Legal News

Surprise, Surprise: Mid-Level Associates Feeling ?Significant Anxiety?

By Ashby Jones

The American Lawyer’s mid-level associate survey, contained in the publication’s August issue, lands on the desks of managing partners soon.

We can’t imagine they’re looking forward to it, despite the fact that they’re just going to find out something most of them already know: mid-level associates are anxious, working less, and are much less gung-ho about their jobs than they were last year. While it’s not surprising, it is, in our opinion, saying something for a group that often seems as contented with their jobs as Terrell Owens seems with his.

According to the survey results (all of which can be found here), 83 percent of the third, fourth and fifth year associates who responded to the survey felt “significant anxiety” over losing their jobs. Forty-six percent said their work had dropped off, while 56 percent said their firm’s response to the recession had hurt associate morale.

But the survey results gave some firms reason to celebrate. Finishing first in the mid-level satisfaction survey by a good stretch: Boston’s Nutter McLennan & Fish. Rounding out the Top 10: Thompson Coburn, Patterson Belknap, Gibson Dunn, Miles & Stockbridge, Hanson Bridgett, Vorys Sater, Susman Godfrey, Ropes & Gray and Debevoise. (The Bottom 10: White & Case, Potter Anderson, Day Pitney, Katten Muchin, Winston & Strawn, Greenberg Traurig, Kaye Scholer, Fried Frank and Dewey & LeBoeuf.)

Among firms in the AmLaw 100, the Top 10 proceeds as follows, after Gibson, Ropes & Debevoise: Finnegan Henderson, Wachtell, Cleary, Faegre & Benson, Mintz Levin, Dorsey & Whitney and Paul Weiss.

The lead piece accompanying the survey, written by Rachel Breitman, spends much ink on firm openness, a factor that can have a significant effect on a firm’s rating. On Cahill Gordon, Breitman writes:

When law firm management refused to discuss layoffs, associates grew nervous. One firm that appeared to follow this model was Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Respondents said that the firm quietly let go an undisclosed number of associates in January. (Cahill declined to comment for this story.) As a result, the New York firm’s associates rated Cahill’s layoff communications a 2.6, and gave the firm a very weak 2 for openness about firm finances-the second-lowest rating of any firm. Morale at the firm also dropped, from a rating of 3.32 to 2.4. “Keep associates in the loop about how the firm is doing financially and whether or not there are likely to be additional layoffs, or other changes,” wrote one Cahill lawyer. “The asso­ciates would be more comfortable with their employment situation if the partners were more open about the firm,” said another.

Still, strangely, associates seem relatively sanguine about the future. Some 77 percent told told AmLaw they would recommend their firm to others. Given the chance, 93 percent said that they would choose to work at their firm again.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).