| Latham & Watkins | 633 West Fifth Street, Suite 4000, Los Angeles, CA 90071-2007 |
| www.lw.com | (213) 485-1234 Fax: (213) 891-8763 |
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Fans of the 1980s TV series L.A. Law may be able to live out their Corbin Bersen fantasies working at Latham & Watkins. This prestigious firm was the fourth highest-grossing law firm in the country in 1999.
History: the Big Bang theory
Founded in Los Angeles in 1934 by Dana Latham and Paul Watkins, the firm grew steadily over the years, employing 42 attorneys by 1969. It is Latham's relatively recent growth explosion that explains its perceived youth. The firm has doubled in size since 1987. And while the L.A. office remains its largest with 254 lawyers, the firm now counts a total of 1,001 attorneys in offices all over the world.
Latham made a name for itself in the 1980s with its work on high-yield debt structuring for the infamous junk bond king Michael Milken and his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, as well as for advising on Kohlberg Kravis Robert's (KKR) takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. But once the takeover boom went bust at the end of that decade, so too did much of Latham's business. The firm lost billing from major clients like GM Hughes Electronics Corp. and Drexel, which went bankrupt. In 1991 the firm lost its suit against a former client for alleged unpaid legal fees - and ended up paying an extra $150,000. Several months later 41 associates were laid off and partners' bonuses were slashed.
The comeback kids
But in the last few years, Latham has made a true superstar turn. Amidst troubled times, Latham pushed back, vigorously pursuing new clients before many other large firms did. It endeavored to establish a higher profile among community leaders and charitable organizations, while developing sophisticated data systems to tailor presentations to prospective clients. The firm relied on several recognizable personalities to give a face to Latham & Watkins, such as erstwhile chairman of the San Fernando Valley Board of Economic Alliance and Commissioner of the L.A. Fire Department David Fleming and the former chair of Rebuild Los Angeles, Barry Sanders. Another notable attorney is Alan Rothenberg, whose visibility in the legal field is rivalled only by his celebrity on the playing field - the Alan Rothenberg Trophy for Major League Soccer was named in recognition of his tenure as United States Soccer Federation president.
You'll get yours
The team effort has paid off in spades. The 1999 American Lawyer survey of the top 100 law firms reporting revenue for 1998 ranked Latham fourth in gross revenues with a total of $502 million, a 19.2 percent increase over the previous year. Nineteen ninety-nine brought a 15 percent increase in revenues, to $581,300,000, and $1,014,000 in profits per partner. Partners are not the only ones to profit from success; first-year salaries rose from $97,500 to $125,000 last year in all of Latham's U.S. offices. Although Latham's second-largest office is in New York (with 177 attorneys), its L.A. roots have caused many elite firms to relegate it to "outsider" status in the past. Now it seems poised to trump its East Coast competition and set its own standard.
Poaching for gold
One wonders if Latham attracts the clients it does because of its attorney roster or if it attracts its attorneys because of its client roster. Whatever the answer to this chicken-and-egg question, Latham has managed to leverage its reputation to hire a number of talented attorneys away from other elite firms. As part of its phenomenal growth in San Francisco (from four attorneys in 1990 to a projected 116 by the end of 2000), the firm announced the hiring of two new partners, Daniel Wall and Karen Silverman Johnson, both formerly of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. The move was a strategic one, bulking up Latham's antitrust practice in technology and health care. Wall is an internationally-known antitrust litigator with clients including Intel, Microsoft, and Compaq. Silverman Johnson is equally accomplished in antitrust matters, having represented Intel, Microsoft, and First Data Corporation, in addition to having extensive Hart-Scott-Rodino experience. More recently, Latham lured Alan Mendelson, Cooley Godward's top rainmaker, to its Menlo Park office.
The intellectual property departments have been stepped up, too. The firm scored a hat trick last summer when the L.A. office hired prosecutor David Schindler away from the city's U.S. Attorney's office, and the Silicon Valley branch snagged Vernon Winters from Day Casebeer Madrid Winters & Batchelder as well as Charles Crompton III from McCutchen. The three will further boost Latham's ever-improving litigation reputation. London's Michael Immordono and Olof Claussen recently bolted from corporate partnerships at Clifford Chance Roger & Wells to join Latham.
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All-day interviews
Potential summer associates usually have a 20-minute interview with an associate or partner on campus. Callbacks take place at the office to which the candidate has applied and involve a series of eight or more interviews. These last from 10 in the morning to 3 or 4 in the afternoon and are broken up with a lunch with one or two associates. "You get here in the morning, and there's an informational session to kind of go over all the basics of the firm, so you don't have to waste time going over salary or salary structure," one insider explains.
Tough to clear the 'credential hurdles'
Latham is "very picky about who is hired," according to those who made it through the process. "Not only do we look for excellent credentials, but we look for people who are self-confident, have a positive outlook, and make a good impression," offers a San Francisco associate. Others stress the importance of coming from a "name" school. "If you have some personality and graduated from a top-five school, you're a shoo-in." The opposite is true as well. One associate says, "Our new theme is 'you have to be an adult' to work here. With so many opportunities for recent law school grads, the applicants have become increasingly arrogant and self-righteous. It's annoying and insulting. It's the one thing that will have me tell the recruiting committee 'over my dead body hire this person,' and the recruiting committee listens to the associates."
While it's "obviously worse right out of school," even "laterals with strong track records often cannot clear the credential hurdles," says a New York associate. Firm leaders "will choose the bottom of the class from Harvard over top candidates from mid-tier schools," huffs an Orange County fourth-year. Some associates wonder if the firm's stringent standards have been loosened due to the avalanche of legal work from the busy market. "Latham really needs people and has become less selective," claims a DC litigator. A corporate attorney in New York gripes that "like all firms, with the hot economy and crushing amounts of work, Latham is somewhat less exacting with its standards" as of late. The firm points out that 69 percent of the entering class is hired from the recognized top-tier law schools and that it has not changed its grade cuts since the early 1990s. The firm's methods of evaluation remain cutting-edge, however - interviewers give feedback on the candidates through an electronic evaluation process.
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What goes around comes around
Latham recruiters may have managed to lure some of the best and brightest from other firms, but they are not above feeling the pinch themselves. As in many other firms, "dot com and in-house counsel mania has swept" Latham - attorneys in several offices characterize turnover as "very high." The attrition "varies by region - the Chicago office is more stable than, say, San Francisco," says a first-year in the Windy City. A corporate associate from the Bay area agrees that "dot coms, in-house positions, and other firms have recruited away many of our attorneys - decimating our ranks [by] over 30 people in the last couple of years in an office that has about 75 lawyers." A colleague adds that "it is less Latham than it is the fact that we are in San Francisco where all the firms compete with dot com companies." But the West Coast is not alone - real estate attorney in New York says that retention "was pretty good compared to other big New York firms until the dot coms [sprung up]. Now the place seems to be bleeding pretty badly."
One for all and all for one
Again and again, Latham associates emphasize the firm's commitment to a unified identity among its many far-flung offices. "For a very large firm with offices all over the world, Latham does an incredible job of maintaining a 'one firm' ethos," compliments a DC fifth-year. This philosophy "means that we are all part of the same team," says a co-worker, "and I can get staffed on a deal out of New York almost as easily as I can get staffed on a deal out of Washington. This allows for the firm to draw on greater resources and expertise. It also allows for attorneys to gain experience on other types of deals that are done out of another office."
To frat or not to frat?
Some lawyers argue that the "one-firm" mentality extends itself to a herd mentality when it comes to the firm's social scene. A number of associates suggest that Latham is "fraternity-like," although "socializing is more playing golf than [going to] bars." Many attorneys say they have some of their closest friendships with their co-workers. A corporate attorney says, "we are great friends and truly like each other in my department. It's the thing that keeps me here past all levels of disgust with the hours." A colleague in Gotham admits that "we even hang out over the weekends - for hiking, biking, shopping, going to restaurants - and yes, it's all voluntary. We genuinely like each other, and people are extremely supportive here."
Heavy demands on hours
No matter the office, Latham lawyers acknowledge that hours are a concern. While some associates say they have "never thought Latham's reputation as a sweatshop was well-deserved," the firm does have "its share of workaholics," and "client demands are very heavy." "Don't be fooled," cautions a San Francisco corporate associate. "No matter what other firms say, we are all working a lot because there is too much work and not enough associates willing to stay in law firms." Associates say the average billable hours per year is 2,200.
Decorate your heart out
One of Latham associates' favorite perks is the $500 decorating stipend they receive for their individual offices. Aside from this "wonderful benefit," assessments of facilities are all over the place. Chicago attorneys deem their space "moderate and somewhat functional but not fancy," though the "views are great." Orange County offices are "nice and the decor is new and tasteful," while neighboring inhabitants in Palo Alto laud their "large offices" and "great workstations - it's hard to tell the difference between a partner's office and an associate's office." DC associates will be moving to a new building in winter 2001 which will alleviate some of the complaints that the current conditions are "old and tired." Even New Yorkers, with offices that are "probably the least nice in the firm," "on low floors with no views," can't complain about the amount of space. Some of them even rate the place as "definitely nice."
Down with the Valley
A corporate player in Silicon Valley is blunt about the firm culture: "You either love it or you hate it. You fit in or you don't. Because we are a fairly close-knit group, I think that it would be hard if you didn't somehow fit into the group. Of course, the group is comprised of all kinds of different people - of different races, ethnicities, gender, and sexual preference - but you have to be willing to be a part of the team and be a team player." That said, a New York litigator still crows that "on a national level, we rock." Indeed, most attorneys revel in Latham's rep: "If you want to work at a big, national firm, it would be borderline insanity to go anywhere else."
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Kathy Yaffe
Legal Personnel Manager (LA)
(213) 485-1234
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