September 2006

Here are the highlights from the latest collection of job moves: New Firms: * Eve Rachel Markewich and Lawrence Rosenstock are leaving Blank Rome’s New York office to set up their own shop, to be called Markewich and Rosenstock. They will focus on Surrogate’s Court and general commercial litigation. Markewich was an unsuccessful candidate for […]

Over the years, rap impresario Sean Combs has tried on monikers like designer sneakers. He’s gone by “Puffy,” “Puff Daddy” (our personal favorite), “P. Diddy,” and, most recently, “Diddy.” But on the other side of the pond, Sean Combs will have to find another nonsensical name to call himself. From the BBC: Rap star Sean […]

The brilliant young lawyers who clerk at the Supreme Court, after hanging out with the justices for a year, can head to the private sector and collect signing bonuses of $200,000 (and up). Former SCOTUS clerks get these bonuses just for showing up to work — they’re in addition to the six-figure salaries they’ll earn […]

Just 24 hours remain in our ERISA Hotties Contest. As we previously announced, we’re closing the polls tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. So if you haven’t done so already, you need to get out there and vote. Click here to vote on the men, and here to vote on the women. Since our last […]

In response to our request for legal celebrity sightings, you sent a few our way, which we now share in these pages. But we know that you can do better. Next time you see a famous lawyer or well-known judge around town, please let us know, by email (subject line: “Sighting”). Today’s sightings have a […]

* Five years after 9/11, the nation reflects on the tragic events of that day and mourns the thousands of lives that were lost. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson — whose wife Barbara Olson, the prominent conservative commentator and lawyer, was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon — turns 66 today. [Legal Times; […]

The polls in our ERISA Hotties Contest will remain open throughout the weekend. In fact, as we previously mentioned, they’ll stay open until Tuesday. Click here to vote on the men, and here to vote on the women (if you haven’t done so already). With a few more days of voting, there’s ample time for […]

* Larry Sonsini reminds us of why we should use the phone, and NOT email, if we’re going to do something sketchy. Also, his spelling and typing skills aren’t perfect. (But by the standards of Biglaw partners of his generation, he’s in the 95th percentile — assuming he typed this all himself.) [WSJ Law Blog] […]

The legal world has its own version of the saying “The customer is always right.” It’s a rule that litigators are quite familiar with: “The judge is always right.” The rule holds true even if you’re a government employee, performing one of the duties of your job, and the judge chases after you with a […]

Lots of job changes to report today. We’ve reviewed them, so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights: In House Counsel: * AIG, the troubled insurance giant, has named Anastasia Kelly as its general counsel and senior regulatory and compliance officer. Kelly is no stranger to choppy waters, having previously served as GC of […]

Our ERISA Hotties Contest is definitely steaming up the windows at pension law offices around the country. Our email inbox is overflowing with ERISA erotica. Apparently, many of you want to engage in some “prohibited transactions” with our bevy of ERISA beauties… (If you haven’t done so already, you can vote on the ERISA women […]

With apologies for the delay, here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: announcement of the female nominees in our first annual ERISA Lawyer Hotties Contest. (You can review and vote upon the male nominees here.) We originally planned on having ten women as finalists. But as we did with the men, due to the […]

* Larry Sonsini (at right), Zeus of the Silicon Valley bar, finds himself at the center of the scandal surrounding the Hewlett-Packard boardroom leak investigation. We’ll definitely have more to say about this later. [Wall Street Journal; WSJ Law Blog] * President Bush’s decision to transfer 14 terror detainees from CIA secret prisons to the […]

Our ERISA Hotties Contest is in full swing (at least on the male side; female nominees coming soon). To review the field and cast your vote, click here. Last night, like the responsible journalists that we are, we contacted all of the nominated male hotties for comment: Dear ERISA lawyer: Congratulations. You have been selected […]

We know we ask a lot of you: salary information for Skaddenfreude, legal celebrity sightings for The Eyes of the Law, and funny summer associate stories (which you’ve been slow to deliver thus far). But please, indulge us yet again. One of the (few) pleasures of working in a large law office is receiving silly […]

* That’s interesting: crossword guru Will Shortz is a UVA Law alum. And we love the opening question of this interview — even if it’s not terribly PC. [TJ’s Double Play] * The saucy blog commenter who (unintentionally) got Lee Siegel’s TNR blog taken down: Kramer Levin associate Joseph Schwartz, self-described “reluctant lawyer” and “frustrated” […]

This was absolutely agonizing; but after hours of deliberation, we managed to do it. We reviewed the male side of the field in our ERISA Lawyer Hotties Contest, then painstakingly winnowed it down to twelve deserving finalists. (Yes, we previously said we’d have ten finalists. But picking even a dozen, from so many worthy competitors, […]

A few moves to report today: Lateral Moves: * Antitrust attorney Jeffrey Brennan, to Dechert (DC), from the FTC (where he was Associate Director of the Bureau of Competition and Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Health Care Services and Products Division). * Capital markets lawyer Rachel Coan, to Morrison & Foerster (NY), from LeBoeuf, Lamb, […]

In our post last month about the merger of Cooley Godward and Kronish Lieb, we wondered aloud: And What About Mr. Lieb? His name was unceremoniously dumped from the moniker of the new entity, which will be known as “Cooley Godward Kronish.” Ouch. Readers have subsequently informed us of what Richard Lieb is up to […]

Apologies for the slow-ish pace of posting today. We’ve been a little distracted, having spent most of the morning scrutinizing photographs of ERISA attorneys. (Hey, it’s a living — and it sure beats document review.) We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who submitted an ERISA hottie nomination. Even if weren’t able to […]