While we continue to update our ATL / Lateral Link tables on clerkship bonuses and signing bonuses and bar exam fees, a few of the clerks I have been working with lately have asked an interesting, but often critical question: "Do I have to give it back if I leave?"

Stay tuned for results next week, and, as always, please feel free to send us tips.

In the meantime, a quick shout-out to two firms making nice strides lately: Hogan & Hartson now offers a $50K clerkship bonus in all of their offices, and Fried Frank has increased their paid maternity leave to 18 weeks.

Both of our running tables have now been updated to reflect the good news.

It's not as lavish as holding your law firm retreat at the Ritz in Pasadena, like O'Melveny & Myers. Nor is it as exotic as an all-expenses-paid trip to Jamaica, like Boies Schiller.

But still, this is neat. From a Fried Frank source:

Fried Frank announced to its associates on Tuesday that it is sending all associates in their third year and above, plus some partners and special counsel, to New Orleans for its 2008 attorney retreat. I thought this was pretty cool of the firm to do, especially because there's a mix of fun, workshops that sound useful, and community service to help the residents of New Orleans.

A cynic might say that the last thing a devastated city needs is to be descended upon by a bunch of lawyers (a la Bhopal). But between the tourism dollars they'll bring in and the volunteer work they'll perform, the arrival of the Fried Frank folk is clearly a good thing. John Edwards, eat your heart out.

Announcement memo, after the jump.

Our latest column for the New York Observer addresses a seasonal subject: law firm holiday parties. Here's the opening:

Law firm holiday parties aren’t what they used to be. In bygone days, the booze-fueled blasts yielded up tales of M&A lawyers making out with each other in darkened corners, partners dancing drunkenly with paralegals young enough to be their daughters and similarly dubious behavior.

In recent years, however, stories of scandal have become less common. Perhaps guests are more afraid of public embarrassment, now that cellphone photos of carousing legal eagles can be uploaded to the Internet in minutes....

But even if they’re not as wild and crazy as they used to be, law firm holiday parties still reflect, in ways large and small, the cultures and personalities of the firms throwing them. Let’s have a look, shall we?

You can read the rest of the column -- which describes the December festivities of Wachtell, Cravath, Sullivan & Cromwell, Skadden, Cadwalader, and Fried Frank -- by clicking here.

Boogie, Counselor! Which Law Firm Gives the Best Party? [New York Observer]

Fried Frank has announced year-end and special bonuses for its associates and special counsel in its New York office. The numbers are consistent with those previously announced by other firms.

But whether this is a true market match is unclear, since the firm is a bit vague with respect to what percentage of associates will receive "special" bonuses. From the memo: "We will also be paying a one-time special bonus to associates on a discretionary basis based on performance..."

Read the full memo, after the jump.

We think this latest Vault 100 law firm thread will be a good one. Here are the five firms now on the table for discussion (in Vault 100 order, with prestige scores in parentheses):

26. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (6.648)
27. Hogan & Hartson LLP (6.622)
28. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP (6.615)
29. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (6.588)
30. Ropes & Gray LLP (6.566)

We expect (formerly bedbug-infested) Cadwalader to generate a fair amount of discussion, since we hear associate morale over there ain't so hot. Consider this comment, from the morning's open thread on happy hours:

At my anonymous law firm they pour water in a trough and hang a feed bag in a conference room daily, they then ring a bell and let us know we have 2 minutes to eat and drink before we must get back to work ... Man, I love working at Cadwalader... Oops.

And we also expect interesting stuff about Mayer Brown. From a tipster:

Would you consider running a piece on the troubles at Mayer Brown? You've already reported on their partners being fired/leaving, the Refco mess, and their unhappy associates. I think some open speculation on where their firm is going would be very enjoyable at this point.

So have at 'em, in the comments. Thanks.

The Vault Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]

Earlier: Vault 1-5; Vault 6-10; Vault 11-15; Vault 16-20; Vault 21-25

Here at Above the Law, we're committed to exploring the (sometimes harsh) realities of Biglaw life. One of those realities, of course, is timekeeping. That's when you sit down and realize that, despite spending twelve hours in the office, somehow you only got eight hours of work done (maybe 'cause you spent too much time reading Perez Hilton and gossiping with your officemate about Project Runway).

Anyway, one curious reader emailed us:

Just wanted to see if there was any interest in seeing what large firms across the country's policies were for timekeeping (daily, weekly, monthly) and what the penalties were for falling behind. I had heard that one firm withholds paychecks after enough time.

Funny you should ask! A second reader sent us this tip:

The abysmal associate morale at Fried Frank will not be improved by a new mandate to close out all time in full by the next business day or face sanctions.

Wow, that's a harsh policy -- but it's true.

Check out the memo, and discuss your own firm's policies on entering your hours, after the jump.

Hey everyone, remember those things called clerkship bonuses? After a long period of radio silence -- the most recent news was from before Memorial Day -- we have more information to share.

We just got off the phone with a Fried Frank spokesperson, who informed us as follows:

1. The firm has raised its clerkship bonus to $50,000.

2. This bonus doesn't change depending upon whether you have one or two years of clerkship experience. (Most of the firm's clerks join the firm from one-year clerkships.)

Are you aware of any recent clerkship bonus announcements that we haven't mentioned in these pages? If so, please email us (subject line: "Clerkship Bonus"). Thanks.

Law school snobs -- or "tierists," as some call them -- should check out this interesting article, by Lindsay Fortado of Bloomberg News. It's about how high demand for summer and permanent associates is pushing large law firms to expand their recruiting efforts, to include law schools outside the "top 10."

When Josh Kleiman, a student at Brooklyn Law School, interviewed at 17 law firms for a summer position, 12 called back. He joined New York's Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobsen, one of the city's most profitable.

The competition has increased for Kleiman and other students at so-called second-tier law schools for jobs that pay more than $3,000 a week, plus free lunches and cocktail parties. New York's largest law firms have hired record numbers of summer associates to deal with an abundance of work and defections of lawyers to banks and private equity clients.

Kleiman was also offered summer positions at Sullivan & Cromwell; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker; White & Case; Shearman & Sterling and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. He said he chose Fried Frank, ranked 14th in the city in revenue per partner, because the attorneys were "diverse and interesting."

Presumably Kleiman chose Fried Frank over the conventionally more prestigious S&C sometime this past fall (pursuant to the NALP deadlines). But if similarly situated law students turn down S&C in higher-than-usual numbers this coming fall, we're blaming it on this guy.

(To whom, by the way, law clerks may owe their newly improved bonuses. Some speculate that S&C raised its clerkship bonus to $50,000 because it feared a tough recruiting season this fall, due in part to L'Affaire Charney. Eventually Simpson Thacher followed suit, followed by many other top shops. And the rest is history.)

Lawyer Search Spurred by M&A Sends Manhattan's Best to Brooklyn [Bloomberg]

Some notable moves within the legal profession:

Government to Private Sector:

* Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, to LeBoeuf Lamb in DC. Last November, Steele lost his bid to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate.

* Michele Hirshman, who served as Eliot Spitzer's top deputy at the Attorney General’s office before he became Governor, is joining Paul Weiss, as a litigation partner. Described by the New York Times as "very smart, very tough and rather short," she sounds perfectly diva-licious.

Lateral Moves:

* Antitrust superstar Charles "Rick" Rule, to Cadwalader, from Fried Frank. This truly IS like musical chairs: Cadwalader, Rule's new home, recently lost its antitrust group to Skadden.

* Celebrated criminal defense lawyer Abbe Lowell -- who did an excellent job defending Hamlet against murder charges -- is moving from Chadbourne & Parke to McDermott Will & Emery.

* Mark Holscher and Jeffrey Sinek are joining the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis. They're coming from O’Melveny & Myers and Thelen Reid, respectively. From the Law Blog:

Holscher and Sinek are best friends. They were roommates when they served as federal prosecutors in Los Angeles. Holscher, 44, served as an assistant U.S. Attorney from 1989-1995; Sinek, 46, served from 1989 to 1994. Sinek was the best man at Holscher’s wedding; Holscher was a groomsman in Sinek’s. Both graduated from Boalt Hall law school. Holscher told the Law Blog they’ve always wanted to work together.

Such ambiguously gay commentary led an anonymous reader to quip: "Hope that Alexandra Korry doesn’t read about this…"

On The Move: Charles “Rick” Rule [Antitrust Review]
Kirkland Beefs Up West Coast White-Collar Practice [WSJ Law Blog]
Abbe Lowell to Join McDermott from Chadbourne [WSJ Law Blog]
Former Maryland Pol Michael Steele Joins LeBoeuf Lamb [WSJ Law Blog]
Spitzer’s Longtime No. 2 Michele Hirshman to Join Paul Weiss [WSJ Law Blog]

Consider the rumors about Dewey Ballantine and Fried Frank joining in the associate pay raise fun to be confirmed. We've been in touch with multiple sources at both shops.

We're working on getting a copy of the DB memo. Here is the text of the Fried Frank announcement (which reportedly went out by email at 2:11 PM today):

FRIED FRANK

To: All DC and New York Associates and Special Counsel
cc: All Partners
From: Valerie Jacob, Justin Spendlove

We are pleased to announce an increase to the associate base salary scale as follows:

Class Year Adjusted Base Salary
2006 $160,000
2005 $170,000
2004 $185,000
2003 $210,000
2002 $230,000
2001 $250,000
2000 $265,000
1999 $280,000
1998 $290,000

This increase is retroactive to January 1, 2007, and will be reflected in the February 9, 2007 payroll. Bonuses for 2007 will be determined at year-end, as usual.

Base salaries and bonuses for Special Counsel will be determined on an individual basis in the Spring, as usual.

The Firm's continued success depends upon the support and contribution of all our associates. We are very appreciative of the efforts and hard work of all our attorneys during this fiscal year and we look forward to continued success next year.

******************************
As several of you noted in the comments, news of a pay raise sounds even sweeter when it comes from a man named "Justin Spendlove."

Earlier: Previous announcements of law firm associate salary increases (scroll down through "Skaddenfreude" archives)

Biglaw bonus season is lurching towards its inevitable, anticlimactic close. Yesterday there were a few more announcements of market matching, from White & Case and Fried Frank.

Pretty standard-issue. The only noteworthy difference: the math-challenged folks at Fried Frank, instead of paying the class of 2006 the usual bonus of $30,000 prorated, announced a flat bonus of $10,000.

We didn't receive these tips from verified sources at these firms. They came from anonymous ATL commenters, and from Infirmation / Greedy NY. So they haven't been "confirmed" in the same way as prior bonus announcements.

But at this point, is confirmation really necessary? Do we need confirmation that the earth revolves around the sun, or that Justice Thomas is the least-active questioner at SCOTUS oral argument?

A memo, a table, and links, after the jump.

Sigh. We're still waiting for the first big announcement of law firm associate bonuses -- and we're getting impatient. As soon as you hear something, please let us know.

We've visited the message boards this morning, to see if there's any news, and to kill some time. They didn't offer any enlightenment. But they did provide some amusement.

From Greedy Associates:

I don't know about Mr. Gardner. I am not gay, although I fool around with guys sometimes. That doesn't mean I'm a homo, and I remain homophobic as a means to cover the fact that I mess around sometimes with guys. My other name is UVA_REJECTED_ME, a hetero cover.

Any hung guys here? I'm not gay, I hate gays. Just curious.

(Yes, we're bored and restless today -- so the amusement threshold is low.)

Re: Was Fried partner Andrew T. Gardner a homo? [Greedy Associates]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of bonuses (scroll down)

Last week we wrote about Andrew Gardner, the Fried Frank litigation partner who was accused of rape (although never indicted), and recently found dead (presumably of suicide). We now have an update to offer.

Yesterday's New York Post carried a long and detailed article about Gardner. And blogger Ron Coleman, who knew Gardner, had these thoughts to offer.

Excerpts and discussion, after the jump.

One of you drew our attention to this item, which is gossipy and engrossing, but not terribly humorous. Suicide and rape (or allegations thereof) don't lend themselves well to laughs. From New York Magazine:

"It's bizarre, unfortunate," Steve Coleman, an Atlanta police officer, was saying about New York attorney Andrew Gardner (at right).

Gardner, 39, was a litigation partner at Fried Frank. He had been an undergrad at Harvard and had gone to NYU for law school. He lived in Armonk with his wife and three kids. And he was found dead, a presumed suicide, on Monday.

This summer, Gardner traveled to Atlanta for a conference, authorities said. He checked into the Westin Buckhead Atlanta. On August 17, a Thursday, he went to Dantanna's, an upscale chophouse there. At the bar, according to the Atlanta police, he met a 27-year-old woman, a teacher, and several of her friends. They ate dinner and socialized at the bar for a few hours. Then he invited her back to his hotel room, to hear some music, she told police. Inside the room, she claimed, Gardner "became aggressive, took off her shirt, grabbed her by the arms preventing her from leaving, threw her on the bed and raped her," according to authorities.

Gardner was arrested, then released on $225,000 bail. Last month, he unsuccessfully attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. Yesterday his body was found at Butler Sanctuary, a nature preserve in Bedford, New York. Accordring to NYM, "There were no marks on his body, no bruises. A medical examiner is conducting an autopsy."

Noted New York litigator Bernard Nussbaum, a Wachtell Lipton partner and former White House Counsel (to Bill Clinton), issued this statement on behalf of the Gardner family: "Mr. Gardner did not commit the crime of rape or any other crime. He was never indicted nor, we believe, would he have ever been indicted. His death is a great tragedy to his family and friends. He was a wonderful human being. He will be missed."

Update: More information about this story is available here.

New York Lawyer, Charged With Rape, Found Dead [New York Magazine]
Andrew T. Gardner bio [Fried Frank via Google Cache]

We're vaguely troubled by the title of this WSJ Law Blog post ('cause it makes us think of this). But it does report on a notable move within the legal profession, so we will plow ahead.

From the aforementioned post:

Matthew Gluck is joining Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman as a senior partner, marking a significant hire for the plaintiffs’ law firm. Gluck had been a litigation partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson since 1973....

Milberg Weiss was indicted in May on fraud charges based on allegations that it paid plaintiffs to file cases. It pleaded not guilty and has vowed to fight the charges. Since the indictment, the firm has lost a significant number of partners and associates.

Gluck's move continues the trend of breaking down the barrier between plaintiffs' firms and Biglaw. Sometimes Biglaw associates might, after a few years of practice, move over to the plaintiffs' side; but such moves at the partner level were much less common. Biglaw was Biglaw, plaintiffs' firms were plaintiffs' firms, and never the twain shall meet.

This may be changing. Gluck's move, from Fried Frank to Milberg Weiss, comes not long after former Milberg Weiss name partner Patricia Hynes moved in the opposite direction -- from Milberg Weiss to the New York office of Allen & Overy, the defense-oriented British firm.*

So why did Gluck make the move?

Gluck, 64 years old, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Cornell University. He told the WSJ’s Nathan Koppel he was soon facing retirement age at Fried Frank and wanted a new challenge.

Attempting to turn around a class-action-complaint mill under federal indictment would indeed qualify as a "challenge." But the undaunted Gluck is surprisingly sanguine about Milberg's future:

“I don’t know why people have left [the firm] except for panic,” he says. “It doesn’t strike me as rational.”

Not "rational"? Clients defecting en masse, partners fleeing in droves, courts taking the firm off cases, or refusing to appoint them in new ones... Call us Debbie Downer, but this doesn't sound too promising.

Even if you question the original decisions of clients, partners, and courts to abandon Milberg in the first instance, here's the problem: the prophecy of doom has turned self-fulfilling. Does the name "Arthur Andersen" ring a bell? Even though the accounting firm was ultimately vindicated in the Supreme Court, that vindication came too late.

But hey, Matt Gluck's arrival is undoubtedly a good thing for Milberg. In addition to being an experienced litigator, Gluck has -- as noted by Milberg Weiss managing partner Sanford Dumain -- "superb credentials in the area of bankruptcy law."

* Yes, Allen & Overy is one of the "Magic Circle" firms. There, we said it. Now wasn't that fun?

Fried Frank Partner Comes In Through Milberg’s Out Door [WSJ Law Blog]
Milberg Gets Fried Frank Veteran [Wall Street Journal]
Against Tide, Lawyer Joins Milberg Weiss [New York Times]
Matthew Gluck bio [Martindale-Hubbell]

Lawyer weddings come, and lawyer weddings go. The weekend of September 16-17, a veritable cornucopia of attorney nuptials, was followed by the weekend of September 23-24 -- not an embarrassment of riches, but just an embarrassment.*

No way are we writing about Cheryl Connolly and Kyle Lewis -- Lewis was wounded in Iraq, so the guy's been through enough. Here are the couples in contention:

1. Elizabeth Kennedy, Nicholas Vitek

2. Cameron Schroeder, Justin Levitt

3. Anne Davis, Charles Wollenhaupt

Who will secure the final berth in the September 2006 Couple of the Month contest? Find out, after the jump.

* Speaking of embarrassments, we realize we are weeks behind in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch ("LEWW"). We're writing about weddings that took place last month; some of these couples are probably divorced by now. See -- we really do need some help around here! If we can find the right writer, we'd even consider outsourcing LEWW.

Last week, the New York Law Journal brought us news of this sizable transaction:

Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the third-largest chipset maker in the nation, has been acquired by a consortium of private equity groups, led by The Blackstone Group and consisting of The Carlyle Group, Texas Pacific Group and Permira Funds. The Austin, Texas company is valued at $17.6 billion; the purchasers will also pay off Freescale's debts, amounting to $1.25 billion, making the total worth of the transaction roughly $19 billion.

Here are the firms involved in the deal, a veritable legal fee bonanza:

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom led representation for the entire consortium, while Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton assisted in advising every group except Blackstone and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson counseled Permira. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Freescale.

WOW -- more law firms than you can shake a stick at. This deal's a permanent employment act for corporate lawyers.

And Freescale isn't the only eleven-figure transactions announced in recent weeks. It's small potatoes compared to the $33 billion HCA buyout over the summer.

Now, the important stuff: How much did these firms earn for their work on this transaction -- or any other recent transactions you're aware of?

Unlike the (much larger) fees of investment bankers, the advisory fees of law firms in M&A deals are usually not disclosed in public filings. So if you have any reasonably informed guesses -- or, better yet, actual knowledge -- of the filthy lucre firms have bagged for this or other recent deals, please email us (subject line: "Legal Fee Voyeurism"). Thanks!

NY Partners and Associates Working on Billion Dollar Deals [New York Law Journal]

A few job changes that didn't make it into our earlier round-up:

Lateral Moves:

* Litigator Walter Loughlin, to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, from Latham & Watkins.

* Tax lawyer Robert Miller, to Greenberg Traurig, from Intel.

New Partners:

* Fried Frank: Tax lawyer Brian Kniesly and corporate lawyer David Shaw.

Anyone have any good tidbits about these folks? Something cute, amusing, and preferably non-libelous? If so, please email us (subject line: "Musical Chairs").

NY Attorneys on the Move [NYLawyer.com]

Another summer weekend, another raft of attorney weddings. Plenty of fodder for this week's edition of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, in which we review selected lawyer nuptials from the New York Times wedding announcements -- and assign numerical scores to each couple. We rate them in three to four categories: on their résumés, their families, their couple balance, and their beauty (if pictured).

Today four couples are vying for the coveted title of highest-flying legal eagles:

1. Cecily Baskir, John Freedman

2. Arminda Bepko, Victor Suthammanont

3. Alexandra Block, Curtis Weiss

4. Christine Varnado, Anthony O’Rourke

So which couple will prevail? Find out, after the jump.

(In blogspeak, "after the jump" means "click on that 'continue reading' link below." So go ahead, what are you waiting for? Click away!)