Ed. note: This post was originally published at 4:27 p.m. today. We have changed the timestamp to place it at the top of the page, but we will eventually return it to its original place.

We have confirmed the news of a Cravath bonus match with multiple sources at Cleary Gottlieb. One exchange went something like this:

ATL: Any good news today?

CGSH: No. Cravath news. Bonus FAIL.

So the 2009 bonus market is probably going to coalesce around the Cravath-level bonuses — unless S&C shows up and trumps CSM. Stay tuned.

The timing of the announcement is telling. Usually bad news is saved for Friday afternoons, so it gets lost in the pre-weekend shuffle. Did CGSH view its bonus numbers as potentially disappointing to the recipients?

Perhaps. In our reader poll on the Cravath bonuses, a majority of respondents said the CSM bonuses made them either “unhappy” or “very unhappy” (the most popular choice). Approximately 30 percent said the bonuses made them “neither happy nor unhappy.” Under 20 percent said the bonuses made them “happy” or “very happy.”

The Cleary memo and another READER POLL, after the jump.

Year-end bonuses have been announced at the market-leading firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. And they are even lower than last year’s Cravath bonuses.

But look, this is 2009. Welcome to the Great Recession. Your true bonus is: you get to keep your job. That shouldn’t be taken for granted, even at Cravath.

Anyway, here’s the Cravath bonus scale for 2009 (via the WSJ Law Blog):

Class of 2008 — $7,500
Class of 2007 — $10,000
Class of 2006 — $15,000
Class of 2005 — $20,000
Class of 2004 — $25,000
Class of 2003 — $30,000
Class of 2002 — $30,000

Cravath’s bonus announcement is always important because the market tends to follow Cravath — as it did last year. Skadden’s 2008 bonuses, at roughly twice Cravath’s levels, were ignored.

Could this year be different? Are the Cravath bonus levels low enough such that a firm of similar or even lower prestige will try to better CSM? Or will other Biglaw shops simply avail themselves of the political cover provided by Cravath — which is arguably what happened last year, when Skadden’s generous bonuses went unmatched (excluding Wachtell)?

So, readers, what do you think? Read the FULL MEMO, take a READER POLL, and COMMENT — after the jump.

Tipsters report that Goldman Sachs — they of the magnanimous bonuses — has sent the word out that holiday parties will be canceled this year. Even “personally funded” parties are being discouraged.

If that is what is happening at mighty Goldman, what paltry party offerings can Biglaw associates expect?

Last year’s season can best be summed up by Cravath. Usually the firm shindig is at the Rainbow Room. Last year, the party was at the firm cafeteria.

Cravath also canceled its biennial “Cravath Prom” last year. Is there any indication that the good times are coming back to Cravath?

What are the party prospects elsewhere? I would think “surviving 2009” would be a great theme for this year’s extravaganzas, if anybody has any money lying around to be extravagant with.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much? Will this holiday party season involve more coals than diamonds? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Earlier: Cravath Continues to Think Ahead

Deal work isn’t just about substance. Style points will help you go far, at least according to Jim Woolery of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In an interview he gave to the Dallas Morning News (gavel bang: ABA Journal), Woolery explains that his success is due in part to his ability to look like a New Yorker but talk like a Texan:

“They like me in Texas because I’m from this fancy New York law firm, but I talk Texan,” says the 40-year-old partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. “When [Dallas attorney] Phil Smith from McKool Smith tells me, ‘Things are going to get Westerned,’ I know he means things are going to get sideways or upside down.”

My friends, this is why it is important to have diversity in the partnership ranks. Sometimes you need a guy like Woolery to make that special Love Connection.

Just how much has Woolery’s western charm been worth to Cravath?

LEWW is fascinated by ATL’s Douchiest Law School contest. Official results haven’t been announced yet, but based on our preliminary read, Yale seems to have notched a decisive first-round victory over the University of Texas, and it looks like Harvard has trounced UCLA. Stanford Law School, however, appears to have been decisively out-douched by lowly Georgetown. Conclusion: The relationship between douchiness and prestige is not linear.

This week’s weddings feature two YLS grads and two SLS grads, so these lawyer newlyweds are undeniably prestigious. But are they also representative of their respective institutions’ reputations for d-baggery? We’ll let you make the call.

Here are the couples:

1. Wendy Katz and Matthew Waxman

2. Megan Wall-Wolff and Joshua Younger

3. Julia Kripke and Matthew Kellogg

Read all about these couples and vote for your favorite, after the jump.

Summer programs at many firms are shorter this year than last year. That means the summer is over at a lot of places, and summer associates are starting to learn their fates.

So far, there is some surprising news. Summers are getting offers. Many people have reported that their firm has given full, 100% offers to 2009 summer associates. Summers at Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk are just some of the people reporting good news:

Davis Polk & Wardwell and Sullivan & Cromwell have extended offers to all of their summer associates.

Update (12:35): Additional tipsters inform us that Davis Polk has only given 100% offers to the summers that have already left. That is about half of the summer associates. The rest of the SAs leave on Friday, so we’ll see.

We also have received word that Cravath is making 100% offers.

After the jump, let’s look at a few more firms that we believe are making full offers to this year’s summer associates.

Earlier this week, we reported that Hunton & Williams wasn’t on the list of firms conducting on-campus interviews — or, to be technical, “on-grounds interviewing” (OGI) — at UVA Law School. That appears to have changed. From an email sent out yesterday afternoon by UVA Law’s office of career services:

[A] number of employers have signed up for OGI just this week. We have provided a list below. If you prepared your rankings previously, you may want to consider working these employers into your schedule. For example, contrary to what was reported on AbovetheLaw.com, Hunton & Williams is, in fact, interviewing during the OGI process and has been added to the system as of this afternoon.

The wording of the memo is misleading to the extent that it implies our original report was not correct at the time it was published. We have confirmed with UVA’s career services office that Hunton & Williams signed up for OGI after our original post went up.

Of course, that’s just a matter of chronology, not causation. But some readers think we might have played a role. From one law student tipster (representative of about half a dozen who expressed the same sentiment):

Apparently the ATL shaming was enough — Hunton and Williams now has a bid page for UVA OGI.

More discussion, including the full UVA career services memo, after the jump.

James Colliton — the ex-Cravath tax lawyer who, in the words of the AP, “paid a woman so he could have sex with her two underage daughters” — has served his time, and is now living in a motel “on Route 9.” Apparently, he’s getting too many visits from town police officers who stop by frequently as part of a county program to monitor sex offenders.

Colliton plans to file a $100 million federal suit against the town of Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County. From the Poughkeepsie Journal (via Tax Prof Blog):

Colliton claims the program violates state law and deprives him of his constitutional right to privacy and his Fourth Amendment right against unlawful searches.

Describing police visits as the “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Colliton recently served town and county officials with a notice of claim — often a precursor to filing suit.

In his eight-page claim filed last month, Colliton indicates he intends to seek $3 million in compensatory damages and $97 million in punitive damages in federal court.

Although he practiced as a tax lawyer, Colliton clearly likes litigation. He previously sued American Express for giving police the credit card information that led to his arrest, and he sued Cravath for stiffing him on his bonus.

Watch out, Jonathan Lee Riches. You’ve got competition for the title of most ridiculous pro se litigant of all time.

Sex Offender Fights Police Visits [Poughkeepsie Journal via Tax Prof Blog]

On Friday, we reported that Cravath offered a voluntary deferral option to up to 50% of its incoming class of first year associates. People who are not yet associates can count on $80,000, health care, and loan repayment assistance from the firm in exchange for taking a year off.

Apparently, that was the last straw for associates that have been laid off from Cravath over the past several months. Tips started pouring in to Above the Law reporting stealth layoffs that have been taking place at the firm since December 2008.

Tipsters — including sources that claim that have been laid off — report that at least 25 people have been let go from Cravath for “performance” reasons. And sources still at the firm expect more layoffs to come this month:

Cravath Swaine & Moore has been doing stealth lay off of associates since December ‘08 (using performance evaluation as the excuse). Since January of 2009, they have been doing stealth lay offs more aggressively. Rumor has it that stealth layoffs of staff will be happening this month (June).

We directly asked the firm whether or not these reports were true. But to this point, the firm has declined to comment.

So if the firm has a performance reason for letting these people go, it is not sharing it with us. But regardless of why people are being let go, some laid off associates are annoyed that they are not getting the same treatment during the recession as 2008 summer associates.

I was fired. I don’t know why. I don’t know why I’m not getting $80,000 to wait out the terrible economy.

After the jump, sources tell us exactly what happens when you get fired from Cravath.

Don’t get too close to any Ivory Tower in your town today. The news that Cravath is leaving the class of 2010 out of work for a year has sent monocles flying as students at top law schools learn a powerful lesson about free market capitalism.

Harvard Law School sent out a letter to all of its rising 3Ls in the wake of the Cravath announcement. It essentially warned them that you can’t trade in an HLS degree for food and shelter:

Dear Rising 3Ls:

We hope you are getting off to a great start in your summer jobs. We write to alert you about a situation that may require action on your part. As you know, many law firms deferred the start dates of class of 2009 associates from 2009 to 2010. Without clear indication that the economy will turn around by 2010, some firms are planning ahead and already notifying summer associates from the class of 2010 that their start dates are likely to be deferred until 2011 or later. See, e.g., Cravath and Skadden. Generally firms have been generous in providing fellowships or stipends to the class of 2009 given the surprise to that class, but firms may not provide such options to you in the class of 2010 because you have more advance notice about economic conditions. If you are at a law firm this summer and hope to return after graduation, you should ask yourself now what you might do to fill the 2010-2011 year if necessary. [Emphasis in the original.]

What should the class of 2010 do for post-graduate employment, “if necessary”? Stipends look like they are going to be less generous, so people might actually need to earn some money for a year.

So, what can you do with a law degree once Biglaw decides that they don’t want you? I hear law firms in Baghdad are booming right now.

Harvard has its own ideas, after the jump.

The venerable firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore has entered the building, and it’s asking up to half of its incoming first-years to take a year off.

Cravath is offering a voluntary deferral option to its incoming associates, according to multiple Above the Law sources (as well as Bloomberg News). If the incoming associates are willing to take a year off, they will receive an $80,000 deferral stipend, health care coverage, and $1,000 a month in loan repayment assistance. This appears to be the top of the deferral stipend market, more generous than both Weil and Latham.

A tipster reports that there are no strings attached to this deal:

[T]hey don’t have to do anything but sit on their ass. No public interest, nothing. And they are assured a job in fall 2010.

But wait, weren’t the current summers at Cravath right now — the class of 2010 — supposed to start in fall 2010?

We detail their fate after the jump.

We were dying to write about this wedding announcement, featuring a slutty Strawberry Shortcake costume (WTF?) and a wacky/tacky proposal story. But alas, commenters would have crucified us for elevating comedic potential over excellence.

So behold, this week’s finalists. They include five Harvard degrees, five Yale degrees, and OMGOMGOMG the best Article III officiant ever. Enjoy.

1. Jessica Richman and Matthew Smith

2. Jessica Hertz and Christopher Angell

3. Ashley Lynn and Kenneth Leonczyk Jr.

The scoop on these legal-eagle weddings, after the jump.

There’s a pretty interesting glitch happening right now over at NALP (here at ATL, we know something about “technical difficulties” — we’re working on ours). Even though the new numbers haven’t been made public yet, if you know what you’re doing you can get a sneak peak at the 2009 NALP numbers.

We’re not going to tell you how to do it, but we’ve done it and we’ve obtained some pretty interesting numbers to report about the New York summer programs at the top 20 firms as ranked by Vault. We’ll give you some numbers about the V10 today. Tomorrow we’ll expand our look to the Vault 20.

Getting an offer at one of the top nine firms in the land (the NALP glitch didn’t work for S&C) was considerably more difficult this year than last year. We compares the number of summer associate offers extended to 2Ls in 2007, with the expected numbers for that same group in 2008. Overall 2Ls offers were down a whopping 20% at the top 10 firms. And you have to wonder what percentage of those summer jobs are going to turn into full-time offers for employment.

For 1Ls, it gets even worse. We explain that and some other highlights, after the jump.

It’s not unusual for Biglaw partners to find themselves on opposite sides of the ring when they face off on behalf of clients in litigation. But Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s Evan Chesler and K&L Gates’s Peter Kalis are staring each other down for a different reason: their opinions on law firm billing structures. Not as sexy as fighting over Lady Justice, but we’ll take what we can get.

UK-based legal publication The Lawyer is hyping the fierce match between the two Biglaw heavyweights to promote an upcoming issue of the magazine that will explore “whether the current economic downturn represent[s] a paradigm shift for the world’s leading firms.”

In one corner, we have Cravath presiding partner Evan Chesler, an NYU Law grad (‘75) and a “Leading Litigator” per the Lawdragon. In the other corner, we have K&L chairman Peter J. Kalis, a Yale Law grad (‘78) who has also been recognized by the Lawdragon but is, more importantly, a member of the Elect (clerked for Justice Byron White).

See the fight unfurl, after the jump.

Daylight savings is on. The weather keeps flirting with the idea of getting warmer. And area stores are starting to put miniskirts on display in their front windows. You know what that means: Summer’s a-coming. Law students bound for BigLaw summer associate gigs may already be packing their bags. Except it looks like many will be able to pack less clothing, because this year’s summer gigs are going to be a little shorter.

Firms won’t comment on this E-mails are pouring in from law students across the land telling us that a 12-week program is just a summer dream now. According to tipsters, Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Kirkland & Ellis are shortening their summers to 10 weeks; and Shearman & Sterling has confirmed that it is rolling it back to just nine weeks. Here’s what we’ve heard:

Cravath just called all of their upcoming 2L Summer Associates and informed us that the summer program would be cut to 10 weeks. They asked that we go online and reschedule our dates accordingly. No explanation given. I’m sure that they made calls rather than emails to avoid a paper trail.

We think the explanation is likely a financial one. Firms are cutting back, and they can get to know you just fine in 10 weeks rather than paying to have you stick you around for 12. Gibson-bound 2Ls got calls as well:

I received a call from the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher summer coordinators today, as did many of my soon-to-be colleagues. The start date moved up to May 18th (instead of the 11th) and the end date moved back to July 24th (instead of the 31st). They tried to sell it as a “good move” for everyone because the recruitment season start so early now (August); they think both the firm administration and the summer associates will appreciate some time to prepare for recruitment season. Is this some sort of signal? Should 2L summers be planning to interview in the fall?

C’mon now. Let’s not totally freak out. Or let’s, but in the comments. Here’s an open thread to discuss which firms are scaling back their summer programs.

Some big news just in, from Am Law Daily:

In one of the sharpest drops in revenue and profitability among Am Law 100 firms, Cravath, Swaine & Moore saw 2008 gross revenue fall 13 percent, while profits per partner tumbled 24 percent to $2.5 million….

The firm signaled last November that 2008 was a tough year, when it announced in an internal memo that it was cutting associate bonuses, and that the firm would not do as well as in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 Cravath’s profits per partner had been $3.3 million, according to our Am Law 100 survey, second only to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. In 2006, PPP was $3 million.

This means that Cravath has forfeited its traditional second-place spot on the PPP rankings (second only to Wachtell). It seems that a number of firms — including the historic #3, Sullivan & Cromwell — will surpass Cravath in profitability for 2008.

According to the American Lawyer’s reporting, S&C boasted 2008 profits per partner of $2.94 million. This will probably be good for third place in the next PPP ranking, since Wachtell apparently had a rather good year too (at least based on the relatively robust bonuses it paid its associates, plus all the crisis-related M&A work performed by Ed Herlihy & Co.).

Second place will likely go to Quinn Emanuel, with eye-popping PPP of $3.3 million. Also besting Cravath is Paul Weiss, with PPP of $2.65 million last year.

Now we know why the Cravath bonuses were so anemic. And it had nothing to do with the hookers — er, client entertainment expenditures.

Will disappointing bonuses and declining profits affect the institutional prestige of Cravath? Will the firm fall from its traditional #2 spot on the Vault 100? Stay tuned.

THE AM LAW 100: Cravath Profits Falls 24 Percent [Am Law Daily]

[Ed. note: We mentioned this briefly in Morning Docket. But any story involving the words “Cravath partner” and “hookers” deserves its own post.]

The late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the “D.C. Madam,” has a New York counterpart. From ABC News (via our sibling site, DealBreaker):

Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York’s biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.

But prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office chose not to pursue any of the corporate titans, says Kristin Davis, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of running a prostitution business that used more than a hundred women.

Presumably no relation to actress Kristin Davis, who played squeaky-clean Charlotte York on Sex and the City. The actress is a brunette; the madam is a blonde (of course).

Among the names ABC News was able to confirm on [Davis’s client] list:

* a partner at the Wall Street law firm of Cravath Swaine Moore, “looking for a party girl to come fully equipped,” [who] spent a total of $20,000.

Finally — a plausible explanation for those disappointing Cravath bonuses. The money went to a different set of hourly billers.

We appreciate the CSM partner’s demand that his high-class escort arrive “fully equipped.” Cravath lawyers believe in the importance of preparation. Whether dealing with depositions or dealmaking, their motto is: “Be prepared.”

Just like the Boy Scouts. If Boy Scouts blew twenty grand on whores.

Given the prestige (and profitability) of Cravath, some might find this news shocking. But those in the know realize that the white-shoe law firm has a long and august history…. of sexual deviance and prostitute patronizing.

Some historical context, after the jump.

Evan Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, is the latest to raise his voice against the billable hour. In an op-ed piece he penned for Forbes magazine, Chesler says:

I’m a trial lawyer. I bill by the hour. So do the associates who work for me. I have lots of clients, so I can pretty much work, and bill, as much as I want. This needs to be fixed. Yes, you read that correctly.

Of course, partners and clients and even journalists have been calling for or predicting the death of the billable hour for years. As Chesler himself contends in his piece, nobody really likes the billable hour:

The billable hour makes no sense, not even for lawyers. If you are successful and win a case early on, you put yourself out of work. If you get bogged down in a land war in Asia, you make more money. That is frankly nuts.

Of course, there is a reason that the billable hour won’t die. More on that after the jump.

Back when Cravath, Swaine & Moore announced its bonus structure, you’ll remember that there were two surprising aspects to the memo. The cash money was less than people expected to be sure. But at the time we also noted this surprising language:

Given the uncertainty of the economy and the business climate going forward, we will not be able to address the issue of whether there will be any year-end bonuses in 2009 until this time next year. However, associates should be prepared for the likelihood that the economy and the Firm’s financial performance next year will not show a significant improvement over this year and they may receive significantly reduced or no year-end bonuses next year.

Now, there is more — albeit anecdotal — evidence that Cravath is looking into their 2009 crystal ball, and planning further cutbacks. This year, the firm proceeded with their usual holiday party plans. But next year, things could be different:

Normally, they have a HUGE holiday party in the Rainbow Room. Word on the street is that next year, the party will either be in the “Cravatheteria” (the firm cafeteria) or not at all.

And that might not be the only Cravath cutback. More after the jump.

Based on the anemic associate bonuses recently announced by Cravath, one might think that the firm is hurting. We hear that work at CSM is a little slow — and that there may be some anxiety over the staggering cost of the firm’s $900 million lease at Worldwide Plaza.

But don’t shed tears for Cravath just yet. The firm is still getting some high-profile engagements. From the New York Observer:

When agent Richard Leibner’s phone was ringing off the hook one night last week, everyone was asking him the same thing: Was his longtime client David Gregory the next host of Meet the Press, or wasn’t he? He called back, telling reporters he could neither confirm nor deny the report that first appeared on the Huffington Post.

Perhaps this was because his agency, N. S. Bienstock, wasn’t representing Mr. Gregory on the deal. So who exactly was aiding the ambitions of NBC’s robo-newsman? ….

On Monday morning, with the deal finally made public, white-shoe New York law firm Cravath, Swaine, & Moore posted a brief item on its Web site, crediting two of its partners — Eric Hilfers and Robert Joffe — for handling the negotiations.

This engagement probably didn’t generate the seven- or eight-figure fees that billion-dollar M&A deals generate. But it’s still a cool and interesting gig, the kind that stands out to 2Ls going through fall recruiting.

More after the jump.