Darn, I thought I was going to be first.

Who is reading ATL at 10 PM on Christmas?

My firm gave me 3 bottles of good scotch... wish I had time to drink it. Merry Christmas ATL!

3: Apparently you are.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

"And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Still working... I love my law firm.

*farts*

*shits*

aww yeah

Is Lat taking back over for MysTTTal or is that too big of a Christmas gift?

i'm picking dried shit from my cock.

I wish each of you a happy and healthy mustache ride.

Someone please remember to bash Latham in this one. Keep the streak alive.

Furthermore, 10, that is awesome.

10, did your boyfriend finally let you be the pitcher for once?

Dear Santa,

Please kill that mustache ride guy who keeps spamming ATL.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

Merry Christmas. Be well.

umm what happened to yesterday's non sequitor? why is lat posting today? something is awry at ATL

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's a lump of coal in your stocking from Latham & Watkins, leader of the pay freeze list of shame.

Pay Freeze List of Shame
-----------------------------------
Latham & Watkins
McDermott Will & Emery
Bryan Cave
Womble Carlyle
Venable
Squire Sanders

Everyone Else
---------------------
Orrick
Skadden
Cravath
Simpson
Davis Polk
Cleary
Dewey
Milbank
Clifford Chance
Willkie
Boies Schiller
White & Case
Paul Weiss
Schulte Roth
Debevoise
Ropes & Gray
Fried Frank
Allen & Overy
Gibson Dunn
O'Melveny
Wachtell
Cadwalader
Sullivan & Cromwell
Sidley
Quinn
Hogan & Hartson
Weil
Dechert
Kirkland
Jones Day
Proskaur
Mayer Brown
Munger

How is associate morale at Latham after the salary freeze? Will Latham keep its coveted spot on the Amlaw A-list?

Didn't Bob Dell just tell us "no layoffs"? That Latham learned its lesson in the 90s? That they wouldn't make that mistake again? There are no promises now. Circumstances have changed, we are told.

Does the "no layoffs" pledge coupled with the salary freeze, which no other major firm is following, reassure the junior associates at Latham & Watkins?

I think this is representative of the mood:

"I just started at LW in September, and I don't feel safe at all, especially after 1st years getting canned at Proskauer and now Gunderson.

I've already started sending in resumes to government agencies and smaller law firms, but my prospects are horrid ITE with little to no experience.

I was hoping for at least a year so I could make a sizeable dent in my loans, but I think that is wishful thinking at this point"

"I am a stub at Latham too but started in October. Scared shitless. Everyone here is running scared, but we are running at 60-70% pace. I am hoping to make it through mid year next year. The freezing salaries to put off lay-offs seems like most cost cutting bullshit."

Is is freezing salaries to put of lay-offs? Or is it freezing salaries, then laying off associates?

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=900618&mc=191&forum_id=2

Stay tuned...

billed 11 hours today. shoot me.

Even Shearman, ATL's most hated firm, is increasing salaries. Please add us to the list.

17, right on. THE LATHAM PAY FREEZE IS THE BIGGEST AND MOST SURPRISING STORY THIS YEAR. Atl should do a survey on whether, post-pay freeze anyone would choose to go to Latham over Gibson.

Latham is overrated and WAY TOO OVERSIZED - they cannot keep up the 2200 lawyer thing going - law students would be quite wise to choose Gibson or Kirkland over Latham

Latham sucks.

Above Market (Tier 1):

Wachtell
Skadden
Orrick

Market (Tier 2):

Most Firms

Below Market (TTT):

Latham

-Tier 2 Assoc.

19-I'm so sorry. I had to come in at 4:30 a.m. on the 26th and I thought I had it bad. Billing 11 on the 25th means trouble for the 24th, 25th, and 26th.

First year Tier 2 bankruptcy associate.

You guys have no idea what's about to go down. Trust me, I'm a partner at a v10 firm. The salary freeze will only be the first step. You'll be lucky if you find a job scrubbing the bathroom floors at a law firm come 2009, blah blah blah.

I wish I had enough work to spend the day in the office.

26-Go fuck yourself

Most recent word from MoFo, as recently reported by another poster in a previous thread, is:

-- No salary freeze

-- NY bonus: Cravath scale

-- non-NY bonus: Cravath scale plus additional hours-based bonuses

Of course, all of the above is tentative, and the latest announcement reserved the right to reassess based on market developments. Final word will apparently not come until late-Jan.

Given that OMM has already announced, however, and that Orrick shows no signs of taking back its previous announcements, it seems unlikely that MoFo would "reassess" downwards from the above, assuming it still wants to maintain any pretense of meeting the market.

29, where was the comment you're referring to re: MoFo?

Also, is Orrick still sticking to its full bonus program, which would put it at approximately over twice the market? Are they doing that for all offices or are they doing that for only those offices not on the NYC scale?

30, I don't know about Orrick, other than that they announced bonus amounts earlier this year and we have not heard anything about any changes. I guess a change is still possible, but you'd think there would have been some kind of announcement by now.

The MoFo info was in a comment yesterday, can't remember which post is was attached to.