This year we decided to dress up as Judge Denny Chin (S.D.N.Y.), recently nominated by President Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. If you're a criminal, Judge Chin can be quite frightening -- he sentenced Bernie Madoff to a whopping 150 years.
And where did we get the idea for our costume? ATL comments (see #2 and #17).
A slideshow of photos showing us in our Judge Chin costume, after the jump.
Friday, October 30, 2009 6:20 PM - By Kashmir Hill
We launched our Spooky Services caption contest yesterday evening, giving ATL readers just over 17 hours to submit captions for this photo:
To our horror, you buried us with over 400 entries. We nearly laughed ourselves to death.
* Police can search your email without telling you. Bring it on coppers, bring it on. [True/Slant]
* If your Biglaw career has stalled, maybe you should become a CPA. [Going Concern]
* An Indiana law school dean is getting pushed out because he is too old. Peyton Manning, welcome to your future. [Law Librarian Blog]
* Is a globally integrated law firm that provides one-stop shopping still a viable business model? I don’t know, Wal-Mart seems to be doing just fine. [Ideoblog]
* I didn’t know water intoxication existed. It doesn’t sound nearly as fun as regular intoxication. [ABA Journal]
It’s a story straight out of the movies. WilmerHale’s client, Dewey Bozella, a 50-year-old African-American man, was released from custody earlier this week — after serving 26 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. From the New York Times:
Mr. Bozella would still be in prison except for a few lucky breaks. The first came in 2007, when he contacted the Innocence Project, a legal group that focuses on wrongful convictions. The group, after determining all the physical evidence had already been destroyed, asked the high-powered law firm of WilmerHale to handle the case on a pro bono basis.
Ross E. Firsenbaum, a senior associate, said the firm’s lawyers had spent 2,500 hours — worth $950,000 at customary rates — on the case, the kind of representation almost never available to indigent convicts.
Will Bozella file a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit — perhaps represented by Wilmer, on a contingency basis? It could yield up a nice chunk of change (to make up for the nearly $1 million in non-billable work). Given all the firm has done for him, Bozella certainly owes WH a debt of gratitude.
Anyway, it’s a remarkable case. Read more about the victory in the NYT and Am Law Daily.
Such success is not entirely surprising. Although WilmerHale has one of the country’s top appellate practices, WH lawyers know their way around the trial court too. As noted in the firm’s ATL Career Center profile,”[t]he firm is known for its litigation expertise, as well as its regulatory practice and Beltway connections.”
Meanwhile, in other firm news, we got our hands on the WilmerHale warning memo that we mentioned earlier this month. Truth be told, it’s a little disappointing — not nearly as scary as we were led to believe.
We were expecting associates to be threatened with 26 years of imprisonment (or doc review) for leaking firm information to ATL. Or maybe waterboarding by Bill and Bill. But the actual memo is not unreasonable and fairly tame, guilt-tripping rather than menacing.
Check it out, along with some cautionary words for law firms thinking of clamping down on leakers, after the jump.
There’s nothing scary about this Halloween edition of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Our featured newlyweds include two Skadden associates, a SCOTUS clerk, and a famous heiress / model / entrepreneur.
Friday, October 30, 2009 2:42 PM - By Kashmir Hill
If you’re going to have a little afternoon delight with a stripper, why not head to the local cemetery? We applaud South Carolina deputy assistant attorney general and former legislator Roland Corning for really getting into the Halloween spirit this week by getting his jollies at the graveyard.
Unfortunately, his Monday lunch treat got tricky when a police officer happened by. From CBS News:
Deputy assistant attorney general Roland Corning said he was on his lunch break when a police officer found him with a stripper, a Viagra pill, and sex toys in his sports utility vehicle, according to Corning’s boss.
Let’s learn a bit more about the stripper, shall we?
What would you do to score World Series tickets? If you aren’t willing to do what this Philadelphia Phillies fan had in mind, then you aren’t really trying. Earlier this week, the New York Post reported:
A rabid Philadelphia fan — apparently believing the “P” on the team’s cap stands for “prostitution” — was busted yesterday for offering sex in exchange for World Series tickets, police said.
Susan Finkelstein, 43, was nabbed after allegedly soliciting an undercover Bensalem, Pa., cop who answered her innuendo-laced craigslist ad seeking the coveted ducats.
CBS has a full photo spread of Susan Finkelstein, in case you have two spare tickets for Saturday.
That’s right, she needs two. One for herself, and one for her husband.
Although Halloween is just around the corner, things are looking less scary in the Bay Area. With tech stocks soaring, start-ups and emerging companies are doing more deals and looking to grow.
Time for more lawyers! The Job of the Week, brought to you by Lateral Link, is with a prominent firm that’s back on the prowl for the best and the brightest corporate lawyers to handle these deals.
Description: A top-tier firm is seeking a mid-level corporate associate with 3 to 4 years of strong corporate experience at a reputable law firm, and excellent academic credentials. Experience should include public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, private equity, venture capital investments, and/or technology transactions. Candidates with strong experience representing emerging companies are preferred. California bar is required.
For more information about this position, please view Position #5440 on Lateral Link. Membership in Lateral Link is free, and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.
Friday, October 30, 2009 12:11 PM - By Elie Mystal
In this season of costumed crusaders, one person has decided to dress up as a Notre Dame 1L. Only he’s not doing it to get candy on Halloween. Instead, he’s just some creepy douchebag that is rolling around.
But he’s freaked out the Notre Dame administration. They felt compelled to send around a warning to the law school:
Dear Members of the Law School Community-
Please be aware that a person identifying himself as a Notre Dame 1L student was in the building yesterday (accompanied by another person). He informally chatted with several individuals and identified himself as either Gary Stearley or Gabriel Stearley. While here, he also utilized various law school services (e.g., fax machine, NDLS logo apparel purchases from SBA). A photo of the individual (taken from Facebook) is attached to this email.
This person is not a Notre Dame student, and it is our understanding that a person with this name has engaged in false-identity behavior elsewhere in the past. The issue has been reported to ND Security. If you see this person in the building, please notify Notre Dame Security immediately at 1-5555.
In the meantime, please remember that despite the collegial setting of the law school, you should always take precautions to protect your personal property while in the building.
Friday, October 30, 2009 11:01 AM - By Elie Mystal
According to the Center for Disease Control, these are the groups most at risk for swine flu:
* Children younger than 2 years old; * Adults 65 years of age or older; * Pregnant women and women up to 2 weeks postpartum (including following pregnancy loss) * Persons with the following conditions: * Chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (except hypertension), renal, hepatic, hematological (including sickle cell disease), or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus); * Disorders that that can compromise respiratory function or the handling of respiratory secretions or that can increase the risk for aspiration (e.g., cognitive dysfunction, spinal cord injuries, seizure disorders, or other neuromuscular disorders) *Immunosuppression, including that caused by medications or by HIV;
Oh wait, I think the CDC forgot a group: Biglaw lawyers. Ropes & Gray apparently thinks that its lawyers are at risk — so like any good company, the firm is “stockpiling” swine flu drugs. The Boston Globe reports:
The Boston-based law firm Ropes & Gray made arrangements this month for hundreds of its employees and their families to obtain the antiviral medicine Tamiflu to protect them from swine flu, a move that the company calls a wise precaution but that public health officials criticized as medically questionable stockpiling.
Hoarding swine flu medication? Really? That is not cool.
Friday, October 30, 2009 10:03 AM - By Elie Mystal
Back in May, Drinker Biddle came up with a radically different program for first years. For the first six months, first years at Drinker are more like apprentices than traditional first years. They get intensive training, but are only paid $105,000.
Despite those changes, the firm has still decided to lay off attorneys. Multiple tipsters report that 22 Drinker Biddle associates were laid off yesterday.
Drinker Biddle spokespeople did not comment about the news. But tipsters report that the significant cut to first year salary did not end up saving the jobs of more senior associates.
Details on departments and offices and an update after the jump.
* Schools warn parents that their children shouldn’t wear scary Halloween costumes. [New York Times]
* Under New York employment law, companies that require a uniform are supposed to provide that uniform for their employees. Apparently that is not happening at Hooters. [Daily News]
* Cancer patients want to put bone marrow on the open market. [National Law Journal]
* Everyone knows that monkeys are funny. But are they service animals? [Courthouse News Service]
* Am Law 200 lawyers are flocking to Chris Christie over Jon Corzine. [Am Law Daily]
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. From our sister site, Going Concern:
[A] judge in Seattle has allowed a revised lawsuit to proceed that lists “Washington Mutual officers and directors, underwriters, and the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche” as defendants.
The revised lawsuit was trimmed down to a “concise” 267 pages from the original 388 that the judge described as “verbose” and “disorganized”.
“Verbose” and “disorganized” would also describe many lawyers we know. On the defense side, though, it’s an all-star cast. From Am Law Litigation Daily:
The lineup for the defendants includes Simpson Thacher & Bartlett attorneys Barry Ostrager and Rob Pfister for former WaMu officers; Ronald Berenstain of Perkins Coie for former WaMu outside directors; Barry Kaplan of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for former WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger; Peter Wald of Latham & Watkins for Deloitte; and Jonathan Dickey of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher for the underwriters.
Read more about this lawsuit, and comment, over at Going Concern.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 6:42 PM - By Kashmir Hill
An ATL reader sent along this holiday-themed photograph from the career services office of his top 20 law school. The picture struck us as perfect for a caption contest.
Same rules apply as always: Submit possible captions in the comments. We’ll choose our favorites — with preference given to those with a legal / law school bent — and then let you vote for the best one.
Please submit your entry BY NOON ON FRIDAY, and we’ll bring you our finalists on the eve of All Hallow’s Eve. Thanks!
Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:24 PM - By Elie Mystal
* TP-ing is still an effective deterrent. [Going Concern]
* Could getting braces hurt a 1L’s job prospects? It’s hard to say, since there are no jobs for 1Ls anyway. [Corporette]
* Proskauer partner Jon Oram, a rising star of the sports law bar (and Lat’s law school classmate), was heavily involved in the sale of the Chicago Cubs. Oram’s a Yankees fan, so maybe some of that winning karma will rub off on Chicago’s lovable losers. [National Law Journal]
Should I be paranoid about pictures from Halloween being posted on Facebook? Some people don’t have their profiles set to private, and I’m worried it will come up in a Facebook or Google search (eek!). Maybe I’m being too paranoid? I don’t know.
Planning on Going as a Slutty Nurse
Dear Planning on Going as a Slutty Nurse,
What’s so amazing about Halloween is that it’s the one day a year when you get a glimpse into the inner workings of other peoples’ minds. Everyone has an inner costume, and Halloween Purim is when it’s socially acceptable to wear it outwardly. There is a kernel of truth behind every disguise, which is why Prince Harry’s Nazi costume a few years ago was so disturbing. You can’t possibly wear a Nazi costume unless you’re at least 1/4th Nazi. In Halloween, Veritas.
Your fear of Halloween pictures showing up on Facebook really sounds as if you’re afraid of others seeing the real, slutty nurse you. A vixen. A healer. An unoriginal. This year, I considered going as Sheryl Weinstein or Blanket. Surely those costumes speak volumes.
As I’ve said repeatedly in these Pls Hndle posts (we’ve been at this for over a year, btw!), you have to be yourself, no matter what the cost. That’s why I left the law. That’s why I subscribe to Dog Fancy. If you want to be a slutty nurse, be one, Facebook and Google footprint be damned. Live free or die hard.
This semester we have received several warnings from our Internet service provider that copyrighted movies and TV shows are being downloaded illegally via our wireless network. The Information Technology office is now ascertaining who is doing this. Once we have names of the individuals involved, we intend to give them to the copyright holders for enforcement purposes.
This stance proved unpopular with BLS students, as well as ATL readers. In a poll, about 75 percent of readers answered “yes” when asked, “Should Brooklyn Law School do more to protect its students from being sued for illegal downloading?”
It seems that Brooklyn Law School has had a change of heart. Check out the email that went out this afternoon, plus selected reader comments, after the jump.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 2:39 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Faithful Coca-Cola drinkers can laugh about this one. PepsiCo is having a rough month, reports the National Law Journal. PepsiCo’s purified water brand, Aquafina, has cost it a pretty penny.
Charles Joyce and James Voigt of Wisconsin sued PepsiCo earlier this year for stealing their idea of bottling and selling purified water. They claim that they had confidential discussions with distributors about the idea in 1981 and that the distributors passed those trade secrets along to Pepsi. It sounds like a bit of a ridiculous lawsuit; PepsiCo calls their accusations “dubious.”
But the Wisconsin men won. They won big. They won $1.26 billion dollars.
How did they win? By default judgment. PepsiCo’s lawyers never responded to the complaint, and the judge awarded the Wisconsin plaintiffs a default judgment.
Why did the Pepsi people never respond? Meet PepsiCo legal secretary, Kathy Henry.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 1:54 PM - By Elie Mystal
We wanted to give people an opportunity to reminisce about John O’Quinn, the legendary personal injury attorney, who apparently died this morning in a car accident. The Houston Chronicle reports:
Prominent Houston attorney John O’Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their SUV slammed into a large tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said. …
It wasn’t immediately clear whether O’Quinn or the other, still-unidentified victim was driving.
O’Quinn is a huge name in Texas and around the country. He made his mark in PI work:
O’Quinn, who made his fortune largely in personal injury cases, most notably in successful breast implant cases in the early 1990s, was a local philantrhopist. He gave money to the Harris County Children’s Assessment Center, the Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs and various Texas Medical Center institutions including St. Luke’s Hospital, which has a tower bearing his name.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:57 PM - By Elie Mystal
Kaye Scholer has announced that its incoming first year associate will still be starting in January. All of them. But there is a catch. Kaye Scholer will split the class into two groups of full time associates. One group will work for the firm’s paying clients and get paid the normal first year starting salary. The other group — roughly half of the class — will work exclusively with the firm’s public interest group and will make $60,000.
Above the Law spoke with Kaye Scholer managing partner Barry Wilner about the program. He emphasized that the firm wanted to invite everybody in its first year class to start at the firm because the class is “excellent.” But he acknowledged that the demand for legal services isn’t what it used to be. Instead of sending half of its class back out on the street to look for public interest work, Wilner wanted to put them to work under the umbrella of Kaye Scholer’s pro bono efforts:
It’s incredibly difficult to get public interest work in this environment. … It’s a good thing from the standpoint that the firm is providing excellent public interest training and mentoring.
Wilner also told us that the public interest associates would still have access to all of the training other first year associates have, and they would be eligible for full firm benefits.
Associates weren’t asked to volunteer to be in the public interest group. Wilner said that the firm had to make difficult decisions about how to split the class. Practice group preference was one factor. But Wilner also said that because the incoming class was strong across the board, some amount of arbitrariness also played a role.
After the jump, incoming associates in the public interest group weigh in.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 11:40 AM - By Elie Mystal
Don’t you love it when a firm cares so much about associate development that it’s willing to cut associate salaries? That’s what Foley Hoag is doing; the firm announced today that it was slashing salaries, in part to help associate development and recruitment. Here’s a screen shot of the firm wide memo (click to enlarge):
How does cutting salaries help the firm recruit new associates and maintain current associates?
In any event, check out the rest of the memo and tipster reports on how deep the cuts actually are after the jump.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:08 AM - By Elie Mystal
Way back in the day — I’m thinking circa 1,000 AD — most problems could be solved through an exchange of food. It was a simpler time when disputes were settled without interrogatories, and transgressors made restitution with meat and mead.
With that in mind, I applaud Joliet Judge Robert Livas and his truly old-school sentence. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The local legal community has been abuzz since Associate Judge Robert Livas accepted the Jamaican-style chicken from Darrius Logan this month over an objection from a prosecutor. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges after an incident in Joliet.
Yumyumyum.
Rivas now claims he didn’t intend to convert Logan’s community service sentence into a chicken run. But I bet his court staffers are happy with the result.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:12 AM - By Kashmir Hill
* Former Lawyer of the Day Adam Reposa, who was held in contempt for making the ‘jerk off’ gesture in sight of a judge, is still contemptible. [Texas Lawyer via Blogonaut]
* The first openly gay U.S. attorney gets to work in Washington State. [Associated Press]
* Kwame Kilpatrick is suing the attorney who turned the former Detroit mayor’s sext messages over to the Detroit Free Press. [Detroit News]
* Fresno judge forces nine pot shops to shutter pending the outcome of a zoning law court battle. [Associated Press]
* Former Judge of the Day Robert “Don’t-Park-in-My-Spot” Nalley pleads guilty to taking the air out of a court cleaner’s tire. [Washington Post]
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 7:23 PM - By David Lat
If you’ve been waiting for bar results in the “M” states of Massachusetts and Michigan, your wait is over. We’ve been inundated with emails like this one:
Long time reader, first time caller. Just letting you know that letters for the MA Bar Exam went out today. (I passed!!!)
Congratulations! You have established that you are not an idiot:
Massachusetts bar results were received in the mail today. You are retarded if you failed.
Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Michigan bar results are out:
Michigan July 2009 bar results have been released to examinees. I got mine today. But are there any jobs for those of us who passed?
Michigan’s unemployment rate may largely reflect the troubles of the car companies. But might the auto industry and the legal industry share some things in common?
Feel free to crow about your bar exam passage, bemoan your bar exam failure, or discuss legal employment conditions in Massachusetts and/or Michigan, in the comments.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:41 PM - By David Lat
* Are bankers even more narcissistic than lawyers? Consider the evidence. [Dealbreaker]
* No, Justice Scalia did not say he would have dissented in Brown v. Board of Education. [Balkinization]
* Of course, “[t]he misrepresentation of Scalia’s remarks went viral almost instantly, which is the way things go these days.” [Althouse]
* Patterico slaps around Scott Glover of the L.A. Times for Glover’s slanted coverage of a recent Third Circuit decision clearing Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (9th Cir.) of wrongdoing. [Patterico’s Pontifications]
* Justice Sonia Sotomayor, photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the pages of Vogue? Be still my heart! [Memo Pad / Women’s Wear Daily]
* “Too many people practice law who should not. Practicing law is hard.” Ain’t that the truth? [What About Clients?]
Today we received this e-mail from the administration, which is causing quite an uproar among the student body.
The gist of it seems to be that, contrary to the practice of other schools, BLS will begin actively investigating [illegal] downloading and proactively providing names of people to media [companies] so [the individuals in question] can be sued.
I believe the typical practice at other schools (graduate and undergraduate) and institutions is to wait for a subpoena and either cooperate or fight the subpoena, not to go out of their way to inform on their students.
The total cost of attendance at Brooklyn Law for the 2009-2010 academic year, for full-time students not living with their parents (God forbid), is a shade over $66,000. Shouldn’t that buy BLS’s silence?
Or is the law school in the right here? Shouldn’t law students, i.e., future lawyers, know and follow the law?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:15 PM - By David Lat
Although November is just around the corner, some 2009 summer associates are still learning about their fates. As one might expect given how late it is in the recruiting season, the news that comes around now isn’t always the happiest.
Above the Law has received reports that summer associates from McGuireWoods are now hearing back about offers. The interesting part is that the firm has apparently decided to make offers in waves, i.e., on a rolling basis.
One tipster tells us that approximately 11 out of 48 summers have received offers of full-time employment — thus far. The rest haven’t been rejected; rather, they’ve been placed on what amounts to a waitlist. Depending on how things unfold over the coming weeks and months, they might get offers — or they might not.
This “hiring in waves” approach is effectively what Dechert did. The firm made offers to about half of its summer class, but told the other half that they’d hear about offers in January 2010.
Comment from a source at the firm, after the jump.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 3:35 PM - By Above the Law
The 2009 billable year hasn’t even ended at most firms yet, but October has been full of announcements from Big Law firms across the country about major changes to associate compensation. Check out the ATL Career Center, powered by Lateral Link , for the latest information from the legal markets and updates from users about who is paying what when. In the last week, we have updated the firm snapshots for Schulte Roth & Zabel, Katten Muchin Rosenman, Morrison & Foerster, DLA Piper, Fenwick & West, Bingham McCutchen, Dorsey & Whitney, Foley & Lardner, and Nixon Peabody. Below are some recent nuggets of golden and not-so-golden news about compensation from the Career Center’s firm snapshots:
This firm announced that, in January 2010, it will move away from a lockstep compensation system to one that emphasizes merit-based factors as a more significant component of compensation decisions. The firm says the combination of base pay and discretionary and productivity bonuses will keep overall compensation at or above current levels, but associates worry they may see significantly less pay if they don’t achieve the necessary merit marks.
This firm has confirmed that it will be paying bonuses in early 2010, an announcement associates can only hope is the first of many. Although the firm anticipates the amounts will be less than previous years, bonuses are still predicted to range from $5,000 to $50,000.
This firm recently cut starting salaries to $145,000 in all of its offices (other than New York and Asia). The firm has indicated it will continue to monitor the situation and may re-adjust salaries (up or down) in light of legal market trends if necessary.
This firm is also taking the merit-based compensation route: although it plans to retain a lockstep scale for base salaries, the firm has announced that its practice group leaders will now have greater discretion in awarding year-end bonuses. Billable hours will continue to factor into bonus determinations, but so will qualitative and quantitative factors, such as financial productivity, profitability and teamwork.
Use the Career Center’s firm snapshots and comparison tool to find out what other bonus and salary changes firms across the country are making. And as always, we encourage you to send information about your law firm experience to careercenter@abovethelaw.com.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 2:54 PM - By Kashmir Hill
A high school principal in Indiana doesn’t want slutty-seeming students playing sports, reports Courthouse News Service.
Two sophomores attended a summer slumber party with other girls from Churubusco High School. They did what all high school girls do at slumber parties (at least in the imagination of high school boys). From their complaint [PDF]:
During the sleepover the girls took pictures of themselves pretending to kiss or lick a large multi-colored novelty lollipop shaped phallus that they had purchased as well as pictures of themselves in lingerie with dollar bills stuck in their clothes as well as other pictures.
Ed. note: See this comment. Should that read “phallus-shaped lollipop”?
The girls later posted these photos on MySpace. Someone among their MySpace “friends” printed the pics and gave them to the principal. The principal decided the girls had violated the school’s code of conduct and suspended them from all extracurricular activities, including athletics, for the entire school year.
The ACLU thinks the principal is a sucker, and has stepped in to help the girls sue their school.
Today brings the news that the firms are in “advanced talks to merge,” according to Nathan Koppel of the Wall Street Journal. But it’s not a done deal yet:
One of the biggest challenges to a Hogan/Lovells deal, lawyers say, will be marrying the firm’s contrasting styles. Hogan is considered relatively hard charging, paying partners based on how much business they bring in. Lovells take a more genteel approach, compensating partners based largely on their seniority.
UPDATE: Bruce MacEwen, who thinks that “this deal makes superb sense,” has a detailed analysis over at Adam Smith, Esq. (gavel bang: commenter).
A memo from Hogan head Warren Gorrell, plus selected comments from our prior post — we read the comments, so you don’t have to! — after the jump.
Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.
This column is a continuation from last week’s, which you should read first if you haven’t done so already.
Following my (somewhat graceless) entrance to the networking event, motion in the room stops for a moment. If, I imagine, this scene were taking place in a movie, it would be annotated by the sound of a needle being pulled violently across a record. A quick glance around the room confirms that the people in attendance are, for the most part, old enough to be able to identify this sound.
The facilitator (who, thanks to a large name tag, is clearly marked “Rhonda”) breaks the silence. “Oooh!” she exclaims, “Goody! You made it! We’re sooo glad you could come!” I feel a flicker of doubt. Networking is for people with a lexicon of excited utterances that includes words like “Oooh!” and “Goody!,” I think dubiously. Networking is for people who enjoy wearing nametags. Rhonda has probably embraced the networking incantation to “be proactive!” and sewn nametags onto her sweater sets and gym clothes. After all, she would probably point out, you never know when an opportunity to make connections will arise!
But, I realize, while I may not be a born networker, I am here, and my doubts are no match for Rhonda’s warmth. “Me too,” I finally say. “I’m happy to meet you all.”
Rhonda tells me that the group has just started the process of introducing themselves. She explains that she has asked everyone to make a 30-second “elevator speech” about who they are, and to come up with a story or anecdote about a “networking experience.” “Have a seat!” she says, and everyone shuffles awkwardly, as though to make room. It is clear that, if I sit with the group, I will be perched on someone’s lap. “I’ll sit at the kids’ table,” I say quickly, making a beeline for an empty table. Rhonda looks distressed; I can tell that she values herd cohesiveness. “I’m okay!” I assure her, and settle into my peripheral vantage point.
Before the elevator speeches can continue, a waiter appears and hovers expectantly, pad in hand. “Hey gang?” Rhonda says, trying to reclaim the group’s attention. “We should order before we go back to introducing ourselves.” There is more shuffling; reading glasses are fished out, and the group members study their oversized menus diligently. I scan its voluminous contents, remembering the cardinal rule of professional feeding etiquette: avoid dining humiliation. Fajitas? Too messy. Soup? Too drippy. Salad? Too bovine; too many opportunities to be caught, mid-sentence, with greenery hanging from one’s mouth. Chopped salad? Perfect! I order and sit back, listening to snatches of banter from the other table.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:17 PM - By David Lat
Ed. note: We mentioned it briefly in Morning Docket, but thought we’d say a bit more (and give folks a place to comment).
A number of large law firms — although, interestingly enough, not the Cravaths and S&Cs and Davis Polks of the world — are moving away from a lockstep system of associate compensation and promotion. See our collected coverage under Killing Lockstep.
The latest one to jump on the bandwagon: Reed Smith. From Ashby Jones of the WSJ Law Blog:
On Tuesday, Reed Smith announced yet another way to skin the cat. Starting early next year, the firm will go to a sort of hybrid lockstep/merit-based pay system for associates, called CareeRS (get it?). Associates will be categorized as junior, mid-level or senior depending not on how many years they’ve served, but on whether they’ve demonstrated certain “core compentencies.” That is, a particularly talented third-year associate might achieve the “mid-level” designation; a fifth-year on a slower pace might still be a “junior.”
According to the firm’s chairman, Greg Jordan, the move was a response, at least in part, to client demands. “The most painful conversation you can have with a client is to tell him that that all of a sudden, you’re charging more for an associate just because the associate has aged a year,” says Jordan. “Something needed to change. The recession made that clear.”
When the WSJ asked Jordan if the majority of associates would progress normally — getting bumped up to midlevel associate after three or so years, and to senior associate after six or so years — he was a bit vague:
“That may be what ends up being the typical pattern. But we really don’t expect that everyone will take this path. Some will advance quickly, others will need time.”
Hmm…. Should this be cause for concern among associates? How many will, like not-so-smart grade schoolers, get “left back” each year?
The New York City marathon happens this Sunday. We know many lawyers who will be running it, and we wish them luck.
The marathon did not impose a minimum age until 1981 (16, raised to 18 in 1988). Pegged to the upcoming marathon, the New York Times had a fascinating article earlier this week about child marathoners, focusing on Wesley Paul, Scott Black (pictured), and Howie Breinan:
With no conclusive study, physicians still debate risks to children who compete in marathons, like muscular-skeletal injuries, stunted growth, burnout, parental pressures and the ability to handle heat stress.
Another risk: going on to become a securities lawyer. Two out of the three child marathoners profiled by the Times now practice in that field.
Scott Black is a senior trial lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission in New York (after several years at Wachtell Lipton, where he worked with Lat on a number of cases). Wesley Paul is a partner at Michelman & Robinson, where he practices corporate and securities law.
We touched base with Black and Paul to ask about possible connections between their running and legal careers. Read more, after the jump.
If you’ll be in Atlanta this coming Monday, November 2, please check out the following event:
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LAWYERS
Monday, November 2, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
State Bar of Georgia
104 Marietta Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30303
Please join GAWL and its distinguished panel presenters for a lively and informative session on Social Media for Lawyers. We will explore how legal blogs and web resources have become a vital source of law firm information for attorneys, and how firms and attorneys can use these resources to shape their image in the legal community - both from a career development standpoint and to enhance business development efforts. Our presenters and moderator are: Mike Allen, President of Lateral Link; Elie Mystal, Editor of Above the Law; Jenny DeVaughn, Social Media Specialist and Founder of Social Precision; and Jackie Hutter, Intellectual Property Strategist and Founder and Principal of The Hutter Group. A special thanks goes out to Jordan Abshire of Lateral Link for his help in coordinating this program.
You can register online at www.gawl.org. Hope you can make it!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 10:06 AM - By Elie Mystal
Chris Rock said that the primary job of a father was to keep his daughter off of the stripper pole. The father of ReAnna M. Hedrick must be very sad today. Not only did his daughter stray onto the pole, she managed to injure herself while dancing. The Arizona Republic reports:
An ill-fated stint as an amateur pole dancer left a woman bleeding at an East Mesa sports bar and the owners of a Famous Sam’s facing a lawsuit.
While attending a “Ladies Night” on Sept. 3, 2008, ReAnna M. Hedrick of Mesa watched other women take a spin around a dance pole that had been installed for the event and decided to give it a whirl.
The last thing Hedrick, 28, expected was that the pole would collapse, causing her to crash to the floor, according to a lawsuit filed on Oct. 16 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
One would think that Hedrick would be so ashamed that she wouldn’t want to memorialize her erotic failure in a lawsuit. But she hurt her finger, and now she needs money from the club. Boy, I hope she didn’t break a nail.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:15 AM - By David Lat
* Reed Smith becomes the latest law firm to announce a move away from lockstep in favor of a “core competencies” model. [WSJ Law Blog]
* The Ninth Circuit grants the Obama Administration’s request for rehearing en banc of a case about the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. [How Appealing]
* A former Dorsey & Whitney partner, accused of illegally providing inside information about deals he was working on to a law school classmate, takes his own life. [Bloomberg via ABA Journal]
* Both sides gear up for the upcoming vote on Maine’s same-sex marriage law. [New York Times]
* Another $31 million in fees will be headed in the direction of Chrysler bankruptcy lawyers (primarily Jones Day). [Am Law Daily]
* This is why you hire Bob Barnett: Sarah Palin received $1.25 million for her eagerly anticipated new memoir, Going Rogue, even before leaving office. [AP]
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:52 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Last week, we posted a highly unusual motion from Arizona. Attorney Tajudeen “Taj” Oladiran filed a “Motion for a [sic] Honest and Honorable Court System” in his racketeering case against Suntrust Bank before the “dishonorable” Susan Bolton.
Taj was extremely disappointed in a ruling by Judge Bolton, calling her “a brainless coward.” He ended the motion with the following:
[M]any good lawyers in town told me the bank’s executives would never be deposed, and that the case would go nowhere. I stupidly stuck to the notion that everyone is equal under the law etc. Boy was I wrong…
My thanks go out to Larry Folks and Kathleen Weber [Ed. Note: opposing counsel] who both warned me that I would lose (I should have listened to them).
I apologize to all my clients. I know, I’m sorry does not repair the mess I made but, that’s all I’ve got.
To my family, words can’t express my apologies; please remember me kindly.
Finally, to Susan Bolton, we shall meet again you know where. :-)
Some readers of last week’s post worried that was a suicidal sign-off.
We got worried too when Taj failed to respond to our emails and phone calls of the past few days. Today, we sent him a Facebook message. When our phone rang with a strange number this afternoon, and the voice on the other end had a Nigerian accent, we were relieved.
Taj lives! He sent us a lengthy missive. Here’s an excerpt:
I hope my explanation will stop the jealous haters that sent me nasty comments from holding their breaths in anticipation of news that I’ve committed suicide. Sorry, no such plans. The Whistleblower Pleading is not about a suicidal lawyer, it is about how an out-of-state bank that made bad mortgage loans in Arizona was able to obtain a horribly biased ruling in its favor. An occurrence that I thought was impossible in the federal district court. .
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:40 PM - By Elie Mystal
Last week, we mentioned the disturbing employment statistics for the University of Colorado Law School. Colorado Law Week had reported that only 35% of the school’s students were employed upon graduation.
Apparently the publication got it wrong. After doing some digging, a Colorado Law professor explained how the mistake was made:
The news story got the stat backwards: as of May 2009 graduation, we had 35% unemployed, not 35% employed. Of course, even 35% unemployed is unfortunate, and much worse than CU law’s ordinarily strong employment figures: in the prior two years (i.e., pre-recession), we had just 11-17% unemployed upon graduation, and that figure dropped to only 3-6% unemployed 9 months after graduation, a stat that had made us proud. I don’t know other schools’ figures, but it’s very unfortunate the newspaper decided to single out CU based on an incorrect stat.
Well, that’s a big difference. Colorado’s accurate “employed upon graduation” statistic probably brings it in line with quite a number of state law schools.
The numbers are still far from ideal, and prospective law students should take note (and consider learning a marketable skill like plumbing). But at least students heading for the Rockies don’t have to be disproportionately concerned about their career prospects.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:09 PM - By Elie Mystal
* Is it legal to kick out Redskins fans at the Redskins game for voicing their considerable displeasure with the Redskins? I guess it depends on if the fans have hired Quinn Emanuel. [D.C. Sports Blog]
* Even though the GAO tied the high cost of law school to competition in the U.S. News rankings, there is still more than enough blame to go around. [Ideoblog]
* Scientologists should have expected the Spanish Inquisition. [WSJ Law Blog]
* An obituary for one person who actually sought justice. [Simple Justice]
* Jeff Sesssions, ranking member fn the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other legal luminaries will be speaking in D.C. tomorrow about how to reform our profession. [Legal Reform Summit]
* If you are a fan of ESPN’s Bill Simmons (a.k.a. The Sports Guy), you’ll note that I steal from him he inspires me. I’ll be at Professor Thom’s tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. for the Bill Simmons book signing. If you’d like to meet him (or me! or the Fashionista editors!) please stop by. [Bill Simmons Book Tour]
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:42 PM - By Elie Mystal
Here’s a quick update on the “celebrity justice” beat. There has been a rash of break-ins in Los Angeles, targeting the homes of various stars. Is there a vigilante group of Robin Hoods lashing out at ostentatious displays of wealth during the recession? Not quite. Our sister site Fashionista reports:
While this is not surprising in itself, given that there would likely be some very nice goods found in any of the above, what is surprising is the news of who allegedly committed the crimes and why—a band of teenage girls obsessed with clothing and jewelry.
The older I get, the more I wish we could send all teenagers through some kind of Spartan-style education in discipline and respect before they are released back into the wild.
Although we focus on Biglaw in these pages, our recent open threads on small (or at least smaller) law firms, centered around different areas of practice, have been very well-received. So we’ll continue the series. To look at the past threads, click here and scroll down; to suggest a topic to us, please email us (subject line: “Small Law suggestion”).
Today we turn our attention to APPELLATE LAW. This field is near and dear to our heart, since we clerked for a federal appellate judge and focused on appeals during our time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. If you enjoy research, writing and arguing more than document review and discovery hell, and if you are as lazy as we are more of a “law” person than a “facts” person, then appellate work may be for you.
Unfortunately, there aren’t that many appellate boutiques out there. It’s not easy to build a practice around 100 percent appeals work. Many top appellate practitioners can be found in the Washington offices of large firms, where they can be roped into law-heavy work in the trial courts (e.g., summary judgment motions). Biglaw shops with leading appellate and Supreme Court practices include Gibson Dunn, Mayer Brown, Jones Day, Sidley Austin, and WilmerHale. Check out the Chambers and Partners list of top appellate shops for additional examples.
UPDATE: One appellate practitioner pointed out to us that you can do appellate work for a large firm outside D.C. as well (especially in this age of telecommuting). For example, Jones Day and Mayer Brown have sizable presences in New York (and other cities).
There are opportunities to do appellate work outside the big firm environment too. Read more, after the jump.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:34 PM - By Elie Mystal
The dispute between Tremayne Durham and Rob Chambers started so innocently. Durham wanted to sell ice cream. Chambers makes ice cream trucks. Durham asked Chambers to make him an ice cream truck. Yay. Who wants a Bomb Pop?
But Durham changed his mind. He asked Chambers to refund him the $18,000 he paid to Chambers for the truck. Chambers demurred. Now Durham is suing Chambers for the money.
But suing Chambers wasn’t Durham’s first effort to recover his losses.
No, Durham’s first plan to get the $18,000 back involved kidnapping Chambers and his friend Adam Calbreath, holding Chambers hostage, and shooting Calbreath to death.
The lawsuit represents “Plan B.” KATU in Portland reports:
Durham still wants his money back, all $18,000 - even after he confessed to murdering Adam Calbreath. Calbreath was someone Chambers considered as a loyal friend. …
Durham is serving 30 years for murdering Calbreath and taking Chambers hostage while shoving a gun in his stomach.
“He had said, ‘Look at what you made me do,’” Chambers recounts. “He said, ‘I’ve been robbing and killing people to get to you.’”
Can you imagine if this guy had actually gone through with his plan to sell frozen treats to children? How would he handle a kid who stiffed him a quarter? “Look what you made me do, I had to bury your mother alive while I was looking for her purse.”
Back in May, Jeffrey Toobin wrote a rather harsh appraisal of Chief Justice John Roberts. The title of Toobin’s New Yorker piece: No More Mr. Nice Guy.
Based on a recent celebrity sighting of Chief Justice Roberts, however, JGR still seems like a pretty nice guy. The sighting took place here in New York, and it was, interestingly enough, made by a fellow celebrity: Gay Talese, the critically acclaimed, bestselling author.
Visit the NYT’s City Room blog (via WSJ Law Blog) to read about Talese’s encounter with JGR, then come back.
Okay, are you back? Wasn’t that an awesome story? Doesn’t Chief Justice Roberts sound like a prince of a man?
Random medical commentary from a reader, after the jump.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:34 PM - By Elie Mystal
The Government Accountability Office has released a new report on the rising cost of legal education. Who is to blame? Not the ABA. Not university presidents using their law schools as cash cows.
According to the GAO, the U.S. News law school rankings put law school deans in a “resource intensive” competition to rise up the U.S. News list. The two key slides from the 44-page GAO report (PDF) are below:
The GAO makes a provocative argument. Let’s discuss it after the jump.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:11 AM - By Kashmir Hill
Stephen Snyder is a Maryland trial attorney who has been called “one of the nation’s top litigators.” When you surf into Snyder’s website (www.snyderwins.com), it contains a warning:
Please note: This website may, at first blush, strike you as a bit over-the-top. But it’s not designed to give you pause, or scare you away. It’s simply a reflection of Stephen L. Snyder, the man. His unique personality, creative imagination, and willingness to take risks, has resulted in multiple $100 million-plus recoveries for his clients.
If creating an animated movie featuring yourself as a legal superhero might be considered “a bit over-the-top,” then yes, “Snyderman” is guilty as charged.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 9:59 AM - By Elie Mystal
We know there is a gender gap in Biglaw partnerships. But according to a new survey from the National Association of Women Lawyers, there is also a business generation gap between female and male partners. The Legal Intelligencer reports:
Whether this new statistic, measured in the latest survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers, can be seen as the fault of the firm or the fault of women lawyers themselves is a question the survey didn’t answer….
According to the survey results 46 percent of large law firms have no women at all among their top 10 rainmakers. Almost another third, or 32 percent, have only one woman on that list. About 15 percent of large firms have two women among their top rainmakers and 6 percent have three or four in the top 10. About 72 percent of large firms have no women at all among the top five rainmakers in the firm, the survey results showed.
“The results are astounding, even to those of us familiar with the dynamics of legal business development,” NAWL said in its report on the survey.
The raw data doesn’t provide a concrete reason for this gap. But there are a lot of theories.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 9:07 AM - By Kashmir Hill
* Thelen refugees claim that the firms that hired the firm’s ex-partners — Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; DLA Piper; Nixon Peabody; Howrey; and Morgan Lewis & Bockius — owe them $18 million under the WARN Act. [Recorder]
* Galleon Group rascal Raj Rajaratnam dumps Gibson Dunn’s James Walden for Akin Gump’s John Dowd. [Bloomberg]
* … Dowd won’t have long to prepare. Judge Jed Rakoff wants to see Rajaratnam go to trial in 5 months. [Wall Street Journal]
* You never know when your Halloween costume will come back to haunt you. [Siouxsie Law]
* Anti-blasphemy laws make Jesus cry. [Overlawyered]
* Hey, we’re in the middle of a recession. If you really want to avoid legal pitfalls, hire a lawyer. Please. [Double XX]
* Note to traffic cops: driving while not being able to speak English is not a crime. Not even in Texas. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Oh criminal conspiracy laws that mock common sense with reckless joy. Long may they reign. [Legally Unbound]
* I think I’m at the point where if I called the cops myself I wouldn’t say anything to them once they arrived. I would just hope that they figured out for themselves the nature of the crime I called them to prevent/investigate. [Underdog]
* A tangled web links the SDNY U.S. Attorney’s office with the bottom of a pool in Florida. [Main Justice]
* If Gawker was written by Percy Fitzwallace I believe they would have responded to Joanne Lipman with this line: “I’ve got some real, honest-to-God battles to fight, Leo. I don’t have time for the cosmetic ones.” [Gawker via Law and More]
Remember Judge Herman Thomas? He’s the former Alabama state court judge who was accused of spanking male prisoners, trading favorable treatment for sexual favors, and improperly interfering on behalf of a cousin in legal trouble.
Judge Thomas challenged the charges at trial, and this afternoon the jury returned its verdict. From the Mobile Press-Register:
Herman Thomas has been found not guilty on charges of sex abuse, sodomy and assault. The jury initially returned seven not guilty verdicts on five sex abuse charges, one sodomy charge and one assault charge and reported they were deadlocked on the remaining counts. Judge Claud Neilson dismissed those deadlocked charges against the former Mobile County Circuit Court judge.
The competition between NYU Law and Columbia Law is always fierce — even when it is a race to the penny-pinching bottom. Two weeks ago, we told you that Columbia is now charging students for plastic forks (though chopsticks remain free).
Not to be outdone, a disgruntled NYU Law tipster reports:
So I’m in my last year at NYU Law and just had a fairly shocking experience…. I went to the lounge to get a cup for water from the water fountain. I grabbed a cup and walked away, and the cashier yelled at me. I thought she thought I was stealing a cup of coffee, so I told her I just wanted water. She said “that’s 25 cents.” I said “no, I just want water.” She said “I know,that’ll be 25 cents. We have to pay for those cups.” The worst part? It was a cup from Starbucks with the “we proudly serve Starbucks coffee” logo on the side.
Indignation from our tipster, plus a clarification about Columbia cutlery, after the jump.
Plenty of law schools talk about producing attorneys who are able to serve their community. But a new program at the University of Miami School of Law actually puts a little bit of money behind the commitment to public service.
Time magazine featured the school’s new Foreclosure Defense Fellowship this weekend (gavel bang: ABA Journal). The article highlights Miami’s attempts to get recent graduates into the business of serving one of the constituencies that actually needs more attorneys.
Unlike similar legal fields such as bankruptcy, foreclosure is rarely a full-time practice and is often handled by real estate attorneys or legal aid services agencies. Still, more than 3 million property foreclosures were filed in the U.S. last year; South Florida is expected to see more than 150,000 this year compared to fewer than 25,000 three years ago. And while mortgage modifications had been on the upswing in recent months, the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center reported this week that many large banks and other mortgage servicers have decided it’s cheaper to foreclose than to offer more affordable loan terms. Making matters even worse, as many as 86% of foreclosure victims in hard-hit areas didn’t have legal counsel last year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, which released a report earlier this month.
Miami Law has given eight recent graduates a $10,000 fellowship to do this important work. Obviously, $10K isn’t enough to live on. But instead of raising tuition and bemoaning the lack of public interest lawyers, Miami’s fellowship program is giving its graduates a little bit of help in their efforts to give back to the community.
Above the Law corresponded with Miami law professor Michael Froomkin, who founded the program. More details about it, after the jump.
Despite their ideological differences, Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg bond over their shared love for the opera. Both judicial luminaries attended Saturday’s opening night performance of Ariadne auf Naxos, at the Washington National Opera. If you’re into Article III celebrity sightings, the D.C. opera house is where it’s at.
Not only did the justices attend the opera; they also participated. An eyewitness evaluation of their performances, plus a photo of Justice Scalia with a sexy soprano in his lap, after the jump.
Monday, October 26, 2009 1:16 PM - By Kashmir Hill
An ATL reader sent us this photo from the University of Buffalo, writing:
What my barbri tuition got me for my mpre review class. This tv is for approximately 60 people.
The budgets are tight at law schools these days, but it seems like they could at least spring for a projector or a proper desk. Our tipster reports that they did have someone on hand to press play.
Monday, October 26, 2009 12:12 PM - By Elie Mystal
The general public really doesn’t understand what top-flight counsel does for their corporate clients. If they did, the pitchforks and torches crowd would be as angry at Wall Street lawyers as they are at Wall Street bankers.
Friday’s “revelation” about the advice given to Bank of America by Wachtell Lipton illustrates the point. Am Law Daily reports:
Amid the piles and piles of formerly privileged documents related to the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger, there are a few notes and e-mails from mid-December 2008 showing that BofA’s lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were saying very different things to their client and to federal regulators.
What dastardly double talk did Wachtell Lipton allegedly engage in? Corporate Counsel reports:
The e-mails show that early on the morning of December 19 [Wachtell litigation partner Eric Roth] advised the bank’s chief executive, Ken Lewis, and its interim general counsel, Brian Moynihan, on how difficult and financially risky it would be to try to invoke a so-called MAC — or material adverse change — clause, which would allow the bank to get out of the merger with Merrill.
But another e-mail from associate general counsel Teresa Brenner to Moynihan, sent several hours later and on the same day as Roth’s e-mail, says, “Eric made a very strong case as to why there was a MAC” during a conference call with some officials from the Federal Reserve.
Whenever the bonuses are announced, most people we are talking to agree that the overall numbers will be somewhat down from last year. A common thought is that top law firms will adopt the same basic bonus package as last year, but drop the “special” bonus compensation. This will cost associates between $10K and $50K depending on your year.
A mere three weeks after we wrote that, Skadden announced its bonuses, and our speculation proved to be prescient. For Skadden associates, the 2008 bonus was essentially the 2007 bonus minus the “special bonus.”
Of course, not everybody followed the Skadden plan. Cravath announced its bonus the next day, and it was half of what Skadden offered. Most other top law firms ended up following Cravath, and the market was set.
Last year firms were preparing for one of the worst legal economies that anyone can remember. What can we expect this year?
Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
We took the week off last week, but you didn’t miss much. In fact, we had another run of almost two weeks without a layoff, before WilmerHale laid off 57 staff. But we’ll get back to the layoffs after our regular sojourn through the broader American economy.
If you’re a regular reader of this column, this should sound familiar: initial jobless claims were worse than expected. 49 states and territories reported increased unemployment, with four seeing improvement. To the extent you believe this is a recovery (and even if you do, whether you believe this is sustainable is another question entirely), it appears to be jobless at best, and job-losing more likely.
Companies are salvaging net income numbers almost entirely on the expense side, and the stimulus has done nothing to create job and nothing demonstrable to save jobs. Just ask the Republicans, who point out that President Obama claimed his stimulus would create 3.5 million jobs, when the actual result has been a loss of 2.7 million - a 6.2 million-job deficit.
Part of the frustration, of course, is the long-running treatment of disillusioned jobseekers and people whose benefits have run out as not being counted as unemployed. When minor improvements in unemployment numbers were being hyped a few months ago, it now appears that was almost entirely the result of people falling off the rolls, not actually finding gainful employment. Maddeningly, that means 7,000 people a day are no longer counted as unemployed.
As usual, law firms continue to muddle through. Their efforts, after the jump.
Monday, October 26, 2009 9:23 AM - By Kashmir Hill
* Has Justice Sotomayor put Clarence Thomas over the edge? While speaking at the University of Alabama, Justice Thomas said he wishes that the other justices would STFU during oral arguments. He also complained that there are too many Ivy Leaguers on the SCOTUS bench. [Associated Press]
* One of the beneficiaries at the top of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was found on the bottom of a pool Sunday. [New York Times]
* Who has the rights to the treasures of the Titanic? [Associated Press]
* Proposition 8 proponents have to turn over their campaign strategy documents. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* An anarchist social worker believes his constitutional rights were violated during the G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh. Police raided his home for breaking an anti-riot law via Twitter. [Wired]
[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 two years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]
Evan here, writing from Hong Kong. The past week has been very busy, thus it has taken a couple of weeks to put up another post.
The number of US associate openings continues to increase in Asia, especially in Hong Kong and Greater China, and especially in now-busy capital markets groups. Two particularly special and urgent openings are for M&A 4th to 7th year associates for Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Shanghai opening, a private equity-focused position, does not require Mandarin fluency, but the Hong Kong opening, a more general M&A spot, does. I consider these openings very special opportunities for a number of reasons, including firm, supervising partner, and the realistic partnership track available in both of them. I am not going to go into great detail here, but suffice to say that I believe these are A+ positions and arguably among the best private equity/M&A spots in all of Asia. They are both extremely selective openings, will be filled soon, and the new hires will likely come from a top 10 US firm, most likely from NYC. We know both supervising partners very well and of course we are happy to fill you in on the details. I am cutting this Asia trip shorter than planned for some business in NYC next week, so can also meet in person with qualified and interested persons.
Last week, we made another placement of a US associate in Hong Kong (continuing a nice placement run of the last few months in Hong Kong and Greater China) and moved very close to placements (offers in hand) of a US partner, a US counsel and two more US associates in Hong Kong. Those successes were all expected, as they have been in the works for some time.
Robert and I spent most of last week together in Hong Kong meeting with partner-level candidates and clients. Many of these meetings were set up by our US and Asia-based recruiting back office. This week the focus is more on associate and firm client meetings, something our HK based recruiter, Alexis Lamb, does on a weekly basis here. It is truly a team effort of our Asia group that allows us to have the privilege of representing so many very impressive senior attorneys, and remarkable people, in Asia. The meetings happen from three sources: a) already established personal relationships (past career consulting or recruiting for partner’s firm); b) referrals; and c) our impressive back office team of recruiters based in the US and Asia.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 3:56 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Ed. note: We gave this a shout-out last week in non-sequiturs (second item), but it’s egregious enough to merit more discussion.
Biglaw attorneys frequently complain about how hard it is to date given the amount of hours they devote to work. Attorneys at a small immigration firm in Chicago may have encountered a similar dilemma.
Perhaps inspired by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s cinematic portrayal of a sex-enjoying legal secretary, Samir Zia Chowhan of Chowhan Law allegedly advertised on Craigslist, in the “Adult Gigs” section, for a secretary with benefits. From Legal Profession Blog:
Loop law firm looking to hire am [sic] energetic woman for their open secretary/legal assistant position. Duties will include general secretarial work, some paralegal work and additional duties for two lawyers in the firm. No experience required, training will be provided. Generous annual salary and benefits will be provided, including medical, dental, life, disability, 401(k) etc. If interested, please send current resume and a few pictures along with a description of your physical features, including measurements. We look forward to meeting you.
Many of you will recall that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan waged a war against Craigslist’s “Erotic Services” section earlier this year, claiming that there was rampant prostitution there. By her doing, the section was taken down and replaced by this “Adult Gigs” section, which is supposedly more closely monitored for illegal activity. But in our surfing of the section, we saw quite a few ads like Chowhan’s, including ones like this: “I’m seeking a young lady who would like to have some fun with me, possibly on a regular basis, in exchange for some help with bills or whatever.”
At least Chowhan was a little more discreet in his May 2009 ad. But when one woman responded, he made it clear why he had listed the job in the Adult Gigs section.
Yesterday, UC Hastings College of Law told its students about next year’s prospective tuition. Due to the graphic nature of the content below, viewer discretion is advised. Please remember that Hastings is a public law school:
Let’s put those horrifying figures in appropriate context, Stanford Law School’s tuition for this academic year is $42,420. Stanford of course could go as high as Hastings in 2010 - 2011. But at least right now it looks like students will pay more to go law school at Hastings than at Stanford.
* Does R.E.M. have a copyright infringement claim against the government if their music was used to torture Guantanamo detainees? What if R.E.M. was simply used to give the interrogators a blueprint on how to torture somebody? That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* Gibson Dunn is joining Pepin Tuma to battle police abuse of disorderly conduct laws. I’d make a joke about cops now, but I’m in the privacy of my own home and I don’t want to tempt any officers to come in here and arrest me. [Huffington Post]
* Parents in Las Vegas don’t want their children to perform a version of Rent as a school play. You live in Las Vegas and you’re worried about what a Bohemian musical is going to do to your kids? That’s like living in Mississippi and wondering if Jackass: The Movie is going to make your kids dumb. [Legally Unbound]
* You know what, screw first time home buyers. What about longtime home renters? Where’s our tax credit? [Blackbook Legal]
* It’s been a good day for jokes about male reproductive organs. [Courtoons]
* Kanye West managed to keep his mouth shut long enough to have his vandalism charge dismissed. [Popsquire]
As many of you know, public interest organizations around the country benefited from the recession’s effects on Biglaw. There are many talented graduates of top law schools working in public interest — and being paid by the firms who have no work for them.
It’s a pretty sweet deal for cash-strapped public interest organizations. Some of them don’t want the good times to end. The ABA Journal reports:
Some lawyers are suggesting that sending new lawyers into the field is such a good idea that it shouldn’t be dropped when the recession ends. One of them is Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The programs were “a creative response by the firms to what was a very ugly crisis,” Arnwine told AP. “My wish going forward is that what you can do in bad times you can do in good times.”
My wish going forward is that the sea people come and “take me away from this crappy goddamn planet full of hippies.” I think my wish will come true before Barbara Arnwine’s.
Don’t get me wrong, it would be awesome if there were some sort of training ground where new attorneys could learn some basic lawyering skills. If the training were really good, I bet young attorneys would even pay for the opportunity to be educated. Too bad we don’t have any kind of system of schools that can competently prepare people entering into the legal profession.
Friday, October 23, 2009 2:40 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Tajudeen Oladiran is an Arizona attorney who is currently of counsel at Aguilera International Counsel. A Biglaw refugee, he spent a year at Greenberg Traurig, as well as a year working for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Given those credentials, we were surprised that he would file one of the craziest motions we’ve come across here at Above The Law.
From the U.S. District Court of Arizona:
It is a motion in a case that Tajudeen Oladiran and his wife filed against Suntrust Bank for racketeering. We gather from the motion that Oladiran was not pleased with the ruling by “the Dishonorable Susan R. Bolton” (as she’s identified in the caption). Oladiran wrote: “I just read your Order and I am very disappointed in the fact that a brainless coward like you is a federal judge.”
A lesson on how not to address the court, after the jump.
The Great Recession has been tough for many different types of firms — and that even includes intellectual property firms. During the past year, IP-focused shops have cut back on hiring, slashed salaries, and lost key partners to larger firms.
A few recent developments at Finnegan Henderson, the D.C.-based IP powerhouse, reflect the new realities. Multiple sources report the following:
1. Earlier this week, at an “all associates” meeting, the firm announced that it is freezing associate salaries.
2. At the same meeting, the firm announced that it is reducing first-year associate salaries from $160,000 to $145,000 (in all offices).
UPDATE: We understand that Finnegan has frozen support staff salaries as well.
Two additional items about Finnegan, after the jump.
Friday, October 23, 2009 12:32 PM - By Elie Mystal
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Albert Freed (pictured) won a trip to Hawaii (not pictured). As part of the vacation celebration, Mrs. Freed bought her husband some new Hanes brand briefs. But Mr. Freed is a husky gentleman, and apparently the new trunks couldn’t contain all of his junk. He sued Hanes, claiming they made “defective” underwear.
Let me turn it over to Escambia County (FL) Judge Pat Kinsey:
A question for the guys out there: How long would it take you to correct a problem involving sandpaper and your penis? Don’t you think penis chafing is something that requires immediate attention and decisive action?
And while we’re here, how long does it take for you to notice your stuff hanging out where it is not supposed to be?
Friday, October 23, 2009 11:34 AM - By Elie Mystal
There have been a number of firms that have cut associate salaries. But there have not been many firms that have needed to slash salaries twice this year. Allen Matkins associates appears to be in their own personal corner of sadness.
A tipster reports:
For the second time this year, Allen Matkins has laid off lawyers and cut salaries for those who still have a job. 2 lawyers were laid off in Los Angeles. I am not sure how many in other offices, but I know there were more. Salary cuts were also part of the package. Associates untouched by the last round of salary cuts were not so lucky this time. Cuts ranged between 15% and 30%. … This cut occurred Thursday October 15. Cuts are effective November 1, 2009. Nice holiday gift isn’t it.
Allen Matkins has not responded to our multiple requests for comment. In terms of layoffs, other tipsters have reported a few involuntary attorney departures. 2nd year associates seem to be the hardest hit.
Multiple tipsters are also reporting the salary cut news.
Following along with all of the Allen Matkins cuts is a little bit confusing; let me walk you through it after the jump.
Friday, October 23, 2009 11:05 AM - By Above the Law
The last couple Jobs of the Week have featured positions with AmLaw 100 firms on the East Coast and West Coast. We feel that we may be neglecting those of you in the middle of country, and since the hiring freeze is starting to lift at some companies, we decided to offer up an in-house position in Ohio for the Job of the Week, which is brought to you by Lateral Link.
Title: Corporate Counsel
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Description: Bank holding company with more than 1,200 branches in the Midwest and Southeast is seeking several attorneys with corporate experience to join their in-house team. Attorneys with experience in one of the following areas will be considered - general corporate (2-6 years), commercial creditors’ rights (5-15 years), bank regulation (4-8 years) and consumer regulatory (2-6 years). Candidates should have significant experience with a law firm or corporation in the relevant areas of expertise. Ability to interface successfully with senior management. Knowledge of the areas of expertise including technical knowledge. Good issue spotting, risk assessment, and problem solving skills.
Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.
On an unseasonably chilly autumn day, Lat and I are sitting in his office, commiserating about the cold. “I’m freezing,” I say, rubbing my hands over the steam rising from the coffee fountain. “Shouldn’t we be enjoying Native American summer right now?”
“Yeah,” Lat responds absently, his eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of him. I wait for a proper response, but he seems absorbed in the task before him. After a few minutes, I get up and stand behind him, peering nosily over his shoulder.
He is downloading a virtual fireplace to his desktop. After a few minutes of virtual tending, it begins to crackle gaily. “Ah,” he says, relaxing visibly. “There’s nothing like a nice fire on a cold fall day … and virtual fires are much eco-friendlier than their wood-burning facsimiles!” He leans back in his chair and arranges his feet on his desk. “Did I mention that I’m watching my carbon footprint?”
“I did notice that your carbon footprint was looking particularly svelte,” I tell him. I stare out at the window, where the trees are being battered by a cold wind. A wave of melancholy, sudden and bracing, washes over me. “The weather has gone as cold as the scent for job leads,” I say glumly.
Lat strokes his chin thoughtfully for a moment, and then begins to dig through a stack of papers on his desk. It teeters dangerously and then cascades onto the floor. “Sorry,” he mumbles. “Paper avalanche.” After a moment, he extracts a creased copy of the New York Times, which he brandishes triumphantly.
“I was just reading about these job clubs, where people ‘meet to mingle, resumes in tow,’” he says. “And I was thinking: maybe you should try going to one. It could be an excellent networking opportunity!”
Another swell of melancholy builds, gathers into a frothy whitecap, and crashes around me. “That’s what you said about that speed-dating event we went to last year,” I say, trying not to sound peevish, “and that was a total waste of time, in six-minute increments. Besides, I just … I hate those things,” I tell him. “They feel so … forced.”
Lat responds with stony silence, then leans over and minimizes the fireplace. “Get going, sister,” he says sternly. “Find a networking event, and then you can come back and tell me all about it. Until then, no merrily crackling fire for you!”
I sulk for a few minutes, and then relent. In truth, my job search has stalled, and nothing I have done lately in an attempt to jump-start it seems to work. Why not? I figure, trying to muster optimism. At this point, I have nothing to lose.
* The U.S. formally demands Roman Polanski’s extradition. [New York Times]
* Hate crimes legislation awaits Obama’s loving signature. [CNN]
* I thought discriminating against Wiccan was part of the traditional Halloween celebration. I guess I’ll actually have to give these costumed marauders some kind of treat this year. [Courthouse News Service]
* The malpractice suit against Davis Wright & Tremaine was settled for $30 million. [ABA Journal]
* Ropes & Gray is expanding into London. Cheers. [Am Law Daily]
* Senator Orrin Hatch wants the Obama administration to look into the Bowl Championship Series. Doesn’t he know that the Southeastern Conference is much more powerful than the U.S. Senate? [WSJ Law Blog]
* Nevada Bar results went up last night. Congratulations to those who passed. Who are you? I really want to know. [State Bar of Nevada]
Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:14 PM - By Elie Mystal
The decisions Latham & Watkins has made regarding its associates have been well documented in these pages. Because of the firm’s associate layoffs, some people forget that Latham & Watkins was one of the first firms to freeze associate salaries. Latham froze salaries way back in December of 2008.
It would be somewhat fitting if Latham became one of the first firms to unfreeze associate salaries.
For now, the firm isn’t saying anything. Latham spokespeople did not respond to our multiple requests for comment.
But multiple sources inside Latham are preparing for a thaw. And, if true, Latham could go a long way towards answering one of the most important questions we have about making associate pay raises come back again.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 5:30 PM - By Above the Law
* Iowa Supreme Court is asking for 50 hours of pro bono work from the state’s attorneys. I wonder if the Court would consider asking Iowa state law schools to forgo a semester of law school tuition? [Gazette Online]
Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:37 PM - By Elie Mystal
I know that I am not alone in having a fear of robots. Trust me now or believe me later, but when we are all slaves to the terminators we create, I’ll be the old guy hiding out on a secluded farm future heroes will seek out.
Given my (some would call it “irrational”) wisdom, I am all for using the courts to prevent the future subjugation of the human race. So I’m pretty happy with this lawsuit I read about on Mass Lawyers Weekly. Here is the full complaint:
Statement of the Issues Presented
The main issue presented. We as people have a serious issue in the Commonwealth and United States. Involved with crimes of spray chemicals dust and using powerful chemicals liquid form or chemical gases. To seriously inure citizen of America. Plus most serious crime America has ever had to face. Use of Mini Robots and other acts with robots. To climb in American Bodies and Poison, Operate on there property “THEIR BODY”. Or to use these robots to climb in tree or in vent of our public building to spray chemicals on Americans to seriously injure Americans.
Oh, you don’t think this kind of thing happens? Open your eyes! Robots are venting on you right now!
The appellant, pro se litigant Jay Mellen, is suing the former Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly. But it’s a shame that Mellen is going this alone. I’m sure Sam Waterston would have been willing to take his case:
Employer: Vinson & Elkins LLP (New York, NY) [view profile]
Title: Litigation Associate
Description:
The NY Office of Vinson & Elkins LLP is looking for a junior-level (Class of ‘07-‘08) litigation associate with 1-2 years of NY Law Firm experience to work in their Complex Commercial Litigation group. Applicants should be currently employed and seeking opportunities on their own volition. Must have outstanding academic credentials and be admitted to the NY Bar.
A couple of Above the Law readers felt that this listing specifically excluded recent Columbia and NYU graduates who have been laid off over the course of the recession.
Above the Law reached out to recruiting people at Vinson & Elkins. It turns out that this listing was simply an “in-artful” posting from V&E. Check out what the firm really means after the jump.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 2:42 PM - By Elie Mystal
CORRECTION: It appears that the jobless rate reported below is INCORRECT. Please click here for the correct information.
I really hope that students at the University of Colorado Law School have enjoyed their time in Boulder. I hear it is beautiful country out there. But it’s no country for old law students who want a job. The ABA Journal reports on the terrible employment situation for Colorado law students:
The numbers are bleak for the class of 2009 at the University of Colorado School of Law.
About 35 percent of the students had jobs at graduation, down from 55 percent the year before, Law Week Colorado reports.
On a totally related note, Law Week Colorado has this interesting statistic from the July 2009 Colorado bar exam:
In 2009, more people passed the July Colorado bar exam than in any other year this decade. But the boom in the number of new lawyers is happening during a bust in the job market.
Future Colorado law students, please take note. There are no jobs for you. Do not apply. I repeat, “The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it. The way is shut.”
For those already in the pipeline, is there any hope?
I am a T20 2L in the top half (but not top 1/3) of my class. Since I know I will not be able to secure a job practicing law to pay off my loans, and would prefer to avoid returning to bartending, I am considering entering business in another country, possibly South Africa. My question is: How good does an American JD look to growing businesses abroad?
JetSet
I seek to cure what’s deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I’ve become
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains!)
Dear JetSet,
The answer to your question depends on what type of “business” you want to pursue. I have it on good information that a contractor with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation made a numbered time (fixed) deposit in the total money amount of € 10 0,0 000,00.00 (TEN MILLION US DOLLARS) in an Account and on maturity all efforts by the American Embassy to contact his next of kin were Fruitless. They seek a foreigner to open an account to facilitate the transfer of money. I also know that Ms. Nonny Yuri, lonely widow from Ukraine, seeks Kind hearted sir for romance relationship and amenable arrangement. Your opportunities abroad appear endless.
I can’t speak intelligently about the “power” of a JD in Africa or elsewhere. The last place I went abroad was an island off the coast of Croatia and the people seemed more astounded by my alarming pallor than they were by my magnificent education and work experience. I also didn’t see very many businesses there, except for pizza restaurants and One Day Excursion tour operators, both of which are admittedly cash cows. But the world is much bigger than Croatia, and if you’re lucky enough to be in the top 1/3 of your law school class, then you’re pretty much guaranteed a job running a successful business abroad. The future is decidedly less bright for top 1/2 students, many of whom will eek out their lives in Thai prisons, carving dentures out of wood.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:43 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Yesterday, we reported on a meeting at Cardozo Law School between the law school administration, student leaders, and MTV producers regarding the possible filming of a reality TV show at the school. It would focus on the “true life” of New York law school students.
We polled our readers. Almost 60% of the 2,000 who voted said a reality TV show at Cardozo would be a bad idea.
The folks at Cardozo agree. Tipsters report that word spread on campus and that most students were strongly opposed. Today, the dean of the law school sent out an email telling students not to worry.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:10 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has a comically predictable pattern for his columns. He usually starts with a little anecdote from his humdrum life and then launches into a ground-shaking, earth-shattering revelation about global politics.
Sometimes we wonder if Friedman has created a custom Madlib for crafting his columns. This week, he opines on our poor education system being the reason for the Great Recession. In a spot in the column that called for a ‘noun for lawyers’, he decided to throw in “untouchables.”
No, he’s not talking about contract attorneys. See Friedman’s explanation for lawyer layoffs after the jump.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:38 AM - By Elie Mystal
We don’t have all of the details, but multiple sources report that WilmerHale is laying off 57 staffers today (secretaries and paralegals). We understand that the staff is being informed right now.
We don’t have information about what (if any) severance package is being offered to the departed staff. Our sources report that the layoffs will affect staff in Boston, D.C., and New York offices.
Spokespeople for WilmerHale did not respond to an immediate request comment. But we hope to have more information as people are informed of their job situation.
Good luck, WilmerHale friends.
UPDATE More from our tipsters, and a statement from the firm, after the jump.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:08 AM - By Elie Mystal
It’s partner promotion season in Biglaw. This year, Sullivan & Cromwell is making five new partners — and four of them are women. Am Law Daily reports:
Firm chairman H. Rodgin Cohen attributes the growth in female partner ranks to policies, such as flex-time and maternity leave, aimed at promoting and retaining greater numbers of women, the NYLJ’s Nate Raymond reports.
“I think hopefully as we have more and more women joining us it will be the new normal,” Cohen said. “We certainly for a long time have been trying to promote more women and more minorities.”
There is even more good news from this round of partner promotions. Three of the five new S&C partners are in corporate. Green shoots? That looks like a mighty bean stalk, Jack.
Female partners, corporate partners, this is all pretty good news for a Thursday.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:04 AM - By David Lat
If you were hoping for the AutoAdmit lawsuit to result in courtroom drama, with Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey breaking down in tears on the stand, then we’re sorry to disappoint you. The case has ended, somewhat anticlimactically.
Two former Yale University law school students have quietly settled a high-profile lawsuit they brought against about two dozen anonymous authors who the students said defamed and threatened them by posting malicious falsehoods on an Internet message board.
Perhaps plaintiff Brittan Heller felt ready to put down her sword, now that she’s happily married. But note that the dismissal is without prejudice (so check yo self, Pauliewalnuts).
What did the plaintiffs get out of filing their lawsuit?
Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:12 AM - By Kashmir Hill
* University of Texas students help to exonerate two men wrongfully convicted of capital murder. But why are the law students making undergrads do the heavy lifting? [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
* Back in August, the WSJ reported that rumors were swirling about the departure of Obama’s White House counsel Gregory Craig. The New York Times says the swirling continues. [New York Times]
* The Ted Stevens investigation claims a victim: William Welch II, head of the Justice Department’s public-integrity section, is stepping down. [Washington Post]
* Former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik will await his corruption trial in jail. [BBC News]
Devotees of “The Sopranos” will surely recall the character of Vito Spatafore, the closeted Mafia member who was killed after colleagues spotted him at a gay bar. As it turns out, the character has real-life counterparts.
A recent sentencing hearing in federal court prompted an exploration of homosexuality and organized crime, in the New York Times:
High among [the rules of the Mafia] — perhaps right at the top — is the ban on being gay.
So when Robert Mormando, a confessed Gambino family gunman, appeared on Monday for a hearing on his sentence for his role in the shooting of a Queens bagel store owner in 2003, he seemed to indicate that La Cosa Nostra’s laws may sometimes be honored less while being practiced than they are while being breached. Mr. Mormando, 44, not only confessed to acting as a government informer, but he also took the extra — and, it should be said, perilous — step of outing himself in court.
So what motivated Mormando’s revelation? An interest in trying out for Project Runway? A burning desire to overshare?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:00 PM - By Kashmir Hill
The drama of law is captured daily here at Above The Law, and has been serialized in various television shows (See ‘Law and Order,’ ‘Ally McBeal,’ and ‘The Practice’). Now a reality TV producer wants to get in on the magic. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Scott Sternberg Prods. is partnering with Weinberger Media to produce “Legal Ease,” featuring the New York law firm of Tacopina Seigel & Turano.
The daily reality show will revolve around lawyers giving advice to everyday people. Stories will be shot on location, and advice will be dished out in-studio by Joseph Tacopina, head of the firm, and a panel of legal eagles.
“Legal Ease” could attract a serious audience — it would have free legal advice after all. We imagine it as the legal version of the show, The Doctors, where four real-life doctors get together and talk medicine. That “medical dream team” is anchored by Dr. Hottie, Travis Stork, former star of The Bachelor.
Unfortunately, Joseph Tacopina is not as hot as Stork. To develop a loyal audience, we think the “Legal Ease” creators should consider recruiting a hot Biglaw reality TV star. They might benefit from a look at our archives. Might we suggest Bachelorette star Jeremy Anderson, Survivor star Charlie Herschel, or Amazing Race siblings Victor and Tammy Jih?
Meanwhile, a law school in New York is mulling a star turn on an MTV reality TV show. See which law school is under consideration after the jump, and find out why its law students are opposed to the idea.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 5:04 PM - By Elie Mystal
* Blackwater lawyers are asking for protection. [Politico]
* The police really need to stop going after people who are minding their own business in their own home. [wTop]
* I’m on a list with Jay-Z and Tyra Banks. That’s pretty cool, but I really want to hook up with Harvard economist Roland Fryer to carry the “Student Loan Bailout” message to the next level. [The Root 100]
* This guy’s obsessive running could be why he’s “of counsel” instead of a partner. [True/Slant]
* How much would you pay to stop plagiarism? How much do you think your professor would pay? [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Maybe Biglaw isn’t dying. It’s just in a malaise. [Ideoblog]
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:10 PM - By Elie Mystal
Look, I hate traffic cops and parking tickets as much as the next guy. I especially hate traffic cops in the greater Boston area — those people have no appreciation for the spatial genius required to park a Cadillac in Cambridge. That said, fighting the traffic overlords always felt like a waste of time.
But perhaps I was wrong. On Craigslist, there is a job posting by a company looking for some legal muscle to fight parking tickets:
EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED
With an ever-increasing quantity of Boston parking tickets to handle we are hiring individuals to assist us in the review of Boston parking tickets for our business and individual clients. Our policy is that you can work from home with highly flexible hours. Experience is however, required.
As our hours are highly flexible you can choose to work days, nights or weekends. If you are not looking for work yourself but happen to know of a qualified professional who is, please pass this along to them.
We want you to know that we have great passion for what we do and take great pride in our relationships with everyone on our team. Accordingly, we are always looking for better ways to do things. Therefore, we place great value on your input. To be sure, YOUR ideas will be listened to.
What kind of experience is required? After the jump, we see that the company loves liberty.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 3:07 PM - By Elie Mystal
Earlier this month, we reported on layoffs at Foley & Lardner. Foley later confirmed the news.
Maybe Foley is just clearing out room so it can bring on its class of incoming associates? Right. Maybe if I had wheels I’d be a wagon? Foley has already deferred its incoming associates until February 2010. Now it is deferring associates again. Tipsters report:
I know every office has been talked to about the *possibility* of changing start dates. … [In Chicago] it’s complicated:
* all incoming IP associates are deferred until September, 2010, with a $5K/month stipend (no health care) beginning February 1; * half the litigation associates will start in February as planned; the other half will actually start *earlier*, this December; * the incoming transactional associates haven’t been told anything yet. My guess is they’ll be summarily shot.
The firm has not responded to our multiple requests for comment.
Incoming associates are asking firms to let them know when they will be starting. But does it really matter? Are there opportunities that incoming associates are really passing up this fall because they plan on starting this after the first of the year? Let us know in the comments.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 2:05 PM - By David Lat
Williams Mullen, the large and prominent Virginia-based law firm, announced yesterday that it will be cutting associate salaries by 7.5 percent, effective in January 2010. The new starting salary for associates will be $117,000 (in all offices other than D.C.).
A firm spokesperson described this as “a business decision,” made to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market. She added that the Williams Mullen cut was comparable to steps taken by similar firms, including Hunton & Williams and McGuire Woods (which cut starting salaries for associates by 10 percent). [FN1]
“Our clients are saying, ‘You better do this,’” the Williams Mullen spokesperson said. “This is a market adjustment just like any other adjustment, just like any other business adjusting the cost of its product.” If the firm were to keep associate salaries the same in this economic environment, “our clients would look at us and say, ‘You’re no longer competitive.” She added that equity partners would also see a decline in their incomes due to market realities.
As for whether this cut might be revisited at a later date, the spokesperson noted that matching the market goes both ways. “You can adjust down, and you can adjust up,” she said. “When things start to get better, we’ll look at ways to adjust accordingly.”
[FN1] UPDATE: A point of clarification about McGuireWoods: although the firm did cut starting salaries, incoming associates at the firm are still earning more than $117,000. New hires are making $144,000 in Northern Virginia, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, while new hires in Richmond, Charlotte and Atlanta are making $130,500.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:11 PM - By Elie Mystal
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned the Princeton Review law school rankings. The rankings are based on law student surveys, which may explain why the rankings bear little relationship to reality.
But Paul Caron of Tax Prof Blog has looked at Princeton Review’s underlying data, and he’s come up with some interesting info about how much law students are studying.
Here are the top ten schools in terms of study hours per day:
Villanova law students, you guys are lying. You cannot possibly average 7.5 hours of study a day unless you are (a) skipping class or (b) really dumb.
After the jump, let’s take a look at the schools that report the least amount of study time.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:15 PM - By Kashmir Hill
The legal issues swirling around the Miss California pageant are as messy and troubling as the state’s budget problems. Carrie Prejean was crowned Miss California 2009, and was first runner up in Donald Trump’s Miss USA 2009 contest. But her beauty has not been able to distract from controversy.
Topless photos of her emerged on the Internet. She told Miss USA celebrity judge Perez Hilton that she didn’t believe in same-sex marriage during the contest in April. And pageant officials dethroned her in June, giving the Miss California crown to the 2009 runner-up.
Prejean sued the Miss California USA organization in August. She has accused them of religious discrimination — claiming they fired her because of her beliefs about same-sex marriage — and invasion of privacy — for revealing to reporters that her breasts were fake.
Now the organization is firing back with a countersuit, reports CNN. The organization lent Prejean $5,200 for her breast enhancement, and they want their money back. They also deny invading her privacy:
The truth about Prejean’s breasts “ceased being private during the swimsuit competition of the nationally televised Miss USA pageant, in which Ms. Prejean walked the stage in a bikini,” pageant lawyers said.
We present exhibit A — before and after photos — after the jump.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:56 AM - By David Lat
We’ve covered in these pages the many challenges faced by standalone intellectual property firms. One of them is competition from Biglaw shops seeking to scoop up top talent in the IP field.
Yesterday morning, Robert C. Sullivan Jr., president and managing principal of Darby & Darby, sent around an internal email announcing the departure of two prominent partners, Joseph Robinson (pictured) and Robert Shaffer. Robinson and Shaffer, who specialize in patent litigation, counseling and procurement, are joining the New York office of McDermott Will & Emery.
It’s not happy news for Darby, which a tipster describes as “one of the last IP boutiques of any meaningful size, [but] gasping for breath as it is.” Robinson, a biotech expert and noted patent litigator, is said to have been one of the firm’s top-grossing partners, “probably to the tune of about $4 million.” Darby is holding a town hall meeting to discuss the defections.
A source issues this warning to Robinson’s new colleagues at MWE:
[Robinson] is a control freak who wields the power he gets from high earnings with an iron fist…. He is a significant reason for the many partner and practice group defections at Darby in the past few years, and now he’s gone too. McDermott will love the revenue, hate the attitude.
In Robinson’s defense, does he sound all that different from many top partners or successful litigators?
Robert Sullivan’s email announcing the departures, after the jump.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:04 AM - By Elie Mystal
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey already deferred its incoming class of 2009 to January 2010. Yesterday, the firm informed half of those incoming associates that they were getting the Bird — i.e., the firm indefinitely deferred half of its incoming class.
But before the firm decides what it will do with half of its incoming associates, Squire Sanders needs to make a decision about whether to keep its current associates. SSD’s chairman, James J. Maiwurm, told associates to expect layoffs over the next 45 days.
Above the Law has received the official Squire Sanders statement. Take a look after the jump.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:27 AM - By David Lat
* SCOTUS has agreed to decide whether federal courts can order Guantanamo detainees to be released into the United States, which raises separation of powers issues (because the political branches are in charge of passing and enforcing immigration laws). [How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* A big loss for Exxon Mobil (and its lawyers at McDermott): a jury issues a $104.7 million verdict, after finding the company liable for poisoning NYC water wells. [Bloomberg]
* Weekend at Bernie’s: lawsuit alleges drug use and debauchery at the Madoff offices. [ABA Journal]
* The Galleon / Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case lands in Judge Rakoff’s court. Could this create complications for the SEC? [WSJ Law Blog]
* The FAA is investigating last week’s Balloon Boy incident. [CNN]
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 6:33 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Earlier this summer, we wrote about the University of Illinois College of Law admissions scandal. Former Illinois governor (and soon to be ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ star) Rod Blagojevich pressured University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman and Heidi Hurd, former dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, to admit underqualified students who were politically connected.
In the eyes of some, it wasn’t all bad. Hurd was reluctant to accept under-performers. In exchange for her willingness to admit TTT students, university officials attempted to obtain jobs for struggling law school grads and offered scholarship money to recruit better students. The admission of one underqualified student meant jobs for five offer-less law grads.
Herman’s severance package isn’t too bad either:
Herman will continue to receive his current salary in a new position: special assistant to the interim president, Hardy said. But he will forgo a $300,000 retention bonus that was due in June.
In June, when his chancellor contract would have been up, he will take a one-year paid sabbatical at a new faculty salary of $244,444. The following year, he will be required to teach two courses a year as a tenured mathematics professor, fewer than his original contract that called for teaching four courses a year.
U. of I. President B. Joseph White and six university trustees have already been replaced. Asked why it took him so long to step down, Herman basically said he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong. He told the press that he believed he “‘was serving the greater good’ of the university by not alienating powerful people who wanted favors.”
The litigators at Williams & Connolly are known for being a hard-charging bunch. So it’s probably not a wise idea to dare them to make your day — because they probably will.
It’s not uncommon these days to see law firms suing former clients over unpaid legal bills (see, for instance, McDermott Will & Emery’s recent $606,000 case). Still, this latest bit of legal fee litigation seems remarkable: Williams & Connolly is taking a former client to court over $2 million after the company practically invited the firm to sue.
According to the complaint, Williams & Connolly and its ex-client, IDT, worked out a payment plan for $3 million in legal fees. IDT made the first $1 million payment, but then stopped paying on the debt.
One of our favorite legal affairs journalists is switching networks. As first reported by Mediabistro, the fabulous (and fabulously talented) Jan Crawford Greenburg is leaving ABC News for CBS News. Greenburg, author of the excellent and bestselling Supreme Conflict (2007), will become Chief Legal Correspondent at CBS, as of January 4, 2010. Meanwhile, back at ABC, her Supreme Court beat will be picked up by Terry Moran.
Greenburg’s move to CBS is something of a homecoming, since she worked at the Tiffany Network prior to her three-year stint at ABC. At CBS she’ll work once again with Bob Schieffer, described by Fishbowl DC as her longtime friend and mentor.
Congratulations and good luck at your new (old) home, Jan!
JCG’s farewell email to her colleagues at ABC, plus the press release announcing her hire at CBS, after the jump.
Think back to taking law school exams as a 1L. Remember the IRAC method — Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion?
One horny creative female law student in Los Angeles has decided to deploy IRAC towards carnal ends. Via craigslist, she recently filed a brief in the matter of You & Me Doing It v. You & Me Not Doing It (2009).
Read her brief, an eloquent attempt to get inside a classmate’s briefs, after the jump.
From Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal:
Getting rejected by Harvard Law School was “the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
Winning admission to HLS is the dream of many a college student (not just Elle Woods). Being a Harvard Law alum puts you on the fast track to a prestigious law firm job with a $160,000 starting salary (and allows you to attend exclusive dating events).
So why was HLS rejection Zucker’s lucky break? Click on the link below for the full story (and a possible implicit dig at UVA Law, which Zucker got into but never attended).
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:50 PM - By Kashmir Hill
When we tried to launch the ill-fated Courtship Connection, a matching service for ATL readers, we were stymied. Matchmaking was hard (especially when people didn’t respond to our e-mails).
Maybe we should have organized singles parties instead. That’s how the Ivy Plus Society operates. Whereas Courtship Connection sought to match up legal types, this dating society wants to bring together potential mates from elite universities. It had its inaugural D.C. event on Friday, reports ABC News:
Requirements for membership in TIPS are strict. Attendees must have attended one of the eight Ivy League schools or a handful of other TIPS-approved institutions. The University of Chicago and the Naval Academy qualify for the list.
If you were a graduate University of Virginia School of Law graduate, OK, you can attend. But, if you studied at UVA only as an undergraduate, sorry. UVA doesn’t make the grade.
[UPDATE: As noted by a commenter, UVA undergrad is now on the list. Perhaps there was an outcry over its original omission?]
“You can only be so superficial for so long,” said one young college graduate at Friday night’s event, who preferred to remain anonymous. He said he’s tired of trying to meet potential mates at general admission bars and parties. “I would like to find people of equivalent educational background — too dicey to go to a bar and find that. It’s nice to know, generally, people are going to be closer to your intellectual range.”
Because it’s not superficial to date only people from top-ranked schools…
So which law schools make the cut for Ivy League Plus?
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:05 PM - By Above the Law
Last week’s Career Center survey asked whether you think there will be enough work for the class of incoming associates at your firm. The good news is that, despite the all the hype about some firms indefinitely deferring new associates, the vast majority — 91% — of new associates are starting at their firms in Fall 2009 or are scheduled to start in the first half of 2010. The bad news is that a majority of respondents think there won’t be enough work for all this new blood, at least not in the practice areas they want to work in.
Check out the full survey results after the jump, and visit the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link , for more on which firm unexpectedly pushed up start dates, the latest firm to offer new associates "walk-away" money, and a firm that has made major changes to their lock-step compensation structure.
Today we turn to the booming field of BANKRUPTCY. This practice area might seem depressing, given its focus on financial distress, but some people find it quite sexy.
A long time ago, the field was generally shunned by large firms, so that most firms doing bankruptcy were on the smaller side. But Biglaw embraced bankruptcy years ago, and it’s probably glad it did. The bankruptcy departments of large law firms are super-busy these days, providing a partial hedge to the weakness on the transactional side.
What about bankruptcy boutiques — how are they doing? Some material to kick off the discussion, after the jump.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:08 AM - By Laurie Lin
As tends to be the case every year, August and September were fabulously prestigious months here on the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Three SCOTUS clerks were featured in this space during that period (two in the same announcement!), as well as a minor AutoAdmit celebrity, an astrophysicist, and Biglaw names like Cravath, Mayer, Jenner, and Covington.
Today, we’re asking readers to sort through all this excellence and choose the two most impressive couples of the bunch to advance to the Couple of the Year round.
After the jump, you’ll find recaps of our write-ups on each set of newlyweds, as well as two reader polls, one for each month. Voting ends on Thursday at midnight; we’ll announce the winners on Friday.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:54 AM - By Kashmir Hill
* Judge James Zagel okays Rod Blagojevich’s being a contestant on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” despite his pending criminal trial, but warns him to be careful during the confessional portions. [Chicago Tribune]
* Balloon Boy hoax charges will include conspiracy, attempting to influence a public servant, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and false reporting to authorities. Their attorney warns that arresting the Heenes in front of their children would be child abuse. Perhaps the kids could just hide in the attic during the arrest. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
* Is getting into Florida A&M law school worth filing a lawsuit over? [National Law Journal]
* Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” can grow. Judge Dale S. Fischer watched it and “Nappy Roots” — the premise of which Rock is accused of swiping — and didn’t see significant similarities. [E! Online]
Stanford Law School is one of the best law schools in the country. SLS is ranked #3 in the latest U.S. News law school rankings. Stanford graduates are generally intelligent, capable, and employable individuals (with some exceptions).
But are they smart enough to miss the first few weeks of Bar/Bri? The law school has changed its academic calendar to a quarters system. Stanford University already followed a quarters system, but the law school had been on a semester-based academic calendar.
The change could result in some conflict between 3L classes and the beginning of bar review courses. One student explains:
Stanford Law School changed to the quarter system, leaving their students in very precarious position vis a vis the bar exam. Classes do not end until several weeks after the California bar review courses start. Aside from the fact that this puts an extra burden on all SLS 3Ls, who will have to study for the bar at the same time they are attending classes and studying for finals, it creates a real mess for those students who are not remaining, or cannot remain in the immediate area. to study for and take the California bar.
This is because the bar review curricula differ from location to location. Accordingly, a student who is planning to take the bar review course somewhere other than in the Bay Area cannot take the first few weeks of the bar review course in the Stanford area and then move to wherever it is they are planning to move and finish up the bar review course at that location. Moreover, many of the students have leases on their apartments that end before the bar exam; thus, even those students who have the flexibility and financial wherewithal to change their relocation plans and remain in the Stanford area through the bar exam may not have any place to live (and how many of those do you think there are?) Stanford Law School refuses to address this issue head on, attempting to placate their students with vague promises that they’re “looking into it.”
We spoke to officials at Stanford Law School, and it appears that the school has “look[ed] into it.” Overall, the school feels that the benefits outweigh the burdens, and the burdens can be mitigated.
Look at it from Stanford’s perspective, after the jump.
Although Above the Law is based in New York, we adore our West Coast readers. We try to post stories that would be of special interest to them as often as possible, typically later in the day to account for the time difference. (We have one such post coming out after this one; we’re not done for the day.)
And we regularly visit the Left Coast. For information about two upcoming events that we’ll be participating in later this week — a talk at King Hall on Thursday, and a social networking conference at Boalt Hall on Friday — check out the links below.
P.S. As previously explained, we generally don’t do event plugs on the ATL main page, unless we or one of our advertisers is involved. But if your event is free / non-commercial, you can promote it in ATL’s Community section. If your event is not free, you can advertise it with us. E.g., the Legal Reform Summit in D.C. (October 28), or the ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference in Philadelphia (November 12-13). Thanks!
* People are still responding to the Quinn Emanuel Check BlackBerry Always situation. I have one question for those addicted to BlackBerry usage. How long do you wait to check your device after intercourse? [Josh Blackman’s Blog]
* Everybody who thinks Santa Claus works at their law firm, please raise your hands. GUARDS! Arrest these clinically insane associates before they cause harm to themselves or others. [TechnoLawyer]
* “The world, unfortunately, is much like a playground at a third-rate junior high school in a mixed neighborhood.” [What About Clients?]
* I used to decorate my law firm office with inspirational messages like “You didn’t want to make partner anyway,” and “You’ll survive the jump from the window, so you’ll just end up working remotely from the hospital.” But I’ve never had a flair for interior design. [Litination]
* It’s conflict resolution week at Blawg Review. “I, Elie Mystal, do hereby resolve to seek out conflicts be they big or small, whether they involve me directly or not. And I resolve to do all of this without allowing conflicting emotions to sway me from my conflict starting agenda.” [Settle It Now via Blawg Review]
For a while we had a commenter who liked to comment “Legalize it!” on every post, with “it” referring to marijuana. This person is surely quite happy today. From the New York Times:
People who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it should not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law, the Justice Department said on Monday in a directive with far-reaching political and legal implications.
In a memorandum to federal prosecutors in the 14 states that make some allowance for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the department said it was committed to the “efficient and rational use” of its resources, and that going after individuals who were in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state laws did not meet that standard.
What's your Halloween costume this year? A slutty nurse? A creepy Notre Dame 1L? Or something far more scary -- maybe Bob from Human Resources, the Grim Reaper who takes your Biglaw job away?
See images and continue reading "Open Thread: Happy Halloween!"
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