Archive for August 2011

The Asia Chronicles: STATE OF THE MARKET IN ASIA / HOW TO HANDLE THE INEVITABLE COUNTER OFFER, BOTH FROM FIRM AND CANDIDATE’S PERSPECTIVE

By Kinney Recruiting


[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 at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

Please check out our daily blog, www.theasiachronicles.com, where we also have a new post today by Alexis Lamb, regarding the rising need for US litigation associates in Asia, among our numerous daily news posts on international biglaw in Asia.

Please note that Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney will be visiting NYC Aug. 2 through Aug. 4. They have fairly booked meeting schedules but do have some flexibility to meet with associates considering a move to Asia.

Here we are in the traditional vacation time of July and August, when interview processes can drag out quite a bit. This is especially true in this current still very hot biglaw market in Asia, where busy hiring partners are also juggling 2-week family vacations (sometimes piggy backed around a week or two working from NYC office, making the vacation time seem extended even further).

We feel fortunate at Kinney Asia that we have been able to add two US associate placements this week already – a junior associate placement in Singapore at a top UK firm and a junior associate placement in Hong Kong at a top UK firm’s Korea practice. This continues what has been a spectacular year for Kinney in Asia, with almost 50 US associate placements already this year.

While we expect the US biglaw associate lateral hiring market in HK / China and Singapore to remain very strong during the 2nd half of ’11, we don’t expect the sizzling hiring pace of the 1st half of ’11 to continue. The first half of ’11 was an anomaly, a situation caused by combination of extreme boom market for more than a year in HK / China and most of Asia, and the odd circumstance of busy Asia offices becoming very understaffed and not being allowed to hire as needed, and for many months not at all, for a 18 months of a bona-fide boom time. The boom has continued since then, another 7 months so far, although deal flow has been slowing a bit in some biglaw firms’ US practices in HK / China (some IPOs in HK, most notably Prada, has fallen flat and investigations and shareholder class actions filed against some Chinese companies have slowed down IPOs of Chinese companies in the US). It is still a very hot market, but going through a speed bump now and there has been a lot of hiring in the past few months.

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Morning Docket: 08.15.11

By Staci Zaretsky

For sale. Contact me for details.

* What kind of a lawyer can’t spot a Nigerian scammer before being bilked out of millions? If you fell for that, please hit me up. I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. [Washington Post]

* Will Juliette Youngblood, the self-proclaimed “luckiest girl in the world,” still feel the same way if her claims against Irell & Manella and Morgan Chu are sent to binding arbitration? [Am Law Daily]

* The Game may face charges over an alleged tweet that prevented police from responding to five emergency calls in two hours. Only five? I guess that’s what happens when you’re straight outta Compton, where snitches get stitches. [CNN]

* With Senator Kevin de León hoping to regulate the use of fitted and flat hotel sheets, one thing’s for sure. California isn’t becoming a nanny state. It’s becoming a maid state. [Los Angeles Times]

* You know Chris Stewart has had one too many concussions when he’s still talking about finishing law school after his NFL career is over. [Wall Street Journal]

* I might be a bad little Jew for saying this, but matzoh isn’t worth $9.9B. It’s like eating cardboard. If you want special prison food, at least sue for something that tastes good. [New York Daily News]

Aspiring Yale Transfer Student Explains and Defends Her Blog

By David Lat

Tammy Hsu

This afternoon we wrote about a blog entitled Confessions of an (Aspiring) Yalie. In this blog, Tammy Hsu, a 1L at Wake Forest University School of Law, chronicles her journey through the first year of law school — a journey she hopes will culminate with a successful transfer application to Yale Law School.

As we noted, Tammy Hsu’s blog is now restricted to invited readers. Some posts are still accessible via Google Cache (and in the comments to our original story, some of you identified favorite posts of yours).

Shortly after we wrote about her, we heard from Tammy C. Hsu. She sent us a defense and explanation of her blog’s origins, which we will now share….

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Non-Sequiturs: 08.12.11

By David Lat & Staci Zaretsky

Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi: both said politically incorrect things.

* The Kardashians may be “America’s rightful overlords,” as Marin so memorably put it, but even they must respect intellectual-property laws. [Fashionista]

* Congratulations to the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 (class of 2011). Perhaps you know some of the inductees? [National LGBT Bar Association]

* In less cheerful LGBT news… another day, another Republican politician allegedly trolling the internet for paid male companionship. Stay classy, Phil Hinkle. [Indianapolis Star]

* Tyler Clementi joked about Dharun Ravi’s parents owning a Dunkin’ Donuts shop. [New York Magazine]

Must lobster salad contain lobster?

* So just who is behind Inside the Law School Scam? Con Daily got an interview with LawProf, and breaks down a list of schools where LawProf may be employed. [Constitutional Daily]

* The SEC is sniffing around S&P; Matt Levine explains why. [Dealbreaker]

* When it comes to taking “reasonable” steps to prevent disclosure of privileged materials, perfection is not required, according to Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm. [Catalyst E-Discovery Search Blog (Bob Ambrogi)]

* A popular grocery store on the Upper West Side thought that it could get away with mislabeling its lobster salad. Not so fast… where’s Kash when you need her? [New York Times]

Quote of the Day: What About Affirmative Action?

By Staci Zaretsky

LeRoy Pernell

When the statistics tell you that virtually every black college will be in noncompliance, it’s a matter of grave concern.

— LeRoy Pernell, dean of Florida A&M University College of Law, commenting on the possibility of a more stringent ABA bar passage requirement for law schools.

(At present, to remain in good standing with the ABA, at least 75 percent of a law school’s graduates taking the bar in the school’s state must pass for at least three of the past five years. The new ABA proposal calls for an 80 percent bar passage rate or a rate no more than 10 percentage points lower than other law schools in the state.)

A Request for Advice from ATL Readers

By David Lat

Above the Law’s popular, somewhat tongue-in-cheek advice column, Pls Hndle Thx, has been on hiatus. Marin has been busy following the career of John Stamos, and Elie is on vacation this week. (He’ll be back on Monday.)

In the meantime, we have a request for advice from a reader. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?

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Breaking: Eleventh Circuit Rules Obamacare’s ‘Individual Mandate’ Is Unconstitutional

By Staci Zaretsky

Aw crap, there go my approval ratings.

The Eleventh Circuit has declared that Obamacare’s individual health care mandate is unconstitutional. Today’s decision will be lauded as a victory for the 26 states, led by Florida, that challenged the law as unconstitutional.

In a 2-1 decision (and the first in which a judge appointed by a Democrat has voted to strike down the mandate), the Eleventh Circuit stated that Congress does not have the power to require all Americans to buy health insurance. The court also ruled, however, that the rest of the law could remain in effect.

The Eleventh Circuit decision comes in the wake of the Sixth Circuit upholding the individual mandate as constitutional (a ruling joined by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee). The Sixth Circuit case has already been appealed to the Supreme Court. We have a feeling that this case will also be appealed to the Supreme Court, setting quite the stage for a ruling within the next year or so.

Click here to read the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion, and read on for some more interesting facts about the case….

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Confessions of an Aspiring Yale Transfer Student

By David Lat

Tammy Hsu, aspiring Yalie.

We begin with a message to our readers. Consider yourselves on notice: we regard almost anything you place on the internet, even if just for a brief hot second, to be fair game for coverage. It doesn’t matter to us if you later try to “recall” your mass email or delete your public blog. Once you’ve put something out there, thereby forfeiting any reasonable expectation of privacy, then it’s gone, baby, gone. [FN1]

And honestly, in the internet age, what privacy expectations are reasonable in the first place? Emails can be forwarded; images can be downloaded or photographed themselves, then re-posted. If it’s not already dead, privacy is rapidly dying. You might as well start living in public now, and make life easier for yourself. Just let it all hang out, and then you’ll never be embarrassed about anything getting leaked. (This is my philosophy on Twitter, where my feed is often TMI.)

Living in public: that’s the premise behind a charming new law student blog by a 1L with ambition. Like a fair number of bloggers — Brian Stelter and his Twitter diet come to mind — law student Tammy Hsu seeks to harness public exposure for her own benefit. Hsu, a first-year student at Wake Forest University School of Law, writes a blog built around her goal of transferring into Yale Law School. It’s right there in the title of her site: “Confessions of an (Aspiring) Yalie.”

By putting her ambition out in the open, Hsu is motivating herself to succeed, because failure would be so public. She is lighting the proverbial fire under her own arse, turning her classmates and the internet into one big Tiger Mother. If she’s not at 127 Wall Street this time next year, people will look down upon her — so now she has every incentive to excel in her 1L year at Wake Forest.

Sounds like a great idea, right?

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Job of the Week: In-House Lateral Listing

By Above the Law

Today’s Job of the Week offers IP-transactional attorneys an exciting opportunity to work in-house for a global technology communications company located in Orange County. This opportunity is brought to you by Lateral Link’s Lateral Listings, a service that allows Lateral Link Members to post in-house jobs directly to other Members in the Lateral Link network (for a small posting fee). Unlike our standard recruiting service, Members may self-submit without the active participation of our recruiters.

Position: Director of Licensing & Transactions for a fast-paced, high energy tech company with savvy clients and a very collegial work environment. The attorney will report to a senior transactions attorney and be responsible for a broad range of technology transactions and operational issues, and for counseling management and employees on a wide variety of legal issues relating to commercial transactions and intellectual property rights.

Location: Orange County, CA

Requirements: 5-10 years of technology and commercial transactions experience at either a tech company or a top-tier law firm, or preferably a mix of both. Substantial hands-on experience with technology transactions and the related intellectual property issues is a prerequisite. The candidate must possess a JD from a top-tier, accredited law school and be a member in good standing of the bar. Undergraduate degree in engineering or computer science is also a plus.

If you are a Lateral Link member, please see position #9679 on the Lateral Link site (as well as other recently added Lateral Listings from our in-house Members). Not a Lateral Link member, but want details on this or hundreds of other openings? Register for free at www.laterallink.com to work with an attorney recruiter who is an expert in your market. If you are interested learning more about how to post your next Lateral Listing, please contact Michael Allen at: mallen@laterallink.com or 213.785.2344.

The Legal Profession Is Literally Going to the Dogs

By Staci Zaretsky

Please give me a job.

We mentioned it briefly in Morning Docket a few days ago, but now we know for sure that dogs are marking their territory in the legal profession. Dogs are appearing everywhere from law school libraries to courtroom witness boxes.

Naturally, when we heard that the doggie-at-law phenomenon had made it all the way down to Texas, we were excited. Unfortunately, students at the Texas law school where this occurred were less than thrilled. Who doesn’t love cute, cuddly-wuddly little dogs? People who paid to go to law school and thought they could get law-related jobs, that’s who.

So who let the dogs out? Let’s find out which law school wants its students to roll over and beg for a job….

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A Random Friday Poll: One Space or Two Between Sentences?

By Staci Zaretsky

Sometimes readers will email us with ideas for posts that range from the insane to the mundane. We’ve learned that what may seem mundane to the average citizen may be totally titillating for an attorney.

Members of this profession really, really like rules, especially rules about proper English grammar and usage. Be it confusion over a homophone, misuse of a hyphen, or incorrect placement of a semicolon, every grammar Nazi has a special place reserved in his heart for the idiot who screws these things up.

And that is why the topic of today’s reader poll is about how many spaces one should use between sentences….

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Morning Docket: 08.12.11

By Staci Zaretsky

Adriana Ferreyr: Is she worth $50M?

* Law schools want to make firms interview students in August, and this is news because… wait, is this even news? Aren’t most OCI programs already in August? [WSJ Law Blog]

* Just when I thought we could stop caring about Casey Anthony, the Florida DCF has to go and declare her responsible for Caylee’s death. WHERE’S THE JUSTICE FOR CAYLEEEEE?!?! [CNN]

* This is what happens when you’re an 80-year-old billionaire and you try to be a pimp. You get sued for $50M because you didn’t buy your ex-girlfriend an apartment. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Ladies, did you really think you were going to receive counseling as members of the Dr. Phil House? A naked man to sue over was probably par for the course. [Orange County Register]

* Wendy Babcock — former sex worker, advocacy leader, and Osgoode Hall Law student — RIP. [CBC News]

Non-Sequiturs: 08.11.11

By David Lat

Judge Terence Evans

* Professor Eugene Volokh poses this question to his readers (we considered a similar query before): “I Got Awful Grades My First Year in Law School. Should I Quit?” [Volokh Conspiracy]

* I’m not that familiar with canon law, but I don’t think it looks favorably upon alleged groping of teenage girls. [La Crosse Tribune]

* Professor Douglas Berman wonders if there should be a social networking website designed for use by prisoners. (Commenter challenge: come up with a name for this “Facebook for jailbirds” social network.) [Sentencing Law and Policy]

* Stroock stricken with lawsuit by former partner. [Am Law Daily]

* Professor Paul Horwitz’s (thoughtful and measured) response to the law prof turned scamblogger. [Prawfsblawg]

* Seventh Circuit Judge Terence Evans, RIP. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

Quote of the Day: Three Little Life-Ruining Words

By Staci Zaretsky

Mark Ciavarella, Jr.

Those three words made me the personification of evil. They made me toxic and caused a public uproar the likes of which this community has never seen.

— Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr., commenting on his new moniker as the “Kids for Cash” judge. Today, Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years for his role in a massive bribery scandal in the Pennsylvania juvenile justice system.

A Special CLE Offer for Above the Law Readers

By Above the Law

Courtesy of our friends at Lawline (affiliate link), here’s a special deal for Above the Law readers. For $249, you will receive unlimited access to all 500+ Lawline online continuing legal education programs, for one full year. This package, which normally sells for $499, provides exclusive access to:

  • 500+ on-demand courses
  • Weekly live webcasts
  • Access to all mobile CLE courses (available as both streaming video and MP3 download)

Complying with CLE requirements can be a drag, but it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Thanks to Lawline for this special offer.

Unlimited CLE For One Full Year [Lawline (affiliate link)]

A Tenured Top-Tier Law Professor Joins the Ranks of the ‘Scambloggers’

By David Lat

A blogging law professor essentially agrees with the scambloggers.

It’s one thing for the loser of a game to complain that the rules are unfair. It’s quite another for a winner to admit the same thing.

We’ve written before about law school scamblogs. According to the scambloggers, law schools rip off their students by (1) misrepresenting the employment outcomes of law school graduates, (2) taking students’ money (much of it borrowed), and (3) spitting students out into a grim legal job market, saddled with six figures of debt that they didn’t have before they became JDs.

It’s not surprising that many of these unemployed or underemployed graduates have taken to the internet with complaints about legal education; they are, after all, victims of the alleged scam. What would be more surprising is if a law professor — say, a tenured professor at a first-tier law school, a clear winner under the status quo — joined them in admitting that law school is something of a scam.

Which apparently just happened, earlier this week….

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Career Center: Ready, Set, Interview — Researching Your Way Into a Job Offer

By Above the Law

In this week’s Career Center Tips Series, Lateral Link’s Frank Kimball, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner, discusses the importance of research prior to on-campus interviewing.

View the interview as an athletic contest that requires energy, preparation, and constant flexibility. You will turn the tables and impress the employer with your knowledge of her firm. Even the toughest question (about bad grades and the like) can be handled with aplomb. The lawyer who projects an image of relaxed self-confidence will carry the day. Think for a moment about the differences between nervous, high energy politicians (George Bush “41″ and Michael Dukakis) and relaxed and self confident politicians (Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton). In politics, law, or medicine, a good bedside manner is critical to care for citizens, clients and patients.

You have begun a multi-decade career as a lawyer after investing three years and a small fortune. Just as the first year of law school was a demanding mélange of information, chaos, rumor, fact, stress, and progress, so too will be the process of finding the right place to continue your career. From the beginning of the process through the final decision, the student who understands the prospective employer will compete more effectively.

How can you become better prepared for an interview? Read on, after the jump….

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Size Matters: Beauty Contests

By Valerie Katz

When I was in Biglaw, I always dreamed of taking part in a beauty contest. I do not really understand how it goes down, but it sounded very exciting (at least more than my fifty-state-survey.) According to YouTube, it looks something like this.

When I went to the small firm, I did not hear mention of beauty contests. Clients mostly came through referrals, and any client pitches were much more informal. For instance, I heard a story about two partners trying to get an FLSA class action, so they went to the employer’s factory and donned the poultry processor workers’ uniforms (and perhaps touched some chicken parts going down the conveyor belt). Unlike the stories of the Biglaw beauty contests, there were not lawyer teams from several other small firms lined up in their chicken-suits.

If a team from Skadden or Sidley were lined up in chicken-garb, however, how would the small-firm attorneys best position themselves to win the contest? I asked some Biglaw-turned-small-firm attorneys for their best tips….

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UVA Law’s Employment Numbers Are Less Than Impressive

By Staci Zaretsky

At number nine in the latest U.S. News law school rankings, it comes as a surprise that the University of Virginia School of Law hasn’t been doing so hot this year in terms of finding jobs for its graduates.

In March, we reported that UVA Law students donned venomous t-shirts in protest during an admitted students’ weekend. In April, we saw the artistic and architectural work of yet another unemployed UVA Law student.

And now, almost three months after graduation, we have some more bad news from Charlottesville, thanks to the Virginia Law Weekly. Someone from UVA Law Career Services forgot how to blind carbon copy, and we now have an idea as to many Class of 2011 graduates are unemployed.

Unfortunately, not everyone can be HARVARD LAW SECURE….

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Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Schiff Hardin (Plus offer rate news.)

By David Lat

In case you haven’t noticed, things have been quiet on the law firm front. And that shouldn’t come as a surprise: it’s August.

Summer associate programs are largely over (although we still want to hear about fun events and offer rates). Many associates and partners are taking vacation (especially if they have children they want to spend time with before school starts again).

On the litigation side, courts are slow because many judges are away. On the corporate side, some deals have been put on hold due to the gyrating stock market and economic uncertainty. We seem to be turning into Europe, where a good chunk of the population takes vacation for a good chunk of August.

But we still have pockets of law firm news to report, here and there. Today’s dispatch comes from Schiff Hardin, which earlier this month announced an associate pay raise….

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