Happy Labor Day! Hopefully you are enjoying a well-deserved day off. But to those of you who are at work, or who aren’t at work but still checking Above the Law today, welcome to Off the Record — our look back on the week that was.

Last week was a good news/bad news kind of week here at ATL. The top three stories took us to different ends of the Biglaw spectrum.
Green Shoots
Here and there, some firms seem to be picking up steam and onboarding talent.
Click here to read about Sidley Austin’s decision to allow some of its incoming D.C. associates to start right after Labor Day.
And here you’ll see that Mayer Brown, another Chicago powerhouse, is also having some of its incoming associates start early.
While incoming associates at those firms will have a chance to earn some extra paychecks, associates at GrayRobinson will see their paychecks get larger. The Florida firm has raised salaries in the recession. FL to $190K!
The Return of Layoffs
It’s Labor Day weekend. All the summer associates are gone. Sadly, at some firms that means it’s time to return to laying people off.
The news was bad at Kirkland & Ellis.
And Baker Botts.
And Fish & Richardson.
And Sonnenschein.
And Cooley Goward.
And Quarles & Brady.
Douche Patrol
Law students shouldn’t worry their pretty little heads about the larger American economy. It’s back-to-school time, and campus rivalries have been in full effect in our Douchiest Law Schools contest.
After Duke Law School overcame stiff competition from Georgetown in the Eight Elite D-Bags round, it cruised its way into the finals. It’s going up against Harvard Law School for the title. To vote, click here.
Comment of the Week
Sick of the incessant comments bemoaning the fate of laid-off, ex-Latham associates, one commenter turned the sarcasm meter “all the way to 11.”

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, THINK OF THE CHILDREN. While what happened at Quarles, Sonnenschein, and Kirkland today was regrettable for a few associates, YOU MUST CONSIDER HOW THE FORMER FIRST YEARS AT LATHAM WILL BE REACTING TO THIS NEWS! It is they who will bear the burden of knowing that there were more lay-offs in their office. It is they who need the money more. It is they who had their careers interrupted/destroyed. It is they who deserved partnership immediately. THEY AND THEY ALONE. No one else has had to deal with these immense burdens.

I hereby call for the Latham 190 post to be reposted at the beginning and end of every day in memory of these brave souls who for some reason – some heroic, selfless reason – still muster the strength to get out of bed in the morning and repost the same comments about the Latham lay-offs every day.

Nay, that is not enough and I, will not rest until a proper memorial is made to their sacrifice.

I suggest that perhaps, in the middle of central park, a gigantic middle finger, stretched outward towards the sky, with lo, a sign that says: “I lost my job in the beginning of the year too, dick, get over it.”