As we get back to the Vault rankings, we encounter more firms that have engaged in stealth layoffs. And a firm that conducts mass transit layoffs.

To refresh your memory, here’s the next group:

61. Cooley Godward
62. Pillsbury
63. Sonnenschein
64. Cahill
65. Holland & Knight
66. K&L Gates
67. Nixon Peabody
68. Foley & Lardner
69. Kaye Scholer
70. Steptoe & Johnson

The penalty for having a partner announce layoffs on a train was six spots according to Vault. There have been other Pillsbury cutbacks. But the Acela incident happened when associates had Vault surveys sitting on their desks.

After the jump, let’s take a look at some of the other firms in this group.

Last week, we brought you some salary cut news from the Sunshine State. Today we bring you more such news.

Holland & Knight, a large national law firm with a significant presence in Florida (the state it started in), announced pay cuts yesterday for associates, senior counsel, and senior professionals. The salary cut will be effective with the next paycheck (i.e., this Friday). The information was disseminated by voicemail — or, to be technical, a secure link to a Flash audio message — at approximately 7 p.m. Eastern time yesterday.

Our sources reported pay cuts averaging around 10 percent. But according to managing partner Steven Sonberg, the overall cuts are closer to 7 percent.

The explanation, including the firm’s full statement on the cuts, after the jump.

Former Thelen associates might still be scrambling to pick up the pieces of their aborted legal careers, but former Thelen partners continue to land on their feet. The latest partner refugee is an All-Star. Richard Raysman (of what used to be known as Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner) has ended up at Holland & Knight.

Raysman left Thelen in August for Otterbourg Steindler. He got out before Thelen collapsed. Not surprisingly, Holland & Knight’s announcement downplays Raysman’s connection to his defunct former firm:

After graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and receiving his J.D., from Brooklyn Law School while working at IBM as a systems engineer, Raysman founded the firm of Brown, Raysman, Millstein, Felder & Steiner which grew to 250 attorneys. The Brown Raysman firm was the first significant firm to focus on computer law. Raysman was among the first lawyers to recognize that the practice of law in the area of computers would be increasingly important as digital technology spread through commercial enterprises.

But ex-Thelen employees still remember My. Raysman. Remember, earlier this month former Thelen employees were granted class status to pursue claims against Thelen. Their lawyer has indicated a willingness to go after former partners of the firm.

But clients probably won’t care about Raysman’s connection with the unfortunate events surrounding Thelen. He’s a leading lawyer in an important field. We’re sure Holland & Knight will be thrilled by the extra rain.

Check out the full press release after the jump.

Another major law firm is pushing back the start dates its incoming first year associates. Holland & Knight started informing 3Ls over the phone earlier today.

Above the Law obtained this statement from Adolfo E. Jimenez, the recruiting partner at the firm:

The start date for our incoming entry-level associates will be January 11, 2010, instead of early or late fall. The firm will pay the incoming class members signing bonuses, study stipends, bar expenses and/or moving expenses as indicated in their offer letters. Although we hoped to avoid extending the start date, this was a necessary action given the current economic climate in the legal industry. We are also committed to an eight-week summer associate program.

The firm will not be giving out the kind of huge, $75,000 advances like we’ve seen from Latham & Watkins or Orrick.

Still, incoming first years can’t be all that surprised. Last month, Holland & Knight laid off 243 people, including 70 attorneys. In the face of that, some 3Ls will just be happy to have jobs lined up with the firm regardless of when they can start.

In the meantime, we’re not entirely sure what incoming first years are supposed to do for food and shelter between June 2009 and January 2010. But, at least now they know what they are looking at and can try to plan accordingly.

Earlier: Holland & Knight Confirms 243 Layoffs
Prior ATL coverage of start dates

As we mentioned in an update to our earlier post about Holland & Knight, the firm is now confirming layoffs. From the list of restructuring measures that the firm is undertaking:

• Reducing the total number of lawyers and staff, with approximately 70 lawyers and 173 support staff positions eliminated in the firm’s 21 offices.

The firm also notes that lawyers are being reassigned from slow practice areas.

AmLaw Daily notes that the firm saw a 3 percent decrease in profits per partner last year.

Check out the full statement after the jump.

You know how a lot of buildings omit the “13th floor” out of superstition? I’ve noticed that really superstitious people think about the 14th floor as the danger zone, because counting is not a particularly hard thing to do.

I bring this up because tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and I’m just wondering if the invisible hand of market collapse decided that Thursday the 12th was a “better day” for everybody to get fired.

In any every, as many commenters have already noticed, there appear to be massive layoffs at Holland & Knight today. Some of our sources report that as many as 200 attorneys and staffers could be out of a job by the end of the day. Other sources place that number closer to 300.

Holland & Knight has declined to offer us a statement at this time.

Update: According to the WSJ Law Blog, the firm fired 70 lawyers and 173 staff. From a statement: “Today, we began restructuring our operations to better meet the needs of our clients and to take steps to fully respond to the adverse effects of the current economic downturn.”

After the jump, we have additional details from tipsters.

Every year, the National Law Journal names individual people and firms that have done outstanding pro bono work. This year perhaps more than others, it is especially important to recognize those that gave their time to charity. With the economy crumbling, there is a huge need for free legal services.

The NLJ has recognized the work done by Proskauer Rose, Holland & Knight, and Mayer Brown towards resettling Iraqi refugees:

Eric Blinderman, international legal counsel to Proskauer Rose, had gone to Iraq in March 2004 as an associate general counsel for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Later, he served as chief legal counsel and associate deputy to the Regime Crimes Liaison. In 2007, Blinderman’s firm officially became a part of The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Refugees, a nonprofit organization founded that year to help resettle Iraqis in danger because of their affiliation with the United States. Holland & Knight had already been collaborating with the project, and Mayer Brown signed on this year.

The other big firm winner was Pillsbury Winthrop for its efforts during the election:

Firms nationwide were inspired by the historic 2008 presidential election to devote pro bono time to protecting access to the voting booth. Lawyers went to court in several states on voter access issues, most frequently to prevent a voting reform law, the Help America Vote Act, from becoming a barrier to the ballot. The law required states to match voter rolls with another database, usually the registry of driver licenses, to create a more accurate list of voters.

Read the full list of winners here. And please share your stories about other great pro bono acts in the comments.

2008 NLJ PRO BONO AWARDS [National Law Journal]

Judging from our traffic, readers are enjoying this rundown of the Vault 100. We do aim to please here at ATL. We appreciate those who have offered insights about firms in the comments.

Moving on to the next group (with prestige scores in parentheses):

61. Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (5.608)
62. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (5.583)
63. Bingham McCutchen LLP (5.583)
64. Greenberg Traurig, LLP (5.478)
65. Holland & Knight LLP (5.416)
66. Heller Ehrman LLP (5.346)
67. Foley & Lardner LLP (5.266)
68. Steptoe & Johnson LLP (5.252)
69. K&L Gates LLP (5.242)
70. Kaye Scholer LLP (5.230)

As we move down the Vault list, “notable perks” are becoming less elaborate. This group is dominated by tales of free food, from endless soda at Greenberg Traurig to weekend doughnuts and muffins at Foley. And it appears that Pillsbury lacks a monopoly on cookie benefits; over at Cahill, lawyers are plied with “twice daily cookie trays.”

We note this food-related perk at Bingham: “If any lawyer takes out a more junior lawyer for drinks/dinner, he/she can submit the expense to the mentoring budget AND the senior person can get creditable hours.” Can you expense the roofies?

We invite you to compare and contrast these firms’ work, lifestyle, benefits… and cookies, in the comments.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column has a short piece about Holland & Knight partner Thomas Brownell, who apparently got a little too caught up in a family feud over a property in Virginia wine country. Brownell doesn’t look like much of a fighter in his firm mug shot, but allegedly, he throws a mean punch:

In criminal charges and a new lawsuit, the [Oasis Winery] founder’s son alleges his mom’s attorney slugged him. Tareq Salahi claims his mother, Corinne Salahi — with whom he is fighting for control of the estate — wrongly moved some chairs from his house to the winery; when he moved them back, he claims, her lawyer, Thomas Brownell, punched him in the shoulder and threw him into a door. “Tareq is a big man; it takes a lot of force to do that,” said the younger Salahi’s attorney, Stephanie Ryan, who last week filed suit in Fairfax County against Brownell and his firm, Holland & Knight.

Use your words, not your fists — that’s what moms say. Do they teach that in law school?

In Va. Wine Country: Musical Chairs Followed by Punch [Washington Post]

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.

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

* According to a lawsuit filed by fellow blogger David Oscar Markus, you have a First Amendment right to cocks on the internets. [Althouse; Volokh Conspiracy]

* In other odd legal news from Florida, Holland & Knight has discovered a new practice area: “suing Little League back to the Stone Age.” [St. Petersburg Times via Deadspin]

* Still more Florida weirdness. Avoid wearing black in this judge’s courtroom. [Daily Business Review]

* Speaking of fashion, should federal judges be provided with clip-on ties? Sadly, it might mark a style improvement for many. [Underbelly]

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.

Today has been quiet in terms of associate salary news. Perhaps pay raise developments have been overshadowed by Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell. Also, since so many places have already announced, it’s only natural for the pace to slow down.

But there have been a few new announcements. Per the Daily Report, Holland & Knight has raised its base salary for entering associates to $130K. And there appears to be a Sheppard Mullin memo out, too.

(If you’re at the firm, please email us to confirm. A blank email from a Sheppard Mullin address will suffice.)

Update: The Sheppard Mullin memo has been confirmed. We now reprint it after the jump.

Our last comment thread about associate compensation matters appeared before lunch. So here’s a fresh one. Have at it!

The latest hike: Holland & Knight to start at $130K [Fulton County Daily Report]

Tons of moves to report today — and these are just the highlights:

New Partners:

* Latham & Watkins — which, as discussed yesterday, is very popular with Supreme Court clerks — has elected 26 new partners, in offices around the country. That’s enough lawyers to start a whole new law firm.

You can check out their names here. If you graduated from law school around 1998, you probably know some of them.

“Magic Circle” Hiring Spree:

The top British law firms — aka the “Magic Circle” firms — continue to cast spells over U.S. practitioners, who have been flocking to their American offices in droves.

* Louis Kimmelman, former co-chair of O’Melveny & Myers’s international arbitration practice, is heading to Allen & Overy’s rapidly growing New York office. Kimmelman regularly appears before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the American Arbitration Association, and other tribunals.

* Finance lawyers Zarrar Sehgal and Anthony Lopez III, to Clifford Chance (NY), from Milbank Tweed and Cahill Gordon, respectively.

Lateral Moves:

* Corporate and securities lawyer Michael Student, to Brown Rudnick, from Holland & Knight.

* Tax lawyer James Tander, corporate lawyer Patrick de Carbuccia, and real estate lawyer Michael Pollack, to Reed Smith (NY). They come from, respectively, Skadden Arps, Willkie Farr, and Withers Bergman of (New Haven, CT).

Government to Private Sector:

* Sharon McCarthy, a former deputy chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District, to litigation and tax boutique Kostelanetz & Fink, as a partner.

Internal Promotions:

* Paul Tvetenstrand, a partner in the structured finance practice group, has been elected chairman and managing partner of Thacher Proffitt & Wood.

Latham & Watkins Elects 26 New Partners [Latham & Watkins]
NY Partners Switching Firms, NY Lawyers On the Move [NYLawyer.com]
More NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Firm Promotes 26 to Partnership [NYLawyer.com]
NY Practice Leader Switches Firms [NYLawyer.com]

Lateral Moves:

* Four litigation partners, and possibly a dozen associates, are leaving White & Case to join the New York office of Linklaters — a “Magic Circle” firm (insert squeal of delight here). The group’s practice focuses on white-collar criminal, antitrust, and other regulatory matters.

The four partners are Lawrence Byrne, a former assistant U.S. attorney (S.D.N.Y.) and deputy chief of the DOJ’s organized crime section; Joseph Armao, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan; Lance Croffoot-Suede, who was hired by Linklaters based solely on his fabulous, British-sounding name; and Paul Alfieri, who was not.

* Corporate lawyer Michael Student and bankruptcy lawyer Neil Pigott, to Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels, from Holland & Knight and Mandel Katz, respectively.

* Private equity lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, to Jones Day, from Latham & Watkins.

From the New York Law Journal: “Mr. Kennedy is not related to the former U.S. attorney general and New York senator whose son is a well-known environmental lawyer and political activist.”

RFK. Jeez, poor guy. And it doesn’t even help him get restaurant reservations.

NY Firm Loses Four Partners, and 12 Associates May Follow [NYLawyer.com]
NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Firm Adds NY Private Equity Partner [NYLawyer.com]

Fear not, dear readers. We will be issuing a Legal Eagle Wedding Watch for this past weekend — it will just be a little late. Like you, we’re also recovering from the Labor Day holiday weekend…

In the meantime, we’re going to introduce a participatory element to Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. A number of you have complained about our scoring. Some think we’re too harsh, while others accuse us of “grade inflation.” Rating couples in categories like their career achivements and looks is obviously a subjective business.

So now we’ll turn over the proceedings to you, and let the voice of democracy be heard. We’d like to crown a Legal Eagle Wedding Watch “Couple of the Month” for August 2006 — but we need your help.

We’re taking the winning couples from each week in August — plus the winning couple from the last week in July, ‘cause we don’t want them to feel left out — and pitting them against each other in an ATL reader poll. Here it is (competitors listed alphabetically by bride’s last name):

Don’t remember these couples? To refresh your recollection, Above the Law’s prior write-ups of each couple — which include their complete scores, plus a link to their original New York Times wedding announcement — appear after the jump.

* Allegations of bill padding at Holland & Knight. An isolated occurrence — or more widespread within Biglaw? [WSJ via WSJ Law Blog]

* The secret to success: Wake up early. Like really early — try 3 a.m. That Ann Althouse is a machine! [Althouse]

* Here’s a link for those of you who don’t think we need tort reform. It’s a long post, but well worth reading. (And it’s not Ted Frank’s fault that the reporter got so much wrong.) [Overlawyered via Volokh Conspiracy]

* We think that judicial clerkships are fabulous — for clerks, for judges, and for this great nation of ours. But Raffi Melkonian disagrees — and makes some interesting points. [Crescat Sententia]

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!)