Archive for March 2010

Career Center: Who Wants a Free Frappuccino?

By Above the Law

Career Center AboveTheLaw Lateral Link ATL.jpgTell us about your law firm experience and we’ll buy you a latte!
Yep, that’s right, we are giving away a free tasty coffee beverage to every person who completes our Career Center Associate Experience Survey* (conditions apply). In case you are wondering, the survey is 75 mostly multiple choice questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete.
Starbucks card Lateral Link.jpg* So here are the conditions:
1. You must be currently employed at one of the 100 law firms currently profiled on the Career Center.
2. You must be registered for the Career Center (registration takes less than a minute).
3. You must provide us your honest feedback.
4. Tasty beverage actually comes in the form of a Starbucks giftcard, which can be exchanged for said beverage on just about every street corner in America.
To start the survey, click here.
Your participation in this survey will be completely confidential. To begin the survey you will need to log in to the Career Center and this is used solely for data coding and to validate your current employer. Your name will not be associated with your individual responses.
For questions or feedback, or to offer additions or corrections to your firm’s profile on the Career Center, please email: careercenter@abovethelaw.com.

Adam Reposa’s ‘Bulletproof’ Business Card

By Kashmir Hill & David Lat

Reposa.jpgTexas attorney Adam Reposa is not shy about singing his own praises. The man registered with the State Bar as “Bulletproof,” after all. He’s not jailproof, though. He was slapped with contempt of court charges for making the “jerk-off gesture” within sight of the judge, and sentenced to 90 days in prison.
After we posted our call for lawyerly business cards, someone sent Reposa’s along:

I’ve attached a copy of Texas attorney Adam Reposa’s business card — a friend of mine got it at a bar last year. I’m not sure if it’s clever — it probably violates 4 or 5 Texas Rules of Professional Conduct — but it is hilarious.

Adam T. Reposa business card side one.jpg
Check out the flip side of the card, which is just as egregious….

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Morning Docket 03.04.10

By Kashmir Hill

the-hurt-locker.jpg* Good news: There’s going to be lots of in-house hiring. Bad news: It’ll probably lead to Biglaw firing. [Corporate Counsel]
* Sounds like this guy was thinking with his cock instead of his noggin. [Courthouse News Service]
* Liz Cheney attacks Eric Holder’s “Department of Jihad” for harboring terrorist sympathizers, i.e., attorneys who argued on behalf of Guantanamo detainees before the Supreme Court. [True/Slant]
* I like old people. Elie doesn’t. After we debated law firms’ mandatory retirement policies, we polled you; Elie’s position is winning with a narrow lead. Ashby Jones is on my side when it comes to law firm partners, but thinks federal judges should get booted at 85. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Early birds get the worm. Late birds get jail time? [Royal Oak Daily Tribune]
* Beware the overeager paralegal. [Boston Globe]
* Former AIG general counsel Anastasia Kelly quit after the U.S. pay czar insisted on pay limits for the financial giant. Now, she’s going to check out the merit-based model at DLA Piper. [Business Week]
* Hurt, indeed. The staff seargeant who inspired the Playboy article that inspired Hurt Locker’s screenplay has filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit for misappropriation of name and likeness; invasion of privacy; breach of contract; infliction of emotional distress; fraud; and negligent misrepresentation. [The Wrap]

  • 03 Mar 2010 at 7:00 PM

Star Witnesses: Judges Posner, Easterbrook and Bauer Testify Against Hal Turner

By David Lat

Frank Easterbrook Judge Frank H Easterbrook Chief Judge Frank Hoover Easterbrook Seventh Circuit.jpgWe’ve mentioned this before — earlier today, in Morning Docket, and last night, on Twitter — but this story merits further discussion. It has been discussed extensively by various news outlets and blogs (links collected below).
The most detailed account comes from the New York Law Journal:

Three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer — took the witness stand Tuesday in the Brooklyn trial of Harold Turner, the New Jersey blogger charged with encouraging his readers to murder the three judges as retribution for their decision upholding a Chicago handgun ban.
Easterbrook told the jury that upon reading Turner’s posts his “principal concern was that somebody would try to come kill me or shoot me or blow me up.”

If “concern” was induced in the bear-like Judge Easterbrook (pictured) — who makes advocates appearing before him wet themselves in fear, and who spends his free time traipsing around the wilds of Alaska, where he has a second home — then clearly the threat was serious.
Additional discussion — including cross-examination highlights, an eyewitness report from an ATL tipster, and tidbits about one of the prosecutors — after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs 03.03.10

By Elie Mystal

Caesars Palace AC.JPG* There’s a chance that enforcing a mandatory retirement age would be illegal, so I again urge aging partners to exit “gracefully.” [Law and More]
* Please spay or neuter any professional golfers you happen to live with. [Examiner]
* Hardened terrorists v. American jurisprudence. [The DC]
* Ana Gardiner is in the news again, this time for having a big mouth. [Miami Herald]
* If you want to help HTC fight off Apple, Kirkland & Ellis and this monster of a patent suit, this is the job for you. [Engadget]
* Caesars Palace Atlantic City is sponsoring a poker tournament and one lucky Breaking Media reader will win a buy-in and a room. The winning reader will have the opportunity to lose to me in the tournament, and get drunk with Bess Levin later that night. [Dealbreaker]

Pls Hndle Thx: Taking the Intern Out of Internship

By Marin

Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.

pls hndle copy 2.jpgDear ATL,
Like many 2009 grads, I’m jobless, but not workless. I started an unpaid internship for a local government in January. They’ve been giving me a full caseload (as much as they give other employed attorneys), but no indication that they’re ready to hire me. At what point should I take a stand? And what should I say?
Taxation without Representation

Dear Taxation Without Representation,
Nothing is more infuriating than when people expect you to do the job for which you were hired. When you accepted the unpaid internship two months ago, you sent SEVERAL telepathic messages indicating that you would accept the job on the condition that it would transform into a paid position in eight weeks or less. Even though you agreed to work for free in exchange for valuable resume-building experience, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be entitled to a salary, 20 vacation days and a lump sum gross-up for accrued hours to date.Your employer’s failure to acquiesce to these reasonable demands is outrageous and potentially illegal.
If you bring the payment issue up with your job head on, they’ll probably use underhanded tactics like citing to your “internship agreement” or your “eight weeks on the job.” Seasoned attorneys will recognize these as red herrings, but lawyers with less experience like you may fall prey to such specious arguments. Accordingly, your best bet is to drop subtle hints that you’d like to get paid. That may mean changing your name to a symbol and writing the word “slave” on your cheek or spending lunch hour singing chain gang work songs and pretending to dig a ditch by the vending machines. If you still fail to get the message across, you can quit and become a hero to all interns who resent the very nature of their engagements. Or, you can spend the rest of your internship being an intern.
Your friend,
Marin

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The Eyes of the Law: Justices Souter and Sotomayor

By David Lat

David Souter Justice David H Souter David Hackett Souter.jpgJustice David H. Souter may be gone from the Supreme Court, but he has not been forgotten. He still gets recognized in public, for example. From an ATL reader in Beantown:

After a day of toil for a client adamantly opposed to paying for nighttime cab rides home, I walked to Boston’s Park Street subway station. A little before 10:00 PM last night, as I turned the corner at the turnstiles, I saw an impeccably dressed man in a form-fitting suit and a red tie. Turns out it was Justice David Souter, in Boston for some pinch-hitting on the First Circuit.

So what did our tipster do next?

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Statistics About the Lost Generation

By Elie Mystal

NALP logo.JPGBreaking news from the land of totally obvious statistics: the class of 2009 got rogered, but good.
The National Law Journal reports that the NALP numbers are out, and the statistics confirm what we all already know:

The median number of offers by U.S. law firms for 2010 summer associate positions was seven, according to statistics released Tuesday by the National Association for Law Placement. That was down from 10 offers in 2008 and 15 offers in 2007.
In fact, the offer rate was the lowest NALP has reported since the organization began gathering offer statistics some 17 years ago.
Only 36 percent of interviews last year resulted in summer associate offers, compared to 47 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2007.

The details are horrific …

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Will Bill Hours for Basketball

By Elie Mystal

Maryland Terrapins logo.jpgAs Scott Van Pelt is fond of saying: “fear the turtle.”
We all know that University of Maryland basketball fans are a strange bunch. Some might call them the red-headed stepchildren of the ACC. I prefer to think of them as a litmus test for how strong Duke and UNC are in a given year. If you can beat the bag out of the Terrapins, you’ve got Sweet 16 talent. If not, it’s upset city, my friends. Maryland’s often in contention, but rarely pulls it out.
Of course, occasionally slow and steady does actually win the race. The team won a National Championship in 2002, beating the last relevant Indiana team in the finals. It’s the kind of thing Maryland fans live for, and with the team being second in the ACC this year, Terps fans are losing their minds. Even Terps fans currently in law school. One such law student fanatic is desperately trying to get tickets to tonight’s headline Maryland-Duke match-up. From Craigslist:

trade of services for md-duke ticket(s) – $1 (college park, md)
I am a Terp fanatic, but as a law student I am in the unfortunate position of not being able to afford tickets to Wednesday night’s game against duke. In exchange for tickets, I am willing to sign a contract that will guarantee a TBD number of billable hours of attorney services fully redeemable upon my passing of the Maryland bar.

The poster is a 1L at the University of Baltimore Law School, so this may just be a clever attempt to get somebody to give him some work.
An UPDATE after the jump.

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Conan O’Brien and NBC Team Up For ‘Justice’

By Kashmir Hill

Conan's writers composing a tweet.jpgConan O’Brien and NBC parted ways in January. Despite rumors to the contrary, Conan’s attorneys — Patricia Glaser and Leigh Brecheen — told us that their client was pleased with his $32.5 million exit settlement with NBC.

As Leno takes the helm at the Tonight Show, Conan is moving on. He’s joined Twitter, and he’s working on a new show. Apparently, Conan was pleased enough with his settlement to keep working with NBC. The network has picked up a new pilot from Conan’s production company, Conaco.

Conan appears to have been inspired by all the time he spent with lawyers recently. The show is called “Justice.” It’s about a Supreme Court justice going into private practice. It will be filmed in Philadelphia, and — attention, unemployed Philly attorneys — they’re currently looking for “background talent,” a.k.a. extras…

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Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers

By Above the Law

thank you post it note.JPGA quick word of thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law:

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!

In-House Counseling: Alone in a Crowd

By The People's Therapist

woman at window.jpgEd. note: This post is written by Will Meyerhofer, a Biglaw attorney turned psychotherapist, whom we profiled. 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.
Last week I did a first session with a typical client – a young lawyer worried about starting at a big firm.
I couldn’t do real psychotherapy with this guy. Some lawyers are like that – they don’t trust anyone enough to open up. It was more like an awkward coaching session. When I tried to explore his feelings, he cut me off and got down to business.
He was fine, he assured me. He’d already decided he was going to take the money. He just wanted some advice. Then he related bad experiences from the summer program, and asked for my take on big firm life.
I suggested ways to maintain emotional insulation from the worst aspects of a big firm. I also proposed that he do psychotherapy, and maybe group psychotherapy, for emotional support while he was there. This didn’t make much of an impression. His mind seemed elsewhere.
He mentioned wistfully that he “wanted to be a writer, but couldn’t make a decent living at it.” I waited for more, but he changed the subject.
Eventually he left my office, and I thought that’s that. I’d never hear from him again – another unhappy lawyer who’d contacted me in a moment of weakness, then retreated back to his cave, alone.
The next day I received an email that pretended to be a thank you, but was really a warning from this guy not to mention his story in my column. It was a curt, condescending note which ended like a law firm letter, with “best regards.” Only a lawyer could write a note like that to a therapist.

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Katten: Why Can’t You Set 2010 Salaries Already?

By Elie Mystal

Katten logo.JPGIt’s March and Katten Muchin is coming into it like a very meek lamb. The firm froze salaries in 2009. So far in 2010, it has sent a series of memos trying to explain why it can’t get its act together. A tipster reports:

You may recall that most associates had their salaries frozen and then cut in 2009. We continue to receive frozen-then-cut salaries at this time, although the memos state that we will get retroactive payments back to January 1 on “any increase” that occurs. All the other Chicago firms have spoken (with double bumps), but Katten is waiting on something…we guess. At this point we’re wondering whether we’ll know our 2010 salaries in 2010!

Check out the memos. They’re a case study in “we’re waiting for others to tell us how to run our business.”

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Morning Docket: 03.03.10

By David Lat

OJ Simpson acquittal suit.jpg* SCOTUS grapples with guns, hearing argument in McDonald v. Chicago. [Washington Post]
* Meanwhile, three Seventh Circuit judges put themselves on the receiving end of lawyers’ questions, by taking the witness stand in the Hal Turner trial in Brooklyn. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* Chief Justice John Roberts declines to stop gay marriage from coming to Washington, D.C. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
* Gov. Rick Perry defeats Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — a UT Law alumna, by the way — in the Republican primary for the Texas gubernatorial race. [New York Times]
* A hot new trend: secretaries filing overtime lawsuits? [Am Law Daily]
* Speaking of suits…. although a judge signed off on the proposed donation, the Smithsonian doesn’t want O.J. Simpson’s “acquittal suit.” [TMZ]

Mandatory Retirement Age for Partners: An ATL Debate

By Kashmir Hill & Elie Mystal

old man partner.jpgThe older generation of Biglaw partners is starting to see retirement staring them in the face. At firms that have a mandatory retirement age, getting old means getting out — forced out.

This phenomenon is affecting some big-name attorneys. Word on the street (and in our comments) is that Bob Bennett left for Hogan & Hartson in part because he simply became too old for Skadden. And today the ABA Journal reports that Michael Sohn, former managing partner of Arnold & Porter, is leaving for Davis Polk & Wardwell because of A&P’s retirement age.

ELIE: To which I say: “Yay!” With all due respect to our Baby Boomer forebears, their time on the world stage is almost up. They’ve had a good run, what with getting the bag beat out of them in Vietnam, totally selling out during the 80s, and electing two different Bushes three different times. It’ll be almost sad to see them go. They won’t be forgotten, of course. No, we’ll be paying for their extended life expectancy and Cadillac health care long after they once again kill any movement towards health care reform.

I’m surprised anybody would support these aging partners hanging on, and on, and on, in the law firm context where Biglaw is facing a real problem with attrition. Young people are being fired or held back because older people won’t gracefully move and get out of the way. Boomer partners are trying to exert dead-hand control over their firms, preventing the next generation from climbing the ladder to leadership.

I’m not saying that everybody over the age of 70 should be forcibly marched to manicured concentration camps in Florida and Arizona. There are a lot of awesome things you can do with your “golden years.” Spend time with your family, start a blog, write op-eds of significance.

But for the love of God, stop getting in the way of the younger generation that is eager to take their shot at making decisions (and profits). I know you old guys don’t see the point of Facebook, Twitter, and a totally revamped fall recruiting program — and that’s fine. Nobody is asking you to totally change your way of thinking; we wouldn’t want you to break a hip. Just admit that with age comes a certain ossification of the brain that makes it resistant to necessary change, and ease your way out of positions of power.

Of course, not everybody agrees with me; some people like it when the old guys stick around. Next up: Kash explores her Daddy issues….

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Naomi Campbell: A Wanted Woman

By Above the Law

Naomi Campbell model supermodel small.jpgAnd this time not by designers for runway shows — by the NYPD.
Read more (and comment) over at our sister site, Fashionista (link below).
WANTED: Naomi Campbell [Fashionista]

Non-Sequiturs: 03.02.10

By Elie Mystal

Bracewell logo.JPG* Send your résumés to Bracewell & Giuliani. They have an opening for Master of Everything. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]
* K&L Gates helps an aide to David Paterson. I wonder how long until Paterson himself is seeking legal representation? [Business Insider]
* The Second Amendment could be coming to a state near you. On the bright side, you’ll be able to shoot it. [SCOTUSblog]
* If UC San Diego had a law school, I’d have gotten at least three posts out of the crap going on there. Alas, UCSD’s racism outbreak seems confined to the college. [True/Slant]
* Oh sure, now conservatives think citizens of the District of Columbia should have a vote. [Law Dork 2.0]
* The Fort Hood shooter’s defense attorney makes Lady Justice proud. Predictably … the court wants him to shut up. [Simple Justice]
* More Foreign Corrupt Practices craziness. [The FCPA Professor]
* Lat will be speaking in at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville this Thursday. [Vanderbilt University Law School]

We’re a Bunch of Tweeps

By Above the Law

ATL Twitter.jpg@OurReaders — we’re on Twitter. You can follow Above the Law at atlblog. There’s been no sign of the “fail whale” at Twitter in recent weeks, but here at ATL, we’re sure you’ve noticed our technical difficulties. We will use our Twitter feed to communicate with you when our site is down.

But it’s not your father’s ATL Twitter feed. We’re doing more than just pushing out our posts via Twitter. Now we’re down there dropping knowledge, 140 characters at a time. We will be signing our tweets individually, so you’ll know whom to get mad at.
Your three editors also have personal Twitter accounts, as Gawker recently noted. You can find (and follow) us at davidlat, elieNYC, and kashhill.

As for our tech issues, we apologize once again. They frustrate us, as writers, as much as they frustrate you, as readers. Our servers can’t handle our popularity, so we’re exploring other options. Please bear with us over the next few weeks.

In addition, you can use Twitter to follow our sister sites — Dealbreaker, Fashionista, and Going Concern — and our parent company, Breaking Media.

To those of you who decide to follow us, thanks!

Above the Law [Twitter]

Former Maryland Law Dean Will Return (Some) ‘Questionable’ Compensation

By David Lat

University of Maryland School of Law at Baltimore.jpgThere’s an update in the continuing controversy over compensation paid to Karen Rothenberg, former dean of the University of Maryland School of Law.
From the Baltimore Sun:

The former dean of the University of Maryland School of Law has offered to repay $60,000 in compensation questioned by a state audit and is “deeply sorry over any negative impact” the audit’s findings have caused, according to a letter released Monday by her attorney.
The letter says that former dean Karen Rothenberg offered to return the $60,000 to David Ramsay, outgoing president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, upon learning on Feb. 16 that the audit had raised concerns about payments she received for summer research between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2009.

But what about the $350,000 in “sabbatical” money for a sabbatical that was never taken?

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Law Student of the Day: Mike Sacks

By Kashmir Hill

mike sacks first one.jpgGeorgetown 3L Mike Sacks had a mission this semester. He wanted to be first in line for every major argument at the Supreme Court. He’s been documenting his adventures on his blog First One @ One First.
This is made easier for him because he has no morning classes and lives on Capitol Hill, a few minutes away from the High Court. He should also have camping experience from his undergrad days at Duke, but unlike me, he somehow avoided spending time in Krzyzewskiville.
Maybe if he had paid his dues tenting out for basketball games, he would have succeeded in his mission. But no. Some Californians derailed him this week, as documented by the New York Times.

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