Here's an idea for how Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft -- America's Firingest Law Firm™, which laid off 35 lawyers in January, and then 96 more last month -- can keep its surviving attorneys (plus all those incoming first-years) gainfully employed.

Have them work on the litigation over managing partner Robert Link's Hamptons house.

Cadwalader Managing Partner In Hamptons Real Estate Squabble [Am Law Daily]
Robert O. Link, Jr. v. Richard Sarcona: Complaint (PDF) [Am Law Daily]
3 Halsey Path, Southampton, NY [Zillow]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Robert Link (scroll down)
Prior ATL coverage of CWT (scroll down)

If you'll be interviewing at law firms this fall, make sure you double check the address of the place you're headed to. Law firms are constantly on the move and trading spaces. From the New York Observer (which follows commercial real estate as obsessively as we follow law firm layoffs):

Entertainment law powerhouse Pryor Cashman, whose clients include Penthouse founder Bob Guccione and numerous American Idol contestants, is in negotiations for 100,000 square feet at 605 Third Avenue, the 44-story glass box of a building owned by Fisher Brothers....

[T]he firm right now occupies about 100,000 square feet of contiguous space in three buildings, which means three leases--all of which expire at the end of next year--and three landlords.

That sounds rather inefficient -- and annoying. But there are other firms that occupy multiple buildings in the same city. E.g., Skadden and Mayer Brown, in D.C.

Pryor Cashman isn't the only law firm in search of new digs. The Observer reports that Paul Weiss and Fitzpatrick Cella are also in search of over 100,000 square feet apiece.

Favored American Idol Lawyers Negotiating Lease at 605 Third [New York Observer]

A picture is worth a thousand words, so we'll keep this brief. From a tipster: "Look at this place. The estate of a Simpson Thatcher partner:"

For extensive photos of "Eastfair" -- the McGraths' baronial mansion and grounds, which hosted their daughter's recent NYT-featured wedding -- check out New York Social Diary.

Although the parents of the bride, Diahn Williams McGrath and retired Simpson partner Thomas McGrath, are both lawyers -- and very successful ones, judging from that pile o' bricks -- their daughter and her husband are not attorneys. So the newlyweds weren't eligible for consideration in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, which has a one-lawyer-spouse minimum.

P.S. This is just their country place. They also have an apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Update: Via a commenter, see here for more details about Eastfair Castle. "The castle sat on 66 acres, had two tennis courts, one indoor and one outdoor. There was a beautiful inground pool with a view to Connecticut. I believe it was 1972 when he died, the house was sold to his close friend, Diane [sic] Williams."

Wedding Bells are Ringing [New York Social Diary / David Patrick Columbia]
Courtney McGrath, Thomas Spangler III [New York Times]
Thomas J. McGrath: Retired Partner [Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]
Diahn Williams McGrath [Avvo]

In Lawyerly Lairs, we follow the real-estate moves of leading lawyers and law firms. The focus is typically residential. For example, last year we visited the Park Avenue apartment of this year's commencement speaker at Georgetown Law, Joel Klein.

But every now and then, we go commercial, and write about law firm offices. E.g., Cleary Gottlieb; Gibson Dunn; Cravath.

Today's featured tenant: Paul Weiss. From the New York Observer:

High-powered law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is in negotiations with Vornado Realty Trust for more than one-third of the tower planned for atop the Port Authority bus station, a move that, if cemented, would extend the legal establishment’s apparently inexorable drift westward from the white-shoe stronghold of midtown.

A source close to the negotiations confirmed that Paul, Weiss is in serious, though early, negotiations to take 500,000 square feet in the middle of the 42-story building slated to rise from a platform atop the seedy bus terminal.

Seedy is right -- but there are advantages to being based at Port Authority. Check out this list of shops and restaurants. It will be easy for beleaguered associates to slip away to Duane Reade, to fill that prescription for anti-anxiety medication. And lavish lunches at Munchy's Gourmet -- second floor, South Wing -- will seal the deal for PW recruits.

Meanwhile, another top law firm is venturing beyond midtown. Also from the Observer (which covers the commercial real estate world as thoroughly as we cover Biglaw):

The largest tenant in the GM Building is relocating a portion of its operations from the gilded midtown tower to the decidedly humbler environs of downtown Brooklyn.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a global law firm with a New York staff of 1,300, has signed a lease for 35,000 square feet at Brooklyn’s 15 Metrotech Center, owned by Forest City Ratner.

Over the past few years, Brooklyn has been booming, growing increasingly attractive as a residential option for young professionals. But if you're a Manhattan snob and Weil associate, have no fear. The Brooklyn digs will house information systems, finance, and operations; the lawyers will stay in the GM Building.

P.S. Speaking of the GM Building, here's a digression on "safe email." One ATL tipster likes to email us, using a non-work email account, from a computer in that building's Apple store.

But you don't need to be quite that cloak-and-dagger. It's usually safe to email us, from a non-work account, using the web browser on your wireless device (like a Blackberry or iPhone); that traffic doesn't pass through your law firm's servers.

Of course, to be ultra-cautious, wait until you get home, and email us from your personal computer. Thanks.

Law Firm Nears Lease Atop Bus Terminal [New York Observer]
Big Manhattan Law Firm Exits GM Building for ... Downtown Brooklyn [New York Observer]
Terminal Information & Services [Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]

A struggling personal injury lawyer was disbarred last month, for splitting fees with non-lawyers, aiding the unauthorized practice of law, and other offenses. Sounds pretty unexciting, right?

But Keith Rubinstein is no ordinary PI lawyer; don't cry for him, Argentina. Last year, he beat out Evita -- i.e., Madonna, the Material Girl herself -- in a bidding war for a $35 million townhouse on the Upper East Side. For more about Rubinstein, see this interesting article, by Anthony Lin in the New York Law Journal.

Rubinstein is used to swanky digs. He previously lived in a West Village townhouse that Will Smith rented for $60,000 a month during the filming of "Hitch."

Speaking of lawyerly landlords, Charles T. Munger, a founder of Munger, Tolles & Olson, has been in the news lately for real estate reasons. Munger owns the building that houses the popular Dutton's bookstore in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Dutton's is closing its doors in April, in part due to rising rents.

But don't blame the bookstore's fate on Charlie Munger. From the Los Angeles Times:

The property [housing Dutton's] is owned by billionaire investor Charles T. Munger and his wife, Nancy. A founder of the Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, he partnered in 1978 with Warren E. Buffett to run Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a holding company.

Munger was in Washington on Monday and could not be reached. He said in a statement that he would allow Dutton's to use the space rent-free during the liquidation and that he would cover the $550,000 debt in exchange for the store's closing. Dutton described the offer as "very gracious and generous." As part of the deal, Munger said, Dutton would retain the Dutton's trade name.

With a net worth of $2 billion, Munger can afford to be "very gracious and generous." Anyone know how bonuses were at Munger this year?

Of course, Keith Rubinstein and Charlie Munger made their fortunes outside the law -- through real estate and investing (Berkshire Hathaway), respectively. The moral of the story may be: if you want really big bucks, look beyond the law.

Lawyer Disbarred For Splitting Fees, Other Misconduct [New York Law Journal]
Dutton's shelf life finally runs out [Los Angeles Times]

* A shout-out to the Elect on TV tonight. The lawyer protagonist of the new ABC drama, "Eli Stone" -- portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller (pictured), an ex-husband of Angelina Jolie -- is supposedly a former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [New York Times]

* A novel approach to the legal job hunt: build your own website, then advertise it in the ABA Journal. If Loyola 2L doesn't have a job lined up already -- although rumor has it that he does, which may explain his "retirement" from blogging -- here's something for him to consider. [3L for Hire and ABA Journal, via WSJ Law Blog]

* More proof that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is a wannabe Eliot Spitzer. [DealBreaker]

* Lawyerly lairs: Tunisia. [flickr]

Why do the gay lawyers land all the fabulous real estate? Just a few days after this installment of Lawyerly Lairs, profiling the palatial pads of two same-sex couples, we learn of a third such couple living large in New York.

A reader sums it up nicely: "This seems right up our alley for Lawyerly Lairs: Manhattan / East Hampton real estate, Yale Law alum (then Paul Weiss before going in-house), Ivy League pedigree on both sides of the same-sex partnership, and shout-outs by the New York Times."

Indeed it is. Read about the charmed life of architect Michael Haverland and lawyer-turned novelist Philip Galanes, follow their successful adventures in NYC real estate (and furniture collecting), and ogle photos of their luxurious Upper East Side and East Hampton homes, in this NYT article.

Starting Over, and Over, and Over [New York Times]
Philip Galanes biography [galaneshaverland.com]

Earlier: Lawyerly Lairs: Gay Gotham Edition

In Chicago, gay lawyers get to attend exclusive parties. In New York, they enjoy a finer prize: luxury real estate.

The law schools of Columbia and NYU have been battling over faculty superstars for several years. And now NYU is bringing out the heavy artillery: multimillion-dollar condo purchases. From the New York Times:

Columbia University, in a never-ending search for a larger campus, has long had an outpost for faculty housing at 455 Central Park West — 53 apartments in an 26-story tower attached to the French Renaissance chateau at West 106th Street.

So it was something of a surprise when a foundation associated with New York University bought a large condominium in the complex. The unit, which cost $5.2 million, is built into one of the huge turrets of the chateau.... The duplex apartment has a round living and dining room with 37-foot high ceilings and Central Park views, along with three more conventional bedrooms.

Sounds fabulous! Who gets to inhabit this fabulous pad?

Find out, after the jump.

Not a heck of a lot going on today, a Friday in the holiday season. So let's fall back on a staple of these pages: New York real estate.

If you're an associate at Cleary Gottlieb who's a fan of the current offices at One Liberty Plaza, congratulations. You're not going anywhere anytime soon. From today's New York Post:

[P]owerhouse law firm Cleary Gottlieb inked a deal to expand by 100,000 square feet at One Liberty Plaza. The law firm just signed a 20-year lease for 550,000 square-feet with landlord Brookfield Properties after more than a year of what Newmark Knight Frank broker Mark Weiss called "very competitive" and "very intricate" negotiations.

Cleary Gottlieb previously had 450,000 square feet under a lease due to expire in 2010. The "competitive" aspect was an attempt by Larry Silverstein to lure the firm to his new 7 World Trade Center.

Seven World Trade is a beautiful new building. But it's expensive; we're guessing Cleary got a very good deal to stay in its current spot. (The terms of the renewal were not disclosed.)

Meanwhile, a few miles uptown, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is making a move. Details after the jump.

One of ATL's more popular and long-running features is Lawyerly Lairs, in which we take you inside the luxurious homes of prominent members of the legal profession -- leading lawyers, judges, and law professors. Past posts have featured a law professor's $30 million Manhattan mansion, a commercial litigator's $7 million waterfront estate in Miami, and the former home of Aaron Charney.

But it looks like it won't be necessary for us to visit Chicago, where the real estate purchases of attorneys are already thoroughly covered, by a site called Chicago Block Shopper. From Legal Blog Watch:

Did you know that Mel M. Justak, an estate-planning associate at Reed Smith in Chicago, and his wife just sold their two-bedroom condo in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood? They got $340,000 for it, $4,000 less than they paid to purchase it in 2003. Perkins Coie IP associate Douglas L. Sawyer and his wife fared better in selling their four-bedroom Lincoln Park home, receiving $1 million for a place they bought in 2005 for $925,000. Meanwhile, Faith Bugel, a staff attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, and David A. Rickard got a good deal for themselves in purchasing a four-bedroom, 5.1 bath home in Lincoln Park for $1.73 million. They bought it from Chicago Title, which paid a million more for the property in 2003.

How does Robert Ambrogi know all this? Find out, after the jump.

One year ago, we wrote about how Columbia law professor Hans Smit was trying to unload his 12,000 square foot home -- the only freestanding single-family mansion in Manhattan -- for a cool $29 million.

One year later, the good professor's home is still on the market. Its white-marble-clad facade greeted us when we visited the New York Times homepage this morning (screencap and link to listing below).

The only difference from last year? The asking price, now up to $30 million.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And up your asking price by a million!

(In all seriousness, Professor Smit's decision to round up to $30 million probably isn't as crazy as it might seem. Despite the weak real estate market in the rest of the country, the market in New York City -- especially at the high end -- continues to be strong.)

Magnificent Mansion [Brown Harris Stevens]

Earlier: Lawyerly Lairs: Professor Smit's Uptown Mansion

Here's a sign of changing times: lawyers are picking up luxury real estate holdings that hedge fund guys can't afford to keep.

From the Daily Business Review:

A high profile Miami litigator is expanding his real estate holdings on Key Biscayne.

Attorney Eugene E. Stearns and his wife, Diana, purchased a two-story home at 250 Cape Florida Drive for $8 million Aug. 31 from United Real Estate Ventures owned by trader D. John Devaney.

The 7,852-square-foot house has eight bathrooms, six bedrooms and a first-floor master suite. The house built in 1985 features cathedral ceilings.

Who says the Miami real estate market is dead? A thousand bucks a square foot, for a single-family house not on the island of Manhattan, doesn't sound half-bad.

Discussion continues after the jump.

Time for another installment of Lawyerly Lairs, in which we follow the high-end real estate purchases of high-profile attorneys. Today's subject is Allen Grubman, the hotshot entertainment lawyer with oodles of celebrity clients, who has become a celebrity in his own right.

From the New York Observer:

[The Grubmans] paid $3.07 million for a condo and two storage rooms at 200 Chambers Street, a glitzy new development in Tribeca.

Their new plush place has 2,201 square feet, not including those two storage spaces. Mr. Grubman can drive down in his 1961 Jaguar convertible, a gift from his wife.

The monster Park Avenue music lawyer, whose clients include Springsteen and U2, plus Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters, might have heard about the place from his wife, Corcoran Group power broker Deborah Grubman.

Sounds pretty faboo, right? Well, not so fast. From real estate blog Curbed:

[O]ver at the Wired New York forum, they've been trashing the place. Writes monknyc, "The interior courtyard, with its puny waterfall, resembles the plaza design of a New Jersey suburban office building... Given the lackluster design and poor material quality, the people behind 200 Chambers Street should get up off their high horse and quit insisting that it's a premier luxury building."

As a celebrity lawyer, Allen Grubman understands the power of publicity. His daughter, Lizzie Grubman, is a queen of public relations (even though she's had some bad publicity herself).

Could his purchase be intended to generate favorable buzz for 200 Chambers Street -- and help move some inventory for his broker wife Deborah, who currently has two listings in the building? How long will the Grubmans hold on to their condo before flipping it? We're pegging the over/under at about eight months.

Mom and Pop Grubman Go Downtown—The Boss’ Lawyer Buys Tribeca Condo [New York Observer]
200 Chambers St. Nearly Half Full [Curbed]
200 Chambers Street [official website]

Now that law school is back in session, students are once again paying attention to those poorly-dressed people standing at the front of the room (assuming they're not focused on their laptops, where they read ESPN.com and ATL). And even if their law professors' wardrobes are underwhelming, students can always marvel at their brilliance and erudition.

And maybe at their real estate holdings, too. Although legal academic salaries fall well short of Biglaw partner profits, a surprising number of law professors live in luxurious homes, as revealed in past installments of Lawyerly Lairs:

* Harvard Law School professors Noah Feldman and Jeannie Suk, aka "Feldsuk," inhabit a $2.8 million mansion (which they recently renovated -- 'cause we're sure it was a total dump before that).

* Professor Sarah Cleveland, a recent addition to the Columbia faculty, lives in a $2.4 million, five-level townhouse.

* Her senior colleague, Professor Hans Smit, also calls a townhouse home -- but a townhouse worth over ten times as much, on the market for $29 million.

The latest addition to these ranks: James Q. Whitman, the Ford Foundation professor of comparative and foreign law at Yale Law School. Professor Whitman recently dropped $5.7 million on a New York co-op formerly owned by actor Treat Williams (pictured above right -- the apartment, not the actor).

More details, including photos, after the jump.

Lawyers are living large, not just in Miami and New York, but in Washington, too.

The Luxury Homes column, in the current issue of Washingtonian magazine, features the recent real estate purchases of two prominent lawyers. First up: political and legal commentator Laura Ingraham, who has a pretty amazing resume (UVA Law, Clarence Thomas clerkship, Skadden), especially by radio personality standards:

Conservative pundit and radio host Laura Ingraham sold a three-bedroom, four-bath Colonial rowhouse on 28th Street in Woodley Park for $1.3 million. Built in 1922, the renovated home has an in-law suite, two kitchens, and a skylit master bedroom. The Laura Ingraham Show is broadcast on 340 radio stations nationwide.

Very nice. Next up: another conservative legal celebrity, Fred Fielding:

White House counsel Fred Fielding and his wife, Maria, sold a five-bedroom, six-bath Colonial in Arlington's Country Club Hills for $1.8 million. The house has embassy-size entertaining rooms. Before joining the Bush administration in January, Fielding was a senior partner at Wiley Rein (formerly Wiley Rein & Fielding).

Despite the "embassy-size entertaining rooms," a sub-$2 million house seems a tad underwhelming, especially for a former name partner of 2006's most profitable law firm. Are the Fieldings trading up to bigger digs?

Using a combination of internet resources, we tracked down what we believe to be the houses in question, on Zillow. You can check out the listings, with pics, after the jump.

As we have previously bitterly lamented observed, sometimes it seems like all the blessings of life are reserved for Supreme Court clerks. And they include not just $250,000 signing bonuses and top-shelf legal jobs, but luxury real estate, too.

This latest Lawyerly Lairs post looks at the expanding digs of Joel I. Klein (Powell) and his wife, Nicole K. Seligman (OT 1984/Marshall). From the New York Observer:

New York is a city of poshly-housed public servants.

The mayor owns two mansions in the East 70’s; the governor goes rent-free in a terraced Fifth Avenue apartment (it’s owned by his dad); development chief Robert Lieber has a new $7.25 million condo at Trump International; and even Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is in the Beresford.

Now Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has bonus space on Park Avenue. He and his wife Nicole Seligman, a Sony executive vice president (and an ex-lawyer for both Oliver North and Bill Clinton) have paid $1.7 million for their second apartment at 95-year-old 565 Park Avenue.

Yes, that's right -- their second apartment in this venerable building. The couple already own the unit directly above their new acquisition. Hello, duplex!

(C'mon, get real: Did you really expect Klein and Seligman to slum it in a sub-$2 million apartment? As people have observed countless times in these pages, $2 million doesn't buy you much in NYC.)

More details after the jump.

In Lawyerly Lairs, the ATL feature that takes you inside the luxurious homes of legal luminaries, we focus a lot on New York City. We've previously peeked inside the residences of Schulte partner Rick Presutti, ex-S&C associate Aaron Charney, Cravath partner John Beerbower, Columbia law profs Hans Smit and Sarah Cleveland, and lawyer-turned-TV-personality Greta Van Susteren (to name a few).

Our obsession with Gotham isn't surprising, since NYC is one of the nation's biggest and most expensive legal markets. But today, to mix it up a bit, we take you down south, to another town where real estate is an obsession: MIAMI.

Miami real estate has taken a tumble lately. But that hasn't stopped one top lawyer from wheeling and dealing. From the Daily Business Review:

A prominent attorney has sold one waterfront estate and bought another along the Venetian Causeway linking Miami and Miami Beach.

Dale Hightower, founder and managing partner of Hightower & Partners, and his wife, Anna, sold their San Marino Island property on Biscayne Bay for $6.9 million.

El Popular publisher Marco Laureti and his wife, Giovanna, bought the 5,982-square-foot bayfront Mediterranean-style estate at 205 E. San Marino Drive (at right).

More after the jump.

The miseries of life at a large law firm are regularly chronicled in these pages. But don't forget: It's a living. And if you make partner at a top firm, it's a very, very good living.

From an anxious reader:

I'm a 2L about to start the whirlwind of OCI at my law school. So I've been following the recruiting threads, if not eagerly, at least with an acute sense of anticipation and dread for what life will be like after the honeymoon of next summer.

I'm left with an overriding question: What keeps people in these high-compensation, high-stress jobs? Is it costly court settlements to pay ex-spouses? Mob debts?

I guess it could just be the overwhelming urge to consume luxury goods, but I can't comprehend someone making their lives hell for 60-80 hours a week just to buy a bag with a fancier pattern on it. Those who leave within three years make sense to me, but what about the tortured, hollow souls who soldier on?

We have a few responses. First, many law school graduates carry significant educational debt loads. By the time these debts are paid off, there are new financial needs: down payments, mortgages, tuition bills for the kids.

Second, some law firm associates -- those who "soldier on," in the words of this tipster -- actually enjoy their work. The unhappy associate is a stereotype, and every stereotype has its exceptions. We know a number of Biglaw associates -- and partners -- who wake up each day excited about going into work.

Third, the lifestyle rewards of working at a big firm should not be reduced to "a bag with a fancier pattern on it." They also include... nice real estate! Especially for those who snag the brass platinum ring of partnership.

Time for a Lawyerly Lairs post. In Lawyerly Lairs, we take you inside the luxurious abodes of prominent members of the legal profession.

Today we peek inside the multimillion-dollar apartment of Schulte Roth & Zabel partner Richard Presutti (pictured above, with his family). It was featured prominently last month in the New York Times.

Check it out -- including floor plans -- after the jump.

No, not the Sullivan & Cromwell headquarters at 125 Broad Street. That happened months ago, not long after the young corporate lawyer sued his uber-prestigious employer, claiming anti-gay discrimination and retaliation by S&C.

We're referring instead to Aaron Charney's former home, a luxury apartment on the 53rd floor of the Orion -- a new, high-rise condominium on the West Side of Manhattan. We previously profiled Aaron Charney's apartment (above right) back in this post, wherein we wrote:

City records show that in late November, Charney closed on an $820,000 condominium in the fancy new Orion building, on the west side of Manhattan....

Charney financed this purchase with a $656,000 mortgage -- 80 percent financing. Perfectly respectable; not overly leveraged. This means he put down about $164,000 for the purchase.

(Food for thought: Did S&C help him out with his down payment?)

Well, now Aaron Charney has gotten back all that money -- and then some. NYC records disclose that he sold his apartment last month for $972,500 (and paid off his mortgage).

So Charney flipped a property he owned briefly, just over six months, for $152,500 more than he paid for it. If you've been wondering how Aaron Charney is supporting himself these days, there's your answer (or at least part of it).

Nice work, Aaron! Even after closing costs -- we doubt he paid the full 6 percent commission (who does these days) -- he probably made a tidy profit. If Aaron Charney decides not to return to law, maybe he has a promising career in real estate.

Update / Correction: As discussed in the comments, "[h]e'll have to pay both the NY 'flip tax' and federal capital gains tax because he held it for such a short period." So maybe he's not making as much of a killing as we originally thought.

Further Update: Detailed tax analysis here.

More details about Aaron's pad, including text and images from the real estate listing, after the jump.

The typical Lawyerly Lairs post offers a voyeuristic peek inside the luxurious residence of a prominent lawyer. Today's post, in contrast, is about an office building. But since lawyers at Cravath, Swaine & Moore pretty much live in the office, the home/office distinction doesn't matter.

From the New York Observer:

Cravath is staying right at home in their Death Star.* The white shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore has signed a 15-year renewal at the Worldwide Plaza at 825 Eighth Avenue that will cost the firm $900 million....

Bloomberg reports that Cravath will retain its nearly 600,000 square feet at a little less than $100 per square foot, a far cry from the $39 per foot it paid for a lease it signed in 1989. When Cravath moved to the Hell's Kitchen building back in the 1980's, it was a risk for a high-powered law firm to move that far west, even if it was in a brand-new tower. Twenty years later, with the West Side firmly established, the deal was clearly a steal, especially over the last few years.

We offer some additional observations of our own, after the jump.

* We've been over this before, people. The Observer has it right. Skadden hasn't been referred to as the Death Star ever since they moved into the Conde Nast Building at Four Times Square, home to dozens of fashion models -- who walk on real runways, not the Skadden support staff runway.