* Facebook rules for judges in Florida. They can be on Facebook but they can’t friend the lawyers who appear before them. It’s not clear whether the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee approves of poking. [Legal Profession Blog]
* Surprise! It was a bad year for law firms. [Bloomberg]
* Michigan attorney Murdoch Hertzog, 83, has been suspended for offering clients the option to pay their bills via “the couch of restitution.” He still denies the allegation. His defense is that he’s too old — at this age, he prefers money to sex. [Detroit News]
* Was prominent L.A. attorney Jeffrey Tidus murdered or did he commit suicide? [Associated Press]
* San Diego Charger linebacker Shawne Merriman wants to make a line of t-shirts with Wal-Mart, but his brand has been tainted by former girlfriend Tila Tequila. He’s suing her for falsely accusing him of attacking her, drugging and sleeping with minors and making illegal drugs. But his suit is not about defamation; it’s about “copyright and trademark infringement and dilution, intentional interference with contract and unfair competition.” [Courthouse News Service]
* Timber! That’s the sound of a $6 million lawsuit filed by Debevoise falling on a client who doesn’t want to pay its bill. [ABA Journal]
Archive for December 2009
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Posted in:
Defamation, Elizabeth Halverson, State Judges
Former Judge Halverson Rolls Back Into the News
By David Lat
On her motorized Rascal scooter. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
A one-time legal assistant to ousted District Judge Elizabeth Halverson won a $50,000 judgment Tuesday in the defamation case she filed against Halverson in 2007. District Judge David Wall on Tuesday ordered Halverson to pay the money and to return files to the assistant, Ileen Spoor….
Wall denied Spoor’s claim for $100,000 in punitive damages. Halverson did not attend the proceedings.
Had Her Honor attended, would the outcome have been different? As an oral advocate, she’s not half-bad.
So, what were the allegations against Elizabeth Halverson?
Continue reading “Former Judge Halverson Rolls Back Into the News”
The recession will make fools of us all before the end. Especially those of us who spent unwisely during the good times.
I know that the general, late night commentariat doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for law students and young lawyers who didn’t budget properly before the recession took hold. But I have sympathy for those not blessed with the financial planning gene. And I hate seeing young lawyers pay the price for their poor decisions.
So it is with great sadness that I inform you that one would-be Biglaw associate can no longer afford to keep his pool table. He has to sell it, but he would rather trade it for a job.
After a moment of silence, let’s check out his plea for employment.
* The danger of deferred associates running around with nothing to do. [PR Web]
* Kirkland & Ellis, now under new management. [Am Law Daily]
* Uganda considers eliminating gay people. Yeah, cause that is what is really holding that country back, gays. [WSJ Law Blog]
* How many Tiger Woods related questions will be on law school exams this period? [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]
* I don’t think murdering women are particularly hot. But I might be in the minority. [Double X]
* Stealing tips from Starbuck’s baristas seems particularly low. Starbucks punishing a barista who was trying to get her tips back is just disgusting. [Legal Blog Watch]
Associate Bonus Watch: Boies Will Be Boies
Generous bonuses, above-market base salaries.
By David Lat
Year-end associate bonuses were recently announced by Boies, Schiller & Flexner, the litigation powerhouse founded by the renowned David Boies. And the Boies bonuses were good — very good.
For starters, unlike other top firms, Boies is paying bonuses to first-year associates from the class of 2009. According to Phil Korologos, a partner in the firm’s New York office:
First-year associates who started after September 1, 2009 will receive a $5,000 year-end bonus. First-year associates who started prior to September 1, 2009, will receive the greater of $5,000 or their performance-based bonus.
Performance-based bonuses at the firm can be quite high, depending on how hard you work and the types of cases you work on (contingency or non-contingency). As a result, bonuses at Boies are individualized, not lockstep; there’s no magic number for each class year. The firm provided Above the Law with the high end of its bonus ranges:
For associates after their first year, the amount of their bonus is based on performance. The performance based bonuses for rising second-year associates range as high as $70,000.
The performance based bonuses for associates beyond their second year range as high as $150,000.
Six-figure bonuses? Now we’re getting into Wachtell territory — or beyond (since we suspect Wachtell bonuses will be down quite a bit this year).
In addition, Boies Schiller pays above-market base salaries — just like Wachtell ($165,000) and Williams & Connolly ($180,000). First-year associates at BSF now start at $174,000.
Check out the complete Boies salary scale, plus learn more about how their bonuses are calculated, after the jump.
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Posted in:
Defamation, Drinker Biddle & Reath, Football, Sports, Trademarks
More Reservations About Native American Mascots
By Kashmir Hill
Legal battles over Native American mascots are being waged in both the professional and college sports arenas. The New York Times reports that the controversy over the Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota has gotten more complicated.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association advised the school, along with 17 other universities, to change its mascot three and half years ago, says Ashby Jones at the WSJ Law Blog. While other universities acquiesced, the Fighting Sioux fought back, filing a lawsuit against the NCAA.
The suit was starting to wind down, and the name was to change soon says the NYT, until members of the Sioux tribe decided to file a lawsuit of their own. To keep the name. They’re proud of it:
The members from Spirit Lake behind the lawsuit assert that many of the American Indians opposed to the Fighting Sioux nickname are simply from tribes other than the Sioux, and are jealous of all the recognition. (Opponents call this absurd.)
Eunice Davidson, 57, who says she is “full blood” and “grew up on this reservation” tells the New York Times: “I have to tell you, I am very, very honored that they would use the name.”
When we interviewed Amanda Blackhorse, a member of the Navajo Nation who has a petition pending before the Trademark Board about the Washington Redskins name, she expressed skepticism about Native Americans who defend tribal mascot names. She said they are in the minority.
This week, Fordham Law professor Sonia Katyal penned a column for Findlaw about the IP and First Amendment issues when it comes to racialized symbols. Why do we object to “Wong Brothers” but embrace the “Skins”?
Continue reading “More Reservations About Native American Mascots”
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Posted in:
Boutique Law Firms, Litigators, My Job Is Murder
My Job Is Murder: Of Explanations and Escapes
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.
The detective hid with Katarina just out of sight, listening, hoping to overhear a confession. But once he realized John intended to poison Tyler, he decided to step in, one way or the other.
“Hold it right there,” he said.
Instantly, he saw he was too late. A golden leg squirmed between John’s glove and Tyler’s mouth.
“Honestly, officer, there’s no need for the gun anymore. The killer is incapacitated. In fact, he’ll be dead in a matter of minutes. There’s no known antidote for batrachotoxin.”
At that, Katarina sprang into action. She e-mailed everyone in the office: “Trapped on MakoProphet roof with Ken Thrax’s murderer! Call police!”
Katarina looked at the time. It was 12:05 p.m. She texted Alex, who regularly got sushi takeout for lunch. “Going to O Bento today?”
He responded immediately: “There now — why?”
“I need you to get me something….”
Continue reading “My Job Is Murder: Of Explanations and Escapes”
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Posted in:
Canada, Lawsuit of the Day
Canadian Lawsuit of the Day: Lawyer Not Charmed By Witch’s Ruse
By Elie Mystal
Some stories really write themselves:
Vishwantee Persaud allegedly defrauded a Toronto lawyer of tens of thousands of dollars by telling him she was the embodiment of the spirit of his deceased sister, come back to help him in business. Ms. Persaud now faces charges under a rarely used section of the criminal code for pretending to practice witchcraft.
We can also put the Toronto lawyer’s brain in the category of “rarely used.”
“She said she came from a long line of witches and could do tarot-card readings,” says Detective Constable Corey Jones, who investigated the case. “It was through this that she cemented [the lawyer's] trust,” setting the stage for the fraud to follow, which, according to Det. Constable Jones, included claiming fictitious expenses such as law-school tuition and cancer treatments.
Sorry, I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for the lawyer who fell for this. I’m not inclined to believe in the supernatural. If Whoopi Goldberg shows up at my house, she better bring more than a levitating penny.
Still, one has to ask why there are witchcraft laws still on the Canadian books.
Canada explains itself, eh, after the jump.
Continue reading “Canadian Lawsuit of the Day: Lawyer Not Charmed By Witch’s Ruse”
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Posted in:
Crime, Hotties, Kumari Fulbright, Law Schools
A Beauty Queen in an Orange Jumpsuit? Former Law Student Kumari Fulbright Could Be Prison-Bound
By David Lat
UPDATE (07/01/10): Fulbright has a new lawyer. Her sentencing date has not yet been set (because she’s scheduled to testify at the October trial of a co-defendant, after which she’ll be sentenced).
UPDATE (11/11/10): Here’s a report on how testimony went.
Remember Kumari Fulbright? Of course — how could you forget her? The former beauty queen had her legal studies at the University of Arizona derailed after being accused of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault.
It appears that Fulbright’s criminal case is reaching a resolution. The Arizona Daily Star reports:
A former beauty queen and UA law school student accused of orchestrating the kidnapping of her former boyfriend will spend the next two years in prison.
Kumari Fulbright, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault Tuesday in Pima County Superior Court.
Fulbright agreed to serve two years in prison for the assault charge and she will have to serve a term of probation on the kidnapping charge once she’s released.
Despite having studied law, as well as having interned for a federal judge, Kumari Fulbright didn’t seem to know how a plea hearing is supposed to work.
Yesterday we reported that DLA Piper will be moving away from a lockstep system. The firm will implement a three-tiered seniority and compensation structure, in which 15% of associate salary will be withheld until the end of the year — pending a performance review that will be graded on a curve.
We promised you further analysis and reaction — but first, a correction. Yesterday I said that the “freeze is still on,” referring to the fact that DLA froze salaries at 2008 levels and will be carrying that scale forward to 2010. That’s not entirely accurate. Multiple tipsters and commenters pointed out that after freezing salaries in 2008, DLA cut salaries in 2009.
That’s correct. We reported on DLA’s 10% salary cut back in May. The National Law Journal puts DLA’s new three-tiered system into the proper perspective:
Salaries for associates in Level 1 will start at $145,000 in major markets. Level 2 salaries will range from $170,000 to about $200,000. Level 3 salaries will be around $250,000. Associates generally will remain at a certain level for two to four years. The new pay plan will affect approximately 500 associates.
Compare those numbers to the Orrick structure we reported on last week. Orrick is still starting at $160,000. And their “managing associates,” the Orrick equivalent of DLA’s Level 2 associates, start in the range of $185,000 – $205,000. Only at the top levels do the salaries start to match-up.
But that is not taking into account DLA’s 15% salary withholding, which is what most of our readers and commenters want to talk about. Let’s take a closer look at the withholding after the jump.
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Posted in:
Caption Contests, Contests, Pictures, Reader Polls
A Holiday-Themed Caption Contest: The Finalists
By Kashmir Hill & David LatLast week, we provided this photo to you, for a caption contest:
This time we picked not one but two groups of finalists. One group of nominees came from the comments on the post, in the traditional fashion. The second group of entries was generated by guests at the recent holiday happy hour, sponsored by Applied Discovery.
Check them out and vote for your favorite in each group, after the jump.
Continue reading “A Holiday-Themed Caption Contest: The Finalists”
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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:
- Ally Bank
- Bombay Sapphire
- Kinney Recruiting
- Lateral Link
- LexisNexis
- Probono Manager
- Starwood Hotels
- 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:
Law Schools
Young Fools. Only Now Do Law Students Understand the True Consequences of Their Actions.
By Elie Mystal
I’m not paraphrasing Emperor Palpatine because it’s finals period. I’m paraphrasing my Sith master because I prophesied what would happen to law students long before purple electricity was coursing through their teeth. LexisNexis has a new survey out on law school happiness. The ABA Journal reports:
It’s not surprising that law students are a discontented lot.
A new survey by LexisNexis found that, based on the changing legal marketplace, 21 percent of law students regret attending law school. Thirty-five percent said they don’t feel adequately prepared to succeed in the new marketplace, and 65 percent said law schools don’t teach the practical business skills needed in today’s economy, according to the survey summary (PDF posted by Legal Blog Watch).
Will law school deans listen to the cries of their students? Probably not as long as there are future students willing to ignore the data and pay tuition.
As you well know, it doesn’t get much better for lawyers that survive the law school experience.
Details after the jump.
* Senate Democrats have apparently agreed to drop the public option from pending health care legislation. [Washington Post]
* Divorce lawyers say text messages are being used more and more as evidence. Just ask Tiger Woods. [New York Times]
* The alleged White House party crashers, Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele — pictured at right, with VP Biden — are taking the Fifth, according to their lawyer. [CNN]
* Nationwide layoff watch: Brinks Hofer, the Chicago-based IP firm, cuts seven lawyers and 19 staffers (about 6 percent of its workforce). [ABA Journal]
* Based on how many questions the justices posed to the government and how few they had for Miguel Estrada, representing Conrad Black in an attack on the “honest services” law, the statute may not be long for this world. [New York Times]
* Attorney General Martha Coakley wins the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate — which means she’ll soon be taking Ted Kennedy’s former seat. After all, this is Massachusetts. [Boston Globe]
* Lawyer Stephen Harbeck, the head of the Securities Investors Protection Corporation (SIPC), finds himself in the hot seat these days. [New York Times]
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Posted in:
Law Schools, listserv
Exam Stress Makes University of Maryland Law Students Catty
By Kashmir Hill
In the midst of law school finals, stress is manifesting itself in a variety of ways at campuses across the land. Northwestern students are debating politically correct language and staging coups. NYU law students are staging silent — and awkward — 11 p.m. dance parties at their library. At Vanderbilt, students are trying to land study (and f***) buddies via Craigslist ads.
At the University of Maryland School of Law, students are getting pissy over pussies on the list-serv. From a tipster:
The University of Maryland Law School’s law-all listserv (that mails to every student, professor, dean and employee of the law school) has been recently inundated with emails for cat-sitting over winter break — sent from professors and students. After the third email, the entire listserv erupted. One student, clearly short on patience during exams, replied that the listserv was not meant for personal ads. Following that email was an onslaught of fake pet sitting ads… The entire school is literally buzzing about the cat emails. Clearly finals delirium has set in.
We bring the delirium to you, after the jump.
Continue reading “Exam Stress Makes University of Maryland Law Students Catty”
* Gatorade is no longer pushing Tiger Juice. [Dealbreaker]
* The SCOTUS of the future. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* Kash warns people not to take their clothes off, unless it’s for money. [True/Slant]
* Who needs to get a holiday card in your office? [Corporette]
* Do you need a Ph.D to succeed in legal academia? I hope not. Teaching sounds like mad fun. [Ideoblog]
* Yahoo lawyers prepare for battle. [Wired]
* Marc Randazza’s reputation is growing faster than the speed of light. [Bitter Lawyer]
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Posted in:
Associate Bonus Watch 2009, Ropes & Gray
Associate Bonus Watch: Ropes & Gray Matches
By Elie MystalRopes & Gray bonus information is breaking over the wire. We understand that Ropes has matched the market scale — at least for junior associates.
We’re still waiting to hear what senior people are getting. Will firms match the Cravath scale — which gives senior associates a $30,000 bonus? Or will Ropes follow Sullivan & Cromwell scale — which bumped senior associates up to $35,000?
We’ll keep you posted as we get more details. As some of you know, Ropes & Gray keeps bonus information confidential for upper level associates. But we understand that senior people at the firm will receive a bonus that is more along the lines of what Sullivan & Cromwell paid out, as opposed to Cravath.
In the meantime, congratulations Boston. Looks like Ropes & Gray just made sure most of you will be getting the New York bonus.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of associate bonuses
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Posted in:
Celebrities, Gay, Pornography, Sarah Palin
How Did Levi Johnston Respond to the Gay Porn Offer Letter?
By David Lat
Last week, we wrote about how Levi Johnston, the hunky dad of Sarah Palin’s grandson, received an offer to perform on camera for a gay adult entertainment company, [Not Safe for Work (NSFW)] Corbin Fisher [NSFW].
We showed you the offer letter from Corbin Fisher. Then we asked you to advise Johnston about it, in the comments.
Today we bring you (1) a round-up of our favorite comments on the thread, and (2) how Levi Johnston responded to the offer in real life (through his counsel, high-profile Alaska attorney Rex Butler).
Check it all out, after the jump.
Continue reading “How Did Levi Johnston Respond to the Gay Porn Offer Letter?”
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Posted in:
DLA Piper, Killing Lockstep, Salary Freeze
DLA Piper: Bringing the Curve to Biglaw
By Elie MystalIf you thought you left the curve behind when you graduated law school, think again. DLA Piper has decided to throw its hat into the killing lockstep arena. In a long memo released to associates this morning, DLA outlines its intention to withhold a greater percentage of associate compensation until the end of the year. Associates will have an opportunity to get this money back, if they perform well on their performance reviews.
But the performance reviews will be curved, bringing a sense of the grading competition and bitterness from law school and adding it to firm life.
Let’s jump into the details, after the jump.
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Posted in:
Holidays and Seasons, Layoffs, Morgan Lewis, Parties, Reader Polls
Laid-Off Associates on the Morgan Lewis Holiday Party Invite List
By Elie Mystal
A couple of weeks ago, we asked if deferred associates should be invited to the firm holiday party. I argued that although these deferred associates were not employees of the firm, a holiday invite would be a nice gesture.
Roughly 60% of ATL voters agreed. We don’t know how many firms are paying attention, but hopefully some of them will extend a courtesy invitation to their incoming class.
Today, we have an entirely different question. Former Morgan Lewis & Bockius associates received the firm’s “alumni” packet. The laid-off associates we spoke with were not that thrilled:
Some people might consider this a “nice” gesture. Me, I think it’s pure douchery. I was laid off from Morgan Lewis back in March. Today, I got an invitation to their December holiday party. Seriously? I mean, I still have some friends there, but do the partners who fired me really think I want to rub elbows & pretend to be friendly with them one more time?
Not only that, the invitation is merely the first paragraph of an extremely long (eight-page!) letter celebrating the firm’s glories over the past year. And I am assured that “we are fortunate to have the firm’s unwavering culture of service fueling our relationships with clients and in the community.” Wow, thanks.
- Former MLB Associate
Morgan Lewis laid off 216 people back in March: 55 attorneys and 161 staffers. So there are a lot of former-MLB people out there who do not think the past year was all that successful.
Despite the carnage, Morgan Lewis is still treating these former employees as alumni of the firm. A Morgan Lewis spokesperson confirms that the holiday invitation was not a glitch….
Continue reading “Laid-Off Associates on the Morgan Lewis Holiday Party Invite List”
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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
