Weil Gotshal & Manges has become the latest American law firm to slash its US associate programme and defer the start dates of its incoming associates in response to the global economic slump.
Weil Gotshal & Manges has become the latest American law firm to slash its US associate programme and defer the start dates of its incoming associates in response to the global economic slump.
The firm emailed interns yesterday (26 March) saying that the scheme will be reduced from 12 to 10 weeks with a payment of $1,500 (£1,032) as compensation.
Weil has also asked associates who are due to join the firm in the US to push back their start dates to January 2010 in return for a $15,000 (£10,324) stipend.
They have also been offered $60,000 (£41,298) if they decide to defer for a year from January 2010 to January 2011. This amount will be boosted to US$75,000 (£51,623) if they spend the year doing pro bono or community work.
The move follows the decision by Weil’s UK graduate recruitment team to cancel its New York vacation scheme just one year after it was launched, as exclusively reported by Lawyer2B.com earlier this month 11 March.
US firm Reed Smith announced a similar decision to scale back is US summer associate programme to eight weeks while summer associate salaries are being slashed by 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the start date for Reed Smith’s new US associates has been pushed back from September 2009 to January 2010. The firm will provide health care coverage and a cash payment during the deferral period (12 March).
