A deputy U.S. marshal and a court security officer were shot this morning when a gunman opened fire in the lobby of the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas. The gunman was shot in the head and killed near the courthouse. The identity of the shooter and possible motives for the shooting are not yet known.
UPDATE: Las Vegas Now reports that the court security officer has died. You can check out an amateur video, featuring loud gunshots and the cameraman muttering “holy s**t,” over here. (Gavel bang: commenter.)
If you have additional information — e.g., you were at the courthouse when the shooting took place — feel free to email us. Thanks.
UPDATE: A first-person account appears here.
2 Guards Shot in Las Vegas Federal Building [Associated Press via ABA Journal]
Archive for January 2010
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Posted in:
Crime, Guns / Firearms, Murder, Violence
Breaking: Shooting at Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas
By David Lat-
Posted in:
Associate Bonus Watch 2009, Salary Cuts, Salary Freeze, Venable
A Bonus, A Salary Thaw, A Salary Freeze — It’s All Possible at Venable
By Elie Mystal
We all know that Venable is a “wacky” place to work. But is the firm also cheap? Last week, the firm announced its 2010 salary structure. It’s almost like Venable looked at all the different ways firms are handling salaries and decided to try all of them, at the same time. The firm-wide memo from managing partner Karl Racine truly has it all:
As you know, 2009 has been a difficult year for the practice of law. The impact of the recession on our clients has been severe. As a result of this unprecedented downturn in business activity, law firms were forced to take significant action to fundamentally realign their business models with the reality of a market place characterized by a significant decline in the demand for legal services. In a real way, the law firm business model has experienced a demonstrable market correction. While Venable has not been immune from these economic forces, the firm has exhibited remarkable and enviable resilience.
As we prepare to close the books for 2009, the firm will likely end the year less than one percent below 2008 revenues. There is no doubt that the firm’s solid performance is attributable to the superior work and effort of all of its staff, lawyers, legislative advisors, legal professionals, and management team. Perhaps like no other year in the firm’s history, Venable charted its own course in the face of disparate actions taken by our competitors.
I suppose, technically speaking, doing a random mash-up of all the things your competitors have done constitutes “chart[ing] [your] own course.”
Let’s break it down after the jump.
Continue reading “A Bonus, A Salary Thaw, A Salary Freeze — It’s All Possible at Venable”
While I was off sampling eggnog from all across the land, Law Shucks was busy crunching numbers.
To no one’s surprise, it turns out that 2009 was a very difficult year for those trying to hang onto Biglaw jobs:
2009 will go down as the worst year ever for law-firm layoffs. More people were laid off by more firms than had been reported for all previous years combined.
So much for Biglaw being the safe, fallback option.
Numbers after the jump.
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Posted in:
Arnold & Porter, Salary Freeze
Nationwide Salary Thaw: Arnold & Porter
By David Lat & Elie Mystal
Ed. note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the firm has not yet communicated to its associates about salaries. This was correct as of late December, but shortly before the new year, the firm made its announcement. We have amended the post accordingly, and we apologize for the error.
It’s a brand new year. Yay. Will this be the year that the recession ends? We’re hopeful, as are you (based on the results of our reader poll thus far).
Here’s some good news to start off the day. A source at Arnold & Porter reports on the firm’s unfreezing of salaries (as well as lump-sum payments representing deferred comp):
Arnold & Porter just announced we are bumping one class year, plus those in good standing are getting their deferred 2009 compensation. Classes of 2008 and 2009 are both at $160,000 for 2010.
This salary thaw is certainly welcome news — but note that it doesn’t take A&P up to the full New York scale. In 2010, under the NYC scale, class of 2008 associates should be earning $170,000 (not $160,000), class of 2007 associates should be earning $185,000 (not $170,000), etc.
The full memorandum, which was issued on December 30, also confirms upcoming bonus payments:
Consistent with the Firm’s longstanding commitment to be competitive in the marketplace, the Firm will be paying bonuses to eligible associates in respect of their 2009 performance. The bonuses will be based not only on the number of billable, pro bono and business development hours but also with attention to the results of the associate review process, particularly the quality of work and whether an individual has performed at a level commensurate with his or her seniority. Compliance with Firm policies also will be taken into consideration.
What can be expected regarding bonuses at Arnold & Porter? A second tipster explains:
A&P pays no “base” bonus. Bonuses have traditionally been based on hours. Last year, I ended up with more than I would have on the standard New York scale. But some ended up with much less, or none.
Check out the full memo, after the jump.
* Happy 2010. Welcome back to work. We read the New York Times on Sunday so you wouldn’t have to. [Above The Law]
* Judge Ricardo Urbina throws out the baby with the Blackwater because of the DOJ’s overzealousness. [Washington Post]
* Patricia Cohen, the ex-wife of the hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, swapped out lawyers for her RICO suit against her ex. Paul Batista taps out. Gaytri Kachroo enters the ring. [Dealbook/New York Times]
* Montana Supreme Court lends a hand to physician-assisted suicide. [Christian Science Monitor]
* The L.A. city attorney’s office wishes Mike Tyson a happy new year. [Los Angeles Times]
* New TSA rules mean more frisking for certain nationals. [Politico]
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Posted in:
Antonin Scalia, Books, English Grammar and Usage, Fried Frank, Jeffrey Rosen, John Yoo, Media and Journalism, New York Times, Real Estate, Torture, Wall Street
In Today’s New York Times
By David Lat
If you happen to be on the frigid East Coast today, currently experiencing the coldest temperatures of the season, grab yourself a cup of cocoa and a copy of the Sunday New York Times. The NYT often has articles of interest to a legal audience, but this weekend’s edition has an especially high number of stories either by or about the boldface names of the legal profession. To wit:
1. Power of Attorney: Questions for John Yoo. Deborah Solomon interviews John Yoo, the Berkeley law professor perhaps most well-known for his authorship of the so-called “torture memos.” Considering her liberal politics and modus operandi as an interviewer — we’ve previously described her as “snarky, cranky, exceedingly direct” — we were expecting her to go to town on Yoo.
But Professor Yoo actually comes across very well in the short Q-and-A (and is looking newly svelte in the accompanying photo). He’s smart, funny, and charming — not a surprise to us, based on our personal interactions with him, but perhaps a surprise to some who know only the cartoon villain depicted by the mainstream media.
2. The 30-Minute Interview: Jonathan L. Mechanic. An interesting interview with real estate super-lawyer Jonathan Mechanic, chairman of the real estate department of Fried Frank (and previously profiled here). We learn that Mechanic, in addition to being a top real estate attorney, is also a real estate investor: he owns retail and commercial properties in Bergen County, NJ (where we grew up).
Three more stories, after the jump.
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Posted in:
Admin, Announcements, Holidays and Seasons, Reader Polls
Happy New Year from Above the Law!
By David Lat
Happy New Year, dear readers! Welcome to 2010. May the new year bring you peace, prosperity, a new Aeron chair, and all sorts of other good things.
We looked back at our 2009 “Happy New Year” post. It featured a reader poll: “Will 2009 be a better year for the legal profession than 2008?”
A narrow majority — 50.6 percent, to be exact — predicted that 2009 would be worse. Congratulations, guys; it seems you were right, at least with respect to Biglaw. According to the Layoff Tracker over at Lawshucks, over 14,000 people have been laid off by major law firms since January 1, 2008. Of those 14,000 folks, over 12,000 were laid off in calendar year 2009.
Of course, layoffs aren’t the only way to measure health. Maybe firms laid off personnel to improve their bottom lines? But we predict that when the American Lawyer releases its data on profits per partner in 2009, they will show big declines from 2008.
But hey, they say that green shoots are popping up all over the place. Take our reader poll about whether 2010 will be better than 2009, plus share your new year resolutions with us, after the jump.
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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
