Why are there so few comments this week?

Here I sit,
Broken hearted,
I came to shit,
But only farted.

T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of Alfred J. Poofrock

at least give shel silverstein some props. you ripped off the entire poem.

4 - Click on the link, "Now I lay me down to sleep."

In blogging, linking = citation.

Awesome that the student government kid would rarher sever all ties to Hope than deal with her (daily!) drafts for ATL

And the snippet was the most eloquent things ever written by or about Hope.
http//anonymouscontractlawyer.blogspot.com

Wow...that CNN snippet on Hope Winters is really sad. Can't believe she opened her heart/shared her manuscripts with a facebook friend that she had actually met in person previously and that he actually defriended her after reading her work (or that she admitted the same to CNN).

You know the difference between Michael Jackson and Neil Armstrong?

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.

Michael Jackson ****s young boys.

I'm sure if they were talking about banning some hetero WASP molester, you'd be all for it.

Fuzzy headed liberal.

But dammit, those songs *are* good.

Mama Ssay Mama Sa MaMaCooSa...

HEY GUYS! IS THAT EVAN THERE ON THE RIGHT BANNER? HI EVAN!!!

HEY GUYS! IS THAT EVAN THERE ON THE RIGHT BANNER? HI EVAN!!!

dammit. That thing about the dog made me cry.

Dogs beat humans at life so hard.

You realize, of course, that most fraternity and sorority hazing is more degrading and potentially harmful than waterboarding. But then again, speaking truthfully about the War on Terror doesn't fit your agenda.

" "Hope Winters" had a different social networking experience .The former lawyer who blogs under the pen name Winters on "Here's the Thing DC" recently had a Facebook encounter with an old crush. The two of them had been in student government together in college and always had an attraction but never did anything about it.

After six months of e-mailing almost daily and sharing her unposted work with him, her college crush removed her as a friend on the social network, blocking her from seeing his profile and cutting off communication for what she says is no apparent reason. She was upset, but she's taking it in stride."

Yikes. That is very, very sad. I find it more than a little surprising that she was actually willing to share that for the world to see.

Who is the loser that regulates this site? What a waste of life.

13 -- So by your logic, we can replicate with prisoners anything that was done on Jackass. That's a stoopid argument.

This has been a big day for Chihuahuas. Prosecutor Eric Nichols coined the term "The Chihuahua Defense" in Texan Mauricio Celis' lawyer impersonation trial today -- for some fun closing statements see http://www.caller.com/news/2009/feb/18/celis-trial-live-day-7/

MoFo just made it official: salary freeze and way below market bonus (half-Skadden would be a dream compared to what we got).

Under the "Going Forward" header in the memo: "For associates and Of Counsel in all offices, we urge conservation in personal budgeting ...."

This ship be sinking.

[Yes, I know I should be happy to have a job. I am. But this shows something ain't right in upper management at MoFo -- we're not weathering the strom nearly as well as our "peer" firms.]

Anyone here work at Katten? What's the work-environment like for a litigator?

I am absolutely pissed at MoFo.

1. Salary Freeze. I knew we weren't going to get a raise. MoFo has always been a compensation follower, not a leader. But why is the firm raising my rates?

2. The bonuses are ridiculous! They are substantially smaller than half-skaddens (by approximately a third)!

3. 2009 nonexistent compensation. Notice how Keith's memo keeps alluding to the fact that the firm will not be giving any bonuses next year.

God. This is just pathetic. We are peerless in our compensation because we are behind everyone else - OMM, Orrick, PH, Pillsbury.

atl should run a story on the rampant RACISM at michigan law. lol...i wish i could post the res gestae article (law school student newspaper).

-nervous T-10 1L
soon to be nervous 1L sa

Anyone here work at Katten? What's the work-environment like for a litigator?

this blog sucked a lot less when the legal industry was self-destructing.

Regarding MoFo bonuses, to be fair, associates who had high hours and a good eval did pretty well. In the senior years, 2100 hours and the best eval gets you more than full Skadden.

BigLaw won't capitulate until the market capitulates. When the market fails the test and drops below November's lows it'll quickly drop another 20%. At that point expect BigLaw to give up any remaining delusions about this being merely a recession. Mass associate layoffs within a few months will ensue and huge numbers of income and business-less partners will follow them out the door. Things should pick up again in 5 years or so.

25,

Where is your information from? BigLaw is still putting up huge profits, despite the shitstorm.

20, agreed. I expected a salary freeze but the 60-75% cuts to previously announced bonuses are ridiculous. Definitely worse than our peers. I love that I get a whopping $6k (instead of the originally announced $25k) for hitting 1950 while my counterpart in the NYC office makes $17.5 with no hourly requirement.

CNN EXCERPT: "After six months of e-mailing almost daily and sharing her unposted work with him, her college crush removed her as a friend on the social network, blocking her from seeing his profile and cutting off communication for what she says is no apparent reason."

for no apparent reason?

i'd think the reason would be obvious to anyone who has ever read her writing.

Can someone provide info on the McKee Nelson layoffs?

26 = idiot with no business sense.

law firms putting up huge profits? what do you base that on? the 2008 PPP is horribly misleading... All you idiots forget that 2008 was by all accounts a pretty good year, except for the last three months. It would have been an insanely good record year had it not been for the last three months. That said, this entire year is going to look like the last three months of last year. PPP will fall dramatically, even with these new layoffs. layoffs at the end of last year and into this year have nothing to do with last years PPP, rather, they are an attempt to salvage this year's. Enough whining. the layoffs are all justified, and likely more are needed.

30 layoffs are indeed justified. What is not justified is our being abused by this non ELIE poster (please come back soon Elie - Please) IGNORING the big news that many vault 50 firms had super 2008 results, above even their ridiculous expectations.

But you are correct - many more layoffs are coming and biglaw will be 30% smaller by year end. (thirty, not three percent small). If you can hang on to your job, you will be in a good spot going forward - not even the Great Depression (as compared with this Bush Depression) lasted forever....

"After six months of e-mailing almost daily and sharing her unposted work with him, her college crush removed her as a friend on the social network, blocking her from seeing his profile and cutting off communication for what she says is no apparent reason. She was upset, but she's taking it in stride."

If anyone has ever read her writing, that alone is reason enough. Frankly, I'm shocked the guy made it 6 months. I further suspect that, true to form, the guy had a romantic interest in HW's "friend" in student government.

31- nice try buddy but the Dems have been controlling the government purse strings (you do know that it is Congress and not the President that spends money right?) since 2006. If it's anybody's recession it's the DEMOCRATS. Own it. Choke on it. Pay the price for it in 2010.

wtf does a fucking chihuahua have to do with the law?

33 - you think 2006 govt spending caused the largest recession in US history?

also, what percentage of that spending was iraq you idiot?

A grown man with a chihuahua is just . . . sad. That really goes for a grown man with any rat dog with terrible dispositions.

8 / 14 - you either have never read anything by Hope Winters, or you are Hope Winters. If anyone deserves sympathy, it is the guy who, almost surely out of pity, endured 6 months of her pointless, time wasting, life sucking drivel.

35 - Oh I see now. Running up the U.S. debt is only bad when there is a Republican in the White House. Gotcha.

Defense spending was only 4% of GDP - compare that figure with the percent of GDP used to give goverment handouts to lazy Obama supportes like yourself. Now please go back to your Xbox and let the adults talk. Mmmkay?