A few more confirmed announcements of associate pay raises have rolled in. We collect and reprint them after the jump, where you should also feel free to continue the discussion from yesterday’s open thread. Thanks.
Update: If you read the earliest version of the post, please note that we have added quite a bit of new material to it since we first published it. Refresh your browser to see the latest additions.
Continue reading “Skaddenfreude: Jenner & Block, Mayer Brown, Troutman Sanders”
* Congress weighs its constitutional war powers. [CNN]
* Paris the Plaintiff. [AP]
* Merck lobbying for mandatory HPV vaccine shots. [MSNBC]
* New Jersey’s constitution contains only one use of the word “idiot”? [How Appealing]
* Anyone else have the urge to cancel your firm’s OCI at UConn next year? [Smoking Gun]
Sadly, it appears that hordes of Above the Law readers may have taken down Gallion & Spielvogel’s exceedingly prestigious, highly coveted server:
This is shocking. The server in question, which has handled all numbers of site visitors in the past, is a top-of-the-line piece of equipment. It was purchased — secondhand, but in near-mint condition — from the extremely respected IT department of the deeply esteemed, highly international law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell.
P.S. Yeah, we know — pot, kettle, etc. We are the LAST people in the world who should be making fun of crappy servers.
Gallion & Spielvogel [official (and highly mortifying) firm website, via Archive.org]
ATL reader comments on the Gallion & Spielvogel website (scroll down)
Earlier: Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell: Now Everybody Gets To Bend Over!
Shanetta Y. Cutlar, a high-ranking official of the U.S. Department of Justice, oversees the Special Litigation Section (SPL) of the Civil Rights Division. As chief of the SPL, Cutlar is a steward(ess) of our nation’s civil rights laws.
And, of course, Cutlar is a great diva — which is why we adore her so much.*
Those who get to see a great diva up close, or to work with one, are truly blessed. So what if divas are difficult? That’s why we call them divas.
It should come as no surprise, then, that working for Shanetta Cutlar comes with a few occupational hazards. From a former employee at SPL:
I loved my position, duties and responsibilities. Unfortunately, in time I become a victim of Shanetta’s vicious, often brutal attacks, of constant, uncontrolled rage.
I tried to tolerate and persevere. But eventually the stress began to take a physical toll on me. Down to my last few months or so with the Department, I suffered a bout of diarrhea, each and every morning, before going to work.
My nerves were wrecked. I soon realized I had to seek employment elsewhere outside of the Department.
So I left DOJ and Shanetta. Life is good again.
Color us incredulous. You sacrificed the opportunity to work under an amazing lawyer and leader because, well, you had a touch of the runs?
You need to toughen up. Your “problem” wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been solved with a family-sized bottle of Kaopectate. And a lifetime supply of Depends.
* Sorry, Shalini. We will not apologize for having a weakness for divas. We have loved divas for our entire life, ever since we popped out of one’s womb.
For those of you who care (all six of you), we defend our fixation on divas after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Public Service Announcement: If You’re Joining SPL, Stock Up on Adult Diapers”
* The Guber Downward-Facing Dog Trial coming soon. [De Novo; MSN]
* If you don’t know who’s the “real lawyer” at the table, it’s you. [PrawfsBlawg]
* Kosher-ness may be inapplicable to porn, but I would not want to venture a guess as to Mr. Cohen’s idea behind his trademark. [Likelihood of Confusion]
* Another reason hedge funds are shady? You don’t say. [Professor Bainbridge]
We have to step out for a bit. We’ll probably be back online later tonight; but our later posts may not necessarily be salary information.
So feel free to treat this post as the end-of-day open thread. Have at it, folks!
And if you can confirm a rumored announcement, please email us. Thanks!
Earlier: Previous announcements of law firm associate salary increases (scroll down through “Skaddenfreude” archives)
As we mentioned earlier today, word on the street is that Sullivan & Cromwell has hired veteran employment litigator Zachary Fasman (at right), chair of the employment law practice in the New York office of Paul Hastings, to represent S&C in connection with Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell.
That rumor has now been confirmed. We emailed Zach Fasman for comment, and we received this response:
David:
I can confirm that I have been retained by Sullivan & Cromwell in this matter. I cannot provide any further comment.
Thanks.
- Zach Fasman
It will therefore fall to Mr. Fasman, and his associate minions, to quiz Eric Krautheimer on his bathroom reading habits. Fun stuff.
P.S. Thanks for all of your astute and amusing comments about Gera Grinberg’s lawyers at Gallion & Spielvogel — whose website is not to be missed.
Zachary D. Fasman [Paul Hastings]
Earlier: Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell: Now Everybody Gets To Bend Over!
Prior ATL coverage of Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell (scroll down)
As we’ve learned from emails, comments, and our tracking software, many of you are new to Above the Law. Welcome!
Here at ATL, we have a long and distinguished tradition of “hotties contests.” We’ve previously held contests for America’s hottest ERISA lawyers, law school deans, and 3L students at NYU Law. They were all huge hits within their respective communities.
Why do we hold hotties contests? Well, for better or worse, the legal profession is ruled by brains. Focusing on beauty provides a welcome respite from the credentials obsession that infects the law (and that we, of all people, are very guilty of — especially with respect to Supreme Court clerks).
As the old saying goes, “Looks aren’t everything.” But neither are brains. Lawyers need to be reminded that there are things that matter in life besides where you went to law school or which judge you clerked for. E.g., How good do you look shirtless?
(In the case of Harry Potter, aka actor Daniel Radcliffe (at right — photo via Drudge), the answer is: Pretty damn good.)
Hence our ATL hotties competitions. Our last beauty contest took place a long time ago; it’s time for a new one.
We’ve received a number of different suggestions. We’ve narrowed the list down to two choices, which we will now poll you on:
No, we haven’t heard anything on Latham & Watkins. But if you have, and you work there, please drop us a line.
It’s quite possible that nothing was accomplished at the LW committee meeting earlier today. That sometimes happens at law firm meetings, y’know.
After the jump, we pass along information about Goodwin Procter (New York). It’s rather old, and it has previously appeared in the comments.
But we don’t believe it has been on the main page yet. So here it is, for what it’s worth.
Of course they do. Debevoise & Plimpton paid generous bonuses in 2006. And they went along with the latest pay raises, with scarcely any hesitation.
So we can’t help wondering:
Why do some of their associates still have roommates?
Then again, this roommate situation isn’t the typical set-up of two post-college kids throwing up a sheetrock wall in a 500-square-foot one bedroom. It’s an amazing apartment on Lower Broadway, a sprawling loft with high ceilings and great furniture — courtesy of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” on which Berman once appeared (even though he’s actually gay).
Jeff Berman went into this roommate arrangement not knowing for certain whether it would work out. Per the New York Times:
For Mr. Berman, a young lawyer who had met Ms. [Lauren] Reece — then Billy — at a bar in Chelsea two years before, moving in with a transsexual required a leap of faith. He was worried that a host of changes, physical as well as psychological, would make the perky Ms. Reece “a bit unstable.”
As it turns out, domestic tranquillity reigns. The two roommates could pass for a suburban couple: Mr. Berman, 26, in workout pants and a T-shirt, Ms. Reece, 28, in a pink cardigan and pearl necklace.
Aww… Isn’t that cute?
But look, even if Lauren Reece has turned out to be a total head case, Jeffrey Berman might still have wanted to move in. Why? As everyone knows, space-deprived Manhattanites are sluts for square footage. Who wouldn’t room with someone “a bit unstable” — heck, aren’t we all — in exchange for 1,400 square feet and 14-foot ceilings?
Hell, we’d move in with a transsexual PROSTITUTE if he/she had a pad that fabulous. Give us earplugs and some hand sanitizer, and we’re good to go.
Update: Yes, this post has been tweaked slightly since its original incarnation.
In the Right Place at the Right Time [New York Times]
Jeffrey C. Berman [Debevoise & Plimpton]
Last Friday, we attended a fantastic lunch talk by Judge Janice Rogers Brown (near right; her celebrity doppelganger, Wanda Sykes, is on the far right).
In case you’re not familiar with her, Judge Brown is a leading judicial diva. She’s a former justice of the California Supreme Court and a current member of the D.C. Circuit. In light of her inspirational life story — she’s an African-American female, the daughter of sharecroppers — and her seat on our nation’s most prestigious circuit court, Judge Brown is frequently mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee.
We’ll have more to write about the event later — plus some of our fabulously horrendous photographs, an ATL trademark. For now, though, we just want to share you the best quip of the day (or the “money quote,” as those political bloggers like to say):
“I have NEVER thought of myself as a diva.”
What caused her to utter this sentence? During the Q and A, we got up and asked her (among other things): “Judge Brown, you’re a fabulous judicial diva. But you’re stuck on a court that focuses on administrative law. Do you feel that being on the D.C. Circuit cramps your diva style?”
This was just one of several delightful moments from a great event. We’ll provide a more detailed report later.
Calendar of Lawyer Division Events [Federalist Society]
Fili-BUSTED! Magnificent Judicial Divas [UTR]
Earlier: The Courtroom of Style: Judge Janice Rogers Brown
1. Expect a Latham & Watkins announcement imminently. We’ve been reliably advised that the Associates Committee of LW met this morning, by conference call, from 11:30 AM to 12:10 PM (Eastern time).
2. In terms of the struggle for ATL’s soul — i.e., the heated debate over “salary vs. non-salary” coverage — here is what we’re going to do:
(a) We will continue to cover salary developments, but we will put the information and memos after the jump, so they won’t clutter up the main page. (For those of you who are new to ATL — and we can tell from our traffic stats that there are many of you — “after the jump” is blogspeak for “Click on the ‘Continue reading’ link.”)
(b) We will also start increasing the number of non-salary-related posts that we publish. After all, the biggest news — the original Simpson Thacher raise, and the setting of baselines in various major cities — is pretty much over. Much of what’s going on now is just follow-up.
We hope this will strike a balance that will make most of you happy. Thanks for reading!
Watch to find out what some of our subscribers received in their May box!
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We currently have a number of active openings for associate roles at US and UK firms in HK / China, Singapore and two new in-house openings. As always, please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com in order to get details of current openings in Asia, as well as to discuss the Asia markets in general and what we expect for openings later this year. Our Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney will be in Beijing the week of March 25 and Evan Jowers will be in Hong Kong the week of April 1, if you would like to meet them in person.
The US associate openings we have in law firms are in the usual areas of M&A, cap markets, FCPA / white collar litigation, finance, and project finance. The most urgent of our top tier (top 15 US or magic circle) law firm openings in Asia (among many other firm openings that we have in Asia) are as follows:
• 2nd to 5th year mandarin fluent M&A associates needed in Beijing and Hong Kong at several firms;
• Korean fluent 2nd to 4th year cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 5th year Japanese fluent M&A associates needed in Tokyo;
• 4th to 6th year mandarin fluent cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 4th year M&A / cap markets mix associate needed in Singapore.
Also, we have the two below in-house openings:
Keep reading »
The last time I flapped my wings your way, I tried to make at least enough noise about your mobile phone to make you more than a little bit uncomfortable. I hope I did. If enough of us become anxious enough about the known and unknown unknowns and knowns in our mobile phones, then we can start making wise decisions about how to manage that information and its resultant investigations.
Today, I’d like to put a finer point on the last installment’s topic by asking a question that seemed to catch most attendees off-guard at a conference panel that I moderated last week: is there discoverable personal information in a mobile app? Our panelists’ answer was a uniform “yes” with one stating that, if he had to choose only one type of data that he could discover from a mobile phone, he’d choose app data. Why? Because there’s simply so much of it and because almost all of it is objective – not just user-created like an email – but machine-tracked like GPS, usage duration, log in and log out times, browsed web addresses, browsed actual addresses. Also, most of us seem to have the idea that data doesn’t actually “stick” to our mobile devices the way it “sticks” to our hard drives. Maybe there’s a disconnect based on the fact that our phones are mobile so we assume the data is mobile to?
Keep reading »
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