* Incentives to donate your hunted meat. [Tax Prof Blog]
* Somebody is going to sue the Biggest Loser, right? [Legal Blog Watch]
* Charlie Rangel is kind of a disaster. [Going Concern]
* Is law still a “white man’s game”? [Law and More]
* Denying cert. [Courtoons]
* How many lawyers do you need to close a deal? [Business Insider]
* A medical legal blog. Sounds interesting. [The Wise Files]
Archive for December 2009
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Posted in:
Anthony Kennedy, Fantasy SCOTUS, SCOTUS
FantasySCOTUS.net Predictions of the 10th Justice: Forecasting the Swing Vote of Justice Kennedy.
By The 10th Justice
Ed. note: ATL has teamed up with FantasySCOTUS, the premier Supreme Court fantasy league. (For more background, check out this WSJ Law Blog post.) On Fridays, the 10th Justice will analyze league voting to predict how the Supreme Court may decide upcoming cases.
Welcome to the second installment of Predictions of the 10th Justice, brought to you by FantasySCOTUS.net. The league has over 1,800 members, who have made predictions on all cases currently pending before the Supreme Court. Recently, Justice Stephen G. Breyer was asked in an interview about FantasySCOTUS.net. His response, “I don’t think I will bet on it.”
In this feature, we try to predict the votes of the decisive swing-vote on the court, Justice Kennedy. We will look at four important cases where Justice Kennedy is likely to cast the deciding fifth swing vote, and compare the predictions of the FantasySCOTUS.net faithful to the mathematically precise predictions of Yale Professor Ian Ayres’s “Predict Justice Kennedy’s Vote” Program.
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Posted in:
Boutique Law Firms, Crime, Litigators, My Job Is Murder
My Job Is Murder: Of Legends and Legerdemain
By Susanna Dokupil
Ed. note: Welcome to ATL’s first foray into serial fiction. “My Job Is Murder,” a mystery set in a D.C. appellate boutique, will appear one chapter at a time, M-W-F, over the next few weeks. Prior installments appear here; please read them first.
Susanna Dokupil can be reached by email at sdokupil@sbcglobal.net or on Facebook.
Tyler hit the “send” button on his e-mail draft to Carol. He knew his career at the firm was just as dead as Ken Thrax. He wondered how long he had. Days? Weeks? He had no idea what to do next. But he had a sudden empathy for John Tiburon. He decided to go up and thank him for the help on the memo. Fortunately no one was in the men’s room when he climbed up to open the ceiling tile.
As he reached the trap door to the roof, he heard voices yelling. One was Tiburon.
“You idiot! All you had to do was get back into Thrax’s office once his body was discovered and clean that one lousy key before the police started sweeping the office. Your office is just down the hall, and it would have been so natural for you to be first on the scene. It was the perfect crime! Totally untraceable! You plant the frog, and it’s a bizarre freak accident. How could you ruin everything?”
“I’m sorry, I guess I got distracted.”
“Distracted with a bottle of Scotch, more like. Did you muck something up with a client? Is that why Thrax wanted you out?”
“Of course not. I’d never let my, er, hobbies interfere with work.”
“Well, it wasn’t the sexual harassment scandal. We all know you can beat that. You’ve never been interested in a woman in your life.”
Schlosh! Tyler thought with alarm. Gay and an alcoholic? The things he missed by preferring Asimov to office gossip . . . .
Continue reading “My Job Is Murder: Of Legends and Legerdemain”
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Posted in:
Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Salary Freeze
Open Thread: Salary Thaw? Anybody?
By Elie Mystal
On Wednesday, we reported that Patton Boggs was keeping its salary freeze in place. In November, we told you that Covington & Burling was instituting a salary freeze, even though the firm didn’t do it last year.
But the news coming out of D.C. isn’t putting a damper on the holiday hopefulness of some New York-based associates. Above the Law received this question earlier this week:
I’m a senior associate at a large NYC law firm — I’m hearing rumors that some large law firms who have frozen salaries (which unfortunately includes my firm) are preparing for the big thaw — have you guys heard anything to that effect?
Ha. Haha. Unfreezing? Yeah. Let me just ride my unicorn down the streets of El Dorado and see what there is to see.
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Posted in:
Advertising, Job Searches, Job of the Week, Shameless Plugs, Sponsored Content, This Is an Ad
Job of the Week: The Best Job with Benefits
By Above the Law
Unemployment numbers are in and it looks like more people are back to work. More employees = more employee benefits, hence a new need for employee benefits attorneys, hence the Job of the Week. As always our friends over at Lateral Link will help you land this job (or one of the hundreds of others they currently have), if you are a Lateral Link member. Membership in Lateral Link is free and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.
Position: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Attorney
Location: Bay Area
Bonus: This position qualifies for Lateral Link’s $10,000 placement bonus
Description: A prominent international firm is seeking a mid to senior level employee benefits and executive compensation attorney. The associate should have at least 5 years of experience with benefits arrangements and will be providing counsel in conjunction with corporate transactions.
For more information about this position, please view Position #5631 on Lateral Link.
Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings
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Posted in:
Celebrities, Gay, Pornography, Sarah Palin
A Contracts Exam Hypothetical: Review Levi Johnston’s Gay Porn Offer Letter
By David Lat
As tout le monde knows, Levi Johnston — the Alaskan hunk who fathered Sarah Palin’s grandchild, and who came thisclose to becoming the Republican VP nominee’s son-in-law — recently posed for Playgirl. To the disappointment of many, he refrained from full-frontal nudity (but did bare his bum for the cameras).
To check out the pics, visit [Not Safe for Work (NSFW)] Playgirl.com [NSFW]. For collected expert evaluations of the photos — Levi got some flak for overly hairy armpits, among other shortcomings — check out Us Weekly.
Not surprisingly, given his good looks and celebrity, Levi Johnston has received a number of other business propositions as well. He was recently offered a six-figure sum to appear in erotic videos by [NSFW] Corbin Fisher [NSFW], one of the world’s premier gay pornography companies.
No, dear ATL readers, this is not an excuse for your above-signed writer to offer you his personal gay porn recommendations. There is actually a legal connection.
Here’s your assignment. Read over the actual offer letter that Corbin Fisher sent to Levi Johnston (after the jump).
Pretend that Johnston is your client. How would you advise him? Review and flyspeck the offer letter. Do you see any terms in it that might be problematic for your client?
Should Johnston accept the Corbin Fisher offer, reject it, or make a counteroffer? If he makes a counteroffer, what should he include as the proposed terms? What considerations should he keep in mind in negotiating towards a more complete contract?
Okay, enough teasing; let’s see the goods. Check out the Corbin Fisher offer letter, after the jump.
Continue reading “A Contracts Exam Hypothetical: Review Levi Johnston’s Gay Porn Offer Letter”
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Posted in:
Associate Bonus Watch 2009, Paul Weiss
Associate Bonus Watch: Paul Weiss Follows SullCrom’s Lead
By Kashmir Hill
Last year, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison based its bonuses on the Cravath scale. This year, it has decided to buck Cravath and “upsize” to the Sullivan & Cromwell scale. That means seventh year associates get $5,000 more in their stockings than those at Cravath-scale firms.
Associates at Paul Weiss got the bonus news yesterday. Here’s the scale:
Class of 2008 — $7,500
Class of 2007 — $10,000
Class of 2006 — $15,000
Class of 2005 — $20,000
Class of 2004 — $25,000
Class of 2003 — $30,000
Class of 2002 and up — $35,000
A source at the firm says that, though the payment date is not noted in the memo, bonuses are traditionally paid the Friday between December paychecks.
Language from the memo, as well as a bit of bad news received today — no Children’s Holiday Party! — after the jump.
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Paul Weiss Follows SullCrom’s Lead”
Yesterday, we reported that Harvard Law School was making a change to its grading curve before finals. We told you that HLS lifted the requirement to have a certain percentage of the class received a “low pass” in the law school’s new High Pass/Pass/Low Pass/Fail grading system.
After our report went live, Harvard Law School’s Vice Dean for Academic Programming, Andrew Kaufman, sent around an email to all students. According to Dean Kaufman, mandatory low passes were never a part of the HLS grading plan:
We have recently become aware of all sorts of rumors floating around about “changes” in our so-called grading curve, in particular the percentage of Low Passes. In fact, we have never had and do not now have a mandatory curve. All we have had for the last twenty years is a recommended curve. We did not recently change that curve. All we have done is to make clear to faculty that under the new grading system and in keeping with the recommended nature of the curve, they have discretion regarding the exact percentage of grades to be given in each category.
Andrew Kaufman
Vice Dean for Academic Programming
Fair point. Thanks for clearing that up.
But HLS dropped letter grading over a year ago. Are you telling me that the Harvard Law School faculty wasn’t entirely clear on how to grade students, for a year? During the worst legal job market in recent memory?
Some HLS students we talked to aren’t very happy with that.
Stressed out? You’re not alone. A few months ago, we surveyed ATL readers about their work-related, stress-induced illnesses. Over 50% of respondents have some serious head trips, suffering from “depression/anxiety/other mental illness.”
Our survey was far from scientific, but this rate strikes us as high. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the rate of mental illness in the general population is half of that, at 26.2%.
A third of the survey takers said they had insomnia/sleep apnea/sleep problems and headaches/migraines. Ulcers and alcohol/drug abuse are also problems for Biglaw folks. These rates though seem more in line with the rest of America.
See the full results from the survey, and hear tales from stress-sufferers, after the jump.
* Columbia’s manifest destiny has hit a roadblock. [Daily News]
* Kash mixes it up with legal heavyweights Daniel Solove, Diane Zimmerman, and Anita Allen in a “Room for Debate” about Tiger Woods and privacy in the digital age. [New York Times]
* [Cue Howard Cosell voice] Down goes the unemployment rate! Down goes the unemployment rate! [Wall Street Journal]
* Citigroup, we’re all waiting for you to get your act together. [New York Times]
* Arizona court deputies stand together. [ABA Journal]
* We’re going to make a federal issue out of candy canes? Yes, yes we are. [Courthouse News Service]
* Thanks to Applied Discovery and everybody who came out to meet us in D.C. this week. Moonwater for all. Posting from a bus for two days made me feel like I was a roadie. [Above the Law]
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Posted in:
Free Speech, Malpractice, Munger Tolles & Olson, Simpson Thacher
Malpractice Suit Against Simpson Thacher Reinstated on Appeal
By David Lat
Getting sued for malpractice, even if the claims lack merit, is never fun. Earlier this week, we wrote about Seyfarth Shaw, which is being sued by Tae Bo star Billy Blanks for malpractice (and being sued by a current partner for breach of fiduciary duty, among other claims).
Let’s declare this week “West Coast Malpractice Week” here at Above the Law. Yesterday a California appellate court reinstated a malpractice lawsuit against the super-prestigious firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and two of its partners, George Newcombe and Alexis Coll-Very, based in STB’s Palo Alto office.
The underlying lawsuit is somewhat complex; here’s the gist of it. Simpson Thacher represented PrediWave Corporation, a (now-bankrupt) California technology company, and its former CEO and president, Jianping “Tony” Qu. Prediwave alleges that Tony Qu was essentially looting the company, siphoning away its assets, and that Simpson Thacher — which represented both the company and Qu, a claimed conflict of interest — didn’t adequately protect the company’s interests against Qu (and even made it more difficult for the company to investigate Qu and his alleged self-dealing).
In the trial court, Simpson Thacher — represented by another powerhouse firm, Munger, Tolles & Olson (aka West Coast magnet for SCOTUS clerks) — won dismissal of the lawsuit, pursuant to California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute. If you’re not familiar with anti-SLAPP statutes, one of a blogger’s best friends (along with Section 230), here’s a brief description:
SLAPPs are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. SLAPPs are lawsuits filed against people or organizations because they have exercised their right to petition the government or speak out on public issues. SLAPPs frequently contain claims for libel, slander, defamation, malicious prosecution, and/or abuse of process.
Can an anti-SLAPP law be used to secure swift dismissal of a malpractice action brought by a client against its former counsel? PrediWave, represented by Squire Sanders and California appellate boutique Horvitz & Levy (previously discussed here), argued that this is not a proper application of the statute. In its opinion (PDF), the California Court of Appeal (Sixth Appellate District) agreed, reinstating the suit against Simpson. (The court did not address the underlying merits of the case, leaving those to the trial court on remand.)
More discussion — including a statement from Simpson Thacher, which calls Prediwave’s claims “baseless” and declares that STB will “defend this claim vigorously” — after the jump.
Continue reading “Malpractice Suit Against Simpson Thacher Reinstated on Appeal”
At an all associates meeting today, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe revealed its much talked about new associate compensation structure. Starting in 2010, Orrick will be moving away from lockstep in a big way.
Essentially, Orrick has separated associates into three classes: associates, managing associates, and senior associates. Advancement from one level to another will be based on merit — not time served at the firm.
The biggest news is that starting salaries are going to remain at the $160K level. Orrick wants to recruit and compete for top talent. The firm isn’t using the move away from lockstep as an excuse to cut first year pay.
And the firm will still pay the prevailing market bonus. In fact, the firm will pay the market bonus, plus a little extra to its highest performing associates. The goal appears to be giving their superstar associates a big reward for good work, instead of reducing costs on the back of associate compensation.
Check out the new salary structure chart from Orrick after the jump.
* Firms are gearing up to raise rates. No really. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Mandatory gym class for fat college kids. [Legal Blog Watch]
* The lawyer who would be king — literally. [AP via Law.com]
* All you ever needed to know about jury duty. [Justice]
* Should legal blogs affiliated with Am Law 200 firms try to be funny? [Drug and Device Law]
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Posted in:
Deaths, Law Schools, Suicide, University of Michigan Law School
Casey McGinnis, RIP
Missing Michigan 1L Took His Own Life
By David Lat
This afternoon brings tragic news. Casey McGinnis, a first-year law student at the University of Michigan who was previously reported missing, has passed away. From AnnArbor.com:
A University of Michigan Law School student reported missing last month hanged himself, Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies said.
The body of 35-year-old Casey Neil McGinnis was found Wednesday afternoon in a wooded area behind the Washtenaw County Recreation Center on Washtenaw Avenue, deputies said.
We extend our deepest condolences to McGinnis’s family and friends. A message from Michigan Assistant Dean David Baum, which includes a statement from the McGinnis family, appears after the jump.
Continue reading “Casey McGinnis, RIP
Missing Michigan 1L Took His Own Life”
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Posted in:
Law Schools, U.S. News
Study Confirms U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Important
By Elie Mystal
A new study out from Northwestern says that law school administrators really care about the U.S. News Law School rankings. The National Law Journal reports:
Like it or not, the U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools profoundly influences the way those schools are managed, spend resources and are perceived internally and by the outside world.
That is the conclusion reached by two sociology professors who interviewed more than 200 law school administrators, faculty members and prospective law students and combed through other statistical data. Their report, “Fear of Falling: The Effect of U.S. News & World Report Rankings on U.S. Law Schools,” has been released by the Law School Admission Council, which partially funded the research.
“One of the things that surprised us most is what a big impact the rankings have,” said Northwestern University associate professor Wendy Espeland, who co-authored the report with University of Iowa assistant professor Michael Sauder. “They affect so many aspects of legal education.”
Also, water is wet.
But hey, I suppose it’s good to have even more evidence that the arbiters of legal education jump through hoops to please a magazine. Maybe U.S. News should just open its own law school so everybody could flock to get the most prestigious education on the entire 11 dimension multi-verse.
More details after the jump.
Continue reading “Study Confirms U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Important”
It’s December. Bar results are out. Firms are compiling their end of the year numbers. Trees are being trimmed, candles are being lit. Is it time, finally, for in the incoming class of 2009 to start working?
Above the Law has been furiously covering all of the Biglaw deferrals this year. A lot of firms deferred their incoming class to December or January. Well, these months are upon us. And first years are ready to go.
[Cue foreboding music]
Or are they?
Above the Law has started to receiving increasingly nervous emails from would be first year associates. Many of them still haven’t had any significant communication with their firms about actually starting work.
Uh-oh.
Continue reading “Open Thread: Are Deferred Associates Ready to Start Work?”
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Posted in:
Georgetown Law School, Grade Reform, Harvard Law School, Law Schools
Harvard Law and Georgetown Law Make Grading Easier
By Elie Mystal
Given the state of the legal economy, I don’t have a problem with grade inflation at top law schools. The job market is terrible enough as it is. If an extra (inflated and totally BS) third of a grade helps a student get a job right now, I think that is fine. Whatever, sometimes you have to “juke the stats,” and I understand that.
But it’s not cool when schools institute grade inflation secretly and hope nobody will notice. It’s not cool when schools try to pass off grade inflation as something other than grade inflation. Law schools have to do what they have to do, but there is no reason to pretend that everybody is stupid.
At Harvard Law School and at Georgetown University Law Center, the administrations have decided that their students need things to be a little easier. But neither law school seems willing to admit that the economy played a role in their sudden embrace of grade reform.
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Harvard Law and Georgetown Law Make Grading Easier”
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.
Hello,
I need some advice on whether I should pass/fail Evidence. In short, I have a Constitutional Law exam the morning before with the Evidence exam occurring the following afternoon. I can do some studying during the last week of class, but I have to take two finals before Evidence. I am concerned that pass/failing Evidence will look bad especially if I desire employment at a prosecutor’s office. Your thoughts on pass/failing a bar class in this situation? I figured no employer would care enough to hear about a difficult exam schedule since a transcript stands on its own.
The Dude
Dear The Dude,
Pass/fail is code for: didn’t have the stamina to stay and study, the foresight to review in advance, and the balls to face the music. It’s perfectly legitimate to use it for classes like Mental Health Law, Law & Literature, and other lunacy, but when you use it in Evidence, you cross the line. If your future clients discover that their you pass/failed evidence, they’ll probably feel the way I felt many years ago when I went on a date with a “neurologist,” only to discover he was a D.O. (through a Lexis public records search).
The beauty of transcripts is their starkness. No partial credit, no attached Annex A with a moving tale of how your computer and grandmother died during the exam. Your grades speak for themselves, but when you pass/fail, you plead the Fifth. And even a fool knows that people who plead the Fifth have something to hide.
Ultimately, pulling a pass/fail in a core class because of an exam schedule is kind of like pulling a Robert Bowman. Today you pass/fail an exam; tomorrow you start a $400,000 student loan Ponzi scheme. Today you blame bad timing; tomorrow, a jet ski.
There is honor in failing. There is no honor in pass/failing. It is a slippery slope, and you might break your leg in four places going down.
Your friend,
Marin
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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:
- BARBRI
- Harvard Business School
- Kinney Recruiting
- Lateral Link
- LexisNexis
- NYU School of Law – The Tikvah Center
- The Atlantic
- The Red Cross
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:
Job Searches, Sponsored Content
This week’s headlines from AsiaLegalBlog.com
By asialegalblog
This week’s headlines from AsiaLegalBlog.com
1) Asia Jobs of the Week
2) Leverage Firms’ Willingness to Negotiate, Get the Best Expat Package in
Asia
3) Private Equity Coming Up (If Slowly) in China
4) Trailing Spouses and Other Dependants
5) Partner Moves & Promotions – 12/02/09
6) Deal Watch 12/02/09
This information is supplied by cypressrecruiting.com, the first and only US-based legal recruiting firm to specialize exclusively on law firm and in-house placements in the China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Middle East, and Russia legal markets. Click here to see our available opportunities.
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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
