Big news from Weil Gotshal today. The firm previously deferred its incoming associates to January 2010, with the option of deferring until January 2011 (with a $75,000 stipend).
In recognition of the fact that it will have some of the class of 2009 starting in January 2011, the firm is offering current summers — i.e., the class of 2010 — the option of deferring until January 2012. Above the Law received the following statement from Weil Gotshal:
Earlier today, we informed our 2009 summer associates of the following:
* We are offering each summer associate who receives an offer of permanent employment at the conclusion of this year’s Summer Program the option of deferring his or her start date from January 2011 to January 2012.
* Each incoming associate electing to defer will receive a $75,000 stipend and health care benefits. In order to receive this stipend, the deferring associate must spend 1,000 hours during the deferral year performing some form of Firm-approved public service work in the US or abroad, including interning for a judge, or working for a Firm client.
* An incoming associate may decide to travel or take a paid position during the deferral year. The Firm will only pay the stipend to those people doing public service work. However, the Firm will provide health care benefits to all deferring associates.
* As we did with the successful deferral program for the class of 2009 associates, we will assist those who elect to defer with identifying public service placements, clerkships, and client opportunities.
The earliest current summers can start at Weil is January 2011 (and that is of course dependent on whether they receive an offer from the firm). But the option to defer until 2012 is even more evidence that the class of 2010 could be worse off than the class of 2009.
Don’t even get me started on the class of 2011.
More details from the firm statement, after the jump.
Continue reading “Weil Gotshal Defers Current Summer Associates to 2011 or 2012“
We have chronicled Biglaw firms that are taking drastic measures to reduce the money they spend on summer associates and recruiting. This spring, McDermott Will & Emery cut salaries of its summer associates. This week, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius canceled its entire 2010 summer program. And, in between, current summer associates and future summer associates have suffered all kinds of indignities.
But folks at Covington & Burling must be happier than a nerd in a library. The firm reached the Final Four in our Safest Firm tournament this past March. Now it’s telling current summer associates that the firm’s strong finish was no fluke.
After the jump, let’s all be jealous of the good fortune of those working at Covington & Burling.
Continue reading “Covington & Burling Owns the Summer”
We like to highlight examples of Biglaw associates who get to do especially interesting or high-profile work. E.g., Lindsay Harrison, the Jenner & Block associate who argued a case — and won — before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Most lawyers tuned in to Congress yesterday were listening to Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings (even if day 4 was less than thrilling). But over on the House side, one young lawyer was talking rather than listening. Jason Pinney (pictured), a (rather handsome) sixth-year associate at Bingham McCutchen, got to testify before lawmakers.
Pinney addressed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, specifically, the Subcommittee on International Organization, Human Rights and Oversight. He spoke about his work as part of a Bingham legal team representing a group of Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay. The Bingham lawyers obtained the release of two Uighurs in 2006 and four more Uighurs last month.
(As explained by the AP, “[t]he Uighurs, a Turkic minority from China’s far west, were sent to the U.S. facility in Cuba after their capture in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not enemy combatants.” Oops!)
Congrats to the Bingham lawyers on their successful representation of their clients — and to Pinney on his congressional testimony. To download a copy of the testimony, click here.
Today in Congress: July 16, 2009 [Washington Post]
Lawmakers want investigation into Uighurs at Gitmo [AP]
Jason S. Pinney [Bingham McCutchen]
Pinney Testimony [PDF]
We sometimes like to think of the figures we write about in these pages as characters in a novel. Viewed in this way, Dr. Li-ann Thio, the visiting NYU law professor who apparently isn’t a fan of gay rights, is one of the most compelling we’ve come across recently.
We have a weakness for strong, outspoken Asian women — hi Mom! — and this description fits Dr. Thio to a T. Our only disappointment: Dr. Thio was whiny when attacked. (We agree with Professor Brian Leiter — playing the victim card was weak, Dr. Thio.)
Now, meet an even more compelling character — one who wouldn’t have responded to a random IT guy by playing victim, but by treating him like Obama treated that fly. She’s the original Dr. Thio: Li-ann Thio’s mother, Dr. Su Mien Thio (pictured), who taught Thio the Younger everything she knows (e.g., that gay sex is evil).
From a tipster:
It looks like Dr. Thio’s mother — a former judge who inspired Li-ann Thio’s own rise in politics — was involved in some serious anti-gay drama this year, after battling what she saw as a conspiracy to generate a “generation of lesbians.”
It all started with unrest over a screening of Spider Lilies, a lusty Taiwanese movie about an Internet cam girl [Ed. note: A cam girl? Like SexyLexus?] falling in love with another girl. The elder Dr. Thio, filled with the same heroic indignation as her daughter, filled with the same heroic indignation as her daughter, ended up locked out of a building after a failed takeover of a feminist organization.
And the trailer for the movie is totally hot!
Update: Not surprisingly, given her staunch opposition to homosexuality, Dr. Thio Su Mien is also against abortion. A headline from Roll on Friday: “Leading Singaporean lawyer blames abortion for SARS.”
More about the Spider Lilies controversy and Dr. Su Mien Thio’s impressive résumé, after the jump.
Continue reading “Dr. Li-Ann Thio: All About Her Mother”
Maybe the student loan bailout movement just received its first martyr. While people in the industry have long known that student loans cannot easily be discharged through bankruptcy, maybe a high profile case will clue the general public in on this needlessly unfair burden for those who seek post-graduate degrees.
Mark Jesperson had $350,000 in student loan debt and filed for bankruptcy. Lower courts ruled in favor of Jesperson, but then his case reached the 8th Circuit. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the 45-year-old Grand Marais man cannot escape more than $350,000 of student debt he piled up over more than a decade.
Jesperson had hoped to discharge the debt in bankruptcy and won the first couple rounds in court. But last week a three-judge panel reversed the lower courts’ decision and said he must pay the money back.
Evidently, little league baseball players have more common sense than our federal courts. Those kids understand the concept of a “mercy rule.”
But regular readers of Above the Law know that this decision is not at all unusual. In our society, it is easier to discharge a gaggle of zombies than it is to get out from under student loans.
While the dollar amount involved is unusual, experts say the latest ruling is not. It’s extremely difficult to get rid of student loan debt, even through bankruptcy.
Jesperson’s story is particularly sad. More details after the jump.
Continue reading “Bankruptcy Won’t Discharge $350,000 of Student Loan Debt for Law Graduate”
* New York teenager Cheyenne Cherry pleaded guilty to baking a kitten in an oven, but she obviously feels no remorse. [Gothamist]
* Musical Chairs: Kirkland & Ellis invests in its finance practice by withdrawing debt specialist Jay Ptashek from Simpson Thacher Bartlett, where he had been for 17 years. [Kirkland & Ellis press release]
* For those with a short attention span, here’s the soundbyte version of the Sotomayor hearings: the top ten quotes from the week. [ABA Journal]
* Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Larry D. Martin filed a $10-million lawsuit against a lawyer who said nasty things about him to the New York Daily News. That suit has been dismissed, but the Daily News journalist is not off the hook yet. [New York Law Journal]
* John Yoo is ditching his DOJ attorneys for his detainee lawsuit appeal. [The Recorder]
* The trial of Texas financier R. Allen Stanford will be a long time coming. [Bloomberg]
At least that’s what it’s looking like, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post. Today Justice Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee drew to a close, and no major bombshells were dropped. A Senate vote is expected in early August.
Update: Gibson Dunn partner Tom Dupree, who served in the Bush II Justice Department and argued before Judge Sotomayor five times, has a nice recap over at the WSJ Law Blog.
We’ll soon learn what the senators think of the prospect of Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In the meantime, what do you think?
We’ve asked you before for your views on whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit should be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In our earlier poll, which received more than 8,000 votes, over 70 percent of you voiced support for a Justice Sotomayor.
Did anything that we learned in the confirmation hearings change your mind? Take our new poll:
What’s your summer been like? Though the summer of 2009 has seen some exciting events, the summer of 2010 is shaping up to be very different, as summer programs are already under siege. Before the summer slips away, and those lucky few of you getting wined and dined are again on a steady diet of Top Ramen and Diet Coke, we want to know what you really throught about your summer associate experience. From the work assignments, to the lunch budgets, to the nightly escapades, we want the scoop!
If you are a 2009 summer associate, please take our short survey – Click Here (of course the survey is completely confidential).
Don’t worry, you’ll get to see the results of this survey on The Career Center, brought to you by Above the Law and Lateral Link . And we’ll have them posted in time to help inform / sway your decisions for fall on-campus recruiting (or perhaps spring, if you are considering Orrick).
After the jump, we’ll reveal which firms we most popular in the month of June… because we know you like to see who is on top.
Continue reading “Career Center: Paging Summer Associates”
* I know I’m just a muggle. But the economic strength of the Harry Potter series is simply mind boggling. No offense to J.K. Rowling, but she is living proof that the devil exists, and he is willing to listen to offers. [Halogen Life]
* Are women having an easier time finding legal jobs than men? If so, I really hope it isn’t for any of these reasons. [Let The Curve Do The Work]
* Here is some very basic advice on how to avoid getting laid off for using Twitter or Facebook. [Young Lawyers Blog]
* You can encourage people to drive drunk, or you can arrest drunk drivers. You can’t do both. [The Stimulist]
* Students who are studying for the bar are starting feel that unmistakable tightening of their sphincters. Here’s one way to blow off some serious steam. [Studying for the Bar]
* Is the centerpiece of this week’s Notes From The Breadline, Max, indicative of laid off attorneys everywhere? [Law and More]
John Belanger, who appears to be a rising 3L at the University of Connecticut, will likely be deferring his third year of law school. He has some bigger legal issues to deal with.
Belanger, 27, was arrested last week for his role in running an international drug ring. From the Watertown Daily Times:
Federal authorities have charged more than 45 people nationwide over their alleged roles in an international drug-smuggling operation that moved $1 billion worth of marijuana.
The two-year investigation exposed a pipeline moving thousands of pounds of marijuana each month from the north country to numerous U.S. cities, including Boston, New York and Miami, prosecutors said. The crime syndicate is alleged to have moved the marijuana, which came from Canada through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in Franklin County and near Churubusco in Clinton County, over the past four years….
Zachary Gouchie, 24, of Montreal, Edward Kener, 31, of Weston, Fla., and John Belanger, 27, of Hartford, Conn., were accused of recruiting people and directing the movement of the marijuana along the East Coast.
Given that this allegedly started four years ago, perhaps Belanger decided to go to law school to give legal advice to the drug cartel. Those with knowledge of Belanger tell us about his exploits at U. Conn. and his special interest in American Indian law, after the jump.
Continue reading “Law Student of the Day: John Belanger”
Pop quiz: You are a local prosecutor, and you’ve obtained pictures of an alleged rape. The pictures show the alleged violation taking place — the victim and the alleged assailant — as well as other teenagers drinking and partying. You should:
(a) Use the pictures as evidence when you prosecute the rapist.
(b) Put the pictures in a file and never look at them again (if you determine that the pictures show consensual sex).
(c) Do not charge the alleged rapist, but show the pictures to parents in your community.
If you answered (c), then you must be from Kansas. Click on the link below so Kash can tell you how they help parents in the heartland.
The bad idea file: Using sexual assault photos as an educational tool [True/Slant]
The Boston Globe runs an advice column called Love Letters. It’s no Pls Hndle Thx, but it does get a different kind of questioner than we do here at ATL. This week, the love seeker is a lawyer — and he is understandably quite proud of that fact. Perhaps there are ladies who read Above the Law who would like to give him a call? Here’s the lead in to his question:
I’m a 25 year old attorney who graduated from Suffolk Law last year and hopes to get into politics some day. Aside from my career aspirations I am desperately looking for a girl who I can sweep off her feet and live happily ever after. I mean, I have never had a problem finding pretty girls and have always been a sucker for intellectuals like myself.
But wait, there’s more. This Suffolk Law intellectual doesn’t want to sweep just any girl off of her feet. She must be the right kind of girl:
But what I have found repeatedly is that I always run into two types of women; the feminist types who hate being treated like a lady (hold doors, pay for dinner, walk on the outside of the curb, etc.) and put their careers before anything or anyone else. Then there are the girls who use me because I have a good career and are only interested in what I can do for them (concerts, purses, jewelry, all within 3 weeks of the relationship) but never get emotionally attached.
Okay, buddy, let me give you a couple of tips. First, treating a girl “like a lady” is a lot easier if you don’t condescend to her; avoid calling her a “feminist type.” Second, the law is a service industry. Some ladies think that you have incorporated that knowledge into your personal life. Get with the program.
After the jump, our Suffolk brother just gets disgusting.
Continue reading “Ladies, Are You Looking for Love in Boston? Try Suffolk Law”
We are not live blogging the Senate confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor today; we’ve already weighed in on what we’ve learned from this process. But we are keeping an eye on the proceedings just in case somebody says something stupid.
Today they are finishing up with the questions from the senators. Then they will move to the witnesses. They are just getting to that now. SCOTUSblog reports that there are 31 people on the witness list. The witness list is surprisingly light on attorneys or judges. But the stars include Frank Ricci (of Ricci v. DeStefano fame), former Mets pitcher David Cone (he played for some other baseball teams too), and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
But before they get into the witnesses, let’s check out the highlights from the Senate’s last round of questions.
More after the jump.
Continue reading “Checking In With Sotomayor”
As we’ve mentioned before, Paris Hilton was in court in Miami last week after being sued for $8 million for refusing to promote the apparently terrible 2006 movie “Pledge This!”
We’ve told you about how Chief Judge Federico Moreno (S.D. Fla.) was enchanted by Paris. He was perplexed by her use of “BFF,” so she explained the meaning. He displayed his comprehension by remarking, “This will be my best case forever.” To which Hilton replied, “You’re my best judge forever.”
Update: There is a minor disagreement over what exactly Judge Moreno said. See here (comment #2; gavel bang: commenter).
Here’s the court artist’s depiction of the Hilton-Moreno relationship. We’re not sure if Judge Moreno is bored or infatuated.
Moreno — who hasn’t made a ruling yet — may have found Paris enchanting, but the court artist apparently didn’t. Paris looked much less like a 50-year-old transvestite in the photos taken by the Associated Press.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Paris Hilton
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.
ATL,
I was wondering whether I should get/admit to getting plastic surgery.
My issue is that if I was in L.A., I would have done it already, but Chi-town is different, and I want my co-workers to take me seriously notwithstanding the potential surgery.
Sincerely,
Too Sexy for My Face
Dear Too Sexy for My Face,
At approximately 8:43 a.m. on November 1, 2001, in an office on Central Park South, Dr. Michael Evan Sachs punched me in the nose with his scalpel. Five days after his precision beating, I removed the bandages to reveal a magnificent elf shoe perched in the middle of my face. Going into the surgery, I hoped that a new nose would solve all my problems. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
There’s nothing inherently shameful about plastic surgery; some of us were simply born monsters and require surgery to address the situation. The only shameful thing about the whole ordeal is hatching some ludicrous story to explain away your new feature(s) or banking on the fact that your colleagues aren’t observant people and don’t live for this sort of shit. If you show up at work with two Christmas hams stuffed in your shirt or half of your nose hacked off and still pale despite your “Costa Rica trip,” your colleagues will notice, mainly because they aren’t morons. And because they’re tactful professionals, they won’t confront you about it, they’ll just tear you to shreds behind your back. Keeping quiet about it doesn’t make you look discreet, it makes you seem ashamed. If you remove the shame from the equation, the vicious gossip loses its sting. There’s not really anything further for people to discuss about your surgery if you’ve already told them everything yourself.
Stop being corny and worried about whether your colleagues will think you’re vain. Of course you’re vain if you’re getting cosmetic surgery, and there is no sense in wasting time or energy disabusing yourself or coworkers of the truth. Be true to yourself, even the plastic parts.
Your friend,
Marin
Elie objectifies us all, after the jump.
Continue reading “Pls Hndle Thx: Too Sexy for My Law Firm”
The rate of job loss in the legal sector appears to be slowing, mirroring what’s happening in the economy more generally. But make no mistake about it — unemployment continues to grow, and news of lawyer layoffs continues to roll in (and will probably accelerate once the human shields called summer associates are removed in a few weeks).
A reader passed along this article (subscription), about layoffs at the large Midwestern firm of Husch Blackwell, with commentary:
It’s a pleasure to see my old firm humbled. At least now they are speaking the truth about why people are being let go.
That would seem to be a reference to this snafu from March. Continues the tipster:
Note that co-chair Joe Conran spoke for the firm instead of Dave Fenley, that [redacted]. Meanwhile, Joe (in person) isn’t much better. The guy is [redacted]. He just happens to have the clients, which is why he is co-chair.
In the spirit of Midwestern niceness — Husch’s website boasts that it is “deeply rooted in Midwestern values” — we’ve omitted the ad hominems. Suffice it to say that our source isn’t a fan of either Joe Conran or Dave Fenley.
In this latest round of layoffs, the firm let go of 10 lawyers. In March, it laid off 17 lawyers and 45 staff members. It laid off an undetermined number of lawyers last year.
By our count, that makes three rounds of layoffs. Let’s hope the third time is a charm for Husch.
Husch firm lets go of 10 attorneys [Missouri Lawyers Media (subscription)]
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Husch Blackwell
Here at Above the Law, we appreciate and encourage openness from law firms. Law firms don’t have to make quarterly reports to the SEC. But partners, associates, staff, and prospective law students should have as much information as possible about the firms they work for.
So we honestly applaud Arthur Makadon, chairman of Ballard Spahr. He decided to communicate directly with his associates and partners. In the middle of a recession, Mr. Makadon seems to understand the importance of having open communication. We post the following not to make fun of Ballard Spahr, but to encourage other firms to do the same. Here is how Makadon starts off his firm-wide message:
With the year half over, and with significant changes taking place at Ballard, at other law firms and businesses, and, indeed, at virtually every enterprise throughout the country, you understandably must wonder how we are doing. And so I want to take the opportunity in this quarterly message to provide some perspective on where we stand in 2009 and where we expect to be six months from now, two years from now, and a decade from now. Not that any of us wants to skip ahead to this winter; at least here in the East, after sloshing through an unusually rainy spring and enduring a gray and rainy June, we are still waiting to see some consistent sunshine and feel the warmth (and in my case humidity) of summer.
This email is going to be great. More from it, after the jump.
Continue reading “A Message of Inspiration From Ballard Spahr”
* A hacker got his hands on hundreds of sensitive internal documents at Twitter, and sent them out to a host of blogs who are selectively publishing them. Latest tweet from the company: Twitter’s lawyering up. [BBC News]
* Laid off from your law firm? Still looking for a job? Maybe you should collect unemployment and work an unpaid internship… [Wall Street Journal]
* … If you take that road, give New Jersey State Attorney General Anne Milgram a call. [New Jersey Online]
* How law schools are reacting to Morgan Lewis canceling next year’s summer associate program. [Bloomberg]
* So you think you can embezzle? [New York Times]
* Bob Cohn of the Atlantic chats with Sandra Day. [Ideas/Atlantic]
Or close to nothing. That’s the likely enrollment in Human Rights Law in Asia, the course that Dr. Li-ann Thio, the visiting professor from Singapore with controversial views on gay rights, is scheduled to teach at NYU Law School this fall.
An NYU law student reports:
I think there’s a point everyone is missing about this story, and it is this:
We just had to submit our bids for fall courses. A grand total of five people applied for Dr. Thio’s class. It is totally going to get canceled. In comparison, Kenji Yoshino’s Con Law classes got 230 primary bids PER SECTION. NYU Law voted with its feet.
It’s not clear whether the student is referring to Human Rights Law in Asia (3 credits) or Constitutionalism in Asia (2 credits). Other sources tell us, however, that both courses are severely undersubscribed. NYU Law alumna Jill Filipovic, who over at Feministe expressed the hope that nobody would sign up for Dr. Thio’s classes, must be pleased.
(In case you’re not familiar with him, Kenji Yoshino is the openly gay law professor that NYU hired away from Yale last year. He is a leading scholar of gay rights and queer theory.)
Update: We now have greater clarity, from our original tipster:
She’s teaching 2 courses. Human Rights got 9 bids, 5 primary and 4 alternates, and Constitutionalism got 5 bids, just 1 primary and 4 alternates. The results of bidding will be available next week so we’ll know more about how many people actually end up in the class then. But I think it’s pretty safe to assume NYU is not going to run two seminars with just a handful of people in them.
We contacted the law school, to confirm the registration numbers and to see if Dr. Thio’s classes were in danger of being canceled.
Read their response, plus additional discussion, after the jump.
Continue reading “Dr. Li-ann Thio: Much Ado About Nothing?”
