Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
[I’m] not shocked that there are deferrals happening [and] not sure this is going to be the last firm that’s going to decide to defer. [The slowness in VC work is] an unhealthy canary in the coal mine.
— Kate Reder Sheikh, a partner in the associate practice group at recruiting firm Major Lindsey & Africa, in comments given to Law.com, concerning A&O Shearman’s recent deferral of associates. Sheikh went on to say that M&A had recently made fewer than 500 associate hires compared to more than 2,000 litigation associate hires, and that she’d “never seen such an imbalance.”
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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