Congratulations to this quintet of five law firms, which just made Fortune magazine's annual list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For (listed below in rank order):

19. Arnold & Porter: "Staffers get 12 weeks paid maternity leave and profit sharing of 7.5% of salary. The less you make, the less you pay for health-insurance premiums."

Actually, a correction: 18 weeks (as of January 1, 2008).

31. Alston & Bird: "Both the legal and nonlegal staff get super benefits, including 90 days of paid maternity leave, coverage of fertility treatments, and concierge services."

Concierge services? Fabulous. Atlantans, stop yer whining!

41. Bingham McCutchen: "They're proud of their elite grads: 72 from nearby Harvard Law, 24 from Yale, and 20 from Stanford. They all start at $160,000 a year."

55. Perkins Coie: "They value fun at this law firm. At 2007's Lawyerpalooza battle of the bands, the Perkins Coie rock & rollers brought down the house (and took home the top prize)."

See also Nixon Peabody: "Fun is not prohibited here." Speaking of which...

66. Nixon Peabody: "The law firm excels on policies for GLBT employees (a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign); it targets 3% of billable hours annually for pro bono work."

Please send us any theme songs that are composed to commemorate these honors. Thank you.

100 Best Companies To Work For (2008) [Fortune]

Earlier: Bingham McCutchen: Land of the Amazons?

Sometimes we wish we had the breastses. Then we could enjoy the luxurious lactation room at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Back in this post, we wrote about the lactation room at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. We're sure it's plenty nice. But we doubt it's as snazzy as what the competition on the other side of Lexington Avenue is offering.

Check out this Davis Polk email, which went out late last year (exclamation mark in the original):

From: **** On Behalf Of Associate Development
To: all.lawyers.ny
Subject: Nursing Room

We are pleased to announce that the firm now has a private nursing room!

Located on the 10th floor, this cozy room is equipped with brand-new furniture, including a comfortable chair and end table, refrigerator, and reading materials of interest to new mothers. Access to the secure room is available through the Security Desk. A small sign on the outside of the door indicates when the room is occupied.

We hope that this amenity will provide returning mothers who wish to continue nursing their babies additional support during this important transition. Your privacy and comfort are our priority.

Please do not hesitate to contact [xxxx] or any member of the Associate Development Department if you have any questions. Thank you and congratulations to all of our new DPW Parents.

We're curious about the "reading materials of interest to new mothers" at DPW. Draft asset purchase agreements? SEC proxy filings?

Meanwhile, in other happy news for parents, Arnold & Porter has jumped on the improved parental leave bandwagon. Following the recent trend, which we've been following in these pages, they've increased the paid leave they provide to women who give birth or primary caregivers of a newly adopted child. It used to be 12 weeks; now it's 18 weeks, which appears to be the "market" rate these days.

Transmittal email, plus A&P's full leave policy, after the jump.

Earlier: Biglaw Perk Watch: Lactation Rooms

Just in time for its holiday party, which is taking place tonight, the New York office of Arnold & Porter has announced bonuses. It appears to be following the example of other non-New York firms -- e.g., Covington & Burling, WilmerHale, and Sidley Austin -- and paying its New York associates better than their non-NYC counterparts.

Full memo after the jump. Some brief observations, from a tipster:

A word of explanation: bonus structure is very different between the D.C. office (which I believe has a tiered formula), and New York, which has in the past had a flat 1950 hours requirement, with some other types of hours counting toward that 1950. Note the tying of special bonus to 2000 client billables (this is going to cut out some, don't know how many).

There is also confusion in the ranks about whether the special-bonus-tied-to-2000-billables thing includes pro bono hours. On my reading, it doesn't.

Note also the VERY weird "firm citizenship" requirement. Timely billing!? Oh noes!

You can read the memo for yourself, after the jump.

Remember James Sandman? Oh no, you don't? Well, surely you remember the Arnold & Porter partner's infamous essay, The High Price of Escalating Associate Salaries, which he wrote while president of the D.C. bar.

Jim Sandman's article, dishing out harsh criticism of law firm associate pay raises, did not endear him to ATL readers. In a near comments clusterf**k, he was condemned as the greediest of greedy Biglaw partners (along with other epithets not fit for printing here).

Well, maybe Sandman has gotten a bad rap. After all, he was public-spirited enough to serve as president of the D.C. bar. When we met him at this party, one of many charitable functions he attends, he didn't have horns growing out of his head.

And now we hear that he's leaving his lucrative partnership, to toil in the considerably less profitable precincts of the D.C. public school system. He's accepted a position as General Counsel for the District of Columbia Public Schools, and he'll also be a member of Chancellor Michelle Rhee's senior leadership team to the DC School Board.

Read the A&P memo announcing Sandman's departure, from firm chairman Thomas Milch, after the jump.

From an ATL reader going through the law firm recruiting process right now:

I've enjoyed reading about various law firm recruiting snafus on Above the Law over the last few months. I just never thought I would be lucky enough to encounter one of my own.

I recently came home to an unusually thick envelope from Arnold & Porter (DC). Inside there was a typical ethnicity request form (to be mailed back to them for recordkeeping), a return envelope, and finally, much to my surprise -- a refrigerator warranty!

Yep, that's right. While other firms are busy sending recruits bonsai trees, iPods, and designer cookies, Arnold & Porter sends its rejects their appliance warranties.

Our tipster sent along a scanned copy of the warranty registration form:

Earlier: Public Humiliation, Courtesy of Your Friends at Wilson Sonsini
Fall Recruiting Snafu Watch: You Know They Really Don't Want You When...
Not Everyone's A Winner at Nixon Peabody

An attorney sent this office-wide email to the entire Washington office of Arnold & Porter:

To: [D.C. office of Arnold & Porter]
Subject: Did you leave your tie on my chair?

I know this may sound ridiculous, however, I'm not sure how to handle this unusual situation. I don't know where it came from, but this morning I found a tie on my chair...

If you left it here and would like it returned, please let me know. My general apologies for this interruption in your day.

Thanks!

Question for sender: Is your office chair all sticky today?

The latest post in our series on perks / fringe benefits isn't a "perk" per se. But it is, like true perks, a non-monetary factor that some people may take into account when choosing between law firms.

The topic: eco-friendliness, or how "green" a law firm is. From a tipster:

I think you should do a feature on which law firms are promoting eco-friendly office environments / business practices. With the country's increased environmental awareness, I think it could help both law students and attorneys decide where to work. Here are two examples:

1. Arnold & Porter: Details of their "green office" policy appear here.

2. Morgan Lewis & Bockius: They described their "program to promote an eco-friendly workplace" in a recent memo (reprinted after the jump).

We offer commentary on that memo after the jump.

Getting Law Firms to Boot Up to Green [Legal Technology News]

Okay, folks, you know what to do. Here are the next five law firms up for discussion (in Vault 100 order, with prestige scores in parentheses):

21. Arnold & Porter LLP (7.012)
22. Jones Day (6.932)
23. Morrison & Foerster LLP (6.898)
24. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (6.752)
25. Clifford Chance LLP (6.747)

The virgin territory of the comments is yearning for your touch.

The Vault Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]

Earlier: Vault 1-5; Vault 6-10; Vault 11-15; Vault 16-20

It's a busy morning, right before the big Memorial Day holiday weekend. There's breaking news of associate pay raises from Sidley Austin, Arnold & Porter (hi James Sandman!!!), and Brown Rudnick.

The Sidley Austin memo appears after the jump. The raise to the $160K scale covers Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington. It's retroactive to May 1.

The Arnold & Porter news was reported by The BLT: Blog of Legal Times. If you have the A&P memo, please email it to us.

We learned of the Brown Rudnick raise by email. We don't have the memo, but our source sent us a salary table, which also appears below the fold.

Discuss.

Wow. Late Friday afternoon, we briefly discussed an article by D.C. bar president James J. Sandman, a partner at Arnold & Porter in Washington, bemoaning the recent associate pay raises. The article generated a strong reaction, judging from the avalanche of reader comments (75 and counting; mostly insightful, and mostly disagreeing with Sandman).

We emailed James Sandman, offering him space in ATL to offer a further defense of his article. We haven't heard back from him yet; but if we do, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, here's an American Lawyer article that raises similar concerns. It's a news rather than opinion piece, but the partners quoted in it voice sentiments similar to Sandman's. Some excerpts:

A partner at Greenberg Traurig was meeting with attorneys from five law firms when he learned that Simpson Thacher & Bartlett had raised associate salaries across the board.

"Every BlackBerry in the room started flashing," he recalls.

It was 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 22. At least five firms matched the next day, and by the end of the week, the sticker price for a new associate in the New York market was up for the second time in a little more than a year -- to $160,000.

The raise surprised competitors and legal consultants alike and caused many to question whether another pay increase makes sense. They point out that pay isn't associates' main gripe (uncertain partnership prospects and grueling hours top this list). Robert Link Jr., managing partner of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, goes even further. If improving associate morale was Simpson's goal, says Link, the raise may do more harm than good.

A higher salary "puts more pressure on productivity and hours," says Link, exacerbating precisely the quality-of-life issues that make junior lawyers unhappy.

"I don't know what Simpson was thinking," he adds.

It's similar to Sandman's comment:

"I don’t understand what causes a firm be the first to increase the salary of a brand-new lawyer from an already eye-popping $145,000 to $160,000. There is no competitive advantage in doing so. Other firms will surely follow suit, and the firm that led the market will quickly be indistinguishable from the rest of the pack."

So, what WAS Simpson thinking? Discussion continues after the jump.

We have to step away from the computer for a while. Here's an open thread about compensation issues to carry us through the weekend.

Three items for possible discussion (which some of you have already started talking about in a prior thread):

1. DLA Piper Singles Out Patent Litigators for Higher Pay [The Recorder]

This follows on the heels of Dechert's D.C. office announcing higher pay for associates in its financial services practice group. Is differential compensation -- a move away from lockstep -- a hot new Biglaw trend?

2. The High Price of Escalating Associate Salaries [DC Bar]

From DC bar president James J. Sandman (at right), a partner at Arnold & Porter, writing in the March 2007 issue of Washington Lawyer magazine:

[F]irst-year associate salaries at big firms have gotten to a level where increases are very bad. They are bad for the law firms that pay them, for the associates who receive them, for the clients who foot the bill for them, and for the society we serve.

Sandman takes a swipe at the firm that initiated the latest round of pay raises (Simpson Thacher, cough cough):

I don’t understand what causes a firm be the first to increase the salary of a brand-new lawyer from an already eye-popping $145,000 to $160,000. There is no competitive advantage in doing so. Other firms will surely follow suit, and the firm that led the market will quickly be indistinguishable from the rest of the pack.

To read Sandman's interesting and provocative argument against the recent raises, click here.

3. Finally, here's the latest departure from the LIST OF SHAME: Baker & Hostetler.

From a source at the firm:

Baker Hostetler announced raises yesterday effective March 1 (for its New York office only). First-year associates will be making $160K; the managing partner didn't say how much other classes would be making, but that associates would get letters about next week telling them what their new salary would be.

That leaves, as far as we know, just seven firms on the LIST OF SHAME.

Congratulations to these five law firms, which just made Fortune magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For:

-- Alston & Bird (#19)
-- Arnold & Porter (#26)
-- Nixon Peabody (#49)
-- Perkins Coie (#64)
-- Bingham McCutchen (#94)

The Recorder has a write-up of the results, which contains some fun factoids. Did you know that each Perkins Coie office has a "Happiness Committee," which throws surprise parties for lawyers and staff?

This is unusual. Many law firms have "Unhappiness Committees," which are sometimes called "Personnel Committees" or "Associate Life Committees." But we don't know of any other firm with a "Happiness Committee."

And here's something we didn't know about the #94 company on the list, Bingham McCutchen (whose name we keep on misspelling):

[A]t Bingham, women outnumber men two to one and make up 23 percent of the partner ranks -- believed to be the highest percentage in the industry, according to the Fortune report.

No wonder the Bingham men are so happy.

Five Law Firms Score Places on Fortune Magazine's 'Best Companies' List [The Recorder via Law.com]
100 Best Companies To Work For [Fortune]

Personnel changes are everywhere today -- and not just on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon. Some notable moves within the legal profession:

Lateral Moves:

* Private equity and M&A lawyer Dennis Barsky, to Jones Day, from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

* Corporate lawyer Jonathan Stapleton and investment-funds lawyer Margaret Paradis, to Baker & McKenzie (NY), from Arnold & Porter and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, respectively.

* Insurance and financial services lawyer Chiu-Ti Jansen, to Sidley Austin, from LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae.

Government to Private Sector:

* Marc Agnifilo, former head of the violent and organized crime unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, is joining Brafman and Associates. Yes, that Brafman -- renowned criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman, Diddy-defending attorney to the stars.

(Disclosure: Marc Agnifilo is a former colleague of ours, as well as a tremendously experienced and exceptionally talented lawyer. He has a fantastic sense of humor. And he's the nephew of celebrated writer Don DeLillo.)

Firm Adds Two NY Corporate Partners [NYLawyer.com]
NY Private Equity Partner Switches Firms [NYLawyer.com]
NY Lawyers On the Move [NYLawyer.com]
Baker & McKenzie LLP Announces Ambitious New Strategy and Leadership Team in New York [Baker & McKenzie]

Yesterday we told you the tale of Aquagirl -- the Clearly Goatlips Cleary Gottlieb summer associate who stripped down to her underwear and dove into the Hudson River. At a summer associate event. At night. At Chelsea Piers. Seriously.

In the comments, some of you updated us on Aquagirl's fate. Now we're happy to bring you this very detailed report:

I worked with [Aquagirl] at Arnold & Porter this summer. On our first day as summers, we were taken to lunch at a nearby restaurant. We were seated at round tables, with at least one partner and one associate at every table. During the lunch, one of the partners asked each of the summers to tell her something funny that had happened to us while we were working at a previous job.

After a few people told their silly, harmless stories, [Aquagirl] was up. She announced to all of us that she was the girl at Cleary that everyone had talked about last summer. She said she hoped no one would hold it against her, and that she could have a fresh start.

Um, talk about uncomfortable situation? I mean, what do you say to that?

What do you say to that? How about "You go, girl!" In a single evening, Aquagirl transformed herself from some random summer associate into a mini-celebrity of the legal profession. And instead of trying to conceal her scandalousness, she OWNED it. Magnificent!!!

One of yesterday's commenters stated that Arnold & Porter "didn't realize her Hudson-jumping proclivities." But our correspondent begs to differ:

[T]he people who interviewed her at Arnold & Porter DID know about what happened to [Aquagirl] at Cleary, and decided to hire her anyway. (Although summer gossip was that she wasn't allowed to participate in alcohol-related afterhours activities; it may very well be that she did not attend events because she was at bar review class.)

I was told that all the summers at A&P got an offer to come back, but she hasn't responded to our email chain about her plans for next year (she's clerking now).

Anyway, we're glad to hear that everything worked out for Aquagirl. Fitzgerald -- F. Scott, not Patrick J. -- famously observed that "there are no second acts in American lives." But, based on Aquagirl's post-scandal success -- an offer from Arnold & Porter, a prestigious federal appellate court clerkship -- it seems there ARE second acts in American law.

Earlier: The Cautionary Tale of Aquagirl

We're almost caught up here at Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Today we discuss and score couples featured in the New York Times weddings page of October 8, 2006.

Again, a bit of a slow weekend for weddings involving lawyers. Here are the three couples under review:

1. Amanda Biles, Lee Reeves II

2. Katherine Dowling, Marc Axelbaum

3. Emily Weisenbach, Michael Burke

Numerical scores and commentary for each couple, after the jump.

Lawyer weddings come, and lawyer weddings go. The weekend of September 16-17, a veritable cornucopia of attorney nuptials, was followed by the weekend of September 23-24 -- not an embarrassment of riches, but just an embarrassment.*

No way are we writing about Cheryl Connolly and Kyle Lewis -- Lewis was wounded in Iraq, so the guy's been through enough. Here are the couples in contention:

1. Elizabeth Kennedy, Nicholas Vitek

2. Cameron Schroeder, Justin Levitt

3. Anne Davis, Charles Wollenhaupt

Who will secure the final berth in the September 2006 Couple of the Month contest? Find out, after the jump.

* Speaking of embarrassments, we realize we are weeks behind in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch ("LEWW"). We're writing about weddings that took place last month; some of these couples are probably divorced by now. See -- we really do need some help around here! If we can find the right writer, we'd even consider outsourcing LEWW.

Another summer weekend, another raft of attorney weddings. Plenty of fodder for this week's edition of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, in which we review selected lawyer nuptials from the New York Times wedding announcements -- and assign numerical scores to each couple. We rate them in three to four categories: on their résumés, their families, their couple balance, and their beauty (if pictured).

Today four couples are vying for the coveted title of highest-flying legal eagles:

1. Cecily Baskir, John Freedman

2. Arminda Bepko, Victor Suthammanont

3. Alexandra Block, Curtis Weiss

4. Christine Varnado, Anthony O’Rourke

So which couple will prevail? Find out, after the jump.

(In blogspeak, "after the jump" means "click on that 'continue reading' link below." So go ahead, what are you waiting for? Click away!)