Dewey's Demise Is Bad News for Job-Hunting Lawyers
As lawyers from Dewey & LeBoeuf flood the job market, there are fewer positions available for others in the job hunt.
The New York Law Journal interviewed recruiters about the impact. One spoke of a “massive disruption” in the lawyer job market in New York. Firms sorting through Dewey lawyers are putting off hiring decisions for other applicants, they said.
Meanwhile, some Dewey lawyers will have a harder time finding jobs than others. Service partners without large books of business will encounter difficulties, as will senior associates, according to Joel Berger, president of Meridian Legal Search. Firms are more interested in junior Dewey associates who can do the day-to-day legal work, he said. Berger told the publication his agency has been getting “more frantic calls” in the last few weeks from lawyers still at Dewey.
Michael Lord, managing director of Michael Lord & Co., also said some Dewey lawyers will have trouble finding jobs. “I don’t think there’s enough space in the legal market to absorb all the Dewey lawyers that aren’t prepackaged in a group,” he told the publication.
The longer the lawyers remain unemployed, the less desirable they will be to hiring firms, he said.
