So, it’s possible that the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has a low grade eating disorder. A New York Times expose chronicles the Mayor’s body image issues:
As a billionaire in one of the dining capitals of the world, he can eat anything he wants. But he is obsessed with his weight — so much so that the sight of an unflattering photo of himself can trigger weeks of intense dieting and crankiness, according to friends and aides.
Okay, so the Mayor’s skin isn’t quite as thick as mine. But having just acknowledged that Bloomberg can be put into an anorexic state by looking at pictures of himself, what does the Times do? It runs a full slide show of him doing nothing but eating. As our friends at Dealbreaker put it:
Basically Hizzoner binge and purges constantly and on really bad days looks in the mirror and thinks “you don’t deserve a third term because you’re a fat fat fattie fat.” The crescendo of the piece is the accompanying slideshow, entitled “The Mayor In Snack Mode,” in which the Gray Lady presents us with close ups of Mikey Boy literally shoving food in his mouth (chicken wings? pizza? don’t mind if I do!) …
Is the Times going out of its way to hurt the Mayor’s feelings? Are they subtly endorsing Bill Thompson? The last thing local restaurateurs need is a cranky billionaire with political power on the war path against calories. Bloomberg’s emotional distress could spell the ruin of the NYC economy.
Under The Right Conditions, Imagine How Masterfully This Guy Could Massacre A Food Eating Challenge [Dealbreaker]
Mayor Doesn’t Always Live by His Health Rules [New York Times]
It’s been a while since we’ve had any news about how legal secretaries and staffs are weathering the recession. Well, at least no news that pertains to secretaries who are potty trained and don’t care about CHARACTER. To the extent that firms are still looking to make cuts, it feels like they are more focused on more long term moves.
But that doesn’t mean that the domain of the legal secretary is drenched in milk and honey. Yesterday, Wilson Sonsini informed its staff that it was instituting a salary freeze:
To: Staff Employees
From: [Wilson Sonsini]
Date: September 22, 2009
Re: Staff Salaries
Earlier this year, in the midst of an uncertain global economic situation, the firm implemented a salary freeze for associates. The firm always has managed expenses carefully, and we’ve taken an even more cautious approach during the current downturn to ensure that our business remains strong and well positioned for the future. While there are early signs that the recession may be easing, it’s also clear that economic recovery will take some time. Given these factors, it is important to continue our fiscally conservative approach, and therefore the firm is extending the salary freeze to staff at this time.
Thank you for your understanding, and for your continued commitment to the firm.
Wait, Wilson Sonsini hadn’t frozen staff salaries already? Tipsters weigh in after the jump.
Continue reading “Staff Salary Freeze From Wilson Sonsini”
As previously mentioned in these pages, your above-signed scribe has been named a Legal Rebel — one of “50 leading innovators” in the legal profession, as selected by the ABA Journal.
The profile, written by Rachel Zahorsky, appears here. For more background on the Legal Rebels project, see our prior post, or the Legal Rebels website.
Through the Legal Rebels team, we were given the opportunity to meet and interview a longtime idol of ours: Steven Brill, founder of the American Lawyer and Court TV (and a fellow Yale Law School graduate). Brill’s latest project is Journalism Online, which “is pioneering the effort to make the transition to a paid online model successful for publishers and easy for readers.”
You can check out the video of our interview with Steve Brill here, or read about it at the ABA Journal.
David Lat: Gossip at Law [Legal Rebels / ABA Journal]
David Lat Interviews Steve Brill [Legal Rebels / ABA Journal]
Ever the Tough Editor, Am Law Founder Hits Publication’s Websites [ABA Journal]
P.S. Elsewhere in shameless plugs: if you’re in D.C. and don’t have anything more exciting to do tonight, head over to Georgetown Law for a discussion of new media and the law. The panel will feature yours truly, Tony Mauro from the National Law Journal, and Matt Welch from Reason Magazine. Eileen O’Connor, former reporter and bureau chief at CNN, will moderate.
Earlier: Maverick Law: The ABA Journal’s ‘Legal Rebels’
Mr. Lat Goes to Washington
We all know about the difficult legal job market facing current law students. But is it so bad that J.D. candidates would have been better off never going to law school in the first place?
At Columbia Law School — the fourth best law school in the country according to U.S. News — is suggesting that job seekers crash the undergraduate job fair. A tipster puts it this way:
Recruiting is bad this year, as you know, but CLS is just highlighting it by recommending we attend an UNDERGRADUATE career fair. It says it is open to all, and that is true, but when you look at the actual companies and organizations coming to the career fair the vast majority require only a bachelors, and none want a law degree specifically. Great to know that $200k+ and 3 years of lost opportunity cost can leave you in the same position as if you never went in the first place.
Isn’t having a J.D. supposed to enhance your job prospects?
Let’s have a look at this email, after the jump.
Continue reading “Disturbing Message About the Legal Job Market From Columbia Law School”
A quick word of thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law:
The Atlantic
De Beers
Harvard Business School
Kinney Recruiting
Lateral Link
LexisNexis
Quimbee: The case brief database
Soul Calibur 4 PSP
If you’re interested in advertising on Above the Law or any other site in the Breaking Media network, download our media kits, or email advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!
* New role for the Justice Department: Keeper of secrets (or not). [Washington Post]
* California AG Jerry Brown is going after one of Madoff’s friends in the golden state. [Courthouse News Service and American Lawyer]
* Ben Roethlisberger’s lawyers want a Nevada court to sanction the attorney who brought rape charges against the Steelers quarterback. [The Huddle/USA Today]
* An E.U. court deals a blow to the environment. [New York Times]
* Google responds to the Justice Department’s concerns and will edit its Digital Books settlement. [The Recorder]
* The Patent Troll Tracker case finally settles. [IP Law & Business]
Here at ATL, we’ve received many, many emails about “no offers.” We’ve provided extensive coverage and open threads galore.
The general message conveyed in these comments and emails is that firms somehow “owe” full-time, post-graduation employment to their summer associates. Under this line of thinking, once firms invite law students to spend a summer with them, they’re inviting them to move in after graduation.
That line of thinking is very 2006.
Times have changed, kids. In 2006, bright law students were hot and desirable; all the firms wanted to get into bed with them. Law students today, however, are like single women over 35. They’re desperate — and firms are warier of committing to them.
Perhaps law students should be thankful that firms want to date them at all. Let’s consider the evidence.
Continue reading “Summer Fling, Don’t Mean a Thing?
(Or: Another perspective on the summer associate experience and no offers.)”
Last week, we wrote about federal judge Stephen Larson’s decision to step down from the bench because of unrequited salary longings. He said his salary of $169,300 was not enough to support his family. We’re skeptical of a six-figure salary not being enough to support a family, but Larson does have seven kids and lives in Los Angeles, so it may not be entirely ridiculous.
Plus, his salary would be much more likely to keep pace with seven future college tuition bills if he were making the big bucks as a Biglaw partner. His resignation led us to ask if judges really are underpaid. We threw the question to you via a poll. ATL readers were torn: 52% of voters said judges are underpaid, while 48% of voters said they’re not underpaid.
Ashby Jones at the WSJ Law Blog weighed in on judicial pay (and recounted a story about how a judge screwed him over when he was a law student interviewing for clerkships). Jones points out:
[I]t’s unreasonable, in all likelihood, to expect that federal judges should make what the average BigLaw partner makes. But it also strikes me as unfortunate that the federal bench should lose Larson, who presided over the recent dispute between Mattel and MGA Entertainment over the rights to the Bratz doll (and, incidentally, a judge I’ve heard to be exceptionally hard-working) over financial issues.
If judges were to make more, how much are we talking? The SCOTUS justices make just over $200,000, with John Roberts raking in $217,400. Should all judges be making that much? It is public service — are the rewards of respect and being called “your honor” enough to make up for the salary shortfall?
Continue reading “Judicial Pay: Is There a Crisis Coming?”
On Friday, we mentioned that Harvard Law School took on Sullivan & Cromwell over how long to firm would hold open offers for summer associates. It was a good show by HLS.
But the question of what 2Ls should do if they get multiple summer associate offers remains open. Earlier, we suggested that instead of just holding open an offer while they mull it over, we suggested that 2Ls affirmatively accept all of the offers they receive. Later — once the 2Ls have had time to make a considered and wise decision based on relevant financial information about the law firms — 2Ls can call up their firms and revoke the agreement to summer with a particular firm. Hey what is good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Apparently, bloggers out at U.C. Berkeley disagree. From the Nuts & Boalts blog:
Harvard’s Dean impressed me, and ATL’s advice disgusts me. Boalties: don’t hoard offers. If you have more than one opportunity at your door, it’s time to start making decisions, because the earlier you decline an offer the more likely it will redound to one of your peers.
Whoa. Above the Law-2008 just called, and they want their open thread back.
Continue reading “Should 2Ls Accept All of Their Offers to The Detriment of Fellow Students”
* We all need to be thrifty these days, so this question has to be asked. Is it okay to take away leftovers from a business lunch or dinner? [Corporette]
* A wanna-be reality star is suing the reality show producer for being mocked. I think I’d have more sympathy for an ax murderer. [True/Slant]
* How should a young lawyer handle the indefinite deferral offered by Alston & Bird. [Young Lawyers Blog]
* Even Plato would be disrespecting BC Law Professor Scott Fitzgibbon. [Law Librarian Blog]
* If a mandate to purchase health care would be constitutional under current interpretations of the commerce clause, does that mean we should change the interpretation of the commerce clause? [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Taking over Blawg Review is just step one in a diabolical plan.
[Unsilent Partners via Blawg Review]
Mental note: Do not mess with lawyers in South Carolina. Don’t believe me? Just read the Charlotte Observer:
Conway Attorney Irby Walker was charged today with trying to hire someone to kill another attorney, according to police.
Walker, 58, was charged with solicitation of a felony after Doug Thornton told police Sept. 11 that Walker had made threats against his life and believed he was trying to follow through on those threats, according to Horry County police Lt. Jamie DeBari.
According to The Sun News, the going price to take down a fellow member of the bar is $10,000.
Really? I mean, who can even afford that in this economy?
Irby Walker’s attorney responded to the charges with the Chewbacca defense:
“I know there’s some bad blood between [Walker and Thornton], but this entire thing defies comprehension, and I suggest it is illogical,” said Walker’s attorney, George McMaster, during the hearing. “He didn’t get a gun, he didn’t go try to go shoot somebody, he’s probably not capable of shooting somebody.”
Police: S.C. lawyer plotted to hire killer [Charlotte Observer]
Police: Lawyer sought hitman to kill rival [The Sun News]
David W. Glasser, a local attorney in Daytona Florida, received a major benchslap from U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell. It is short, it is sweet, and it appears entirely deserved. Here’s the order from the court. Glasser is the plaintiff’s lawyer:
This matter came before the Court without oral argument upon consideration of Plaintiff’s, Carolyn Nault (“Plaintiff”), Response to this Court’s Order and Motion for Voluntary Dismissal (collectively, the “Motion”) (Docs. 21 and 22). Upon review, it is
ORDERED that the Motion is DENIED without prejudice for failing to comply with
Local Rule 3.01(g), for failing to secure a stipulation of dismissal from Defendant pursuant to FED.R. CIV. 41(a)(ii), and for otherwise being riddled with unprofessional grammatical and typographical errors that nearly render the entire Motion incomprehensible.
Ouch.
Just for good measure, Judge Presnell also ordered Glasser to show the judge’s order to his client:
It is FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff’s counsel, David W. Glasser, shall re-read the
Local Rules and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in their entirety. Furthermore, Mr. Glasser shall personally hand deliver a copy of this Order, together with the Court’s exhibit attached thereto, to his client, Carolyn Nault, by no later than Monday, September 21, 2009. By no later than Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Mr. Glasser shall file with the Court a “Notice of Compliance,” certifying to the Court that he has fully complied with this Order.
DONE and ORDERED in Chambers, Orlando, Florida on September 15, 2009.
The “exhibit attached thereto” is presumably the judge’s corrected copy of Glasser’s memo. Let’s check it out after the jump.
Continue reading “Benchslap: Judge Orders Local Attorney to ‘Re-Read … FRCP’”
Supreme Court clerks continue to flood the NYT wedding pages this month, creating grim LEWW odds for mere-mortal Cornell grads and Skadden associates. Like Troy playing Florida or North Texas playing Alabama, these folks are welcome to suit up, but the only question is how bad their whuppin’ is going to hurt.
Here are your three finalist couples for the week:
1. Rebecca Mancuso and Andrew Brunswick
2. Erin Gustafson and David Curtiss
3. Kathleen Devine and David Newman
Evaluate these newlyweds, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 9.13: Devine Inspiration”
But for the state of Illinois, New York State would be receiving more national recognition for its state political situation. Even the President is embarrassed by the performance of New York Governor David Paterson.
Perhaps Paterson’s chances of beating Andrew Cuomo, or Rudolph Giuliani, or the Naked Cowboy are depressed because of stories like these. From the New York Post:
Gov. Paterson’s former economic-development czar, Avi Schick, stepped down from his post at the helm of the Empire State Development Corp. in January — but, astonishingly, continued to quietly draw his $213,000 annual salary for eight more months, The Post has learned.
Schick, who has close ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, managed to hang on to his full salary — more than what the governor earns — in return for advising Paterson on lower Manhattan issues, said ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston.
In case you’re wondering, Sheldon Silver is essentially the most powerful state official left in New York State, owing to his ability to perform his duties at a basically competent level. That is a rarity in Albany.
But how did Avi Schick’s state salary become exposed? Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Sonnenschein Claims Paterson Crony”
We trumpeted the terrible performance turned in by the state of Florida on the February bar exam. So it’s only fair that we give you sunshine staters a chance to talk about the July bar exam. The results were posted today.
Bar results are out, all three major Florida college football teams are ranked in the Top 25 — it’s shaping up to be a pretty good week down there.
Bar Exam Results [Florida Supreme Court]
Earlier: What’s Up with the Flori-duh February Bar Exam?
Deidre Dare is one of our favorite laid-off lawyers. She was working in Russia for Allen & Overy, and decided to pen a salacious online novel about her expat adventures. The literary critics at A&O were not pleased with the novel, which featured lots of drinking, sex, drugs, donkeys, and dwarves.
After she lost her job at Allen & Overy, she sued the firm.
Dare’s still in Moscow, where she pens a column for the Moscow News called sExpat. Recently, she wrote that money is tight and that she’s considering various options to increase her cash flow. Among some of her proposals are robbing banks, becoming a jewel thief, blackmailing someone, or prostituting herself. From the Moscow News:
Now, when I decided to go into the law, I wanted to take an expensive preparatory course for the law school admissions test. At the time, I was suffering severe “cash flow problems” and I asked my father to pay for the course, which he refused to do, considering it a waste of money.
So, in order to raise the cash, I decided to become a “high class” whore.
I’d heard that this was something pretty Ivy League students sometimes did for money.
Sometimes the non-Ivy types do it too. So what are Dare’s rates?
Continue reading “Deidre Dare Proposes Prostitution as a Layoff Solution?”
The contest of horror between the class of 2009 and the class of 2010 rages on. Based on Friday’s no offer thread, you’d think that the class of 2010 was surging ahead. We know 3L recruiting is depressed this year, so if you got no offered from your summer firm, your chances of snagging a job upon graduation seem greatly reduced.
But there are still scads of people from the class of 2009 that are desperately hoping that they will be able to start at some point. We have been covering the new spate of deferral extensions. Usually, the extensions try to comfort incoming associates that they will have a job with their firms at some point.
But lately, firms are being more forward with the class of 2009. Last week, Baker & McKenzie warned that if it was not able to find spots for incoming associates by June 2010, “the relationship will end.”
Today, Alston & Bird incoming associates received some bad news. A tipster reports:
Alston Bird just indefinitely deferred its incoming 2009 class … They were supposed to start January 2010. There is now no start date.
Alston & Bird didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
So, if 3L recruiting is bad this year, how is it going for 4Ls 2009 graduates who haven’t had a day of work so far? Is there anything their former law schools can do to help them out?
We’ll probably see more deferral extensions as the January 2010 start date looms large at firms that do not have enough work to go around.
Earlier: Baker & McKenzie: For Some, Deferral Extensions Could Lead to Offer Revocation
Friday afternoon, we brought you the story of a law student who was allegedly dating pop star Rihanna. The rumor was posted on the blog Bossip. But the student, Janero Marchand, vehemently denied the rumor on his twitter account.
We posted some of Janero’s tweets in our story on Friday. Predictably, Above the Law commenters constructed an entire caricature of Janero’s intellectual prowess based on those few tweets. This was one common commenter message:
From his tweets, I don’t think legal writing will be his strong point.
Others pointed out the dangers of tweeting in a difficult job market:
I think he should provide a link to his twitter page on his resume when he does 2L recruiting.
Bossip also took the opportunity to take extra shots at Janero. After we pointed out Marchand’s denial, Bossip offered this reasoning:
According to a new source Rihanna’s “alleged” man whose former name was Aaron may be gay. Which could explain his hasty response to our story and the tweet from Dollicia denying their relationship as well.
Jesus. The scorn of ATL and wild accusations from Bossip? It’s been a pretty exciting September for this 1L. After the jump, Janero Marchand responds to Above the Law.
Continue reading “Law Student of the Day: He Says He’s Not Dating Rihanna, And He’s Not Gay. Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That.”
Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
A piece in Wednesday’s WSJ brought into stark relief the futility of using unemployment data for any sort of analysis, as we futilely do every week. Even the states and the federal government can’t agree on how the numbers should be calculated. Not surprisingly, the assumptions being made are largely influenced by the message the economist wants (or is nudged) to give.
The most visible figures available to evaluate the job market are unemployment rates, which don’t speak well for the stimulus package. The national rate of joblessness last month was 9.7%, up from 8.5% in March, the month after the stimulus act was passed. A week after that number was released, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers reported that the stimulus had increased employment to a level by “slightly more than 1 million jobs higher than it otherwise would have been.”
That awkward wording says a lot: It reflects the tough job facing any economist who tries to estimate job creation. In every method used, economists are forced to imagine an alternate reality — one built on assumptions that are easily challenged. …
The White House method assumes that things were getting worse and that the stimulus is the sole factor responsible for stopping the bleeding. So economists imagined an alternative reality whereby the present would have been much worse — to the tune of one million more lost jobs.
So with that in mind, unemployment was up again, even as Obama and Bernanke are announcing that the recession, "from a technical perspective," may be over.
Perhaps the slowdown in law-firm layoffs is a leading indicator? The activity in our little corner of the economy, after the jump.
Continue reading “Last Week in Layoffs: 09.21.09″
