Archive for March 2009

West Virginia, Take Me Home

By David Lat

Digital Entrepreneurship Incentives Legal Risks.jpgWe regularly receive tips about free events that might interest our readers. Because we don’t have the ability to give shout-outs to all, and to ensure equal treatment, we direct everyone with events to promote to mention them in our Community section. If your event is more commercial in nature, you can advertise it on ATL; if your budget is limited, consider a quicklisting.

Our rule against event promotion admits of exceptions. We will mention events featuring significant participation by Above the Law editors (e.g., a speech by one of us). We’ll also mention selected events sponsored by our advertisers (like the happy hour sponsored by Major Lindsey & Africa, and the launch party of Practical Law Company).

If you’ll be in or near Morgantown, West Virginia — which isn’t far from Pittsburgh, and which happens to be one of the few cities that’s doing well in the downturn — you might be interested in this event, featuring your above-signed editor (see the 9:50 a.m. panel):

DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: INCENTIVES AND LEGAL RISKS

When: Friday, March 27, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Speakers: Various. Check out the full schedule of events.

Where: Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom, WVU Law Center, Morgantown, WV

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Hope to see you there!

Digital Entrepreneurship: The Incentives and Legal Risks [West Virginia University College of Law]

Nationwide Start Date Watch: Ballard Spahr Offers $45K Plus For a Year Off

By Elie Mystal

Ballard Spahr logo.JPGAbove the Law has been able to confirm that Ballard Spahr has officially pushed back start dates for its incoming first year associates. A tipster summarizes the details:

On Friday Ballard Spahr told its incoming class that it is delaying start dates until September 2010. There will be a $45,000 stipend offered…. The firm claims it will try to help the incoming associates find these jobs.

We understand that the $45K is in addition to the standard $5K bar stipend the firm traditionally offers.

The firm will not cover health care directly, but there will be a $5,500 Health Benefit Stipend as well.

Getting the money is contingent upon finding a job, but the firm is not limiting the work to public interest legal work. Incoming first years are encouraged to find employment at host of places, doing legal or non-legal work in certain circumstances.

Somebody get Habitat for Humanity on the phone.

In other news, the firm is also shortening the length of its summer program to seven weeks.

This news might be depressing to some law students that have already signed up for Ballard Spahr, but not the ones who were choosing between Ballard and Wolf Block.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of start dates

Nationwide Dissolution Watch: WolfBlock

  • 25 Mar 2009 at 12:04 PM
  • Sports

Sports and the Law: The Marlins New Stadium; More Pork to the Fattest Pig in Town

By Marc Edelman

Florida Marlins Boondoggle.JPGWhile President Obama and a bipartisan Congress spent most of last weekend trying to recoup $165 million in taxpayer money that insurance giant AIG paid to its upper-level employees, the Miami-Dade County Commissioners were finalizing a plan to spend $359 million in taxpayer money to build a new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins “bailout”-demanding owner Jeffrey Loria.

The Marlins new stadium, anticipated to open in 2012, will be neither the first baseball-oriented stadium built with public dollars (that distinction belongs to Milwaukee County Municipal Stadium), nor the most expensive subsidized baseball stadium (that distinction belongs to the Washington Nationals’ new $611 million facility). Yet, this new stadium may ultimately come to symbolize all that is wrong with the relationship between Major League Baseball and the American city.

From a taxpayer perspective, the Marlins new stadium deal epitomizes fiscal irresponsibility. First, the specific terms of the Marlins stadium agreement skew hugely in the Marlins’ favor (more so than many other recent stadium deals). Under the agreement, the local government will be responsible for covering approximately three quarters of stadium building costs, while the Marlins will get to keep all stadium revenues — even those revenues from events completely unrelated to baseball, and even those revenues derived from selling stadium naming rights.

And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part. More on that after the jump.

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Judge of the Day: For Real.

By Elie Mystal

In Blawg Review #204, I quipped that lawyers don’t do well in a street fight. Thanks to Judge Ian Richards, I stand corrected. Check out this TMZ video:

Judge Ian Richards.jpg

The video is a little grainy, so let me give you the play-by-play, after the jump.

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Pls Hndle Thx: The Future is Unwritten

By Marin

Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.

pls hndle copy 2.jpgATL -

I am one of many 3Ls who already missed OCI and are now trying to figure out what to do. We go to a T-50 school in a major market and have grades ranging from top 25%-15%. We’ve tried mass mailing to firms (all sizes), networking with judges and attys and nothing is paying off. Any advice on how we can find jobs? We aren’t looking to get rich, we just want a paycheck that we can live off of without having to eat nothing but noodles for the rest of our lives.

I’d also be interested in a take on our future, do we have any chance later on of securing a strong job with a large to medium size firm? Should I tell my wife to leave me so her life isn’t financially ruined as well?

Pork and Beans

Dear Pork and Beans,

Incidentally, when I’ve noted in past Pls Hndle Thxs that there aren’t very many law jobs to be had at the moment, I wasn’t joking around or hogging all the available jobs for myself. It’s just a bad economy, as my rich cousin likes to say, mere seconds before I punch him in the face. I’m sure you already know about this, but there are a bunch of law job websites (both firm and government employers) that you should monitor and contract attorney agencies with which you should register and then harass for work. Also, your school probably has separate alumni job listings, so the minute you graduate jobless, you can start checking that. In the meantime, there are other jobs – waiting tables, babysitting, working in retail. Might as well get a discount at Aeropostale while you’re waiting for a law job to strike, right?

Should your wife leave you? That depends entirely on the type of woman you married. If she’s a cosmo- swilling, Bergdorf allowance-getting, non-parody DABA girl, you won’t have to tell her to leave you, because chances are she’s already gone. If she married you because of your debonair looks and your intentions to replace the macaroni necklace you made her while a student with some legitimate ice, you still have time to make good on that promise. Hopefully your wife was not bluffing when she vowed to that “or poorer” boilerplate, so she should be ok with noodles for a time. Unless she’s on the South Beach diet, in which case the good news is that there are, evidently, no assets, equitable division should be a cinch.

As for whether you’ll ever work in a firm – a dream is a wish your heart makes. Anything is possible once this economy turns around, but if you want answers now, text STAR to 4ASTRO to begin receiving your daily horoscope or LOVE to 69000 for sexy ladies who are waiting to hear from you.

Your friend,

Marin

Next up, Elie provides decent advice. Really!

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Morning Docket 3.25.09

By Eliza Gray

titanic.jpg* A U.S. District Judge in Virginia, Rebecca Beach Smith, will soon decide whether preserved Titanic artifacts must remain available to the public. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Adam Liptak gives us a lively look into the Supreme Court discussion about the highly critical Hillary documentary. [The New York Times]

* Obama’s lawyers were in lock-step with Bush policies Tuesday, arguing in favor of the decision to refuse one of Europe’s leading Muslim intellectuals entry in to the U.S. [Reuters]

* Pakistan’s supreme court chief justice returned to court Tuesday amid dancing supporters. [The Associated Press]

* Attorneys cringe as Blagojevich continues to put himself in the spotlight despite his pending federal corruption indictment. [The Associated Press]

* Dreier LLP may be able to reduce a $29 million claim from Wachovia. They need all the help they can get. [Greenwich Time]

* Barney Frank defends calling Scalia a “homophobe.” [The Boston Globe]

NYU Law Revue Preview: Part 2

By Elie Mystal

The NYU Law School “Law Revue” is opening this weekend. We linked to a promotional video a few days ago. But with opening night right around the corner, the NYU guys are stepping it up, with this fully animated homage:

That’s it, I’m in. Can somebody get me tickets?

Earlier: NYU Law Revue Preview

Non-Sequiturs: 03.24.09

By Elie Mystal

Ellen Paige Monica.JPG* The AIG bonus tax is also sexist. And, of course, communist. And most likely racist, homophobic, ageist, it certainly doesn’t do enough to fight AIDS or cure cancer, and is solely responsible for the death of every puppy in North America. [TaxProf Blog]

* According to NYU Law School “all your deans are belonging to us.” [The Faculty Lounge]

* Today is the last day to RSVP for the General Counsel Panels in Chicago and NY sponsored by DLA Piper and Lateral Link. RSVP at Lateral Link and get more information about this CLE. [Lateral Link]

* Some of Madoff’s victims kind of deserved it. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

* “I’m a LAWYER.” [Popsquire]

* Don’t bring your eminence into my domain. [Oxford University Press]

* Personality goes a long way in this business. [Underdog]

* Okay, it looks like Juliane Moore is going to play HRC in the upcoming Bill and the BJ movie. That role was totally inhabited by Emma Thompson, but Moore could be a good choice. She’s very thorough. But who is going to play Monica? I nominate Ellen Page. [The Huffington Post]

NALP’s Numbers on 2009 Summer Programs

By Elie Mystal

NALP logo.JPGYesterday, we mentioned a NALP “glitch” that allowed users to get a sneak peak at the organization’s 2009 statistics about law firms. The problem, whatever it was, was fixed soon after we alerted NALP to the problem. Here’s the quick statement we obtained from NALP:

Legal employers provide this data to NALP each winter. NALP is pleased to be able to publish this free online searchable database each spring once the data submissions are finalized.

Excellent. It’s a great resource.

As promised, today we take a look at some of the overall summer program numbers from the firms that are ranked 11 through 20, according to Vault (check out firms 1 – 10 here).

The moderately surprising fact is that this next batch of firms didn’t decrease their overall summer associate offers as much as the Vault top ten. Looking at the firm’s New York offices, there was a 14% decrease in offers to 2Ls, compared with a nearly 20% decrease in the V10.

But, one firm really does skew those numbers. More details after the jump.

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Notes from the Breadline: And So Begins the Task

By Roxana St. Thomas

Notes from the Breadline Roxana St Thomas.jpgEd. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email, at roxanastthomas@gmail.com, or find her on Facebook.

After a few weeks of unemployment, I begin to wonder whether some sort of sporadic dysfunction is affecting my ability to receive email. Specifically, while I am able to peruse every available resource for potential job openings, the résumés I submit seem to drop into an online supernova black hole. Occasionally, I get a confirmation message indicating that my résumé has been received, but, as a general matter, I hear nothing but the sound of silence.

Where do they go? I wonder. Are they floating lazily in space, along with billions of unwanted headshots submitted by New York’s considerable legion of actor/singer/dancer/waiters? Are they in a virtual file cabinet somewhere, turning virtually yellow and brittle at the edges? Or do they go straight into a giant “deleted items” folder? Perhaps the beleaguered legal employers, in an effort to capitalize on economies of scale, have set up a single, huge data landfill, where cover letters indicating a willingness to be “flexible as to class year,” accompanied by finely honed (and embellished) résumés, can be gathered and stored. If the shrinking corps of presently-employed lawyers is wiped out by bird flu, raptured, or disabled by an epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome, they will definitely get back to us … right?

So I am pleasantly surprised when I get an email from a potential employer, asking me whether I am available for a telephone interview. The job, which I heard about through a friend, is in the legal department of a publishing company, and although they are looking for an experienced litigator, the position does not involve actual practice. A year ago, I would not have considered it; but, given my present circumstances, I am delighted. I respond to the HR person’s email, wondering how to temper my desperation enough to avoid sounding, well, desperate. I settle on an answer that reflects both desperation and lawyerly faux courtesy, telling her that I am available later that day, the next morning, any time the following day, “or whatever works for you.” She schedules the phone interview, which will be conducted by Scott, the lawyer who heads the department, for the following morning.

Find out how Roxana’s chat with Scott went, after the jump.

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What is Texas Afraid Of?

By Elie Mystal

Alamo for cowards.JPGI wanted to circle back to a very interesting piece on AmLaw Daily yesterday. Their article on what Texas law firms are doing during this economic downturn confirms suspicions I’ve had for a little while:

At a time when law firms are more openly announcing and discussing layoff decisions, one group of firms is being particularly mum about job cuts — the Texans….

“It’s an interesting market where, unlike New York and the West Coast, not everybody’s being candid,” says Andrews Kurth managing partner Robert Jewell.

I’m not an expert on Texas culture, but I honestly can’t understand what benefit Texas firms get from hiding their layoffs in this manner. Why would they be more comfortable with the rumors and anonymous sourcing about the extent of their layoffs, as opposed to simply telling the truth?

Are they yella’? Because it seems to me that the forthright and honorable thing to do would involve standing up and admitting the extent to which they’ve had to cut back.

After the jump, AmLaw reports that there might be a little class warfare at play as well.

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ATL March Madness for Law Firms, Round 2 (Part 1): The Sweet Sixteen

By Kashmir Hill

Above the law march madness.jpgLast week, we brought you our NCAA-tournament style March Madness for Law Firms. We took the top 32 firms from the Vault prestige ratings and asked you to vote on which firms were the “safest” — the places where you’re least likely to get laid off.

After Round One, we’re down to the Sweet (Safe) Sixteen.

The higher-ranked teams firms won in all of last week’s contests but one: Magic Circle firm Linklaters (V26) upset 2008 March Madness tournament champ Latham (V7). Sadly, Latham’s bench was not as deep this year. Apparently, voters disagreed with this line of reasoning.

There were two particularly close matches. As predicted by one commenter:

Gibson v Wilmer in the first round is gonna be a close race.

Gibson Dunn won out, but barely, while Kirkland eked out a victory over Jones Day.

The most popular match with 6226 votes was Ropes & Gray vs Davis Polk & Wardwell. Check out which firms advanced, and vote on the first four match-ups of the Sweet Sixteen round, after the jump.

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Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Bellydancer?

By Kashmir Hill

saphira belly dancing attorney above the law.jpgBack in rosier economic times, we started a series of open threads on career alternatives for attorneys, i.e., things you can do with a law degree that don’t involve Biglaw or contract work. These days, we’re starting to think of the series as things you might do if you can’t find Biglaw or contract work.

The latest installment in the series is inspired by a profile in last weekend’s Washington Post Magazine of “Saphira,” a lawyer who traded in regulatory analysis for shimmying in sequins and spangly scarves.

Rachael Galoob-Ortega has been a “professional oriental dance artist,” a.k.a. bellydancer, since 1996. She used to just moonlight as a bellydancer while working full-time as a partner at a small firm, The Salem Law Group. That led to at least one embarrassing incident, recounts the Washington Post. A potential career downside is having to perform for judges inside and outside of the courtroom:

After passing the bar on her first try, she started practicing at a Sarasota law firm representing building contractors. She also joined a belly-dance troupe that performed at high-end soirees. Her two worlds comically collided one night, after she’d spent part of the day discussing the motion docket with a county judge. At a party that evening, she was in the midst of a solo dance, dressed in full belly-dance garb and a long wig, when she shimmied up to a table and recognized the judge. “He said: ‘Oh my God. That’s Rachael Galoob — she was in my courtroom today!’ ” Saphira recalls. “And of course, the room erupted in laughter.”

She winked at the table and moved on.

We hope that after winking, Saphira told the judge, “These hips don’t lie.”

The Oklahoma City University Law grad also has an LLM from Georgetown. She gave up her full-time law job to open Saffron Dance studio in Arlington. The tipster who sent us this story says:

There are lots of belly-dancing lawyers. No fooling. We sometimes call ourselves founding members of Raqs Judicata (Raqs Sharki is the Arabic name for the dance). It’s a great exercise for people who have to sit in front of computers all day long drafting briefs and memos.

Indeed, Saphira has even recruited a Covington & Burling partner teach at her studio. More on that, as well as video of Saphira in action, after the jump.

(Warning: It’s not just shaking the belly. There’s also copious licking of lips and tossing of hair.)

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Nationwide Start Date Watch: Dewey Pushes Back to 2010, Debevoise Stages an Amazing Race

By Elie Mystal

Dewey LeBoeuf logo D&L DL Above the Law blog.jpgIncoming first years all over the country continue to find out that they won’t be able to start when they had hoped.

Dewey & LeBoeuf officially pushed back start dates for its new associates until January, 2010. The email went out last night:

After careful consideration, the firm’s Executive Committee has decided to delay the start of the first year associate class from fall 2009 to January 11, 2010. Our hope is that by postponing the start date for your class, workflows will have increased across our practices and we will be able to give you challenging assignments from day one.

Dewey emphasizes that just because you can’t start working at Dewey this fall, it doesn’t mean that you can’t start working as soon as you want:

For those of you who would like to start your career in the fall, you may wish to apply for a Community Service Fellowship. You recently received details on the firm’s fellowship program from [Redacted]. Those selected for a fellowship will be able to start with the firm, on secondment to a public service organization, as early as September 2009.

Above the Law has also received the details of the Dewey’s fellowship program. For those accepted into the program, the firm will pay up to $80,000 for associates to not work at Dewey for a whole year. But while the firm says that associates taking a fellowship are still “start[ing] with the firm,” it is not at all clear that associates will advance a class year upon completing the fellowship.

Those taking a fellowship will receive an extra $5,000 from Dewey to tide them over until January.

After the jump, take a look at what Debevoise is doing.

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  • 24 Mar 2009 at 9:58 AM
  • Layoffs

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Closing the Loop on Chicago

By Elie Mystal

Goldberg Kohn logo.jpgThe National Law Journal reports that Goldberg Kohn has made deep cuts:

Goldberg Kohn, a Chicago law firm with 77 lawyers, last week cut about one-quarter of its associates and dismissed support staff as part of a cost-savings effort that will also include reducing pay and scaling back its summer associate program….

The pay cuts for the partners and staff vary, depending on the individuals. The firm now has 29 associates and 48 partners.

Never heard of Goldberg Kohn? I’ll let a tipster describe it:

Smaller but self-declared “elite” firm in Chicago.

Based on what other self-described elite firms are doing, Goldberg Kohn is fitting right in:

Goldberg Kohn said it is also reducing the length of its summer associate program this year to eight weeks and has delayed the start date for its incoming class of first-year associates.

The Wall Street Journal reports that college towns are the places to go to hide out from the recession. Maybe laid off Chicago associates can go to Ann Arbor?

Midsize Chicago firm cuts one quarter of associates, reduces salaries for partners [National Law Journal]

Why College Towns Are Looking Smart [Wall Street Journal]

Morning Docket 3.24.09

By Eliza Gray

small cockpit.jpg* United Airlines settled a suit filed by a former pilot, who resigned after repeatedly finding porn in hidden places in her cockpit, including underneath a cap on a safety device called a “stick shaker” (no pun intended). Click to see United’s ridiculous effort to dismiss. [The Seattle Times]

* Attorney General Andrew Cuomo convinced 9 out of the top 10 bonus recipients at AIG to return their bonuses. Who is number 10? [The New York Times]

* Barney Frank called Antonin Scalia a “homophobe.” [The Associated Press]

* It turns out that Madoff has more than $1 billion worth of assets and the french authorities plan to seize his chateau in Cap d’Antibe, France, so maybe his victims can get a time share? No? [The Associated Press]

* A court battle between billionaire Wilbur Ross and hedge fund manager Bruce Rose may be the key to understanding the housing crisis. [Bloomberg]

* A sex-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart reaches the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today. 200 female employees say women in comparable jobs don’t get paid as much as men. [The Huffington Post]

* Preservationists think a landmark case in Chicago is cause for alarm. [The New York Times]

Mystery Meeting At Hunton & Williams

By Elie Mystal

Hunton Williams logo.JPGWe love to point out when our commenters point us in the right direction. Over the weekend, somebody placed this comment in the recent Law Shucks post:

Hunton & Williams is planning big layoff in week ahead. The firm has been laying off PARTNERS in stealth moves during the past two months and a firm-wide meeting is scheduled for this week. Expect big staff cuts since those attorneys are no longer around.

In response, one of our tipsters did some checking:

Saw a comment under the law shucks story that Hunton was having a firm-wide meeting this week. Came in and checked today, [rooms have been reserved] by Human Resources from 11:30 to 1:00…. on Friday.

Hunton & Williams did not respond to our requests for comment. But there are a lot of issues that the firm might choose to address this coming Friday.

We’ll get into our other tipsters’ reports after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 03.23.09

By David Lat & Elie Mystal

Sexy Golf Attire.JPG* I’m not sure what a female associate is supposed to wear to her first golf outing. But I know what the commenters are thinking and they are certainly wrong. [Corporette]

* Brian Cuban does a brilliant job here comparing the various ways dating is like basketball. But he acts as if a brother is out there on his own. When I roll, I roll with a posse and we all have our assigned positions. I’m the point guard, I facilitate everything because I can’t score for myself (a.k.a. “the married guy”). Living my life vicariously through others, the team concept is very important to me. [Dallas Basketball]

* A concierge service, for lawyers. Will they mail out résumés for unemployed clients? [Legally Organized via AmLaw Daily]

* I think there are some Heller creditors who might want that desk back. Former incoming Heller associates might want it too, for firewood. [California Lawyer]

* Lat will be speaking at this symposium on Friday: “Digital Entrepreneurship: The Incentives and Legal Risks.” [West Virginia University - College of Law]

* Speaking of Lat, he comes up in this interview of Jessie Liu, who recently joined Jenner & Block as a partner after several years with the Justice Department. [Legal Bisnow]

* In case you missed it, we hosted Blawg Review #204 this morning. [Blawg Review]

Musical Chairs: Harold Koh Steps Down at Yale Law

By David Lat

Harold Koh Yale State.jpgAs we predicted last month, Harold Hongju Koh is stepping down from the deanship at Yale Law School. President Obama is nominating Dean Koh to serve as the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State. Dean Koh previously served in the State Department, as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, from 1998 to 2001.

Dean Koh is relinquishing his day-to-day deanly duties immediately, to prepare for his upcoming confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If confirmed, he will officially resign as dean, after five years of service. Professor Kate Stith is taking over as Acting Dean of Yale Law School.

When we visited our alma mater back in December, Dean Koh was most gracious and welcoming (even though he has occasionally been on the receiving side of snark here at ATL). We wish Dean Koh well in his new position.

Memos after the jump.

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Nationwide Dissolution Watch: WolfBlock

By Elie Mystal

Thumbnail image for WolfBlock Wolf Block Schorr Solis Cohen.jpgThere doesn’t appear to be a Wolf Block miracle in Philly today. The firm is dissolving. A press release was just issued by Bradford Hildebrandt, whom the ABA Journal reported this morning had been brought in by the firm to oversee a possible wind-down.

The partners of WolfBlock LLP have voted to commence an orderly unwinding of the firm’s business.

WolfBlock will remain in the practice of law for several months to protect the interests of its clients, employees and creditors. The decision to unwind was reached in view of a confluence of unfavorable factors: the economic recession, especially in the firm’s core real estate practice; the constriction of credit occasioned by the ongoing banking crisis; and the intended and anticipated departure of significant partners and practices.

We’re not sure which practice groups in particular felt they’d be better off on their own.

Time to brush up on your WARN law, again. The Intelligencer reported that the overall headcount at Wolf Block is 290. There’s a lot of sadness in Philly today.

Read the full release after the jump.

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