The past few weeks have brought a fair amount of news about King & Spalding. Some of it has been good — e.g., adding talent from Orrick. And some of it has been bad — e.g., getting benchslapped (and disqualified from a case) by the Federal Circuit.
This week also brought compensation news to King & Spalding. The information has been a long time coming. Back in February, a K&S source told us:
King & Spalding continues to leave its associates in the dark with respect to 2009 bonuses and 2010 salaries. Back in September we were all demoted one year, and the Atlanta office salaries were slashed by an additional $10k. On top of that, our salaries are frozen and we received no increase on January 1st as we normally receive. Currently 1st, 2nd and 3rd year associates in Atlanta all make the same salary ($135,000). We were told late last year that we would receive bonuses for 2009, but no announcement has been made with respect to the amounts of those bonuses which have typically been paid at the end of February each year.
On Tuesday, associates at the firm received their bonus and salary info. And some of them were pleasantly surprised….
Continue reading “Bonus and Salary News from King & Spalding”
Cornell’s use of Andy “The Nard Dog” Bernard to promote its law school was a questionable decision. Alumni are saying it makes their toolish reputation even worse, and some are calling for someone at the law school to be fired.
After news outlets like TMZ and Entertainment Weekly picked up our story, the school rethought the promotional item. (Even though over 35% of our readers thought it was a brilliant idea.)
One problem with the ad is that Bernard is a total douche. From CLS alumnus METAezra:
For those of you who don’t quite understand the problem with this (beyond the fact that the ‘Nard Dog has no ties to the Law School), Andy Bernard is like the uncle in your family that nobody quite likes. You can laugh at him in the presence of good friends, and smirk at him in the presence of polite company. But you don’t bring him up unless asked.
There may be a much bigger problem with the ad, though. It may reveal that the law school doesn’t have a very good handle on intellectual property law…
Continue reading “Did Cornell Law School Violate IP Law with its ‘Nard Dog’ Ad?”
An ATL favorite, Quinn Emanuel, is making a change to its firm name. From the Quinn press release:
John B. Quinn announced today that the firm he and Eric Emanuel founded 25 years ago will change its name, and henceforth be known as Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. The decision to add Kathleen M. Sullivan as a name partner was made in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to the firm and the profession. Sullivan is a partner in the firm’s New York City office and heads the firm’s national appellate practice.
Congratulations to former Stanford Law School dean Sullivan.
Of course, now that she’s a name partner, we are eagerly awaiting for the ATL community to honor Kathleen Sullivan with her own meme. John Quinn doesn’t use capital letters. Bill Urquhart … really likes capital letters. We can’t wait to see what Sullivan comes up with.
Read the full press release, plus an UPDATE with some observations from Lat, after the jump.
Continue reading “CHECK YOU FIRM NAME: Quinn Emanuel Adds Kathleen Sullivan to the Stationery”
* Former U.C.L.A. basketball star Ed O’Bannon has recruited some key players for his class-action lawsuit against the NCAA. [New York Times]
* Kaye Scholer’s attempt to score litigation points for Bank of America results in BofA paying a bankrupt developer’s Kasowitz Benson attorney fees. [AmLaw Daily]
* Is it okay to use unwitting customers as bait in “upskirting” sting operations? It was for a TJMaxx in upstate New York. [On Point News]
* To our surprise, those ubiquitous Classmates.com banner ads have actually convinced a good number of people to join the site. And now they’re suing for violation of their privacy. [Wired]
* The legal community — from left to right — is not happy with Liz Cheney. [Associated Press]
* Ben Roethlisberger’s 28th birthday present is a criminal investigation. [Fox]
* Patent wars. [Apple Insider]
Most people who follow my blog know that I almost never post press releases. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about giving free publicity to companies when I can, especially the ones that I find scrappy and innovative. I just think press releases have become antiquated in their use as a marketing tool. Any company, especially one in technology, should be more focused on social media. Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter–even Second Life–are more likely to result in new clients than old-style press releases.
All press releases say pretty much the same thing. Take, for example, one that I found floating around the interwebs yesterday from a legal process outsourcing company. As outdated as this release may seem, you would be surprised how much you can learn about what’s happening in the legal technology industry, if you just read between the lines. After the jump, I will break down its jargon paragraph by paragraph. Since, it’s not my intention to promote or criticize this particular company , the names of the company and its product will be changed to protect the innocent, and the not so innocent.
Continue reading “How to Sound Like a Legal Technology Guru in 10 Minutes, a Press Release Deconstructed”
Readers have been begging for a follow-up on the NYU 3Ls who threatened Mayer Brown with “Public Relations Disaster.” One reader suggests we set up a pay-per-view event:
ATL should sponsor a cage match, pitting the UT 1Ls against the NYU 3Ls, in a fight to the career death.
Well, boy do we have a follow up. The student we dubbed “Rosencrantz” sent out an email to the NYU Law School listserv.
Subject: Response to Your Comments About Me on AboveTheLaw…
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
Due to the overwhelming requests that I make a comment about the atrocities committed against me on above the law, I have decided to respond. I have however decided to make my response a video response as I’ve learnt that emails can be more easily misconstrued than audiovisuals. Below are the links for my response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RHha6fYzhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xHbMHh9XDk
I hope you enjoy them, and please do feel free to leave comments.
Cheers,
[Rosencrantz]
The videos (to say nothing about the email to the entire listserv) make it impossible to keep up the “Rosencrantz” artifice, so I guess it’s time to start calling people by their given names….
Continue reading “NYU 3L Takes Unemployment Plight to YouTube”
* Eriq Gardner suggests five reasons why Lindsay Lohan may have filed her ridiculous E-Trade-baby-whore lawsuit… [THR, Esq.]
* …But this is the most likely reason. [Gawker via True/Slant]
* Lanny Davis and Eileen O’Connor of McDermott, Will, & Emery have advice for lawyers in talking to reporters. But when it comes to stealth layoffs, MWE apparently believes in not talking to reporters at all. [Legal Crisis Strategies]
* I’m rethinking my decision to start dating lawyers again. [Boing Boing]
* Erin Geiger Smith of the Business Insider goes on defense of her law school. Despite the controversy, she predicts that employers will still hire and be pleased by UT Law grads. But she may already be looking back at that and cringing. [Business Insider]
* A legal news round-up, including a thorough breakdown of the McCarthy-like attack on the DOJ. [Infamy or Praise]
* Mo’ professors. Mo’ tuition money. [National Jurist via TaxProf Blog]
For yesterday’s Quote of the Day, we highlighted a recent comment by Chief Justice John Roberts, who said he found President Obama’s shout-out to the Supreme Court in the State of the Union to be “very troubling.”
And that was the end of that, right? Not quite. Not by a long shot.
Last night, the White House lashed back at Roberts, through a statement by spokesperson Robert Gibbs:
What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections — drowning out the voices of average Americans. The president has long been committed to reducing the undue influence of special interests and their lobbyists over government. That is why he spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response.
The president must be really steamed at the chief justice. Perhaps Obama is still mad at Roberts for screwing up the oath and ruining the inauguration? [FN1]
Is going after the Supreme Court a wise strategy for the president? Jan Crawford of CBS News — recently recognized as one of television’s sexiest legal commentators, by the way — doesn’t think so. In a recent blog post, she compared the Obama White House to a petulant child and suggested that doing battle with the SCOTUS may be counterproductive.
Meanwhile, other commentators unearthed some good nuggets from yesterday’s John Roberts appearance….
Continue reading “Obama v. SCOTUS: The Battle Rages On”
Last week, I asked Above the Law readers to give me their best poker advice. I’ll be in a tournament this weekend at Caesars Palace – Atlantic City, sponsored by Stockings and Bonds. Click here for the details.*
As I said, my main motivation — aside from the $30,000 prize pool — is to stick it to the investment bankers and hedge fund types who put their chips on the table. But it would be nice to have another legal type down there to chill with. Harrah’s is raffling off a seat at the table. The winner will get: the buy-in, a room, and access to the Stockings & Bonds After Party at Dusk. Sign up here.
If you do win, you’ll want to check out the best poker strategies from the ATL community…
Continue reading “Poker Best Practices”
The current New Yorker caption contest is legally-themed and sexually explicit, so it begs for our attention.
The Nine get naughty! We couldn’t get permission to post it here, so you’ll have to click over to the New Yorker to check it out.
We did a little background check on the finalists for the caption contest. We were disappointed to discover that none of them is a lawyer. We were also disappointed by their captions:
“O.K., counsellor, we heard your argument. Now tell us a story.” - Fred Orelove, a non-profit director
“Five to four of us would like you to get the lights on your way out.” - Robert Shay, director the University of Missouri’s School of Music
“How long have you been standing there?” – Evan Carrison, a Chicago artist
You can vote for one of those, but we’re hoping that someone with a J.D. can come up with something better. We’re holding a caption contest here at ATL. Our first submission comes from Larry Wood, the Chicago lawyer renowned for winning the New Yorker caption contest three times…
Continue reading “ATL/New Yorker Caption Contest: In Bed with SCOTUS”
The reaction to three Texas 1Ls slamming the University of Texas Law School came in fast — so fast, in fact, that the Texas administration was on the defensive even before we published our post yesterday.
Over at Legal Writing Prof Blog, Professor Wayne Schiess, Director of the UT legal writing program, responded to the students’ criticism:
It is true that the University of Texas School of Law has a first-year legal-writing curriculum without brief writing. When the law school administration removed credits from the required course five years ago, brief writing was lost. Needless to say, the legal-writing faculty thought it was a mistake. So we’ve been teaching a brief-writing elective that only some 1Ls can get into. We’re optimistic that brief writing will return to the required first-year curriculum. Indeed, a proposal to do that comes before the faculty this week.
Wow, who knew that students and some faculty took the legal writing class so seriously? I thought that professional legal writing involved completely ignoring your legal writing course when a partner tells you to.
But legal writing isn’t the only problem the UT law faculty will try to address….
Continue reading “UT Law Fallout: Professors, Students Scramble”
The pace of law firm layoffs has been slowing. As noted by Lawshucks in the last installment of This Week in Layoffs, a second consecutive week passed with no reported layoff news. Some firms that have conducted large-scale layoffs — cough cough, Latham — are even hiring again.
At McDermott Will & Emery, however, the situation is quite different. Layoffs continue at MWE, but on the down low.
We’ve been hearing vague rumblings about McDermott layoffs — or performance-based dismissals, from the firm’s point of view — going back to January. More recently, last week and this week, we received more concrete information.
So, what are the details?
Continue reading “Rolling Stealth Layoffs Continue at McDermott Will & Emery”
A 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!
Ed. 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.
A New York Times article from a few weeks ago holds enormous potential ramifications for lawyers bent over their desks at big law firms. The tentative conclusion of the piece was simple: if you are dealing with minor depression, or in fact, with anything other than massive, serious depression, popping anti-depressant pills is probably a waste of time. In fact, a placebo might do you more good.
How many lawyers are currently taking anti-depressants? According to the admittedly anecdotal evidence from the lawyers I’ve seen over the years in my private practice, quite a few.
It’s such a lawyerly thing to do. You figure out you’re depressed, so you do something about it — march over to your doctor, or maybe a high-powered shrink with a top reputation, get diagnosed, and get your pills. The whole thing takes a few minutes, and you’re back on the job. No wasting billable hours, no whining and complaining on a therapist’s couch — you take care of the problem and move on. Take a pill and knock it off with the martyr routine.
However, there are a few problems with anti-depressants…
Continue reading “In-House Counseling: Popping Pills at the Office”
Ed. note: Due to technical difficulties, for which we apologize, this post may not have appeared for some readers until after 11 a.m.
* Snowball fight = criminal possession of a weapon? [Daily News]
* To attack detainee lawyers or not: that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of liberals, or take arms against a sea of troubles. [New York Times]
* David Letterman thanks the D.A.’s office. [ABC: Good Morning America]
* Just because you are advertising your services on hot dog carts doesn’t mean you’re chopped liver. [Simple Justice]
* It’s been two years since Eliot Spitzer was exposed as a local john. [Huffington Post]
* If you are my age, you’ll understand why I have to say: R.I.P. Corey Haim. [Los Angeles Times]
The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according [to] the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.
– Chief Justice John G. Roberts, answering a question from a University of Alabama law student about President Obama’s controversial remarks on Citizens United in the State of the Union.
This just in, from CBS News:
After first claiming that he was originally offering “Late Show” host David Letterman a screenplay for $2 million, Robert “Joe” Halderman, an ex-producer for “48 Hours Mystery” on CBS, pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted grand larceny in the second degree.
“I apologize to Mr. Letterman, his family, to Stephanie Birkitt, her family, and certainly to my friend and family. I will not be doing interviews. Thank you for your patience,” Halderman said after entering the plea.
As you may recall, Stephanie Birkitt (pictured) was the Cardozo Law grad who became romantically entangled with both Letterman and Halderman.
So, what kind of sentence did Halderman get?
Continue reading “Halderman Pleads Guilty to Extortion in Letterman Case”
* If you ever dreamed of Justice Scalia looking at the Constitution and screaming “it’s alive, it’s alive,” hang in there. [Washington Examiner]
* Do you want your law firm to be more like Wal-Mart? Actually, answer this question first: do you like money? [Law and More]
* Black Barbie dolls are priced cheaper than white Barbie dolls. Since we no longer have a Supreme Court that delves into doll-based judicial analysis, we probably don’t have to worry about these price points overturning legal precedent. [BT1Y]
* Do you pad your bills? Is there anything that can be done to stop you? [TechnoLawyer]
* Worst. Judicial writing. In the world … Naw, I can’t tap into Olbermann-esque outrage for this. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]
* Did somebody nominate Goodwin Liu for a number one seed in the tournament? No? Then why all the controversy? [WSJ Law Blog]
* It might be that being a sports agent is the single best job a lawyer can have. [Bitter Lawyer]
Tell us about your law firm experience and we’ll buy you a latte!
Yep, that’s right — as we mentioned last week, 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.
* 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.
The pace of law firm layoffs has apparently slowed to a crawl. We’ll go weeks between job losses at large law firms (that we know of). But, here and there, some people are still getting pushed out as firms retool for the new economy.
Sadly, legal secretaries at Dewey & LeBoeuf became the latest casualties of a layoff cycle that seems very close to its end. The firm-wide memo went out earlier today:
Beginning last week and concluding today the firm implemented a reduction in force impacting approximately 30 administrative staff positions in its Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., offices.
Nobody wants to be the last person KIA in a war, and nobody wants to be laid off at the tail end of a recession. Why did Dewey make the move this late (hopefully) in the recession?
Continue reading “Staff Layoff Watch: Dewey Cuts 30 Administrative Staff”
