Last month, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) released information about the overall employment rate for the class of 2011 — information that seemed dismal, at best. The American Bar Association then followed up with its own employment data, and it was “just as dire” as everyone expected, if not worse.
We know that the overall employment rate for the class of 2011 is lower than it’s been in 17 years. But even members of the class of 2011 who managed to secure employment have been screwed. Median starting salaries for new law school graduates have dropped by 35% over the past two years.
Since prospective law students are not great with facts and numbers, NALP was kind enough to put together some pretty pictures to help people understand….
Maybe a young Brando can play DeMayo in the movie.
Earlier this week, we shared an epic departure memo from the former marketing director at the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo LLP. In the memo, the woman (whom we nicknamed “Peggy Olson”) blasted her boss: “Of all the THOUSANDS of people I have met over the past 38 years, you are by far the most egotistical, self-absorbed, delusional, disrespectful and narcissistic person I have ever met.”
Well, it turns out that Michael A. DeMayo has some defenders in the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo. Or, at least one defender. Or maybe he’s defending himself?
Who knows. All we can tell you is that we received a fax (yes, not only do some people still use fax machines, but apparently Above the Law actually has one that we keep right next to our beepers and mercury-infused health drinks). It’s a full-throated defense of Michael DeMayo, replete with allegations that Peggy is going through a difficult situation that precipitated her departure memo meltdown.
* If you can ignore the fact that Ben Stein is suing over being discriminated against by global warming believers, he’s still a pretty smart guy. [Gawker]
* Orrick is suing Jon Huntsman’s campaign for unpaid rent. Silly Orrick, if they want to get any money out of Huntsman they have to sue his father and hope and promise to give sonny a job. [Washington City Paper]
* This is a terrible story about a soldier committing suicide. Not terrible enough to change my mind on whether bullies are legally responsible for people who make the tragic decision to take their own lives, but it’s still tragic. [Daily Mail]
* The FBI file of the late Old Dirty Bastard. I hope you like it raw. [The Daily Beast]
* Maybe one of our readers can answer this dude’s question. Do you have any legal recourse if people keep trying to kidnap you and force you to film Saddam Hussein look-alike porn? [Legal Blawg Watch]
* Muslim students not allowed to form Muslim student group at Catholic University. Funny, you’d think the bigger story would be about how illiterate Muslims were tricked into going to a Catholic school. [Professor Bainbridge]
* The Georgia Bar Exam results are out. Congratulations to all those who passed. For those who didn’t, take comfort in the fact that you can eat a delicious peach. [Georgia Office of Bar Admissions]
* New Jersey: keeping Occupy Trenton protesters in the dark with their mouths shut since October 6. Like that’s such a bad thing. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Guys, if you’re going to cheat on your wife, at least do it with some integrity. [Daily Mail]
* If you scroll down far enough, you’ll see a funny bra ad about swaying a jury. But if you scroll too quickly you’ll miss all the other bra ads. [Retronaut via Overlawyered]
* And this one is called “stop lying” or, in the alternative, “don’t fall asleep on your porch while smoking a cigarette when you’re wasted and then wonder why you’re on fire.” [Legal Juice]
* The DOJ’s $16 muffin fiasco didn’t really happen. But that’s probably not how we’re all going to remember it. [TPM]
Rover's last wish was to have his ashes sprinkled over a pile of money.
* Saying your dog ate something isn’t a creative enough excuse these days. Try this instead: “I kept the clients’ missing money in my car, which I left running in the parking lot to keep my dead dog’s ashes from freezing. Someone then stole the car, and now the missing client money is gone forever!” [Canadian Lawyer]
* Oh, to be a lawyer with the ability to tell opposing counsel that his client is a “spoiled, brainless twit.” It’s even better when opposing counsel’s client is Meghan McCain. [Spectacle Blog / American Spectator]
* Next time you feel like kicking the crap out of someone, make sure your twin is there, because there’s a high likelihood that you’ll both get off. [Legal Juice]
* A judge in Louisiana just threw a case out because he didn’t want to catch the flu from a witness. Elie was right: germaphobia is the real contagion! [Lowering the Bar]
* How would Jesus feel about guns in his church? He’d probably change them into dildos and tell the violence-bearers to go f**k themselves. [WSJ Law Blog]
* There’s been a lot of talk about personal branding for lawyers lately. This guy probably has the right idea, but you’ve got to wonder if he really wants to be known as the “Bald Lawyer” for the rest of his life. What happens if he decides to get plugs? [Legal Blog Watch]
* Are you applying to law school (or do you know someone who is)? Have Lat review the application essay — and support a good cause at the same time. [Kickstarter]
* Is this sexual harassment? Since when is deepthroating a popsicle sexual harassment? Looks like a case for the Association of Finnish Lawyers. [Copyranter]
* If Sarah Palin wants to sue somebody, it should be Michele Bachmann for copyright infringement. [The Legal Satyricon]
* Hey guys, next time you shoot a gay porn video, you can wear parts of your Marine uniform. Just make sure not to grunt “OOH-RAH,” when you climax, because that might be considered an endorsement. [Suits & Sentences / McClatchy]
* It’s like Democrats are just figuring out that the Supreme Court, not Congress, will decide what kind of health care we’re allowed to have. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Something tells me that calling the judge a “crazy ass mother f**ker” isn’t going to help you with your sentence. [Legal Juice]
* Radiohead will not be playing at the Occupy Wall Street thingy. When reached for comment, the band said: “It’s a fake plastic protest, man. In an economy based on rubber plans. That just crumbles. And burns.” [Slate]
* The right advice to this person is for her to major in something non-masturbatory so she graduates from college with some actual skills, and maybe doesn’t have to go to law school. [We Are The 99 Percent]
* Make sure you check out the final update on the Georgetown Law craziness from earlier today. [Above the Law]
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily think that it’s wrong to brag about receiving an offer in front of your friends, family, and total strangers. I personally subscribe to the Major League theory that you don’t want to be dancing in front of somebody who just died, but I understand that most of the kids these days have never even seen the movie I just referenced.
For the millennials, bragging comes so naturally they don’t even realize when they’re doing it. It’s like their biological imperatives are to survive, reproduce, and post evidence of it on Facebook.
Which is fine. I mean, just because somebody is bragging doesn’t mean you have to care. For instance, today we’ve got a kid bragging about getting an offer from a particular Biglaw firm. Some people will be envious; other people are going to make jokes about coat hangers. To each his own….
News and tips are just starting to trickle in, but apparently the Georgetown University Law Center campus is on lockdown because of an armed man on campus.
Details are light, but the local ABC affiliate is reporting the news.
A GULC student — who seems fairly unconcerned — gchatted in to say: “The GW STUDENTS ARE COMING!!!” So at least somebody over there still has a sense of humor.
Stay safe everybody, and follow whatever instructions you are getting. We will update you as we have more news.
UPDATE: After the jump, we have the full bulletin issued to the GULC community….
* Being a wise Latina doesn’t appear to be paying off for Sonia Sotomayor. [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Isn’t ending tax breaks the same as instituting tax hikes according to standard Republican logic? Well, whatever, if the power to tax is the power to destroy, let’s see if it works on Snooki. [TPM]
* Does the law need to be unlocked? Maybe, but we should still be careful about who gets to have a key. [Truth on the Market]
* Who are you going to believe: the NYPD or your lying eyes? [Dealbreaker]
* If you’ve got stage fright before a court appearance, follow these tips, or just imagine the judge in her underwear. (Although you wouldn’t need to imagine much for a certain judge in Canada.) [Underdog]
* The SEC might sue Standard & Poor’s. In response, the S&P board is considering a name change to “Standard & F**ked.” [WSJ Law Blog]
In a land that is right here and in a time that is right now, a technology has arisen so powerful that it can replace basic human document review. Is it time to bow down before our new robot overlords?
First, here’s a little story about me: my life in the legal world began as a paralegal. My first case was a GIANT patent infringement case that was already six years old and had involved as many as five companies, multiple US courts, the ITC and an international standards committee. I knew nothing about any of this.
On my first day, my supervisor (a paralegal with at least eight other cases driving her crazy) sat me down in front of a Concordance database with a 100,000+ patents and patent file histories. “Code these,” she said. I learned that “coding”, for the purposes of this exercise, meant manually typing the inventor’s name, the title of the patent, the assignee, the file date, and other objective data for each document. I worked on that project – and only that project – for at least the first six months of my job. After a week or so, time began to blur.
What I know, in retrospect and with absolutely certainty, is that as time began to blur, so did my judgment. So did my attention to detail. If you could tell me that I did not make at least one mistake a day – one inconsistent spelling, one reversed day and month, one incorrectly spaced title – I frankly would need to see your evidence. I would not believe it. The human mind is trainable but it is not a machine.
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We currently have a number of active openings for associate roles at US and UK firms in HK / China, Singapore and two new in-house openings. As always, please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com in order to get details of current openings in Asia, as well as to discuss the Asia markets in general and what we expect for openings later this year. Our Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney will be in Beijing the week of March 25 and Evan Jowers will be in Hong Kong the week of April 1, if you would like to meet them in person.
The US associate openings we have in law firms are in the usual areas of M&A, cap markets, FCPA / white collar litigation, finance, and project finance. The most urgent of our top tier (top 15 US or magic circle) law firm openings in Asia (among many other firm openings that we have in Asia) are as follows:
• 2nd to 5th year mandarin fluent M&A associates needed in Beijing and Hong Kong at several firms;
• Korean fluent 2nd to 4th year cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 5th year Japanese fluent M&A associates needed in Tokyo;
• 4th to 6th year mandarin fluent cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 4th year M&A / cap markets mix associate needed in Singapore.
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Last month, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) released information about the overall employment rate for the class of 2011 — information that seemed dismal, at best. The American Bar Association then followed up with its own employment data, and it was “just as dire” as everyone expected, if not worse.
