[Ed. note: This post is by SOPHIST, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Sophist's avatar (at right).]
On Tuesday, American Lawyer published a follow-up report to their overall associate satisfaction survey, released last Friday. This report ranks midlevel associates’ satisfaction with their pay packages. Not surprisingly, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz midlevels were most satisfied with their overall compensation, thanks in part to bonuses which ranged from $175,000 to $215,000.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, associates still lucky enough to have jobs were less than thrilled with their pay. Overall, midlevel salary satisfaction has only risen 1% annually since 2006.
The new numbers are surprising to some because top firms in other major markets are now matching the base compensation awarded in New York, while New York associates still receive higher bonuses to keep their landlords at bay.
According to American Lawyer, midlevel associates understand that extra compensation results in longer hours, less partner contact, and decreased job security. As one Jenner & Block associate put it, “They’re not raising because they value us. We’re just the collective beneficiary because the firm needs to keep up in the market. It’s a back-handed compliment.”
Perhaps it is time to use the lysine contingency to control the law student population in order to make firms care about associate retention.
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August marks the end of extravagant lunches and open bars, and the return to the starving-student lifestyle for this year’s batch of summer associates. This time of year also presents summers with a big, anxiety-inducing question:
Am I getting The Offer — i.e., an offer to return to The Firm on a more permanent / full-time basis, after graduation?
Some summers find out about their future employment prospects while still at their law firms. This might happen during an exit interview, or it might happen in more public fashion:
The DC office of Latham & Watkins just called all summer associates into a conference room and announced that they were extending offers to 100% of the DC summer associate class.
We haven’t confirmed this with the firm, but if true — congratulations, Lathamites of Washington!
(We also hear, through the grapevine, that Shearman & Sterling gave offers to all 135 of its SAs. If you know of other 100-percent-offer shops, feel free to note them in the comments. Please note, however, that what appears in the comments is unverified. So caveat lector.)
Update: Shearman gave offers to 139 out of 140 summers who were considered for offers. See here.
Other summer associates don’t learn their fates until after the end of their programs. Word might come a week or two after the program ends — or even later. Our estimable (but outgoing) editor-in-chief recalls that Wachtell Lipton didn’t notify its summer class about offers until September. (That was several years ago; WLRK’s current practice may differ.)
Read more about cold offers — including a more detailed explanation of what exactly is a cold offer, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the institution — after the jump.
See the links below for more details. Also note this, from Marc Randazza of the Legal Satyricon:
For anyone who is curious, I have personally spoken to the University of Texas adjunct who happens to bear the [same name as the formerly anonymous defendant known as
He IS NOT the person in question. I would appreciate it if any readers would keep that in mind, and educate anyone who might hold this mistaken belief. I can confirm with 100% certainty that the [individual identified as
It has been a while since our last posting about the AutoAdmit lawsuit, so feel free to discuss the latest developments in the comments. If you’re not familiar with the case, peruse the postings collected here.
Another Amended Complaint in the Auto Admit Case [Legal Satyricon]
Yale Students’ Lawsuit Unmasks Anonymous Trolls, Opens Pandora’s Box [Wired]
Yale Students Name Austinite Who Allegedly Defamed Them [keyetv.com]
Lawyers for 2 Female Students at Yale Law School Learn Identities of Anonymous Online Attackers [Chronicle of Higher Education]
Here’s the second half of the “head-to-head” round of ATL Idol. If you’re not up to speed on what’s going on, background information is available in this prior post (or just scroll down the front page to the post immediately below this one).
You can check out the second half of the head-to-head round, featuring the blogging of SOPHIST and FROLIC AND DETOUR, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Idol: Week 2, Head-to-Head Round (Part 2)”
No Cadwalader Lawyers Need Apply?
(Actually, CWT lawyers are welcome at D&S. See the update.)
By
David Lat
In case you missed the big news, last week Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft laid off 96 lawyers. This is, as far as we know, the largest lawyer layoff of the current economic cycle.
When combined with the January layoffs, which hit around 35 lawyers, CWT has axed upwards of 130 attorneys. This makes it “America’s firingest law firm.” (We can’t claim credit for that turn of phrase, which was coined by a tipster, but we will try to popularize it through frequent usage.)
As we reported earlier this week, résumés from Cadwalader refugees are flooding the market. But will they find a welcome reception?
Maybe not. Here’s an email that a boutique law firm in New York sent to a legal recruiter who tried to submit CWT résumés for an opening:
CORRECTION: Actually, the email was sent to the recruiter UNSOLICITED, not in response to anything. It was apparently sent, out of the blue, to a group of legal recruiters.
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008
To: [Legal Recruiter]
Subject: FW: ResumesGood Afternoon,
Thank you for staying in touch with our firm. Please note that we are not going to be accepting resumes for Cadwalader candidates.
Thank you,
[Recruiting Contact]
Duval & Stachenfeld | 300 East 42nd Street New York NY 10017
Ouch. Are Cadwalader lawyers now the Untouchables of the law-firm caste system?
Note that this slap in the face comes from Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, which is far from snobby in its hiring practices. It draws heavily from non-top-tier law schools and pays $60,000 starting salaries to its associates.
(It should be noted, however, that the Duval firm is more elitist when it comes to its lateral hiring. As discussed here, for entry-level hiring, the firm looks well beyond the top-tier law schools. But for midlevel and senior associates, it tends to poach from the Skaddens and Lathams of the world — and pay accordingly.)
P.S. For a more upbeat take on Cadwalader, see Ashby Jones’s Legal Beat column in the Wall Street Journal (via the WSJ Law Blog).
UPDATE / CLARIFICATION: We have received a letter from Bruce Stachenfeld, founding partner of Duval & Stachenfeld, clarifying the situation. An excerpt:
When I (the managing partner of D&S) heard about the CWT layoff news my immediate reaction was that I felt very bad for my friends at CWT. It is a great firm suffering from some market turmoil and all of us running law firms know that adverse market forces can happen to any of us.
My other reaction was that since we are hiring junior lawyers a possible win/win/win would be for us to talk to CWT directly about whether we could hire some of their adversely affected people. This would permit us to find some super-star-high-quality associates – would permit CWT to help its people locate new jobs – and would permit some of the adversely affected associates to get new jobs promptly.
So I did the logical thing and contacted one of my friends at CWT to discuss this. After my discussion I sent a letter to be sent to some of the associates who had the requisite background to fit into our real estate group. It remains to be seen if we will end up hiring CWT associates. My hope is yes.
Since resumes had started to come in (through legal recruiters) I instructed our recruitment coordinator to inform legal recruiters that I would not be accepting resumes through legal recruiters due to our close relationship with CWT. I thought it appropriate to let the legal recruiters know this promptly to avoid misunderstandings with them about recruitment fees.
You can read the full letter after the jump.
[Ed. note: Apologies for this late posting. We've been experiencing some technical difficulties this morning.]
* Texas executed a Mexican citizen yesterday after SCOTUS denied a last minute request for a reprieve. Neither the International Court of Justice nor the Bush administration is pleased. [New York Times]
* Ninth Circuit to review an e-mail hacking case that could redefine online privacy. [Washington Post]
* Reputed mobster John Gotti indicted … again. This time in Tampa. Maybe Florida prosecutors will fare better than New York ones have. [New York Times]
* Justice Department prepares to declare anthrax case closed. [New York Times]
* Biggest identity theft ring ever exposed. Federal prosecutors charge 11 people from five different countries with stealing 41 million credit card numbers. [International Herald Tribune]
* California man convicted of murdering his lawyer when case went badly. [San Jose Mercury News]
* Not really law-related, but definitely amusing. Paris Hilton responds to McCain’s ad: Paris for President? [Funny or Die]
And now, some layoff news from the other side of the pond, courtesy of TheLawyer.com:
DLA Piper is conducting a firmwide review of staffing levels, resulting in five redundancies in the firm’s technology, media and communications (TMC) group.
The layoffs, which were all in London, include three assistants, a legal director and an associate.
The cuts, which were all voluntary, coincided with the loss of IP partner Richard Penfold, who left for US firm Heller Ehrman. A DLA spokesperson wished Penfold good luck. He joins Heller’s year-old City office as its eleventh partner.
Those Brits can be so confusing sometimes. The headline refers to five lawyers being made “redundant,” but some of those job titles — “assistant,” “legal director” — sound like positions that would be held by non-lawyers in the United States.
And the “cuts” are described as “voluntary.” What does it mean for layoffs to be voluntary? Isn’t their involuntary nature the whole point of layoffs?
DLA review sees five TMC lawyers redundant [The Lawyer]
* Why does Wall Street get all the juicy scandals? We’re jealous of our DealBreaker colleagues. [Dealbreaker]
* Larry Ribstein’s take: “it’s hard not to think that it’s really all about dispute a few weeks ago between [the NYT's Andrew Ross] Sorkin and Dealbreaker’s John Carney.” [Ideoblog]
* Are you in the top one percent of U.S. taxpayers ranked by adjusted gross income? And which states are home to the richest of rich taxpayers? [TaxProf Blog]
* “Would you trust a law professor to be President?” [Althouse]
* Speaking of law profs, they may boycott the annual AALS meeting, due to the hotel owner’s opposition to same-sex marriage. [National Law Journal via TaxProf Blog]
* An interesting interview of Fried Frank partner Jonathan Mechanic, a superstar of the real estate bar. [New York Observer]
* Russian judge: “If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.” [Telegraph (U.K.)]
[Ed. note: This post is by FROLIC & DETOUR, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Frolic & Detour's avatar (at right).]
Demanding bosses come with the territory in our line of work. Several less-than-loving legal employers have been profiled here on ATL, and you’ve shared some fine examples of bossal abuse. But until today, we’ve never undertaken a search for the worst boss in the legal profession.
This week, we want to find the ultimate briefcase-hurling, insult-spewing master of the legal boss’s art. ATL will get the ball rolling by offering the first nominee:
Senior Judge Suzanne B. Conlon, a living legend of the Northern District of Illinois, is a true judicial diva. She even fired a staff member who refused to carry the judge’s lunch up 17 flights of stairs on a day when the elevators weren’t working. But those in the know tell us that Judge Conlon didn’t reach the pinnacle of her achievements in bossery until September 11, 2001.
Judge Conlon is famous for her punctuality and for her ruthless enforcement of deadlines. So when federal marshals evacuated the Dirksen courthouse that sunny morning, she stayed put in her chambers. One clerk began to make made preparations to leave, per the instructions of the guys with guns. Judge Conlon decreed [paraphrasing]: “It is a TUESDAY, you are here till SIX, and if you leave, don’t come back.”
So he left and didn’t come back.
Can you top this, readers? We bet you can. Tell us why your boss (or former boss) deserves the Worst Legal Boss honor at frolicndetour.atl.idol@gmail.com or in the comments. We’ll select the most outstanding candidates and post the full list of nominees on Thursday.
[Ed. note: This post is by SOPHIST, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Sophist's avatar (at right).]
Why does my television constantly tell me that being an attorney is: glamorous, “fun,” and yet so easy that any idiot can do it? I caught a preview for TNT’s new lawyer show, Raising the Bar, and, after my seizure, I realized that dramatic license has gone too far.
So, with a nod to the Coolest Law Firm bracket, I bring you the “Lionel Hutz Invitational.” Which of the following characters has done the most to mislead our friends and family about the true nature of our profession? Let’s keep it to characters created after 1990, so the kids can play along.Today, I’ll start with the quarterfinals, I’ll update the progress on Thursday, and on Friday we’ll vote on the finalists. But I sense how much ATL readers love to write in candidates, so please comment on the fictional donkeys that didn’t make my cut (I cannot watch Eli Stone or Shark). Perhaps I will run my own “shadow poll” based on the most popular write-in choices.
See the field after the jump.
Continue reading “Which Legal Fiction Makes Your Life Worse?”
Last week, we gave you a post on on-campus interviewing (OCI) cancellations by law firms at three schools. We wondered whether it might be an emerging trend. The flood of e-mails and comments in response suggests that it is.
We’ve compiled a long list for nervous law students. The firms or offices listed below have canceled plans to interview students on campus at certain law schools (or, in some cases, all law schools — the office isn’t hosting a 2009 summer program). When possible, we’ve specified the firm’s office, the law school reporting the cancellation, and the scope of the cancellation (e.g., 3Ls only).
Update / Correction: Please note that this list has been updated and corrected in various ways since it was originally published. Refresh your browser to get the latest version. Thanks.
Akin Gump – Philadelphia and Dallas offices (Georgetown)
[Ed. note: Akin's Philly office was never signed up to interview at Georgetown in the first place, so there was no cancellation.]
Arent Fox (Cornell)
Arnstein & Lehr – Chicago office
Baker & Hostetler – Orlando office
Barnes & Thornburg – Chicago office (John Marshall)
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft – New York office (Case Western, Rutgers)
Cooley Godward – 3Ls (UCLA)
Dorsey & Whitney – New York office
Duane Morris – Philadelphia office (NYU)
Edwards Angell Palmer Dodge (NYU)
Faegre & Benson – 3Ls (UCLA)
Gunderson Dettmer – 3Ls (UCLA)
Kirkland & Ellis – 3Ls (UCLA)
Kirkpatrick Kilpatrick & Stockton (Georgetown)
McKenna Long & Aldridge
Mintz, Levin – Washington, DC office
Morrison & Foerster – L.A. office (U. Penn.; Brooklyn Law School)
Powell Goldstein
Seyfarth Shaw – (Boston University)
Simpson Thacher – Palo Alto office – 3Ls (UCLA, UVA)
Skadden (Brigham Young University, Catholic)
Stinson Morrison Hecker (University of Texas)
Strasburger & Price – Austin office (University of Texas)
Thelen Reid (UVA)
White & Case (Fordham)
[Ed. note: White & Case is interviewing very enthusiastically at Fordham, which it regards as a "key school" for the firm.]
Willkie Farr – Washington, D.C. office (Columbia)
[Ed. note: The Willkie Farr cancellations apply only to 3L interviewing.]
Winstead PC – Dallas office (Georgetown)
As some of you noted, canceling on-campus interviews may be a cost-savings strategy for firms feeling the economic squeeze. One of you suggested that law schools stop charging firms to interview on campus:
Maybe if some of the schools where firms are interviewing didn’t charge the firms so much to come on campus to interview, they wouldn’t be cancelling…. you know some schools don’t charge at all (and aren’t getting cancellations).
Some firms canceled 3L interviews only. That and rumors of an increasing number of cold offers and no-offers to this year’s summer associates suggest that firms will have limited spots for the Class of 2009.
After the jump, we’ve got a message from a 3L advice seeker, plus full memos from law schools on OCI cancellations.
Continue reading “More on On-Campus Interview Cancellations”
- Aaron Charney, Alex Kozinski, Ann Althouse, ATL Idol, Eliot Spitzer, Elizabeth Halverson, H. Rodgin Cohen, Jeremy Pitcock, Pictures, Thomas Goldstein
What if They Mated: Legal All-Stars Edition
By Marin[Ed. note: This post is by MARIN, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Marin's avatar (at right).]
From ergonomic wrist supports to dual computer monitors, law firms wring every ounce of productivity from the attorneys they haven’t axed (yet). But while firms close branch offices and fire scores of lawyers, we submit that the answer to the current economic slump isn’t merging firms – it’s merging people. Everybody knows that two lawyers are better than one. It’s time for firms to get both and pay half; time for attorney mating.
No more legions of staff attorneys or filibuster roll-calls. Say goodbye to team meetings that resemble the Last Supper. Through attorney mating, firms can combine, say, the skills of master litigators with those of corporate powerhouses in order to produce uberlawyers with the efficiency of ten Aeron chairs. Using genetic samples from parent attorneys and the latest in Photoshop technology, we’ll give you a sneak peak at the offspring of some of the most sought-after combinations.
Read more, after the jump.
Continue reading “What if They Mated: Legal All-Stars Edition”
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