Wildman Harrold Rescinds Job Offers to 10 New Associates

Chicago-based Wildman Harrold had some bad news for some of its new lawyers Thursday, rescinding job offers to 10 of the 14 associates it had hired from the class of 2009. The first-year class had already been deferred until March, but after the firm assessed client needs it became clear that it needed to make some cutbacks, the firm says in a statement. Wildman will still pay the 10 associates a stipend until March.

Francesca Heintz

The American Lawyer

2009-10-02 12:00:00 AM

Chicago-based Wildman Harrold had some bad news for some of its new lawyers Thursday, rescinding job offers to 10 of the 14 associates it had hired from the class of 2009.

The first-year class had already been deferred until March, but after assessing client needs it became clear that it needed to make some cutbacks, the firm says in a statement. Wildman will still pay the 10 associates who lost their job offers a stipend until March.

The firm also announced it had extended offers to only four of the 17 summer associates in this year's program, in keeping with its goal to create a smaller first-year class.

Wildman says it will continue to recruit high-quality candidates from law schools. But over the past 18 months it has increasingly turned to staff and contract attorneys to do document review and research -- tasks often reserved for first-year associates. The change provides a better cost structure for its clients, the firm says.

This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.