Friday, February 25, 2011

Art Coming Down From the Walls in LA

According to an anonymous commenter, the art is being removed from the walls in the LA office.  And management is providing no news.

What's going on in your little slice of Howrey?

56 comments:

  1. Winston still has no voted. Still alot of uncertainty

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  2. Sounds like the looting has begun. Everyone grab your favorite red stapler and stock up on pens and toilet paper.

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  3. There is nothing noble about going down with the ship...Just stupid!

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  4. I agree. Anyone who goes down with the ship is turning loyalty into a vice.

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  5. Except for the support staff that might not be able to find greener pastures easily. They are the ones that are really getting screwed.

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  6. Seriously, don't quit now. You may be entitled to two months pay under the WARN Act if the firm dissolves.

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  7. A leader is not a concept,
    But the defining characteristic of
    A person or organization.

    One not content to stand on familiar ground,
    Or master the known,
    But compelled to explore the unexplored,
    Grasp for the untouched, and
    Keep the unthinkable firmly in mind.

    One who embraces Risk as the price of success,
    Change as the fuel of progress,
    Dreams as the window to the future,
    And Creativity as a sacred obligation.

    One who believes that the Extraordinary is ordinary,
    Goals have no limits,
    Values cannot be compromised, and
    Total Commitment is a way of life.

    Leaders are often misunderstood,
    Frequently criticized, sometimes derided,
    But never ignored.

    The world doesn’t always agree with them
    And they like that.

    Some think they are a little crazy,
    But that’s the human side of genius.

    For all of this they have earned our respect,
    Our confidence and a following.

    That’s why we call them Leaders.

    -Robert F. Ruyak
    Managing Partner & CEO

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  8. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that if the firm files for bankruptcy, the firm is exempt from the WARN Act. The WARN only applies to "business enterprises" operating as going concerns, not "liquidating fiduciaries." Someone more qualified than me might want to look into this.

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  9. And Ed Han (since he has no business of his own) will follow Matt Wolf wherever he goes. He's like a sad, autistic puppy dog begging for work.

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  10. This is the best news I've had all year. I am beyond ecstatic!! I wish I could get some popcorn and a big cushy chair and watch the whole thing unravel in front of me. So glad I left when I did. I can only hope some of my obnoxious ex co-workers end up on their asses without unemployment or any way to pay their bills.

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  11. "A leader is not a concept,
    But the defining characteristic of
    A person or organization."

    I always hated this. A leader is not a characteristic either, shitheads. It's telling that the guy doesn't even know the word "leadership."

    Also, I think that the support staff will have an easier time finding work than the attorneys. Excellent secretaries are difficult to find. Overpriced 3d-year associates, not so much.

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  12. Troll, but many agree with the troll :)

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  13. Well let's leave the bad wishes to only the "obnoxious" co-workers; I think most can agree on that point

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  14. Oh, come on now. Bob Ruyak certainly had SOME capabilities. I read it in his poem:

    "Grasp for the untouched, and
    Keep the unthinkable firmly in mind."

    Like stealing other peoples' money.

    I read, "The Sociopath Next Door," and I believe Bob was one of the case histories.

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  15. Matt Wolf, how is your quest to become the next managing partner? You are a genius.

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  16. I am not a troll, just someone who worked at Howrey once upon a time and didn't like what I saw, at all. And I absolutely reserve my spite for the obnoxious co-workers. I would list them by name, but there is no need as the guilty know who they are, and if they don't, my efforts would be futile, as how can you be an obnoxious POS and not know it?

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  17. F'all of you from 6:14pm on... the rumors are getting to the point that they aren't worth listening to anymore (seriously we aren't getting paid on tuesday is f'ing stupid)...granted i can't even hold myself to this...BUT if you're going to comment - make a comment worth while... you know a comment that actually has information about the howrey situation overall.

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  18. 12:31, where does it say in any of the comments "from 6:14 p.m. on" that we aren't getting paid on Tuesday? If you need a comment about the "howrey situation overall", I can say it looks pretty grim. Unfortunately earlier posters are right; some associates will have hard times finding a new position, and overpaid, uneducated support staff will have even harder times finding firms who want to pay $60K+ to secretaries without college degrees. Great secretary/paralegal/paralegal assistant or not, the truth is most firms want people with four-year degrees and aren't willing to pay Howrey salaries when they can find cheaper laborers who are just as capable. Doesn't look too good for anyone, my friend. Unless, of course, you got out long ago!

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  19. Yeah, because all support staff is uneducated and lazy. For every 1 of those support staff members, there are 10 who are damn good at what they do and are well educated. This is exactly why I want out of big law. The inflated egos of some attorneys are suffocating.

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  20. DC anti-never-trust-us firm: Billinson, Ripley, Boland, Wolf, Ruyak, Winston & possibly Strawn.

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  21. @12:51--- one of the reasons you are screwed is that you haven't figured out how to treat other people. Or that your billing partner needs her secretary more than she needs you. These so-called uneducated people actually know what they're doing. And they tell their bosses which associates are pompous douchebags.

    You're probably one of those people who bitches about low bonuses and not making Cravath bucks. Then you call $60k overpaid.

    Good luck with that.

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  22. @7:55 - who says I am screwed? I am one of the ones who got out long ago!!

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  23. @ 2:18, I never said "all support staff is uneducated and lazy." I said most are uneducated, meaning they do not have four-year degrees. Almost all big firms require a four-year degree for paralegals and secretaries. They don't care people have been grandfathered in by some now-extinct firm. They also don't want to pay high dollars for these people. You think I have an inflated ego, but I am in touch with reality. Have you even bothered to talk to YOUR people to see if they've had trouble finding work?? I know several who wanted to leave Howrey but couldn't because most firms wouldn't even look at them without the 4-year requirement and if they DID get a callback, it was for a salary much less than their current one. Every support person I know who has left took a pay cut, but at least they got out.

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  24. It is disappointing to read most of these comments. It is a sad reflection on the character of many of Howrey's more recent additions. I left the firm several years ago, in part due to where I thought management would "lead" the firm. Best of luck to everyone and I hope the folks responsible for some of these posts feel better picking on support staff and the many others who had no part in the management of the firm or its current situation. I was going to post news of unreported departures, but given the direction of this blog, I've decided to just stop feeding this beast.

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  25. It is hard to disagree with 9:32. The vast majority of the folks at Howrey were and are terrific talents and great people. The Dear Leader and 4-5 partners at the top caused this debacle to happen. Ruyak did it mostly by himself, maybe with help from Boland, but others at or near the top facilitated Ruyak and his grandiose delusions and they failed to step in and get rid of him a year ago or longer when the collapse of the firm did seem, if not imminent, then quite possible and likely in the absence of radical change at the top. Many more partnes deserve some blame for being so naive as to misunderstand the lunacy that had grabbed hold at the top and believing the swill they were being fed.

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  26. I didn't do anything wrong! Why am I being threatened with going to Winston!?

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  27. @ 11:18 - I'm pretty sure you should be begging to go to Winston. It is a huge upgrade from Howrey in every way.

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  28. 12:16 - There are very few things known to mankind that qualify as absolute, undeniable Truths; Truths that are resolved... unable to be enhanced, altered, or discredited; Truths that are so evident that by their own existence prove the present, past, and future, all in a single unified omnidimension - delivering a perfect superimposition of both space and time - more resolute and timeless than the atom itself...

    ...one such Truth is that Winston sucks.

    Welcome to the Terrordome.

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  29. Winston may suck in the grand scheme. That being said, it sucks infinitely less than Howrey. At least Winston is an overall respectable firm. Howrey people should be begging to end up there. Unfortunately for them, that doesn't look like a guarantee now.

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  30. Lord, please take me before I wake;

    Deliver me from the Evil that is 35 West Wacker;

    I know I am tainted beyond return to the Garden of Earth;

    But merely cast me back adrift in the river Styx and I shall be as Chosen.

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  31. People there is no reason to duke it out over whether Howrey or W&S was or is the lesser law firm, as Howrey no longer exists, and W&S is flailing. Let's just satisfy ourselves with acknowledging that Howrey was exceptionally poorly managed, and W&S is exceptionally scummy.

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  32. From a former Howrey employee who left several years ago, all the best to everyone still there. It's tense times now, but odds are you'll be happier wherever you end up. Howrey's culture was just one of those unfixable problems.

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  33. Hey guys! Don't worry, everything is going according to plan! We've never been in better shape. We're a happy Howrey family.

    Bob

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  34. Is there any sort of fund or something to donate to for Howrey employees?

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  35. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am dying to know 9:32am's unannounced departure news. Come on 9:32, do tell.

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  36. I don't know, departure news at this point is kind of anticlimactic, since within a couple weeks it will be EVERYONE.

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  37. But the open question still is this: who are the people still in DC Antitrust who have decided not to go to Winston or who perhaps never got offers to go to Winston. The first group might be interesting and the second group and their direct and indirect support staff deserve our asistance if we can provide (it and in any case our good wishes).

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  38. If any of you folks headed for Howrey's dumpster are still getting paid, I suggest using the Power of Foresight to take a detour (while you still can) and invest everything you've got into pharmaceutical stocks, quick. Specifically, the companies who manufacture anti-depressants, tranquilizers and Pepto-Bismol. Somebody other than Bob Ruyak should be making a killing.

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  39. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022603160.html

    Article sugar coats the situation. Dissolution getting announced this week, I hear.

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  40. Yes. WaPost off base on causes. Although the Thelen deal was a cause, it was equally Ruyak and Boland's management incompetence.

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  41. There's a guy who works as a cashier at my supermarket who looks EXACTLY like Ed Han. EXACTLY. I thought it was just a doppelganger, but now I'm wondering if Ed has gotten another job. He's a great cashier, always double-bags.

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  42. Shots are taken toward the end of the Post story at recently departed partners for leaving because they did not get "exactly what they wanted" or they were not "patient enough." The true colors of the petty, back-stabbing Howrey culture shine through right to the bitter end.

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  43. I thought the Rooklidge comments were nonsense. If W&S was such a great move, why did he go to Jones Day? Because he couldn't hold the Irvine office together? Because his fellow partners were impatient...just like he was by bailing out of W&S? My head hurts!

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  44. The other question is, what of Interplanetary Litigation, otherwise known as the "Everything that isn't IP or Antitrust" group?

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  45. Rooklidge is a diplomat and a gentleman. He wouldn't publicly badmouth anybody. If his comments didn't make much sense, interpret them as his way of gracefully answering - or avoiding - the question as diplomatically as possible. He's one of the people at Howrey that I always respected.

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  46. New shark tank legal art.

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  47. New post at Sharktanklegal on last days of Howrey. Roger Klein choosing not to be part of the dissolution gang;; Boland and Ruyak not speaking; most of DC people going to Winston; others to be terminated.


    http://sharktanklegal.com

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  48. How is Eisler getting all this info? Who is he talking to? Is he going to write a book about Howrey?

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  49. @ 9:45, just sounds like they're talking to any partner(s) listening to the weekly conference calls.

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  50. I just found this blog and am wondering why everyone is hating on the NOVA office? It seems to me that putting support staff in a place that is cheaper (at least a little) then downtown DC is a smart idea. Why have servers and IT people at a Pennsylvania Ave address with its high rent? And I know the business model failing but skimming a bunch from hordes of contractors could be quite profitable. Just wondering. Would love to hear some valid counter arguments.

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  51. I'm scared. Is it true that they found a dead child in a filing cabinet at Winston & Strawn? Which office was it?

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  52. A book on Howrey would be an interesting autopsy. Weird villains and unsung heroes.

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  53. Winston & Strawn is a mediocre (at best)firm and is lucky to get whatever talent they can from Howrey.

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  54. @10:46 - What is shocking is that on the Vault regional rankings for DC Howrey is unranked and Winston is in the top 20.

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  55. >Every support person I know who has left took a pay cut, but at least they got out.

    I got out. I got a raise.

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