Legal Times

D.C. Pay Raises: Separating the Men from the Boys? (Plus Rumors of Skadden NY Raises)

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sorting hat Harry Potter Above the Law blog.jpgLaw school can be thought of as a Harry Potter-style “sorting hat” for law students (as Dave Hoffman suggests). Similarly, the recent round of pay raises can be thought of as a sorting hat for law firms.
Nathan Carlile has this excellent article in the current issue of the Legal Times:

Call it a near miss.

Earlier this year, New York’s Simpson Thacher & Bartlett raised starting salaries for first-year associates to $160,000. In the competition to recruit top talent, the tactic was similar to one used by Kenyan marathon runners: a midrace burst to separate elite competitors from the pack of pretenders.

But while Simpson’s bump momentarily opened up a $25,000 gap between top-end New York firms and their Washington counterparts, the pack soon matched the move. Eight months later, starting salaries for first-years at most of the 200 largest firms nationwide remain bunched at $160,000.

More discussion — including rumors of Skadden leading a new round of pay raises in New York City — after the jump.

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A Blog Good Enough to Eat: Open Wide for the BLT!

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BLT bacon lettuce tomato Legal Times law blog Above the Law.jpgWe must confess: we’ve never been huge fans of the bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich. And we don’t like dogs. In America, these are felonies.
But we’ve finally found a BLT we can enjoy. Say hello to The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times!
From Jim Oliphant’s inaugural post:

Hey look, it’s a blog.

Not exactly revolutionary at this point is it? So why would Legal Times do it, other than, of course, to slavishly follow journalistic convention.

That’s the cynical reason. The real reason is the opportunity this medium affords us, one that despite the wretched excess of blogs polluting the net remains very real, particularly in the areas this publication watches.

Check out that droll opening line, sans exclamation point. Admire the meta-ness of it all: blogging about their decision to start a blog.
The Legal Timesfolk are off to an excellent start as bloggers. Check out these two juicy posts (picked up by How Appealing):

1. Seller is Relocating, about how Justice Alito has put his New Jersey home up for sale (we’ll probably do a Lawyerly Lairs post on it); and

2. The Chief and Microsoft, about the rare oral argument “oopsie” from Ted Olson.

Delicious. We’ve added BLT to the ATL blogroll, and we expect to visit early and often.
The BLT is Served [The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times]