Blind Item

Biglaw Blind Item: Who Has Herpes?

By

Actually, we’re not sure that it’s herpes; that’s just a guess, based on context clues. But apparently some prominent, white-shoe law firm has been hit by an outbreak of a sexually-transmitted disease.

Check out this Biglaw blind item….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Biglaw Blind Item: Who Has Herpes?”

74 Comments

Is Anyone Desperate Enough to Do This?

By

blind item AboveTheLaw legal blog.jpgNo matter when it’s done, job hunting usually sucks balls. When done in the middle of the Great Recession, it feels like the balls are covered in tangled hair and pointy skin-piercing spikes. It’s painful and you have to be careful.

One disgruntled attorney recently emailed us about a company that he suspects is trying to take advantage of desperate job hunters. He calls it “a new type of scam preying on unemployed lawyers.”

He responded via an ad on Craigslist to an “assets management company” seeking IP attorneys for full-time or part-time contract work. We’ll call the company Pay To Work, LLC. In the ad, PTW says it’s looking for “entrepreneurial” attorneys to do intellectual property work. It says its clients include scientists, inventors, writers, artists, celebrities, universities, and multi-national corporations. That sounds pretty sweet!

But there are some big catches. First off, “partners” are supposed to pay $295/month for “administrative fees.” Second off, the company has no clients at the moment. It’s a start-up in the “set-up phase.” So if you sign up and start paying $300 a month, what exactly are you getting for your money?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Is Anyone Desperate Enough to Do This?”

50 Comments

Quote of the Day: Partner Pothead

By

I have been a lifelong cannabis user, on an almost daily basis since I was in high school. I am now the managing partner of a very successful law firm in the Washington, D.C. area.

I have been in a professional law practice for almost 27 years. I work 60+ hours a week, and all of that hard work has translated into high levels of annual income.

I still get high after work, almost every day….

– A marijuana-using managing partner (and parent of pot-smoking daughters), in an email to Andrew Sullivan.

45 Comments

Blind Item: Law Firm Cutting Costs With Undergraduate Slave Labor?

By

Over the weekend, the New York Times took employers to task for taking advantage of university kids eager to get work experience. Unpaid internships abound, and the recession has made it easier for corporate employers to cry poor, and bring on free labor.

However, there are strict federal guidelines [PDF] around unpaid internships, and many are breaking the law by giving their eager little beavers noneducational menial work. The folks at the Labor Department are on to this devious scheme:

Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide.

While most of the abusive internships are in the exciting worlds of fashion, film, media, and music, there was at least one poor NYU student suckered into cleaning out bathrooms for free at a law firm…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item: Law Firm Cutting Costs With Undergraduate Slave Labor?”

34 Comments

Blind Item: Biglaw Partner Likes Your Faces

By

blind item AboveTheLaw legal blog.jpgWorking from home is one of the perks of living in the Internet age. The downside is that work more easily intrudes into the rest of your life. But being chained to your BlackBerry is better than being chained to your office chair.
A partner in the Miami office of an AmLaw 50 firm doesn’t like the idea of his associates being out on the beach with their BlackBerrys, though. He wants them in the office. He wants to see their faces, and the only tan he wants to see on them is the kind from the office’s fluorescent lights.
This partner whom we are not outing from a firm that we are not naming gave a speech last week that left many of his associates even less excited about spending time at the office than before…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item: Biglaw Partner Likes Your Faces”

92 Comments

Blind Item Follow-Up: A Revised List of Suspects

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgWe’ve provided extensive coverage of a recent Biglaw blind item, concerning an unidentified law firm in Manhattan planning multiple rounds of layoffs for later this year. If you’re tired of this little parlor game, then stop reading here.
But if you enjoy rampant speculation, surf over to Law Shucks, which has crunched the numbers again and generated a new list of likely layoff lairs. Some of the commenters on our last thread may be gratified to see their nominees on the updated list.
At this point, the law firm mentioned in the original Washington Post article should have the decency to come forward and ‘fess up. Is it fair to let your fellow firms sit under a cloud of suspicion?
Revisiting the Candidates for Impending Layoffs [Law Shucks]
Earlier:Blind Item: Layoffs To Come At ‘A Law Firm in Manhattan’
Blind Item Follow-Up: A New York Firm That Fits The Bill?
Blind Item Follow-Up: Morgan Lewis Also Denies Layoffs

30 Comments

Blind Item Follow-Up: Morgan Lewis Also Denies Layoffs
(Plus a look at the Five O’Clock Club’s law firm clients.)

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgBased on a Washington Post article profiling the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement and career coaching company, we constructed a Biglaw blind item:

Which New York law firm, having already completed two rounds of layoffs, has hired the Five O’Clock Club to help it carry out additional layoffs (in August, October, and November)?

After we ran the item, several firms came forward to declare they’re not the firm in question. And now they’re joined by one more: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis contacted ATL to say that it isn’t the firm with layoffs in the works. In fact, Morgan Lewis claims that it shouldn’t even be on the shortlist of contenders.
Read why — and check out the list of the Five O’Clock Club’s clients, including some very prestigious law firms that haven’t publicly admitted to layoffs — after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item Follow-Up: Morgan Lewis Also Denies Layoffs
(Plus a look at the Five O’Clock Club’s law firm clients.)”

66 Comments

Blind Item Follow-Up: Denials of Upcoming Layoffs from Dewey, Schulte, and White & Case

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgOn Monday, we tossed out a blind item about future layoffs at a Manhattan law firm, mentioned in the Washington Post as a client of the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement firm. On Tuesday, with the help of Law Shucks, we narrowed down the list of suspects.
We’re happy to report that we can advance the ball on this. Three firms should be cleared of suspicion:
1. Dewey & LeBoeuf: A spokesperson from D&L stated that it is not the firm in question and has no layoff plans.
2. Schulte Roth & Zabel: A spokesperson from SRZ stated that it is not the firm in question and has not hired a layoff consultant or outplacement consultant.
3. White & Case: A reader pointed out to us that White & Case is listed as a Five O’Clock Club client (PDF). [Update: Looks like the client list has been removed, but we downloaded it; check it out here.]
This caused us to wonder if White & Case might be the firm at issue. But White & Case denies it.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item Follow-Up: Denials of Upcoming Layoffs from Dewey, Schulte, and White & Case”

97 Comments

Blind Item Follow-Up: A New York Firm That Fits The Bill?

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgYesterday, we wrote about a Washington Post article profiling a layoff consultant who advises companies on conducting mass firings. The article caught our attention because one of those who called Kim Hall of the Five O’Clock Club during the course of the article was a “law firm in Manhattan,” planning a third round of layoffs in August with more to come in the fall.
We invited you to speculate as to the identity of the firm. Law Shucks (the layoff tracking blog with whom we frequently “team up“) compared the information in the article with data from the Layoff Tracker:

Here’s the list of law firms in Manhattan that have had two layoffs (we’re assuming layoffs of lawyers) reported this year:
* Dewey & LeBoeuf
* Fish & Richardson
* Loeb & Loeb
* Mayer Brown
* Morgan Lewis & Bockius
* Schulte Roth & Zabel
* White & Case

Further speculation and narrowing of the list over at Law Shucks.
Handicapping the Next Layoff [Law Shucks]
Earlier: Blind Item: Layoffs To Come At ‘A Law Firm in Manhattan’

69 Comments

Blind Item: Layoffs To Come At ‘A Law Firm in Manhattan’

By

pink slip layoff notice Above the Law blog.jpgThe Washington Post had an article this weekend on Kim Hall of the Five O’Clock Club, who makes her living on layoffs. She advises companies on how to fire employees en masse and also offers guidance to the newly unemployed workers. At $2,000 per severanced head.
The article describes a “day in the life” of Kim Hall and discusses how her business is booming in the recession. Her company has doubled in size in the past two years. Scavenger, much?
The article caught our attention because during the day that the journalist trailed and interviewed Hall, she got a call from a Manhattan firm planning layoffs later this year.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Blind Item: Layoffs To Come At ‘A Law Firm in Manhattan’”

60 Comments
Page 3 of 41234