It’s a big day for bar results. We have reports that results are out in Colorado and Minnesota.
In the Keystone State, results are out a whole day early. Maybe by fooling people about when the results are posted, PA can avoid the same technical difficulties that plague Illinois.
As we noted before, first-time test takers are probably under more pressure this year. Those that have a job (or are waiting to start) don’t want to have to rely on their firm giving them a second chance to pass.
And if you don’t have a job lined up, passing now means that you don’t have to wait until the February results are released before you can start working.
If you don’t pass, don’t dwell on the past. Just focus on making it happen in February.
Earlier: Illinois Bar Results Are Out
Archive for October 2009
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Posted in:
Hogan & Hartson, Law Firm Mergers, Lovells, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Law Firm Merger Mania: Lovells ‘Hearts’ Hogan & Hartson
By Elie Mystal
Back at the beginning of the legal recession, when Heller and Thelen were collapsing, there was talk that a number of firms would either have to fold or engage in mega-mergers.
For the most part, that hasn’t happened. But today, Legal Week is reporting that Hogan & Hartson and London-based Lovells are at least talking about merging:
Lovells and Hogan & Hartson are in the early stages of merger talks, Legal Week can reveal, with the firms’ management teams currently assessing the case for a transformative union.
Lovells is to discuss the proposed tie-up with the top 25 US law firm at a meeting of its international executive on 28 October. A deal would create a top 10 global practice in revenue terms.
With firms of this size, one imagines that merger talks will be complicated. And there is a lot that will have to happen for these firms to go from talking to combining. But if all the pitfalls are avoided, how big of a firm could we be looking at?
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Law Firm Merger Mania: Lovells ‘Hearts’ Hogan & Hartson”
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.
ATL -
I was wondering if you could do a post on (legal) coping mechanisms for surviving in BigLaw, besides the usual smoking, drinking, and sleeping with married partners.
BigLaw vs. Corporate America — what makes it so much worse? Is every Corporate America work environment this bleak and depressing?
Audioslave
Dear Audioslave,
I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why the commenters on Above the Law are, on average, thirty times more bitter than commenters on Dealbreaker. I think I’ve got it.
Law firms make a hellish trifecta: literal-minded nitpickers, a 24/7 service industry that creates nothing, and non-merit-based compensation. Unlike finance types or doctors, associates don’t advise companies on how to run their businesses or decide whether to operate; they are paid to paper the trail and implement others’ genius at their beck and call. Once emasculated, associates are measured according to Opposite Day, where precedent is good and new ideas are bad. And even when associates cobble together amazing No Third Parties clauses or blackline the shit out of opposing counsel’s first draft, they doesn’t see another dime. In fact, they’ll be lucky just to keep their jobs and be fleeced once again at year’s end for staff holiday gift contributions. This is all just to say that when seated in an office perfumed with farts and soy sauce, law firm life can seem as pointless as intra-office mail. Pls Hndle,Thx.
Even if you can never be happy at work, the key to coping is finding something on the outside that keeps you going. Not something corny like friends or family — more like Hapkido, presidential trivia, or being into the Titanic. These hobbies are cool in and of themselves, and when you get involved in their online communities, you get a whole new group of internet friends who also hate their jobs and are available to chat during the day. I’m telling you, my life changed when I discovered the Bedlington Terrier Club of America and The Bachelor discussion groups. I was no longer alone.
In any event, it seems you’ve already discovered the ATL online community, so you’re off to a great start. And if all else fails, you can always just quit the firm. Haha jk.
Your friend,
Marin
Elie answers the red courtesy phone, after the jump.
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Posted in:
Advertising, Career Center, Job Searches, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center: Making Your Résumé Stand Out From The Pack
By Above the Law
Welcome to the first in a series of monthly “Ask the Experts” posts, brought to you by the ATL Career Center, powered by Lateral Link. Over the next few months, we’ll be talking with legal career experts, everyone from recruiters to hiring partners to professional development staff. The conversations will focus on what associates and law students need to know to be successful in this turbulent job market.
This week, we spoke with Tricia McGrath, a Director at Lateral Link who works with partner and associate candidates on law firm searches, and with candidates seeking in-house positions. We asked Tricia for advice on what kind of résumés get an employer’s attention. Visit the Resources section on the Career Center to get the answers to the following questions, as well as advice on the one thing you should never do.
Q: How detailed should my resume be?
Q: My career counselor recommended that my résumé begin with my experience and end with my education. Is this a good idea?
Q: Should a résumé ever be more than one page?
Q: I was laid off from a Top-20 law firm a few months ago. When my severance ran out, I took a contract attorney position to help pay the bills. This isn’t the type of job I want to call attention to when I’m applying to firms – do I need to include it on my résumé?
Q: Should I bother explaining to prospective employers why I was laid off, or is the less said the better?
Read the full article, as well and see other resources, on the Career Center. If you have tips or questions that you would like covered in future Ask The Expert columns, please email careercenter@abovethelaw.com.
Last week we wrote about the move of prominent D.C. lawyers Lanny Davis and Eileen O’Connor from Orrick to McDermott Will & Emery. Am Law Daily described the jump as follows: “Lanny Davis, a longtime Washington, D.C., lawyer who supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and was a fraternity brother of George W. Bush, is taking his unique practice from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to McDermott, Will & Emery.”
It’s not the case, however, that the entire practice moved. As noted by one commenter, the rest of the legal strategic and crisis management practice remained with Orrick. Consistent with this, an Orrick spokesperson issued the following statement to ATL:
We wish Lanny and Eileen well, but Orrick’s law, policy, media, and crisis management practice remains vibrant and strong with continuing plans for expansion and will keep delivering its unique blend of legal, public relations and government affairs counsel to our clients around the world.
Remaining at Orrick are partners Adam Goldberg, who was co-chair of the practice with Davis, and Joshua Galper. Goldberg and Galper will head the practice going forward. In addition, the associates who work in and with the law, policy and media group are staying at Orrick.
As for clients, it’s not yet clear which ones will stay with Orrick and which will move to McDermott. “Thankfully, this is a practice where we’ve always had plenty of work, so that’s not an issue,” Galper said. (We’d guess, however, that certain clients closely tied to Davis — like CEAL, the Honduras business group supporting the coup in that country — will travel with him.)
Get to know Messrs. Galper and Goldberg, and read more about Orrick’s very interesting and unusual practice area, after the jump.
Continue reading “A Look at Orrick’s Crisis Management Practice”
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Posted in:
Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, Summer Associates
Edwards Angell Wants Responses to Offers in Three Weeks (or Less)
By Elie Mystal
A couple of weeks ago, news broke that Sullivan & Cromwell was asking 2Ls to make summer decisions more quickly than the NALP rules suggest. You’ll remember that law schools banded together to pressure S&C to change its policy.
Will law schools react as strongly if other firms follow the S&C route? We could be about to find out. Above the Law is able to report that Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge has made offers for its 2010 summer program. But 2Ls have been told that they have three weeks to decide “or until the summer class fills up.”
The 2Ls we spoke with that have received offers from EAPD are asking if NALP is going to step in and prevent the firm from shortening the deadline. But as we have mentioned multiple times, Jim Leipold, executive director of NALP, has said that “there are no NALP police.”
Sullivan & Cromwell tried to keep its open-ended offer period secret from the general public. In contrast, EAPD is happy to explain why the firm wants quicker decisions from 2Ls.
The firm’s statement, after the jump.
Continue reading “Edwards Angell Wants Responses to Offers in Three Weeks (or Less)”
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Posted in:
Antitrust, Christopher Christie, Guantanamo Bay, Heller Ehrman, Herman Thomas, Morning Docket, Politics, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 10.08.09
By David Lat
* At the Supreme Court, much ado about a cross. [Washington Post (Robert Barnes); Washington Post (Dana Milbank)]
* Former Heller Ehrman partners deny that the firm was insolvent in 2007. [Am Law Daily]
* The new Honduran government, which came to power through a coup, has hired lawyers and law firms — including Lanny Davis, who recently moved from Orrick to McDermott — to defend its legitimacy. [New York Times]
* And there may be more work for antitrust lawyers, thanks to a new Justice Department invesitgation of IBM. [Reuters]
* Key Democratic lawyers agree to allow Guantanamo detainees to be transferred to the U.S. for trial. [Washington Post]
* Prosecutors drop one victim from the case, but Judge Herman “Who Needs A Spanking?” Thomas still faces charges dozens of counts related to 14 other victims. [CNN]
* No, it’s not your imagination: Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign commercials are making fun of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (pictured) for being fat. (Disclosure: We worked as an AUSA under Christie from 2003 until 2006.) [New York Times]
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Posted in:
Cardozo Law School, Celebrities, Crime, Gerald Shargel, Hotties, Lawsuit of the Day, Sex, Sex Scandals
Lawyer of the Day Stephanie Birkitt: An Update on the Ex-Letterman Lover
By David Lat
On the media website Mediaite, we are erroneously listed as having an affiliation with the Late Show with David Letterman. We wish! If that were the case, then maybe we’d have inside dirt on one of the juiciest media scandals to come along in a while.
And it’s a media scandal with a legal angle — several, in fact. Last Friday, we named the woman at the eye of the storm, Stephanie Birkitt, our Lawyer of the Day. Birkitt — the former Letterman paramour whose ex-boyfriend, Robert “Joe” Halderman, stands accused of trying to extort David Letterman — is a lawyer. The blonde hottie is a graduate of Cardozo Law School, and she passed the bar exam twice — in New York and Connecticut. Very impressive, Ms. Birkitt!
Alas, Stephanie Birkitt may be a two-timer in more than one sense of the word. We previously stated, relying on other sources, that Birkitt’s sexual relationship with her former boss ended in 2003. Now we’re hearing otherwise, from the New York Post:
Pretty former “Late Show” staffer Stephanie Birkitt revealed in her diary that she continued having sex with boss David Letterman even after moving in with her CBS-producer boyfriend, who later allegedly tried to extort him over the affair, sources told The Post yesterday.
Letterman and Birkitt enjoyed romantic hikes last fall at his sprawling ranch in eastern Montana — where he was married in March — while her boyfriend, “48 Hours Mystery” producer Robert “Joe” Halderman, stayed home in Connecticut, the sources said.
At the time, Birkitt, 34, insisted to Halderman that she and the 62-year-old Letterman had just “a platonic relationship,” a source said.
“I’m his best friend,” Birkitt told the worried 51-year-old Halderman, the source said.
A friend with benefits? Like free law school tuition? Speaking of which, according to our reader poll, almost two-thirds of ATL readers would sleep with David Letterman in exchange for free law school tuition.
UPDATE: According to Maureen Dowd (gavel bang: commenter), Letterman’s company loaned Birkitt the money for law school, which she paid back. If true, this is disappointing. What’s the point of sleeping with the boss if you can’t get paid for it?
More law-related Letterman links, after the jump.
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Day Stephanie Birkitt: An Update on the Ex-Letterman Lover”
* Former basketball player Len Elmore was a partner at Dreier LLP. Now he’s sad. [Bitter Lawyer via ABA Journal]
* Suing law firms isn’t just for laid off attorneys anymore. Now legal recruiters are getting into the act. [Am Law Daily]
* And apparently law firms aren’t the only institutions that can be sued for sexual harassment. That’s a lesson George Mason Law is learning the hard way. [Law Librarian Blog]
* Alternatives to the traditional Biglaw business model abound. Will any of them stick? [Ideoblog]
* Do law clerks affect judicial performance? [Concurring Opinions]
* Roman Polanski is staying put in Switzerland for now. Somebody should slip him a Quaalude so he doesn’t even notice the time passing by. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Posted in:
Boutique Law Firms, ERISA, Hotties, Small Law Firm Open Threads, Solo Practitioners, Tax Law
Small Law Firm Open Thread: ERISA / Employee Benefits Law
By David Lat
Let’s push forward with our series of open threads on small law firms in different practice areas. To see what we’ve covered so far, click here and scroll down.
Today’s topic: ERISA LAW. For those of you who aren’t familiar with ERISA, we’ll quote a prior post of ours:
For all of you non-lawyers — or for those of you who sat in the back row in law school — ERISA stands for the “Employee Retirement Income Security Act.” It’s the federal law, originally passed in 1974 and subsequently amended, that governs the administration of pension and employee benefit plans. So yes, it’s pension law.
This area of law may not sound sexy, but it has some sexy practitioners. Back in 2006, we held an ERISA lawyer hotties contest. Feel free to check out the male nominees, the female nominees, and the ultimate winners.
More substantive thoughts on ERISA practice, after the jump.
Continue reading “Small Law Firm Open Thread: ERISA / Employee Benefits Law”
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Posted in:
Football, Law Schools, Sports, Texas, University of Texas School of Law, Violence
The Cornerback v. The Counselor
By Elie Mystal
A battle went down the other day on a basketball court at Gregory Gym on the University of Texas – Austin campus. It’s a battle that has been fought across time and generations. It pitted a freshman defensive back from the Texas Longhorns (ranked #2 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll) and a UT law student (ranked #15 in the latest U.S. News law school rankings). Who hasn’t been a part of a strong kid v. smart kid fight?
The football player is freshman Kenny Vaccaro. The law student is Jonathon Fuhrman. The Austin-American Statesman takes it from here:
Fuhrman, who is identified as a UT student, told police Vaccaro and his friends were throwing basketballs at him. The affidavit said Fuhrman threw a basketball back at Vaccaro, hitting him in the head.
Fuhrman said Vaccaro then punched him in the face. The affidavit stated that Fuhrman, when he was interviewed by police, had blood coming from a cut lip.
Guys at my high school used to throw basketballs at future legal scholars all of the time. Then they would make love to all the women and be treated like gods. But now they all have multiple out-of-wedlock children and/or priors, while the future legal scholars enjoy prosperous careers and fulfilling romantic relationships. It was no big deal.
Will Vaccaro get punished for this? I’ll share some painful childhood memories, after the jump.
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Posted in:
Layoffs, Notes from the Breadline, Pictures, Shopping
Notes from the Breadline: Every Picture Tells a Story
(Or: A photo essay on unemployment.)
By Roxana St. Thomas
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.
Many of us know (and some of us have described, at some length) what life in the breadline feels like. But what, exactly, does life in the breadline look like? What are the visual manifestations of uncertainty, general financial malaise, and persistent despair? Well, dear readers, sometimes life in the breadline looks like a laid-off associate in her pajamas and down coat, on the verge of ranting at strangers in the bank. Sometimes it looks like the very same associate staring at her inbox, certain that an encouraging email (offering something other than a chance to collect your designated award from the British Lottery) will appear momentarily. Other times, it can be seen in the world outside one’s cat-plagued home, where the indicia of economic apocalypse are ubiquitous.
This week, I am pleased to bring you my own photo essay from the breadline. (Take heart, TLDR crowd — something that doesn’t require actual reading!) I hope you enjoy these shots of street life, and I thank the kind photographer who helped to document my wanderings.
Of course, every life looks a little different … which is why it’s time for another Homework Assignment from the Breadline. Specifically, we want pictures — in the form and media of your choosing — of your life in the breadline. Send me the images that illustrate your experience, symbolize the moment, and document the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your adventure / ordeal / journey. I look forward to viewing your responses! Please: no nudity, crush films, or dogfighting videos.
Without further ado, I present “Scenes from the Breadline.”
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Posted in:
Deferral Stipend, Fenwick & West, Money, Start Dates
Incoming Associates at Fenwick Take the Money and Run
By Elie Mystal
As regular Above the Law readers know, there are a few firms that are offering “go away” money to their incoming associates. The deal, like ones at Stroock and Pillsbury, is that the firm will give incoming associates a large payment instead of a job, and the incoming associate will quietly go peruse other employment options.
We haven’t really gotten a sense of how many would-be associates would actually consider this offer — until now. Fenwick & West offered its incoming associates $60,000 to stay away. According to our sources, around 40 percent of Fenwick’s 2009 class took the money.
But there is a catch; there’s always a catch.
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Incoming Associates at Fenwick Take the Money and Run”
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Posted in:
Akin Gump, Layoffs, No Offers, Staff Layoffs, Summer Associates
What’s Going on at Akin Gump?
(Some staff cuts, plus news on offer rates.)
By David Lat
So what’s happening at Akin Gump these days? There has been some happy news — e.g., a thriving energy M&A practice, lawyers honored by the Washington Business Journal as top D.C. lawyers, and a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index of the Human Rights Campaign.
And there has been some less happy news. We’ve heard there have been a number of cuts to the staff ranks in Akin’s D.C. office in the past few weeks, as well as a few attorney dismissals here and there (not couched as “layoffs”).
Through a spokesperson, the firm confirmed some trimming of staff ranks, but declined to provide numbers:
While we do not discuss specific personnel matters, we continue to review and streamline our operations to fit the current size of the firm. This has resulted in a small number of staff reductions across the firm. We are not involved in a larger effort aimed at reducing our staff or lawyer workforce.
We hear the severance was around three months, although the firm would not confirm this.
The firm did, however, respond to our inquiry about offer rates.
Continue reading “What’s Going on at Akin Gump?
(Some staff cuts, plus news on offer rates.)”
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Posted in:
Admin, Advertising, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers
By Above the Law
A quick word of thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law:
- American Bar Association
- The Atlantic
- Kinney Recruiting
- Lateral Link
- LexisNexis
- Soul Calibur 4 PSP
- U.S. Chamber for Legal Reform
If you’re interested in advertising on Above the Law or any other site in the Breaking Media network, download our media kits, or email advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!
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Posted in:
Bad Ideas, Law Schools
Belmont (TN) To Open New Law School — Just Because They Can
By Elie Mystal
Somewhere there is a giant invisible hand that really enjoys jerking around the earning potential of attorneys in good standing. Belmont University is opening a new law school next year. The Tennessean reports the latest evidence that university presidents hate lawyers:
The Belmont College of Law would be the state’s sixth law school, the third in Nashville and the first new law school to open in Middle Tennessee in a century.
“This is far, far, far bigger than anything we’ve done before,” Belmont President Bob Fisher said. “Twenty years from now, there could be 2,000 Belmont law school graduates out in the community, hopefully doing some good.”
Excuse me.
After wiping off the blood streaming out of his eyes, Elie bangs his head on his desk. Unsatisfied, Elie removes copies of Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from his bookshelf and throws them, burning, from his window, while shouting general obscenities at any he believes to be from the great state of Tennessee.
Fine, so Bob Fisher doesn’t mind keeping local lawyers financially hobbled due to the oversupply of attorneys. Surely the local bar association will stand up for its current members:
News of the new law school has been a closely guarded secret. W. Scott Sims, past president of the Nashville Bar Association, issued a quick statement greeting the new law school as a “wonderful addition” to the legal scene.
At tonight’s performance, W. Scott Sims will be playing the part of Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House.
You know what? As bad as this is for students at Tennessee’s other law schools, how colossally dumb are the people who sign up for a Belmont law degree next year?
Tuition details after the jump.
Continue reading “Belmont (TN) To Open New Law School — Just Because They Can”
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Posted in:
Conferences / Symposia, Intellectual Property, Job Searches
The Economy Is Still Soft For IP Lawyers
By Elie Mystal
Despite slight indications that the legal economy is recovering, the market continues to be difficult for would-be intellectual property lawyers.
The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) is having its annual career fair next Saturday. Unfortunately, employer turnout is depressed this year. Here’s the email that went out to AIPLA job seekers yesterday:
To: AIPLA Career Fair Registrant
Subject: AIPLA Important Career Fair Information
Thank you for registering to participate in the AIPLA Career Fair. Please be aware that our attendance for firms/companies participation in the AIPLA Career Fair is not what we expected for this year. We’ve followed up with the Firms and Companies and they have indicated that they do not have positions available and/or not hiring at the present time.
Currently we have 9 firms participating in the Career Fair and we have over 350 Job Seekers that have registered to participate in the Fair. We strongly encourage you to only plan to come to the Career Fair if you have a confirmed interview or were otherwise planning on attending the AIPLA Annual Meeting. If you joined as an AIPLA Student Member between September 1 through October 6, 2009 to participate in the AIPLA Career Fair we will offer you a complimentary Annual Meeting Registration…. The Annual Meeting, which runs from October 15-17, will offer Educational Session, Committee Meetings, Continuing Legal Education Credit and is a Great Networking Opportunity!
Regards,
AIPLA Meetings Dept.
I can’t believe that I have to ask this, but does anybody know where an IP attorney can get a job?
Earlier: Small Law Firm Open Thread: Intellectual Property
Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Townsend and Townsend and Crew
* Can Congress ban a “Human Sacrifice Channel” on television? Justice Alito wants to know (and Fox probably does too). [New York Times; Washington Briefs]
* European Union regulators are working on a settlement in the Microsoft browser case. [AP]
* A jury concludes: mugging a 101-year-old woman on her way to church is not cool. [New York Daily News]
* Obama officially nominates Judge Denny Chin (pictured) and Judge Rogeriee Thompson to the Second and First Circuits, respectively. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* Former Liberal Party leader Raymond Harding pleads guilty in a corruption case. [New York Times]
* A sign that things are returning to normal? Lawyers are leaving law firms for Wall Street (or one is, at least — Lewis Steinberg, who left UBS for Linklaters, goes back to the Swiss bank). [ABA Journal]
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Posted in:
UNC Law
What do the Justice Department, UNC, and law school applicants have in common?
By Kashmir Hill
All three are finding new uses for the “tools of the Internet.” Here are three recent stories that caught our attention but didn’t warrant full posts:
1. The Justice Department now tweets. Last week, the DOJ revamped its website and joined Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. If you want to stalk Attorney General Eric Holder, you can do that here.
2. UNC law held moot court in the virtual world of Second Life last month. It’s hard not to mock, said one tipster:
You have got to be kidding me. Here’s an idea: do one in real life! Everyone will be sitting at a computer at the same time anyway – why not just have them all sit in the same room, say the UNC mock court room that was built specifically for this purpose, and actually do it in person? I’m not planning on being a litigator, but from all those episodes of Boston Legal I’ve watched I’m pretty sure that speaking is a pretty significant part of the litigation process.
What good could possibly come from this? Learning how to type out pre-prepared questions without being distracted by the naked half raccoon man that inevitably will show up and streak across the courtroom?
We think real-life Playboy bunnies at UNC might prove more distracting.
3. Law school applicants are using social networking sites to cozy up to law school admission officers. According to Kaplan, 48% of law school admission officers surveyed say that they or a fellow admissions officer at their school have received a “friend request” on Facebook or MySpace from applicants. The officers did not reveal whether this helps or hurts applicants’ chances.
And with that, we urge you to keep it real, ATL readers.
Justice Dept. on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter [CNET]
Students Explore Mock Trial Options in Virtual World [UNC School of Law]
* Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest has been officially expunged from the record. It’s almost like it never happened, kind of like Apocalypto. [TMZ]
* The FTC is requiring bloggers who review products to disclose their connections with advertisers. Our sister site Fashionista has some questions. [Fashionista]
* George Washington Law School got the U.S. News law school rankings message. Man, that U.S. News is one powerful magazine. [WSJ Law Blog]
* The dangers of being a process server could make for a movie subplot. [Adventures in Process Serving]
* Is Georgetown Law professor Chai Feldblum, nominated to serve on the EEOC, the victim of a smear campaign? [Re:Act / The NLGJA Blog]
* Mental note: Do not piss off Matt Taibbi. [True/Slant]
* Last call for entries for ATL’s law firm swag contest. (We’ve been disappointed by the submissions so far.) [Above the Law]
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Posted in:
Advertising, Shameless Plugs, Sponsored Content, This Is an Ad
The BarMax Manifesto: “We Are Not Sheep”
By Above the Law
In 2009, a small group of Harvard Law School students noticed an absurd monopoly in the bar prep space, held by an unchallenged leader with a non-evolving product. In response, these students teamed up with Harvard Law alumni to launch BarMax on January 14, 2010.The mission: democratize bar prep by embracing new technologies to provide the very best bar exam review courses at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these courses.
Since then, with the encouragement of thousands of students and an unwavering commitment to their success, BarMax has established itself as a comprehensive alternative to the stagnant, over-priced status quo.
As we continue to expand, we do not want to lose sight of the basic premises that led us to create BarMax in the first place. If you are a law student who believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with being forced to take out yet another loan to pay for a $4,000 bar exam prep course, you are not alone.
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Posted in:
Advertising, Asia Chronicles, Shameless Plugs, Sponsored Content, This Is an Ad
The Asia Chronicles: In-House Openings at Hedge Funds In Hong Kong / State Of The Market / 7 New Kinney ’12 US Associate Placements In HK / China
By Kinney Recruiting
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.comHappy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.
As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.
Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong
We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).
Please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.
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Posted in:
Careers
