May 2009

Everyone’s a-twitter about Jeffrey Toobin’s profile of Chief Justice John Roberts in this week’s New Yorker. And with good reason. We’re not sure whether the title of the profile, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” is meant to describe Roberts or Toobin. We’re sure you’re familiar with Toobin, the ubiquitous legal analyst whose resume includes gigs […]

* A word of advice to the new summer associates: Paralegals can’t be trusted. [Legal Intelligencer] * SCOTUS dismissed the lawsuit that sought to punish top Bush officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, for detaining Muslims that were not involved in 9-11. [Christian Science Monitor] * Military commission trials for Guantanamo detainees present many […]

Earlier today, we welcomed summer associates to Above the Law. It looks like Linklaters had the same idea. Here is today’s welcome memo from the firm. We offer some more “frequently asked questions” after the jump.

* Yeah, if I saw a bottle of vodka on the shelf, and it had a Russian looking name on it, I’d assume that I was purchasing Russian vodka. Or at least Soviet vodka. [What About Clients?] * Are we really going to start suing strip joints for age discrimination? I mean really? [The Legal […]

A Cleary Gottlieb partner thinks that an automated “out-of-office” reply send the wrong message to clients. AmLaw Daily reports: Raj Panasar, a partner in Cleary’s London office, apparently sent an e-mail to London-based lawyers suggesting that they should always be available to answer e-mails or at least arrange for a colleague to answer messages when […]

Just at the moment, a NASCAR driver that has lost control of his car and is 0.3 seconds from colliding with the wall is in a slightly safer position than a third year law student. The latest terrible news (subscription) comes from the Massachusetts Superior Court: With this year’s budget cutbacks at the Trial Court, […]

How should the federal and state governments deal with their depleted coffers? Here’s one idea, from Nick Gillespie of Reason.com, in yesterday’s New York Times: Legalize drugs and then tax sales of them. And while we’re at it, welcome all forms of gambling (rather than just the few currently and arbitrarily allowed) and let prostitution […]

These days, it seems like the Blackberry stranglehold on Biglaw is loosening. Purely anecdotally, we’ve been seeing many office-pale fingers making use of iPhone touch screens to check for partner e-mails over the weekends. Let’s move beyond the anecdotal though. Which do you prefer as your Biglaw ball and chain? Online Surveys & Market Research If you […]

On Friday, we reported that DLA Piper cut associate salaries by ten percent across the board. But we now know that ten percent was just the starting line for associate salary cuts. Friday, the firm memo included this language: Adjustments to all associate salaries at other class levels will be determined and communicated on a […]

Back in February — after the Acela fiasco, before the layoffs — Pillsbury offered a voluntary departure program to its associates. The program didn’t really work, and the firm ended up laying off 55 associates (155 employees in all), in March. Undaunted, Pillsbury is offering another “voluntary” program, this time directed at its incoming first […]

Summer associates have started trickling into Biglaw offices around the country, so we at ATL wanted to take a minute (or approximately an hour as that’s how long we usually let a post sit at the top of the page) to say, “Welcome!” We hope to see you around these parts often this summer. This […]

* Conservatives are gearing up to attack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee. [The New York Times] * The White House is preparing for the fight, and has hired Stephanie Cutter, who currently works for Timothy Geithner in the the Treasury Department, to help with the confirmation process. [CNN] * But some Republican Senators say that Obama’s nominee […]

[Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.] As usual, we start with the big-picture number, and once again, it’s not good. Initial jobless claims were up to 637,000 last week, from […]

Find out over at our sister site, Dealbreaker, which has the latest news. Dreier Sheets [Dealbreaker] Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Marc Dreier

We’ve been getting reports of disappointing results for February bar exam takers in states across the land. As we’ve said before, passage results are always lower in February. But this year has been particularly dismal in many states (e.g., see Florida). Today, bar exam results were mailed out in California. Applicants can start checking their […]

* I would have no problem at all if potential SCOTUS justices had to answer this questionnaire and those answers had to be published and discussed during the confirmation hearing. [Daily News] * Married men looking for sex slaves might want to consider the words of the wise Falstaff. Discretion is the better part of […]

We know many lawyers have “secret” other lives. Last night, we went to the surprisingly good debut performance of one of our legal friend’s rock bands. Some legal types dabble in the visual arts. Some attorneys have a little prostitution gig on the side… It’s best if your extracurricular activities are not of the variety […]

We’re pleased to announce that HLS grads Tracy Zuckerman and Ryan Van Grack triumphed in a high-turnout vote to win ATL Couple of the Month honors for April. Kudos! On to this week’s contest. Once again, it’s too close for us to call, so get your voting fingers ready; there’s a poll after the jump. […]

As noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, President Obama has reportedly narrowed his search for a Supreme Court justice to a shortlist of six. From CNN: Among the finalists are federal appeals court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said the […]

We have a new leader in the clubhouse in terms of Vault Top 50 firms cutting associate salaries. DLA Piper is going down the salary cut road. The internal memo just went out: We are making an adjustment of our base associate compensation in our major markets to $145,000. In those markets where the starting […]