Archive for July 2009

Sir Allen Stanford: Picky About Prison?

By David Lat

Allen Stanford Sir Robert Allen Stanford.jpgSir Allen Stanford, financier / accused fraudster, has some issues with the conditions of his pretrial confinement.
Read more and comment over at our sister site, Dealbreaker.
Sir Stanford Takes Issue With Conditions Behind Bars [Dealbreaker]

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 7.5: The Richest Guys in the Room

By Laurie Lin

champagne glasses small.jpgLEWW often hears complaints about the elitism and snobbery of the NYT’s wedding coverage (and, by extension, our coverage of the coverage). “What about all the couples who didn’t meet at Harvard?” critics cry.
In response, we’d like to point you to this Vows column from mid-June. Roughly twice a year, the NYT covers the wedding of what it presumably considers “average Americans,” seeking thereby to demonstrate that its weddings sections isn’t only for privileged Ivy Leaguers and their wealthy parents. This one, for example, features a pregnant bride and at least one electronic monitoring bracelet. Enjoy.
And now, this week’s legal eagle finalist couples (six people, six Harvard degrees, zero ankle bracelets):

1. Katherine Zeisel and Joshua Salzman
2. Maria Gambale and Zachary Taylor
3. Karen Milkosky and Patrick Curran

Check out these couples’ résumés and photos, after the jump.

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Hogan & Hartson Lets Go of 30 Senior Associates

By David Lat

Hogan Hartson logo.jpgFirm management and rank-and-file associates at Hogan & Hartson continue to disagree about whether layoffs are taking place at the firm. Of course, as we’ve said countless times in these pages, what constitutes a “layoff” is a bit in the eye of the beholder. The overall point is that, with normal attrition down, firms sometimes have to create forced attrition, leading to involuntary departures.
Multiple sources report that Hogan just informed about 30 senior associates that they need to seek new employment. The firm’s chairman, J. Warren Gorrell, Jr., referencing the firm’s previously discussed performance evaluation system, confirmed this to ATL by email:

[W]hen senior associates are meeting our basic performance standards but are not progressing toward advancement to partnership, they are counseled to pursue other opportunities (with the firm’s help to the extent we can) if there isn’t a demonstrated need for them to continue. This conclusion was reached as to about 30 of our 140 sixth year and more senior US associates through this round of our evaluation process (this was the result of the process and not a “target” number), and they are being given four months to find new opportunities instead of our normal three month policy. None of this is a new policy, and all of it has been discussed fully with our associates.

It may be firm policy, it may be sensible, and it may not be new — but some sources aren’t happy about it. More after the jump.

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Lawsuit of the Day: Egyptian sperm are really strong swimmers

By Kashmir Hill

above the law pool rules.jpgStroking of breasts can (eventually) culminate in pregnancy. But, as far as we know, the breaststroke can’t.
Magdalena Kwiatkowska might disagree. She’s filing a lawsuit because her teenage daughter became pregnant during a recent trip to Egypt. From the Daily Mail (via Transracial):

A mother is suing a hotel claiming her teenage daughter fell pregnant simply from using a hotel swimming pool.

Magdalena Kwiatkowska says the 13-year-old conceived after coming into contact with ‘stray sperm’ in the water of an Egyptian resort.

We’re sure her daughter encountered sperm somehow at the resort, and maybe even in the pool, but it likely wasn’t “stray.” Still, her mother insists “‘that her daughter didn’t meet any boys while she was there,’ a travel industry source said.”
This lawsuit makes us feel slightly less guilty about the “dumb Polack” jokes we used to tell in elementary school.
UPDATE: Kash does not condone racial or ethnic slurs, but she does admit to poor joke judgment as a second-grader in Floriduh.
My daughter, 13, got pregnant by swimming in hotel pool, claims mother [Daily Mail]
VACATION VIRGIN: Mama Says Stray Sperm in Hotel Pool Got Daughter Pregnant [Transracial]
Mother Claims Hotel Pool Got Her Daughter Pregnant [Hotel Chatter]

Nationwide Salary Cut and/or Freeze Watch: A Request for Updates

By David Lat

pay freeze salary freeze pay cut law firm.jpgThese days, salary cuts at large law firms appear to be more popular than salary freezes. A salary freeze may actually be “good” news to associates, insofar as it’s not as harsh as an outright salary cut.
On the other hand, having your salary cut is better than being laid off — at least according to ATL readers. In our recent poll on the issue, 58 percent of you said a firm should cut salaries for all associates in order to save jobs. Yesterday we heard from a victim of Cadwalader’s latest layoffs — the firm tried to cast them as “sabbaticals,” but please see our updated post for a reality check — who expressed anger that the firm didn’t try to cut salaries across the board to avoid cuts.
We try to keep our coverage of salary cuts and salary freezes as up-to-date as possible. A quick reminder: if you have information that we haven’t previously reported (do a site search to check), please email us (with either “Salary Cut” or “Salary Freeze” in the subject line). Thanks.
Update: Pay cuts — they’re not just a Biglaw thing. Midsize firms are contemplating them too. Hello, deflation!
Midsize Firms Weigh Salary Cuts [The Recorder via Law.com]

Job of the Week: Tax Time

By Above the Law

Job of the Week Lateral Link ATL logo.gifNothing is certain but death and taxes — and jobs for tax lawyers. The latest Job of the Week, brought to you by Lateral Link, is a tax attorney position with a top i-bank.
Also, if you’re a Cadwalader, Shearman, Dewey or Skadden attorney participating in a firm-sponsored sabbatical program, Lateral Link has just added several new junior corporate positions with top media companies exclusively for deferred attorneys. Please contact Lateral Link for more information.
Position: Senior Manager/Vice President – Tax
Location: New York, NY
Description: The Tax Counsel Group of one of the world’s leading investment banks is seeking a mid-senior level (class of ’01 – 06) tax attorney for a Senior Manager/Vice President level role. Role responsibilities include: supporting various business units of the firm by providing tax advice relating to their transactions; structuring transactions; assisting members of the Tax Department on technical tax issues; and managing external tax advisors. Candidates must have top academic qualifications and 3 to 8 years of significant transactional and technical tax experience in a law firm and/or financial industry tax experience. Experience must include significant partnership taxation experience and taxation of financial products experience. Experience with Section 409A and Executive Compensation (NQDC) and benefit related issues including 409A and 162(m) is highly preferred.
For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position # 5115 on Lateral Link, or contact Justin Flowers at jflowers@laterallink.com. Membership in Lateral Link is free, and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

On-Campus Interviewing at UVA: Hunton In, Cravath Out

By David Lat

Hunton Williams logo.JPGEarlier this week, we reported that Hunton & Williams wasn’t on the list of firms conducting on-campus interviews — or, to be technical, “on-grounds interviewing” (OGI) — at UVA Law School. That appears to have changed. From an email sent out yesterday afternoon by UVA Law’s office of career services:

[A] number of employers have signed up for OGI just this week. We have provided a list below. If you prepared your rankings previously, you may want to consider working these employers into your schedule. For example, contrary to what was reported on AbovetheLaw.com, Hunton & Williams is, in fact, interviewing during the OGI process and has been added to the system as of this afternoon.

The wording of the memo is misleading to the extent that it implies our original report was not correct at the time it was published. We have confirmed with UVA’s career services office that Hunton & Williams signed up for OGI after our original post went up.
Of course, that’s just a matter of chronology, not causation. But some readers think we might have played a role. From one law student tipster (representative of about half a dozen who expressed the same sentiment):

Apparently the ATL shaming was enough — Hunton and Williams now has a
bid page for UVA OGI.

More discussion, including the full UVA career services memo, after the jump.

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BarBri Boredom: Is This Cute, or What?

By David Lat

From a bored Bar/Bri student:

This is how effective Barbri is this year: this little origami creature (see image below) was created by a student in the NY review course…. during the course. It took her two Corporations lectures and one Conflict of Laws lecture to complete. And she didn’t skip a beat — she had plenty of time to “fill in the blanks,” as we are instructed to do on our lecture handouts.

BarBri Bar Bri mascot.jpg
Can’t believe this elaborate creation is actually origami? Read more, after the jump.

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Morning Docket: 07.10.09

By David Lat

Catherine Zeta Jones Traffic.jpg* AIG to federal government: I can haz more bonus money? [Washington Post]
* Remember the movie Traffic? Mexico is trying to reform law enforcement and its legal system in response to unprecedented narco-violence. [ABA Journal; ABA Journal (podcast)]
* Sotomayor and the City — including some of Her Honor’s favorite restaurants. [New York Times]
* Speaking of Judge Sotomayor, might she be too detail-oriented? [WSJ Law Blog]
* Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, suspects foul play in the death of the King of Pop. [ABC News]
* Musical chairs: a day after losing picking up a trio of tech lawyers to from Cooley, Dewey loses three IP lawyers — including IP litigation cochair Dirk Thomas — to McKool Smith. [Am Law Daily]

The American Legal System: We’ll Always Have Paris

By David Lat

Paris Hilton 3 mugshot Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgCelebrity heiress Paris Hilton apparently likes the courts as much as the tabloid headlines. Try as she might, she can’t stay out of them.
We previously covered her misadventures in the criminal justice system (culminating in her prison stay). This week she shows up on the civil side. From the AP:

Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie “Pledge This!” and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film’s investors said as trial opened Thursday in an $8 million lawsuit against her….

With Hilton nodding vigorously from her defense table seat, her attorney Michael Weinsten insisted she did numerous appearances for the movie but was unavailable to meet many requests by the film’s producers because of her extremely busy schedule. Hilton also had the right to refuse some promotion events that might harm her brand….

Was she required to wear panties to said events?
More discussion, including an eyewitness account of how Paris looked in court today, after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 07.09.09

By David Lat

Michael Jackson king of pop dead died obituary.jpg[Ed. note: Please support our friends in the blogosphere and media worlds by clicking on the links we include every day in Non-Sequiturs and Morning Docket. Extra credit if you actually read them.]
* Mad about Yoo: Should John Yoo & Other Bush Officials Be Prosecuted In Spain? [Halogen Life]
* Lawyers and auto workers: not as different as you might think. [Professor Bainbridge]
* There are some interesting witnesses scheduled to testify at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, including David Cone and Frank Ricci. [Hugging Harold Reynolds; SCOTUSblog]
* Michael Jackson’s funeral expenses: what’s tax deductible, and what’s not. [TaxProf Blog]
* Congratulations to Lawsuit!, the board game previously discussed here, which just won Creative Child magazine’s 2009 game of the year award. [Professional Games]
* We’ve added an update to our Legal Note post from earlier today. But in case you missed it, our passive aggressive note leaver really is unwinding his assets. The apartment is in White Plains, NY, and is owned by “an associate from a city mega firm who just got laid off.” And we agree, if the crap were to be taken on hardwood floors, that would make for a better condo. [Above The Law]

Is this cartoon about the University of Illinois’s law school, or Villanova’s?

By David Lat

Check it out over at the Jack Higgins Gallery.
Update: Yes, commenters, we know the cartoon is about U of I. Please resist the lawyerly impulse to take everything so literally. Thanks.
Earlier: Dean Mark Sargent — You Can Call Him John
Prior ATL coverage of the University of Illinois College of Law (scroll down)

‘Holier’ Than Thou: Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial

By Kashmir Hill & David Lat

old shoes.jpgOur colleagues over at sister site Fashionista aren’t alone. Lawyers also get worked up over shoes.
Some, like former Enron prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler, show up to court in four-inch pink stiletto spikes. Others hate on commuter shoes and Crocs. Attorneys have strong opinions about attire, and that extends to footwear.
So we can’t say we’re completely surprised by a motion recently filed by plaintiffs’ counsel in the case of Lenkersdorf v. Sorrentino, now pending in Florida state court.
Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial — we kid you not — after the jump.

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ATL Contest: Best Summer Associate Event of 2009

By Kashmir Hill

summer associate program ATL Above the Law blog.jpgThis year’s batch of summer associates are roughing it at Biglaw summer camp, with fewer meals out on the firm and less lavish events. To make matters worse, some summers are being told now that their future job will be deferred. Summer associates at Skadden and Ropes & Gray have been informed that they can’t come back to the camping ground until 2011. Tents can’t be repitched at Orrick until 2012.

This seems like a good time to focus on the light side of the summer associate experience. For the past month, we’ve been soliciting entries for our Summer Associate Event Contest of 2009. They came trickling in slowly, whether because there aren’t many events to brag about or because summer associates are too busy (or too scared) to email us. One SA was so fearful of “tipping” us that the announcement about the firm’s event was sent anonymously via snail mail. [FN1]

One ATL reader from a small firm had this to say about the environment at firms this summer:

Our firm does a lot of corporate bankruptcy work, so we’re faring better in this economic storm than most, but we had to scale back our summer associate program a bit. We do not have as many summer associates as we used to, and we are not having as many major, expensive events. No more big-ticket concerts; no more dinner theater on a river boat; no more renting out an entire movie theater for a pre-release movie showing….

Certainly, the difficulties of this economy are showing in the makeup of our summer class: because we have a summer program at all (unlike many law firms), we’re getting students from higher ranked schools. Most of them are from Top 20 law schools, all of them from Top 75 law schools, none of them from the fourth-tier local law school that usually supplies some of our summer class. And our summer associates are noticeably more stressed about the experience and their prospects than I’ve seen in the past 10 summers.

Despite the foregoing, we have a nice selection of events for the contest. We ask you to vote on the best one, plus offer a few honorable mentions (for events involving public urination and broken bones), after the jump.

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Dr. Li-ann Thio: An Update

By David Lat

Thio Li Ann Visiting Professor NYU Law School.jpgTime for a quick follow-up on Monday’s post about NYU Law School’s controversial decision to invite Dr. Li-ann Thio, an outspoken proponent of criminalizing gay sex, to teach a course on human rights in the fall. The post generated almost 300 comments, many of them quite thoughtful — like this one:

I am a gay man living in Singapore. I have lived in Asia (including Singapore) for over 15 years. So, I have firsthand knowledge of the discriminatory environment for gay men and lesbians living in Singapore.

I am not sure what the administrators of NYU Law School were thinking when they hired Dr. Thio to teach “human rights” in Asia. Asking a Singaporean tenured at a Singapore government-funded university to teach about human rights in Asia is like asking a Ku Klux Klan grandmaster to teach about racial equality. She will simply be a mouthpiece for the Singapore government’s positions on human rights issues. If Dr. Thio espoused views opposed to the Singapore government’s – trust me – she would not be teaching at the National University of Singapore. As everyone in the international human rights community knows, the Singapore government is not a “model” example for upholding human rights.

So Dr. Thio may not have been the best person in the galaxy to pick as a visiting professor of human rights. On the other hand, her views — definitely unorthodox in the American legal academy — could generate healthy and informative debate (like what we saw in our comments).
In our reader poll, which attracted over 3,000 votes, over 55 percent of you supported NYU’s decision to host Dr. Li-ann Thio. Not surprisingly, given the freewheeling, irreverent comments on this site, ATL readers are pro-free speech.
And so is the NYU OUTLaw Board, to its credit. In the wake of our coverage, the board issued a statement criticizing Li-ann Thio’s views, but simultaneously observing that it is “best to fight Dr. Thio’s offensive views not by silencing her but by engaging in a respectful and productive dialogue about the boundaries of human rights.”
The full OUTLaw statement — plus an adult-themed reader poll, by popular request — after the jump.

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Career Center: Please Send Us Your Updates

By Above the Law

Career Center AboveTheLaw Lateral Link ATL.jpg

The Career Center, brought to you by Above the Law and Lateral Link, continues to see tremendous traffic, with almost 200,000 pageviews in its first two months. Thanks to all of your feedback and tips, we are continually updating the firm snapshots with new information (some good, some not so good). Keep checking to see how your firm’s profile is evolving.
In the past week, we’ve updated the profiles for each of the following firms:

Alston & Bird LLP
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Cahill Gordon & Reindell LLP
DLA Piper
Kaye Scholer
Orrick
Ropes & Gray LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP
Venable LLP

Thanks to all of you who have sent in tips. Feel free to send additional updates to careercenter@abovethelaw.com. We also encourage you to share information about your firm by signing up and taking our four-question survey.
If you are a summer associate and want to participate in a quick summer associate survey, please email careercenter@abovethelaw.com. Thanks!

Everyone’s Favorite Cravath Alum Feeling Overtaxed by Sex Offenders Program

By Kashmir Hill

James Colliton Jim Colliton Cravath Swaine Moore Above the Law blog.jpgJames Colliton — the ex-Cravath tax lawyer who, in the words of the AP, “paid a woman so he could have sex with her two underage daughters” — has served his time, and is now living in a motel “on Route 9.” Apparently, he’s getting too many visits from town police officers who stop by frequently as part of a county program to monitor sex offenders.
Colliton plans to file a $100 million federal suit against the town of Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County. From the Poughkeepsie Journal (via Tax Prof Blog):

Colliton claims the program violates state law and deprives him of his constitutional right to privacy and his Fourth Amendment right against unlawful searches.
Describing police visits as the “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Colliton recently served town and county officials with a notice of claim — often a precursor to filing suit.
In his eight-page claim filed last month, Colliton indicates he intends to seek $3 million in compensatory damages and $97 million in punitive damages in federal court.

Although he practiced as a tax lawyer, Colliton clearly likes litigation. He previously sued American Express for giving police the credit card information that led to his arrest, and he sued Cravath for stiffing him on his bonus.
Watch out, Jonathan Lee Riches. You’ve got competition for the title of most ridiculous pro se litigant of all time.
Sex Offender Fights Police Visits [Poughkeepsie Journal via Tax Prof Blog]

Legal Note: Unwinding Is Stressful

By Kashmir Hill

We know of quite a few lawyers who are trying to downsize their lifestyles, whether because of being laid off or opting for a sabbatical-sized salary. We thought you would appreciate this note and photo from an ATL reader:

A lawyer in my building was having trouble selling an apartment and posted the attached sign in the elevator.

legal note.JPG

UPDATE (5:48 p.m.): The author of the note really is unwinding his assets. We’re told the apartment is in White Plains, New York, and is owned by “an associate from a city mega firm who just got laid off.”

Pls Hndle Thx: OCI Strategery

By Marin

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

pls hndle copy 2.jpgATL -
As a rising 2L at a good school with semi-good grades preparing for OCI, I’m struggling to choose between firms. One of my many, many questions is this: Would you think it better to look to firms which are (thus far) lay-off free, or perhaps those which have already laid off a few attorneys (i.e. cut the fat)?
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around

Dear Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,
You know what they say about wife beaters, don’t you? They are exceedingly comfortable undergarments. Also, if they did it once, they’ll do it again.
Firms are bulimic when it comes to layoffs. Paul Hastings, Baker & McKenzie and Guns N’ Roses White N’ Case have “trimmed the fat” in so many successive rounds that now they’re practically skeletal. Their wind up, er, slenderized workforces certainly will not guard against future layoffs and arguably do not even better position them to weather the downturn. Eating disorders, in both humans and firms, are symptoms of larger problems.
Working at a firm that has shed blood on Bloody Thursday, Unspeakable Monday and Odious Friday probably feels a little like being a Huguenot in France the day after St. Bartholomew’s Day. If you do not want to sleep with one eye open for the next few years, you would do well to apply to those conscientious objector firms who refuse to give in and downsize just because it’s trendy. You want a firm for all seasons, not a fair weather firm, and if you’re lucky enough to score a job at all, the best places to be are the ones that have not yet broken glass in case of emergency.
Your friend,
Marin
Elie invites us to watch “O,” after the jump.

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Breaking: Orrick Overhauls On-Campus Recruiting
OCI pushed to late fall / early spring; current summers deferred to 2012.

By David Lat

Orrick logo.JPGHow are firms that have deferred incoming associates going to deal with different classes of associates all showing up to the firm at the same time?
Most firms have been burying their heads in the sand, hoping that the green shoots will blossom into mature plantings of economic growth, obviating this problem. Things will go back to the way they were in 2006, and there will be more than enough work for everyone. NY to 190!!!
But that’s not very realistic, is it?
Orrick — which isn’t afraid to innovate, as reflected in their recent revamp of associate compensation and promotion — has come up with an answer to this conundrum. You might like their approach or you might not, but at least give them credit for having the courage to confront the issue.
Check out the memo, and opine in the comments, after the jump.
Update (11:25 AM): Please note that the original post did not contain a complete version of the memo. We now have the full memo, which we’ve posted after the jump.

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OCI pushed to late fall / early spring; current summers deferred to 2012.“