Ed. note: Law Shucks focuses on life in, and after, BigLaw, including by tracking layoffs, bonuses, and laterals. Above the Law is pleased to bring you this weekly column, which analyzes news at the world’s top law firms.
Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer for business, if not for astronomers, and with that comes the arrival of the summer associates. Most years, it’s a months-long party, but lately it’s taken on a veneer of respectability as young gunners put on their best face and try on professionalism. Gone are the days of cruising through, knowing that you’d really have to screw up to not get an offer. Offer rates have plummeted from the high 90s to little better than a coin flip at some firms.
If you think you need advice on how to behave during the summer program, there’s plenty out there whatever your role.
Corporette has some practical advice on keeping the weight off while being tempted left, right, and center with the city’s finest food. Even Jones Day’s hiring partner has some advice.
The highest-profile incoming summer associate is probably Sara Hallmark (nee Albert), a competitor on America’s Next Top Model, who will be summering at Hogan Lovells’ DC office. Not that she in particular needs fashion advice, but the newly merged firm did feel the need to publish a dress code for the legacy Lovells lawyers who are about to be freed to enjoy their first casual Fridays. Even with everyone on their best behavior these days, and no clash of culture excuse, other firms still send the dress-code memos out. Weil Gotshal is one of the latest – at least they illustrated their version.
* Arguably, things like giving a kid a swirly or locking him in the janitor’s closet (or doing other things that happened to me in school) are still okay in Louisiana. But sending a nasty email is now a crime? [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Some advice on how to keep the pounds off while you are a summer associate. If you don’t have a summer associate gig, I’m assuming your problem is trying to figure out how to live off your law school fat reserves for three months. Hibernation is always an option. [Corporette]
* As a New Yorker, I am soooo over Faisal Shahzad’s failed attempt to murder me or some of my 8,000,000 friends. But let’s hope the lesson sinks in with the rest of the country when it comes time to debate who should get the lion’s share of homeland security funding. [What About Clients?]
* Come on, you know you want to hear what Kagan thinks about 2 Live Crew. [Copyrights & Campaigns]
* Is going to journalism school just as wasteful as going to law school? [Law and More]
* … And if it is, then what should you do if you’re considering a job in law or journalism? [WSJ Law Blog]
* Kash will be emceeing the Electronic Privacy Information Center “Champions of Freedom” Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. on June 2nd. It will be a very public celebration of privacy. [Epic.org]
For female lawyers seeking advice about fashion and style, Corporette.com is a must-read. Many ATL readers are already familiar with this excellent site, which we link to often. If you’re not aware of Corporette, a self-described “fashion and lifestyle blog for overachieving chicks,” check it out here.
Corporette — which has been around for almost two years, since May 2008 — receives approximately 850,000 pageviews a month. It has received shout-outs in the New York Times, the National Law Journal, and Glamour, among other outlets.
Since the site’s inception, the writer has remained anonymous. Based on the use of “we” on Corporette, we’ve always assumed there were multiple authors.
As it turns out, there’s just one writer behind Corporette. And today, after almost two years of writing under a pseudonym, she has decided to come out of the blogging closet..
Interestingly enough, Corporette is a lawyer. Perhaps you know her?
* The IRS claims that an organization devoted to changing the laws pertaining to sex with children can’t be called a “charity.” I wonder if this mean I can get an exemption for my counter organization, the Foundation United for the Castration of Kiddie-rapists. [Going Concern]
* Has the ABA helped the cause of legal education since the 1996 DOJ consent decree ABA President Carolyn Lamm mentioned yesterday? [Marquette Law School Faculty Blog]
* The iPad might have some IP problems. But not from Kotex. [WSJ Law Blog]
* The right makeup for the killer interview. [Corporette]
* Friends don’t let friends go to law school. [Law.com]
* Minority enrollment in law schools is down, even though the test scores for minority applicants are up. Actually, I think this might be a good thing and not racist at all. No, really. [Legal Broadcast Network]
* Bob Ambrogi has decided to hang up his blogging boots. Good luck, Bob. Your writing style and excellent judgment on story selection will be missed. [Legal Blog Watch]
* The Law Shucks “Lateral Tracker” contest is almost over. [Law Shucks]
* What’s the difference between Senator Ben Nelson and a terrorist? The terrorist has principles. [Commentary]
* At some point, Obama is really going to have to stop being such an a$$**** when it comes to gay rights. [Crime & Federalism]
* The Fighting Sioux lawsuit got tossed. [Indian Country Today]
* UC Hastings has a new law dean. [Tax Prof Blog]
* Meanwhile, a 50% tuition scholarship for all three years at UC Irvine should keep well credentialed 1Ls flowing into the institution. [WSJ Law Blog]
* How much of your vacation time did you take in 2009? Don’t lie because you want to look hardcore. [Corporette]
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* Gatorade is no longer pushing Tiger Juice. [Dealbreaker]
* The SCOTUS of the future. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* Kash warns people not to take their clothes off, unless it’s for money. [True/Slant]
* Who needs to get a holiday card in your office? [Corporette]
* Do you need a Ph.D to succeed in legal academia? I hope not. Teaching sounds like mad fun. [Ideoblog]
* Yahoo lawyers prepare for battle. [Wired]
* Marc Randazza’s reputation is growing faster than the speed of light. [Bitter Lawyer]
* TP-ing is still an effective deterrent. [Going Concern]
* Could getting braces hurt a 1L’s job prospects? It’s hard to say, since there are no jobs for 1Ls anyway. [Corporette]
* Proskauer partner Jon Oram, a rising star of the sports law bar (and Lat’s law school classmate), was heavily involved in the sale of the Chicago Cubs. Oram’s a Yankees fan, so maybe some of that winning karma will rub off on Chicago’s lovable losers. [National Law Journal]
* Why is Shyne wearing an HLS T-shirt? [Baller Status]
* Is the 7th Circuit the coolest? [Blackbook Legal]
* Can you get in trouble for saying that creationism is religious, superstitious nonsense? [Bell & Bar]
* Body shots taken a bit too far. [Litination]
* We all need to be thrifty these days, so this question has to be asked. Is it okay to take away leftovers from a business lunch or dinner? [Corporette]
* A wanna-be reality star is suing the reality show producer for being mocked. I think I’d have more sympathy for an ax murderer. [True/Slant]
* How should a young lawyer handle the indefinite deferral offered by Alston & Bird. [Young Lawyers Blog]
* Even Plato would be disrespecting BC Law Professor Scott Fitzgibbon. [Law Librarian Blog]
* If a mandate to purchase health care would be constitutional under current interpretations of the commerce clause, does that mean we should change the interpretation of the commerce clause? [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Taking over Blawg Review is just step one in a diabolical plan.
[Unsilent Partners via Blawg Review]
With the arrival on-campus interviewing (OCI), inquiring minds want to know: How should I dress for my interviews?
Men have it easy. A dark suit, a white shirt, and a non-obnoxious necktie should fit the bill. If you have confidence in your fashion sense, you can be more adventurous. E.g., tastefully striped shirts; ties in cute patterns. For more thoughts on men’s fashion, see this earlier post.
Alas, the fairer sex has it harder. For advice on how women should dress in professional environments, read (and comment on) a pair of recent posts by our colleagues at Fashionista and our friends at Corporette. Corporate Fashion? [Fashionista] Corporette 101: The Old Mirror Trick [Corporette]
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.
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?
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* How would you react to a Biglaw intern walking around with a $9,000 handbag? [Corporette]
