Biglaw
-
Associate Bonus Watch 2012, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money
Associate Bonus Watch: Skadden Matches Cravath
This isn't shaping up to be a very interesting bonus season.... -
Biglaw, Lawyer of the Day
Lawyer of the Day: Sidley Austin Attorney Arrested for Allegedly Blindsiding Biker, and Now He's Being Sued
A Biglaw attorney allegedly blindsided a cyclist in New York City, and now the lawyer's being sued over the whole affair. - Sponsored
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Learn how emerging tools will likely change and enhance the work of lawyers for years to come in this new report. -
Ask the Experts, Biglaw, Job Searches, Law Schools, Partner Issues, Rankings
The Best and the Brightest: Some Reflections on Entry-Level Law Firm Hiring
Are law firms using the wrong criteria when it comes to hiring associates?
-
Associate Bonus Watch 2012, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money
Associate Bonus Watch: Simpson Thacher Matches Cravath
Simpson Thacher will not take a backseat to Cravath when it comes to bonus payments. -
Associate Bonus Watch 2012, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Partner Issues
Associate Bonus Watch: Will Other Firms Refuse to Follow Cravath? (And Could That Be a Good Thing?)
Will everyone else fall in line behind Cravath this year? Not necessarily.... -
Biglaw, Boutique Law Firms, Drinking, Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Holidays and Seasons, Midsize Firms / Regional Firms, Parties, Small Law Firms
Holiday Parties and You: All the Basics You Need to Know
It's just about time for law firm holiday parties. But what should you wear? What should you drink? Some tips from Corporette's Kat Griffin. -
Benchslaps, Biglaw, Bonuses, Federal Judges, John Roberts, Law School Deans, Legal Ethics, Money, Morning Docket, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Tobacco / Smoking
Morning Docket: 11.28.12
* Chief Justice John Roberts gave a Solicitor General’s Office attorney a vicious tongue-lashing for failure to be upfront about policy changes between presidents. Now that’s what we’d call a verbal benchslap! [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
* When asked if they’d be following Cravath’s bonuses, a dozen Am Law 100 firms didn’t even care to respond or discuss the matter. It seems the partners would rather keep their associates squirming with suspense a while longer. [Am Law Daily]
* Watch out, world, because Catholic University of America just hired a Biglaw senior partner to lead its law school. Say hello to Dean Daniel Attridge, formerly managing partner at the D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis. [National Law Journal]
* A federal judge ordered tobacco companies to disclose in product warnings that they chemically induce smoking addictions to turn a profit, but those fools will keep puffing their cancer sticks anyway. [WSJ Law Blog]
* This just in from Flori-duh: you know you’re probably going to have a bad day in court when the judge won’t declare a mistrial even though the prosecutor technically wasn’t a member of the state Bar. [Miami Herald]
-
Biglaw, Deaths, Drinking, Partner Issues
The Road to Partner Is Long and Full of Danger
You have almost no chance to make partner, but that won't stop people from trying... - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Associate Bonus Watch 2012, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Tax Law
Weil Won't Pay Bonuses Until January: Associates See Sinister Tax Motives
Did Weil just kick its associates over the fiscal cliff? -
Biglaw, Holidays and Seasons, Parties, Partner Issues
Buying In: O What A Night...
Anonymous Partner thinks holiday parties are a waste of time and money. Here's his proposal for what to replace them with. -
Alston & Bird, Biglaw, Blogging, Bloomberg, David Boies, Health Care / Medicine, Law Schools, Mergers and Acquisitions, Money, Non-Sequiturs, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Securities and Exchange Commission, Securities Law, Supreme Court, Ted Olson
Non-Sequiturs: 11.26.12
* As soon as Mary Schapiro announced she was stepping down as chairwoman of the SEC, Obama nominated another woman to take her place. Congrats to SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter! [WSJ Law Blog] * In other breaking news that no one will care about now that bonus season is upon us, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg swapped out her neck doily for a blingy necklace from Glamour. [Josh Blackman's Blog] * You know what the ancient Romans would’ve hated more than watching the fall of the Roman empire? The Citizens United decision. Cato, Cicero, and Julius Caesar wouldn’t have been impressed with this. [Slate] * Why go to law school if you’re already doing well financially? Perhaps you’re just another prestige hunter. If you are, then all the better for you, because that seems to be what all of the law schools are selling these days. [Inside the Law School Scam] * Don’t cry for Argentina: they may be in the middle of a billion-dollar bond dispute, but the uber-prestigious lawyers on either side of the case (Boies; Olson) are enough to make you forget about their troubles. [Reuters] * A Biglaw attorney from Alston & Bird with a rare sleep disorder confronts Big Pharma and… doesn’t win. At least not yet. But on the bright side, she’s not sleeping for 18 hours anymore. [The Last Word on Nothing] * We’re honored to announce that Above the Law was named as one of the ten law blogs in the ABA Journal’s inaugural Blawg 100 Hall of Fame. Please click here if you’d like to help us win again this year. [ABA Journal] * After the jump, Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia speaks with a Bill Lawlor, a Dechert partner, who claims that “hope springs eternal for M&A attorneys.” Will the mergers and acquisitions market begin to boom once again? -
Associate Bonus Watch 2012, Biglaw, Bonuses, Holy Crap, Money
Breaking: Cravath Announces Year-End Bonuses; Let the 2012 Bonus Season Begin!
Cravath just announced its 2012 year-end bonuses. How much will CSM - and, of course, the many firms that follow CSM - be paying out this year? -
2nd Circuit, Bankruptcy, Biglaw, California, Cellphones, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Facebook, Federal Judges, Gay Marriage, Gender, Morning Docket, Privacy, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Technology
Morning Docket: 11.26.12
* Will it be DOMA or Prop 8? The countdown until Friday starts now, because everyone’s waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will grant cert on one of the five same-sex marriage cases that has come before the high court. [UPI]
* Walk like an Egyptian — or, in this case, you can protest like one. Judges and lawyers are on strike and filing legal challenges to President Mohamed Morsi’s “unprecedented attack on judicial independence.” [New York Times]
* Dewey know when this failed firm’s bankruptcy plan will be approved? Team Togut is hoping for a February resolution, but the rascally retirees may throw a wrench in things with their committee’s continued existence. [Am Law Daily]
* Even though the Northern District of California has a historic all-women federal bench — a courthouse of their own, if you will — there’s probably no need to tell them that THERE’S NO CRYING IN LITIGATION. No crying! [The Recorder]
* New technology + old laws = a privacy clusterf**k. This week, a Senate committee will contemplate whether the Electronic Communications Privacy Act needs to be updated to get with the times. [New York Times]
* The New York State Bar Association may oppose it, but Jacoby & Meyers’s challenge to the state’s ban on non-lawyer firm ownership shall live to see another day thanks to the Second Circuit. [New York Law Journal]
* An Alabama Slammer is both a dangerous cocktail and a term for what happens when your Southern law school refuses to cut its class size and you’re left woefully unemployed after graduation. [Birmingham News]
* Casey Anthony finds relevancy again! Girls in my high school used to search for “foolproof suffocation” on Google and later get acquitted of murdering their daughters all the time; it was no big deal. [USA Today]
* Dean Boland, aka Paul Ceglia’s gazillionth lawyer in the Facebook ownership case, will soon find out if can withdraw as counsel. He’s got other things to deal with, like a $300K child porn judgment. [Wall Street Journal]
Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Sponsored
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
This AI-Powered Document Tool Will Meet You Where You Are
-
Advertising, Biglaw, Lateral Moves, Money, Partner Issues, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Partners in Practice: Anatomy of a Lateral Move (Part II)
Interested in learning about the anatomy of a lateral move? This series will present all of the information you could possibly need. -
Biglaw, Chadbourne & Parke, Gloria Allred, Military / Military Law, Partner Issues, Quote of the Day, Sex Scandals, Williams & Connolly
Quote of the Day: Potted Plant?
Who's representing whom in the fallout over the David Petraeus / Paula Broadwell affair? Every power lawyer in D.C., it seems. -
Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Job Searches, Money, Partner Issues
Buying In: More Associates... Making Less
Anonymous Partner floats an interesting and innovative proposal for restructuring the hiring and utilization of junior associates. -
Affirmative Action, Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Heller Ehrman, Howrey LLP, Law Schools, LSAT, Morning Docket, SCOTUS, Sex, Sex Scandals, Supreme Court, Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, Williams & Connolly
Morning Docket: 11.20.12
* Who will represent General David Petraeus as he continues to battle the fallout from his scandalous affair with Paula Broadwell? None other than Williams & Connolly partner Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Washington, D.C.’s most elite. [Blog of Legal Times]
* Just in case you weren’t somehow aware, it costs quite a pretty penny to make bankrupt Biglaw firms go away. For example, more than 40 firms have paid off Brobeck, Coudert, Heller, Howrey, and Thelen with settlements of more than $35.5M. [Am Law Daily]
* Hostess and the striking Bakers’ Union have agreed to go to mediation to prevent the company’s wind down. Judge Drain should force feed them delicious Ding Dongs to make them see the error of their ways. [Wall Street Journal]
* “Even without a so-called affirmative-action ban, law schools aren’t doing great in terms of diversity.” That’s probably why admissions officers are so worried about the verdict in Fisher v. Texas. [National Law Journal]
* For the last time, going to law school isn’t the solution for having no idea what you want to do with your life after college. And you don’t need a JD/MBA, either. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]
* Sometimes, when people from LSAC deny you extra time on the LSAT, you sit back and deal with it. Other times, you sue their pants off because your dad is a power litigator — and then you settle. [New York Post]
-
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: If Not For Clients, Then Why Do Firms Open New Offices?
Back to a topic we've covered before: why do law firms like to open all these far-flung new offices? In-house columnist Mark Herrmann may have solved the mystery.... -
Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Deaths, Federal Judges, Food, FTC, Google / Search Engines, Money, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Privacy, Venable
Morning Docket: 11.19.12
* Billable hours in Biglaw are down 1.5 percent, and 15 percent of U.S. firms are planning to reduce their partnership ranks in early 2013. Thanks to Wells Fargo for bringing us the news of all this holiday cheer! [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
* Hostess may be winding down its business and liquidating its assets, but Biglaw will always be there to clean up the crumbs. Jones Day, Venable, and Stinson Morrison Hecker obviously think money tastes better than Twinkies. [Am Law Daily]
* How’s that “don’t be evil” thing working out for you? Google’s $22.5M proposed privacy settlement with the FTC over tracking cookies planted on Safari browsers was accepted by a federal judge. [Bloomberg]
* Greenberg Traurig and Hunton & Williams face a $7.2B suit from Allen Stanford’s receiver over a former attorney of both firms’ alleged involvement in the ex-knight’s Ponzi scheme. [Houston Business Journal]
* Perhaps the third time will be the charm: ex-Mayer Brown partner Joseph Collins was convicted, again, for helping Refco steal more than $2B from investors by concealing the company’s fraud. [New York Law Journal]
* H. Warren Knight, founder of alternative dispute resolution company JAMS, RIP. [National Law Journal]
-
Ask the Experts, Associate Advice, Biglaw, Career Center, Career Files, Lawyers
From the Career Files: Five Steps to Delivery of a Written Assignment
A member of the ATL Career Center's team of expert contributors offers some practical advice for new associates on delivering work product to their supervising attorneys.