Once you pay for a house, a car and child care, it’s not that much money. You feel like regular middle-class people.
– Stefan Baugh, a former Katten Muchin Rosenman partner, who quit his job to start a private equity firm and make more money.
(Baugh gives more explanation of his #firstworldproblems, after the jump…)
Continue reading “Quote of the Day: Or You Could Also Buy a Less Expensive Car”
We hope you’ve enjoyed following the Career Center’s Top Partners series through which we’ve recognized Biglaw partners from around the country who exemplify what it means to be an exceptional partner who associates are actually happy to work for. Thanks to all the readers who took the time to submit such glowing nominations and give some well-deserved recognition to the 60 partners highlighted in this series.
Today we conclude with the best partners in the smaller legal markets of Chicago, Dallas, and London. While the markets in which they work may be smaller, their firms are some of the biggest names in Biglaw: Winston & Strawn, Sidley Austin, Katten Muchin, K&L Gates, SNR Denton, and Latham & Watkins.
Let’s see who the final six partners are….
Being a summer associate isn't a day at the beach, but it's still pretty awesome.
A summer associate program at a top law firm is like sex or pizza: even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.
That seems to be the conclusion of the American Lawyer’s 2011 summer associate survey. Am Law polled 3,656 students at 138 law firms about their summer experiences and used the results to rank 108 summer programs. The lowest-ranked program — that of Chadbourne & Parke, in case you’re wondering — still emerged with a healthy overall satisfaction score of 4.142 (on a 5.0 scale).
If you’re a law student trying to figure out where to spend your summer, you’re probably asking: Which law firms came out with the highest scores?
Continue reading “Very Happy Campers: The Top 10 Summer Associate Programs”
David Kelly: Katten associate and acclaimed hip-hop artist.
* Looking for a last-minute gift idea for the civil-liberties-loving lawyer in your life? Kash recommends this underwear. [Forbes]
* Actress Zooey Deschanel is suing footwear maker Steve Madden. Does her lawsuit have legs? [Fashionista]
* Law professors might not excel at practicing law, but “they often are pretty good at the enterprise of being a law professor.” [Underbelly]
* What’s law firm diversity like over in London? Lawyers who are “BME” — “black and ethnic minority” — are growing in number at City law firms. [The Guardian (U.K.)]
* Career alternatives: hip-hop artist? By day, he’s David J. Kelly of Katten Muchin Rosenman; by night, he’s “Cap D.” [WSJ Law Blog]
* Plaintiffs’ firms make new partners too. [Motley Rice (press release)]
* Don’t forget: get your holiday card contest entries in by 11:59 PM today! [Above the Law]
And just like that, it’s December. Flurries fill the sky, Wham’s “Last Christmas” saturates the airwaves, and the list of weddings in the New York Times shortens dramatically. Quality tends to decline along with quantity, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised to find plenty of comment-worthy nuptials (and attractive brides!) over the past couple of weeks.
Here are the three weddings that most caught caught our eye:
Elizabeth Kronick and Michael Kleinman
Check out these couples’ pictures and write-ups, including one jaw-dropping wedding registry — plus a list of all the recent legal eagle weddings — after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: Registry Error”
Working Mother just released its annual list of the top 100 companies to work for. As we are (hopefully) coming out of the recession, it is possible that people might actually start caring again about family issues and work/life balance issues.
This year, four law firms made the list. Before we get to the “winners,” let’s take a look at the process required to be up for consideration. To be on the list, first you have to fill out an application with 600 questions.
What is the magazine looking for? Here’s the explanation from their methodology section:
Eight areas are scored: workforce profile; benefits; women’s issues and advancement; child care; flexible work; paid time off and leaves; company culture; and work-life programs. An essay regarding best practices to support working mothers is also evaluated…
Working Mother considers not only the programs, benefits and opportunities offered by companies but also recently settled, decided or still-pending gender discrimination lawsuits.
An essay, do you say? Well, so much for rigid objectivity in list making.
Still, the four law firm winners should be proud. Let’s highlight them from out of the other top 100 companies…
With fall recruiting gearing up, and the lateral market warming up, we continue our annual series of open threads about the law firms featured in the Vault prestige rankings. These threads provide ATL readers with a forum to discuss the different firms and their various strengths and weaknesses.
The end of the Vault 100 is in sight. We’re covering the firms in batches of 20 now. Here are the firms ranked #61 to #80, which will provide today’s discussion fodder:
61. Greenberg Traurig, LLP
62. Holland & Knight LLP
63. Fish & Richardson P.C.
64. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
65. Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
66. Foley & Lardner LLP
67. Perkins Coie LLP
68. Nixon Peabody LLP
69. Patton Boggs LLP
70. Kaye Scholer LLP
71. Hunton & Williams LLP
72. Reed Smith LLP
73. Steptoe & Johnson LLP
74. Chadbourne & Parke LLP
75. Howrey LLP
76. Bryan Cave LLP
77. Lovells (US) [now part of Hogan Lovells]
78. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
79. Crowell & Moring LLP
80. Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
This is a very eclectic group, including a few New York-centric firms, some D.C.-dominated places, and a bunch of national and even international giants.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these shops….
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Threads: Vault 61 – 80 (2011)”
Last week, we told you that Katten Muchin was delaying its decision on associate salaries. The firm finally got around to telling people how much they’re paid this week, and we can see why there was a long delay. See, when you try to do 1,001 different things all that same time, it gets pretty complicated.
All of the salary news was communicated via individualized firm memos, so a tipster explains the top line news: Katten is moving down to a $145K pay scale:
They went down to the 145K scale (145,000; 160,000; 170,000; 185,000; 210,000; 230,000; 250,000; 250,000; 250,000). And no, those last 3 numbers are not errors.
Well, for Katten associates that were frozen last year, the new scale still gives some of them a pay bump, if they moved up a class year.
But not every Katten associate will be moving up a class year …
Continue reading “Katten Salary Follow-Up: Pay Raise If You Hit Hours, Salary Cut If You Did Not”
It’s March and Katten Muchin is coming into it like a very meek lamb. The firm froze salaries in 2009. So far in 2010, it has sent a series of memos trying to explain why it can’t get its act together. A tipster reports:
You may recall that most associates had their salaries frozen and then cut in 2009. We continue to receive frozen-then-cut salaries at this time, although the memos state that we will get retroactive payments back to January 1 on “any increase” that occurs. All the other Chicago firms have spoken (with double bumps), but Katten is waiting on something…we guess. At this point we’re wondering whether we’ll know our 2010 salaries in 2010!
Check out the memos. They’re a case study in “we’re waiting for others to tell us how to run our business.”
Continue reading “Katten: Why Can’t You Set 2010 Salaries Already?”
Some lawyers love what they do. Those who don’t are vocal about how much they hate their jobs. So what would the naysayers prefer to be doing professionally? Above the Law editors have heard these “dream careers” tossed around: government intelligence analyst, writer/journalist, banker (so they can keep making the bank), and — for those who want to stay in the law, but not Biglaw — assistant U.S. attorney, judge, or law school professor.
Some people are content to stay in the law but need a creative/fun outlet. It’s an added bonus if that outlet also makes money. One such endeavor is to open a restaurant. (The belief that most restaurants fail in the first year is a myth, after all.)
We’ve written before about lawyer-turned-Subway entrepreneur Larry Feldman. But being king of a sandwich-shop franchise is not really the glamorous side of food service. The daydream version involves starting up a place with a bit more character.
For some, being laid off has been a push to tap into a culinary side. Here in New York, a first-year associate caught up in law firm layoffs used the opportunity to open a Taiwanese steamed bun cafe in the Lower East Side, called Baohaus.
Further south, in Washington, D.C., another casualty of the recession layoffs got into the eat-out business. Julie Liu, a former Katten Muchin associate, launched a restaurant in Dupont Circle last year named Scion. She was very thankful to Katten for her three-month severance: it “basically paid for Scion’s kitchen equipment.”
We caught up with Liu about opening a restaurant with her sister, and got some advice for other wannabe restaurateurs.
Continue reading “Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Restaurateur”
Would you swap corporate securities work for chipotle seasoning? Nancy Andrade did. The Catholic University ’93 grad quit her job at Katten Muchin in 2001, to start a family tamale-making business called Mexifeast. Their tamales are sold at Walmart, Whole Foods and Jewel.
So how did Andrade go from handling derivative claims to hawking corn-husked deliciousness? She tells the Chicago Tribune that her tamale-loving colleagues at Katten were part of the push in the frozen food business direction:
When I started at Katten (Muchin Rosenman) and people discovered I was Mexican-American, they’d ask me where to get good tamales.
Thank goodness for ethnic food stereotypes. Did Justice Sotomayor’s new colleagues ask her where to buy burritos in D.C.?
So how did Andrade respond to the tamale inquiries from her co-workers?
Continue reading “Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Tamale Maker”
Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
This week, economists missed on the good side — initial jobless claims fell by more than expected. The 502,000 applicants are the fewest since January 3, and the four-month rolling average is at the lowest level since November 2008.
It’s tough to grasp half a million people filing for first-time benefits as good news, but these are troubled times, so we have to cheer where we can. Don’t get too excited, though. Even news that looks good at first glance probably isn’t. The 139,000 people who came off the continuing-claims roster more likely did so as a result of benefits running out or giving up the search than actually finding work.
But don’t be surprised if that number starts creeping back up. A bill was passed last week that will extend benefits by 14 weeks in all states, and six additional weeks in states where the unemployment rate is greater than 8.5%.
All in all, it was a relatively good week in BigLaw, with no layoffs reported. Nonetheless, firms continue to flail about trying to fix their economic models, and we document the efforts after the jump.
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com
It has been a busy past several weeks for our Asia team at Kinney Recruiting. Evan Jowers was in Boston earlier this week, participating in Harvard Law School’s Market Series. This is the first year they are including Asia markets in the program and Evan was asked by Harvard to be their exclusive recruiter representative for those markets. Evan will work with Harvard’s office of career services and be available to its law students who seek advice on the Asia markets and US and UK firms in Asia, where they may 2L summer and / or start as a 1st year associate. If you are a law student from another top JD program and have questions about the Asia markets, please feel free to reach out to us as well, at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com. Of course, we can’t place law students at firms (that is what on-campus recruiting is for), but we are happy to provide advice and begin positive long-term relationships.
In late April and earlier this month, Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney were working out of our Hong Kong offices for a couple of weeks, meeting with various law firm and attorney candidate clients. Also, in late March and early April, Evan Jowers and Yuliya Vinokurova were working out of our Hong Kong offices for a few weeks. Alexis Lamb is of course based in Hong Kong full time.
In mid April, from our Asia team, Evan Jowers, Robert Kinney, Alexis Lamb, Yuliya Vinokurova, Danielle Cyr, Peter Gutensohn, and Josh Carr were all in Austin, Texas for the annual NALP conference.
Please note that Evan Jowers will be in Beijing for most of July.
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