I can understand how this firm managed to dissolve. Who the hell was their purchasing agent? And why was he/she given carte blanche authority to pay thousands of dollars for worthless doodlings? I saw the Bonhams' catalog and I don't understand why that auctioneer would sully its reputation by selling this junk.

I'm still saving my money for the Alston & Bird auction. They have some pretty sweet art in their Atlanta office.

Why does this degeneracy pass for "art." No doubt these ill-thought-out purchases cost several associate jobs and now only serve to mark the idiocy and generally poor decisions of the firm in question.

-Diogenes

Is Winston going to auction-off the iphones?

Slow news day ATL?

@5 I heard they didn't lay everyone off yet - they probably just lease the phones anyway.

Partner E: I have the results of your digital rectal exam. The news is not good. Please give me a call at my office.

Dreir LLP stuff was way cooler (and cheaper). Then again, I dig furniture way more than art.

You can't judge by what's showing in the catalog now -- Heller had some wonderful art. And some truly odd stuff. Also some hideous yarn things. Just wait until some of the big 'installation' art pieces come online. The floating people from the stairwell (in Seattle) would look fantastic out on my deck.

Can we talk about how Steptoe rescinded their offer to me (I was summer class of 2008) and a few other people????

11-were you deferred start or did you clerk?

Heller had a very fine Diebenkorn

Elie is the big racist purple dinosaur of the Internet

Did everyone hear about the Obama's choice of PLAGIARIZED art for the White House? Read all about how pathetic this is:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/08/do-the-watusi-art-imitation-and-the-obamas/

But since he chose a plagiarizer as his V.P., I guess we shouldn't be surprised...

The artist who did the 2nd piece on the page also did the cover to Beck's Guero.

My administration stands firmly with the arts. I am especially heartened by the fact that Heller Ehrman showed a well defined social conscience in choosing art from plainly unknown artists with little apparent talent instead of more well established artists. Too often people make choices based on the value of art or the talent of the artist instead of taking into consideration the need of an unknown artist to have their art purchased or the effect such discrimination has on the psyche of the artisrt. It is with great regret that an artistically progressive firm such as Heller went out of business due to the failed policies of my predecessor.

In summation, my administration strongly encourages the equalization of artistic opportunity and hopes that one day all Americans will have art of this quality in their homes and places of work.

Barack x.

The first piece is interesting. And, I might add, very cheap for a bronze.

Lot 8070 is also reasonably priced (for such a large canvas - seven feet by five feet):

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4438374&iSaleNo=17421&iSaleSectionNo=1

You will jinx your future if you buy.

20 - Shouldn't it be good karma to buy one of these pieces? You are contributing $$$ to the bankruptcy estate.

This stuff is cursed. Look what happened to the firms that took on the refuges from Heller Ellerman. Don't jinx yourself!

8 was priceless. That is all.

11 here, I didn't clerk. I just wanted a damn job.

I like the Doctor Emeritus. Keep it up.

Apparently ATL doesn't deem major legal events newsworthy (if its not juicy gossip no point in printing it!), but BofA just hired Paul Weiss to represent them. Even though the firm didn't re-up some of their contract attorneys (not fired as ATL erroneously reported), it seems like they are in good shape. But anyway back to the news ATL thrives on: random lawyers commiting inconsequential crimes!!!!

This is just the NY stuff, San Francisco isn't online yet. The SF collection is actually good stuff, and worth a fair amount

22 is absolutely correct. Heller is cursed, as are the firms that took on Heller offices or practice groups.

For example, Cooley Godward was lured into taking the Heller Seattle office. As a result, Cooley scuttled a long-planned strategic acquisition of a much more profitable non-Heller Texas group. Soon after imbibing the Heller elixir, Cooley was one of the first out of the gate with mass layoffs, followed by stealth layoffs, high-profile partner defections, more stealth layoffs, and then another round of staff layoffs, with more stealth layoffs on the horizon.

26 - If someone is a long-term contract and the contract is not renewed, then it is equivalent to the firing.

And the consequences for the Paul Weiss associates of the firing / non-renewal of the staff attorneys are the same: more document review.

Also, 26, look back at the post. It does not say they were "fired"; it says they were "let go" (which is an accurate description of not renewing someone on a long-term contract)).

http://abovethelaw.com/2009/10/paul_weiss_staff_attorney_layo.php#more

17:

148; Cooley @ sticker.

We need to bomb contemporary artwork back to the stoneage !
-DOJ Secure

This collection of art work should not be touched. In fact, don't even look at it.

28, the Seattle office of Heller went in chunks to Orrick and to Davis Wright. Cooley may have built their Seattle office around the very small number of Heller refugees they took in -- but it's not correct that Cooley took on "the Seattle office".

Maybe if everyone bids high enough on this artwork, Heller will have enough cash to reform themselves and they can un-rescind my offer.

"Everybody that was going to land on their feet" should read "everybody that was going to land on his or her feet." Please, Elie, can't you let us teach you this one simple lesson about pronoun referents?

The ultimate in wasteful spending is when managing partners spend firm funds to make themselves look good by buying and displaying art. Dickhead is what comes to mind.

Those Marcel Dzama drawings are awesome. You people are uncultured morons.

Dear Mr. Partner E.:

Not everyone has your good taste in art. I loved the Elvis and Amazon Woman Riding a Tiger day-glo paintings on black velvet hanging at your firm.

Vlad

There's actually some pretty good art in there, and well priced. I've seen the art at several law firms, and heard at least once that the firm's art was purchased by a partner's wife's company. And it sure looked like it was, too. Dreier art WAS good, if occasionally on the safe side. The really interesting art at Dreier was owned by its affiliates or subsidiaries or whatever those slightly differently named companies were. I wouldn't mind having the Heller stuff in my workplace.

@37 I agree about the Dzamas. Considering the Contemporary art market just crashed, and that most of his work is accessible for highly romantic and fantastical art, the pricing at Auction is close to the original list (though for those in the know it's totally possible that Heller was able to cut a deal)

@Elie- he's part of the new contemporary drawing movement. It's most likely ink/watercolors on a fine paper. In the sense of art movements he's a descendant of the likes of Magritte, Miro, and Dali- albeit through the medium of drawing. Most likely you are right in identifying yourself with the figure in the foreground. As Dzamas is well known for for both not having filled out backgrounds, and for having "characters," the background figure and the relationship it has to the foreground character was probably left ambiguous to create the obvious tension you see in the drawing and you are trying to recreate through create intent on behalf of Heller's purchase.

(an actual art student)