Cleary Gottlieb

Cleary Associate Fought for Lost Cause in PA

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cleary associate helps obama.jpgAm Law Daily highlights the work of James Clark, a fifth-year at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, who took a two-month unpaid leave to volunteer for the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania.

Clark was a community organizer for three different townships in Bucks County, a county Hillary Clinton carried with over 60 percent of the vote. He felt that his Cleary litigation experience helped him in his campaign stint organizing local volunteers: “Volunteers are kind of like junior associates in that you have to clearly articulate what needs to be done so that everyone is on the same page.”

Also don’t make any sudden movements. Be firm, yet gentle.

Clark credits Cleary for allowing him the opportunity to work in rural Pennsylvania….

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Law Firm Olympics

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olympics beijing flag law firms.jpgJingoistic competition is fun, but why should handing out medals be the sole province of the IOC? Athletes and David Rivkin should not be the only ones getting a taste of Olympic glory.
Here at ATL, we’ve put law firms on the (imaginary) field of competition and are now ready to reveal the gold medal winners in a number of sports.
After the jump, see the winners, and weigh in on which firms would be champions in sports we did not pick for prime time.

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Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 6-10 (2009)

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comparing.jpgWe’re back with the next installment of open threads on the Vault 100 law firms.
A particularly insightful comment from the last post on the top five firms:

[Davis Polk & Wardwell] and [Sullivan & Cromwell] do very similar work. DPW has a stronger underwriters’ practice, Sullivan is marginally better on the issuer side. DPW is much stronger than anyone at converts. Sullivan does more edgy contested M&A while DPW excels at deals with cutting edge securities components.

Sullivan is a slightly better place to work than its reputation. DPW generally lives up to its strong rep as a good place to work.

Now on to the next five from Vault, with their prestige scores in parentheses:

6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (7.985)
7. Latham & Watkins LLP (7.784)
8. Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP (7.754)
9. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (7.623)
10. Kirkland & Ellis LLP (7.473)

The most notable of “notable perks” in this batch is at Kirkland, where NYC associates get a “$350 office art budget” (previously reported here). Can associates use the money to commission work from their toddlers?
Please compare and contrast the firms in the comments. We’ll continue to work our way down the Vault list in future threads.
The Top 100 Most Prestigious Law Firms [Vault]
Earlier: Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 1-5 (2009)

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 5.4 – 5.11: Penn-y Wise

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Legal%20Eagle%20Wedding%20Watch%20NYT%20wedding%20announcements%20Above%20the%20Law.jpgCongratulations to Keira Driansky and David Simon, chosen by ATL readers over Kristy Hong and Jonas Blank III as April’s Legal Eagle Couple of the Month.
Now for the next set of entrants, and it’s a crowded field. We think this week’s column sets a record for total number of Ivy League JDs. Here’s our latest crop of outstanding newlyweds:

1. Deborah Adler and Brian Sutherland
2. Rachel Hannaford and Justin Lerer
3. Zoe Segal-Reichlin and Daniel Garodnick
4. Alison Franklin and Shane Milam

Read up on their pedigrees and passions, after the jump.

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Biglaw Perk Watch: One Two Three Four, Cleary Declares Perk War!

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Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton LLP CGSH Above the Law blog.jpgThe venerable law firm of Cleary Gottlieb, which has always been known as a kinder, gentler sort of place — at least by Biglaw standards — has fired a shot across the bow of its peer firms.
Cleary just announced their move to the new “market” rate of 18 weeks of parental leave. But they didn’t stop there. They also rolled out all sorts of perks and fringe benefits that associates are sure to love. From a Cleary source:

See attached. Cleary ups parental leave and adds other programs on flex-time, telecommuting, professional development, career counseling, management training — and free lunches on Mondays!

And from a tipster at a rival firm:

Cleary announced a new flex-time policy open to all associates above the second-year class, plus a two-day-a-month telecommuting policy for all associates. Other changes and boring stuff I skimmed through in the attached…

I hope my firm takes the hint!

Check out the memos for yourself (links below). Kudos to Cleary!
Will other top New York law firms follow suit? Only time will tell.
New Initiatives to Improve Professional Development and Quality of Life [PDF]
Parental Leave Policy [PDF]

Cleary Gottlieb Associate Gets Benchslapped By Tax Court

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Shawn Hynes Shawn T Hynes Cleary Gottlieb Above the Law blog.jpgAs the old adage goes, “A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.” And there is some anecdotal evidence in support of that proposition. See, e.g., Elana Glatt / Elana Elbogen (depending upon how you view the merits of her case against her wedding florist).
Here’s another example of what can happen when Biglaw litigators represent themselves. From TaxProf Blog:

The Tax Court today decided Hynes v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2008-1 (1/2/08), a case involving Shawn T. Hynes, a fifth year securities litigation associate in Cleary Gottlieb’s New York City office. The taxable year at issue was 2003, when Hynes was a Penn 3L (he tranferred to Penn after completing his first year at Oregon).

More about the facts of Shawn Hynes’s case, and how he got benchslapped by the Tax Court, after the jump.

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Associate Bonus Watch: Cleary Matches

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We would’ve had this up a few minutes ago, but the technical difficulties that Lat mentioned yesterday are still lurking around. Bring on the new fancy servers.
At any rate, Cleary Gottlieb has matched, and the memo is after the jump.

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Bomb Threat at Cleary Gottlieb?

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Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton office bomb threat Above the Law blog.jpgThis email was sent around Cleary Gottlieb earlier this afternoon:

There has been a bomb threat received by one of the tenants of OLP [One Liberty Plaza] that is not specific as to details of the threatened event. The police have been conducting an investigation of the premises, including with dog squads, and have turned up nothing. No recommendation has been made by the police or other authorities that we evacuate the building, although one or two tenants have taken it upon themselves to do so.

The police do not believe this is a credible threat, but we felt that our employees should have the benefit of this information nevertheless.

If you have any details about the incident, please add them in the comments, or email us. Thanks.

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 9.2.07 and 9.9.07: Weiner Kings

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LEWW logo.jpgThat’s right — this is a combined edition of LEWW. Weep with joy, wedding-watchers!
Before we serve up this double shot, a request for input. In response to prompting from readers, when we’ve chosen the week’s top three couples lately, we’ve been giving a big edge to lawyer-lawyer couples. The result is that we’ve often found ourselves writing about double-JD weddings even when there are other couples with more impressive credentials (but only one JD).
To be honest, we’re not sure this is the right approach. It just feels wrong to pass over a dripping-with-prestige couple like this simply because a couple of unremarkable associates are getting hitched. Particularly during the height of the wedding season, there are often at least three lawyer-lawyer couples, so under our current system you’re basically out of contention if you marry outside the profession.
We’re considering lifting the heavy thumb we’ve put on the scales in favor of dual-lawyer couples, but before we do anything rash, we need to know what our readers think. What’s more interesting to you, ATL fans: lawyers marrying lawyers, or prestigious lawyers marrying other prestigious (and often more interesting) people? Make your opinion known, either in the comments or by e-mail.

Here are this week’s featured couples:
1.) Elaine Ewing and Christopher Viapiano
2.) Carl Roller and Daniel Weiner
3.) Deborah Lipman, Matthew Fox
4.) Katherine Downs, Peter Oppenheim

Read on for more about these three brides and five bridegrooms.

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Who Is This Fall’s ‘It’ Firm?

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New York Observer logo Above the Law blog.jpgWe have to step away for a bit. But we’ll leave you with some food for thought (and argument): a piece we just wrote for the New York Observer, timed to coincide with fall interview season, about New York law firms. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“[J]ust as certain sleeve cuts are all the rage at Fashion Week, some law firms are “hot”—and some are not. Having interviewed with firms exactly 10 years ago, I was curious: Who is this fall’s “It” Firm?”

We expect that many of you will disagree with our conclusions, condemn us as ill-informed or biased (or both), etc. That’s okay. Our point is to provoke. We’d like to become for the law firm world what Michael Riedel is to theatre: “Post columnist Michael Riedel’s gleeful skewering of Broadway’s shows and personages has made him a must read—and a must-hate—on the Great White Way.”
You can read the full column over here. It’s the first in what’s going to be a semimonthly column we’ll be writing for the Observer on New York lawyers and law firms. Enjoy (we think).
Polish Those Portfolios! Legal Eaglets Seek Their Nests [New York Observer]

Benchslap of the Day: Judge Preska Reprimands (Wait for It)… Cleary Gottlieb?

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Loretta Preska small Judge Loretta K Preska Southern District of New York Above the Law blog.JPGJudge Loretta K. Preska (S.D.N.Y.) has it all: a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, a rich husband, and killer shoes.
As well as, it appears, no patience for lawyers who play fast and loose with the rules. From the WSJ Law Blog:

Cleary Gottlieb conjures images of Ivy League bookishness and international savoir faire, not bare-knuckled litigation tactics. But last week a federal judge sanctioned the firm and found them to have acted in bad faith. “Civil litigation is not always civil,” began a ruling by Loretta Preska, a federal judge in Manhattan. Here’s the opinion (PDF).

The judge concluded that Cleary tried to dissuade a witness from attending a deposition, in part because of a concern the witness would testify adverse to the firm’s client. Preska ordered Cleary to pay the plaintiff’s attorneys fees and costs ─ an amount to be determined ─ and ruled that “the sanction is imposed as a formal reprimand and should be circulated to all attorneys at Cleary.”

And Cleary partner Jean-Pierre Vignaud was ordered to write “I will not interfere improperly with the discovery process,” five hundred times, on a dry-erase board in a firm conference room.
Cleary Gottlieb — which, by the way, picked fellow white-shoe law firm Simpson Thacher to represent it — said in a statement that it intends to appeal.
Judge Sanctions Cleary: “Civil Litigation Is Not Always Civil” [WSJ Law Blog]
Kensington Intl., Ltd. v. Republic of Congo [WSJ Law Blog (PDF)]

Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 6-10

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Simpson Thacher Bartlett LLP 425 Lexington Avenue Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe were pleasantly surprised by the robust and intelligent discussion in the comments to our earlier open thread, Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 1-5. There were over 100 comments, and many of them were quite informative. So we will press on.
The next five firms up for bids, in Vault 100 order (prestige scores in parentheses):

6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (8.116)
7. Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP (7.759)
8. Latham & Watkins LLP (7.712)
9. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (7.672)
10. Covington & Burling LLP (7.510)

Please compare and contrast these firms, and discuss what it’s like to work for them, in the comments. Thanks.
The Vault Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]