Congratulations 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.

The bad news continues to roll in. Becker & Poliakoff, which just announced across-the-board pay cuts for its lawyers, isn't the only Florida firm that's hurting.

From a report by Julie Kay, for the upcoming issue of the National Law Journal:

In another sign of the hard times facing the legal industry, particularly in real-estate heavy South Florida, two local law firms -- Holland & Knight and Shutts & Bowen -- have laid off non-lawyer staffers.

On a day that could be dubbed Black Friday in South Florida legal circles, Tampa-based Holland & Knight, one of Florida's largest and most venerable firms with 1,150 lawyers, laid off 70 staffers Friday, including legal secretaries, IT and accounting staff. No lawyers were laid off.

The layoffs of about four employees in each of Holland's 17 offices represented 5% of Holland's non-lawyer workforce.

Shutts & Bowen, a 200-lawyer, Miami-based firm, Friday laid off nine people, all entry level file clerks or paralegal clerks. No lawyers or legal secretaries were affected.

Holland & Knight spokeswoman Susan Bass told the Daily Business Review that the firm "had some redundancies and inefficiencies." Seventy staffers is a whole lot of redundancies.

Read more -- about prior layoffs at H&K, and the situation over at Greenberg Traurig -- below the fold.

Troubles continue for Greenberg Traurig, the former home of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The firm itself has just been indicted on Abramoff-related allegations. Sure, it's in Guam, but still -- an indictment is an indictment (and an indictment of the firm, not just current or former employees). See links below for more details.

In addition, we've been hearing interesting things about Paul Alter, a former co-managing partner of the firm, based in the New York office. His bio has been pulled from the Greenberg Traurig website, and nobody has seen him around the office lately.

There are all sorts of juicy rumors going around about the reasons for his departure. We have an inquiry into the firm but have not yet heard back from them. If you have information, please email us. Thanks.

Miami law firm indicted in Guam [Miami Herald]
Greenberg Traurig Indicted in Guam [ABA Journal]

Some of you may be tired of our little Miami blackout caption contest. But we agree with the commenters who suggested that a contest with 20 entries was unwieldy. We'd like to get it right this time.

Here's what we've done. We've taken the top five vote getters -- there was a clear drop-off after #5, with all other choices polling under 10 percent -- and pitted them against each other in a final round.

If you feel like it, you can review the contenders, and vote for your favorite, after the jump.

We have not forgotten last week's promise of an ATL caption contest. To refresh your recollection, here's the photo:

Here's the actual caption:

Lawyers, from the left, Alan Lash, Justin Fienberg, and Alex Mendez, not lawyer, working on a project at Greenberg Traurig, on 27th floor of 1221 Brickell, went to lunch and found the building out of power.

Check out the suggested alternative captions, and vote for your favorite, after the jump.

From one of our tipsters:

Richard Rosenbaum, president of Greenburg Traurig, made the following group email faux pas. He used the company listserv to send two emails soliciting contributions for the McCain campaign, proving that law students aren’t the only bumbling souls who screw up listserv etiquette. From Rosenbaum's first email:

“As we have said on a number of other occasions, our firm does not support any particular presidential candidates as a firm. We are a business catering to a wide range of clients and employing lawyers and staff with a wide variety of interests and preferences in the political arena…”

Blah blah blah, a bunch of politically correct qualifiers, then BANG! The money-grab:

“I have recently been named a National Co-Chair of Senator McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. As has previously been the case, over the next several months I will be working alongside several other leaders from the American business and legal communities to personally solicit contributions and other political support for Senator McCain's presidential campaign.”

Now, of course, Rosenbaum goes on to say that participation is voluntary, etc. But is it really appropriate for a firm President to use group email to solicit campaign funds?

More, after the jump.

Here's a photo of lawyers affected by the south Florida blackout, from the Miami Herald:

Here's the actual caption:

Lawyers, from the left, Alan Lash, Justin Fienberg, and Alex Mendez, not lawyer, working on a project at Greenberg Traurig, on 27th floor of 1221 Brickell, went to lunch and found the building out of power.

ATL readers, we think you can do better. We welcome your suggested alternative captions, in the comments. Assuming sufficient response, we'll take our favorites, incorporate them into a poll, and hold a caption contest. Thanks.

Update (2/29/08, 10 AM): New entries for the caption contest are no longer being accepted. We are reviewing the current submissions and will post a poll next week. Thanks.

Update (3/3/08): You can vote on the nominees over here.

Remember the long-winded, slightly ridiculous year-end message of Cesar L. Alvarez, CEO of Greenberg Traurig? It was interpreted in some quarters as drawing a line in the sand on associate pay raises. Not surprisingly, ATL commenters had a field day with it.

The Daily Business Review, in this interesting piece by Alana Roberts, followed up with the firm about it. Here's the money quote:

Alvarez told the Daily Business Review that the salary freeze at Miami-based Greenberg is for equity shareholders only....

Really? That seems odd, since the memo spoke in terms of controlling "costs," and when one talks about costs, one usually thinks of associate salaries (as opposed to the firm profits that flow to shareholders or partners). But whatever.

Also, it seems Cesar Alvarez was irritated by the memo's appearance on ATL:

Alvarez said his memo was widely distributed because of his policy of keeping everyone at the firm informed about the firm's business and expressed some annoyance with the leak.

“It was confidential to the firm,” Alvarez said. “Somebody's decided to send it outside the firm, but that's the way life goes nowadays. I’m not the least embarrassed that this went out of the firm.”

He's right: "that's the way life goes nowadays." So just cut out the middleman, and send your internal memos to us directly next time.

Business of Law: Greenberg Traurig braces for a tough 2008 [Daily Business Review]

Earlier: Is This A Law Firm, or the Salvation Army? Greenberg Traurig Launches 'Collection Drive' (and Hints at No More Pay Raises)

We have a lunch meeting today, so we're going to be offline for a while. We'll leave you with a food-related post to chew over while we're gone. Hopefully it won't cause you to lose your appetite.

Over at Keeping Up With Jonas, Jonas Karp has filed a great investigative report: a look at how various law firm cafeterias fared in unannounced annual inspections by the New York City Department of Health. If you're hoping for a healthy dose of schadenfreude, you might be disappointed. As Karp writes, "All of the firms surveyed passed their inspections, and none had Serendipity 3-like 100 live cockroach violations."

Darn. But as Jonas notes, "some firms did a lot better than others."

Which ones? Read the full post to find out. As you review the results, consider this question: Is cafeteria cleanliness inversely proportional to law firm prestige? Simpson Thacher and Cravath came within a few points of failing inspection, while a perfect score was earned by... Greenberg Traurig!

Maybe GT associates won't be getting a pay raise anytime soon. But at least their New York office has an immaculate cafeteria.

Feel free to opine on the quality of your law firm's cafeteria, or any other Biglaw canteen that you have personally sampled, in the comments.

Law Firm Cafeterias: Inspection Results [Keeping Up With Jonas]

From the year-end message of Cesar L. Alvarez, CEO of Greenberg Traurig (one of our favorite firms here at ATL -- see, e.g., here, here and here):

I had a few thoughts for 2007 and 2008 that I would like to share as my year-end message.

First, 2007. As of today, Sunday, December 30, 2007, we have collected $313.5 million during our collection drive and expect to collect approximately $16.5 million on Monday, the 31st, to reach $330 million for our December collection drive. Although we expect to be short by $10 million of our goal, this is still a great accomplishment when you consider the housing situation, the subprime issues and the dislocation of the credit markets that prevented a number of deals from being completed this year.

Read the rest of Cesar Alvarez's message -- in which he spreads holiday cheer doom and gloom, jawboning down associate compensation expectations -- after the jump.

We kinda love Greenberg Traurig. There's always something wacky afoot over there, whether it's an unorthodox resignation letter or a recruiting reception debacle.

Now, we haven't verified this latest tale, so consider it mere rumor. But here's what one tipster told us:

A partner in one of Greenberg Traurig's international offices sent out a long and angry firmwide e-mail, criticizing the firm for raising money for a charity which provides phone cards to soldiers overseas. Apparently, he was angry about the war, President Bush... , etc.

I don't have a copy of it -- a friend of mine who works in the NYC office had it -- but it is worth getting and posting, if you don't already have a copy. One of the firm's managing shareholders responded; it too is worth posting, I think.

We haven't seen this ranting email, and we haven't been able to get our hands on a copy. But it sounds like just the kind of over-the-top correspondence that we love to publish in these pages.

Do you have a copy of said email? If so, please do share, either by emailing us or posting in the comments. Thanks.

Update (2:15 PM): That was fast; thanks. The email exchange, which is pretty catty and amusing, appears after the jump.

Our open threads on Vault 100 law firms seem to be drawing fewer comments. But we'll finish what we've started. We don't want to give you a case of these.

So here is this afternoon's set of Biglaw shops (with Vault prestige scores in parentheses):

66. Greenberg Traurig, LLP (5.631)
67. Kaye Scholer LLP (5.591)
68. Holland & Knight LLP (5.498)
69. Steptoe & Johnson LLP (5.403)
70. Foley & Lardner LLP (5.360)

Among these firms, the special ATL shout-out goes to Greenberg Traurig. GT is the firm that incites the strongest passions in people.

Please discuss these five fine firms 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; Vault 26-30; Vault 31-35; Vault 36-40; Vault 41-45; Vault 46-50; Vault 51-55; Vault 56-60; Vault 61-65

Remember the former Biglaw associate who recently left Greenberg Traurig -- and whose departure caused a stir, due to his rather frank resignation letter?

This associate's farewell message was widely circulated by email. We posted it here -- where it generated some 150 reader comments.

Opinions were all over the map about the author and his letter. Some commended him for his candor, while others chided him for self-indulgence. But regardless of your views of him, it's clear that his resignation letter struck a nerve, resonating with associates at large law firms around the country.

We caught up with the writer of the resignation letter and conducted a brief interview with him, over email. You can check it out after the jump.

This resignation letter has been making the rounds by email. Whaddya think?

The conventional wisdom about farewell emails and resignation letters is to keep them short and sweet. Say as little as possible, and only say positive things, even if untrue ("I greatly enjoyed my time at [Biglaw X]"). Above all, don't burn any bridges.

But if you're leaving the legal profession altogether -- and you're really, really sure that you're never coming back -- is it okay to let off some steam? To tell them how you REALLY feel?

Please opine on that question, and anything else you see in this farewell letter, in the comments.

(But please don't name the individual who sent this letter. We've intentionally redacted his name from the missive. Thanks.)

P.S. Speaking of Greenberg Traurig, does anyone know what ever happened on this insane front? Did the firm ever respond? If you can enlighten us, please do so by email. Thanks.

Over in the D.C. office of Baker & McKenzie, the natives are getting restless. They've prepared this cute little bar graph (thumbnail image; click to enlarge):

The graphic above also reflects that Williams & Connolly now pays starting salaries of $165,000. We hadn't heard (or written) about that news, but it's official.

Does anyone have a memo and/or more information about what Williams & Connolly pays beyond the first year? If so, please email us. Thanks.

Update / Correction: Whoops, we forgot that W&C raised salaries back in March. What we were thinking, and meant to write, is that Williams & Connolly hasn't raised associate salaries in response to the latest round of nationwide pay hikes (as kicked off by Orrick).

Remember that W&C traditionally doesn't pay year-end bonuses, but pays an above-market base to make up for it. Their current scale -- 165, 180, 195, etc. -- is still above-market, but not by as much as usual.

Further Update / Correction: Apparently Greenberg Traurig is still at $145K in Washington. We've revised the graph accordingly.

Earlier: Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: What's Up With Williams & Connolly?

We were forwarded the following e-mail by a source. It concerns an interaction at a recruiting reception hosted by Greenberg Traurig for Columbia Law School students. One minority female student was so upset by the interaction that she wrote the firm the following day to complain about it and to inform them that she would not be interviewing at Greenberg.

What happened to this Columbia student? Read all about it, after the jump.

Note: Because the student appears to have forwarded her e-mail in such a way that it ended up on a University of Michigan listserv, we think we're justified in including her name. We have, however, altered all e-mail addresses so they won't be attacked by spam.

We're big fans of Miami. We greatly enjoyed the visit we paid back in March, when we got to meet up with readers at an ATL Happy Hour.

So we're more than happy to make Miami the next stop on our tour of the nation's legal markets. Here's a summary of the lay of the land, courtesy of the Daily Business Review:

Playing its hand in the South Florida associate pay stakes, Greenberg Traurig raised the starting base salaries of its rookie lawyers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale to $135,000 and their total compensation packages to more than $150,000....

The base salary of Greenberg’s first-year lawyers now will match that of White & Case, which in February announced that it had raised first-year salaries to $135,000 in Miami.

Holland & Knight, Hogan & Hartson and Akerman Senterfitt recently raised salaries for rookie lawyers to $130,000 in South Florida.

Hunton & Williams has raised its first-year salaries to $145,000 in Miami. Two New York-based firms, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Boies Schiller & Flexner, pay first-years $160,000 in their South Florida offices.

This article was published back in April. A quick spin through the NALP forms suggests this information is still correct.

But sometimes the NALP forms aren't updated immediately. Has anything changed since April -- or is anything about to change in the near future?

Please discuss associate compensation in the Miami legal market in the comments. Thanks.

Business of Law: Greenberg raises first-year salaries, urges pro bono work [Daily Business Review]

Related: Open threads focused on Denver, Hartford, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Jersey, Phoenix, Atlanta, Charlotte, Ohio.

Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell isn't the only discrimination lawsuit against a large law firm kicking around New York Supreme Court these days. Earlier this month, a complaint was filed in the case of Yasmin Marinaro v. Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Meet Harley I. Lewin (at right), a shareholder (partner) in the New York office of Greenberg Traurig LLP. According to his firm bio, he's the head of their trademarks and global brand strategies practice.

And according to allegations made by Yasmin Marinaro, a Latina female who previously worked as his administrative assistant, Harley Lewin:

-- described her to two male clients, within her earshot, as a "hot tomato";

-- told these two clients that they should "check her out," then called her into his office, "whereupon Lewin and his male guests ogled her";

-- referred to her by the nickname "Chiquita Banana";

-- ordered her into his office, "whereupon he would instruct her to view sexually explicit and inappropriate emails";

"encourag[ed] her to gain weight so that she would be more sexually attractive";

-- attempted to intimidate her into not coming forward with her allegations by sending her an email entitled "Be Careful," in which he urged her to "keep [her] own counsel"; and

-- played a role in her allegedly retailatory firing from Greenberg Traurig.

Juicy allegations -- and there's more in the full Complaint.

Alas, we don't have enough time to do it justice right now. But we'll surely have more to say next week about the case of Marinaro v. Greenberg Traurig LLP. If you'd like to read the Complaint for yourself, we've provided a link below.

Yasmin Marinaro v. Greenberg Traurig LLP [New York Supreme Court (PDF)]
Harley Lewin bio [Greenberg Traurig]

We believe the Greenberg Traurig memo was posted, multiple times, in the comments. But just to make it official, here's the (verified) memorandum:

To our New York associates:

We are pleased to announce that our New York office will be increasing associate compensation retroactive to January 1, 2007.

The new standard salary range will start at $160,000 for the class of 2006 (and for new associates arriving with the 2007 incoming class) and increase for each subsequent class through the class of 1999 and beyond. Each associate will be advised of her or his salary by the end of this week.

As you know, at Greenberg Traurig, the timing and opportunity for making shareholder and having a long term home, as well as our unique cultural environment, are more favorable to our associates than is the case at other large New York firms. While these facts are themselves of high value for forward-thinking individuals, we also desire to fairly compensate all of our people along the way based on all conditions.

We have always been committed to providing our associates a unique opportunity to be a real part of an organization based on change, and which will be at the forefront of our profession as we move into a bright future together. At the same time, we believe in a strong, merit-based compensation system at all levels of our firm, and we believe that total compensation, including year-end bonuses which will be determined at the end of 2007, should reflect your contributions. Providing for increased base salaries at this time allows our associates to feel highly rewarded while still retaining these important features of our culture.

Thanks, let's have a great year together!!

Yes, let's!!!

(We also have a weakness for multiple exclamation points.)

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

From government to academia:

* The brilliant Michelle Boardman is returning to teach at George Mason University School of Law. Professor Boardman had been on leave, serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel.

From government to private practice:

* Sue Ellen Wooldridge, assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources, resigned from the Justice Department earlier this week, stating that she plans to return to the private sector.

(Interestingly enough, her alleged beau, J. Steven Griles -- a former deputy secretary of the interior, who Interior Department sources say has been dating Wooldridge -- has been notified that he's a target in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation.)

* Bankruptcy Chief Judge Melanie Cyganowski (E.D.N.Y.) is resigning to become chair of the bankruptcy litigation practice of Greenberg Traurig (NY).

From private practice to government:

* Steven M. Cohen, a partner at Cooley Godward Kronish, has been selected by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as his new chief of staff.

Lateral moves:

* White-collar defense lawyers John Moscow and Jack Blum, to Baker Hostetler (NY), from New York boutique Rosner Moscow & Napierala. Moscow and Blum are gurus of the law of money laundering.

* Litigators Michael Armstrong, Paul Rooney, and William Purcell, to the newly opened New York office of Howrey. They come from, respectively, Cooley Godward Kronish, solo practice, and K&L Gates.

* Five litigators, to the new Houston office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, from litigation boutique Edwards, Burns & Krider. Names here.

* Intellectual property litigator Richard Pettus, to King & Spalding (NY), from McDermott, Will & Emery (NY).

* Corporate lawyer Michael Nissim, to Vedder Price (NY), from McDermott, Will & Emery (NY).

Links after the jump.