Skadden cuts 2010 associate intake by half
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Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is to halve the size of its summer associate intake for 2010 after pushing back the start dates of its 2009 cohort.
Howard Ellin
The firm sent a letter to the US law schools it recruits directly from last week informing them that “in light of the economic climate” it would only be recruiting around 100 associates for its 2010 intake.
Skadden recruited 225 summer associates for its 2009 programme and offered full-time positions to 95 per cent. However it later told successful candidates that their start dates would be deferred until 2011.
Skadden recruiting partner Howard Ellin said: “The key consequence of this commitment to our 2009 summer associates will be that our 2010 summer class will be substantially smaller than has been the case in recent years.”
As part of these changes the firm has decided to create Skadden Offer Day, whereby associates from its 2010 intake will receive their offers on the same day - 22 September 2009.
The firm will continue to give those who receive offers 45 days to evaluate them, in compliance with guidelines set by the National Association for Law Placement.
Ellin added: “The current environment also provides us with the opportunity to rethink how we manage the recruiting process and to provide both Skadden and our prospective summer associates the fullest and fairest opportunity to evaluate their options.
“In this regard, we’ll now begin making all Skadden offers, firmwide, on a single day.”
In the past Skadden has made offers to candidates on a rolling timetable that has extended in some cases into December.
