The homepage of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher asks: "What makes Gibson unlike any other firm?" One of our tipsters offers one possibility: Gibson summer associates have moonlight careers.

Found it funny that the model on the front page of this support site for adult websites is also the model on the Gibson Dunn career site (go to Hiring, then Law Student).

Tough Market, j/k.

We find it funny that you are on the support site page for adult websites, tipster. The support page links to such delightful sites as "Arab Street Hookers," "Human Toilet Bowls," and "The Amputee."

We've gone back and forth between the Gibson and Porn Support site photos, and there is a strong resemblance. What do you think?

Chicago firm Freeborn and Peters has upped the stakes in the crazy, fun website competition. Their career site promises associates the opportunity to "thrive in an open, supportive, collegial culture." A series of recruitment videos have firm attorneys and partners in starring roles and are a testament to the firm's unorthodox culture. Check them out here-- they are long, but worth it.

Our favorite video is "Attorney Lunch," featuring attorneys snoozing, taking shots of coffee, and whistling while they march, as well as an evil partner who misdirects said attorneys to an e-discovery seminar instead of a "weekly gathering of attorneys with free food and drink." We are left wondering though why Freeborn attorneys have such paralegalish days: making photocopies and re-stacking boxes of document production.

Another video, "Bags," ends with the exhortation: "Work Hard. Play Hard."

Our tipster came across the videos while job hunting, and captured our reaction well:

I'm still not entirely sure what I think of them as a recruiting tool. On the one hand, they're completely hilarious, especially for a law firm, and I thought it made the firm look like a fun place to work. On the other hand, I could see how a lot of people would think the videos portrayed the associates as unprofessional (doodling and bored while on the phone with someone, looking unprepared while taking a deposition, etc.). So I think it completely depends on how you think they struck the balance between good humor and professionalism. I'm sort of amazed that the firm put the videos up on its website at all, but ultimately I think it was a good thing they buried the videos on the associate recruiting page where potential clients most likely wouldn't look!

The videos are funny, but Freeborn, a 120-attorney firm specializing in bankruptcy, real estate, and regulatory law, is definitely taking a risk with them. What do you think? Do they work?

We've said in the past that most law firm websites are fairly dry, and named the split personality website of North Carolina's Van Winkle Law Firm as an exception.

Well, another experimental law firm website has crossed our desk, er, computer screen. It belongs to James Hugh Potts II's Atlanta-based firm: JHPII.com. The firm "helps people with catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases." It is interactive, and involves a desk, post-it notes, a napkin with a coffee stain, ancient Tibetan proverbs, pro se-esque bios in "About Us", and childhood photos of the attorneys with their bios.

We echo the sentiments of our tipster:

If you want a laugh. I think it's real.

Screenshot below. Check out the interactive version here. What do you think?

It's like a touchy-feely hybrid of Myst and The Office. We kind of love it.

James Hugh Potts II, Trial Lawyer

You'd think Skadden attorneys would have better things to bill Citigroup for than running around after small-time advertisers. But, then again, there are an awful lot of Skadden attorneys.

Citi-Mobile is an advertising company that utilizes trucks as mobile billboards. Citigroup is a large commercial bank that is trying to ride out the current economic downturn. Skadden wants you to know the difference:

The much bigger Citi, which Skadden rather optimistically describes in court docs as "one of the largest and most renowned" banks in the world, is a little bit concerned that the public will think the financial giant decided to buy a bunch of trucks, paint them crazy colors, and make money by marketing roast beef subs and cameras to innocent pedestrians. So they're asking a court to prohibit Citi-Mobile (and its parent company Citi-Advertising) from using the hallowed "Citi" name.

For those playing along at home, that means Citi wants no part of a mildly annoying advertising campaign, yet they are willing to pay $20M/year for 20 years to lord their name over the New York Mets? How long before Skadden sues Mets owner Fred Wilpon for non-performance based on the theory that Citi contracted to name a "baseball field," instead of a cute park where little boys go to choke themselves to death?

Or maybe they'll just sue City Wok?

Read the full complaint here.

Citi's Lawyers Never Sleep [Citylife]

Wachtell may be the most prestigious firm out there (according to Vault), but it has the industry's worst Web site, as rated by Jonathan Thrope of the American Lawyer. We're not completely sure we trust his judgment though, since he was "sucked in" by Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice's animated dog. We waited for it to do something cool, but it just stretched and yawned.

According to Thrope, law firms are getting more serious about online marketing and using Web sites to create a distinctive brand. In general, law firm sites strike us as fairly dry. And boring. There are a few exceptions, like the Van Winkle Law Firm's split personality bio page. North Carolina-based Van Winkle adds a personal touch to its site with dual bios (and photos) for many of its attorneys: one with professional highlights, and another focused on hobbies and life outside of work.

Other firms experiment with offbeat advertising, but seem to be using it to recruit attorneys, not clients. Like Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle's creation of a Facebook page, and Stoel Rives' free-style running promo on YouTube.

Of the assortment of staid sites in the AmLaw 100, five made Thrope's cut for the worst. Check them out after the jump.

Are you tired of big firm life -- doc review, due diligence, 9 p.m. dinners at your desk? Do you still hope that you can enjoy practicing law in a law firm setting? This week's Job of the Week may be the answer for you.

As always, the Job of the Week is brought to you by Lateral Link. As we've mentioned before, Lateral Link is still growing, having just added a Columbia Law School alum to its Philadelphia team and an NYU Law School alum to its New York team. For more information about Lateral Link's team of personal search consultants, or to learn about joining the team, click here.

Position: Corporate Associate

Location: New York

Description: This firm is one of the more selective New York boutiques, with approximately 50 attorneys, most of whom have lateraled in from top-20 law firms. The attorneys focus on sophisticated litigation, corporate, and bankruptcy work, and their major clients include Clear Channel, Amazon.com, Columbia University, and Lazard Freres. The firm pays New York market salary and offers its associates immediate, hands-on responsibility, as well as a reputation for very reasonable hours and a truly collegial working environment. The quality and depth of their legal team distinguishes them from other firms of their size and allows them to compete effectively against the larger top-tier firms. This position qualifies for the Lateral Link $10,000 guaranteed signing bonus.

For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position 9673 on Lateral Link. Current members can also contact their personal search consultant directly to discuss this position. Membership in Lateral Link is free and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

This advertisement, from tiny divorce and bankruptcy firm Davis and Millard, appeared in an Atlanta magazine in June:

We get confusing messages. With the curly font and all the pink, it seems like it should be an ad for lip gloss for teens. But the menacing way the woman grips that rolling pin puts fear in our hearts. The color motif and menace bear a striking similarity to this Serial Mom movie poster.

The text at the top of the ad -- "Moving on means never having to talk to your mother-in-law again" -- reminds us a bit of this earlier advertisement: "Life's short. Get a divorce."

As expected, bankruptcy attorneys are once again in demand. So we're highlighting an opportunity for junior associates in this week's Job of the Week, brought to you by Lateral Link. This position qualifies for Lateral Link's $10,000 signing bonus. (Lateral Link has paid out over $200,000 in signing bonuses this summer.)

Lateral Link has junior bankruptcy positions at some of the more sought-after firms in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Chicago (like the one below). For information on these other positions, please contact your personal search consultant.

Position: Bankruptcy associate

Location: Chicago, IL

Description: A top Chicago-based law firm seeks junior bankruptcy associates. For more information about this position, or to apply, please see Position 9585 on Lateral Link.

If you are not already a Lateral Link Member, you can apply at www.laterallink.com. Also, because of the tremendous growth in Lateral Link's membership, Lateral Link is actively looking to hire additional search consultants in Washington DC and Texas. If interested, please email join@laterallink.com.

Just One Word: Bankruptcy! [New York Magazine]

[Disclosure: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting -- sponsor of the Asia Chronicles, and an ATL advertiser. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years. You can reach them by email at asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

In an earlier article the Asia Corporate Lawyers (the prior authors of this column) discussed what life is like when you are an associate in Asia from their own perspectives. This week we are going to discuss what partners at U.S. or U.K. firms' Asia offices seek when they are considering U.S. associate candidates. These topics are related in that the partners who interview candidates typically are looking to identify the people who will be most happy not only with the work that is presented by the Asia practice, but also with the style of practice and with their lives outside the office.

Interviewing for an overseas position at any busy U.S. law firm or with the U.S. practice group of a UK firm is a bit different from interviewing for a spot in a domestic market for the same firm. As with any interview process, the gating factors at top U.S. practices in Asia are academics and law firm experience. Without impressive grades and top firm experience, you generally won't be considered. But overseas partners are also looking for the right personality fit much more so than in a large domestic office. A major reason for this is because the offices are much smaller overseas, making it harder to hide a misfit (even a junior associate can be the face of the firm), but there are other reasons as well.

At a basic level, the factors that are especially important to demonstrate in an interview overseas are these:

• you have an entrepreneurial nature;
• you have a high level of maturity for your experience level;
• you have an outgoing personality (not overly "academic" in nature);
• you are able to fit in with different cultures;
• your personal presentation is generally positive; and
• you are a team player (no prima donnas need apply)

These are obviously all factors that are relevant in any interview at least as "plus factors", but what follows is a discussion of why these particular factors are especially important in this environment. In our next article, we will discuss ways in which you can demonstrate (or fail to demonstrate) that you qualify based on your resume and interview performance. Some of our experience in this regard has been amusing as well as frustrating.

Read more, after the jump.

A Stoel tipster sent this video to us, along with the message, "My intelligence is officially insulted."

We are confused as to whether this is a promo for Stoel Rives or for freestyle running. Apparently, if you hire a Stoel attorney, you're basically hiring James Bond (the Daniel Craig version).

We had three take aways from this:

Parkour Spot sponsored by Stoel Rives LLP Shot with RED ONE, starring Tyson Cecka [YouTube]

Tax attorneys are all the rage, with in-house and law firm opportunities for 2008 JDs and up. The Job(s) of the Week highlight some of the best of these opportunities. These are in New York, but Lateral Link has similar positions in other cities as well. Lateral Link's $10,000 signing bonus applies to the positions below. If you are not already a Lateral Link Member, you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

Junior tax attorney - The New York office of this top 25 law firm, well-known for its quality of life, is seeking junior tax associates. They will consider 2008 law school graduates to start immediately (including those who may have had their start dates pushed back at other firms). For more information, please see Position 6074 on Lateral Link.

[Disclosure: This post is authored not by the Asia Corporate Lawyers, but by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting -- sponsor of the Asia Chronicles, and an ATL advertiser. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years. You can reach them by email at asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

On Monday we discussed some positive trends in M&A in Asia, notwithstanding the turmoil in credit markets and overall economic downturn globally. Today, we discuss very briefly some of the lateral hiring trends we have been seeing in Asia recently and in '08 in general.

We have not seen an overall reduction in hiring of U.S. associates in Asia, but firms have been much more selective than in '07. This is for a variety of reasons. Some notable U.S. and British firms in Asia are hiring at a significantly slower clip than in '07, but this unfortunate trend is being balanced out by other peer firms hiring significantly more than in '07. There are a number of firms in heavy expansion mode, with several top U.S. firms in Hong Kong / China, for example, that will easily double the size of their offices in '08. Some U.S. firms in Asia have very aggressive medium-term (5-6 year) expansion plans to have 100+ attorney offices. Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly to readers, some of the most urgent needs still happen to be for mid-level to senior U.S. securities associates, despite the slower pace of capital-markets deal flow coming in.

It is important to note that in '08, there are as much as three to four times as many U.S. associate candidates on the market for Asia positions, compared to '07. Firms can afford to be a lot more selective and also can take their time with hiring decisions, much more than was the case in the frenzied hiring environment in Asia in '07. While we are seeing the same pace of hiring in the Asia markets in '08 that we saw in '07, it has become a more difficult market to break into for some U.S. associates than was the case in '07.

Read more, after the jump.

If the title of this post sounds familiar to you, it should. We used it back in January, a few hours before major layoffs -- amounting to about 35 attorneys -- at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

In the months since then, we've heard all sorts of other rumors about Cadwalader. There have been whispers that the number of attorneys laid off last time may have been closer to 50 rather than 35. We've heard about possible staff layoffs. There has also been talk of quieter, smaller-scale reductions in attorney ranks at CWT -- "strategic firings," as one tipster put it. This source guessed that the firm has already shed around 100 attorneys since its peak.

But losing 100 lawyers, if true, may not have been enough. Word on the street is that Cadwalader is now bracing for another round of large-scale layoffs, which could be announced as early as today or tomorrow. In the words of one source, "Surprised you haven't posted anything on Cadwalader. Major s**t going down..."

Here's the most detailed account of several that we've received (after the jump):

[Ed. note: This post is by EXLEY, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Exley's avatar (at right).]

We apologize for the delay in bringing it to you; we received it later than the other submissions. Alas, the demands of Biglaw are not very conducive to covert participation in a legal blogging deathmatch.]

I saw this rather striking ad at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank this morning (pre-quake):

The text on the right says: "Justice may be blind but she still sees it our way 92.3% of the time."

Call me a sick nut but at first I thought it was an ad for the United States of America, to make me feel good about all the rigmarole a person has to go through at airport security these days.

But it turns out that Lady Justice was posing for another almost-all-knowing entity.

Find out who it is after the jump.

[Ed. note / Disclosure: Please note that this post is authored not by the Asia Corporate Lawyers but by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles and an ATL advertiser. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years.]

This week, we are going to very briefly discuss the state of the market for major law firms in Asia, with a focus on M&A, and with our usual slant towards Hong Kong / China (as that is where the majority of the hiring is taking place these days). In future editions of the Asia Chronicles, we plan to eventually devote an article to all the major practice areas in Asia, as well as each major Asia market generally (e.g., Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong).

Notwithstanding the global economic slowdown, most of our U.S. associate friends in Asia remain busy. Some, including the authors of prior installments of the Asia Chronicles, are as busy as ever. They are so slammed, in fact, that these poor writers don't have time to pen the Asia Chronicles this week (as well as some of the past several weeks -- or do their laundry, for that matter). But that is another story for another day, when we focus more on quality of life for U.S. associates in Asia.

So while we are authoring this week's edition of the Chronicles, as an emergency fill-in, we thought it best to provide our readers with some very basic information and facts about the topic at hand.

A number of U.S. and British firms in Asia, especially in Hong Kong / China, are actively building up their M&A practices. This is no surprise when considering current and projected market conditions. In fact, a survey just completed this month by Simmons & Simmons of 200 CEOs and CFOs of leading companies in the Asia Pacific region shows that 91% of the respondents believe that the level of M&A activity will increase or remain the same over the next twelve months, with over two-thirds of respondents believing M&A activity across the Asia-Pacific region will increase over that time frame, and with 87% of respondents believing that there will be increased M&A activity in China in the next twelve months.

Read more, after the jump.

Today's Job of the Week is a position in the Far East, brought to you by Lateral Link. In this year alone, Lateral Link will pay over $1,000,000 in guaranteed signing bonuses.

Position: Fund Formation Associate

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Description: The Tokyo office of this U.S.-based international law firm is seeking a mid-level to senior fund formation associate for their top-ranked practice. The associate must have 5+ years of experience and be serious about practicing in Asia. More senior candidates may be based in Hong Kong. No language skills necessary!

For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position 9525 at www.laterallink.com.

Since last week's non-legal Job of the Week in New York was such a big hit, we've decided to give you West Coast folks an opportunity to transition out of the law as well. And since some people reading ATL still want to keep practicing law, we've provided another top in-house spot for those of you on the East Coast.

Here are the Jobs of the Week, brought to you by Lateral Link. First the legal one:

Position: Senior Corporate Counsel
Location: Boston, MA
Description: This company, a rapidly growing leader in wind production, is seeking a senior corporate attorney with 7-8 years corporate and securities experience at a large law firm. Public company experience and Sarb-Ox a plus. The attorney must be comfortable working in a relatively unstructured environment and will be expected to handle substantial day-to-day responsibility while reporting to the General Counsel on larger issues. This position has tremendous potential financial upside. For more information please see Position #9409.

And now the non-legal one:

Position: Manager of Attorney Recruiting & Development
Location: San Diego, CA
Description: A premier global law firm, with more than 2,000 attorneys in 26 offices worldwide, seeks a bright, articulate, self-starting professional for its San Diego office. The successful candidate will manage all aspects of lateral attorney hiring, the fall and summer recruiting programs, and new attorney orientation, integration and development. The ideal candidate will have a JD, MBA or other relevant advanced degree and a minimum of 5 years of experience in a large law firm or professional services environment. No previous recruiting experience is required. For more information please see Position #9425.

Lateral Link is a free professional member network for attorneys. Benefits include a $10,000 guaranteed signing bonus for most positions, free professional career consulting and access to Vault guides, and personal job search assistance. Membership in Lateral Link is free and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

Check out the fabulously fun attorney bio page of the North Carolina-based Van Winkle Law Firm. Each of the attorneys has a normal bio, featuring practice highlights and professional affiliations. But the firm has decided to liven up some of their lawyers' profiles with links to an alternate bio -- click on the "Meet [Lawyer Name]" link at the bottom of the page -- which reveals the attorney's hobbies, likes and dislikes. (Okay, there aren't dislikes, but there should be.)

Each attorney with an alternate bio has dual photos. One is the staid, professional photo, and the other is a "character photo," giving visual clues to their interests outside of work. It reminds us of playing dress up with Barbie and Ken dolls.

For example, this one goes from boring lawyer to crazy biker!

Witness the other transformations -- note that you can click on each image to be taken directly to the featured lawyer's webpage -- after the jump.

Welcome to the second installment of a recurring ATL feature: the Above the Law Roundtable. In each roundtable, we put together a panel of experts to discuss an issue of interest to the ATL community. Our inaugural roundtable, back in April, focused on electronic discovery (a subject that many of you are all too familiar with).

Today we turn to a topic that interests many readers, at least based on the amount of email we receive about it: legal recruiting and placement. Some of the questions we wanted answered:

We recently discovered that the folks over at Lateral Link are giving away free coffee. Anyone who registers with Lateral Link before the end of the month -- that's Monday -- will get a free Starbucks gift card. The catch is that you have to register through a special, super-secret link. (Hint: it is www.laterallink.com/java.)

Now here's the Job of the Week -- which, conveniently, is also free from Lateral Link:

Position: Mid-level Corporate Associate

Location: Chicago

Description: Although the lateral market in Chicago has been slow of late, this top Chicago-based firm is growing and is actively seeking a mid-level associate with general corporate experience, including M&A, securities and private equity experience. In addition to any bonus paid by the firm, this position qualifies for Lateral Link's standard $10,000 signing bonus.

For more information about this position or to apply, please see Position 9277 on Lateral Link. Current members can also contact their personal search consultant directly to discuss this position. Membership in Lateral Link is free and you can apply at www.laterallink.com.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings (scroll down)