This seems like a stressful time to be enrolled at Duke Law School. The news of firms pulling out of on-campus interviewing at the school continues to grow. The latest big name firms to partially pull out of Duke recruiting are DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis. Here’s the email Duke students received late last week about DLA:
We received notification from the employer, DLA Piper (Austin, Dallas, CA offices), that they will be canceling interviews. You will not need to contact them as we have forwarded your resume on file to them (unless you wish to send an updated resume). In addition, they have posted a resume collections via Symplicity for your convenience. They will review your resume and contact you if they are interested in speaking with you further.
There is nothing else that you have to do at this point. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused and wish you well in your other interviews. You will be removed from this interview and your interview schedule will reflect this change.
At least they can still interview for DLA New York.
But today, Duke students found out that K&E was also dropping them. K&E Chicago never signed up to recruit on-campus. K&E D.C. dropped out today:
Unfortunately, Kirkland & Ellis’ Washington, DC, office just contacted us to say they will be canceling their on campus interview schedule. We know this news is frustrating for you. They have posted a position and are soliciting resumes on Symplicity, and we strongly encourage you to apply.
To reflect the change, you will soon see the firm removed from your interview schedule. As you plan and conduct both your on-campus interviews and outreach to employers, please stay in close touch with the Career Counselors so we can help you maximize your success.
But as summer opportunities continue to dry up, Duke Law students are still trying to figure out whether they’ve made it onto law review. And once again, what should be a simple notification process seems totally screwed up.
More details after the jump.
Continue reading “More Trauma For Duke Law School Students”
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.The beauty of being unemployed in the summer is that, well, it’s summer. Rather than sitting in an office that is refrigerated to temperatures at which your summer crop of green beans could be flash frozen, you are free to roam about in flip-flops and attire that would make the most casual Friday blush modestly. But when it rains (as it has done consistently for approximately two months, here in New York), you have time to reflect on the fact that the seasons have changed, and you remain jobless.
During one recent rainy stretch, I was scowling at a half-written cover letter on my computer when the phone rang. It was Lat, who was off on an editorial boondoggle. He was someplace that sounded lovely; unlike home, he told me, the weather there was beautiful. I waited for him to tell me that people in this mythical place also had jobs, and that scones grew on trees.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Eating Mentos,” I told him, cramming candy into my mouth, “wondering whether today is the day I’ll finally shower. You know; the usual.” As an afterthought, I added, “and I’m applying for jobs. As always.”
“Your job search is like an epic poem!” he said, laughing. There was a pause, and I sensed his next words forming in the empty space. Wait for it, I thought. Wait for it. I waited. A moment later, I was vindicated. “Hey,” he said thoughtfully, “have you ever thought of writing poetry?”
“No,” I told him. “The only thing worse than being unemployed would be a poem about being unemployed.” In the silence that followed, I felt his rebuttal forming.
“Okay,” he finally said. “Maybe an epic poem would be too … collegiate. But why don’t you just try it?” No, I told him. It’s out of the question.
He persisted. We argued. He made concessions (“it doesn’t have to rhyme!”); I objected. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, he pulled rank. “Just try it, Roxana,” he pleaded. “Do this for me.” I groaned. “Fine,” I said. “Can I do something more like haiku, less like Ovid?”
“Great!” he answered triumphantly. And, with that caveat, I direct all complaints to David Lat.
After the jump, Poems from the Breadline.
Continue reading “Notes from the Breadline: All I Can Do Is Write About It”
Greetings from the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. We’ve been having a great time schmoozing with federal judicial celebrities, here in lovely (but surprisingly chilly) Monterey.
Yesterday we participated in an excellent panel discussion about the future of journalism, together with some boldface names: Linda Greenhouse (moderator), former Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times; Nina Totenberg, of NPR; Judge Robert Lasnik, chief judge of the Western District of Washington; and Hal Fuson, Executive Vice President, Copley Press. We got to play the role of blogger-barbarian at the gate, which was fun.
We’ve also enjoyed attending the excellent educational programs and speeches. Two of the early highlights: a review of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently completed Term, by the noted constitutional law scholar and former Stanford Law School dean, Kathleen Sullivan (top right); and a speech by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (center right). We got to meet both Dean Sullivan and Secretary Napolitano — both of them possible Supreme Court nominees, both of them fabulous — and it was thrilling.
(We even got Secretary Napolitano’s business card. Who knew that Cabinet members got business cards? Does President Obama have a business card?)
We were planning to write up both of these events, until we saw the excellent accounts of Articleman over at dagblog. We refer you to his delightful write-ups (links below).
The Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference: Dean Kathleen Sullivan Speaks on the Supreme Court [dagblog.com]
The Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference: Secretary Napolitano Speaks About Our Security [dagblog.com]
P.S. If you’d like to see our rough notes on Dean Sullivan’s SCOTUS round-up, click here to download (Word document). But these notes are very rough, not converted to polished prose; you’re much better off with Articleman’s elegant summary.
We already mentioned the Erin Andrews situation this morning. The ESPN anchor was spied on through a peephole at a hotel. Andrews is considering her actions, and she has retained counsel. Bingham McCutchen will be taking on this high-profile case.
Here is the statement from Bingham’s Marshall B. Grossman:
While alone in the privacy of her hotel room, Erin Andrews was surreptitiously videotaped without her knowledge or consent. She was the victim of a crime and is taking action to protect herself and help ensure that others are not similarly violated in the future. Although the perpetrator or perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been identified, when they are identified she intends to bring both civil and criminal charges against them and against anyone who has published the material. We request respect of Erin’s privacy at this time, while she and her representatives are working with the authorities.
One of these days, the people who snap this kind of footage and the publishers who make it available are going to get smacked down, hard.
* ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was secretly taped by a peephole videographer. Now the naked tape has made the rounds on the Internet. (Before you search, beware of viruses.) Her lawyer says Andrews plans to pursue criminal and civil charges against the peeper. [Fox News]
* “Morgan Lewis signals Armageddon.” [AmLaw Daily]
* Deutsche Bank allegedly tried to plant one of its lawyers as an intern at another law firm in order to gather intelligence. [Bloomberg]
* The Washington Post gets the first post-Gatesgate interview with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The incident has made the race scholar want to study race. In criminal justice. [Washington Post]
* Oregon court rules that divorce when kids are involved can be just as messy for same-sex couples as it is for heterosexual couples. [Courthouse News Service]
* Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS is back on and e-mails between K&L Gates and CBS experts are discoverable. [Reuters and New York Times]
History repeats itself. Back in March, we wrote in advance about a mystery meeting at Troutman Sanders. At that meeting, the firm announced a voluntary departure program for staff, as well as looming layoffs for lawyers. The firm never provided numbers on those attorney layoffs, but it appears that approximately 28 lawyers were affected.
Troutman tipsters tell us that another mystery meeting / videoconference is scheduled for later this morning (around 11:30 – 11:45 a.m. Eastern time). What will be discussed is not known, but some suggest that additional layoffs and / or salary cuts will be announced. Troutman’s summer program ended last week, so if there is bad news to convey, now would be a logical time. (Expect more firms to roll out such announcements after their summer associates leave the building.)
We’ll keep you posted on the Troutman situation. Have a tip for us about a mystery meeting at your firm? Please email us. Thanks.
* Yet another sports figure is accused of sexual assault. This time it’s Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. [TMZ]
* How to get out of paying your ex-wife $2.5 million: go to jail for 14 years. [Lowering the Bar]
* A Pennsylvania prisoner, serving time as a sex offender, sued to get porn while in prison. Not surprisingly, he lost. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
* Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban may have prevailed against the SEC (for now), but not all of his legal woes are over. Now he’s being sued by a company controlled by former Mavericks owner Ross Perot Jr. [Young Texas Lawyer]
* Musical chairs: two partners leave Bromberg & Sunstein, including name partner Lee Bromberg, after failing to convince colleagues to merge with a bigger firm. [Boston Globe]
There’s a minor new development in the saga of Dr. Li-ann Thio, the NYU visiting law professor whose views on homosexuality have made her the legal academic everyone loves to hate. It’s an online petition, addressed to the NYU law school and university administration, expressing “deep dissatisfaction with New York University School of Law’s appointment of Dr. Thio Li-Ann as a Global Visiting Professor of Law.”
The petition concludes by articulating the belief “that the Administration’s decision to appoint Dr. Thio was a grave mistake and her designation to teach ‘Human Rights in Asia’ is inappropriate and offensive.” There’s an additional option, selected by many (but not all) of the signatories, calling upon the administration to rescind Dr. Thio’s appointment.
You can check out the position, and sign it if you like, by clicking here. Currently the petition has 564 signatures.
A notable signatory, after the jump.
Continue reading “Dr. Li-ann Thio: An Online Petition”
The use of tasers by police officers is occasionally controversial (See Man bursts into flames after Taser shock and Police Officer Tases Great Grandmother). When minors are involved, taser use becomes even more controversial. When the taser use on a minor is followed by sodomy threats… well, that warrants a lawsuit and an ATL post.
From Raw Story:
A shelter for adolescents in southern Illinois is suing the local sheriff’s office for what it describes as an unprovoked attack by two police officers on four children, three of whom were tasered, and one of whom was threatened with sodomy by a sheriff’s deputy.
The Illinois Office of State Guardian has sued the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The agency says it called police officers last year to subdue some rowdy children. According to United Press International, the officers went on a “rampage” abusing three children aged 11 and 12, who were not even the ones who had been acting up. From the court filing:
“Without physical provocation and/or physical gestures from B.B., Deputy Bowers held B.B. down on his bed and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. While he was tasing B.B., Deputy David Bowers threatened to sodomize B.B. As a result of this repeated and excessive tasing, B.B. urinated and defecated himself. Deputy David Bowers was aware that B.B. urinated himself after the tasing.”
When a 17-year-old girl objected, the officers put her in handcuffs. According to the filing, one of the officers then choked her; asked her, “do you want to live or die bitch?”; and then shut her in a closet.
It kind of puts the abuse of power by the officers involved in Gatesgate in perspective.
Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy [Raw Story]
Suit: Deputies stunned teens for no cause [UPI]
The legal job market is a little dicey right now, leading some law grads to question the worth of their shiny new J.D. degree. Suffolk Law grads — and not just the ones who can’t get dates — are really questioning the value of their degrees, after an ill-timed job advertisement from Weil Gotshal & Manges went out on their career services list-serv:
Dear 2009 Graduates,
I wanted to make you aware of a great opportunity currently posted on Symplicity. Please find the job information below. Interested parties should apply through Symplicity with a resume and cover letter.
Employer: Weil Gotshal & Manges, LLP (Boston, MA)
Title: Paralegal Position for ’09 Graduate
Description: This posting is for the class of 2009 grads who are not deferred for another position. Monday-Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm, flexibility with overtime required.
Yay, that Suffolk law degree can get you into Biglaw! But there’s a catch.
More after the jump.
Continue reading “Can’t find work? Paralegal for Weil Gotshal”
Johann Scott Scrimshire is a Minneapolis attorney who likes to let it all hang out. He specializes in criminal defense and business corporate law, but is apparently unfamiliar with laws dealing with public nudity. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Johann Scott Scrimshire, 42, was arrested about 6 a.m. near Calhoun Parkway after a 911 call about a man on a bicycle exposing himself to walkers and joggers.
The officers who responded said Scrimshire told them he was training for a bike race on the West Coast in which participants ride nude, said Sgt. William Palmer, a Minneapolis police spokesman.
The officers said Scrimshire was wearing a skirt-like garment or a pair of shorts with the crotch area removed. Palmer said. “It clearly looked intentional,” he said.
Clearly.
Apparently, Scrimshire is training for the World Naked Bike Ride (moderately NSFW), an organization that holds naked bike rides in cities around the globe. The photo on this post is from the organization’s D.C. event. From the website, it doesn’t appear to be a very serious event; we wonder if others have been moved to don special “skirt-like” training gear in order to prepare.
Other than naked riding, we’re not sure what Scrimshire is up to these days. He used to be the primary name partner at personal injury firm Martineau, Gonko, & Vavreck — its website address still bears his initial: SMGV — but the firm tells us he left in April. Beyond that, the firm had no comment, and was not especially happy about this “exposure.”
As for Scrimshire, he tells the Tribune: “The charges are ridiculous, and the facts will come out in court.” We hope the facts are all that Scrimshire decides to put on display in court.
Cyclist arrested while training for naked bike race, police say [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
Yesterday, we told you about the strange case of the UNLV Constitutional Law professor who went “missing,” causing all of her students to receive a grade of “pass” in her 1L course. Some students argued that the change in the grading system disadvantaged students that were hoping to make it onto the law review.
The Nevada Law blog, Wild Wild Law, identified the professor as Lynne Henderson. According to the blog, Professor Henderson was not completely incommunicado:
[T]he missing professor, who has been identified as Professor Henderson, has emailed to congratulate the students who made it onto law review.
Above the Law corresponded with Professor Henderson about her situation. Sadly, she said that health issues prevented her from completing all of the grading for her course. But she also said that she did not just go missing. She said she informed the appropriate people at UNLV Boyd School of Law about the issue.
Check out the full response from Professor Henderson, after the jump.
Continue reading “Missing UNLV Professor Says: ‘I did not just disappear.’”
Last week, prominent African-American studies scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested for disorderly conduct after police confronted him for trying to break into his own home. There are accusations of racial profiling. Harvard Law School professor Charles Olgetree is representing Gates. The media are all over the story; even TMZ is covering it (and picking up on “yo’ mama” jokes from the police report). We’ve dubbed it Gatesgate,.and we gave you a full write-up of the incident this morning.
Charles Ogletree has prepared a statement about the incident and released it to The Root, a website co-founded by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Not surprisingly, his account sounds a bit different from the police report. Here’s an excerpt:
As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.
Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening.
No overt aggression, but apparently plenty of passive aggression from the officer.
Read in full at The Root.
UPDATE (12:30 p.m.): The AP reports that the disorderly conduct charge against Gates has been dropped:
The city of Cambridge issued a statement saying the arrest “was regrettable and unfortunate” and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
“This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department,” the statement said.
Too late for that.
Lawyer’s Statement on the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. [The Root]
Charges dropped against black Harvard scholar [Associated Press]
WORD OF THE DAY: Gatesgate [Transracial]
Earlier: The Gatesgate Arrest Scandal: Harvard Law Prof Charles Ogletree to Represent
Akerman Senterfitt is a Florida based firm, so — given the economy in Florida — it’s not all that surprising that the firm has decided to join the salary cutting party.
Multiple tipsters independently confirm that Akerman has instituted an across the board, 10% pay cut on all class years. Here is the internal email about the salary cuts obtained by Above the Law:
We are announcing today a 10% reduction in all associate salaries, effective immediately. This action is being taken in response to market conditions, which I know you are all aware of and which I need not belabor. I want to make it clear that our firm’s financial condition remains very strong, and even clearer as to how much we appreciate all your hard word and effort on behalf of the firm.
As previously announced, the associate bonus hours grid that we have used during the past few years has been eliminated. Instead, we will be carefully reviewing each associate’s performance at the end of this year as we consider paying merit-based discretionary bonuses to those meeting the established minimum qualitative and quantitative requirements.
As the email suggests, everybody is well aware of the terrible situation happening in the legal economy. But is the terrible economy forcing Akerman into this situation, or is the firm simply taking advantage of the difficult economic situation to roll back salaries?
After the jump, tipsters who have seen Akerman’s books claim that this is a salary cut of choice, not necessity.
Continue reading “Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Akerman Senterfitt Opens Books, Cuts Salaries”
Last summer, Winston & Strawn only had a 90% offer rate for summer associates. Last year, that was worrisome. This year, summers would likely injure baby seals for a 90% offer rate.
Summers are getting nervous, and it appears that a video conference from Winston’s managing partner, Tom Fitzgerald, didn’t help matters. Here is one tipster’s report of the proceedings:
The entire Winston summer class watched a video-conference speech given by Tom Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald explained that we would be notified of offers during Labor Day weekend. We were also told that the demand for legal services has plummeted, and that we were very talented and would do well no matter whatever field or firm we joined. He even talked about some past Winston summers who went on to do great things … Overall Tom seemed to be preparing us for a slaughter come September. He also mentioned at the end of his address that those who did get offers would start January 2011 at the earliest. Needless to say the summers were feeling pretty s****y.
We haven’t been able to confirm that Winston & Strawn will be instituting a mandatory deferral for summers that receive an offer to return full-time.
Of course, it’s not all bad news for the firm. Just last week, Winston hired Thomas Cottingham III and a number of other attorneys from Hunton & Williams. The move should bolster Winston’s Charlotte office — good news for the firm, as well as the city of Charlotte.
But expanding during a recession is always a difficult thing to do. After the jump, take a look at one attorney’s thoughts about how Winston’s expansion in China is going — thoughts apparently intended for the firm’s former and current chairmen, but accidentally disseminated firm-wide.
UPDATE AFTER THE JUMP (1:00 P.M.): One Winston tipster says the “attorney” weighing in on the Chinese expansion is just a spammer.
Continue reading “Too Much Free Time at Winston & Strawn?”
* New York is considering the Madoff bill: making rich prisoners foot their own prison bills. No word as to whether tipping the prison warden is suggested during the holiday season. [Reuters via Daily Beast]
* Part of the U.S. DOJ is relocating from D.C. to South Carolina. [Associated Press]
* Doctors prescribing gag orders? [Washington Post]
* A porn star, who tested positive for HIV, is suing California health officials for violating her rights by demanding her medical records. [Courthouse News Service]
* Harvard Law prof Jonathan Zittrain is down on cloud computing. [New York Times]
We mentioned Gatesgate yesterday in Non-Sequiturs. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent African-American studies scholar, was arrested on Thursday after a neighbor called police to report that Gates was trying to break into his own home.
The New York Times says Gates was returning from a trip to China, and that his door was jammed. He forced the door open with the help of a cab driver.
According to the police report [pdf], this led a woman passing by to call the police because she saw “two black males with backpacks… trying to force entry” into Gates’s home. At least the woman was a vigilant neighbor, even if she can’t recognize Henry Louis Gates.
When a police officer arrived, said he was investigating a break-in, and asked Gates to step outside, Gates was understandably offended. From the NYT:
Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had “no idea who he was messing with,” the report said.
Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.”
Frustrated, Gates initially refused to hand over his ID, but eventually relented, providing his Massachusetts driver’s license and his Harvard identification card. Gates had a few choice comments for the officers, including a yo’ mama joke.
Continue reading “The Gatesgate Arrest Scandal: Harvard Law Prof Charles Ogletree to Represent”
The Breaking Media family of sites — which until now consisted of Above the Law, Dealbreaker, and Fashionista — continues to grow. Today ATL welcomes a little sibling: Going Concern, a blog for accountants, CFOs, and business finance executives.
Going Concern will be similar to ATL, but aimed at CPAs rather than JDs, or the Big Four as opposed to Big Law. The site will also cover smaller accounting firms and chief financial officers from major companies, offering the heady mix of original news, insider analysis, and edgy entertainment that you’ve come to expect from Breaking Media. Going Concern will try its darnedest to make accounting sexy. (They said it couldn’t be done for the legal space, but Above the Law proved them wrong.)
Please spread the word, especially to your friends who work in the field of accounting. You can check out Going Concern here, and you can learn more by reading the links collected below. If you’re interested in advertising opportunities, on Going Concern or any of our other sites, please email us. Thanks!
Going Concern [official website]
New Finance Blog Aims To ‘Make Accounting Sexy’ [MediaPost]
Breaking Media Launches Going Concern [Mediabistro via Fishbowl NY]
Site launched to follow accounting industry [Talking Biz News]
* Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested for trying to break into his own home. I predict a very lucrative future lawsuit of the day. [Transracial]
* Speaking of Harvard, HLS is offering a seminar on evil this semester. At least they are dispensing with the pleasantries and directly teaching 3Ls how to survive in this competitive business environment. [Opinio Juris]
* Top Three interview mistakes. Or in this economy, maybe we should call them “three additional things to worry about while you are busy not getting hired for a non-existent job.” [Let's Talk Turkey]
* What is a kabuki dance? [Politico]
* If there was one myth about law school you wish you could kill, what would it be? [Most Strongly Supported]
* John Yoo, pranked! [True/Slant]
* The people who say that the moon landings represented the height of American exploration of space really need to take a look at the immense amount of information that has been beamed back to Earth by the Hubble. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]
* Who is worse, soccer hooligans, or Laker fans? This week’s Blawg Review raises an important question. [The Complex Litigator via Blawg Review]
This year’s U.S. News Law School Rankings saw Loyola Law School (L.A.) drop from #63 to #71. Despite the back-and-forth between Above the Law and Loyola Law dean Victor Gold, the drop had nothing to do with us.
Apparently, the drop didn’t have anything to do with any legitimate factor. Brian Leiter is on the case:
This really takes the cake for carelessness on the part of U.S. News. Loyola Law School in Los Angeles dropped from 63 to 71 in the overall U.S. News ranking this past spring, and for one primary reason: its reputation score among academics dropped from 2.6 to 2.3. But that kind of drop is extraordinary: the academic reputation scores move .1 in either direction all the time, without rhyme or reason, but only once in the last eight years did another school’s peer reputation score drop that much….
So with only a 1 in 1,000 chance of this kind of movement, what else might explain the precipitous drop in academic reputation? Unfortunately, the explanation seems to be clear: U.S. News unilaterally changed the school’s name on the survey: from “Loyola Law School” to “Loyola Marymount University.” Loyola was the only school whose name was changed on last year’s survey.
This is the story that Dean Gold is going with too. More details after the jump.
Continue reading “Loyola Law School (L.A.) Blames Name Mistake For Drop In Rankings”
