Archive for July 2010

First, They Came For The Key Fobs, And We Said Nothing: Three Stories From Ill-Fated Contract Attorneys

By Gabe Acevedo

“Hey Mike, we’re having issues with your key fob. We need to reconfigure it.”

That may seem like a pretty random quote with which to begin a blog post, but trust me, it will soon make sense.

There has been a lot of chatter recently about contract attorneys and Biglaw. Some are finding themselves getting blacklisted left and right, which is not exactly breaking news in their corner of the e-discovery industry. Other contract lawyers are more resourceful, ahem, finding other gigs to support themselves. Earlier this week, there was another article about how contract attorneys are on the rise and how the pool of contract attorneys has never looked better.

Recently, however, between celebrating July 4th and our nation’s independence, knocking back a few Cuba Libres, and watching my beloved Argentine National Soccer Team completely self-destruct against the Germans, I was reminded of another aspect of being a contract attorney. (BTW, I say my Argentine National Soccer Team because my father is from Argentina. My mother was an American of Irish descent. Somehow, that makes me a Costa Rican.  I know. I don’t get it either, but I digress.)

As a contract attorney, there are only two things the agency or firm you work with will definitively tell you: the day you start (and that’s not always so definitive) and the day you’re finished.

With that in mind, I decided to open a window into the world of contract attorneys and how they meet their fates in three separate instances. One I corroborated with several of my colleagues. Another I witnessed myself. Oh, and a third I am extremely familiar with, considering the attorney in question was me. Your feel-good post of the week awaits you, after the jump.

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Reality Television Can Be Good For Your Career, Says Apprentice Loser

By Kashmir Hill
Erin Elmore, The Apprentice

Erin Elmore, ex-reality TV star.

In our last few reality TV stories, we have highlighted the perils of putting your life on camera — publicly flunking out of law school, having the world know you’ve failed the bar exam twice, and exposing an ego surgically enhanced to the size of Texas.

One former reality TV star emailed us to protest. Erin Elmore wrote:

I also was on a realty show….. Apprentice 3 with Donald Trump. It actually opened career doors and I never regretted doing the show!!!

Elmore was on the 2005 Magna vs. Net Worth edition of the show, pitting those with book smarts against those with street smarts. Since she has a law degree from Villanova, she was obviously teamed up with the book smarties.

She sent along a series of YouTube clips with the email, showcasing all the TV gigs she’s gotten since doing The Apprentice. Here’s a montage. The girl knows how to work a Philadelphia red carpet.

Elmore worked for Marshall Dennehey and then JP Morgan Chase before going on The Apprentice. Trump fired her, and she returned to the world of law. To what great heights has reality television propelled her?

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Sports and the Law: Lebron James to Europe?

By Marc Edelman

At 9 P.M. tonight, Lebron James is making his big announcement about where he will play next season.

Cleveland?  Chicago? Miami?  New York?  New Jersey?

What about Europe? (Lebron once told ESPN he might play overseas for $50 Million per year).

NBA players should hope that Lebron chooses Europe.  And this is for reasons more important than just their chances of winning an MVP Award…

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Career Center: Billable Hours – Firms Vary Wildly

By Above the Law

Welcome to the next in our series on the results of the 2010 ATL/Career Center Associate Satisfaction survey. We’ve used the survey results to revamp the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, with completely updated profiles. Each week, we are highlighting insider information that Members shared about their firms in the eight key areas of associate satisfaction covered by the Career Center.

Today, we look at how your firm and others measure up in one very important aspect: Billable Hours.

  • This Texas-based firm, with one of the world’s leading energy practices, does not have a billable hours requirement, although bonus amounts are contingent upon meeting certain hours thresholds.
  • While this "top-notch" New York-based firm has no official billable hours requirement, Lateral Link Members report that the unofficial expectation is between 2,100 and 2,400 hours. 
  • This California-based firm, which focuses on intellectual property, has an unusual billing system based on "billed, not billable, hours," and although the billable minimum is only 1,700 hours, hours "recorded but not billed out to the client are disregarded." 
  • First-year associates at this East Coast firm are required to bill 1,900 hours per year, while other associates are required to bill 1,950 hours, a requirement that Members concur is “attainable and reasonable.”

More highlights — check to see if your firm is featured — after the jump.

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Revenge of the Laid Off Associate

By Elie Mystal

If you were friends with somebody who was laid off from Biglaw during the past 18 months, you probably tried to cheer your friend up with some sort of platitude. You probably told your friend, “It’s their loss,” or perhaps, “[The firm] will be sorry.”

You probably didn’t believe it when you said it, and neither did your friend. The sad reality is that for every associate fired, law schools produce ten more that are dying to replace them. It’s hard for individual associates to make their former employers “pay” for giving them the axe. The revenge quest becomes even harder when you take into account the fact that being laid off in this market was a career killer for most of those involuntarily kicked off the Biglaw bandwagon.

But at least one laid-off lawyer has been able to get a small measure of revenge against his former employer. The associate brings a message of hope to the fallen associates who walk the earth with cold dishes to serve their old employers…

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Morning Docket: 07.08.10

By Kashmir Hill

* Don’t abuse the temp help. Contract lawyer Moshe Koplowitz is suing New York firm Labaton Sucharow for overtime pay. [New York Times]

* Lawyers say spy swap will happen soon. [Associated Press; New York Times]

* You can clear your court record but not your Google record. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* No foul play suspected in the Metro death of William & Mary 3L Joseph Doyle. [Washington Post]

* Lindsay Lohan’s fingernail message was not directed at the judge. [Los Angeles Times]

* Gun advocates fire off another 2nd Amendment lawsuit in Chicago. [Associated Press]

* Everybody wants Lebron James on their team right now, including an SEC lawyer who claims to be his father. [TMZ]

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: All of October Term 2010
Plus several hires for October Term 2011.

By David Lat

Earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has no plans of stepping down from the Supreme Court anytime soon. This wasn’t terribly exciting, since there haven’t been any rumblings of an AMK departure. In addition, Justice Kennedy has already hired at least two law clerks for October Term 2011.

And so have several of his colleagues, including Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who are said to be done with their OT 2011 hiring). Some have wondered whether Justice Ginsburg might be leaving the Court, given her health issues. But RBG’s commitment to the Court appears strong — she took the bench the day after the deeply sad passing of her husband, Marty Ginsburg — and her hiring a full clerk complement for 2011-2012 suggests she isn’t going anywhere.

A full list of the October Term 2010 law clerks, who are starting at One First Street this month, plus news (and rumor) of OT 2011 hires — after the jump.

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Plus several hires for October Term 2011.“

Non-Sequiturs: 06.07.10

By Elie Mystal

* Don’t try to punk the University of Michigan Law School admissions office unless you’re rocking a restricted telephone number. [Legal Profession Blog]

* Disney better hope this jury verdict isn’t a final answer. [The Wrap]

* Legal bloggers will fight about how to interpret various aspects of the Bill of Rights, but we all love the Declaration of Independence. [Infamy or Praise]

* But if we had meaningful tax reform, there would be less work for tax lawyers. And we all know that tax lawyers are the smartest lawyers; they’re way too intelligent to allow tax reform to happen. [Going Concern]

* Former Drug and Device law blogger Mark Hermann wrote a book about what you don’t learn in law school. [Law School Podcaster]

* I wonder if this will make the heads of Grammar Nazis explode? [The Lawyerist]

Quote of the Day: As Nasty As She Wanna Be?

By Kashmir Hill

In other words, my homegirl Kagan was saying people could not be aroused by the lyrics “’cause my dick’s on bone” or “me so horny, me f*** you long time.”

– Luther Campbell (aka Uncle Luke of 2 Live Crew) endorsing Elena Kagan in the Miami New Times based on her work on the band’s behalf at Williams & Connolly.

Stephen Colbert Rips Loyola-L.A.’s ‘Foolproof Plan to Get Their Graduates Better Jobs’

By Kashmir Hill

Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) hoped to quietly jump on the grade-inflation bandwagon in order to help make its students more competitive in the legal marketplace. The school bumped letter grades up a notch, so that a C- became a C, a B became a B+, and an A+ became an A+you’reasuperamazinggunnerrockstar.

But the quiet jump has resulted in a lot of noise. After we wrote about the school’s retroactive grade inflation, the Los Angeles Times and later the New York Times picked up on it.

And last night, Loyola had its big moment on the Colbert Report:

The upside is that Loyola-L.A. just broke through to a whole new audience of potential applicants. The downside is that we can hear the deflation of the hopes of all the Loyola law school grads who planned to wow employers with their amazing GPAs.

We reached out to Loyola about being mocked by one of America’s most influential people. A response from Dean Victor Gold, after the jump.

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Michigan Law Tells Its 3Ls They’re Screwed; Offers Counseling

By Elie Mystal

While there are students enjoying the good life as summer associates, many rising 3Ls are staring into the abyss of entering 3L recruiting without a post-graduate job lined up. At Michigan Law, the school’s office of career services is preparing its students for just how abysmal the abyss is going to be:

As you look at the employers coming to campus to interview 3Ls, some of you may be feeling quite frustrated at the number of employers willing to interview you as a 3L when there were far more willing to interview you when you were a 2L. Unfortunately, in the next few weeks there may be even more firms that cancel or reduce the number of interview slots they want reserved for 3Ls.

Welcome to “the suck,” my friends. I hope you brought your BFG…

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Reminder: ATL Summer Party on Monday
It’s free, and you’re invited.

By Above the Law

We’ve mentioned it before, but since it’s just a few days away, we wanted to issue a reminder about the Above the Law summer soiree. It’s taking place this coming Monday here in New York. You’re cordially invited to come have drinks and hors d’oeuvres with the ATL editors and your fellow readers.

The party is hosted by Above the Law and the Practical Law Company. Here are the details:

Monday, July 12, 2010
6 PM – whenever
Amity Hall (80 West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012)

The event is free, but space is limited, with priority given to summer associates and law students. Please RSVP by email, to rsvp@abovethelaw.com.

Thanks. We look forward to seeing you on the 12th.

‘The Job Market Is Even Worse Than Many of Us Thought’

By Kashmir Hill

Desperate times call for measures to take advantage of the desperate. Why pay California lawyers $10 an hour when they’re willing to work for free? And not just willing, but eager to provide their services on a volunteer basis.

We wrote before about the public sector utilizing the unpaid legal workforce when the Marin County DA advertised for attorneys for “unpaid, temporary positions that offer a valuable opportunity to gain courtroom experience including trying misdemeanor jury trials.” Last week, a tipster sent along another Craigslist ad from the other side of the Bay, with the subject line, “Seriously?” An excerpt:

Superior Court of San Mateo County Seeks Volunteers

The Legal Research Department of the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, is seeking attorneys willing to volunteer their time as a legal research attorney with a minimum 6 month commitment to the court.

We write often about these depressing job ads and the fact that a degree that entails six figures of debt can only help you nail down a six-month unpaid position. We wondered what kind of response such ads were actually getting, so we reached out to the San Mateo Court.

The response makes the ads even more depressing. The hiring attorney tells us that his phone won’t stop ringing…

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Bar Exam Studying: Open Thread
Just three weeks left until the big day!

By David Lat

Ann Althouse did it. So can you.

Fourth of July weekend is behind us. And we all know what that means: if you’re studying for the July 2010 bar exam, it’s time to buckle down and focus. There are just three weeks left until your date with destiny.

Looking over our recent posts about the bar exam, we see higher-than-average numbers of Twitter mentions and Facebook shares. Perhaps some of you are procrastinating?

It pains us to say this, but for those of you taking the bar this summer, you should probably start rationing the amount of time you spend online (whether on Twitter, Facebook, or Above the Law). Use the prospect of web surfing to incentivize your studying. For example, let yourself surf the web for X minutes after you complete Y hours of study.

That’s just one tip for bar exam studying; there are many others. On our last post about the bar exam, in which Elie explained how you can fail the Bar/Bri “midterm” and still pass on the first try, this advice-dispensing comment was popular with readers (with over 20 “likes”):

(1) Use the BarBri/Pieper/PMBR study schedule to guide you. This will keep you from spending too much time on any given subject.

(2) Practice, practice, practice. Practice those essays. Practice those MBE questions. And better yet, time yourself when you practice.

(3) Stress. You’re supposed to stress. But stress just enough to keep fire under your a*s. Don’t stress so much that you black out or have an anxiety attack. E.g., a former coworker fainted the morning of the exam.

More bar exam advice, after the jump.

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Just three weeks left until the big day!“

Firms Don’t Want to Talk About Outsourcing

By Elie Mystal

Are Biglaw firms outsourcing legal work, or not? We don’t know, because apparently firms don’t want clients to know. The ABA Journal reports that most firms declined to even answer an outsourcing questionnaire:

About 83 percent of the 30 responding law firms declined to participate in the survey, according to Fronterion, the Chicago-based outsourcing consulting firm that conducted the study. Fronterion managing principal Michael Bell believes a majority of top law firms are using legal outsourcing providers, at least on an ad hoc basis, but they are reluctant to admit it because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Apparently all that criticism of the quality of international LPOs has made firms afraid to talk about outsourcing.

But since we’re dealing with top law firms, not talking =/= not doing…

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Legal Eagle Wedding Watch June 2010: Board-dom

By Laurie Lin

Most weeks nowadays, the New York Times weddings announcements — and our coverage of same — focus quite properly on the newlyweds and their impressive accomplishments. But occasionally, a few announcements hearken back to a simpler day, when nobody cared much about the bride and groom, because the game of social one-upmanship was played on the parental level.

This is one of those weeks. Our featured newlyweds are impressive, but some of their parents are even more so. The finalists:

1. Tenley Laserson and Geoffrey Chepiga

2. Charlotte Anne Levy and David Gudis

3. Mara Zusman and Jeremy Greenberg

4. Gary Lowman and Brock McCormack

More on these couples and their illustrious parents, after the jump.

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Morning Docket: 07.07.10

By David Lat

Was Lindsay Lohan's fingernail sending a message to the judge?

* A 22-year-old soldier accused of downloading classified information and providing some of it to Wikileaks has been formally charged. [New York Times]

* Talk about a Mean Girl: Judge Marsha Revel sentences Lindsay Lohan to 90 days in jail, plus 90 days in a locked-down rehab center, for multiple probation violations. [Los Angeles Times; ABC News (fingernail photo)]

* Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, has raised $550,000 for Liberty Central, her conservative think tank. Who are her donors? [Politico]

* Magic Circle law firms suffer disappearing revenues. [Am Law Daily]

* But transatlantic unions are still popular, contributing to an increase in law firm merger activity. [Washington Post]

* Second Circuit rules that pharmaceutical sales reps are entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA if they work more than 40 hours per week. [How Appealing]

Quinn Emanuel Babes in the Woods: How Two Summer Associates Got Lost on a Firm Hiking Trip

By Kashmir Hill

Quinn Emanuel lawyers at summit of Mt. St. Helens on Friday, June 25th

One of the perks of working at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is an annual hiking trip to an exotic location. Quinnies have hiked in Zion National Park, Havasupai, Durango, and Interlaken, Switzerland, among other places. Last month, the firm went on its fifteenth trip, to Mount St. Helens in the Pacific Northwest, and did a day hike to the top of the crater.

Someone nominated the trip for our Best Summer Associate Event of 2010 contest. At right is the nice happy photo of lawyers on the summit (which John Quinn tweeted). Quinn told us:

we had 70 plus lawyers on this hike. all but one summitted. it was beautiful–and a challenge.

It was truly challenging: on the way back down the mountain, a couple of summers lost their way. The rest of the partners, associates and summers returned to their hotel by nightfall, but these two, whom we’ll call Hansel & Gretel, wound up shivering in the woods until 3 a.m. CORRECTION: A tipster tells us: “A group of four partners and associates hiked back up the mountain to look for them. Two of them, including a partner, stayed at the mountain until they were located, and the rest of the people were asked to leave by the sheriff.”

If the summer associate experience really were like an episode of Survivor, these two law students would not make the cut…

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Non-Sequiturs: 07.06.10

By Elie Mystal

* Padmé Amidala getting pregnant while working for the Republic > Padmé Amidala getting pregnant while working for Lucasfilms. [New York Employment Law Blog]

* You gotta love it when politicians use Google Cache. [Copyrights & Campaigns]

* Are you a happy lawyer? Do you want to be? [Concurring Opinions]

* Chicago and Cardozo law grads team up to publish art from lawyers and law students. It makes you wonder how many people started down a legal career path because their parents told them they needed a “fallback” career in case the artist thing didn’t work out. [the.law.review]

* Indiana man tries to become a lawyer without going to law school. But the trolls under the bridge won’t let him pass unless he pays the toll. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Meanwhile, a California man decides to go back to law school after dropping out the first time around. [The Ex-Lawyers Club]

* This week’s Blawg Review probably could have had an Independence Day theme, but no, that would have been too easy. [Lowering the Bar via Blawg Review]

Lawyerly Lairs: An Associate and an Art Collection

By David Lat

Christopher Boutlier, male model turned interior designer.

Over the long weekend, the Washington Post magazine treated us to a delicious inside look at the gorgeous home of Christopher Boutlier, an interior designer, and his partner, Aaron Flynn — a lawyer. Flynn practices environmental and administrative law in the D.C. office of Hunton & Williams.

Flynn may be a mere associate, but he lives like a partner: he resides in D.C.’s desirable Dupont Circle neighborhood, in an 1,110-square-foot condominium; he has an art collection; and he sleeps with a model. (The fine-featured Boutlier was a model before becoming an interior decorator.)

So just how fabulous is their apartment?

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