Archive for May 2010

  • 07 May 2010 at 4:42 PM

Is Litigation in America Heading Toward A Perfect Storm?

By Gabe Acevedo

I spend quite a bit of my time tracking complex litigation. I would say that I do it so I can keep material fresh for my blog, but that would not be whole truth. I keep current with happenings in the litigation market for survival. Since I contract often to make my way in this world, knowing when that market is busy or slow is an absolute must.

Well, what a difference a couple of years make. Back in 2008, it seemed like the sky was falling. Above The Law, partnering with Law Shucks, reported almost everyday on associate layoffs. At the time, I was hunting down document reviews as a legal recruiter for a small staffing outfit. Several of my contract attorney friends called me, and most of those calls were very depressing. People were begging for work, having been unemployed for months in a D.C. market that normally kept attorneys steadily working. Many were emotionally upset, having watched their savings dwindle down to their last few dollars. When would the market pick back up? When would the economy turn around?

Now, fast forward to the present. Events in this country are sending litigation toward a perfect storm. I’m talking sea-change. Something we have never seen in this market before. So much so, this next decade may be one of the best for legal technology and Biglaw. I will give you six reasons after the jump.

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(Down and Out) Lawyer of the Day: Cliff Lovette

By Kashmir Hill

When plotting the escape from Biglaw, many associates set their sights on entertainment law. In their Hollywood dreaming, they imagine mingling with the hottest actors, actresses and producers as they write up contracts and negotiate movie and music deals.

We know that many a recruiter is dangling this prospect in front of desperate young lawyers looking for jobs. But the actual entry into entertainment law is not terribly easy, and once you get there, it’s not always so sexy as you might imagine.

One lawyer in Atlanta lived the show biz law dream, though. Cliff Lovette worked in-house for a record company, and then founded his own entertainment law firm. He used to represent some of music’s hottest acts, with Usher and Lisa “LeftEye” Lopes among his clients. He was a regular at the Grammys. He was the subject of magazine feature stories. His law group even had its own MySpace page.

But Lovette is not lovin’ it anymore. Now, the Emory Law grad is on food stamps…

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Job of the Week: An In-House Gig Near NYC

By Above the Law

Thumbnail image for Job of the Week Lateral Link ATL logo.gifThere are some great opportunities in New York and the surrounding area, courtesy of Lateral Link, which has just added a lot of new openings for mid-level corporate attorneys. Today’s Job of the Week is for a hot in-house spot just outside of New York CIty.

Position: Assistant General Counsel

Location: New York Metro Area

Description: A publicly traded manufacturing company, located approximately 40 minutes outside of New York City is seeking an Assistant General Counsel. The attorney must have a strong corporate background with extensive experience with SEC filings and reporting, M&A transactions and general contract matters. Ideal candidate will have experience working with manufacturing clients. The attorney must have at least 6 years of law firm experience.

If you are a Lateral Link member, please see Position #6270 on the Lateral Link site. If you are not a Lateral Link member, you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com. You may also contact T.J. Duane at tjduane@laterallink.com for more details on the position.

Earlier: Prior Jobs of the Week

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Kagan

By Elie Mystal

Everywhere you go, people are buzzing that President Barack Obama has made his choice on the replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens. And the consensus is that the nominee will be Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Politico reports that David, Kash and I will be up late on Sunday:

Look for President Obama to name his Supreme Court pick Monday, and look for it to be Solicitor General Elena Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean. The pick isn’t official, but top White House aides will be shocked if it’s otherwise… The West Wing may leak the pick to AP’s Ben Feller on the later side Sunday, then confirm it for others for morning editions. For now, aides say POTUS hasn’t decided, to their knowledge.

With all the talk about the razor-sharp Judge Diane Wood, the case for the bearded dark-horse Judge Sidney Thomas, and the Republican wet dream (at least, a wet dream within the nightmare of Democratic control) of Judge Merrick Garland, it’s possible that Kagan’s sterling qualifications have been overlooked. She was the front runner, after all.

But let’s remember all of the excellent reasons Kagan was the front runner in the first place…

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ATL Courtship Connection: Duds, Fireworks, and Harry Potter

By Kashmir Hill

Some Courtship Connection dates are more exciting than others. We haven’t had any drinks thrown or boots knocked on the first date yet. But this is New York, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

This column brings you the tales of two couples. One couple had the best of times, and the other had the worst of times. Let’s start with the tragic date. I set up these two top law school grads at top firms, because they named constitutional law and constitutional theory, respectively, as their favorite law school classes, and they had named Supreme Court justices on the opposite sides of the political spectrum as their favorites. I thought that would lead to some sparks. I was wrong.

They met at Scratcher’s in the East Village on a Tuesday night. He said:

I showed up, she was cute, but we just didn’t really click. I don’t have anything bad to say about her, but it kind of felt from the very beginning that we were on different pages. We come from very different backgrounds and had very different political beliefs. Not sure what the idea was in putting a Scalia guy with a Ginsburg girl? When we called it a night, I think we both felt there wasn’t anything there.

The idea was fiery disagreement! Instead, it just resulted in nothing in common and nothing to discuss. She said:

As amusing as the the pairing of an southern evangelical Christian and a liberal from the mid-Atlantic must have seemed to you at the time, it produced rather luke-warm results. We realized pretty quickly that we came from wildly different backgrounds and perspectives and were several years apart in age. It wasn’t unpleasant or awkward, but we just didn’t have anything to talk about.

They both listed themselves as the 26-30 age range. It sounds like she found him immature though.

Before you start thinking I’m a terrible matchmaker, read on. The other couple — a Biglawyer and a law school student — got along quite well indeed. We have our second incident of a kiss on a Courtship Connection date…

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Quote of the Day: So What Does That Make the Billable Hour?

By David Lat

Alternative fees may be like teenage sex. There’s more talk than action.

– Law firm consultant Bruce MacEwen, founder of Adam Smith, Esq., at a panel discussion on law firm/client relationships.

Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks

By David Lat

Grover Cleveland is the author of Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer, an advice book for attorneys published earlier this year. As a partner at Foster Pepper PLC, one of the Northwest’s largest law firms, he helped many new attorneys learn how to practice law. While at Foster Pepper, he was named a Rising Star for three years in a row by Washington Law and Politics magazine.

Grover now holds an environmental policy position in Seattle. In this role, he has seen the world from the client’s perspective. This broad range of experience both as a supervising attorney and as a client gives him a unique perspective on the skills new lawyers need to succeed. (Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks also incorporates the wisdom of dozens of other lawyers that he interviewed in the course of his research.)

Earlier this week, we chatted with Grover about his book, advice he offers to young lawyers, and the state of the law firm economy, among other topics.

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Nixon Peabody: This is What Salary Raises Look Like Without Lockstep

By Elie Mystal

Nixon Peabody is one of the firms that has moved towards a merit-based pay structure. The firm also cut starting salaries down to $145K a year ago. So you’d think that any information on a Nixon Peabody salary raise would be greeted favorably.

Not so much. A tipster tells us:

I can confirm that I received a raise. I can confirm that it sucks. Anything else?

Oh boy, that doesn’t sound good. Is anybody feeling like a winner at Nixon Peabody?

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Morning Docket: 05.07.10

By Elie Mystal

* Did the stock market really plunge yesterday because of a typo? Don’t look at me, I was nowhere near the stock market yesterday! [Newser]

* Getting oil out of water is expensive, but somebody’s got to do it. [New York Times]

* Clifford Chance partner decides to “defect to the dark side.” [Am Law Daily]

* The ABA’s Equal Justice conference is going to be held in Arizona next week. Awkward! The ABA will refund money to those who choose to boycott the conference. [ABA Journal]

* Transparency keeps law firms healthy. [National Law Review]

* At his sentencing hearing, former New York State Senate leader Joe Bruno blames “the lawyers” for his troubles. [Daily News]

* A hung Parliament was the result of the U.K. elections last night. Welcome to the joys of coalition governing. [BBC News]

MoFo Sets Start Dates and Gives Out Stipends to Some

By Kashmir Hill

Morrison Foerster logo.jpgUnlike some firms, MoFo has not given up on the class of 2010. The firm is actively looking forward to welcoming its incoming group of associates, and has started informing them about their start dates.

The firm extended offers to “approximately 65 law students” from its 2009 summer associate class. Their start dates are staggered. Some will get to wear a Halloween costume to the firm. Some will get to be part of the Christmas gift exchange, and some will be starting soon after getting over New Year’s Eve hangovers. MoFo chair Keith Wetmore sent out an email memo this afternoon letting current associates know how many people will be starting when:

Today, we will notify approximately 35 members of the class of 2010 of a November 1, 2010 start date. Approximately 20 members of the class (including a number of those arriving from their clerkships) have been given an accelerated start date of October 4, 2010 due to client demands. The final approximately 25 additional associates will join the class of 2010 on January 4, 2011 based either on their prior election to defer to 2011 or, in a few instances, deferral to align associate staffing with anticipated client demand.

(35 + 20 + 25 = 80. So there are 15 folks mixed in there who are not wearing a cap and gown this May. Some of those starting in January are 2009 grads who took the firm’s deferral package last year. And some of the 20 starting in October will be fresh off the clerkship boat. Yay! Clerks can go home again.)

It sounds like some of these wanna-be MoFoers, who hadn’t previously chosen to defer to 2011, got news of being deferred to January today. But they also got news of a stipend. MoFo is not following the Skadden salary advance lead…

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Non-Sequiturs: 05.06.10

By Elie Mystal

* When it comes to Constitutional interpretation, everybody is partisan. [Bell & Bar]

* A rebuttal to David Lat’s stance on hot tea. I have no opinion on this, my morning beer is never too hot to cause injury. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

*Whenever I think of Charlie Sheen, I think of how sad President Bartlett must be. [Gawker]

* At this point, I think people need to start punishing hotels that do not provide decent Wifi. [Tax Prof Blog]

* No, something offered by Donald Trump is a piece of crap? The Donald? No way, I don’t believe it. [Daily News]

* Accounting fraud doesn’t make for an entertaining Broadway experience. [Going Concern]

* A typo even I wouldn’t make. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

* In case you haven’t seen The Onion’s brilliant report on the latest Supreme Court defense of the First Amendment, take a look. [The Onion]

SCOTUS Speculation: Will Obama’s Pick Tick Off Conservatives?
Plus some thoughts on a second Justice Thomas.

By David Lat

Yesterday I predicted that President Obama will nominate Judge Diane Wood (7th Cir.) to the Supreme Court. My colleague Elie is on record as predicting that Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Both of these predictions still seem viable, in light of how Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) reacted after meeting with Obama yesterday to talk about SCOTUS nominees. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

President Barack Obama invited Sen. Orrin Hatch into the Oval Office for a private discussion Wednesday about his impending Supreme Court pick — and then Hatch immediately drove downtown to the Cato Institute where he ripped the president’s approach to nominating judges….

At a Cato event billed as a speech on health care, Hatch said Obama has clearly looked for qualifications that go beyond a strict adherence to the Constitution.

“Last summer, President Obama talked often about how judges should be guided by their empathy. This year, the buzz phrase seems to be core constitutional values,” Hatch said. “This is the same old thing, just another cloaking device for judges who seek to control the Constitution.”

So what exactly went down at the Obama-Hatch tête-à-tête?

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Plus some thoughts on a second Justice Thomas.“

Psyching Yourself Up For Final Exams
A University of Oklahoma 2L Knows How To Motivate

By Kashmir Hill

For most of our readers, this is just a regular week. The only noteworthy event is Elie’s birthday on Monday on Sunday (Mother’s Day — we hope you’ve done your filial duty and sent a card or mailed her some home-made pancakes.) For our little law student readers, though, this is a week that may make them hate Mom… for encouraging them to seek success through a JD. A premise that now seems flawed and that requires at various points in the year, like now, the taking of exams.

Students have all kinds of methods for preparing for exams. We advise abstaining from the devil’s water in the weeks before tests. Our co-editor Elie tells us he had a more specific routine. Before every finals period, he watched Rocky 1 in full. Then, on every test day, he’d start the morning by rewatching the final fight on his “vcr/dvd.” (Aw. Elie went to law school before the existence of YouTube.) Then, halfway through the exam, he’d blast Cake’s “Going the distance.” Perhaps using his “walkman” or “discman.”

If Elie had had a laptop and access to YouTube, he could have subjected his classmates to this routine, watching the fight with the volume turned up and sharing with others what it is to be beaten but not bowed. According to a source at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, there is a 2L who has mastered the art of psyching himself up as public spectacle.

After reading the article on the douchy Dukies earlier today, I had to write you about an experience I had with a fellow law student. Words won’t do the story justice, but I’ll do my best to paint this masterful portrait of douchiness appropriately.

Oh yes, please do…

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A University of Oklahoma 2L Knows How To Motivate“

An Article To Send To Your Family and Friends to Explain How Screwed You Are

By Kashmir Hill

Those inside the legal bubble know that it’s a terrible time to be graduating from law school, so as Ashby Jones notes, this Wall Street Journal article about the sucky job market for law grads holds few surprises. Well, really no surprises: it’s tough this year for law grads.

But it’s good that the Wall Street Journal is spreading the word outside of the legal bubble, letting non-lawyer readers of the WSJ know that the law school golden ticket is currently tattered and torn:

The situation is so bleak that some students and industry experts are rethinking the value of a law degree, long considered a ticket to financial security. If students performed well, particularly at top-tier law schools, they could count on jobs at corporate firms where annual pay starts as high as $160,000 and can top out well north of $1 million. While plenty of graduates are still set to embark on that career path, many others have had their dreams upended.

If you’re having a hard time explaining to non-lawyers just how shattered your dreams are, send this article along to them. It lays it out in a clear and concise matter, and includes simple, pretty charts explaining the supply-and-demand problem in the legal job market.

Now, what should you do if you’re in the enviable position of having post-graduation employment lined up?

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Pls Hndle Thx: Hot for Teacher

By Marin

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

Dear ATL,

What do you think about becoming a law professor? Is it a good gig? Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that I have an appropriate resume to get hired as a law professor (summa cum laude from a tier-1 school, federal clerkship, have several publications in law journals, etc.).

I’m currently a junior associate at a V50 BigLaw firm, but I’m sick of the crushing hours. However, I enjoy legal research, writing law review papers, and teaching. Also, I enjoy being condescending to nubile coeds.

But is the pay cut worth it all? I know Elie hates everything about law schools, so I’ll ignore his advice. Marin, what do you think?

Future Professor Emeritus

Dear Future Professor Emeritus,

Merely loving the sound of your own voice does not a law school professor make.  I’m sure your law review note was the single most influential piece of legal analysis since the Magna Carta, but I wouldn’t be so confident that you can just flash some publications or a federal clerkship at law schools and expect them to s**t themselves.  I mean, I graduated from a tier-1 school without honors (robbed, obv) and have been published on The Frisky, and you don’t see me applying for professorships.

And that’s assuming you actually want to be a professor…

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Quote of the Day: It’s better to have the gavel.

By Kashmir Hill

“I have the p*ssy, so I make the rules.”

– A t-shirt that resulted in a contempt-of-court charge in Chicago.

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!

Student Loans for Homeless People?

By Elie Mystal

Let’s hope law schools don’t figure out this trick pioneered by a New Jersey college. Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

Drake College of Business, a for- profit higher education company based in New Jersey, suspended its recruiting of students from homeless shelters while accreditors scrutinize the practice.

For those who keep telling me that discharging student loans through bankruptcy would make banks more cautious before giving out student loans, I say “good!” I’m worried about equal access to education. But I’m somewhat confident a bank can distinguish between a low income student that gets into a T-14 law school, and a homeless person that gets recruited to Drake College of Fleecing Business.

I’m mean, taking in student loan money is the school’s only business model for God’s sake…

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Lawsuit of Fifteen Years Ago a Few Days Ago: Inanli v. Starbucks

By David Lat

Exciting news. Starbucks has just launched its new However-You-Want-It Frappuccino® product, “allowing customers to create a blended beverage that is uniquely their own…. the same way they customize their favorite Starbucks espresso beverage.”

Sounds delicious! But if you order your Frappuccino with extra ice, and then experience brain freeze, don’t turn around and sue Starbucks.

Or maybe do turn around and sue Starbucks? Even though lawsuits based on allegedly unreasonable beverage temperatures have become national jokes, memorialized in popular culture (e.g., Seinfeld episodes), they still keep getting filed — and, presumably, settled.

The latest lawsuit has been filed against Starbucks, for excessively hot tea….

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Morning Docket 05.06.10

By Kashmir Hill

Justice John Paul Stevens Above the Law.jpg* Justice Stevens explains the reason for his bow ties (and his stance on the death penalty). [ABA Journal]

* Texas lawyer Adam Reposa‘s law license is on probation for three years. [Austin American-Statesman]

* BP plaintiffs of the world, unite! [BusinessWeek]

* UVA 3L Dean Razavi is headed to Katten Muchin with a Fourth Circuit win under his belt. (Classmate Ellen Valentine also worked on the case though didn’t get to share in the oral argument glory.) [BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]

* Supreme Court nominee announcement more likely to come next week than this week. And Eric Holder thinks the press should have gotten some good shots of Kagan talking to Stevens, though he denies any special insider knowledge. [Washington Post]

* A delicious victory for Seinfeld’s wife. [Courthouse News Service]