Archive for January 2009

Latham Watkins LLP lw logo.jpgReaders, commenters, and tipsters have all demanded that we run a post addressing the “stealth layoffs” that might be taking place at Latham & Watkins.

The firm has remained steadfast in its contention that no layoffs have happened at Latham & Watkins. They claim no dismissals for economic reasons, or anything out of the ordinary course of business. A firm spokesperson told ATL:

Consistent with our standard practice at the end of each year, we have completed our associate review process. We counsel our associates at the completion of our review process each year, and in those conferences discuss topics such as job performance, compensation and career tracks. Our decisions relating to associate departures were performance related and part of our usual year-end process, not part of an economic layoff.

But how many associate departures have there been? Based on information from our sources, the number of cuts is all over the map. ATL has received reports from tipsters in New York, Chicago, Silicon Valley, and L.A. that Latham has been conducting stealth layoffs. But because of the way they are being carried out, nobody knows just how many associates have been let go over the past few weeks.

Tipsters report that the process has every artifice of “performance review” cuts, but those same tipsters claim the cuts are economic based. Against the backdrop of the firm statement, after the jump we post some of the tipsters’ reports.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Stealth Layoffs Open Thread: Latham & Watkins”

Non-Sequiturs: 01.27.09

John Thain.png* Creative destruction? If I was half the man I used to be, I’d take a flamethrower to this place. [Law and More]

* On Being a Black Lawyer’s Yolanda Yong tells us if we should expect anything “different” from the nation’s first African-American Attorney General. [Huffington Post]

* If you are desperate to hang onto your job, better client services can’t hurt. [What About Clients?]

* Should we withhold judgment on John Thain until all the facts come out? Where’s the fun in that? [PrawfsBlawg]

* I’m not even going to attempt to remember to pay my taxes this year, and dare Geithner to say anything about it. I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a real jail anyway. [TaxProf Blog]

Ed Norton Primal fear feces throwing client.jpgReally, it was only a matter of time before it came to this:

A mistrial was declared Monday when a home-invasion robbery suspect smeared human feces on his attorney’s face then threw more at the jury.

What are the chances that this is an Ed Norton in Primal Fear moment?

The prosecutor said the defendant was compliant after the outburst and was taken into custody without further incident.

Sounds promising.

But sadly, it was his own lawyer, not the prosecutor, that the defendant was going after.

More on that after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Client of the Day: Primal Poo”

Job of the Week Lateral Link ATL logo.gifEverybody has been asking about which law firms are hiring. This week Lateral Link’s Job of the Week answers some of those questions. Is your firm freezing salaries? If you make a move through Lateral Link you can make that up by earning a $10,000 guaranteed signing bonus. These positions are just two of the hundreds of job openings that Lateral Link has throughout the country. Current members can also contact their personal search consultant directly to discuss these positions. Membership in Lateral Link is free and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

Positions: Corporate Associate and Litigation Associate

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Corporate Associate: The LA office of a top national law firm is seeking a corporate associate with 3-5 years experience in M&A, capital markets and/or finance. California bar required. For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position 10233 on Lateral Link.

Litigation Associate: One of the most selective litigation boutiques in California is seeking a junior litigation associate. Candidate should have stellar credentials and 1-4 years of litigation experience at another top firm. For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position 10268 on Lateral Link.

The Associate book cover.jpgJohn Grisham sat down with us this morning for an exclusive blog interview to discuss his new book, The Associate. The book’s main character, Kyle McAvoy, is a Biglaw associate with a mysterious past and intriguing future.

In his previous books, Grisham has explored emotional and ethical costs of practicing the law in various forms. But his latest book takes dead aim at the life, and lifestyle, of junior associates at top Manhattan law firms.

A lot of Kyle McAvoy’s Biglaw experience will ring true to most readers of Above the Law. We found out that Grisham’s depictions of Biglaw life are so accurate because typical associates told him the truth:

I found some wonderful blogs where associates post anonymously their stories. Beautiful stories….

But my best research was done by a research assistant that spent one year in the law…. He knew a ton of lawyers in the big law firms in New York. He told them up front what he was doing [researching for Grisham's new book] and that their stories would be kept anonymous, and they just unloaded on him…. Most of it went into the book.

The book contains scenes that are easily recognizable to most Biglaw associates, from the mind-numbing experience of document review, to the attorney who literally passes out due to exhaustion.

But we wanted to know if Grisham modeled the book’s central firm, Scully & Pershing, on any individual real-life firm. Grisham said that he unequivocally did not:

I was prepared to go to a big law firm and get inside and walk around and kick the tires. But I didn’t want to do that because I knew the portrayal would be unflattering and I didn’t want to embarrass any particular firm.

In fact, Grisham thought about changing the name of the fictional Scully to avoid any possibility of confusion with Skadden.

Why is the take on life in Biglaw so “unflattering”? Grisham explains that the wasted potential he explores in The Associate mirrors what he sees in the corridors of the nation’s top law firms.

More details, after the jump.

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An ATL Exclusive Interview With John Grisham About His Latest Book”

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGOkay, so Chief Justice John Roberts can’t administer an oath of office to save his life. But he can hire brilliant and fabulous law clerks:

1. James McDonald (UVA 2007 / Sutton)

2. Stephen Sachs (Yale 2007 / S. Williams)

2. Erik Zimmerman (Stanford 2007/Wilkinson)

They join the previously hired Roman Martinez (Yale 2008 / Kavanaugh), filling up JGR’s chambers for October Term 2009.

We also hear that Justice Samuel A. Alito is done hiring for OT 2009. In addition to Jaynie Randall’s previously reported hiring, we can now add:

1. Amit Agarwal (Georgetown / Kavanaugh)

2. K. Winn Allen (UVA / Sutton)

If you know the identity of the fourth Alito clerk, please drop us a line. We hear that SAA is a bit secretive about his clerk hiring, which strikes us as a bit silly. As a former prosecutor, Justice Alito should be familiar with the inevitable discovery doctrine. Why guard the identities of Supreme Court clerks so jealously, when they’re all going to be made public eventually by the Court’s Public Information Office?

Updated lists of Supreme Court clerks, for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

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pay freeze salary freeze pay cut law firm.jpgAs we noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, even the New York Times has taken note of the salary freeze trend at law firms. The Times reached out to Above The Law’s own David Lat for the story:

Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, a blog about law firms and the profession.

“There is this sense that firms didn’t act prudently during the boom and now they are getting religion, and that it’s better late than never,” Mr. Lat said. “Many associates we have spoken to think the freeze probably saved jobs.”

At the beginning of the month, we did a round-up of firms that have frozen 2009 salary rates at 2008 levels. That list was 16 firms long. Since then, quite a few other firms have announced freezes. Due to frequent requests, we’re updating the round-up list since the number of firms with freezes (that we know of) has more than doubled, to 33 32. Check out the as-comprehensive-as-we-can-make-it list, after the jump.

Recently announced salary freezes include “solid ice freezes” at Blank Rome and Townsend and Townsend and Crew; and “Slurpee freezes” at Bingham McCutchen, Fish & Richardson, and Texan firm Andrews Kurth.

Memorandums, as well as a new list of all firms with “solid ice” and “Slurpee” freezes, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Updated Salary Freeze Round-up: Even More Firms on Ice”

tammy and victor jih.jpgThe Amazing Race is a reality TV show where teams of two race around the world in the hopes of winning $1 million. The 14th season of the show debuts on February 15th, and will star hot legal siblings, Victor and Tammy Jih.

Victor Jih, 35, is a partner at O’Melveny and Myers, while Tammy Jih, 26, is an associate at Quinn Emanuel. In this CBS video clip, Tammy says she hasn’t “had exactly the same life experience that Victor has had.” We think she just means in terms of length of time spent in Biglaw. Both Jihs went to Stanford undergrad and Harvard Law School, and now work as attorneys in California.

According to their bios on the CBS site:

Tammy is a litigator who believes that her ability to keep a cool head under pressure, especially with little or no sleep, will lead to success on the Race. Her biggest pet peeve with her brother is that he’s a bit of a control freak…

Victor is a partner at his law firm and works as a corporate litigator. He is running the Race to see if he and his sister can co-exist in a hyper-competitive situation without driving each other crazy.

We’re going to be catching up with the Jihs in an interview later today. If you have questions you’d like us to ask the hottie reality TV stars, beyond their practice groups and relationship statuses, send us an e-mail with the subject “Amazing Race.”

Check out a video clip of the two, as well as a little info on who they’re up against, after the jump.

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above the law logo.JPGAs the Above the Law community continues to grow, more people are posting absurd, inane, and arguably offensive comments. And more people are complaining about those comments — in the comments, as well by email and other means.

Here at ATL, we reserve the right to moderate comments as we see fit. We delete comments for reasons including (but not limited to) offensiveness, abusiveness, excessive profanity, irrelevance, or rank stupidity. Above the Law is a privately owned website; we have no obligation to provide our bandwidth to any particular user. Because we are not governmental actors, we are not subject to the equal-access rules of the First Amendment; when we moderate comments, it is not “censorship.”

But we also offer this recommendation to people who are offended by the comments: DON’T READ THEM. Toward that end, we want to make it easier for you to avoid the comments if you want to. Over the next 24 hours, we’ll be changing our site design so that comments will default to “hidden.” If you want to see the comments, you must affirmatively opt-in, by clicking a button to reveal them (either the “show them anyway” button within the post, or the “comments” button / counter on the front page).

Read more — and see for yourself how this policy will work — after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.26.09

T rex Chicxulub blast.JPG* Can law firms evolve? Because right now they look a lot like a T-Rex right after the Chicxulub blast. [Ideoblog]

* Here’s a chart showing how California law schools stacked up against each other in terms of bar passage rates. Berkeley < USC & UCLA. This would never have happened at "Boalt." [TaxProf Blog]

* Having nailed Bush, I think there’s a new job for Josh Brolin. [Popsquire]

* Here’s one way to handle criminals. Or suspected criminals. Or suspected unarmed criminals. Hey, better that 10 innocent people are boiled in oil rather than one axe murderer getting away with a fair trial. [Nix-on-Crime]

wsgr logo.JPGMajor news coming out of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm just announced that 45 attorneys and 68 staff were laid off:

[I]t is with regret that we announce that the firm will be downsizing our associate, legal support, and administrative ranks, with 45 attorneys and 68 staff directly affected. Members and staff managers will meet with their teams today and tomorrow to inform them of the details of this decision. Please know that the firm is extremely grateful to all of the affected employees for their contributions, and we will work with them and provide resources to ease their transitions.

In light of that news, the salary freeze and bonus news for those who are left doesn’t really sting that much:

[W]e will not be making associate step salary increases this year, but we will be paying out bonuses based on the criteria and structure developed by the Associate Bonus Program Steering Committee and announced last fall (additional details to follow shortly). Legal support and administrative staff will not receive merit bonuses in January, but the firm will be making profit-sharing contributions in the spring to all eligible plan participants equal to 9.5 percent of their eligible compensation, as we have in previous years.

Best of luck to the 113 people suddenly out of work. Keep your heads up.

Check out the full firm statement, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Nationwide Layoff Watch: Major Downsizing at Wilson Sonsini (45 Lawyers, 68 Staffers)”

bic layoffs no offers.jpgEverybody has to sacrifice to survive in the new “economy” (if that’s what we’re still calling it). Today, we’ve received word that Buchanan Ingersoll could be asking partners to shoulder part of the burden. A tipster explains:

Buchanan Ingersoll was not able to pay nonequity partners any of their holdback at year end and equity partners only received a very small portion of their money. Partners forced to borrow to pay in capital by Jan 30.

But according to the firm, this is the normal timing for Buchanan’s decision making process. A firm spokesperson told us:

In terms of payouts to non-equity and equity partners — We are on a January 31 year-end for partner compensation so it’s only after that date that we determine the payout to equity and non-equity partners. There will certainly be a payout to non-equity partners and a substantial equity payout as well.

If there is any level of payout uncertainty in the partnership ranks, you can imagine how associates are doing. We explore after the jump.

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Mike Lambrix Supreme Court candidate.jpgOne thing that has become clear to me since I started at ATL is that people in prison have a lot of time on their hands. A lot of time. We regularly receive handwritten letters from pro se litigants complaining that the judge who sent them to prison is “above the law.”

Michael Lambrix has been held on death row for over 25 years. Now, he wants to serve on the Florida Supreme Court. “Mike” describes himself on his website (doinglifeondeathrow.com) like this:

Born and raised in Marin County, CA I have now been held hostage on Florida’s death row over 25 years….

My spiritual faith and a healthy (if not a bit twisted) sense of humor have been my strength while the hope of spending time with my 3 children and grandson is my goal….

By nature I am easy going, hard to anger, and quick to forgive – even to a fault. Although spiritual by nature, I’ve grown disgusted by organized religion. For the same reasons I’m disgusted by organized politics — both have become institutions corrupted by man’s arrogance and greed.

Who better to deal with man’s arrogance and greed than a humble convicted felon? It makes sense to Mike. In his application to fill a vacancy on Florida’s highest court, Mike makes his best (handwritten) case:

I would now request that I be considered for nomination and in all fairness I would ask that you do not so quickly discount my genuine desire to become a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court. As a longtime (albeit involuntary!) citizen of the state of Florida I believe I am entitled to due consideration, and the following facts show that I am uniquely qualified to be a Justice on the court.

As for that pesky capital offense?

Of course, I do understand… there would be a predictable measure of reservation to my appointment, but to hell with the public. It’s the governor’s providence to appoint anyone he so chooses, and if the narrow minded public doesn’t like it, they can always vote me off the court in 6 years when I come up for a “retention vote.”

Before you “quickly discount” Mike’s appointment, give due consideration to the fact that we are talking about the state of Florida.

Read Mike’s full application, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Death Row Inmate Wants to be on Florida Supreme Court”

goodwin Procter logo.JPGTwo big name rainmakers are leaving Morrison & Foerster for Goodwin Procter. According to a Goodwin Procter email:

Goodwin Procter announced today a major expansion of its Financial Services Group with the addition of two nationally-recognized attorneys, Robert M. Kurucza and Marco E. Adelfio. Kurucza joins as co-chair of the firm’s Financial Services Group. Both are resident in Washington, D.C. The addition of Kurucza and Adelfio will enable Goodwin Procter to provide a more fully integrated suite of services to prominent common clients, and to offer even greater cross-disciplinary expertise to a broad range of financial institutions.

Good news for Goodwin, but the announcement is just more unsettling information coming out of MoFo. Rumors of all sorts have been popping up about how things are going at MoFo. What we do know for sure is that Mofo hasn’t made a decision about associate salaries:

MoFo, [hasn't] announced their bonus/ pay freeze intentions yet (which is totally bogus because it leaves associates in the dark). What little guidance we received came in the form of a wait and see what the market is doing approach.

Latham and Orrick have frozen, O’Melveny and Gibson Dunn are paying market. What will MoFo do?

no offer factories.jpgThe summer of 2009 should be very different from past summers of fun and excess. Many are expecting this summer to be a twelve week (or ten week, or eight week) “job interview” that current Biglaw associates didn’t really have to go through.

This shouldn’t come as a galloping shock to A) regular ATL readers, B) casual ATL readers, C) people who can read, or D) anybody at all that has been paying the slightest bit of attention to the legal industry.

But it is time to ask “how bad is it going to be?” We started receiving reports this weekend on perhaps a new paradigm for summer associates. Here’s a rumor that has been swirling around Nixon Peabody:

Nixon Peabody [has] informed their summer class they will only be hiring 50% of the summer associates?? Basically they said…only HALF of you are going to make it and we are going to give you real work to see who is worthy.

After the jump, Nixon Peabody unequivocally shoots down this rumor.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Open Thread: It’s Going to be an Interesting Summer”

newspaper headline.jpgWe always appreciate mentions of Above the Law in other publications (and we get annoyed when ATL isn’t given proper credit for breaking stories.). Here are a few recent shout-outs:

1. Chill of Salary Freezes Reaches Top Law Firms [New York Times]

We previously linked to Eilene Zimmerman’s article in Morning Docket, but in case you missed it, check it out here. An excerpt:

Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, a blog about law firms and the profession.

“There is this sense that firms didn’t act prudently during the boom and now they are getting religion, and that it’s better late than never,” Mr. Lat said. “Many associates we have spoken to think the freeze probably saved jobs.”

2. Gauging the net worth [Legal Week]

This article, by Alex Aldridge, focuses primarily on the social networking and blogging scene over in the U.K., but there is some discussion of what’s going on here in the States:

[T]he US legal blogging community is a fascinating case study in itself, having grown up in the wake of the controversial lawyer message boards Greedy Associates. So influential did the irreverent site come as a means for junior lawyers to pass around information that they were regarded as playing a key role in the pay wars of 1999 and 2000, as news of tit-for-tat pay rises among US law firms raced around the web.

3. Obama re-takes oath of office at the White House [CNN]

The always-playful legal Web site Above the Law asked readers to answer an online poll. About 48 percent blamed Roberts, just 17 percent blame Obama, and 35 percent said yes to the statement, “They both sucked.”

4. Back to School with Professor (and Federal Appeals Judge) Alex Kozinski [American Lawyer]

A short write-up, by Ben Hallman, of our recent event at Columbia Law School, an interview with Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (9th Cir.).

Chill of Salary Freezes Reaches Top Law Firms [New York Times]

Gauging the net worth [Legal Week]

Obama re-takes oath of office at the White House [CNN]

Back to School with Professor (and Federal Appeals Judge) Alex Kozinski [American Lawyer]

Regent University school of law.jpgMaybe Stephen McPherson, former Assistant Dean for student affairs at Regent University School of Law, just likes working with young people. Really young people. The former Regent administrator pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children:

McPherson, 39, of Chesapeake entered guilty pleas to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22.

Regent University is the alma mater of such esteemed lawyers as Monica Goodling.

Back in June, McPherson was indicted on charges stemming from his work with distressed girls:

McPherson and his wife worked from August 1996 to August 2000 as house parents supervising a cottage of as many as eight girls at Hope Haven Children’s Home on North Landing Road in Virginia Beach, said Linda Jones, a spokeswoman for Union Mission Ministries, which operates the home. Hope Haven, founded in 1965, provides Christian-based care for children from “distressed family situations,” according to its Web site. …

After they left Hope Haven, the McPhersons adopted three girls over the objections of Hope Haven, Jones said.

According to the report:

McPherson must wear an electronic monitoring device while free on bond pending sentencing.

I hope that thing is not just strapped to his ankle.

Ex-Regent University official pleads guilty to sexual abuse [The Virginian-Pilot]

Former Regent assistant dean faces sexual assault charges [Ex-Christian]

Morning Docket 01.26.09

piggy bank squeeze.jpg* The country’s top newspapers are full of law firm recession news. The New York Times looks at the salary freeze phenomenon at top firms, with some help from David Lat. [New York Times]

* And the Wall Street Journal reflects on the recession’s effect on law firms, focusing in on the demise of Heller Ehrman. The same thing that ruined baseball is putting the squeeze on mid-size firms: senior players shopping themselves to other teams. [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]

* The Patriot Act has led to legal trouble for many a non-terrorist airplane traveler. The law has been used to prosecute plane passengers who spilled bloody Marys, used profanity, and engaged in “overt sexual behavior.” [Chicago Tribune]

* Public Service Announcement: Get free make-up at Dillard’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s thanks to a class action settlement over price fixing. [Virginian-Pilot]

* Contempt of court, moral turpitude charges, and a suspended law license won’t stop Andrew Fine. [Los Angeles Times]

* Edward Genson, Rod Blagojevich’s chief defense attorney, said good night and good luck to the governor on Friday, hinting that Blago refuses to listen to his advice. [Associated Press via Wonkette]

* Congratulations to the new batch of Skadden fellows. Harvard, NYU, and Michigan students make a strong showing among this year’s recruits to the “legal Peace Corps.” [Skadden Arps via PRNewswire]

Morgan Finnegan intellectual property IP law.jpgThe law firm of Morgan & Finnegan, a leading intellectual property boutique, will be dissolving imminently, according to several sources at the firm. Some (but not all) of its lawyers, including prominent partners John Sweeney and James Gould, will join Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

Last month, we mentioned the possibility of a merger between the two firms. It now appears that it won’t be a complete merger, but a selective acquisition of certain lawyers (a la Sonnenschein’s absorption of Thacher Proffitt & Wood attorneys when TPW dissolved). As a result, Morgan & Finnegan lawyers who aren’t offered spots on the Locke Lord life raft will be out of jobs.

John Sweeney will become the deputy managing partner of Locke Lord’s New York office, while James Gould will assume the role of co-head of the intellectual property department. At least 11 other Morgan & Finnegan partners will also be making the move. Joining Locke Lord as equity partners are Matthew Blackburn, William Feiler, Peter Fill, Harry Marcus, and Steven Meyer. Coming aboard as income partners are Seth Atlas, Robert Goethals, James Hwa, John Osborne, Richard Straussman, and Andrea Wayda.

Rumors of dissolution have been swirling around Morgan & Finnegan for quite some time. Back in August, the firm engaged in staff and attorney layoffs.

As for how the word got out, something rather strange happened on Friday. An email from an anonymous address was sent to a large number of M&F associates, attaching the Locke Lord offer letters to Sweeney and Gould (posted below — but you may have seen them already, since they were in wide circulation over the weekend, sent to us by multiple correspondents). From one source:

Morgan & Finnegan is dissolving on Monday. They are sending termination letters to everyone. Then, a number of those people will receive offer letters from Locke Lord (so it is not really an acquisition).

Not everyone will get offers. A large number of staff and attorneys will be laid off on Monday. Rumor has it around 70 people. Most first years, and some other associates. Pretty much all staff. LLBL just wants the lease and some of the partners….

Interesting that [Sweeney and Gould] are making off with $1+ million apiece at the cost of most of the jobs of their employees. Needless to say, most people are disgusted. John Sweeney is the person who has kept saying that people should not worry and the firm is fine. Now he is cutting his losses and running.

More discussion — plus links to the James Gould and John Sweeney offer letters, which are an interesting read, especially if you don’t know what a lateral-partner offer letter looks like — after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Nationwide Dissolution Watch: Morgan & Finnegan?”

deirdre dare expat allen and overy.jpgDeidre Dare is a senior lawyer in Allen & Overy’s Russia office. Like many an expat, she’s been maintaining a website, presumably to keep folks back home up to date on her life and to share the splendor of living abroad with random strangers on the Internet.

On the website, Philosophy Can Be Sexy, she posts poetry, photos of herself in lingerie, “philosophy” (if a quote from the “Marriage Delusion” counts), and a serialized novel about the expat life in Moscow.

Allen & Overy was not too pleased to discover the novel. Per the Daily Mail:

Miss Dare, who is thought to earn £150,000 a year at the firm’s Russian office, is calling her steamy online novel, Expat: A Weekly Serialized Novel About Living in Moscow.

It describes the sordid lifestyle pursued by staff at a British-led professional firm in the capital.

Miss Dare’s promiscuous heroine describes herself as a ‘part drug addict, part alcoholic’ who regularly turns up for work hours late and hungover.

She and her colleagues are constantly seeking new sexual conquests, attend obscene sex shows involving donkeys and dwarves, blow fortunes at expensive restaurants and gossip about where they are planning to get drunk next.

Sounds like working abroad is like being a summer associate all year long. An erotic excerpt for the grammarians among you, after the jump.

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