Archive for July 2007

Morning Docket: 07.20.07

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Valerie Plame Wilson Patricia Wettig Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpg* Let’s just steal Drudge’s tagline: “JUDGE: PLAME HAS NO GAME.” [Washington Post; Associated Press]
(But she does bear an uncanny resemblance to Patricia Wettig, who plays Holly Harper on Brothers and Sisters. See photos at right.)
* A lawsuit against Hillary’s pollster, Mark Penn, has been dropped. [AP]
(Watch out: your employer might be reading your Blackberry messages.)
* Lots of lawyers among the D.C. Madam’s clientele. [CNN]
(“[B]ut of course in Washington it sometimes feels like everyone is a lawyer.”)
* Escalation in the battle over executive privilege. [Washington Post]
(Bush Administration to Congress: “You wanna prosecute us for contempt? You and what prosecutor?”)

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Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Locke Liddell Has Raised

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Harriet Miers money Harriet E Miers Harriet Ellan Miers Harriet Elan Miers Above the Law.JPGThe rumor is true. Locke Liddell & Sapp has raised salaries for first- and second-year associates. As noted by a commenter, “Now that they have Harriet Miers back, Locke Liddell’s future is blindingly bright.”
The news was reported in the Texas Lawyer. We’ve also gotten a copy of the email, sent out this afternoon by managing partner Jerry Clements (who actually isn’t a 300-pound, cigar-smoking Texan male, replete with handlebar moustache, but a rather attractive woman).
You can check out her email, plus a photo, after the jump.
As for Baker Botts in Texas, still no word, as of the time of this post. If you hear anything, please email us. Thanks.
Not to be Outdone, Locke Liddell Hikes Associate Pay [Texas Lawyer]

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Non-Sequiturs: 07.19.07

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hillary clinton is magnificent.jpg* Don’t touch the balls of a federal judge, you monkey. [Southern District of Florida Blog]
* “Papitto” was a crapitto name for a law school, anyway. [TaxProf Blog]
* Hillary is da shizz. But we knew that already. [The Caucus / New York Times]
* It’s official, ’cause it appeared in the MSM (or, to be more precise, an MSM blog). ATL is “extremely addictive”! [Legal Pad]

Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Baker Botts Raises in DC

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Baker Botts LLP Abovethelaw Above the Law legal blog law tabloid.JPGFrom a verified source in the Washington office of Baker Botts:

Today, Baker Botts DC’s associates started receiving raise notices in the mail. They all appear to match the “real” DC market, not this V&E crap. Retroactive to July 1.

The notices only refer to the recipient’s salary; there isn’t a formal memo outlining all salaries, at least not one that I’ve seen yet.

So… What about Baker Botts back in Texas? Our Baker-DC source said:

I’ve heard nothing so far. The firm switched to the no-summary-memo trend after your site got popular. Coincidence? I doubt it.

If you have information about whether Baker Botts has raised base salaries for its Texas associates, please email us (subject line: “Baker Botts”). Thanks.
Update (6 PM): Apparently Baker Botts associates in Dallas have NOT yet received memos about raises.
Earlier: Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Texans Fill Their Ten Gallon Hats With Cash
Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Is Texas Biglaw Raising — Finally?

Divagate: A Rebuttal to Nina and Jan

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Nina Totenberg NPR Georgetown Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgMaybe you’re tired of reading about NPR’s Nina Totenberg and the tempest in a teapot over seating in the Supreme Court press gallery.
But we’re not. So we’ll continue to write about it, since ATL is our party, and we’ll cry if we want to.
We have two new messages to pass along today. One is from a current member of the SCOTUS press, and the second is from a former member of that group.
If you’re interested in this story, you can read the messages, after the jump.

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Lawyerly Lairs: Aaron Charney Has Left the Building

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Aaron Charney apartment 1 Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgNo, not the Sullivan & Cromwell headquarters at 125 Broad Street. That happened months ago, not long after the young corporate lawyer sued his uber-prestigious employer, claiming anti-gay discrimination and retaliation by S&C.
We’re referring instead to Aaron Charney’s former home, a luxury apartment on the 53rd floor of the Orion — a new, high-rise condominium on the West Side of Manhattan. We previously profiled Aaron Charney’s apartment (above right) back in this post, wherein we wrote:

City records show that in late November, Charney closed on an $820,000 condominium in the fancy new Orion building, on the west side of Manhattan….

Charney financed this purchase with a $656,000 mortgage — 80 percent financing. Perfectly respectable; not overly leveraged. This means he put down about $164,000 for the purchase.

(Food for thought: Did S&C help him out with his down payment?)
Well, now Aaron Charney has gotten back all that money — and then some. NYC records disclose that he sold his apartment last month for $972,500 (and paid off his mortgage).
So Charney flipped a property he owned briefly, just over six months, for $152,500 more than he paid for it. If you’ve been wondering how Aaron Charney is supporting himself these days, there’s your answer (or at least part of it).
Nice work, Aaron! Even after closing costs — we doubt he paid the full 6 percent commission (who does these days) — he probably made a tidy profit. If Aaron Charney decides not to return to law, maybe he has a promising career in real estate.
Update / Correction: As discussed in the comments, “[h]e’ll have to pay both the NY ‘flip tax’ and federal capital gains tax because he held it for such a short period.” So maybe he’s not making as much of a killing as we originally thought.
Further Update: Detailed tax analysis here.
More details about Aaron’s pad, including text and images from the real estate listing, after the jump.

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Biglaw Perk Watch: Emergency Kits!

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First Aid kit emergency kit Davis Polk Wardwell Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgAlthough located uncomfortably close to the site of yesterday’s steam pipe explosion, Davis Polk & Wardwell has some of the nicest offices around. When we were in law school, Davis was known as “Land of the Beautiful People.” They had the most gorgeous offices, and the best-looking associates (and summer associates).
DPW also seems to have great — or at least distinctive and unique — perks. First we heard about their marriage bonus. And now, in the wake of yesterday’s calamity, we get this news:

I am an associate at Davis Polk, a few blocks from the explosion in midtown [yesterday] afternoon. We were evacuated and I took the firm-provided emergency kit as I left. No real news from the evacuation but here is something that came up as I was walking home.

A friend from White and Case was having a drink at a nearby bar and I stopped on my way home. She saw my emergency kit and asked what it was. I said “you know the emergency kit that all the firms give you on your first day.” Well, needless to say she was pissed that White and Case has no such kit!

I think this would be another fun “perks” thread. So kicking it off, the Davis Polk kit has a flashlight, glow stick, emergency blanket, battery powered radio. But the real kicker is that we have this hood that you can wear in a smoke-filled room and still breathe for about a half hour.

So if a “dirty bomb” goes off in New York City someday (God forbid), bet on the Davis Polksters to emerge alive. Along with a few Milberg Weiss partners cockroaches.
Update: From our original DPW source:

“By the way, forgot to mention that besides the f’ing awesome smoke hood, the safety kit also has potassium iodide tablets to prevent radiation poisoning.”

“Suck it Wachtell!”

Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: The S&C Rumor

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Sullivan & Cromwell logo small S&C Sully Above the Law.JPGMaybe this is true. Or maybe it’s a joke. From the Greedy NY board:

Can we get confirmation…just heard from my wife’s friend at S&C (through my wife) but I don’t know her well enough to ask for the memo….thank you God.

We have emails and calls in to the firm. If you’re at S&C and can confirm, please email us. Thanks.
Update (12:42 PM): No official word back from the firm yet. But we just got off the phone with one associate there, who told us that he hadn’t heard any such thing.
Update (2:43 PM): The S&C spokesperson hasn’t called us back, maybe because she doesn’t want to dignify such silliness with a response. But a current summer associate at the firm tells us: “I’m a summer associate and I haven’t heard any such thing. I think that if they were going to go to that level, they’d tell summers for recruiting purposes, right?” Right.
Update (4:27 PM): The S&C spokesperson acknowledged receipt of our inquiry, which she passed along to the appropriate partners. She said that if they would like to comment (they might not), they will contact us.
Conclusion: The rumor is false. But hey, at least the S&C partners know that raises are eagerly anticipated — and expected any day now!
S&C to 190k! Let the games begin… [Infirmation / Greedy NY]

Summer Associate of the Day: The Katten Kreep

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Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Abovethelaw Above the Law legal tabloid blog.jpgHey kids, guess what? It IS possible to get fired from your cushy summer associate gig!
You need to try hard — really hard. It’s even harder than passing the bar exam.
But it’s not impossible. This summer has already claimed at least one victim. Multiple sources advise that a summer associate in the Chicago office of Katten Muchin Rosenman was recently canned.
Read the dirty details, after the jump.

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  • 19 Jul 2007 at 11:10 AM
  • Bar Exams

The Bar Exam: Wow That Kinda Sucked

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Studying frantically for the bar exam next week? Don’t have enough to worry about already?
We’re here to help. From Eric Turkewitz, over at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog:

screwed bar exam Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgMy bar exam [responses] were lost. Not all of them, mind you, just the 200 multi-state multiple choices answers I scored on that computer sheet with a pencil….

I was one of 500+ people who got the bad news a few weeks afterward. The answer sheets just disappeared. As in gone. Vanished. The crime (or act of negligence) was never solved. The answer sheets [were] never recovered from the Hudson River or local garbage dump, wherever it is they went.

WOW. Imagine if that happened to you, after all those weeks of studying…

I was given four choices:

1. Take the whole exam again in February 1986;
2. Take just the multi-state again in February 1986;
3. Take a special make-up exam in September 1985; or
4. Cancel the whole thing.

But don’t take an anxiety-induced crapinyourpants — at least not yet. Wait until day 2 of the bar exam.
As it turns out, Eric Turkewitz’s story has a quasi-happy ending. Read the rest, over here.
Your Bar Exam Answer Sheet Is Gone — Now What? [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Texans Fill Their Ten Gallon Hats With Cash

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ten gallon hat cash money Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgFollowing closely on news of the Vinson & Elkins raise, Andrews Kurth has also raised salaries for first- and second-year associates, to $160,000 and $170,000, respectively. As explained in the memo, the firm is “still working on the details of the compensation structure for other associate classes.” Here’s an article from the Texas Lawyer.
What about other Texas firms? Here’s what we’ve been hearing:

Baker Botts: They should raise later this week or early next week. Prior to the V&E announcement, a Baker source speculated: “[T]hey seem to be waiting on V and E. I think they might be trying to leapfrog them, hoping V and E lowballs.”

Akin Gump: “They had an associates’ committee meeting [yesterday] and said there were working out a few details, but they would be raising in their Texas offices sooner rather than later. Who knows what any of that means.”

The Andrews Kurth memo, in the form of an email from managing partner Robert Jewell, appears after the jump.

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Morning Docket: 07.19.07

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* When the music stopped, Craig Morford, interim U.S. attorney in Nashville, was left standing. So now Morford must fill Paul McNulty’s uncomfortable shoes as Deputy Attorney General — after several others apparently passed on the job. [Washington Post; New York Times]
* New Jersey lawyer Shalom Stone may need to be as charming as Shalom Harlow to win confirmation to the Third Circuit. [The Hill (ATL shout-out!) via How Appealing]
* Dow Jones director David Li could be in trouble with the SEC. Oh Wells. [DealBreaker]
* Go shorty. [MSNBC]