June 2009

It has been a tough two weeks for employees at McDermott Will & Emery. First the firm cut the salaries of summer associates. Then MWE fired 72 people. Today, word came down to all associates and non-attorney personnel that the firm is also cutting benefits. A firm-wide memo explained: The Firm has evaluated its employee […]

Today we sat down with Gururaj Potnis, director of Manthan Legal, who was in New York to attend a legal conference. Manthan is an Indian company that describes itself as a “leader of offshore Legal Process Outsourcing.” According to Potnis, Manthan has roughly 280 lawyers — 140 senior attorneys, and 140 more junior colleagues who […]

The Village Voice had a great piece last week on the developing trial of Robert Simels, a New York attorney who has attracted a fair amount of fame from defending alleged mobsters and other assorted “kingpins.” Legendary local attorney Robert Simels is only being punished for representing some of New York’s most unredeemable gangsters, say […]

Ed. 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), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook. It is spring, but the weather has turned cold again. […]

If you hire them, they will come. The National Law Journal reports that applications for the Judge Advocate General’s Corps are way, way up: The U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force report a surge in applicants for Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps jobs in recent years, according to recruiters and military attorneys. That […]

This news has been percolating around for over a week, but Above the Law is now able to report that Pillsbury Winthrop has in fact cut associate salaries. We don’t have the official memo, but multiple sources at the firm confirm that salaries have been cut 10% – 20% based on associate utilization rates. A […]

In this weekend’s piece about the White & Case business model, the New York Times noted the law firm, cash-on-hand business model. Yesterday, Kash wrote: Law firm dons partners generally get loans from banks at the beginning of the year to pay overhead — rent, associate salaries, etc. As the year goes on, they (hopefully) […]

* It’s a good time to be a lawyer with game. [AmLaw Daily] * Judicial reform advocates are doing happy dances in response to the SCOTUS ruling in Caperton v. Massey. Elected judges must step aside when faced with cases involving people who donated generously to help put them on the bench. [Washington Post] * […]

Graduation usually marks a high point in our lives. Ceremonies celebrate graduates’ achievements and their bright futures. But this year, grads are faced with a rocky economy, a terrible job market, and predictions that things will stay this way for quite some time. A sign of the dire times: Harvard grads used their ceremony as […]

* Zombie images attack the rights of publicity. And brains. [New Media & Technology Law Blog] * Who is ready for a Marcus Epstein follow up? On Friday, Bay Buchanan indirectly accused me of leading a “modern day lynching” of Mr. Epstein. Allow me to respond. [True/Slant] * Speaking of things Above the Law readers […]

Read more and discuss over at Dealbreaker. U.S. high court grants stay delaying Chrysler sale to Fiat [Dealbreaker]

My thoughts on the proliferation of American law schools have been well documented. But let’s take a moment to look at the other side of the argument. Thomas M. Cooley Law School — which already pumps out 12,000 degrees a year to swarm like locusts across the great state of Michigan — is opening a […]

If you read Above the Law last week, you’ll know that it’s an interesting time at WilmerHale. The firm is transitioning associates onto the street to other opportunities. It’s also dealing with former associates who left to clerk and now want back in. But the firm isn’t unconcerned about the terror snaking through its associate […]

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court nominee with the $15,000 in unpaid dental bills, doesn’t just have problems with her teeth. From the AP: The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has broken her ankle after an airport stumble in New York City. Sotomayor fractured her right ankle Monday morning at New York’s […]

Forgive my ignorance, but my understanding is that skydiving “accidents” result in fatalities. Always. Jumping out of a freaking plane should not be a survivable circumstance. But that is apparently not the case. At least not for Kristin Adduci, a Buffalo lawyer at Lewis & Lewis. Fox reports: The Orleans County sheriff’s office says Kristin […]

Above The Law used to be a place for perk-watching. Bonus wars! Pay raise watches! Perk craziness! Extending the length of maternity and paternity leaves! As the economy has taken its toll on the legal industry, our coverage here has taken some dark turns. The layoff watch. The salary freeze watch. The delayed start date […]

It’s a little bit early to be looking ahead to on-campus interviewing — unless, of course, you are a rising 2L who is about to get reamed. Law firms are already making plans for how they will approach the class of 2011. The early indications are not pretty. Mayer Brown sent out a message that […]

The scene at the Harvard University graduation ceremonies — the law students are the ones holding the signs: The American economy: set to ruin hopes and dreams one person at a time. In fairness, I believe this picture has more to do with law students protesting Harvard’s layoffs of various staffers around the university, not […]

* Two U.S. journalists were sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison in North Korea. [CNN] * Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been asked to grant an emergency stay in Fiat’s acquisition of Chrysler. Will SCOTUS seize the opportunity to “decide critical, nationally significant legal issues relating to management of the economy by the […]

[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.] In perhaps an overabundance of exuberance for even the faintest glimmer of good news, media are celebrating the May unemployment report. The 345,000 jobs […]