February 2008
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Drugs, Email Scandals, Pepper Hamilton, Screw-Ups
Clarification: Pepper Hamilton Did Commit an Email Screw-Up...
But it didn’t result in a front-page New York Times story on the Zyprexa settlement talks. Apparently reporter Alex Berenson had independent knowledge of the settlement negotiations, and this knowledge was the basis for his story. Details over at Drug and Device Law. In our brief and breezy post, we never claimed that the email […] -
Department of Justice, Federal Government, Gay, Law Schools, Michael Mukasey, Torture, Vicious Infighting
Gay at DOJ? Hip Hip Hooray!
Not everyone likes Attorney General Michael Mukasey. At Boston College Law School, students are protesting Dean John Garvey’s decision to invite Attorney General Mukasey to deliver the school’s 2008 Commencement address. See here (Facebook group: “Waterboarding IS Torture”), here, and here. Why are liberals so unhappy about Mukasey? We’d expect the AG to receive a […] - Sponsored
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Lawyer of the Day
Lawyer of the Day: Doug Crickmer
Sometimes it really sucks to be a public defender. From the Lexington Herald-Leader: A defendant unhappy with his court-appointed attorney punched the lawyer as they stood before a judge Monday. Peter Hafer, 30, of Cynthiana, assaulted his attorney Doug Crickmer while Crickmer was speaking before Judge Rob Johnson in Scott County Circuit Court. As if […]
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Job Survey, Sex
Featured Survey Results: You Cancelled What?
In last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, we asked you about how often you cancelled your personal plans for work. We received 633 responses, and, by and large, you should just stop making personal plans. Thirty-six percent of respondents had cancelled plans “too many times to count” last year, while another 17% had cancelled […] -
Associate Bonus Watch: What's Been Done at Gibson Dunn?(Plus a funny farewell email)
We’ve received a number of inquiries about bonuses at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (especially in their New York office). This reminded us that we never did a full-blown bonus post about GDC. We merely noted, back in this post, that in the firm’s Los Angeles office, they appeared to be paying the standard year-end bonuses […] -
New York Times, Weddings
Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 2.3: Sterling Reputation
Yes, LEWW hears the howls of protest from our readers about the weeks we skipped recently. We’ll do a makeup post soon, we promise. The weddings pages have been such a wasteland lately that it’s been hard to pull together the kind of legal and nuptial excellence you’ve come to expect here. And it’s crushing […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.06.08
* It ain’t over until Candy Crowley sings. Neither Clinton nor Obama lands a knockout punch on Super Tuesday, ensuring that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination will go on for quite some time. [New York Times; Washington Post] * On the Republican side — of less interest to ATL, since there’s only one […]
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Clerkship Bonus Watch: Schulte Roth & Zabel
There’s no major movement to report on the base salary front, but clerkship bonuses continue to climb. The latest firm to raise its clerkship bonus, from $15K to $50K (or $70K for two clerkships): Schulte Roth & Zabel. From their website: Upon arrival at the Firm directly following an eligible one-year clerkship, associates receive a […] - Sponsored
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Politics
If Presidential Candidates Were Top Law Firms, Which Ones Would They Be?
That’s the subject of our column in this week’s New York Observer. Today, of course, is Super Tuesday. And based on early returns, it appears that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is having a sensational evening. Maybe this could have been predicted, based on how many lawyers we spoke with tried to claim that their own […] -
Politics
If Presidential Candidates Were Top Law Firms, Which Ones Would They Be?
That’s the subject of our column in this week’s New York Observer. Today, of course, is Super Tuesday. And based on early returns, it appears that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is having a sensational evening. Maybe this could have been predicted, based on how many lawyers we spoke with tried to claim that their own […] -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 02.05.08
* Lawyers, enough with the animal ads already. The latest offender: Day Pitney. [copyranter] * If you’re a Biglaw associate dreaming of making your escape via book deal, here’s some inspiration for you. [New York Daily News] * Celebrity law professors support Obama. [Lessig Blog] * But staffers at a prominent Mexican restaurant here in […] -
WSJ Law Blog
The Changing of the Guard at the WSJ Law Blog
It looks like we have someone new to compete with the next time a Biglaw associate sues her wedding florist — or someone new to shamelessly lift stories from, when we lose the race to the keyboard. The Wall Street Journal’s longtime legal blogger, the super-talented Peter Lattman, is abandoning the legal blogosphere, where his […] -
Email Scandals
ATL Practice Pointer: When Emailing Super-Sensitive Settlement Information, Double Check the Recipient List
Or triple check, or quadruple check. Especially when one of the lawyers involved in the case has the same last name as a New York Times reporter. Assuming the email system in question was Microsoft Outlook, we imagine the panicked Pepper Hamilton lawyer trying to invoke the amusingly ineffectual “Recall” function (à la Judge Marsha […]
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The Greenberg Traurig Memo: 'Uh, We Were Talking About Freezing Partner Pay...'
Remember the long-winded, slightly ridiculous year-end message of Cesar L. Alvarez, CEO of Greenberg Traurig? It was interpreted in some quarters as drawing a line in the sand on associate pay raises. Not surprisingly, ATL commenters had a field day with it. The Daily Business Review, in this interesting piece by Alana Roberts, followed up […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2007, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Bonuses, Money, Skaddenfreude
Associate Bonus Watch: Dechert Docks Associates for Dilatory Billables
How can law firm administrators get associates to enter their time on time? Here’s one idea: link time entry to those beloved bonuses. From a source at Dechert: Attached is an email that all the attorneys at Dechert LLP received today regarding associate bonuses and potential penalties. According to the policy outlined below, an associate’s […] -
Lawyer of the Day
Jailhouse Lawyer of the Day: Michael Ray(Plus an update on 'fake lawyer' Brian Valery)
Is Michael Ray a modern-day Clarence Earl Gideon? From the AP: While other prisoners are lifting weights or playing basketball, Michael Ray is working 40 hours a week, his head buried in legal texts and journals. Over the years, the jailhouse lawyer has helped dozens of fellow inmates file appeals, sometimes with success. But recently […] -
Running, Sports
Sports and the Law: Oscar Pistorius's Claim has Strong Legs to Stand on
[Ed. note: This is the second column by ATL’s new sports columnist, Marc Edelman. You can read more about Marc, and check last week’s inaugural column (in case you missed it), by clicking here.] Twenty-one year old South African runner Oscar Pistorius had his heart set on running the 400-meter event at the 2008 Summer […] -
Job Survey, Politics
Featured Job Survey: Office Politics?
Today’s ATL / Lateral Link survey is inspired by Super Tuesday. We’ve included political figures in our surveys last month, and featured a major political fundraiser as a Job of the Week the month before, but on Super Tuesday, politics rise to a whole new level. So, as Barack and Hillary go toe to toe […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.05.08
* Three lawyers, plus one guy who likes to tell lawyer jokes, do battle in Super Tuesday: forty-three presidential nominating contests, across 24 states. [New York Times; Washington Post] * Save the whales? Federal judge reinstates sonar rules — and benchslaps the Bush Administration for trying to exempt the Navy from them. [How Appealing (linkwrap)] […]
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Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Skaddenfreude
Associate Bonus Watch: Jones Day?
A number of you have requested, in comments and via email, a post to talk about compensation issues at Jones Day. So here you go. We’ll kick off the discussion with this message we received: I have recently noticed a number of postings relating to Jones Day D.C.’s lack of a bonus and non-competitive / […]