Archive for December 2009

McDermott Will & Emery: Another December Deferral Extension

By Elie Mystal

McDermott logo.JPGMcDermott Will & Emery was supposed to have its incoming class start in January. But now that January is almost upon us, MWE is the latest firm to change its mind.
The news first broke on Facebook late last week, via status updates of unhappy incoming associates:

♫ “re-deferment in december. happy holidays.”

Yeah, there is a lot of that going around. It’s like the Biglaw version of the Lexus “December to Remember” ad campaign.
McDermott will be offering the (now standard) deferral extension stipend of $5,000/month. Given that the firm has been cost cutting for a while, incoming associates should probably be grateful for the stipend they will receive.
Additional details, plus a statement from the firm, after the jump.

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Career Center: Associate Bonus and Compensation Updates

By Above the Law

Career Center AboveTheLaw Lateral Link ATL.jpg
The bar has been set for 2009 bonuses by Cravath, and most firms are falling in line.  Check out the ATL Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, for the latest information from the legal markets and updates from users about bonuses and everything else you wanted to know about top law firms.  In the last week, we have updated the firm snapshots for Davis Polk, Orrick, Schulte Roth, Debevoise, Simpson Thatcher, Milbank Tweed, Patton Boggs, Willkie Farr, Skadden Arps and Paul Weiss.  Below are a few of the latest updates from the Career Center’s firm snapshots:

  • This firm announced that that it would not only be continuing its pay freeze and keeping 2010 salaries at 2008 levels, but it would be further cutting salaries for those associates who fail to meet their billable hour goal by more than 300 hours.  
  • This firm debuted its new compensation structure: associates will be grouped into three levels, and advancement from one level to the next will be based on merit, not class year. 
  • This firm matched Cravath for first- through sixth-year associate bonuses, but is giving seventh-year associates a $5,000 bump up from Cravath levels. 

Use the Career Center’s firm snapshots and comparison tool to learn about other bonus news at firms around the country. 

After the jump, we reveal the most popular firms on the Career Center last month.

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Don’t Mess With Texas Blokes

By Kashmir Hill

British aristocrat lawyer.JPGAn ATL reader sent along this motion, asking us:

Can you get to the bottom of whether this is a hoax? I assume it is, given how ridiculous the motion and response are. On the other hand, it’s Texas.

It’s a challenge to be an out-of-state attorney in some courts. It may be even more difficult to be an out-of-country attorney.
Here’s the motion from the District Court of Travis County, Texas:
motion to compel state's attorney to drop accent.jpg
The prosecutor is British (and a Duke Law ’02 grad). His bloody funny response explains that he has already acceded to one of the Defendant’s concerns by wearing cowboy boots, but will not be dropping his accent.

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Who Will Be Legally Responsible for Our New Robot Overlords?

By Elie Mystal

Robot love.JPGIt’s almost 2010. 2010! The future is here!
So where, pray tell, are my freaking robots? When I was a kid, I was promised robots that would clean my house and prepare my meals and submit to my sexual perversions. Yet here we are, well into the 21st century, and there is not a robot slave to be found. What a ripoff. I’m so angry I feel like going back in time and killing John Connor.
I want my robot helpers, now. But the WSJ Law Blog and the San Francisco Chronicle tell me that I am nowhere near ready for the legal consequences of robots with access to home appliances and power tools. From the Law Blog:

A SF Chronicle story out Monday lays out the issue:
Robots have been an increasingly familiar sight in recent years, disarming explosives in Iraq, delivering mail in industrial complexes or bringing drugs to nurses in hospitals. . . .
As robots leave the factories and move into homes and businesses, there is going to be more and more interaction between regular people and increasingly more competent — and mobile — machines, said M. Ryan Calo, a residential fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. And more contact always means more problems, and the U.S. legal system better be prepared, he said.
“These are devices that don’t have a predetermined usage; they’re not toasters,” he said.
“There’s a growing concern now about robot ethics, but what’s missing from those discussions is pragmatic lawyers thinking about what’s going to happen in the future.”

I’m sure that Isaac Asimov has already thought through this problem, but let’s look at what some lawyers have to say.

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Morning Docket 12.08.09

By Kashmir Hill

tomatoes sarah palin.jpg* SCOTUS to decide whether UC Hastings College of Law can deny funding to a Christian group because it excludes gays, lesbians, and non-Christians. Um, why would the latter want to be part of that club anyway? [San Francisco Chronicle]
* That’s rotten. Man tries to throw tomatoes at Sarah Palin and hits a cop instead. [New York Daily News]
* You have the right… to a better warning. Miranda likely to be revamped. [Los Angeles Times]
* There’s been a mistrial for judge-threatening blogger, Hal Turner. [New York Times]
* U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner upholds $675,000 fine for file-sharing Boston University student, but implores Congress to change copyright laws in her decision. [Computerworld]

Northwestern SBA Stays Silent, Others Plan Coup

By Elie Mystal

northwestern law school.gifOn Friday, we told you that the Northwestern Law School Student Bar Association wanted people to watch their language come exam time. In a letter to all students, the SBA told the student body about the kind of language that would not be tolerated:

Therefore, to be clear, saying things like “that’s so gay”, “that exam raped me”, or any racial or sexual epithet, are inappropriate and unacceptable. Accordingly, we ask that every student be cognizant of the critical role you play in maintaining NUSL’s vibrant diverse, collegial and supportive student culture and refrain from using such language.

The response to the SBA’s email has been overwhelming. Over the weekend, Above the Law readers offered every version of “This [protected class] exam [violated me sexually] in my [orifice of choice]” known to man. If the SBA’s letter was meant to inspire civility and tolerance, it was an epic fail.

Which Northwestern SBA members have taken responsibility for the letter? Which students want to stand by the opinions the board disseminated school-wide?

So far, none of the Northwestern SBA members claim responsibility for the message. In fact, finding a Northwestern student representative is more difficult than finding a job in this depressed economy. Above the Law reached out to the SBA president, but he has not responded to our request for comment.

It’s a bit surprising that after so publicly asking the student body to keep it clean, the SBA is suddenly keeping very quiet. Shouldn’t they use this as an opportunity to disseminate their message to a larger audience?

Others at Northwestern are talking, however. And tipsters tell us that this isn’t the first time that the current SBA has sent around a plea for civility in speech. Details after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 12.07.09

By Elie Mystal

Pearl Harbor memorial.JPG* Hate blogger secures a mistrial. [ABA Journal]
* I’ve always wondered what jobs, if any, narcoleptics are truly qualified for. I just can’t think of any job where it is okay to unexpectedly fall asleep. [Overlawyered]
* More exam tips. [Underdog]
* Sarbanes-Oxley had its day in court. [Going Concern]
* Tiger Woods sets a bad example for his lawyers. [Litination]
* I understand why Pearl Harbor Day is infamous. I just don’t see why Irradiating Japanese Villages Day(s) isn’t similarly warranting of infamy. [Infamy or Praise via Blawg Review]

Another Round of MPRE Results

By Elie Mystal

MPRE.jpgThe latest Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) results are out. Here at Above the Law, I drew the short straw and have to write something about a test that is given roughly 8,000,000 times a year.
What can one really say about a test that is a little easier than walking and chewing gum? Congratulations to those who passed? Absolutely.
But if you didn’t pass, honestly, what the hell is wrong with you? We’re in the middle of the worst legal economy anybody can remember. I find it chilling to think that some people were flummoxed by simple ethics questions like “can I break my clients’ knee caps if they do not pay me?” Obviously, lawyers in good standing can only break one knee cap per deadbeat client. Breaking both of them will just result in further payment delay.
Then again, with the great mass of humanity flooding law schools right now, testing minimal ethical standards is probably more important than ever. It’s not like we want to let just anybody into the profession. There are not enough jobs to go around as it is.
With that in mind, let’s hope the MPRE starts testing ethical situations that today’s young lawyers are likely to face. How much of your deferral stipend can you use for pot? How long after being fired as a first-year can you continue to bitch about being fired as a first-year?
Times are changing, so should the test.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of the MPRE

Lawsuit of the Day: Watanabe v. Harrah’s

By David Lat

Terrance Watanabe Terrance K Watanabe Terry Watanabe Harrahs.jpgWe just returned from a very fun weekend in Las Vegas, where we watched a friend compete in the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon. Our friend was one of many lawyers in competition. He’s a prosecutor, but we also saw a public defender — her T-shirt said so — and possibly some lawyers from Morrison & Foerster (in “Run Like a MoFo” apparel). As discussed before in these pages, there’s something about marathon running that attracts attorneys.
Sadly, while in Sin City, we suffered some ill fortune at the craps tables. But things could have been worse — much worse. From an article in the Wall Street Journal:

During a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million.

The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb. It also benefitted the two casinos’ parent company, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which derived about 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from Mr. Watanabe that year.

In a civil suit filed in Clark County District Court last month, Mr. Watanabe, 52 years old, says casino staff routinely plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling.

More about the lawsuit, plus a fun fact about the article’s authorship, after the jump.

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My Job Is Murder: Of Rooftops and Rumpuses

By Susanna Dokupil

My Job Is Murder.jpgEd. 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.
“Now, Dick, go back to your office before anyone notices you’re gone. In exactly fifteen minutes, you will leave for a client meeting. You will bring with you anything from your office of value that fits in your briefcase. I will clean up here and meet you out front. We will go to the Colombian embassy, and from there, leave the country for a month. You will explain your absence by telling your secretary that you are checking into rehab — which, by the way, I highly recommend. The other partners are anxious enough for work that they’ll happily cover for you. If the frame sticks, and it is safe to return, we’re back in a month. If not, we’re safe on foreign soil.”
“How will we get into the embassy?”
“Oh, I spent one of my college summers in Colombia working to teach indigenous peoples about sanitation. One of my friends from that is the ambassador now. That’s actually where I learned how to handle poisonous frogs.”
Dick smiled and shook his head admiringly.
“Speaking of which, Dick, I trust you disposed of that little piece of evidence once you missed your chance to plant it in Thrax’s office?”

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If You Buy a Knock-Off Coach Bag, the Terrorists Win

By Elie Mystal

Coach logo.JPGCoach, which makes leatherware that I can’t afford, wants to make it harder for me to buy fake versions of their products. Apparently, when I purchase a fake bag, children die and the terrorists win. Our sister site Fashionista reports:

According to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, sales of fake goods cost retailers as much as $250 billion each year. And its president, Bob Barchiesi says, “it supports forced child labor overseas, it supports the funding of terrorist organizations.”

The Fashionista editors have taken a strong view against copying. I say, anybody who wants to charge me $200 for a freaking wallet can eat me. Illegal copying is the market’s way of saying “we’ve considered your markup and find it ridiculous.”
Then again, everybody already knows that gold money clips are the only way to go if you are truly prestigious.
Click on the link below, so the experts at Fashionista can explain why terrorists want you to buy knock-off accessories. You can comment over there too.
Coach Files Suit Deep in the Heart of Texas [Fashionista]

Texas Criminal Defense Firm Can’t Defend Its Photos

By Kashmir Hill

Right before the holidays, we wrote a heartwarming story about child porn and stumbled across the website of Lindeman, Alvarado & Frye, a Texas criminal defense firm with a variety of sexual crimes practice groups.
We wrote an Adventures in Law Firm Advertising post about the firm because of its disturbing taste in stock photos. For example, we thought this image for a kiddie porn defense practice group was highly questionable:
lindeman alvarado frye kiddie porn defense.jpg
Apparently, the photos did not stay up long after our post. The Texas Lawyer wrote on Friday about the firm’s learning a lesson from ATL:

Above the Law noted that a photo of a pigtailed girl accompanying Lindeman, Alvarado’s description of its Child Sexual Assault & Internet Solicitation of a Minor Defense Practice was a “little off.” The blog also pointed out a photo of a troubled-looking woman wrapped in a robe illustrating the firm’s Rape and Sexual Assault Defense Practice; one of a hand over the mouth of a young girl to illustrate the firm’s Family Violence Defense Practice; and a photo of a suitcase filled with white packages illustrating the firm’s Interstate and International Drug Charges Defense Practice.
The stock photos in question were added to the firm’s Web site in April by FindLaw, which Lindeman, Alvarado had hired to revamp and expand the firm’s site, Lindeman says. Lindeman, Alvarado partner Charles B. “Brad” Frye says the project cost the firm about $30,000.

We think Lindeman may be entitled to a refund. An ATL reader sent the firm a link to our post, and the firm e-mailed Findlaw to get the photos taken down. Since it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, they didn’t remove them from the site until Monday, Nov. 30.
Not that it matters. We still have the screen shots. Plus, we discovered one more photo — thanks, Google cache! — that may be the worst of them all….

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Discriminating Against Conservatives in Law Firm Hiring:
Is It Wrong?

By David Lat

No Federalists Need Apply.jpgThat was the question posed in yesterday’s popular Ethicist column, in the New York Times. Here’s the question that a reader posed to columnist Randy Cohen:

While interviewing law students for jobs as paid summer interns and full-time associates for my firm, I noticed several had résumés listing their activities in the Federalist Society. Some of my partners have conservative views similar to those of the society, but I do not. These students’ politics would not affect their professional function, but my review is meant to consider their judgment and personality (though I don’t need to give reasons for the assessments given). May I recommend not hiring someone solely because of his or her politics?

NAME WITHHELD, GREENWICH, CONN.

Ah, Greenwich — limousine liberalism, anyone? We are not surprised that this question came from the left side of the aisle. In our experience, liberals — despite their self-proclaimed commitment to “tolerance” — are far more intolerant of people with divergent views. To liberals, the political is so often personal; if you don’t agree with their entire orthodoxy, you are per se a bad person.

Okay, we’re stepping off our soapbox. How did the Ethicist respond?

Find out — and discover whether the partner took the Ethicist’s advice, plus take a reader poll — after the jump.

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Is It Wrong?”

Brownie’s New Heckuva Job

By Elie Mystal

Brown and Bush FEMA Denver Law.JPGI always wondered where former FEMA director Michael Brown would end up. I imagined he would end up as a greeter at the Bush presidential library. You know, something that he is actually qualified to do.
Instead, it appears the overmatched bureaucrat is taking his show to law school. No, not as a student, as a professor. TPMMuckraker reports:

Michael Brown, the much-ridiculed former FEMA director who became a symbol of the Bush administration’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, has landed a new gig: teaching a law-school class on the Patriot Act next spring.

What student body will be lucky enough to learn from the best? Details after the jump.

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Billing Rates Go Up, But Just Slightly

By Elie Mystal

pyramid scheme capstone small.jpgAssociate salaries aren’t going up. If anything, we’re in a deflationary period regarding pay.
But billing rates? Yeah, those are still going up. Just a little bit. The National Law Journal reports:

Law firms increased their average annual firmwide billing rate by 2.5 percent over the last year, one of the lowest increases in recent memory, according to The National Law Journal’s 2009 survey of billing rates.
The small 2009 boost compares to a 4.3 percent increase reported in 2008 and a 7.7 percent rate climb in 2007. “Law firms this year increased rates very modestly, compared to the standard rate increase of 6 to 8 percent,” said James Jones, a consultant with Hildebrandt International. “I would have expected to see that, in 2009, when the message [about the state of the economy] finally sunk in.”

See clients, law firms understand the difficult state of the economy. That’s why they are charging you just a little more — instead of a lot more.

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Asia Chronicles: ODDS AND ENDS; THANKSGIVING IN HK WITH THE MARINES; COUNSEL PAY IN ASIA

By Kinney Recruiting

Asia Chronicles logo.jpghongkong003.JPG[Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]
Evan here, writing from Miami airport lounge, about to head off for the weekend (does not mean my phone will not work for candidates this weekend, as usual) and trying to get another Asia Chronicles post out. Just returned Wednesday from a hectic NYC to Hong Kong to Tokyo to NYC trip. When I am in HK it is typically about seven meetings a day (mostly with partner candidates and hiring partners), usually outside of our HK offices (in ICBC), so it takes a couple of days of recovery on Miami Beach upon return. Apologies to all my associate candidates that may have found me to be a bit out of pocket some of this week, while traveling and recovering.
On the first day of the trip, I was on the panel of a seminar at NYU on Asia Practice with Toby Myerson (Paul Weiss), Jonathan Pan (Kind & Wood), Puneet Arora(Pricewaterhouse Coopers), Nan-I Chen (Barclays) and Alex Hao (Vinson & Elkins). I hope more of these kinds of events can occur, to further our goal of educating the biglaw associate community on lateral movement to and within Asia. Thanks again to the Chinese Business Lawyers Association and the NYU Asia Law Society for organizing and sponsoring.
I made two Asia associate placements in the past week, one a mid-level fund formation associate in HK and the other a junior M&A associate in BJ. Both are moving from NYC. Expect more to be official shortly…
Places you can meet with our Asia team over the next couple of weeks: Hong Kong – Alexis is back in HK, where she is based, after being abroad for a few weeks. New York – I will be in NYC Dec. 7 and 8 and Robert and I will be in NYC Dec. 14 to 17. Shanghai – I will be in Shanghai Dec. 19 to 21. My next several week Asia trip will be in January, but trying to spend some time on the home front for the holidays with my wife and family.
Opening of the Week: We have a lot of openings in Asia, but will promote one each week here in the Asia Chronicles. We are representing a top US firm in HK that has an urgent need for an ’09 (deferred) to ’07 US associate with native Korean language skills. A Korean practice partner from this firm will be in NYC next week and if you are interested, and pass a screen interview with me, then I can set up an interview for you with the hiring partner on Wednesday or Thursday. This is a top Korea practice at a top US firm in HK. Very good JD academics and native Korean fluency needed.
***More after the jump.

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Mayer Brown Re-Deferment: A December Surprise

By Elie Mystal

Mayer Brown LLP new logo.jpgLast Thursday, we asked you if deferred incoming associates were all set to start working. With a lot of associates scheduled to start in January, firms that extend the deferment in December might need a visit from Christmas ghosts.
Well, a few incoming associates received a large “bah, humbug” from Mayer Brown. The firm is asking people to “voluntarily” extend their deferral to October 2010.
On the positive side, the decision will only affect a few of Mayer Brown’s incoming class.
An explanation from the firm after the jump.

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Morning Docket 12.07.09

By Kashmir Hill

Jerry O'Connell Jeremiah O'Connell law school law student.jpg* At least one 1L at Los Angeles’ Southwestern Law School has found employment. Jerry O’Connell’s decision to go to law school pays off! [Hollywood Reporter]
* Che peccato. Amanda Knox found guilty of murdering her British study abroad roommate in Italy. [CNN]
* Montana Senator Max Baucus is being raked over the coals for nominating his girlfriend, Melodee Hanes, for a U.S. attorney position. She withdrew and now works for the DOJ. Sexy this story is not. [New York Daily News]
* The family of a Google engineer is suing New York City Parks for $120 million after a rotten branch fell on his head, leaving him brain damaged and paralyzed. In other news, most tasteless lead ever for this story at the New York Post. [New York Post]
* Witness-tampering lawyer gets 14 years in prison and a quarter-million dollar fine. [New York Times]
* Drive safely. [ABA Journal]

This Week in Layoffs: 12.05.09

By Law Shucks

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgEd. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.

Huzzah! Unemployment is down this week. OK, we’re not that excited. It’s not easy to get excited about the unemployment rate being "only" 10%. Week in and week out, economists are surprised by the rate – in good weeks they only under- or over- estimate, but all too often, they’ve been getting the entire direction wrong. Supposedly, this week’s good news even caught the administration off guard, causing President Obama’s speechwriters to scramble to breathe some sunshine into a recent speech.

One question his team definitely didn’t prepare him for was whether he’d consider legalizing prostitution, marijuana, and non-violent crimes to kickstart the economy. To the chagrin of some (many?), that’s not on the table. No word on whether he has considered gay marriage can save the economy.

After the jump, we recap what little information we’ve been able to extract from the firms this week.

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The PC Police Ride Strong at Northwestern

By Elie Mystal

northwestern law school.gifIt’s exam time. As we all know, stressed out law students tend to have colorful phrases about difficult exams. There’s a common, sometimes sexually charged vernacular. “That exam raped me,” or “I made property my bitch,” are things you’re likely to hear on campus around this time.
Well, the Student Bar Association at Northwestern University School of Law wants students to watch their language this exam period.
After the jump, check out the warning Northwestern students received from their student representatives.

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