser is because of this comment:
“After upending a succession of U.S. industries, the recession has arrived for U.S. law firms, which have long seen themselves as partially insulated from economic downturns.”
Now that’s a coincidence — I started my “legal career” with them back in 1974....as one of their receptionists!
Exactly—most of these big firms are corporate lawyers who are tied to the business cycle. The fact they are being let go is worrisome to the prospects of recovery—fewer M&As, fewer lawsuits to enforce contracts (because fewer contracts), etc.
The ambulance chaser lawyer is typically from a small shop with a handful of associates and a large support staff. Although it is possible some of these are insurance law firms that protect the large insurance companies—the real benefactor (and instigators) of the tort reform movement.
Now that’s a coincidence — I started my “legal career” with them back in 1974....as one of their receptionists!
Interesting. Were they a small firm back then...35 years ago?
The interesting thing here? The lawyers of Thelan and Heller would be the ones your insurance company would hire to defend you in a lawsuit.
Of course, on the other hand, they’d also be the ones that your insurance company would hire to defend themselves against you for bringing a lawsuit against them if they denied you coverage.
Oh heck no, they were one of the biggest firms in NYC.
Here’s the last paragraphs. You’re correct in your first assessment as to who goes.
“Heller distributes its income to shareholders at year end. As a result, at the beginning of each year, it has to tap a bank credit line to pay salaries, rent and other expenses. As revenue rolls in, it pays down the credit line. It is usually finished by August.
Last year, however, revenue dropped off so much that it had trouble paying down its loan. By September, its debt hovered around $30 million, according to a lawyer knowledgeable about the finances. The formal departure of the intellectual-property group on Sept. 14 put Heller in breach of a loan covenant that limited the number of shareholders who could depart in a 12-month period.
On Sept. 26, with banks controlling how Heller spent its money, shareholders voted to dissolve the firm. “Employees were crying about it,” says Michael Charlson, a former shareholder. “There was an amazingly profound sense of emptiness.”
Heller hoped to wind down outside of federal bankruptcy court. But on Dec. 29, after failing to reach agreement with its lenders about terms of repayment, it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Most of Heller’s shareholders have landed at other large firms. But as of December, more than 300 former Heller employees, mostly nonlawyers, were still looking for work, according to a report by Heller’s dissolution committee.”
It’ll mostly be the high-flying set that goes out of business unless the economy become a lot worse. The founders of these firms and those who managed them for decades knew that young lawyers had to build up their experience before they were worth high incomes.
But for the past couple decades, ‘name’ law firms would hire at big salaries recent law school grads who hadn’t even yet taken the bar. A competent legal secretary was actually worth more to the firm than an inexperienced law school grad.
Lots of hard lessons to be relearned in the coming years.
One of the great PR victories is that insurance companies managed to paint consumers are “greedy frauds” when they try to enforce the policy through a lawsuit.
Not to say there aren’t examples of greedy scam artists. But there are far more examples of people grievously wronged whose lives are ruined and who suddenly find their insurnace company denying coverage.
associates at big law firms existed for the most part to bill clients at very high rates for simple document review and memorandum drafting. An associate at a small firm would make barely more than a teacher but would have a great deal more experience.
On Sept. 26, with banks controlling how Heller spent its money, shareholders voted to dissolve the firm.
99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name.
Thank you....because just the other day I had to stop a first-year "I went to Stanford" idiot from calendaring an answer to a federal complaint as due in 30 days when it was in fact due in 20 (answers in Cali state court are due in 30). IWTS lawwyer insisted what the heck did I know, did I go to law school?? I loved opening up the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to Rule 12 and sticking it under his nose and saying "READ Sparky..."
End of ESQ.
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A (very good) lawyer I deal with regularly in real estate tells me that a lot of his work now involves arbitration, mediation, and working for clients to help keep them OUT of the traditional (and costly) legal processes.
Hedge funds and law firms dying...There is an upside to this depression
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