* The Madoff case will garner lawyers lots of money in fees. “This is a financial 9/11 for our clients” said a Proskauer Rose litigation partner, licking his lips. [Bloomberg.com]
* Meanwhile, the U.S. is challenging the New York Judge’s decision to keep Madoff free on bail. [Bloomberg.com]
* Legislators in Maine are introducing a bill that would recognize same-sex marriage. [The Boston Globe]
* Obama and Biden will visit the Supreme Court this afternoon to meet with the Justices and get a tour. The elephant in the chambers: Obama and Biden voted against Roberts’ confirmation. [The Washington Post]
* Al Franken asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to let him get to the Senate without waiting for the resolution of opponent Norm Coleman’s legal challenge. His lawyers argue that Senator’s will need Franken for comic relief in the midst of our trying times (just kidding). [The Associated Press]
* Dozens of suspected terrorists released from Guantanamo have returned to terrorism says the Pentagon (gulp). [CNN]
With all the layoffs rippling through the Biglaw community, we are likely to see more lawsuits from attorneys directed at their former employers.
Right now, Nixon Peabody is in the spotlight. A former associate is suing the firm. The National Law Journal reports:
Henry Har, now an associate in Holland & Knight’s San Francisco office, claims that he was wrongly fired from Nixon Peabody in 2008 because of his sex and gender, and because he is Asian-American. …
Har, a graduate of New York University School of Law, originally worked in Nixon Peabody’s San Francisco office and moved to the Los Angeles location in September 2007. His complaint states that the Los Angeles office had a “drastically different working environment” from the San Francisco office and that attorneys in the office “demonstrated inappropriate and offense behavior towards ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals.”
The firm responds after the jump.
Continue reading “San Francisco Attorney Sues Nixon Peabody Los Angeles for Sexual Discrimination”
More bad news coming out of California this evening, this time from Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Multiple tipsters tell us that the firm laid off 8 associates from its Los Angeles office. As one tipster puts it:
The attrition at Dewey & LeBoeuf continued yesterday as the firm laid off almost 30% of the associate corps in its Los Angeles office. Eight attorneys were let go, ranging from newly minted second years to more senior associates.
Our figures suggest that 30% is a little bit high, but eight associates does represent a significant chunk of Dewey’s L.A. associate presence.
A firm spokesperson confirmed that eight associates were no longer with the firm.
While our Dewey sources in New York are worried that their office might be next, it’s worth noting that Dewey already let go of 11 New York associates at the beginning of December. The worst might be over.
Dewey has not frozen salaries for the associates that remain.
These are the kinds of choices that Biglaw is facing right now, freeze salaries, fire associates, or come up with other ways of spreading the economic pain around.
Good luck to the recently unemployed.
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Dewey & LeBoeuf Lays Off 12 Associates
Prior ATL coverage of law firm layoffs
* Well, well. It looks like my monkey, has evolved into a man. A poor man. [Swordplay]
* Governor Paterson is ready to name a new chief judge to replace Judith S. Kaye. It’s Caroline Kennedy … no, sorry, wrong wire feed. It’s Jonathan Lippman! [New York Law Journal]
* Liberal blogger of some note, Matt Yglesias, is in on the whole Sidley pro-bono, anti public transportation issue. [Yglesias]
* We’ve mentioned David Mills’ funny “Courtoons” site before. I guess we’re not the only ones watching. A Russian blog has picked up one of the drawings, begging the question: there’s a Russian Biglaw blog!? If anybody can translate the Russian we (and David Mills) would be interested. [Courtoons via Юридический блог]
* You need to hear to be on a jury? Really? ‘Cause you don’t really need it for law school, Biglaw, being a law professor, courtroom litigator, or judge. But if a juror can’t locate the jury box using high pitch sonar we should kick him out of the pool? [Simple Justice]
* Lateral Link has undergone a complete site redesign. [Lateral Link]
* Just to be clear, we are pretty sure this Craigslist job listing is a joke. The riff about vacation time is really where it unravels. Then again … just because it’s a joke doesn’t make it devoid of truth. [Craigslist] [Ed. Note: It looks like Craigslist took down the link, but now Google Cache can finally be used for something other than catching my former typos. Check here]
* Meet David Lat tonight at the Bel Air Bar and Grill and learn about all the gossip we can’t publish on ATL. [Above the Law]
After saying nice things about top Texas firms yesterday, our inbox was flooded today with news of a salary freeze at Fulbright & Jaworski.
As we understand it, the firm is only freezing salaries through the first quarter of 2009, so it’s a Slurpee freeze.
So much for Texas being the beacon of hope for the legal industry.
But, perhaps more surprisingly, Perkins Coie is also freezing salaries:
The 2009 economic picture remains extremely uncertain. Although we continue to have no debt and the firm is in excellent financial shape, we have determined to take a number of significant steps to ensure the firm’s financial health in 2009 for the benefit of all personnel.
The firm’s budget contemplates approximately a 10% reduction in average partner income in 2009, and partner draw percentages for January and February were significantly reduced in order to avoid any need to borrow funds. We have also frozen salaries for senior administrative staff who are evaluated on a calendar year basis. Most staff have salary adjustments on July 1 and no decision will be made on compensation adjustments applicable to them until that time.
We have also decided to hold associates at their current base salary levels. Associates will remain at their 2008 base salary for 2009, subject to two limited exceptions. Adjustments will be made to productivity build-ins for affected associates in the Bellevue, Seattle and Washington, DC offices, and changes will be made to address a few unique compensation arrangements previously scheduled for adjustment in 2009. New compensation memos will be distributed within the next few weeks.
I guess having partners that are tight with Obama isn’t enough to stave off a “solid ice” freeze. So much for unicorns.
But, after the jump, some positive news to report.
Continue reading “Nationwide Pay Freeze Watch: Perkins Coie And Fulbright Freeze, Schulte Does Not”
As we’ve pointed out in the past, it’s difficult to tell the difference between “normal business practices” and “stealth layoffs” in these difficult economic times. Milbank has made a change in their annual review process, but what that means — if anything — is anyone’s guess.
At this point, we don’t know if Milbank is planing any attorney reductions. But our tipsters report these early warning signs:
Milbank sent an email around to all junior and senior associates that the performance review cycle would begin tomorrow. They moved the review up by 6 months. The reviews are normally done annually and the normal review period for juniors and seniors is June. Apparently the firm can’t wait that long to shed attorneys. …
Milbank has laid the groundwork for stealth layoffs.
But Milbank told us that this change has been a long time coming. A firm spokesperson told ATL:
We did an overhaul of our evaluation system in late 2007 to early 2008 that was part of a broader firm excellence initiative. The new review process was designed to encourage excellence and provide more meaningful feedback, forward-looking career guidance and greater focus to the professional development of our associates. The roll-out of our new evaluation process was communicated to our associates in April 2008. This included split timing with a cycle for junior and senior associates commencing in January and another cycle for mid-level associates commencing in August. Last year, we started our junior/senior cycle in April simply due to planning and timing issues. The January start we are doing this year was the exact timing contemplated by our announcement to our associates last April.
Either way, we’d encourage Milbank associates to take the review process seriously this year.
Earlier: In This Market: Are You Getting Laid Off or Fired? A Kaye Scholer Case Study
It’s been a tough year for Kentucky. They were on the wrong side of the Obama-wave. They killed a horse. Rick Pitino isn’t walking through that door.
And it’s not like University of Kentucky College of Law students are immune from the larger problems in the legal market. But unlike Churchill Downs, the UK Law administration is looking for creative ways to deal with emerging realities. In response to the cratering job market, UK Law’s interim dean has suggested that students spend more time on Facebook:
We want you to know that you can sign up for the UK College of Law Alumni group on Facebook. Even though you are not technically yet alums, you will be soon and I thought that participating in our Facebook page might help you make contacts that would assist you with your job search.
I realize that your class is graduating into a difficult job market. It’s my intention for the Dean’s Office to do whatever we can to make your job search less stressful and more productive. One idea is that you could sign up on Facebook and use your profile to describe your interests, including the fact that you are looking for a job after graduation.
Well, every great idea looked a little bit ridiculous before it worked right?
And there’s some salient Facebook pimping advice for those inclined to try it out:
I’ll be sending a “wall” message to those alums who are already participating, asking them to help us with placement for our grads. You never know who might know about the perfect job for you, so be sure to make your profile and any comments you post something that is “professional.” Yes, I know that some grads put up pictures of their dogs—and far be it from me, of all persons, to criticize dog photos—but I think that if you are using this as a marketing opportunity you want to be careful what you post.
Read the Dean’s full Good Will Hunting-esque message after the jump. And remember you can share this post on Facebook with other job seekers friends.
Continue reading “University of Kentucky College of Law Updates Facebook Status”
Despite our late start, our readers are leading a furious ATL comeback in the 2008 Weblog Awards. On Friday ATL was getting slammed, but now we’re running a strong second with almost a third of the vote.
If you’ve already voted for ATL, thanks. If you’d like to vote again, that would be wonderful.
Sure, we know that critics will say something along the lines of “Above the Law is an inaccurate, typo-ridden, unfunny, TTT legal blog.” But based on our strong showing in the ABA Journal Blawg 100 Awards, we know that there is a silent majority of people who think “Above the Law is an inaccurate, typo-ridden, unfunny, TTT legal blog that I read every day.” Voting closes as 5 p.m. EST today.
The ATL community is strong and growing. Thanks for all of the support so far.
2008 Weblog Awards
Back in the golden days of Biglaw (in the before times, in the long, long ago), associates were fired all the time. Getting laid off for poor performance or low hours is nothing new.
Of course, back when we had a functional American economy, getting fired was a temporary bump in the road. You could always work at a smaller firm or for the government. Back in the day, you could even work as a contract attorney if you needed something to tide you over.
Now … everything is different. And contract attorney jobs are great gets in this market. Yesterday, the National Law Journal ran a piece about the curious case of paying off law school debt while making $35 an hour:
As law firms downsize, laid-off attorneys and new law school graduates unable to find jobs have been turning to an option they may never have imagined at law school: becoming contract attorneys — hired guns for $35 an hour.
Yet in the past couple of months, even that field appears to be showing signs of a slowdown.
People who waited too long to swallow their pride and confront the reality of the financial crisis are finding that contract work has already been snapped up by less prestige conscious job seekers.
And it probably isn’t helping that just as the American legal market is starved for low level work, the ABA has made it easier to outsource doc review to other countries:
Also cutting into their business is the growing popularity of outsourcing to India. Hudson Legal has countered with an ad campaign that encourages law firms to “onshore,” and choose U.S. staffing companies where there are no security or privacy concerns and where they operate in the Eastern time zone.
Even if you land a contract attorney job you never thought you wanted, the working conditions remain just as bad as you remember them.
Continue reading “Contract Attorneys: Good Work If You Have No Other Option”
Last year was the year of layoffs, and 2009 is not looking much better. Law firms are not the only ones hurting. From the Wall Street Journal [subscription] via the Daily Beast.
A December survey of US-based employers found that 23 percent expect to lay off workers in the next year and more than 15 percent expect to freeze salaries or hiring, cut spending on travel or training, or increase employees’ contributions to health care premiums.
We often wonder how those who were let go over the last year are faring in this dismal economy. The Austin American-Statesman brings us news from one of the more recognizable legal faces currently found in the unemployment lines: former AG Alberto Gonzales.
We’ve been following Gonzales’ desperate search for a job since last August. The latest news: still unemployed. He tells the Statesman:
“It’s a rough economy right now, and it’s a tough time for a lot of law firms right now. Obviously they are very careful about bringing on new people, and they are going to be careful about bringing on people where there are questions about things that may have happened in their past,” he said. “Over time, I’m confident those things will be resolved, and things will work themselves out.”
So he’s going to do what so many of us who are good for nothing else do: write. The tale of his forthcoming tale, after the jump.
Continue reading “Still unable to find work, Alberto Gonzales turns to the writerly craft”
If you enjoy watching people kick other people while they’re down, you’ll love the new study released from JobsRated.com. They’ve done “extensive” research and data mining and come up with a comparative list of 200 job options:
JobsRated.com offers help for uncertain job seekers by analyzing 200 different jobs according to 5 vital criteria: Stress, Work Environment, Physical Demands, Income and Outlook. In every area each job receives a specific score, and data is mined to provide the most detailed information possible — for example, rather than listing average incomes, our rankings combine each job’s mid-level salary with its outlook score, which eliminates data from employees making too much or too little to provide a more accurate result.
According to these people, being an attorney ranks 82nd, just ahead of “bookbinder” and stockbroker, but behind the illustrious career of telephone repairman.
I guess I should have mentioned that the prone people being kicked were members of the legal profession.
More nuggets from these rankings after the jump.
Continue reading “‘Attorney’ is a Slightly Better Job Than ‘Bookbinder’?”
When is a 30% decrease in profits per partner a good thing?
When you still take home $1.88 million during the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
This morning, AmLaw reported that Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft saw a 30% decrease in PPP, a 13% drop in revenue, … but is feeling pretty good heading into 2009:
Christopher White, though, says the firm is now positioned for 2009 following a series of layoffs in its troubled structured finance practice.
“I’d like to think that we put most of our pain in 2008,” White says, adding that the $1.88 million profit number “is not too shabby.”
The drop, while severe, beat previously published rumors that profits per partner would fall 50 percent.
Should all those people CWT fired take comfort that making drastic cuts early in the year probably helped save 2008 for the firm at large? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the not quite as many?
White says it’s wrong to put the focus on Cadwalader’s structured finance side, which, while still large, was shrunken through layoffs last year. “Our financial restructuring people are very busy, parts of our litigation department are very busy, and those are important engines in a downturn,” he says.
What’s next for Cadwalader after the jump.
Continue reading “Cadwalader Profits Per Partner Down 30%”
* If you don’t have hooters you can’t work there. Hooters discriminates against men by refusing to hire them, a class action argues. Get over it sissies, and grow some boobs. [Courthouse News Service]
* In less pressing news…President-elect Barack Obama will issue an executive order to close Guantanamo within days of entering the White House according to senior advisors. [BBC News]
* Annoyed by your loud neighbors? At least you don’t live on 64th and Lexington next to Berny Madoff (well actually you probably do, I bet those apts. are sweet) His neighbors are incensed by yesterday’s decision to keep Madoff out on bail. Meanwhile, Fairfield Greenwhich has been sued three times by Madoff investors. [Bloomberg.com]
* I served my country, and all I got was special judicial help. An Illinois county is launching a special court to try veterans who commit non-violent crimes. [The Associated Press]
* Obama asked Congress for the second-half of the bailout money so he can stabilize the economy. [The International Herald Tribune]
Biglaw hasn’t exactly experienced Conquest, War, and Famine. But Bonus Reductions, Salary Freezes, and Dissolutions sure make one feel like a seal of whup-ass has been opened up on the legal community.
But the number one business story affecting the legal community in 2008 was the rash of Biglaw layoffs. Layoffs were the Shock and Awe campaign of Biglaw’s 2008.
The first shot across the bow was provided by Cadwalader. Way back on January 10th, 2008, we reported:
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has confirmed to us that it will be laying off 35 attorneys. Please see the statement below, which we just received from Hill & Knowlton, the powerhouse public relations firm. When a law firm hires an outside PR / crisis management shop, you know they have something big on their hands.
Of course, that was just the start of CWT’s 2008 layoff party. By the end of July, Cadwalader was at it again:
Earlier this morning, we once again posed the question: “Is today Layoff Day at Cadwalader?” And once again, the firm has confirmed — this time to the WSJ Law Blog — that it will be laying off 96 lawyers, from counsel on down to first-year associates. The intelligence in our post from earlier this morning, which estimated the carnage at “as many as 100 attorneys, ranging from special counsel down to the current first-year associate class,” was essentially correct.
In July the economy looked bad. But few knew that it was actually heading off of a cliff. It turns out that Cadwalader was just the tip of a huge iceberg.
Biglaw lowers the boom on more attorneys after the jump.
Continue reading “Top Biglaw Stories: #1 (Business)
Layoffs”
* Confused about how to handle new problems in 2009? Don’t forget to send your questions in to Pls Hndle Thx via advice@abovethelaw.com.
* Does running a legal blog help generate business? Probably not … [Drug and Device Law]
* A juror was dismissed for smelling really bad. What is really crazy is that the defendant appealed his conviction on the basis of the dismissed juror. I don’t even have a joke here. [Legal Blog Watch]
* … Overweight jurors, on the other hand, pose different sorts of problems and benefits. [What About Clients?]
* Paul Caron has an interesting way to win the war on laptops. It involves making class (gasp) more interesting. [TaxProf Blog]
* Remember you can see David Lat live on the West Coast Tuesday and Wednesday night. I bet he’s warm … [Above the Law]
* Biglaw has certainly figured out the self immolation part of the Phoenix story. The re-birth part? Blawg Review weighs in. [Build a Solo Practice via Blawg Review]
* If you’ve already voted for ATL over at the 2008 Weblog Awards, thanks! If you’d like to vote again, nobody is stopping you. [2008 Weblog Awards]
Illinois, your long senatorial nightmare is over. Senate Democrats will seat Roland Burris. The Politico reports:
In a statement issued after a 45-minute meeting between Senate officials and Burris’ lawyers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Burris is now the senator-designate from Illinois after the secretary of the Senate approved his latest credentials.
“Accordingly, barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week,” the statement said. “We are working with him and the office of the Vice President to determine the date and time of the swearing-in.”
Is this the Congressional equivalent of cleaning your room by sweeping things under the rug?
Two Senators to go. Will it be Franken or Coleman? Will it be Kennedy or Cuomo? What’s your take?
Dem senators to swear in Burris [Politico]
Earlier: Lawyer of the Day: Roland “Self-proclaimed Trail Blazer” Burris
In a former life, I did a lot of coverage on Michael Bloomberg’s controversial “congestion pricing” plan for New York City. If you spend any length of time with transit policy — and don’t otherwise have a life — you’re going to find transit policy fascinating. It touches on law, politics, the environment and city planning.
It looks like Sidley Austin attorneys are getting a taste of this great work. The firm is working on behalf of a town which is trying to stop Washington, D.C.’s proposed “Purple Line.” I won’t bother you with the ins and outs of the Purple Line project (light rail versus buses!). But it’s particularly interesting that Sidley is representing the town of Chevy Chase, and the firm is working pro-bono.
When you think of disadvantaged clients in need of free legal services, you don’t really think of the well-to-do town of Chevy Chase do you? According to a press release from Action Committee for Transit:
The town has also engaged the nationally prominent law firm Sidley Austin to represent it
in the transit dispute. Sidley Austin has submitted to the Maryland Transit Administration an extensive request for information, much of which duplicates an informal request previously submitted by Columbia Country Club.
At present, the town’s lawyers are working “pro bono”–without payment. However,
Sidley Austin’s web site states that the firm’s pro bono work is done “to provide legal services to the poor and to charitable, religious, community, governmental and educational organizations that otherwise would be unable to afford legal representation.” The town can easily afford to pay for legal services. Its most recent financial statement shows it has $4.4 million tucked away in the bank–more than its entire annual budget of $3 million.
In these tough economic times, maybe the firm shouldn’t be giving away services for free when the client could pay? But it’s important to remember that pro bono work isn’t just about work a client can pay, it’s also about doing work that nobody will pay for.
Does Chevy Chase fit into that broader category? More after the jump.
Continue reading “Should Ability to Pay Have Anything to do with Pro Bono Work?”
While many firms announced their decisions to freeze 2009 salaries at the end of 2008, a few waited until now to make up their minds.
Memos went out before the first paychecks of the year to associates at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird and Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson. Alston’s is a Slurpee freeze with the firm saying it may “revisit” the decision at an unspecified time this year. Hogan’s is a Solid Ice freeze; salaries are locked at 2008 levels throughout 2009.
The language of these memos has become fairly uniform– a jumble of “economic downturn,” “challenging,” “distress,” and “2009 may really suck for us.” Okay, maybe not the last phrase, but that’s the gist. Check out the memos, after the jump.
We’ve also received word that Schulte Roth & Zabel has frozen salaries until further notice, but the language leaves hope for a decision in the near future for a raise:
The firm has not yet made any decision with respect to associate salaries for 2009. We expect a decision will be made in the next few weeks, and any change will be retroactive to January 1.
Not all firms are bracing themselves for a difficult 2009 by freezing salaries. In response to our requests for salary raise information, we heard back from associates at Cleary; Stoel Rives; Perkins Coie; Fried Frank; Irell; and Schiff Hardin. A host of others are named in Firms that have not frozen, a post in the ATL Community section.
Memos from Alston, Hogan, and Schulte about frozen salaries, after the jump.
Continue reading “Nationwide Pay Freeze Watch: Brrr! Things are getting chilly beneath the Mason-Dixon Line”
We are now ready to confirm some of the reports flying around the internet about layoffs at Cahill Gordon. We now have multiple tipsters who work at Cahill who can confirm that there were significant layoffs at the firm last Thursday.
Our tipsters don’t know the numbers of cuts — and the firm has rebuffed our repeated requests for comment on the story — but some tipsters report that as many as ten percent of associates were let go.
The timing of last week’s cuts seemed to rankle some of our sources. On Wednesday, Cahill announced Half-Skadden bonuses. But on Thursday associates were called in for their “annual review” and told that they were being let go … and that they would not be receiving the 2008 bonuses the firm announced the day before.
As we understand it, first and second years were spared. But everybody else was fair game.
Working all of 2008 and still not getting a 2008 bonus has to sting. But the firm did give a 3 month severance package.
Still, the firm apparently doesn’t want to talk very much about their decision to fire people without giving them their bonuses. Tipsters weigh in after the jump.
Continue reading “Nationwide Layoff Watch: Cahill Gordon”
The outlook for Texas based law firms is … bright? Texas Lawyer today reports that most top Texas firms are paying associates 2008 bonuses on par with what they received in 2007:
Lawyers with most of the firms say the 2008 associate bonuses are similar, or at the same level, as the bonuses the firms paid to their associates for 2007.
Vinson & Elkins is one of the firms that could be paying Texas associates a bigger bonus than New York associates.
In fact, Texas lawyers seem positive about the future of the Texas market:
[T. Michael] Wilson’s prediction for 2009 echoes that of the other managing partners. “We are guardedly optimistic,” he says. “Who knows what the next six months will bring in terms of the economy and the practice of law?”
That’s a lot different than what is coming out of New York. Remember this nugget from the Cravath bonus memo:
Given the uncertainty of the economy and the business climate going forward, we will not be able to address the issue of whether there will be any year-end bonuses in 2009 until this time next year. However, associates should be prepared for the likelihood that the economy and the Firm’s financial performance next year will not show a significant improvement over this year and they may receive significantly reduced or no year-end bonuses next year.
Better bonuses, lower cost of living, and great barbeque … Texas is looking very competitive isn’t it?
2008 Associate Bonuses at Large Firms in Texas on Par With 2007 [Texas Lawyer]
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of associate bonuses
