We have to step away for a bit. So we’ll do what we typically do under such circumstances, and set up an open thread.
Earlier today, a number of you expressed an interest in chatting about Biglaw clerkship bonuses. Feel free to use this thread as a forum for that conversation. You can compare notes on what different firms offer, voice complaints about insufficient bonuses for law clerks, etc,
If there’s enough interesting material, then perhaps we’ll do some follow-up coverage, too. Thanks!
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Our condolences to Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan. Dean Kagan, who was under consideration for the president of Harvard University, was passed over for the job in favor of historian Drew Gilpin Faust (aka “Dr. Faust”).
But maybe it’s for the best. As Harvard president, it can be tough not to make enemies. See, e.g., Larry Summers.
(Unless you want to be kinda boring and ineffectual. See, e.g., Neil Rudenstine.)
And enemies are not what a possible Supreme Court nominee wants. Especially a nominee who, like John Roberts and Samuel Alito, generally plays well with others — even those who hold divergent ideological views.
From a Princeton tipster:
The most recent edition of the Princeton Alumni Weekly has an interesting tidbit about Anne-Marie Slaughter and Elena Kagan (who have creepily similar resumes):
“‘Elena has an extraordinary talent for not making enemies,’ says Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, who became friendly with Kagan when both were Sachs Scholars at Oxford (Kagan coxed the boat in which Slaughter rowed), and later taught with her at Chicago and Harvard law schools.”
How hot is that??? Perhaps you could create a “fantasy legal academic crew team,” with, e.g., Charles Fried as stroke (naturally — he’s quite the gym bunny) and Bruce A. in bow. Think of the Photoshop head-pasting potential!
We are well aware of Dean Kagan’s hotness (since she was nominated in our law school deans hotties contest). But we had no idea she was also an athlete.
How neat! Dean Kagan, you can yell “Stroke!” at us anytime.
A ‘Rebellious Daughter’ to Lead Harvard [New York Times]
When it comes to legal hotties contests, Above the Law is a market leader — and everybone else has yet to match.
We’re previously held beauty contests for America’shottest ERISA lawyers, law school deans, and 3L students at NYU Law. And we have tons of ideas for future contests.
We asked for your help in picking our next contest. Here’s how you voted:
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to ATL’s latest hotties contest: LAW LIBRARIANS!!!
It’s not as strange as it might seem. Librarians get a bad rap; they’re regarded as frumpy and, well, bookish. But we know there are lots of hot legal librarians out there just waiting to be discovered.
To name just one, there’s the fun and fabulous Martha-Ann Alito, the wife of Justice Samuel A. Alito. They met when he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Newark, New Jersey, and she was the USAO’s law librarian. Some people find their angels in the centerfold; Sam Alito found his in the center stacks!
Okay, time for contest logistics. Do you know a hot law librarian — whether at a law school, a law firm, a courthouse, or elsewhere — who deserves to be considered?
Please check out the nomination rules and guidelines, which appear after the jump. Thanks!
As regular ATL readers well know, we’ve been offering wall-to-wall coverage of Shanetta Y. Cutlar. If you’re not familiar with her, Ms. Cutlar is the nightmarish awesomely overachieving diva who oversees the Special Litigation Section (SPL), part of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Shanetta Cutlar is a strong leader with a distinctive managerial style. She drives lawyers and staff away in droves sometimes rubs people the wrong way. But even if it’s lost on her underlings, we appreciate SYC’s deliciousness!
Some of you have wondered whether Chief Cutlar is aware of ATL’s coverage of her and, if so, what she thinks of it. We had heard through the grapevine that she is aware of this site and finds the attention amusing. Now we have more concrete confirmation.
At a recent meeting of the Section Chiefs of the Civil Rights Division, Shanetta Y. Cutlar whipped out a tiara. She then placed it on her head and proclaimed:
“I GUESS I’M A DIVA NOW!!!”
This is a clear reference to ATLs’ naming Cutlar our DOJ Diva of the Day — on two separate occasions.
We draw the following conclusions from this tiara incident:
1. Shanetta Cutlar is even more fabulous than we thought. The woman owns a tiara, for chrissakes. And she brings it to meetings of high-level DOJ officials.
2. Shanetta Cutlar has a healthy, self-deprecating sense of humor. The commenters who defend her so earnestly on ATL, like “Life” — see this thread — need to relax. They should follow their idol’s lead, and just laugh it off.
3. Shanetta Cutlar is completely confident in her ability to keep her post. She’s unfazed by the attention she has received, and she’s unfraid of, say, congressional investigations of SPL. She knows she’s not going anywhere.
WE LOVE YOU SHANETTA!!!
P.S. Where did SYC get the tiara? On a totally random note, our cousin-in-law is a leading maker of wedding tiaras.
In the reader poll to pick a nickname for the litigation between gay lawyer Aaron Charney and his former employer, Biglaw behemoth Sullivan & Cromwell, we were rooting for “Sullying Cromwell.”
We thought it was reasonably cute and nicely captured the essence of the litigation. We viewed “Brokeback Lawfirm” as a bit dated, and “White Shoe Diaries” as too opaque.
But we’ve been outvoted — just as we were when we tried to push “Noajeannie” over “Feldsuk” as the mono-moniker for celebrity professors Noah Feldman and Jeannie Suk. And we will listen to the will of the people.
We kept the polls open for a while, in the hope that the results would change. But there’s one clear winner, and gaming the timing won’t change the results:
To the devoted partisans of “White Shoe Diaries,” we’re sorry. Your tastes are too refined and too erudite for the gutter world of tabloid journalism.
As we think about it a bit more, “Brokeback Lawfirm” is growing on us. It has a “so bad it’s good” quality to it. It’s kinda lame, but defiant rather than embarrassed about its lameness. We think it will do just fine.
We like your idea of drawing up a list of major law firms that have not (yet) joined in the latest round of associate pay raises.
Such lists have been floating around in the comments over the past few weeks. But we thought we’d try and prepare an “official” LIST OF SHAME.
Law students, law clerks, and potential lateral associates:
When thinking about whether or not to accept an offer from a particular Biglaw shop, consider whether they appear on the List of Shame — along with all the non-compensation-related variables that should be considered when choosing a firm.
But do hold their presence on the List of Shame against them. That’s why we call it the List of Shame!
After the jump, our stab at a List of Shame.
Continue reading “Skaddenfreude: List of Shame, and Morning Open Thread”
- Anna Nicole Smith, Bad Ideas, Crime, Football, Intellectual Property, Iraq, Morning Docket, Sports, Technology
Morning Docket: 02.12.07
By B Clerker* The next great chapter in first-year Contracts: stupid sports bets. [CBS]
* What’s a little software piracy between post-Cold War friends, right? [CNN]
* Soldiers busted for bribes in Iraq contracts. [MSNBC]
* Lawyer takes advantage of that First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances… And it works! [WSJ Law Blog]
* “The Litigation-Filled Life of Anna Nicole Smith, and the Legal Aftermath of Her Demise” [FindLaw via How Appealing]
No, we have not canceled Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. We’re just a little behind. Okay, very far behind.
So let’s not waste any more time. For the weekend of January 13-14, we’ll take a look at these three couples:
1. Jordan Chattman, Joseph Shumofsky
Scores and full reviews for these newlyweds, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: January 14, 2007″
* Let’s begin with the practical. If you took the Bar/Bri bar review course between 1997 and 2006, please click here, so you can find out how to claim $125 for yourself (unless you want to go it on your own and try to get more).
* Gay lawyer Aaron Charney and his former employer, Sullivan & Cromwell, had their day in court. We were on hand to jot down the money quotes and shoot lots of photos.
* Speaking of Aaron Charney, is he just another money-hungry plaintiff, rather than a crusader for justice for gay lawyers everywhere?
* Anna Nicole Smith, a prevailing party in the U.S. Supreme Court and the widow of a (very rich) former Yale Law professor — a prof who taught Trusts and Estates, of all things — passed away.
* Still more big law firms announced pay raises for their associates.
* Your stories about Shanetta Cutlar, the colorful chief of the Justice Department’s Special Litigation Section, are pleasingly novel to us. But to the DOJ’s front office, it’s all old news.
* Law students are good at squabbling amongst themselves.
* Judge Janice Rogers Brown is pretty cool.
* And Canadians are funny.
* For you Starbucks haters out there, a glimmer of hope for the days of cheap, dishwater-tasting, non-fair-trade coffee, served by exploited employees. Or Central Perk. [Mercury News]
* In case you were worried about the gel-happy San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom still gets paid while in rehab. [Law.com]
* When you’re a pre-boyfriend and pre-mascara 8-year-old, too much time on the phone leads to more than just bad grades and parental despair. [Times Union]
* Not only do pedophiles not necessarily look like John Mark Karr, but they also need not look like the white-sock wearing, pillar-of-the-community suburban dad. If there’s one TV show with true diversity, it’s To Catch a Predator. [Los Angeles Times]
- Arent Fox, Biglaw, Boutique Law Firms, Heller Ehrman, K&L Gates, Keker & Van Nest, Money, Skaddenfreude
Skaddenfreude: Arent Fox; K&L Gates; Heller Ehrman; Keker & Van Nest; Friday Afternoon Open Thread
By David LatAs we move into the weekend, we have a few more associate pay raise announcements to share with you.
After the jump, there’s confirmed compensation news about Arent Fox, K&L Gates, Heller Ehrman, and Keker & Van Nest.
We’ve also heard the rumors about Jones Day (Dallas) raising to $150K, from multiple sources. But we haven’t seen a memo, and neither of our sources is at the firm itself. So even though it’s most likely true, we’re going to hold off on calling it until we hear directly from someone at Jones Day in Dallas (or at least see a memo).
- Aaron Charney, Charles Stillman, Daniel Alterman, Pictures, Racism, Ridiculousness, Shanetta Cutlar, Sullivan & Cromwell
ATL Picture of the Day
By David Lat
HOLY CRAP!!!
What the hell was SHANETTA CUTLAR doing at yesterday’s hearing in Sullivan & Cromwell v. Charney?
Has the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division decided to intervene in the case on Aaron Charney’s behalf?
(Okay, seriously: Leaving New York Supreme Court yesterday were Charles Stillman, counsel to S&C; Daniel Alterman, counsel to Aaron Charney; and Herbert Eisenberg, counsel to Aaron Charney (mostly obscured by “Shanetta”).)
Earlier: Sullivan & Cromwell v. Charney: A Photo Essay (Part 1)
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