Benefits

A commenter asked me to start a thread about benefits issues.  That's a great idea, so if you have any information or questions about benefits, have at it.

Good luck.

More Departures

New developments in AmLaw Daily:

• Kostas Katsiris (NY) to Venable
• 13 (!!) IP lawyers to Arnold & Porter, including Matt Wolf (DC), Ed Han (DC) and Jennifer Sklenar (LA) as partners, and John Nilsson (DC), Marc Cohn (DC), and Wallace Wu (LA) as counsel.  Several unnamed associates will follow.
• Apparently, there are upcoming moves to Dewey and Arent Fox.

Stay tuned.

Nields, Wiseman, Lazerow, and Raofield to Covington

John Nields, Alan Wiseman, Andrew Lazerow, and Jason Raofield will move to Covington & Burling's office on Monday.  Here's the press release.

Any legitimate journalists out there want to cover the real story?

By now, there are quite a few stories in the "real" press that have announced Howrey's death.  Most of them cite ridiculous reasons for the demise of Howrey, such as quotes from Ruyak about variability in firm profits, the lack of patience of Howrey partners for contingency work to pan out, the economic downturn, and my personal favorite, the rise of third party discovery companies.  One would simply think that things took a turn for the worse over the last two years, and KA-BOOM! 

But a real journalist would dig in a little bit by speaking with Howrey partners who left over the years to ask them why they left Howrey.  Everything would tend to point toward one person:  Bob Ruyak, and not any of the horse shit cited by the "real" press in its recent coverage of Howrey.  Other than Above the Law, which has done an admirable job of keeping up.

I would like to send my kudos to a commenter to a story this morning on the WSJ's law blog.  The comment captures the exact reasons why Howrey collapsed:

Nothing Ruyak says is true. Take his interviews with a pinch of salt. The reasons he gives in interview or in press release are nonsense. He should have said that Howrey failed “because of my own incompetent management, my inability and pig headed unwillingness to address the economic effects of the recession in time, my deluded belief that the Howrey business model immunised the firm from economic downtrun, the uncontrolled dumping of unproductive partner and associate capacity in contingency work, the control of all information and decision making that I exercised until it was too late. And of course the abject failure of my partners to replace me when it became clear that I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy”

Come on "real" journalists.  There's a real story out there.  Grow a pair and report about it.

It's Over: Howrey Closes Its Doors May 9, 2011

Commenters are reporting that Howrey will close its doors on May 9, 2011.  Wind-down committee is being formed, and apparently, Howrey is doing something nontraditional with COBRA coverage.

Current Howrey employees:  I am very sorry to hear this.  Good luck with finding new work quickly, and I wish you and your families the best during this difficult time.

UPDATE:  HERE'S THE WARN ACT NOTICE
Dear Colleagues,

As discussed in the meeting held earlier today, attached is a letter which provides 60 days notice of your termination from Howrey, due to the cessation of the firm’s business operations and closure of your office. This letter is being sent in compliance with applicable Federal and/or State Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification (“WARN”) Act(s), and will also be sent to your residence via overnight delivery from Federal Express tomorrow.

Howrey sincerely appreciates the contributions you have made during your tenure at the firm, and wishes you success in your career pursuits.

More Nonsense from Ruyak

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Bob Ruyak, who provided two RIDICULOUS reasons for Howrey's collapse, neither of which pass the laugh test.

And now, Houston Defections

Hank Petri and Janelle Waack to Novak Druce + Quigg.  They don't want to go to Winston & Strawn, either.

This makes a lot of sense, particularly on Waack's part.  Waack does a lot of patent interference work, which Novak is very well known and respected for.

Anyone else headed out the door in Houston?