From a tipster in the London office of Dewey & LeBoeuf:

Last night we had a wine and cheese event. Today, the e-mail below was circulated.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [Redacted]
To: "DL London Personnel"
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 11:31:21 +0100
Subject: Trousers

To DL London Personnel

A pair of black gentleman's trousers size 34 regular have mysteriously found their way into office 12-03. Any claimants?

[Redacted]
Legal Secretary
Dewey & LeBoeuf

---------- Forwarded message ----------
To: "DL London Personnel"
Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 17:16:06 +0100
Subject: Cheese & Wine Party @ Beadles

Dear all
please find attached directions for the above. We hope to see you later.

best wishes

Sports & Social Committee

Sounds like someone was up to another kind of "sport," after too much wine and cheese.

The rumors that we alluded to earlier are true: Dewey & LeBoeuf is shuttering three offices. Here is the firm's official statement on the office closings:

As part of its global strategy to expand the firm's resources in major capital markets throughout the world, Dewey & LeBoeuf will be closing its offices in Jacksonville, FL, Austin, TX and Hartford, CT.

All attorneys in these locations have been asked to remain with Dewey & LeBoeuf and relocate to one of the firm's other offices. They will have the opportunity to integrate their practices within the firm's network of over 1,400 lawyers in 13 countries. The decision is designed to continue the successful integration of Dewey & LeBoeuf, which saw its profits per partner increase to $1.57 million in 2007 following the October 1, 2007 merger.

The Jacksonville office, which has 10 lawyers, will close in December 2008. The Hartford office, which has 22 lawyers, will close in February 2009. The firm will continue to maintain a small presence in Hartford. The Austin office, which has 16 lawyers, will close in March 2009.

So that's the official word. See also this story from the Austin Business Journal.

The allusion to D&L's "global strategy to expand the firm's resources in major capital markets" is consistent with this rumor we heard: "Word on the street is that a consultant told Dewey to close Hartford because small market offices will preclude them from ever really competing with Skadden et al."

Given the firm's size, the number of lawyers affected by the closings isn't huge: fewer than 50, out of over 1,400. But some folks are still unhappy campers.

Some gossip, and a little kvetching, after the jump.

The firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf -- which, by the way, had a great 2007, with total firm revenue over $1 billion, and profits per partner of $1.57 million -- just announced its new bonus policy. You can check out the full memo after the jump.

The new policy reconciles differences between the pre-merger firms. "Legacy Dewey" essentially gave billable-hours credit for all pro bono hours and firm-related activities (dubbed "Accountable Hours," and including work on client alerts, business development, article research, summer associate recruiting events, etc.). "Legacy LeBoeuf" had a policy that was somewhat less generous, with limits on how much pro bono and firm-related work could be counted towards the hours cutoffs for bonuses.

One source views the new policy as a fair compromise (especially in light of a rumor that the firm was considering giving no credit for pro bono and firm activities). Also, since the firm is a bit slow right now, "if accountable hours didn't count, we'd all be screwed for bonus."

Speaking of D&L, we're going to be writing about their closing of a few offices. If you have any info on that front, please feel free to email us.

Bonus policy memo, after the jump.

The latest major law firm to enhance its parental leave policy: Dewey & LeBoeuf. Remember the holiday party car controversy? All is forgiven. Eighteen weeks, plus Denim Day? You couldn't ask for anything more.

Actually, maybe you can. From a male tipster at the firm:

D&L just went to 18 weeks for parental leave: 8 weeks of medical leave for a birth mother, 4 weeks of childcare leave, and an additional 6 weeks of primary caregiver leave. This means that birth mothers get 18 weeks, adoptive primary caregivers get 10 weeks, and a parent who is not the primary caregiver gets 4 weeks.

So beleaguered working dads still only get a month. Can I humbly suggest that the next big perk should be non-primary caregiver parents to 8 weeks? We still lose sleep and have to deal with, ah, a moody home environment...

Sure, that would be nice -- but first things first. Don't look a fringe-benefit horse in the mouth.

For a table listing the maternity leave policies of various large law firms, prepared by ATL survey guru Justin Bernold, click here. For a compilation of paternity leave policies, click here.

The Dewey & LeBoeuf cover email and memo, after the jump.

Some time ago, we received this request by email:

Is there any way to do a posting or open thread about what COLA biglaw firms are handing out overseas? Specifically, I was interested in what associates are getting to go to Dubai.

At the time, we viewed the topic as rather obscure, of interest to just a handful of people. Why not do an open thread on, say, lawyers in Burkina Faso? (No offense to Burkina Faso.)

But maybe we underestimated the allure of the Middle East -- which will, thanks to gushing oil revenues, own most of the U.S. soon anyway. On Sunday, we heard this from a tipster at Latham & Watkins:

Here's an email that went out to the firm today [about LW opening offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha]. Why Sunday? No idea, but rumors were going around about it, so they probably wanted to make an announcement before it leaked out. [Update: A tipster tells us, "Sunday is the first day of the work week in Dubai. Friday is the day of rest, so the weekend is Fri-Sat, not Sat-Sun."]

Apparently, some Latham corporate associates have been asked if they would go to these new offices for a certain period of time. I have no details, but I hear they are getting handsome benefits and bonuses to go there. With domestic corporate/finance work slow, this is an opportunity for the firm to shore itself up by moving people there from slower offices.

And Latham isn't the first major law firm to venture into the region in 2008. Late last month, Dewey & LeBoeuf announced the opening of a full-service Dubai office.

Check out the Latham memo, after the jump. And if you'd like to talk about legal job opportunities in the Middle East, please treat the comments to this post as an open thread (because who knows when we'll post again about this part of the world). Thanks.

Here's an open thread request we've received from multiple sources. A representative message:

I'm trying to gather more info about firms / offices that pay NYC salary + NYC bonus in secondary markets. For example, I believe that Weil and Skadden both do in Dallas and Houston, but none of the other firms in Texas do. I don't know if you've done a post about this before, but I think it might be interesting, because $205K goes really far in TX.

Skadden Wilmington is another possible example.

That's correct about Skadden in Wilmington. Another well-paying secondary market: Charlotte. A CLT tipster tells us: "Mayer Brown, Dechert, Dewey, and Cadwalader have all increased salaries to $160K here in Charlotte."

Hold on a sec -- Cadwalader? Didn't they just lay off 35 lawyers, including some in Charlotte?

Yes, they did -- but they also raised salaries for the survivors. More after the jump.

In last month's ATL / Lateral Link survey we asked you which holidays you worked on, or expected to work on, during 2007. About half of you reported that you had worked on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Last week, we asked you how you fared this year. Did you take the day off to honor a champion of civil rights, or did you make it a "day on"?

We received just under 1,300 responses, and 44% of you reported that you took the day off. Associates in New York, Los Angeles and Boston were most likely to celebrate the holiday, while associates in Chicago, Atlanta, the Bay Area, and Texas were most likely to be working. (Respondents in the Bay Area were also most likely to work over Christmas and New Year's. Is it time for them to get New York bonuses?)

How did it break down on a firm by firm basis? DLA Piper, Milbank, Sidley & Austin, Dechert, Hunton & Williams, Jones Day, Latham, Mayer Brown, McDermott, Hughes Hubbard, McGuire Woods, Morgan Lewis, Nixon Peabody, Paul Hastings, and Sullivan & Cromwell each had multiple happy associates who reported that they had taken the day off. Kirkland & Ellis, Baker Botts, Dewey & LeBoeuf, O'Melveny & Myers, Weil, and Winston & Strawn each had mixed responses. Associates at Skadden, however, uniformly reported that they had worked the holiday, as Martin Luther King Jr. day is a "floating" holiday for the firm.

Of those who spent the day at the office, about 54% reported that they weren't actually asked to work the holiday, but had things they needed to get done. About a quarter reported that their offices were open. Another quarter said that partners told them to work on the holiday. About 8% were asked to work by clients. A surprising number of respondents wrote in that other associates had told them to work on the holiday.

A little over a third of respondents who worked on the holiday thought that the work did not justify the sacrifice.

If you're an associate at Dewey & LeBoeuf, leave your brown shirt at home tomorrow. Just bring a $5 donation -- sure, you can afford it, your bonuses were good -- and participate in Denim Day!

It's for a good cause. And it beats the pants (hehe) off Hot Cocoa Day at Skadden.

After the jump, the invitation to the Denim Day Associate Happy Hour. Very snazzy -- props to the paralegal or ALS person who was tasked with preparing it.

The firm of Dewey Ballantine was never known for being particularly PC. From a 2004 article by Anthony Lin, for the New York Law Journal:

Nearly one year after lawyers at Dewey Ballantine infuriated members of the Asian-American community by performing a stereotype-laden parody song at their annual dinner, the law firm is again dealing with allegations of racial insensitivity....

On Monday, an employee sent a firmwide e-mail advertising the availability of some puppies for adoption. Douglas Getter, a London-based American who heads Dewey Ballantine's European mergers and acquisitions practice then sent a firmwide reply.

"Please don't let these puppies go to a Chinese restaurant!" Getter wrote in his e-mail.

Now Dewey has merged with LeBoeuf Lamb. Happily, it appears their firm cultures are a good match. Check out this email exchange appearing below -- and note that partner Stephen Best came from the LeBoeuf Lamb side of the marriage.

From: Ralph C. Ferrara
To: DL All Attorneys - US
Cc: Ferrara, Ralph C.
Sent: Mon Dec 17 11:00:29 2007
Subject: German Translation - Completed

Dear All,

Thank you for your many quick responses [to a request for translation of a German document]. The translation has been completed.

Regards, Ralph
______________

From: Stephen A. Best
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 11:02 AM
To: Ferrara, Ralph C.; DL All Attorneys - US
Subject: Re: German Translation - Completed

Zieg Heil!!!!!!

Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld

Oh, the perils of Blackberrying! If you respond to a firm-wide email on your Blackberry, be EXTRA careful about not hitting "reply all" (unless that is truly your intention).

Of course, the "Zieg Heil" response would have been inappropriate even if sent to a smaller group of recipients. As noted by Wikipedia, uttering the phrase "Sieg Heil" in Germany is "a criminal offence punishable by up to three years of prison."

Two emails of profuse apology, issued within an hour of the offending message, after the jump.

The Grinch stole... my Lincoln town car! This afternoon, the following email was sent to all personnel in the New York office of Dewey & LeBoeuf:

To: "DL All NY Personnel"

Sent: 12/11/2007, 12:42 PM

Subject: Holiday Party

As a reminder, the firm will be hosting a holiday party for the New York office this Monday, December 17. The party will be held at Del Frisco's from 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm, and will include a full bar, raw bar, carving stations and a DJ. We hope you join us and enjoy the event -- as we wind down an exciting year in our history, we certainly have a lot to celebrate.

Due to the increased number of attendees this year, we kindly ask that all attendees provide for their own transportation home. Furthermore, as we welcome all personnel from all three of our New York locations, we are unfortunately unable to accommodate spouses or guests at this year's party.

We thank you for all of your hard work and dedication in 2007 and look forward to seeing you at the holiday party next week.

------------------------------------------------------------
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP
1301 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

A law firm holiday party without a chauffeur to ferry you home? Heresy! One tipster opines:

This seems quite ludicrous. They're offering an open bar for four hours, and yet they're telling everyone to find their own transportation home. Aside from the potential liability issues this may raise, it seems ridiculous that a firm as big as Dewey would require everyone to find their own car rides home.

Ah, but maybe size is the problem. When two already large, New York-based firms merge with one another, is the resulting behemoth so ginormous that covering its holiday party would suck up every livery vehicle on the island of Manhattan?

(Then again, a question: Does Skadden provide transportation home for people from its holiday party?)

To well-paid associates who live in Manhattan, springing for a cab may not be a big deal. But this may be somewhat inconvenient to support staff who live farther way -- e.g., hipster paralegals from Brooklyn, secretaries from Staten Island. Perhaps they will leave the festivities earlier than usual this year and take mass transit.

Does your firm provide transportation home from your holiday party? Feel free to share in the comments.

Update: Yes, we did note the dis-inviting of plus-ones (as pointed out in the comments). But that's par for the course, or "market," for New York law firm holiday parties. We believe that of the six firms whose parties we described in this piece, only one -- Sullivan & Cromwell -- allows spouses or dates.

Earlier: 'Tis the Season: A Round-Up of New York Law Firm Holiday Parties
Do Plaintiffs Lawyers Throw the Best Parties?

The two-headed monster has matched. Memo's after the jump.