Weil, Gotshal & Manges is shutting down. The firm was founded in 1931 and ,earned about $2.1 billion in revenue in 2025,. That is a lot of money to lose a firm with.
The official language is "orderly wind-down." ,The management committee recommended it after a careful review of strategic alternatives., Orderly. Like a fire drill where the building is also on fire.
Enter Danielle Thompson, a legal recruiter. Her first tip: ,mobilize quickly., Remarkable guidance from a woman whose business model is people needing jobs.
Her second tip: don't panic-blast your résumé everywhere. ,Some recruiters will treat sending your résumé as blanket consent to submit you anywhere they like., So the advice for lawyers who just lost their firm is to read the fine print. They will be thrilled to learn they should have read something.
Her third: pick one recruiter. ,If more than one recruiter sends your materials to the same firm, you're very unlikely to hear from that firm again., Twelve hundred people are about to learn monogamy.
Some associates are sitting still. ,They think 90 days of pay means they have 90 days in which to start looking., These are people billed at hundreds of dollars an hour to understand deadlines. A retail trader holding a meme stock through earnings shows more urgency.
The firm's farewell note to associates promised help finding new jobs. ,Above the Law summed it up: we'll help you find your next job, but first, timesheets., Billable hours outlive the billing entity. Very on brand.
Days before the vote, ,a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that no decision had been made to dissolve the firm., Then they dissolved it. Technically a forward-looking statement. Technically a lie.
Here is the real lesson. Weil employed some of the most expensive minds in America. They could not see this coming. Yet some of you think your 4 p.m. chart pattern on a biotech stock means something.
Good luck, Weil. May your next firm also be founded in 1931.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
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