I have a friend who is looking for a job at a small law firm. (No, this is not one of those instances in which a person refers to herself as a “friend.” Do you see any quotation marks?) Not surprisingly, she is finding it difficult to land said job. As reported on Vault’s Law Blog, June was a particularly bad month when it came to legal unemployment.
My friend’s situation is not great. Of course, I did not say this to her. Indeed, like most conversations with my good friends, I say this behind her back instead. I am, after all, a good friend.
While things may not be looking so rosy for my friend as an aspiring small-firm lawyer, they are looking pretty sweet for some employed small-firm lawyers….
Continue reading “Size Matters: Small Firms Growing In This Economy”
Justice Barbara Lenk
* On the same day that Lady Kaga wrote her first dissent, Governor Deval Patrick nominated Barbara Lenk, an openly gay woman, to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Big week for… uhh, female judges. [New York Times]
* The prosecution in the Barry Bonds case rested their case yesterday, and the judge is considering throwing out previous testimony about Bonds’s shrunken testicles. National League something something small ball. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* This mob lawyer was allegedly just a mob mobster. [New York Law Journal]
* Fordham Law School hosted a conference on Bob Dylan and the law, featuring “law professors, a Dylan historian, a disc jockey and a guitar player.” Then she opened a book of poems and handed it to me. Written by an Italian jurist from the 20th century. And every one of Scalia’s words rang true and glowed like burning coal. [City Room / New York Times]
* White O’Connor, the Hollywood entertainment-law firm, is merging with “NYC white-shoe powerhouse” Kelley Drye. [Deadline.com]
* A mother has sued the Chicago public school system and her daughter’s teacher after the teacher posted the daughter’s picture on Facebook and mocked her hairstyle. The hairstyle featured an assortment of Jolly Ranchers. Sweet. [ABA Journal]
* The people of Wisconsin have spoken! And as of this morning, it’s still not entirely clear what they’re saying. The race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat is too close to call. [Politico]
It's a train car, not a conference room.
Here at Above the Law, we’re trying to help you. We write about lawyers who do embarrassing things so that you can learn from their examples. Heck, you should get ethics CLE credit for reading this site.
One of our most widely-used lessons — now part of new employee training at a Wall Street firm, in fact — is the cautionary tale of Acela Bob. Pillsbury Winthrop partner Robert Robbins conducted what should have been a confidential conversation about impending layoffs at his firm — in a loud voice, using his cellphone bluetooth, on a crowded Acela train. An ATL reader heard the whole thing and tipped us off; we wrote it up. Shortly thereafter, Pillsbury — which had not yet admitted to any layoffs — confessed that cuts were coming (and “apologize[d] for the unfortunate manner in which our deliberations about reductions have become public”).
Here’s one lawyer who apparently never heard about Acela Bob, or perhaps forgot the story: James J. Kirk (no relation to Captain James T. Kirk).
This James Kirk is the managing partner of Kelley Drye & Warren — and a man who has no trouble making himself heard….
Continue reading “Acela Bob, Meet Acela Jim: Kelley Drye Managing Partner Conducts Confidential Conversation on Packed Train”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Kelley Drye & Warren for stripping aging partners of equity in the firm.
Here at ATL, we have mixed feelings about the elderly. In an ATL debate over mandatory retirement policies at law firms, Elie endorsed kicking old partners to the curb, while I objected to age discrimination policies. The EEOC also sees age bias in mandatory retirement.
Five years ago, Sidley Austin paid $27.5 million to settle a EEOC complaint on behalf of 32 de-equitized partners. But it looks like Kelley Drye will resist settling, and is not afraid to rough up the ‘decrepit’ New York partner, Eugene D’Ablemont, who wants to keep raking in the big bucks…
Continue reading “Kelley Drye Strikes Back at the EEOC and Ancient De-equitized Partner”
In parsing the fate of law school students, there’s no point in talking about the 3Ls. Their chances of success in the job hunt are about as bright as Obama’s prospects of winning the war in Afghanistan. In other words, abandon hope all ye who enter here.
The 1Ls can actually pray the economy will improve. And unlike the poor 3Ls, they knew what they were getting into when they enrolled this fall.
But what about the 2Ls? They have a year and a half more to stay in the law school bunker. Is that long enough for the economy to pick up and for firms to open their wallets doors to draw them close to the Biglaw bosom? Many 2Ls report that their dance cards for the summer are empty.
But there may be hope for current 2Ls without summer suitors, reports Zach Lowe at AmLaw Daily. Some firms are coming back for another round:
[A] small number of those 2Ls stand to benefit from an added mini-round of recruiting, which law school officials and firm recruiters attribute to the cautious stance some firms took the first time around in August and September. The reason, according to about a dozen sources we interviewed: Firms shooting for smaller class sizes limited their offers to the best of the best in the class of 2010. The students in that group found themselves with several offers to choose from, leaving firms short of the already smaller-than-usual targets they’d set. Now those firms are going back to top law schools and asking about candidates who have not yet secured a gig for summer 2010, according to career services deans at law schools, law firm recruiters, and industry groups.
Which firms are still looking? What are they looking for? And, if Adolf Hitler was a 2L, what would he do?
Find out after the jump.
Continue reading “Hope for Second-Year Law School Students?
(And: If Hitler Were a Berkeley 2L)“
The performance of litigation as a Biglaw business line during the Great Recession has been widely viewed as disappointing. But at least one type of litigation seems to be picking up. From the New York Times:
A diamond is forever? Prove it.
Companies that were once content to fight in grocery-store aisles and on television commercials are now choosing a different route — filing lawsuits and other formal grievances challenging their competitors’ claims…. The goal is usually not money but market share. Companies file complaints to get competitors’ ads withdrawn or amended.
The cases themselves might seem a little absurd — an argument over hyped-up advertising copy that not many consumers even take at face value. Pantene has attacked Dove’s claim that its conditioner “repairs” hair better, and Iams has been challenged on one of its lines, “No other dog food stacks up like Iams.”
Dueling over dog food quality? Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Continue reading “Truth in Advertising? See You in Court”
There was one more firm we’ve heard a lot about recently, but the firm would not respond to ATL’s multiple requests for comment.
In the past week or so, we’ve received a number of credible tips about layoffs at Kelley Drye. Because the firm will not comment, we don’t know the overall numbers. But multiple tipsters independently report that there were layoffs at Kelley Drye:
A handful of other associates, including first years, got the ax…. Everyone fired was in the transactional group; firm was clear that it was solely for economic reasons.
Another tipster reports:
Layoffs at Kelly Drye. All class years affected including four class of 2008 in New York.
And from a third:
Kelley Drye New Jersey office a ghost town.
But we’ve also received conflicting reports that there have been no layoffs at Kelley Drye. Many of the litigators we talked with report no layoffs. Then again, if the layoffs were focused in the transactional group, how would litigators know?
But the other question is this: why wouldn’t Kelley Drye announce layoffs yesterday when the entire industry was vomiting jobs? Wouldn’t the firm want to get its bad news out yesterday?
If there were layoffs.
But if there weren’t layoffs, why wouldn’t Kelley Drye spokespeople knock the rumors down when we asked?
If you have any more information about Kelley Drye, please send it in to tips.
Lots of good stuff in the comments to our Lawsuit of the Day. It’s well on its way to becoming an official Comments Clusterf**k. This comment might be our favorite:
Wedding flowers: $27,000.
Damages sought for wrong color wedding flowers: $400,000.
Being delinquent in your attorney registration, while filing a public lawsuit on your own behalf: Priceless
It appears to be true. From the New York State Attorney Registration site:
Maybe Elana Glatt should spend more time attending CLE courses and less time suing florists. We recommend the City Bar class on Service, Therapy, & Emotional Support Animals (which we once sat through, even though it had nothing to do with our practice, ’cause we were desperate for CLE credits).
But Elana “Party Pants” Glatt, predictably dubbed “Bridezilla” by many of you, has her defenders. Read on, after the jump.
Continue reading “An Update on Hydrangea-gate and Little Miss Party Pants”
Flowers are pretty. They smell nice. So why do they keep leading to lawsuits?
First we had Leroy Greer’s lawsuit against 1-800-FLOWERS. And now we get this, from the AP:
The wedding was lovely, except for the flowers: They were the wrong color.
So says the bride, Elana Glatt, who was so miffed at the florist that she filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract.
She says Posy Floral Design on East 72nd Street substituted pastel pink and green hydrangeas for the dark rust and green ones she had specified for 22 centerpieces.
Not only that, the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges that the hydrangeas were wilted and brown, and arranged in dusty vases without enough water.
The lawsuit says the offenses caused “extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment.”
Every rose has its thorn. Read the rest, including a discussion of damages and an ATL reader poll, after the jump.
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: More Floral Litigation”
Kelley Drye & Warren partner Justine Clark looks like a younger, brunette version of Madeleine Albright. But the similarities probably end there, since one would expect the former Secretary of State to pay her taxes.
From the Temporary Attorney blog:
Justine Clark, a partner at Kelly Drye & Warren, just plead guilty for failing to pay state income taxes….
Despite the fact that KDW has seen a steady growth in profits per partner, and despite the fact that KDW has benefited from a steady stream of contract attorney outsourcing, Clark, with greed unquenched, went ahead and screwed New York State out of close to $200,000, based on her $2.7 million earnings.
Her penalty? A slap on the wrist misdemeanor.
Okay, that’s a little harsh. As the New York Post notes, Clark earned $2.68 million not in a single year, but over the course of five years (2000 – 2004). That averages out to a little over $500,000 a year.
And in New York City, teeming with i-bankers and hedge funders, you’re a pauper if if you’re not taking home seven figures per annum. So can we really blame Justine Clark, struggling to keep up with the Joneses, for trying to keep a little more for herself?
Kelly Drye & Warren – Corporate Criminal [Temporary Attorney]
Docs, lawyers prove taxing to N.Y. State [New York Daily News]
Tax-Cheating Lawyers Nabbed [New York Post]
Justine Clark bio [Kelley Drye & Warren]
The LIST OF SHAME has been whittled down to thirteen firms (ranked by Vault 100 placement; AmLaw 100 placement indicated parenthetically):
43. Baker & McKenzie (3)
50. Fulbright & Jaworski (36)
58. Vinson & Elkins (39)
70. Hunton & Williams (43)
75. Nixon Peabody (64)
77. Bryan Cave (56)
82. Reed Smith (33)
83. Dorsey & Whitney (68)
86. McGuireWoods (65)
90. Baker & Hostetler (73)
92. Mintz Levin (91)
95. Dickstein Shapiro (80)
100. Seyfarth Shaw (66)
The latest departure from the list: Kelley Drye & Warren. Their pay raise, which will be reflected in the March 15 paychecks, is retroactive to January 1. Bonuses for 2006 will be paid on February 28 (which strikes us as late; but better late than never).
The complete KDW announcement email appears after the jump.
Continue reading “Skaddenfreude: Kelley Drye Leaves the List of Shame”
Musical Chairs is our summary of the most important or interesting moves within the legal profession. We read through the announcements (and pick out the high points), so you don’t have to.
If you have good gossip about any of these job changes and the players involved, or forthcoming announcements, please drop us a line (subject line: “Musical Chairs”).
Lateral Moves:
* Patrick Collins and Peter Stergios, to McCarter & English (in New York), from Greenberg Traurig.
* Dennis Duffy, to Baker Botts (in Houston), from Time Warner Inc.
Returning Attorneys:
Kelley Drye & Warren: Former partner John Kiley, back from online retailer TechSmart, and former associate Jean Park, also from TechSmart. Kiley will co-chair the firm’s labor and employment practice, and Park comes in as a partner.
Firms Bolster Labor and Employment Practices [NYLawyer.com]
Time Warner VP Settles in at Firm [NYLawyer.com]
