* Seventh Circuit forgives ERISA “scrivener’s error.” [Reuters via ABA Journal]
* The heat is on Google in South Korea. [New York Times]
* Don’t believe everyone you meet in the UN lobby. [NY1]
* The lawyer for the fed-up JetBlue flight attendant says there was no reckless endangerment because Steven Slater looked before he leapt, er, slid. [Boston Herald]
Joe Trabucco and Stephen Menard spent more than twenty years building a flourishing litigation practice. To escape conflicts and adjust their rates to reflect the prevailing market, it became clear that for the benefit of their clients, it was time to leave Biglaw and strike out on their own. If they wanted to preserve the support of their key client, they had a window of only 30 days between trials to successfully launch Trabucco & Menard.
To get started they did what any good attorney would do: research. Quickly they amassed a task list that was long and unmanageable. They knew that they needed to put together a business plan, an IT platform, an HR and benefits program, a finance and accounting system, and a hundred other things – but they didn’t know how to get it done. They needed help.
“Once we found NexFirm, things started to come together” said Stephen Menard. “They helped us put together a business plan and offered us all of the operations and administrative solutions we needed. When we shared our launch plans with our clients, they were impressed and supportive of this strategy. It really put my mind to rest.”
As soon as they gave notice to their employer, the unthinkable happened: Joe found himself in a family health crisis that had him in the hospital day and night attending to his loved ones. (Thankfully, things have improved). Without his participation in the launch effort, Steve really had a lot on his plate. Nonetheless, Joe & Steve opened the doors to their new firm, Trabucco & Menard, 30 days later. Continue reading “NexFirm: What would you do if you had only 30 days to chase your dream?”
This was a year of small summer classes. Fewer summer associates mean a greater likelihood that all will get offers… unless a law student does something egregious. (Good news for rising 2Ls: There are signs that next year’s classes will be larger.)
Latham & Watkins and Gibson Dunn had the biggest summer associate classes this year, with 110 law students each. We’re told that Latham gave offers to all of its summer associates. What about Gibson? Will it match Latham one for one? One commenter claims that 24 in the firm’s NYC office have already gotten offers. What about the rest?
We have heard 100% news from a few other brand-name firms. Some came with champagne, others with firm-wide emails…
* Judge John Walter (C.D. Cal.) has rejected Bill Lerach’s proposal to rack up community service hours by teaching law at UC Irvine. [National Law Journal via WSJ Law Blog]
* The American Bar Association (ABA) has come out in favor of marriage equality (i.e., same-sex marriage). [Poliglot / Metro Weekly]
* Former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) — who was a lawyer (Harvard Law 1950), and who created a lot of work for his lawyers, at Williams & Connolly — was killed in a small plane crash. Senator Stevens, R.I.P. [Washington Post]
* Is attractiveness an asset or a liability for women searching for jobs? [Reuters Life]
* And what about if you’re a professor — is pulchritude a plus or a minus? [TaxProf Blog]
* Speaking of professors, they’re getting fed up with plagiarism — but their schools don’t want them to flunk students for the offense. [ABA Journal]
Earlier this year, David Kernell, 22, was found guilty of hacking into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! account and posting some of her emails on the Internetz. The Palins were pleased by his conviction.
One of the places where Palin’s correspondence wound up was the (enter-at-your-own-risk) message forum 4chan.org. During the course of the April felony trial, 4chan founder Christopher “Moot” Poole was called to testify. The Smoking Gun dug up and posted the transcript from the testimony yesterday. Federal prosecutor Mark Krotoski asked Poole to explain how 4chan operates and how it keeps track of its users. He also asked him to explain some “Internet speak.”
The testimony is a handy guide for those of you who get confused by the slang used in online comments sections. How does one define a “lurker,” “troll,” or a “b-tard”?
As of yesterday, Justice Elena Kagan had not hired her four law clerks for October Term 2010, as reported by Tony Mauro in the National Law Journal. But that was then, and this is now.
Justice Kagan, who was sworn in on Saturday, isn’t wasting any time in getting her chambers up and running. Lady Kaga has hired her four little monsters for OT 2010.
Just as Justice Sonia Sotomayor did last year, Justice Kagan is hiring outgoing Supreme Court clerks — i.e., clerks who just finished up with their justices — to ease her transition. Out of her four clerks for the upcoming Term, three also clerked on the Court in the Term just ended (October Term 2009).
Not surprisingly, the former dean of Harvard Law School bleeds Crimson. At least two of Justice Kagan’s four clerks are HLS graduates. One is a graduate of Yale Law School (the alma mater of Justice Kagan’s late father). (We’re still waiting for the name and law school of the fourth clerk.)
UPDATE: We’ve learned the name of the fourth Kagan clerk. She’s also a Harvard Law grad, leaving Justice Kagan with three out of four clerks from HLS. More details after the jump.
So who will be joining the Divine Miss K in the heavenly confines of One First Street?
Samuel McMaster, Jr. didn’t play his cards right before, but hopefully he can now. The former stockbroker admitted to 26 felony charges of securities fraud, after having sold half a million dollars of worthless promissory notes to his victims. He faces up to 12 years in the clinker.
But, apparently, McMaster is a skilled poker player. And as one would expect from an expert swindler, he’s quite a smooth talker. According to ABC News (via Dealbreaker), New Mexico prosecutor Phyllis Bowman agreed to an unusual deal with him: he can try to play poker for his freedom.
White collar defense attorneys, listen up. If McMaster can win back the $440,000 he owes his more than 20 victims, he’s a free man…
If you haven’t already done so, check out Vivia Chen’s series of interviews with hiring partners over at The Careerist. They’re fun and interesting reads. (Our favorite was her unintentionally hilarious interview of Steven Glaser of Skadden.)
Recently Chen sat down with Alan Vickery of litigation powerhouse Boies Schiller (which scored a major victory in the Prop 8 case). Here’s how Vickery described the Boies lawyer:
What’s typical is the diversity of personality and style at the firm. David [Boies] has a broad scope of interests and abilities; he sends a strong signal that individualism is tolerated and encouraged. For instance, there’s lots of support for our work on Prop 8 [where the firm is arguing against the ban on gay marriage in California], but there are also lots of Federalist Society members here.
(Well, in fairness to the Fed Soc, many of its members are libertarian rather than social conservatives, and as such sympathetic to gay marriage — at least as a policy matter, if not necessarily a matter of constitutional law.)
Who are your competitors in the hiring game?
The usual suspects: Wachtell, Davis Polk, Cravath. And if they’re looking for a [litigation] boutique, it’d be Susman Godfrey, Williams & Connolly, or Quinn Emanuel.
Speaking of the competition, Vickery got in a good dig at Davis Polk….
Law schools — as Elie likes to remind readers on a frequent basis — are businesses. Like any good CEO should, Duke Law School dean David Levi has written an editorial defending his product: young lawyers.
In the National Law Journal, he starts off by acknowledging that the legal market for young lawyers is in worse shape than Duke’s reputation after the lacrosse scandal, and that this is “understandable” given the laws of supply and demand. (A subtle acknowledgment of there being too many law schools?) He then writes:
What is not understandable is the surprising amount of criticism heaped upon younger lawyers, offered as if to justify placing a disproportionate share of the economic downturn on their shoulders.
The criticism comes from law firm managers, in-house counsel and former lawyers who now comment on the legal profession…
Ahem. *Uncomfortable pause.*
They most likely represent a minority view, but they are vocal. They say that clients are no longer willing to pay for the work of young associates because their work is “worthless.” We might expect clients to make any argument that could lead to a lower bill, particularly during an economic downturn. But it is wrong and surprising for experienced lawyers inside and outside of firms to acquiesce in, even reinforce, this line of argument.
* More good news: on-campus recruiting by law firms appears to be on the upswing. [New York Law Journal]
* The D.C. Circuit holds that placing a GPS device inside a suspect’s car and tracking his movements for several weeks requires a warrant. [WSJ Law Blog]
* A JetBlue flight attendant who unleashed a profanity-laced tirade over the airplane’s public-address system, before fleeing the plane via the emergency-evacuation chute, has been charged with felony counts of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. [New York Times]
* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking yesterday to the American Bar Association, calls for a return to collegiality and bipartisanship in the Supreme Court confirmation process. [ABA Journal]
* Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) gears up for her ethics trial on conflict-of-interest charges. [Washington Post]
* The youngest Guantanamo detainee gets his day in (a military) court. [How Appealing]
Earlier this month, we asked, “How much would you pay somebody to give you a job?” The question was sparked by a lawyer in Manhattan who posted a Craigslist ad offering up $1,000 to anyone who could help him nail down a legal position. He said he would pay it in cash — $200 for an interview, and $800 on his first day of work.
Well, a Florida lawyer is raising the ante. He’s quintupling it actually. The UC-Hastings Law grad is running a “Find Joe a Job” contest. The winner will take home $5K…
* HLS Dean Martha Minow points out that Justice Marshall’s legacy was confirmed along with Justice Kagan on Saturday. [Boston Globe]
* We’re still reviewing Morning Docket applications. One application started an argument between us about the usefulness of Victoria’s Secret experience, and then Elie went on vacation leaving it unresolved. Meanwhile, here’s another legal blog writing opportunity over at the Genomics Law Report. [Genomics Law Report]
* Is contract work so easy that a 14-year-old can do it? [Laws for Attorneys (Satire)]
* Workplace social media policies are a must. We suggest that these policies not forbid employees from sending things to legal blogs. [ABA]
* Google and Verizon plan to make the net a little less neutral. [Gizmodo]
* We thought it was 8-9-10 day, but apparently, it’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Is that another Hallmark-created holiday? [Securing Innovation via Blawg Review]
The folks over at Law Shucks don’t think so — and, despite my loyalty to my former firm, I see their point. Wachtell is a great firm, but its small size precludes it from being all things to all people. It’s a high-end boutique, not a superstore.
Last week, I wrote (with great pleasure) about whether women lawyers should wear peep-toe shoes to court. In my informal poll of seven federal judges, the vote broke down roughly as follows: four in favor, two opposed, and one in the middle. (See the update — Judge Susan Graber seemed agnostic on peep-toes, but advised lawyers, male and female alike, “to consider comfort and color” in footwear choices.)
One of the judges who dissented, lodging her opposition to a litigatrix sporting peep-toe shoes in court, was Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw (9th Cir.):
My view is that if you have a question about the appropriateness of your attire, don’t risk it. Women appearing in court should never wear anything that draws attention to their anatomy over the merits of their case. You just never know how your audience — judges, jurors, clients or senior partners — will react. It’s better to play it safe in formal settings and save the peep-toes for after hours.
But don’t get the wrong impression about Judge Wardlaw, who is fierce and fabulous (see my earlier interview of her). She is not some fashion fuddy-duddy. Although she recommends against lawyers wearing peep-toes to court, she owns many pairs of herself, which she happily wears in chambers.
Check out these photos of Judge Wardlaw modeling peep-toe shoes, sent to Above the Law by her colleague on the Ninth Circuit, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski….
Eugene Ahn, aka Adam WarRock. (Photo credit: Victoria Ruan)
Eugene Ahn developed an alter ego to explore his creative side while working for a small litigation and employment law firm in Washington, D.C. The Emory Law grad goes by Adam WarRock in his creative projects, which include musical pursuits and a side gig as a contributor to the FakeAPStylebook Twitter account.
This summer, he let the alter ego take over. After three years with his firm, he quit his job in June to pursue his music full-time.
He caught our ear with this Girl Talk-like mash-up, “Starving Artist”:
He caught the attention of Public Radio International, though, last year with a single entitled Ira Glass, about the host of This American Life. PRI’s CEO liked it so much that she blogged about it. On Friday, Ahn and his Ohio-based DJ released a commercial version of the Public-Radio-praising song.
Ahn’s now giving himself a year to make it in the artistic world. What’s his plan?
It’s not that we’re snobs. It’s because we couldn’t trust it. The reason clients pay us what they pay us is because they know we’re 100 percent quality control.
Victims of what anti-law-school bloggers have dubbed “the law school scam” might argue that working for a law school, or at least the kind of law school that saddles students with debt and can’t get them jobs, is closer to a crime than community service. There is certainly an argument that law professors who aren’t part of the solution are part of the problem.
But the notorious William Lerach, the securities plaintiffs’ lawyer turned convicted felon, believes that law teaching is a noble calling — and wants the community service credit to show for it….
There was not much in the way of summer associate scandal this year. There were fewer summer associates at law firms, and they were on their best behavior — resulting in 100% offer rates at many firms. This meant, though, that the stream of summer associate stories was disappointingly dry. (Of course, if you have a story to share — now that summer programs are over, it’s safe to spill the beans — please email us.)
Alas, it was not a dry summer for one law student at Milbank Tweed. This particular summer associate, from a school near the top of the US News rankings, has won an Olympic medal. Apparently, she’s also a champion drinker.
This rising 2L fell under the spell of Mad Men and embraced the three-martini lunch. Her drink of choice, though, was wine — by the bottle…
In 2009, a small group of Harvard Law School students noticed an absurd monopoly in the bar prep space, held by an unchallenged leader with a non-evolving product. In response, these students teamed up with Harvard Law alumni to launch BarMax on January 14, 2010.
The mission: democratize bar prep by embracing new technologies to provide the very best bar exam review courses at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these courses.
Since then, with the encouragement of thousands of students and an unwavering commitment to their success, BarMax has established itself as a comprehensive alternative to the stagnant, over-priced status quo.
As we continue to expand, we do not want to lose sight of the basic premises that led us to create BarMax in the first place. If you are a law student who believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with being forced to take out yet another loan to pay for a $4,000 bar exam prep course, you are not alone.
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com
Happy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.
As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.
Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong
We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).
Please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.
Continue reading “NexFirm: What would you do if you had only 30 days to chase your dream?”
Earlier this year, 
Samuel McMaster, Jr. didn’t play his cards right before, but hopefully he can now. The former stockbroker admitted to 26 felony charges of securities fraud, after having sold half a million dollars of worthless promissory notes to 
* HLS Dean Martha Minow points out that Justice Marshall’s legacy was confirmed along with Justice Kagan on Saturday. [
Milbank Tweed, Summer Associates
Summer Associate Etiquette 101: Share Your Bottle of Wine
By Kashmir HillAlas, it was not a dry summer for one law student at Milbank Tweed. This particular summer associate, from a school near the top of the US News rankings, has won an Olympic medal. Apparently, she’s also a champion drinker.
This rising 2L fell under the spell of Mad Men and embraced the three-martini lunch. Her drink of choice, though, was wine — by the bottle…
Tags: Include names in comments and we will ban you, Milbank Tweed, Reminder: It's a law firm summer gig not a frat party, Summer Associates