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These Associates Had a Golden Ticket to Big Law—Until Weil Gotshal Collapsed
The demise of a firm with some 1,200 lawyers is sending shock waves through the legal job market.
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Throughout October, second-year law student Madeleine Edwards received a series of upbeat emails from Weil Gotshal & Manges, the firm where she had landed a coveted job for next summer.
A very different message landed on Oct. 29, the day after the 95-year-old law firm announced it was dissolving: Weil’s recruiters said it would no longer be able to honor the 2027 job offers. “The same qualities that we saw in you will no doubt serve you well at other firms who will be lucky to have you,” the email said.
The 24-year-old Northeastern University student quickly posted her résumé on LinkedIn, where it has been seen more than 2,100 times. She already has leads for next summer, she said, though conversations with potential employers have had a surreal quality.
“I get on a call and I don’t even speak before they say, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t believe this happened,’” she said.
The demise of a large and respected law firm virtually overnight is without precedent and is sending shock waves through the legal job market. Weil’s roughly 600 associates, as well as law students with future job offers, are likely to be the hardest hit.
For Edwards and many others, the firm’s collapse pulled the professional rug out from under them. She received the offer of a summer job at the 1,200-lawyer firm in December, putting her solidly on the path many others have trodden to a lucrative and stable career. Jobs for first-year associates at big New York firms pay more than $200,000 a year, plus sizable bonuses.
Hiring at big law firms typically follows a rigid schedule, with firms beginning to interview future associates as early as their first semester of law school and making final hiring decisions before they begin their final year.
“This is a paradigm shift,” said David Diamond, assistant dean of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Career Strategy Center. “We want to make sure they have all the support they need to get back into the job search quickly.”
Large-scale job losses in the world of Big Law are rare. Large law firms are typically loath to conduct layoffs, which can hurt their efforts to recruit future lawyers. Weil joins a very short list of major firms that have collapsed—including Dewey & LeBoeuf, which employed more than 1,000 lawyers at its peak and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. A 2023 study in the UC Law Business Journal found that soon after Dewey’s downfall, 80% of the firm’s partners remained in Big Law while about half of Dewey’s associates remained.
Evan Fox, a legal headhunter at Long Ridge Partners, said his team has scheduled more than 100 job interviews for Weil lawyers since Wednesday. “We are as busy as we have ever been,” he said. “This is truly unprecedented.”
Fox said some top firms interviewed candidates over the weekend to snap them up quickly.
William Burck, co-managing partner at top litigation firm Quinn Emanuel, sent an email to lawyers at his firm saying it had already received “a significant number of incoming résumés” from Weil lawyers and he would like to snag some of its trial talent.
Just days before Weil collapsed, the firm’s recruiting machine was still humming. In early October, at a New York City party to introduce first-year law students to lawyers and partners, attendees were treated to sushi and big wheels of cheese. The firm told attendees it planned to accept applications starting Oct. 15 and walked them through the process.
Just last Monday, Weil had a table full of swag at a recruiting event at Harvard Law School. The next day, the firm was giving out sandwiches at a New York University event and touting its summer program. By Wednesday, the day the dissolution was announced, Weil was nowhere to be seen at another NYU recruiting event.
By the weekend, the demise had already entered parody territory: A Harvard Law student saw a peer wearing a Halloween costume that was an angel outfit with a “Weil” sign.
The firm’s orientation for its newest class of associates kicked off just nine days before the firm collapsed. For those who may have just signed new big-city leases, the news came before their first paychecks ultimately did. (The firm has said support staff and associates are expected to receive their bonuses if they remain with the firm through year-end.)
Some young Weil lawyers quickly flooded social media with distress signals—and résumés.
“My first week was full of training sessions and networking events,” wrote Jeremy Vyn, a Canadian law-school graduate who started at Weil on Oct. 19. “My second week was full of phone calls, emails, job applications, and somber moments with co-workers.”
Erik Zimmerman, a fifth-year Weil associate, wrote on LinkedIn, “I grieve the people I thought I’d spend my career with.”
Many Weil partners are trying to bring associates with them to their new firms, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. Associates in some practice areas were told in the last days to start looking for jobs.
One tricky question for law students who were once Weil-bound is whether to mention the prestigious offer among their qualifications.
Edwards, the Northeastern law student, didn’t feel right using the firm’s name on a résumé without ever filing a time sheet there. Others are carefully mentioning the offer on their updated résumés to clarify to recruiters why they are looking for positions on short notice.
Edwards said the experience has left her rattled but undeterred. “I have to believe this was a freak accident,” she said.
Write to Mariah Timms at mariah.timms@wsj.com, Jasmine Li at jasmine.li@wsj.com and Lindsay Ellis at lindsay.ellis@wsj.com
