Archive for February 2010

Musical Chairs: Patrick Bradford Leaving Davis Polk to Pursue Government Service

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DavisPolk Davis Polk Wardwell new logo DPW.jpgEarlier this week, a reader drew our attention to an interesting development. The biography of Patrick Bradford, a prominent New York litigator and the first African-American partner at the white-shoe firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, has been removed from DPW’s (hottie-laden) website.

“No idea why,” said our source, “but Davis seems like a place where disappearings are rare.”

Indeed. It’s one of a handful of super-elite firms, like Cravath and Wachtell and Sullivan & Cromwell, where partners rarely leave. When they do, there’s often a story behind the departure. See, e.g., Carlos Spinelli-Noseda and John O’Brien, formerly of Sullivan & Cromwell.

We followed up by calling the firm yesterday. The first time we called the main number, the receptionist hung up on us after we asked for Pat Bradford. This was very un-Davis of her, since DPW is known for its passive-aggressive uber-polite, genteel, “kinder and gentler” atmosphere.

We called back, and this time we were connected to a secretary who put us into Bradford’s voice-mail. We left him a voice-mail and followed up with an email. Today Bradford confirmed his departure from DPW, in a short statement to ATL:

I have withdrawn from my firm to pursue a position in government service.

A smidgen of speculation, after the jump.

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Total Recall? Not at Winston & Strawn.
Email gaffe sends ‘all partners’ memo to ‘all attorneys.’

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Received last Friday from a tipster at Winston & Strawn (who was unhappy with the firm’s double salary freeze):

winston strawn.gifTo add major insult to injury — especially after Sidley Austin’s announcement [of a raise] this afternoon — the Managing Partner of Winston just accidentally emailed a memo to ALL ATTORNEYS (including all associates) which he meant to send only to ALL PARTNERS, bragging about FY2010 collections. He talks about how work in process and accounts receivable were the same on Jan. 31, 2009 as they were on Jan. 31, 2010, how they accomplished a revenue increase without reducing overall assets, and how work in process added in January 2010 exceeded budget.

A moment later, he tried to recall the message with that Outlook “recall” function that doesn’t really work. Amazing.

Ah yes, Microsoft Outlook’s useless “recall” feature — which just draws attention to the gaffe. If it doesn’t work for federal judges or for DLA Piper partners, why should it work for Winston?
(Misaddressing an email is like passing gas, or making an unwanted advance towards a colleague. Sometimes it’s best to just pretend it didn’t happen.)
Check out the Winston & Strawn memo — intended for “all partners,” but now going out to all the world — after the jump.

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Email gaffe sends ‘all partners’ memo to ‘all attorneys.’“

Lawsuit of the Day: Hey Teacher, Leave Them Kids Alone!
(Or: Activating Laptop Webcams to Spy on Students at Home is Not Cool)

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student webcam surveillance.jpgMany have lauded the secret surveillance powers of Mac laptops. See, e.g., Engadget’s HOW-TO: Turn your laptop into a home security system. There have been nifty stories about people having their laptops stolen and then activating their cameras remotely to catch the thieves.
Now we’ve got a not-so-nifty story. A school district in Pennsylvania brings us the dark side of secret surveillance.
According to Courthouse News Service, the Lower Merion School District supplied personal laptops to each of its 1,800 students — a laudable initiative. The computers all came equipped with webcams. That’s where the trouble started.
A vice principal took advantage of the fact that she could activate the webcams remotely. She punished a student for “improper behavior in his home,” using a webcam shot from his computer. Well, that’s creeptastic, and class-action-lawsuit worthy, according to the students and his parents…

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(Or: Activating Laptop Webcams to Spy on Students at Home is Not Cool)“

Quote of the Day: Please Don’t Do Us Evil

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The benefits of approval are bounded only by the limits of human creativity and imagination.


– Google, to Judge Denny Chin, in a brief before today’s hearing about Google’s class action settlement with authors and publishers over Google Book Search.

Once You Go Pro Bono, You Never Go Back?

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Thumbnail image for Red Cross public interest deferral stipend.JPGA 2009 Georgetown Law grad, Russ Ferguson, has penned a column for the conservative American Spectator suggesting that deferred associates who have signed up to work in the public interest may not want to take Biglaw spots when they open up to them.
What’s that sound we hear? Oh, it’s the class of 2010 singing Hallelujah.
Ferguson recounts the history behind the generous $60k – $80k public interest fellowships from law firms — a history you all know well. Then he goes on to say that the firms’ Go-Away-For-A-Year money may have been too convincing. From the American Spectator:

[A]s newly barred lawyers have taken this public interest option, many have found jobs they like and enjoy. They picked up some ethical sense in school and enjoy doing work that connects with their values. They sympathize with their classmates who ended up at firms and are working long hours doing work they dislike, but they don’t want their jobs. They calculate how much they are making per hour, and find that they are better paid — at least at first — than those at firms.

True. But $60k – $80k may be a generous salary at their particular agency or organization. These folks may well have to take a paycut to stay on. (Though as long as they make $65,000, they should be breaking even on their law school investment.)
Ferguson told ATL that many public interest employers have contacted him since he wrote the column. “Originally, public interest employers expected these new lawyers to leave at their first possible chance,” he said. “Employers expected these lawyers to be often asking for days off to fly out to job interviews. Instead, they have been asking to stay put.”
Sure, serving the public interest is spiritually fulfilling, but it’s not filling the coffers. Is Ferguson right about people turning up their noses at Biglaw for Social Security benefits law? A poll, and more discussion, after the jump.

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Morning Docket: 02.18.10

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WilmerHale Wilmer Hale Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale Dorr AboveTheLaw Above the Law blog.jpg* Eight of the ten Americans detained in Haiti on kidnapping charges have been released, by order of a Haitian judge, and have returned to the United States. Congratulations to WilmerHale (which, as we previously noted, represented one of the detainees). [CNN; WilmerHale (press release)]
* The North Carolina Innocence Commission exonerates a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder. The proceedings took place at Campbell University Law School, and Campbell students worked with the Commission on the case. [Raleigh News & Observer]
* An emerging trend in Biglaw financial results for 2009: decreases in revenue, but increases in profit. [WSJ Law Blog; Am Law Daily (Latham & Watkins); Am Law Daily (Sidley Austin)]
* Under Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, the New York Court of Appeals has grown more divided and more liberal. [New York Times]
* The latest revelations in the Bank of America / Merrill Lynch mess — including an explanation on the sudden and mysterious firing of BofA’s general counsel, Timothy Mayopoulos.[Am Law Daily]

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Non-Sequiturs: 02.17.10

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michigan law school strikes back.jpg* Will Please Rob Me turn into Please Sue Us? Kash thinks it might (although we’re not so sure). [True/Slant]
* Florida Coastal defeats Harvard Law in a moot court competition. For reals. [Florida-Times Union]
* Does Bank of America hate black people? One ex-employee claims that BofA = Bank of Apartheid. [Dealbreaker]
* These Wolverines have been watching way too much “Glee.” [Michigan Law]
* Can you eat that “expired” food in your fridge? Probably. [Slate]
* No matter what Elie thinks, we heart Case Western Law, and we’re going to be there this weekend. Come hang with us! [Case Western Reserve - APALSA]

MoFo Back to 160k! And Good Bonus News.

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American Apparel MoFo.jpgIs Biglaw getting over the gloom of the recession? Back in October, Morrison & Foerster was feeling pessimistic about attorney salaries. It decided to cut salaries for first-year associates from $160,000 to $145,000. Only associates in pricey New York and Asia — MoFo has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, all expensive cities — were spared the cut.

The firm said at the time:

Note, however, that the market for first year salaries among national firms is undetermined at this time. Given that, we will continue to assess starting salaries, in light of market trends, and may elect to adjust as required based on larger market developments.

Well, MoFo has assessed, and MoFo has decided to beef up its salaries. Associates got news this week that first year salaries are back up to $160k. And the raise is retroactive to January 1st. From the firm email that went out on Tuesday, available in full after the jump:

Although a great deal of uncertainty continues regarding how the economy will perform in 2010, we, like our most successful competitors, remain in demand. We are planning conservatively for 2010. However, if 2009 is a predictor, 2010 will provide opportunity despite its challenges.

MoFo is known for being a little quirky. In keeping with its individualistic streak, it’s decided to buck the Cravath scale for its 2009 bonuses. Bonuses range as high as $65,000, but only if you clocked the requisite number of hours.

Additional good news: Pro bono hours count…

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In-House Counseling: When the Emptiness Swallows You Whole

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Ed. note: This post is written by Will Meyerhofer, a Biglaw attorney turned psychotherapist, whom we profiled last week. A former Sullivan & Cromwell associate, he holds degrees from Harvard, NYU Law, and The Hunter College School of Social Work. He blogs at The People’s Therapist.
loneliness suicide lawyer.jpgLast October, a law school placement director friend of mine forwarded me an email with a juicy piece of big law gossip. A former associate at Sullivan & Cromwell had offed himself. He was 39.
The body was discovered beneath a highway bridge in Toronto. A few days earlier, it was revealed that since the mid-90′s, he and a co-conspirator made ten million dollars on an insider trading scheme. He’d stolen insider information from S&C, arriving early in the morning to dig through waste baskets, rifle through partners’ desks, and employ temporary word-processor codes to break into the computer system.
“You can’t make this shit up,” was my friend’s comment. “Wasn’t he from around your time?”
It took a minute to locate the face. Gil Cornblum. Jewish, a bit pudgy, with big round glasses. Gil, in that ridiculous little office two doors down from mine.
What was Gil like? Mild-mannered, pleasant, always smiling.
I should have known something was wrong.

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Career Center: Clerkship Survey Results

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Career Center AboveTheLaw Lateral Link ATL.jpgOur recent Career Center survey asked about whether the recession has affected clerkship bonuses and law firm hiring of clerks.  Of respondents at law firms, a slight majority — 57% — indicated that their firms are not interviewing judicial clerks for Fall 2010 positions.  Of respondents who are currently clerking, only 30% indicated that they have a position for Fall 2010 or have even been able to get interviews for such positions.  Despite these depressing statistics for post-clerkship employment, a majority of law student respondents indicated that they are planning on clerking after law school. 

Check out the full survey results after the jump — and visit the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, for more on clerkship bonuses and hiring trends at firms across the country.

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Musical Chairs: White & Case Regroups After Latham Raid

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White and Case logo.JPGEarlier this month, we wrote about the departure of over a dozen partners from White & Case to Latham & Watkins (which is once again in expansion mode). These defections took place mainly in London and the Middle East, outside our usual geographic focus; but they were sizable and dramatic, and therefore worth covering.
Am Law Daily described Latham’s poaching of White & Case lawyers as “among the more spectacular lateral raids of recent years.” As reporter Richard Lloyd breathlessly wrote, the moves “raise[] serious questions about White & Case’s London finance practice, its position in the Middle East market, and its relationships with such important clients as Deutsche Bank and Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company.” In other words: the ship be sinking?
Well, not so fast. White & Case is rearranging the deck chairs taking decisive steps to beef up the offices that lost all that talent.

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Special Election in Massachusetts Redux

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matt maguire.jpgMassachusetts had another special election this week, though on a smaller scale than the Scott Brown — Martha Coakley Senate race of last month. A member of the Law Student Association (LSA) at Boston College Law School stepped down unexpectedly this month. Polls were open on Monday and Tuesday to elect a new member of the BC Law’s student government.
We hear that there were quite a few contenders for the seat, but one 2L stood out from the rest. From a BC Law tipster:

Normally, no one cares about LSA — they are seen as a group that gives us two free beers once a month at a bar. But for some reason, this kid has been on an all-out assault for the seat.

Matt Maguire was inspired by Scott Brown and ran a similar populist campaign:

He has mirrored Scott Brown’s Senate campaign — running against the “establishment” and using a lot of buzzwords (“I drive a truck,” “the peoples’ seat,” “cutting through the red tape” etc.).

It makes sense. Brown, after all, is a BC Law grad. While Brown was at BC Law, he posed naked in the pages of Cosmopolitan Magazine’s 1982 issue. This, too, provided inspiration for Maguire’s campaign. The scandalous campaign poster is barely SFW (Safe for Work), so we’re putting it below the fold…

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