Because God is a kind and loving God, Christine O’Donnell lost Delaware’s Senate race this past Tuesday night. Although you probably wouldn’t know that by her concession speech, in which America’s sweetheart followed up her somewhat terrifying “I am you” campaign tagline with a staunchly delusional “we have won” announcement. These statements would normally be classified as symptoms of schizophrenia per the DSM-IV-TR, although admittedly Christine is well past the average age of onset.
Some pundits argue that what Christine really meant by “we have won” is that she won a career for herself following the election, given all of her press coverage. At this point, it’s still anybody’s guess as to what she plans to do, but in the meantime we can take bets, turn to page 87, and choose her own adventure.
What’s Christine O’Donnell’s Next Move?
Continue reading “Fame Brief: Choose Your Own Adventure for Christine O’Donnell”
Ed. note: Law Shucks focuses on life in, and after, Biglaw, including by tracking layoffs, bonuses, and laterals. Above the Law is pleased to bring you this weekly column, which analyzes news at the world’s top law firms.
We’ve hit another lull in the Biglaw calendar. Recruiting is pretty much over. 2Ls and 3Ls lucky enough to have offers for summer jobs and full-time employment, respectively, have accepted or are finishing up the decisionmaking process (and for those no-offered or otherwise shut out, or interested in a good read, don’t miss ATL’s new column about one guy who made it back to BigLaw). May’s graduates have either just started or are sitting out the last months of their deferrals — and either way, they’re waiting for bar exam results.
But there are two significant events on the horizon, and glimmers of hope and speculation are starting to appear. Much like Christmas advertising creeps earlier and earlier into the fall, so too does speculation about law-firm bonuses. We, at least, have had the decency to wait until after Halloween.
Above the Law barely made it to October. A month ago, ATL posted a survey on what bonuses would look like this year. Optimism abounded, with 50% (n=1,155) expecting higher bonuses, and 35% thinking they would be no worse than last year.
The last few entries in this series have been about law firm deals and law firm litigation; after the jump, we get back to focusing on the issues affecting the law firm lifestyle.
Continue reading “This Week in Biglaw: 11.08.10″
It looks like layoffs are making a comeback of sorts. If you are working as legal support staff in a Biglaw firm, you need to keep your head on a swivel.
Last week, we reported on cuts for staff (in terms of bonuses) at Jones Day. Today Above the Law can report on cuts of staff, at Howrey.
Multiple tipsters report that Howrey laid off 35 support staffers over the course of last week. What should be particularly disturbing to attorneys is that Howrey previously conducted staff layoffs in advance of significant attorney cuts…
Continue reading “Staff Layoff Watch: Howrey Makes Cuts”
* Minorities get stopped and frisked more often in Philly, and not because they commit more crimes, but because the police are racist. So sayeth the ACLU. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
* It’s the end of class action litigation as we know it — and the Supreme Court feels fine. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* Joe Miller is mad about Alaska’s election ballot misspellings. We all know that spelling doesn’t matter, just ask Elie. [Wall Street Journal]
* DADT will soon be making its debut at the Supreme Court. The policy might end on Obama’s watch, but apparently not with his help. [National Law Journal]
* Lamebook is suing Facebook over trademark infringement. It makes you think they should change their name to Failbook until you read the complaint. [TechCrunch]
* Sign of the times: even if you’ve never missed a mortgage payment, your home can still go into foreclosure thanks to Obama’s snazzy Home Affordable Modification Program. [Washington Post]
* A Lexus kills a lawyer. Looks like money can’t buy happiness, but hopefully it will buy a really good wife wrongful death attorney. [New York Daily News]
Until recently, foreclosure defense would have been considered the lowest of the low — below the divorce guys, below ambulance chasers.
– Roy Oppenheim, a veteran foreclosure defense lawyer in Florida.
What a wild week in Washington! In the aftermath of hundreds of thousands of people rallying for sanity, the Republicans trounced the Democrats in the House.
As for me, when I wasn’t cleaning the millions of dollars I had stuffed in my closet to hide from the IRS or arguing with my therapist about how versatile my JD degree is, I spent the rest of the time collecting information for this week’s Rundown. Among other things, this edition covers my discussion of the the book “6Ps of the Big3,” a major technology acquisition, a possible flaw in the workflow of the e-discovery process, musings of one of the world’s most widely traveled lawyers, and a new exam for certifying e-discovery qualifications…
Continue reading “The Rundown: This Week in Legal Technology – 11.06.10″
* U.S. News will be shutting down its print magazine. But the rankings should be safe. [Mediabistro]
* The ABA is coming for your internets. [Avvo]
* Prince Jefri of Brunei is a wild and crazy guy. [Law Shucks]
* Justice Stevens pontificates on Ground Zero Mosque. [BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
* Prop 19 supporters are already gearing up for 2012. Yeah, cause it’s not like pot heads will lose motivation over the course of two years. [WSJ Law Blog]
I cannot confirm ANYTHING that you are about to see. As a journalist, all I can tell you that two people confirm that this following names were cut and pasted from the New York Board of Law Examiners website earlier today when names were accidentally posted to the BOLE website. As we’ve mentioned in prior coverage, NY BOLE denies that they have posted the 2010 July bar results.
I can also say that these lists seem to be the same ones I saw when I clicked on the BOLE page before they were taken down. A friend of mine who was sitting for the bar appeared on the web, and appears in these lists.
So take this with some skepticism, but here’s what was posted earlier today. Click on the links below:
Page 2 = A – B
Page 3 = C – D
Page 4 = E – G
Page 5 = H- J
Page 6 = K – L
Page 7 = M – N
Page 8 = O – R
Page 9 = S
Page 10 = T – V
Page 11 = W – Z
Okay, July New York Bar Exam takers, we don’t know much — but here’s what we know.
For about an hour, the results of the New York Bar Exam appeared on the official site of the New York Board of Law Examiners (NY BOLE). This was a surprise. Results aren’t expected to be released until next week.
And the results appeared legit to me…
UPDATE: We’ve got statements from the New York Board of Law Examiners now, and we have a screen grab…
Continue reading “NY Bar Exam Results Up Briefly on NY BOLE Website”
The crappy thing about being a martyr is that you have to die. Just ask Obama how the whole “savior” thing is working out for him.
The recording industry has set out to make an example out of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a woman guilty of illegally downloading 24 songs. We mentioned her third trial this week while talking about Professor Charlie Nesson’s speedy benchslap.
Thomas-Rasset was trying to reduce the amount of money she had to pay for downloading the songs. You know, since the material costs $2, max, one would think her penalty wouldn’t be significantly more than a speeding ticket.
But like I said, the recording industry really wanted to make an example out of her. And apparently our judicial system is happy to be the compliant lapdogs of corporate interests. So Thomas-Rasset is going to have to ascend the pyre, because the courts lit her up, again…
Continue reading “Sorry File Sharing Lady, Looks Like You Just Have to Take One for the Team”
Ed. Note: Will the Lost Generation ever find its way back into Biglaw? This new column is written by a member of the Lost Generation who initially was thrown off of the Biglaw bandwagon but was able to get back on, and is now trying to hang on to his Biglaw second chance.
When I was no-offered in the summer of 2009, I felt worthless. I am not used to failing in significant endeavors. I prefer to reserve failure my smaller undertakings, you know the ones that are not worth over six figures a year. And this particular failure had an even harsher sting because I felt like an ineffective sell-out.
I had started law school with the fresh and heady eyes of a bachelor of arts who had no employable skills and wanted to save the world. I would wield the law as a tool to empower the weak and oppressed. I was seriously regulating my debt and pinching pennies so that it would be manageable with the $50K salary that I expected.
That was before I found out exactly how much Biglaw associates make per week. My public interest façade didn’t even put up a fight. I think I registered for O.C.I. the next day.
One year later, I was offended by lunches that did not cost at least $20, and I was happy to represent any client in any capacity for any purpose as long as I made enough money so that the amount I paid in taxes exceeded any of my pre-law salaries. I was no longer worried about taking out the maximum amount of student loans available to me. The days of conservatively accepting only part of my loans, and pinching pennies, were gone.
Sadly, I started spending before I actually secured post-graduate employment. Does that sound familiar to anyone…
Continue reading “Anatomy of a No Offer”
* David J. Stern continues being awesome. [Reuters]
* What the legal landscape looks like for the Rutgers Two. [NPR]
* Statistics suggest that the economic downturn has led to less diversity in law firms. Because looking carefully over your shoulder before you tell a racist joke at lunch is a luxury that few firms can afford right now. [Am Law Daily]
* Andrew Shirvell can keep it weird on Michigan’s campus again. [Washington Post]
* A civil rights lawsuit alleges that L.A. County did not fully heed Mr. Randy Watson’s advice. Indeed, they did not believe that children are our future. They did not…teach them well and…let them lead the way. *Drops mic* [Los Angeles Times]
On Monday, I shared my Halloween costume with all of you. Now, after days of cajoling and pleading, we’ve finally come up with a few people brave enough to enter our legally themed Halloween costume contest.
I’m not throwing myself into the ring, but if you recall the lady nice enough to pose with me had a brilliant legally themed costume, so we’ll count her too.
And just for good measure, I’ll throw in some pictures of former ATL Editor Kashmir Hill’s Halloween costume. She didn’t go with any kind of legal theme — but I figured that if I had Kash pics and didn’t share them some reader might come to my office and murder me.
So, no more rambling, lets get to the photos (there’s a poll at the end of the slide show).
It has been a tough month for Dallas. The Cowboys are embarrassing, Cliff Lee spit the bit, and the Rangers couldn’t win the World Series. Hopefully today’s bar results will give some Dallas-area would-be lawyers a big boost. And if they failed the bar, they can always work for Jerry Jones: he seems to like people who look good on paper but can’t get it done on game day.
For the rest of Texas, your results are out too. Woot. Congratulations to those who passed, good luck next time to those who failed, and condolences to still unemployed or underemployed attorneys already licensed in Texas who must brace for the next wave of competitors.
Chat about the bar here. And go Mavs!
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of bar results
* CPAs and lawyers should make love not war. [Going Concern]
* The problem with work/life balance is all the people happily willing to spend all of their time working while having no life. [The Careerist]
* Being the last lawyer in means you risk being the first lawyer out. [The Lawyerist]
* For a people so versed in the text of the Second Amendment, Oklahomans are really hazy on the amendment directly preceding it. I think they think the First Amendment says “Thou Shalt Have No Other God Before Me.” [WSJ Law Blog]
* If you are taking election advice from McDonalds, I don’t know what to tell you. [Law and More]
* Cuomo cuts communication concerning Crazy Carl’s concession call. [Gawker]
Any person who ever thought it would be noble to be a lawyer remembers the classic scene from To Kill A Mockingbird where poor Mr. Cunningham goes to pay Atticus Finch for his legal services:
Mr. Cunningham: Mr. Finch, I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to pay you.
Atticus: Let that be the least of your worries, Walter.
Cunningham pays Atticus with what he can from his farm (I remember vegetables and eggs, the internet says hickory nuts and stove wood). It’s a moving scene. As many have remarked over time, Atticus Finch represents the best of the legal profession. Hang on, I’ve got something in my eye.
Of course, Atticus is a complete legal fiction. The overwhelming majority of attorneys expect to be paid in cold cash (or hot sexual favors).
So the story I’m about to tell you is going to be shocking. A lawyer in Colorado accepted a fur pelt in exchange for legal work…
Continue reading “But Atticus Finch Never Had to Repay Student Loans”
Morgan Lewis & Bockius associates: your long nightmare might be at an end. All the way back in July of 2009, MLB became one of the first firms to announce its intention to do away with lockstep compensation. Back then, the firm was still in the teeth of the recession, it had canceled its 2010 summer program, and at MLB (and firms around the country) killing lockstep and moving towards a low base-salary, high merit-based bonus structure for associates seemed like an appealing way to reduce employee costs.
But months and months passed without MLB actually implementing anything. We kept hearing vague “details” about the new merit-based system, but nothing actually became formalized, even as other firms went full steam ahead into the merit-based unknown.
Well, the uncertainty is over. At a video-conference yesterday, Morgan Lewis chairman Francis M. Milone announced that the firm is mothballing plans to move towards a fully merit-based system for associate compensation and development. At least not in the three-tier, random factors for advancement, format that some firms rushed to implement in 2009.
Oh, and bonuses are supposed to “substantially larger” than last year for MLB associates…
Continue reading “Morgan Lewis: Anticipates Large Bonus Pool and Not Moving Towards Merit-Based Compensation”
It’s a bad news day in Brooklyn. This morning, the class of 2010 made Brooklyn Law look foolish. Now we’ve received reports that the Brooklyn DA’s Office has laid off 13 attorneys and two staffers in the past week.
It’s big news, especially for law students and private practice attorneys who think that working for the government gives you unchallenged job security. Government lawyers might be somewhat buffered from the tyranny of the legal market economy, but they can still be shown the door.
And word coming out of Charles Hynes’s office is that these 15 people were let go for poor performance…
Continue reading “Kings County D.A.’s Office Lays Off 13 Attorneys, 2 Staff”
