If you spent your summer at Mintz Levin in 2009 and received an offer, congratulations! You must be very proud. Now wrap it up very tightly and put it in a safe place, because you won’t be pulling it out again until 2012. Multiple sources report that Mintz just deferred its 2009 summer associate class to 2012 — but the deferral is to January 2012, so those associates will taste a little bit of Biglaw life before the rapture.
One tipster put it this way:
We just found out that we are not starting until January 2012 at the earliest. This is ridiculous and they said that we still have to wait until April to find out if more information. They say nothing about stipends or salary advances or anything. Only that they will pay for the bar course and bar exam. Please publish this info because we are all pretty freaked out.
I’m not sure how publishing this story will make you less freaked out. I mean, you’re not starting until 2012. It just seems to me that as you sit there and just stare at the numbers, 2-0-1-2, and contemplate just how far away that is, and think about what you could possibly do to fill that time in the middle of a recession — well, if it were me I think having it published would make me more freaked out.
Mintz Levin has confirmed this news. We have a statement from the firm.
Continue reading “Mintz Levin: Defers Class of 2010 to … 2012″
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.
ATL -
I am a first-year litigation associate at a large law firm. Although I never really had any interest in doing transactional work, it has recently dawned on me that working in litigation severely limits my ability to transfer to my firm’s (or any firm’s) foreign offices. I don’t really care at this point whether I would prefer/be more suited for one practice area or the other, as it is becoming increasingly clear to me that, regardless of which I choose, the work will be boring and the hours will be long. Being able to spend my little free time in Paris, let’s say, as opposed to my current location, would make it that much more bearable.
My firm supposedly allows transfers between litigation and transactional work, but considering the current economic climate, I am a bit nervous about tinkering with the status quo. Is this an idea worth pursuing or should I just hold out for a clerkship on some South Pacific island?
Shipwrecked
Dear Shipwrecked,
Hallelujah! Finally, someone who realizes that there IS no difference between litigation and transactional. You’re just shoveling the same s*** into two separate piles.
The problem here isn’t the transfer request itself. You’re not asking the practice group head to be the guarantor on your apartment or to massage your bunion. You’re asking to look at different types of papers, and bill for doing so. They’ll either say yes or no, but there’s a 0% probability that they’ll fire you just for asking.
It’s what happens after the transfer that should worry you. Litigation and transactional is like Sharks v. Jets, and neither gang group takes to it kindly when associates defect for the other. At my ex-firm, a midlevel associate in my ERISA group once defected from our separatist military organization to join (gasp) litigation. Many from the brotherhood shunned her for turning her back on colleagues and the tax code. For a time, she also had to “transition off” several deals while also taking on a caseload.
The point is, if you want to leave litigation, prepare to be jumped out…and jumped in to transactional. It all comes down to whether Paris at night and on the weekends is worth a knife fight in a red leather jacket. WWMJD?
Your friend,
Marin
Continue reading “Pls Hndle Thx: The *Other* Gang Bang”
Many job seekers would love to work as lawyers for the federal government but haven’t had luck landing a position. Openings for attorneys on USAJOBS attract hundreds of applicants. In light of massive law-firm layoffs and the relative stability of government employment, high demand for federal jobs is unsurprising. You have to be a positively brilliant lawyer to land a government gig these days.
Or not. If you’ve applied to the U.S. Department of Justice without success, ask yourself: Do I have a normal or above-normal IQ?
If you do, you might be… overqualified. From a Justice Department job posting (emphasis added):
The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine.
Quips former DOJ lawyer Ty Clevenger: “Having worked there, I think CRD has plenty of mentally retarded lawyers already. Mostly in supervisory positions.”
Says another tipster who brought this to our attention: “I understand how you can have a few missing limbs or be partially paralyzed and still be a trial lawyer, but someone with an IQ less than 70?!?!!?”
Recruiting mentally retarded lawyers to litigate civil rights cases for the DOJ may take the expression “good enough for government work” too far. But, in fairness, there is a caveat to all of this….
Continue reading “Mentally Retarded? The Justice Department Wants YOU.“
When we reviewed Morrison & Foerster’s new website yesterday, a commenter advised us to check out the firm’s career page for those who think they might have “that MoFo mojo” (in the words of the firm).
The commenter was amused by MoFo’s comparing new lawyers to pigeons, and its advice on how to avoid being “@$%#@! Pigeonholed.” We were amused, though, by its assessment of “what makes a whole lawyer” and how to be successful as a new associate at MoFo.
If you’ve ever felt like Biglaw just saw you as a beast of burden, MoFo confirms it, using a cow to illustrate the various cuts of a good lawyer:
Intellectual curiosity is important and is, sensibly, the flavor found in the cow’s head. What does MooFo ascribe to the rump?
Continue reading “You’re Not Just a Piece of Meat at MoFo. You’re the Whole Cow.”
Last month, as your ATL editors were leaving work, we ran into a fresh recruit to Biglaw, newly arrived in New York with a January draft date. He was at the corner of Mott and Houston after having looked at a possible apartment for rent. He recognized us as chroniclers of Biglaw’s troubles and complained about the New York housing search.
It’s not that it’s hard to find an apartment these days, thanks to the recession-inspired exodus from Manhattan. Instead, our Biglaw-bound reader said that he had found the perfect apartment but that the landlord had turned his application down. “I don’t have bad credit,” he said, and he looked respectable enough, going to open houses in a suit. “I think the landlord may have googled my firm and seen that it’s had layoffs.”
We doubt that landlords are coming to Above the Law to do background checks on potential tenants. We suggested that the rejection may be due instead to a certain housing phenomenon: discrimination against lawyers.
Continue reading “Open Thread: Lawyerly Housing Woes”
Fashion Law is the first book ever published on the legal issues surrounding and affecting the fashion world. Elise Bloom of Proskauer, Guillermo Jimenez of FIT and Barbara Kolsun of Stuart Weitzman are among the lawyers who contributed chapters, which cover everything from employment to intellectual property, licensing to marketing, international trade to real estate. Fashion Law is currently available at www.amazon.com.
At LegalTech, Thomson Reuters celebrated Tuesday night’s announcement of acquiring the Minneapolis based SuperLawyers with all kinds of bells and whistles. Unfortunately the ringers on the bells were defective and the whistles were meant for dogs. No one from Thomson at LegalTech was prepared to really discuss anything regarding the SuperLawyers pick-up.
“Oh, that’s a Westlaw thing, you should go talk to Westlaw,” one Thomson rep told me. Unfortunately the Westlaw folks were giving me the same blank stares.
Not to say that LegalTech wasn’t an overall success. More after the jump.
Continue reading “We Acquired SuperLawyers? For Real? (An Update)”
Oh, to be old and powerful. SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy must be living the good life. He’s got a lifelong job in the middle of a global recession, and oh yeah, he’s the swing vote on the Supreme Court. I bet he doesn’t even drive a Toyota.
Justice Kennedy gave a talk at Pepperdine School of Law. The ABA Journal reports:
Kennedy’s “courtly and humorous” address at Pepperdine University’s School of Law included criticism of harsh sentences in the United States. He also responded to questions, including this one: “Does Justice Kennedy feel scolded?”
“He doesn’t,” Kennedy replied.
And why would he? As we noted after the State of the Union, the President Obama can talk all he wants, the Court does not have to listen. As the Ventura County Star reports:
His response when asked about President Barack Obama’s comment that the ruling invited special-interest money into politics:
“I’ve got a lifetime job,” Kennedy said. “He doesn’t.”
Properly buoyant with that sense of unelected, inscrutable power, Justice Kennedy took a couple of lighthearted shots at the other branches of government.
Continue reading “Justice Kennedy: ‘Courtly and Humorous’”
* “Lady Al Qaeda” was found guilty. Her reaction: “This is a verdict coming from Israel and not from America.” [New York Times]
* And just to be clear, Attorney General Holder is a huge fan of civilian trials. [Courthouse News Service]
* Congressional Democrats try to figure how to protect themselves from corporate “speech.” [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
* Toyota is doing its best to end the legal recession by itself. [National Law Journal]
* Shareholder lawsuits, welcome back. We’ve missed you. [The Recorder]
* South Carolina lawyer shot to death, apparently by an angry husband. [ABA Journal]
Earlier this week, at the PLI Law Firm Leadership and Management Institute — which was excellent, by the way (and not just because we presented there) — Dean David Van Zandt, of Northwestern University School of Law, offered some reflections on the future of legal education. (We used one of his comments as a recent quote of the day.)
Dean Van Zandt’s presentation was thoughtful and thought-provoking. He analyzed a number of recent reforms made by leading law schools. He also explained the changes that Northwestern Law School has made to its academic program.
One of his most interesting tidbits was the starting salary that would constitute a “break-even point” for going to law school. In other words, what salary would you have to earn upon graduation in order to make going to law school an economically rational decision?
Continue reading “Changes in Legal Education: Some Thoughts from Dean David Van Zandt”
Yesterday we reported on layoffs at Howrey. Our sources told us that 100 people were axed, but a Howrey spokesperson declined to give us firm numbers.
It turns out that our sources were pretty accurate. The firm confirmed to AmLaw Daily today that it laid off 94 people: 29 associates and 65 staff, from 10 offices. A tipster says one-third of the “reduction-in-force” took place in Howrey’s D.C. office.
The rumor mill at the firm is still churning, though, claiming that Howrey has taken a number of actions to cut costs — and that the number of laid-off individuals may be higher than 94.
Continue reading “Howrey Layoff Update: The Final Tally?”
* According to the IRS, sex change operations are tax deductible, but breast augmentation is not. What the hell? I want my America back. [Going Concern]
* Understanding the meaning of euphemisms, fail. [Bostonist]
* An Orrick partner comes to the defense of James O’Keefe. [Politics Daily]
* Does anybody else think that getting a JD/MBA is kind of BS? If so, here are some MBA skills you can learn without paying for an expensive extra year of school. [Young Lawyers Blog]
* Blawg Review of the Year has been crowned. [Cyberlaw Central via Blawg Review]
Last week, the New York Post published a list of the New York men it considers to be the city’s twelve most eligible bachelors. As always, the Post keeps it classy with its criteria: “young. hot. rich.”
The list includes Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, comedian Andy Samberg, and Knicks forward Danilo Gallinari. It also includes a Cardozo 2L.
How did a second year student at Cardozo Law School make the list? It helps that he’s a bajillionaire…
Continue reading “Law Student of the Day: Matthew Moinian”
It’s still early in 2010, but the runaway leader in the clubhouse for feelgood Biglaw story of the year is coming out of Haynes and Boone. It was widely reported last week that Matthew Deffebach, a partner at Haynes and Boone, donated a kidney to the son of a staffer at the firm.
Deffebach didn’t know the staffer personally, but when another partner asked for volunteers to help this child, a number of Haynes and Boone partners were tested. Deffebach was a match. Texas Lawyer has this amazing quote from Deffebach:
Deffebach says he’s going through the surgery because he couldn’t stand the thought of the man’s son growing up without a father. “I met him the day after I found out how bad his situation was,” Deffebach recalls.
The reports say that the surgery went smoothly.
I can’t get enough of this good news story shining through in the middle of this bad news recession. After the jump, we’ve got some comments from the staffer, and a note from Matthew Deffebach.
Continue reading “Mother of Biglaw-Kidney Recipient Expresses Thanks”
It looks like Pillsbury is back to communicating important information via firm-wide memo, instead of via cell phone conversation on the Acela. Yesterday, the firm indicated that it is thinking about moving away from lockstep associate compensation, but it is not killing lockstep just yet.
Instead, Pillsbury announced lockstep raises — they’ll be true up raises if you hit your hours in New York. In other offices, Pillsbury has decided to lowball the market. From the firm-wide memo:
So, it’s a true-up raise for some, a single class thaw out for those low on hours, and a salary cut for many outside of New York. But at least it’s clear.
Pillsbury’s New York bias when it comes to salaries extends to the firm’s decisions regarding bonuses. Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Pillsbury: Raises, Bonuses, and Other Sundries”
Well, the end times are coming in two years, anyway….
– A Liberty University School of Law student, discussing crushing law school debt and dismal employment prospects with a representative of a bar exam prep company.
Morrison & Foerster has fully embraced the moniker MoFo. And now the firm appears to be embracing a WTF theme for its website.
MoFo rolled out the new website recently. Tipsters say the new site took years and many dollars to create. The design budget is rumored to be $1 million. (We’ve asked the firm to comment on the cost, but it has not responded.)
The site, however, doesn’t look like a million bucks. Multiple readers have checked it out and sent us emails like this one:
It looks like someone hacked their site, or that they delegated web design (and authorship) to a 13-year-old kid learning HTML. Truly dreadful.
Most Biglaw websites are pretty staid. MoFo is seriously rocking the Biglaw boat with this redesign. There are mind games, sound effects, and optical illusions. We give you a tour after the jump.
Continue reading “Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: What the MoFo?”
We’ve previously written about the ACC Value Index, a tool developed by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) that is designed to “help[] ACC members share meaningful information about the value they get from their outside counsel.” We noted in our initial post that these client reviews of law firms were available only to ACC members, although we later shared with you some highlights (the highest- and lowest-scoring firms).
The reviews of law firms are generated by in-house lawyers and primarily intended for use by other in-house lawyers. This week, however, law firms were given the opportunity to learn what their corporate clients had to say about them in the ACC Value Index.
Continue reading “Law Firms Gain Access to Corporate Counsel Reviews of Their Work”
While associates at some firms are still waiting to learn what their 2009 bonuses will be, associates at other firms are learning more about what the future holds in store for them, as more firms announce new compensation structures for 2010 and beyond.
Check out the ATL
Career Center, powered by
Lateral Link, for the latest information on which firms are making a full recovery and which firms are still stuck in the downturn.
In the last week, we have updated the firm snapshots for
Vinson & Elkins,
Wachtell,
Irell & Manella,
Paul Weiss,
Wilson Sonsini,
Hughes Hubbard,
Quinn Emanuel,
Chadbourne & Parke,
Latham,
Cooley Godward,
Goodwin Proctor, Bryan Cave.
Below are a few of the latest updates from the
Career Center firm snapshots:
- This firm not only avoided layoffs and pay freezes last year, it had its most profitable year ever in 2009.
- While 2010 has brought salary thaws at many firm, salaries at this firm remain frozen.
- In addition to recently raising salaries to pre-freeze levels, this
firm awarded make-whole bonuses to associates to make up for salary lost during the freeze in 2009.
After the jump see which firms were most popular in January.
Continue reading “Career Center: January’s Ten Most Popular Firms”
After taking a a shot to the chin on news of Lexis Nexis’ new partnership with Microsoft, Thomson Reuters (the parent company of Westlaw), has announced that they are acquiring SuperLawyers.
This literally just broke tonight, and like most things in my life I am a bit perplexed on this. I would assume this would be a feature of their Westlaw component, but it very well could be it’s own separate entity. Also, there are some potential conflicts. Would a firm that is a heavy subscriber to Westlaw or Thomson services tend to be more “super” than firms that don’t.
More details should come out tomorrow, so I will try to keep you updated.
