When Morgan Lewis announced yesterday that it is laying off 216 people, it also announced deferred start dates:
We will continue to take other steps to manage our expenses, including delaying the starting dates for the new lawyers joining us from law school, to whom we will offer a paid public service opportunity.
Now there are more details.
The Philadelphia-based firm said in an email to Summer interns that it will defer the start date for incoming entry-level lawyers to October 2010. Those first-year lawyers would normally start in October 2009 after graduating in May and taking the bar exam.
The firm will offer each affected new associate the chance to work in a public interest organization for that year, and will pay each a $5,000 monthly stipend. It has yet to be determined whether the affected associates will receive benefits.
Because the firm is deferring the start state for its 2009 first-year class, job offers made to 2009 summer associates will be for fall 2011 rather than fall 2010.
Morgan Lewis has not announced how many first-year or summer associates it has this year.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is a law firm that was founded as Morgan & Lewis in 1873. It has 1,400 lawyers in 22 offices worldwide.