January 2009

You know what would be awesome, if the legal system got its claws out of my online poker “supplementary income” program. Perhaps the first steps towards the decriminalization of poker have already started. While many states outlaw “games of chance,” the ABA Journal is reporting that some poker players are arguing that anti-gaming laws should […]

Californians, as we understand it, really care about their cars — and their parking spots. So White & Case’s latest maneuver out in Palo Alto could mean war: White & Case’s Silicon Valley office is in a Palo Alto office complex shared with several other firms. Historically, all the parking, including a large parking garage, […]

* Breaking Media — ATL’s parent company, which Lat now runs — is hiring new writers (about finance and accounting). [DealBreaker] * Who is going to win the SuperBowl. I already know. See, I have a system. [Sports Judge Blog] * Military service as a punishment? Yes. Yes. We are “de-volving.” Soon we shall once […]

Yesterday ATL reported that in addition to the 30 staff cuts, Fish & Richardson was in the process of conducting stealth layoffs of lawyers as well. Today, Fish took those layoffs out of the closet and announced the full scope of its attorney reductions: Since November of last year, 49 members of our legal staff […]

[Ed. note: This is a cross-post from one of our sister sites, Dealbreaker, which we thought you might appreciate because of its focus on an ATL celebrity: the recently indicted, high-profile litigator, Marc Dreier.] Muffie Benson-Perella (muffie AT muffmarkets.com) was an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of a “Bulge Bracket” bank. She holds a […]

Some of our friendly commenters frequently gripe about the high number of Rabbi-officiated weddings featured in this space. They’ll be delighted to know that only one of our three weddings this week is a straight-up Rabbi wedding. The others were jointly officiated by a Rabbi and a Mennonite minister and a Rabbi and a bankruptcy […]

Last summer, we started an official Nationwide Start Date Watch as a few firms decided to trim costs by delaying the start dates for incoming associates. Why bring in new kids at $160,000 a pop when there’s no work to give them? In 2008, Powell Goldstein, Thelen, Thacher, and Heller pushed their start dates back […]

In early December, we reported that K&L Gates was engaged in merger talks with Bell Boyd. Today, the firms made it official. An email just went out to K&L Gates associates from Peter Kalis: Colleagues: We wrote you in December to announce that our firm and the Chicago-based law firm Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLP […]

How hard up is the Blackstone Group? According to Cityfile, they have been reduced to stealing news: [The Financial Times] filed a lawsuit against Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group on Wednesday for sharing an FT username and password instead of setting up separate accounts for its employees. Look, I know that the financial industry is kind […]

Nobody needs to worry about Quinn Emanuel dissolving. Check out Quinn’s profit numbers as reported by AmLaw and The Lawyer: In tough times, it’s good to specialize in bet-the-company litigation. Revenue at 400-lawyer Quinn Emanuel Urquardt Oliver & Hedges was $441.9 million in 2008, up 15 percent from 2007’s $384.5 million. Profits jumped 10 percent, […]

Jonathan Glater’s article in the New York Times this morning is just further evidence that the pyramid scheme of major law firms is starting to show its age. Yesterday, the New York Lawyer (subscription) took more direct aim at the weak foundation of the Biglaw business model: Over the last couple decades, high leverage–the practice […]

I have a radical idea. Let’s move the start date of the 2009 on-campus interview programs from the middle of August 2009 all the way up to the end of August 2006. That way there will be jobs for everybody! Somebody get Daniel Faraday and “magic” Desmond on the phone. Michigan Law School is the […]

Back in July, when we covered the nuptials of celebrity professors / Obama advisers Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power, we wrote: “We look forward to seeing the heights to which they will ascend, together, in the administration of President Obama.” Well, now we know. Both have snagged important positions in the White House. As previously […]

* The New York Times is on to the “kill the billable hour” story. Cravath says it is increasingly charging clients flat fees rather than by the hour. Scott Turow manages to get quoted even though he only responded to the reporter by e-mail. [New York Times] * Political veterans “marvel at the sheer number […]

* At least the era of partisanship — that is nowhere near over– can still be kind of funny. [TaxProf Blog] * Extra, extra, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been ousted by the Illinois State Senate. In other breaking news, Aristotle now believes man to be a “political” animal. More news at 11. [MSNBC] * […]

It’s a little bit late in the bonus season, but there are still firms trickling in with bonus news. It’s not terribly surprising bonus news. Winston & Strawn has matched the Cravath scale: I am pleased to announce on behalf of the Firm the amounts of year-end bonuses for eligible New York associates for fiscal […]

Rumors were swirling around Ropes & Gray all day today. Now, Ropes chairman Brad Malt is letting everybody in on the bad news: [W]e have reluctantly decided to eliminate 106 staff positions across all departments in the firm, or 10% of non-lawyer staff. While I know this is painful news, I felt it was important […]

Greenberg Traurig is trying to tighten up their administrative ship. The kind of normal, everyday instances of over clocking that many administrative assistants engage in are being directly addressed by management. Secretaries and administrative assistants received the following memo earlier this week. The per attorney cost for overtime in the Chicago office is higher than […]

The legal community is still digesting the news Morrison & Foerster’s layoffs. While a lot of people are asking what the news means for the financial health of the firm, MoFo has taken the laudable step of reaching out to their incoming summer associates. The firm sent their summers the statement about the layoffs that […]

We’ve done a few stories on how the financial crisis is hurting public and private law schools. Over the past couple of weeks, administration officials at Columbia have shared some candid thoughts with the student body. Law School Dean David Schizer let students know how he personally dealt with the last economic recession: In conversations […]