* The case of Phillip Garrido — the California man who allegedly kidnapped a young girl and held her captive for 18 years, while being monitored as a sex offender — raises questions about the effectiveness of sex offender registries. [New York Times]
* A benchslap in the making? California will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit federal court order directing the release of thousands of state prison inmates. [Associated Press]
* The two American journalists detained in North Korea for illegal entry tell their story — and explain that they were actually on Chinese soil when captured by North Korean soldiers, who dragged them back across the border. [Los Angeles Times]
* But it’s not like China is a human rights paradise: a dissident and democratic activist there was just sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment for subverting state power. [ABC News]
* Trying to get out of jury duty? Blame the economy! [New York Times]
* Law students stuck in Administrative Law aren’t the only fans of solitaire; Connecticut legislators enjoy it too (see photo above). [Capitol Watch / Hartford Courant]
Archive for September 2009
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Posted in:
Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Goodwin Procter, Irell & Manella, Jenner & Block, King & Spalding, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Proskauer Rose, Vault 100 Open Threads: 2010, Vinson & Elkins
Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 41 – 50 (2010)
By Elie Mystal
As we finish off the Vault top 50, we look at some firms went through some tough layoffs.
Here’s the list:
41. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
42. Baker & McKenzie
43. Goodwin Procter
44. DLA Piper
45. King & Spalding
46. Jenner & Block
47. Dewey & LeBoeuf
48. Proskauer Rose
49. Vinson & Elkins
50. Irell & Manella
It might not look like it, but there is a lot of carnage on this list. Orrick is down four spots. Proskauer is down four spots. King & Spalding is down 3 spots.
And many of the firms here that are marginally up or holding steady still went through significant layoffs.
After the jump, Law Shucks offers some stats.
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 41 – 50 (2010)”
* Corri Fetman is back. But it appears she’s keeping her clothes on this time. [Love Lawyer via My Law Life]
* Would you light my candle? [Overlawyered]
* The Great Massachusetts law firm sponsored clerkship solution is in fact as unethical as it sounds. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Yeah, it wasn’t going to be long before auto insurance companies used GPS against you. [Blackbook Legal]
* Scalia and Breyer could be coming to a laugh factory near you. [Holy Hullabaloos]
* Count me as a solid believer in the experimental route of life. [Law Dork 2.0]
* Did anybody else realize today how totally dependent they are on Gmail? I feel like the Sun suddenly stopped working, and I’m just about willing to sacrifice a virgin if it will please the Google Gods. [Tech Crunch]
If the power to tax is the power to destroy, then shouldn’t we at least try taxing stupidity? They’re thinking about doing it in France. From Going Concern:
Our frog eating friends have decided that they will start taxing people for their stupidity:
“The French Foreign Ministry is proposing a very narrow law requiring citizens foolish enough to wander into international danger zones, regardless of public warnings, to pay at least part of the cost of their own rescue.”
If you wander up a silly mountain and get stuck, it is civilized to have somebody go and try to find you even it was your own damn fault. But that doesn’t mean society should have to foot the entire bill for your weekend warrior shenanigans. Right?
Click on the link below to read — and comment on — the full post.
The Solution to All Our Fiscal Problems [Going Concern]
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Posted in:
Morgan Lewis, No Offers, Summer Associates
Morgan Lewis No Offer Follow Up
By Elie Mystal
Morgan Lewis & Bockius has finally come clean about its offer rates to its 2009 summer class. The numbers are not pretty. The Legal Intelligencer reports:
Now that the firm has finished informing summer associates of their status and has made a firmwide announcement Tuesday morning regarding the decisions, Morgan Lewis has provided more concrete numbers when it comes to offer rates.
Firmwide hiring partner Eric Kraeutler said there were 102 eligible 2Ls across the country in this year’s summer program. Of that group, 28, or 27.5 percent, were given offers to start as first-year associates in the fall of 2011 — a year later than would normally be the case given the deferrals of the 2009 first-year class until the fall of 2010.
Last week we reported that MLB would be “extend[ing] only a limited number of offers.” The Morgan Lewis offer rate is certainly limited, but the numbers are much lower than what we’ve seen so far from peer firms.
And remember that Morgan Lewis has already canceled its 2010 summer program. So if the firm needs any more fresh talent over the next couple of years, it will have to be successful in the lateral market. That might be hard to do if the firm slashes base pay as it moves to a “performance based” compensation model.
After the jump, let’s take a look at offer rates in specific offices.
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Posted in:
LSAT, Law Schools
Don’t Major in Criminal Justice If You Want to Go to Law School
By Elie Mystal
We have some interesting statistics that suggest legal sounding majors — like Prelaw or Criminal Justice — have a negative relationship with LSAT performance.
Courtesy of Tax Prof Blog, Professor Michael Nieswiadomy of North Texas, has given us average LSAT scores broken down by 29 differed undergraduate majors.
The bottom of the list is very interesting:
25. Education: LSAT = 149.4
26. Business Administration: LSAT = 149.1
27. Health Professions: LSAT = 148.4
28. Prelaw: LSAT = 148.3
29. Criminal Justice: LSAT = 146
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. But is there something going on in criminal justice classes that makes people unable to complete a logic game?
After the jump, let’s look at what you should major in if you want to do well on the LSAT.
Continue reading “Don’t Major in Criminal Justice If You Want to Go to Law School”
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Posted in:
Billable Hours, Cyberlaw, Law Professors, Law Schools, Shameless Plugs, Technology
Some Thoughts on the Changing Legal Industry
By David Lat
When we delivered our talk yesterday at Santa Clara Law, discussing various trends sweeping through the legal profession and what they mean, we were honored to have Professor Eric Goldman in the audience. Professor Goldman is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the areas of internet law and intellectual property. (We especially appreciate his continuing coverage of derivative liability and Section 230, a statutory section much beloved by blog operators.)
Professor Goldman’s excellent recap of our remarks appears here. We were especially interested in his thoughts, as a former corporate general counsel, on the billable hour and fixed-fee arrangements. Check out his post at the link below.
David Lat Talk Recap [Eric Goldman / Goldman's Observations]
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Posted in:
Douchiest Law School Contest
The Douchiest Law School: The Final Four Douches
By Kashmir Hill
ATL Douche Madness continues. This back-to-school special, inspired by GQ.com, is now down to the Final Four Douches. Nearly 9,000 people voted in the match-ups last round, and more than 9,000 cast votes in the doucheriffic Duke vs. Georgetown contest.
As noted by LEWW, douchage does not necessarily correlate with prestige. In the last round, we saw UVA triumph over Columbia for example.
In our Final Four, we have the #1 and #2 seeds, as ranked by U.S. News, going head to head with two schools tied for the #10 seed.
Check out the match-ups, after the jump. Polls close Thursday night.
Continue reading “The Douchiest Law School: The Final Four Douches”
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Posted in:
Mayer Brown, Start Dates
More Good News: Mayer Brown Asks Deferred Associates To Start Early
By Elie Mystal
On Friday, we reported that Sidley Austin was asking some of its deferred associates to start earlier than expected. Today, Mayer Brown keeps the good news rolling. Bloomberg reports:
The firm previously deferred the start dates of its first- year associates scheduled to join this fall. Because of the expanding work, Mayer Brown has asked about half of 12 deferred associates who are scheduled to work in New York to start working after Labor Day, according to [Richard Spehr, partner in charge of Mayer Brown's New York office].
As far as we know, the rest of Mayer Brown’s incoming class is still on track to start on January 19, 2010.
Sidley had enough work that it needed to bring new people online earlier than expected; now Mayer is in the same position. Are these the fabled “green shoots” we’ve all been waiting for?
Mayer Brown Continues to Expand New York City Office [Bloomberg]
Earlier: Sidley D.C. Wants Some Incoming Associates to Start … Early!
New Management at Mayer Brown Delays Start Dates, Changes Bonus Threshold
We’ve compiled a lot of information about the summer associate offer rates at Kirkland & Ellis and at Orrick. Overall, summer associates had a pretty good chance at nailing down an offer at these firms — though individual results varied significantly depending on which you summer at.
At Kirkland & Ellis, sources report that the firm’s offer rate was a solid 85% firm wide. In Chicago and New York, that offer rate climbed to around 90%.
But out west, things were not as rosy. Multiple tipsters reported that the offer rate out of Kirkland’s Los Angeles office was between 60% and 65%. In Palo Alto, things were even worse. Sources there report a 50% offer rate.
Firm wide, a summer class of around 158 summer associates yielded approximately 135 offers for full time employment. In this market, those are good odds.
After the jump, let’s take a look at Orrick.
Continue reading “Nationwide No Offer Watch: Numbers from Kirkland and Orrick”
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Posted in:
Biglaw, Cars, Crime, Paul Hastings, Violence
Another Reason Not to Work Late
By Kashmir Hill & Elie Mystal
Ed. note: This post has been updated. Please read below (updates in bold).
Not all Biglaw types are luxuriating in 1600 hours for the year. Some are still working long hours and spending late nights at the office. There can be hazards to late night assignments: canceled dinner plans, sleep deprivation, and running across an armed robbery in the car garage.
Such was the case last night, in a garage shared by many firms, including Paul Hastings. A Los Angeles attorney sent us this e-mail last night at midnight EDT/ 9 p.m. PDT:
This evening, some attys in the office received the following email:
“In case you guys were planning on leaving the office, there’s an armed car jacking going on in j2, its barricaded and cops aren’t letting anyone in. Some sort of stand-off with the cops now.”
Our correspondent has since retired. We have inquiries in to Paul Hastings but have not gotten an official statement yet. Are there any early risers on the West Coast who know more about this? Send us tips at tips@abovethelaw.com.
UPDATE: The Los Angeles garage in question is shared by Paul Hastings and other noteworthy Biglaw firms, such as Morgan Lewis, Winston & Strawn, and Jones Day.
The full story from a building manager is that a woman — we don’t know her Biglaw affiliation, if any — was approached by a man in the parking lot who demanded that she surrender her car keys. She did and called the police. That precipitated the closing of the garage. The police investigated the crime scene for a couple of hours, which is why nobody was allowed to leave the building during that time. No “stand-off,” just a crime scene investigation.
The criminal was not apprehended, but police reports indicate that the criminal left behind some physical evidence. As we understand it, the car jacker was not armed.
We’ll keep updating this post as we have more details to report.
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Posted in:
University of Illinois College of Law
University of Illinois College of Law: The Bill Comes Due
By Elie Mystal
We’ve been following the admissions scandal at the University of Illinois College of Law. So have some top Biglaw firms, and it’s time for them to get paid. Am Law Daily and the Chicago Tribune reports on the tab run up by the University of Illinois:
The University of Illinois has spent nearly $500,000 on legal bills for six firms retained in the past two months to help it navigate an admissions scandal, reports the Chicago Tribune.
The bulk of the money went to Latham & Watkins, which advised the university on cooperating with the state commission reviewing the school’s admissions procedures. In a statement released Friday, University of Illinois general counsel Thomas Bearrows said that Latham has been paid $392,120.
That’s a nice get for Latham, Chicago.
But there are other firms, large and small, that have been suckling off of the law school scandal. More firms after the jump.
Continue reading “University of Illinois College of Law: The Bill Comes Due”
* Return of the Spitz? [New York Post via Daily Beast]
* Remember that Massachusetts proposal to put deferred Biglaw associates in unpaid secret court clerkships? We polled you about it in June and almost 90% of those surveyed were troubled by the proposal. Well, Chief Justice Robert A. Mulligan agrees with you. He’s scuttling the program. [Boston Globe]
* Attorney General Eric Holder is putting a renewed emphasis on civil rights. [New York Times]
* Former Nets star Jayson Williams plans to allege racial bias against the New Jersey prosecutor who tried him for manslaughter five years ago. [Associated Press]
* A 17-year-old girl read “The Purpose Driven Life,” converted from Islam to Christianity, and then ran away to Florida. Now her attorney says she shouldn’t be forced to return to her family in Ohio because they’re terrorists. More importantly, they live in Ohio. [Fox]
* BREAKING NEWS: Biglaw firms are cutting back on recruiting. [Chicago Tribune]
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Posted in:
Advertising, Shameless Plugs, Sponsored Content, This Is an Ad
The BarMax Manifesto: “We Are Not Sheep”
By Above the Law
In 2009, a small group of Harvard Law School students noticed an absurd monopoly in the bar prep space, held by an unchallenged leader with a non-evolving product. In response, these students teamed up with Harvard Law alumni to launch BarMax on January 14, 2010.The mission: democratize bar prep by embracing new technologies to provide the very best bar exam review courses at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these courses.
Since then, with the encouragement of thousands of students and an unwavering commitment to their success, BarMax has established itself as a comprehensive alternative to the stagnant, over-priced status quo.
As we continue to expand, we do not want to lose sight of the basic premises that led us to create BarMax in the first place. If you are a law student who believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with being forced to take out yet another loan to pay for a $4,000 bar exam prep course, you are not alone.
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Posted in:
Advertising, Asia Chronicles, Shameless Plugs, Sponsored Content, This Is an Ad
The Asia Chronicles: In-House Openings at Hedge Funds In Hong Kong / State Of The Market / 7 New Kinney ’12 US Associate Placements In HK / China
By Kinney Recruiting
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.comHappy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.
As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.
Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong
We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).
Please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.
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Posted in:
Careers
