August 2009

No Offers

Summer Offer Rate Open Thread: Happy Happy Joy Joy!

This email messages from a reader is representative of many we’ve received, as well as many comments on recent posts: As a Biglaw summer associate waiting to hear about my future, I’d really like the site to focus on and publicize firms that give offers to all or most of their summer classes. [Last week’s] […]

Contests

Help put a lawyer and a law student on Mad Men!

Are you a fan of the show Mad Men? We’ve only seen one episode, on an airplane, but we’ve heard great things. Television critics have praised it to the heavens. Our colleagues at Fashionista are also big fans. So are many law students and lawyers. Meet Leo Mulvihill (below left), a law student at Drexel […]

Law Shucks

Blind Item Follow-Up: A New York Firm That Fits The Bill?

Yesterday, we wrote about a Washington Post article profiling a layoff consultant who advises companies on conducting mass firings. The article caught our attention because one of those who called Kim Hall of the Five O’Clock Club during the course of the article was a “law firm in Manhattan,” planning a third round of layoffs […]

Heller Ehrman

Morning Docket 08.11.09

* There was serious shadiness at dissolved firm Heller Ehrman. Information coming to light during bankruptcy proceedings suggests that, in 2008, the firm distributed $9 million in profits that it did not have and then covered it up. [The Recorder] * Paul Hastings nabs Central District of California U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien. [Associated Press] * […]

Contests

Why Did You Decide to Go to Law School?

Many of you are probably asking yourselves that very question. Especially if you are deeply in debt and/or without legal employment. We decided to go to law school because, well, we didn’t have anything better to do. Law school has been described, quite accurately, as “the great American default option.” If you’re in the same […]

Layoffs

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Gilbert Oshinsky

Here’s a little layoff news to start your day. It’s a small round of layoffs, from a small firm, and it’s from several weeks ago (the end of June). But we do aim for completeness around here. The litigation-focused firm of Gilbert Oshinsky, aka “the GO to firm,” laid off four attorneys, the legal recruiter, […]

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 08.10.09

* Musical chairs: three litigation partners leave Skadden for Paul Hastings. [The BLT] * Baby mama drama at today’s Michael Jackson court hearing. [Popsquire] * Is it only a matter of time before establishments start hanging up “no tweeting, photo-taking, or Facebook tagging” signs? [True/Slant] * Should corporate executives who receive bonus money for hitting […]

Sponsored Content

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Insurance

Blank Rome’s Massive Malpractice Settlement

This year hasn’t been a fabulous one for Blank Rome. They’ve had to cut both salaries and headcount. The firm also pushed back start dates for first-year associates, until “at least” January 2010, and the 2009 summer program was a brief six weeks. This latest news doesn’t improve matters. From the Legal Intelligencer, via Am […]

Gay

A Gay Gatesgate: Pepin Tuma Speaks

Last month, we wrote about the questionable arrest of a gay Washington lawyer — a controversy we dubbed A Gay Gatesgate, referencing the furor over Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates’s arrest by Cambridge police. We expressed the view that the police sometimes abuse their authority in dealing with outspoken citizens (and it seems that many […]

Plaintiffs Firms

The Class Action Avenger: Ted Frank’s Cool New Job

Some class action settlements are highly questionable. Think of a case where, say, the victimized consumers get a stupid coupon, so they can purchase even more goods or services from the company that victimized them — while the lawyers representing the plaintiffs walk away with a big payday. One man is out to change all […]