{"id":167099,"date":"2026-11-10T13:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/10\/weils-lifeboats-have-a-seating-chart-first-years-worry-they-arent-on-it\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T13:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T21:25:13","slug":"weils-lifeboats-have-a-seating-chart-first-years-worry-they-arent-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/10\/weils-lifeboats-have-a-seating-chart-first-years-worry-they-arent-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Weil\u2019s Lifeboats Have A Seating Chart, First-Years Worry They Aren\u2019t On It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack<\/strong>: Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me\u2026
Rose<\/strong>: I\u2019ll never let go, Jack. I\u2019ll never let go. I promise.<\/em><\/p>\n

You know what happened next in Titanic<\/em>? She drops him in the fucking water.<\/p>\n

Just replace the \u201cticket\u201d with \u201cWeil job offer,\u201d and \u201cJack\u201d with \u201cfirst-year that the senior partner cannot pick out of a lineup of one.\u201d After Weil crashed into the metaphorical iceberg \u2014 continued spoiler warning for Titanic<\/em>\u2026 the boat sinks \u2014 the partners started heading for the lifeboats. Gibson Dunn is going to bring on roughly 120 Weil funds lawyers<\/a> in New York and London, including about 20 partners. Kirkland confirmed it\u2019s taking 40 lawyers led by Ramona Nee<\/a>, the partner who was supposed to take over Weil in January. Latham nabbed six<\/a>. These moves function less like laterals than outright acquisitions of mini-firms from within Weil\u2019s collection of practice fiefdoms.<\/p>\n

A ton of associates are moving with these teams. They have experience with the partners, with the clients, and with their peers. But what about the associates who just showed up in the last year? Or, worse, those who showed up two months ago? They\u2019re just bringing a law school transcript and a salary commitment.<\/p>\n

Consider the two different messages the firm delivered to its lawyers. The message to partners<\/a> freed them from to seek their fortune elsewhere, theoretically without forfeiting their share of future profit. The memo to associates<\/a> promised to \u201cfacilitate introductions where we can,\u201d before instructing everyone to keep billing.<\/p>\n

And the cohort that feels that sting worst will be the first-years. At least one Weil practice group looks to exit as a team without bringing its first-year associates along. According to an ATL<\/em> source, those first-years had previously been told everything was fine. Maybe they\u2019ll end up joining the move, but I wouldn\u2019t bet a Biglaw bonus on it. This tip echoes a quote an anonymous Weil associate gave Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, asserting that firm leaders \u201cused their insider information to negotiate deals with other firms and oftentimes leaving associates behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The harsh reality is that Biglaw firms don\u2019t need<\/em> first-year associates, they\u2019re investing<\/em> in first-year associates. Biglaw is a pyramid scheme and Weil took its chances that a certain slice of these associates work out. The problem is Kirkland already placed its first-year bets. And so did Gibson Dunn. And Latham. They don\u2019t have a lot of incentive to throw money at potential, especially when they trust their own sense of reading the \u201cwho will turn out to be a good associate five years from now\u201d tea leaves better than a rival\u2019s. More practice groups will mean more work overall, but the firms taking on Weil teams also have AI and now that bots perform a hefty chunk of what first-years used to bill for, why add bloat?<\/p>\n

Weil first-years are still excellent hires. An elite firm vetted these candidates and any firm adding them acquires a low-risk, high-ceiling asset. But first-years have to go through the hustle of finding a new gig\u2026 their more senior colleagues just get to nonchalantly change their letterhead in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

The new class that started last month didn\u2019t do anything to deserve this. Maybe, like in Titanic<\/em>, the senior partners signing lucrative deals with other firms will someday recount this story to some bored researchers searching the wreckage.<\/p>\n

Also, in this analogy, Willkie is Billy Zane. That tracks.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Weil\u2019s Lifeboats Have A Seating Chart, First-Years Worry They Aren\u2019t On It<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Jack<\/strong>: Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me\u2026
Rose<\/strong>: I\u2019ll never let go, Jack. I\u2019ll never let go. I promise.<\/em><\/p>\n

You know what happened next in Titanic<\/em>? She drops him in the fucking water.<\/p>\n

Just replace the \u201cticket\u201d with \u201cWeil job offer,\u201d and \u201cJack\u201d with \u201cfirst-year that the senior partner cannot pick out of a lineup of one.\u201d After Weil crashed into the metaphorical iceberg \u2014 continued spoiler warning for Titanic<\/em>\u2026 the boat sinks \u2014 the partners started heading for the lifeboats. Gibson Dunn is going to bring on roughly 120 Weil funds lawyers<\/a> in New York and London, including about 20 partners. Kirkland confirmed it\u2019s taking 40 lawyers led by Ramona Nee<\/a>, the partner who was supposed to take over Weil in January. Latham nabbed six<\/a>. These moves function less like laterals than outright acquisitions of mini-firms from within Weil\u2019s collection of practice fiefdoms.<\/p>\n

A ton of associates are moving with these teams. They have experience with the partners, with the clients, and with their peers. But what about the associates who just showed up in the last year? Or, worse, those who showed up two months ago? They\u2019re just bringing a law school transcript and a salary commitment.<\/p>\n

Consider the two different messages the firm delivered to its lawyers. The message to partners<\/a> freed them from to seek their fortune elsewhere, theoretically without forfeiting their share of future profit. The memo to associates<\/a> promised to \u201cfacilitate introductions where we can,\u201d before instructing everyone to keep billing.<\/p>\n

And the cohort that feels that sting worst will be the first-years. At least one Weil practice group looks to exit as a team without bringing its first-year associates along. According to an ATL<\/em> source, those first-years had previously been told everything was fine. Maybe they\u2019ll end up joining the move, but I wouldn\u2019t bet a Biglaw bonus on it. This tip echoes a quote an anonymous Weil associate gave Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, asserting that firm leaders \u201cused their insider information to negotiate deals with other firms and oftentimes leaving associates behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The harsh reality is that Biglaw firms don\u2019t need<\/em> first-year associates, they\u2019re investing<\/em> in first-year associates. Biglaw is a pyramid scheme and Weil took its chances that a certain slice of these associates work out. The problem is Kirkland already placed its first-year bets. And so did Gibson Dunn. And Latham. They don\u2019t have a lot of incentive to throw money at potential, especially when they trust their own sense of reading the \u201cwho will turn out to be a good associate five years from now\u201d tea leaves better than a rival\u2019s. More practice groups will mean more work overall, but the firms taking on Weil teams also have AI and now that bots perform a hefty chunk of what first-years used to bill for, why add bloat?<\/p>\n

Weil first-years are still excellent hires. An elite firm vetted these candidates and any firm adding them acquires a low-risk, high-ceiling asset. But first-years have to go through the hustle of finding a new gig\u2026 their more senior colleagues just get to nonchalantly change their letterhead in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

The new class that started last month didn\u2019t do anything to deserve this. Maybe, like in Titanic<\/em>, the senior partners signing lucrative deals with other firms will someday recount this story to some bored researchers searching the wreckage.<\/p>\n

Also, in this analogy, Willkie is Billy Zane. That tracks.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack: Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me\u2026Rose: I\u2019ll never let go, Jack. I\u2019ll never let go. I promise. You know what happened next in Titanic? She drops him in the fucking water. Just replace the \u201cticket\u201d with \u201cWeil job offer,\u201d and \u201cJack\u201d with \u201cfirst-year that the senior partner cannot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}