We don’t have all of the details, but multiple sources report that WilmerHale is laying off 57 staffers today (secretaries and paralegals). We understand that the staff is being informed right now.

We don’t have information about what (if any) severance package is being offered to the departed staff. Our sources report that the layoffs will affect staff in Boston, D.C., and New York offices.

Spokespeople for WilmerHale did not respond to an immediate request comment. But we hope to have more information as people are informed of their job situation.

Good luck, WilmerHale friends.

UPDATE More from our tipsters, and a statement from the firm, after the jump.

Stalking, cat fights, cheating, assault, and a secret marriage. This is the scandalous news out of Vinton, Virginia (pop: 7,782) this week, thanks to a lawyer-lawyer-paralegal love triangle.

If you surf over to WDBJ to check out the tale, we advise watching the video and skipping the transcribed broadcast. It hurt our head to translate it. And it hurt our eyes to Photoshop the image at right — click to enlarge (if you dare).

Two bankruptcy law attorneys, Jeffrey Kessler and Ann Marie Miller (an Appalachian School of Law ‘06 grad), had been partnering on cases and in the bedroom. Ick. Apparently, Kessler then started secretly dating a younger woman, paralegal Jennifer Kelley.

That’s when things got messy — and, allegedly, violent.

The legal job market is a little dicey right now, leading some law grads to question the worth of their shiny new J.D. degree. Suffolk Law grads — and not just the ones who can’t get dates — are really questioning the value of their degrees, after an ill-timed job advertisement from Weil Gotshal & Manges went out on their career services list-serv:

Dear 2009 Graduates,

I wanted to make you aware of a great opportunity currently posted on Symplicity. Please find the job information below. Interested parties should apply through Symplicity with a resume and cover letter.

Employer: Weil Gotshal & Manges, LLP (Boston, MA)

Title: Paralegal Position for ‘09 Graduate

Description: This posting is for the class of 2009 grads who are not deferred for another position. Monday-Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm, flexibility with overtime required.

Yay, that Suffolk law degree can get you into Biglaw! But there’s a catch.

More after the jump.

At what point does a salary freeze start to feel like a salary cut? Staff at O’Melveny & Myers are about to find out. O’Melveny just announced a new salary ice-age for its staff. Above the Law obtained this internal memo sent to O’Melveny staffers:

We are committed to taking proactive steps to maintain our financial strength in the face of unprecedented economic times. As part of this effort, we continue to look at how we can prudently and efficiently manage our costs and have therefore decided that there will be no salary increases this year and the performance evaluation cycle will be extended from 12 months to 24 months. Your performance evaluation will now cover the period between July 2008 - July 2010. We will consider salary increases at the end of the new performance review period in July 2010.

O’Melveny has already been through layoffs. In March, 200 people were let go, including 110 staffers. So on the one hand, a salary cut is a lot better than being out on the street.

On the other hand, staffers don’t make much to begin with, and nobody wants a static salary. O’Melveny staff better start rooting for the rest of the American economy to continue its deflationary trend.

O’Melveny confirmed that the freeze only applies to staff.

Will we see more ice-age freezes this summer? Stay tuned.

Check out the full firm statement after the jump.

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: O’Melveny Fires 90 Lawyers, 110 Staff

* A word of advice to the new summer associates: Paralegals can’t be trusted. [Legal Intelligencer]

* SCOTUS dismissed the lawsuit that sought to punish top Bush officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, for detaining Muslims that were not involved in 9-11. [Christian Science Monitor]

* Military commission trials for Guantanamo detainees present many of the same challenges that the Bush administration faced, in spite of Obama’s facelift. [New York Times]

* The White House passed on an opportunity to bring a case involving gays in the military to the Supreme Court. Are they stalling and playing politics or are they right to say that the law should be changed in the legislature and not the courts? [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]

* What do potential SCOTUS nominees and ambulance chasers have in common? Uh, hopefully nothing…[Esquire]

* The court will hear a case against Sarbanes-Oxley in the fall term—is this the time to question too much oversight? [Washington Post]

Times are tough for we media folk these days. Newspapers across the country are declaring bankruptcy, magazines are dying, and Atlantic Magazine has even predicted the end of the New York Times.

Given the challenging environment for journalism, we thought you might be worried about the fates of Sue: For Women in Litigation and KNOW: A Magazine for Paralegals. We know you have a special interest in Sue since one of you ATL readers was responsible for naming the magazine.

Though the magazine’s publisher, Chere Estrin of EstrinLegalEd, filed for Chapter 11 in December (Bankruptcy Petition # 2:08-bk-32520-BR), the magazines struggle on. We surfed over to their websites and discovered that KNOW is down to 6 issues per year, and that Sue just released its inaugural issue, albeit a digital version only. According to the website:

Sue is a 100-percent digital publication. It looks just like a hard-copy magazine except that you will view it on your PC. You can even ‘turn’ the pages. The inaugural edition is Feb./Mar. 2009.

Well, that sounds snazzy. We didn’t get a chance to peruse the digital mag, but it must be good given its endorsements. The homepage proclaims:

Sue Magazine has been recognized in AmLaw Online; The National Law Journal; The ABA Journal; Above The Law and other prestigious publications.

We’ve been called many things, but prestigious is a new one.

Earlier: Move over Marie Claire and Elle, Sue’s coming to town
We Don’t KNOW How This Magazine for Paralegals Will Do

Last week, we posted an open thread to discuss end-of-the-year gift giving to your secretary and/or paralegal. We’ve waded through the many comments to fish out some points of consensus.

In case comments are not indicative of general trends, here are some polls to see what your peers are doing. New York is its own world, and gets its own poll:

And what about the trend across the rest of the country?

One commenter says that even if you have a bad secretary, “one of those ‘can’t make a copy’ people,” associates should still give a small gift, but should not feel obligated to give a hefty cash bonus.

More polls — about who you are giving to, and how to handle gift-giving if you’ve changed secretaries — after the jump.

With the holidays two weeks away, many are starting to think about the frantic search for gifts for loved ones… and loved support staff. A Consumer Reports survey indicates that 76% of Americans will cut back on gift giving this year. Surprise, surprise. But what does it mean for planning your gift for your secretary and/or paralegal?

Writes one ATL reader:

I’m a NYC 4th year and for three years have given my secretary $100 per year I’ve been at my firm (plus a small — $25 — physical gift as well). If I follow that pattern, I’d give her $400 cash in a few weeks.

My secretary is great and I would like to show my appreciation. But this year, with my job hardly safe and my bonus likely to be at Half-Skadden levels (if I even survive long enough to get a bonus), does the $100 per year rule still apply in NYC?

I think we need a full post on this. It’s not 2007 anymore.

$400 seems high, even for New York. We thought $150-200 was the going rate.

For the uninitiated, it’s customary for associates at large law firms to give a cash gift to their administrative assistants, often along with a card or small gift. Not everyone opts for cold, hard cash— some do AmEx or Visa gift cards. (If you do choose to go with bills, please make sure they are not of the soiled, dog-eared variety.)

One secretary wrote to us this year to voice opposition to the inter-office gift giving (and she’s not the only one):

How should a legal secretary ask her lawyers to not give her gifts? I don’t think Christmas has any place at work, and, though I respect and appreciate my lawyers, I don’t want them giving me gifts. I find it awkward and embarrassing on many different levels. I’ve been at my current job 5 years and tried at first simply not reciprocating. But they never got the message. I’m dreading this year’s ordeal like the plague. They make a little ceremony of calling me into an office as if I were in trouble. Please ask your readers what I might say that would stop the gifts without offending my guys. Thanks!

So, here’s an open thread to discuss your gift-giving plans in the current economic environment. Are you scaling back this year due to a diminished bonus? What’s the scale in your town? Does your paralegal get to sit on Santa’s lap as well? And if your secretary wants no part in the 12 days of Christmas, how should she let you know?

Thacher Proffitt & Wood has been struggling for some time. A memo sent by managing partner Paul Tvetenstrand to TPW staff the Wednesday before Thanksgiving provides the latest evidence of the firm’s faltering state:

From: Paul D. Tvetenstrand

To: Non-legal staff

As you are aware. The past year has posed many challenges for the firm given the downturn in the economic climate which has affected our clients and ultimately the firm. Unfortunately given this continuing downturn the firm will not be able to pay any bonuses or year end service awards this year. We truly appreciate the contributions each of you has made in these trying times and we wish we were able to recognize each of you as you deserve.

Paul

I’m not at all sure why TPW tried to bury this information within the Thanksgiving news cycle. Did they think TPW staffers were not going to notice? Maybe they were thinking of maintaining their industry reputation, but most people who have been paying attention already know that TPW is in serious trouble.

More TPW back story after the jump.

As promised, we bring you an update on yesterday’s coverage of staff layoffs at Fried Frank. Here are a few additional details, from the National Law Journal (subscription):

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson is reducing administrative staff in New York and Washington. The reductions, which a firm spokeswoman said were less than 10% of the law firm’s 730 staffers firmwide, affect primarily floating secretaries, part-time assistants and paralegals and library personnel.

The layoffs, first reported on AboveTheLaw.com, resulted from the law firm’s review of its administrative resources and staffing requirements. The employees will receive severance packages based on years of service, the spokeswoman said.

Update / Correction: One source questions the claim that the layoffs affected “primarily” floaters and part-time assistants. According to this tipster, many of the laid off employees were full-time, senior secretaries — a number of them over 50, and some just a few months shy of getting their pensions. This source predicts that age discrimination lawsuits will be filed.

One tipster tells us the number of affected employees was in the range of 50 to 60, which would amount to under 10 percent of 730 staffers, and that severance amounted to one week of pay for every year of service. We also hear this:

Apparently, mail room, duplicating and facilities were told that their jobs were being outsourced by the end of the year. They could start looking for new jobs before getting laid off at the end of the year or apply with the outsourcing agencies (with no guarantees of a job or placement at Fried Frank).

New York staff were given “a few minutes to pack up and get out”; cars were provided to take people home (a nice touch — hopefully that will become “market”). One source claims that employees were laid off without regard to their seniority or their performance reviews, whether negative or positive.

What about attorneys? A spokesperson emphasized to us that Fried Frank “doesn’t do lawyer layoffs,” which was reiterated to associates by firm chair Valerie Ford Jacob at a meeting yesterday.

(Jacob also claimed that the firm has never laid off lawyers. But one source at FFHSJ begs to differ. This source claims that the firm laid off attorneys back in 1990, and then “suffered years of recruiting problems because of it,” which may explain its reluctance to go down that path today.)

More detail about the meeting, after the jump.

Last week we started hearing rumors of imminent staff layoffs at Fried Frank. The rumors have now come true, as we’ve been hearing from multiple sources. Today appears to be the big day.

We submitted an inquiry to the firm. A spokesperson issued the following statement:

Over two years ago Fried Frank began a review of its administrative resources and staffing requirements. As part of this review process some departments were expanded and others consolidated.

Today’s administrative staff reductions are part of that business review process. Those affected are in the Firm’s NY and Washington DC offices. Severance and career counseling were offered to all of those affected.

We aren’t sure of the numbers (and the firm has not yet responded to our request for that data). One of the rumors from last week said the number could be as high as 10 percent of total staff headcount. We hear that in the D.C. office, at least eight or nine people have been laid off, as of the time of this posting. The numbers in New York are said to be significantly higher than in Washington.

The affected employees include secretaries, paralegals, and library personnel. Severance packages appear to vary, from as low as seven weeks to as high as three months.

People are being called in and given the bad news individually. But meetings are also being held at 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. in D.C. (It’s not clear what New York is doing.)

One staffer in New York was given 30 minutes to pack up all belongings and leave the premises. In Washington, however, that’s not happening; one source describes that office as “more humane.”

We will bring you more information as the story develops. If you have information to share, please email us.

Whatever happened to asking your paralegal to make some binders? Or asking your secretary for some photocopying, or to fill out your expense report? When it comes to support staff, why are lawyers getting so demanding all of a sudden?

First this. Now this, via the Tampa Tribune:

A former legal assistant in Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger’s office has filed a federal lawsuit against him, alleging she was retaliated against after complaining that male lawyers had made sexually degrading remarks to her.

Jessica A. Schwartz filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tampa….

[Schwartz’s boss Alan] Bulnes and another lawyer, Brett Berger, [allegedly] had a conversation with Schwartz in which they suggested she pole dance in her office like a stripper, the lawsuit states.

We bet those colored post-it flags would make great pasties.

Ex-Legal Assistant Sues Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender [Tampa Tribune]

Earlier: Paralegal: Will Collate, Will Not Fellate

Okay, this is not the most exciting layoff news ever. It pales in comparison to the massive bloodshed over at Cadwalader this morning, which forced us to break out the Drudge siren. It reminds us of those Kaye Scholer secretarial layoffs from May, just not as big.

But when it comes to law-firm layoff coverage, we try to be as thorough and as granular in detail as possible. If people click on the Layoffs tag here at ATL, they should be able to access, in one place, news of all acknowledged — and some unacknowledged — layoffs at Am Law 200 firms, covering both lawyers and staff.

So, with that said, check out the WSJ Law Blog, for news of staff cuts at Bingham McCutchen.

Bingham McCutchen Lays Off 10 Staff Members [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Kaye Scholer Lays Off Five Secretaries

[UPDATE on 04.03.09: Case dismissed.]

Paralegal-ing is a rough gig. Paralegals tend to get the legal drudgery similar to that done by first year associates, without the six-figure paycheck. And if you’re a paralegal for Richard Laminack, a titan of the Texas plaintiffs’ bar, you may also be asked to receive unwanted advances, fellate expert witnesses, and help defraud clients.

The American Lawyer reports on paralegal Angela Robinson’s complaint (PDF), filed against Laminack and the two firms at which she worked for him. (We have to wonder why she followed him to the second firm despite the workplace horrors. Cf. Anita Hill.)

Here’s a choice excerpt, available in full after the jump:

That is certainly above and beyond the paralegal call of duty.

The website of Laminack, Pirtle & Martines says that it’s their “honor and priveledge [sic]” to represent clients. And defraud them? According to Robinson’s complaint, Laminack “ordered checks on non-existent medical records for Fen-Phen clients and then docked the cost of the records checks from the clients’ settlement shares.”

(What is it with Fen-Phen lawyers and cheating clients? The WSJ Law Blog had extensive coverage of the Kentucky attorneys accused of bilking their Fen-Phen clients out of millions.)

Robinson put up with the sexual harassment for years; she alleges she was terminated when she confronted Laminack about the Fen-Phen scheme. She wants $55,000 for wrongful termination and back pay. A longer version of the salacious bits of her complaint, after the jump.

Res ipsa loquitur; we’ll keep our commentary to a minimum. Click here to access a short video about Antonio Haynes / Jenna Saisquoi, “Paralegal by day, drag queen by night.” Fabulosity!

Some commenters will surely have irreverent observations. We say: Caveat commentor. Are you sure you wanna mess with Ms. Jenna Saisquoi? Paralegals are talented at hunting people down — and Ms. Saisquoi has an impressive set of guns (and bazookas).

P.S. At the start of the video, Haynes mentions that he won’t mention where he works as a paralegal. Consistent with that, please don’t identify or speculate about his legal employer in the comments. Thanks.

Paralegal by day, drag queen by night [Rochester Insider]

Rumors of layoffs at Powell Goldstein have been swirling about for some time. But until now they’ve just been rumors.

This afternoon, James J. McAlpin, Jr., chairman of Powell Goldstein, confirmed the cuts for us. We emailed him and mentioned some of the numbers we’ve been hearing. He responded:

Although the reason for your interest in our internal business operations is a mystery to me, in an effort to prevent you from publishing a ridiculous number with respect to lay offs I can tell you the following.

As a result of the general economic situation and its effect on law firms, including our firm, we have needed to reduce operating expenses this year. This has included a reduction of staff across administrative departments and offices, and totaling less than 10% of our overall staff.

We have, unfortunately, also had to reduce our associate and counsel ranks in practice areas most affected by the current state of the economy. The number of associates and counsel involved in this action was less than 10. Jim McAlpin

We thank Mr. McAlpin for the information. As for the reason for our interest in law firms’ internal business operations, well, it’s kinda our job.

We continue to chronicle layoffs at the nation’s major law firms. If you have information that hasn’t been previously reported, please email us (subject line: “Nationwide Layoff Watch”). Thanks.

Legal Pad (a Cal Law blog) has a link to this amazing complaint [PDF] filed by paralegal Jason Herrera against Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Herrera’s complaint — “for discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and fraud” — reads like a reality tv show pitch about the lives of paralegals. Herrera has been a paralegal in Weil’s Silicon Valley office since 2004. In his complaint, he talks about:

From Legal Pad:

(For those who don’t know, Matt Powers is one of the most feared, respected and successful patent litigators in the country.)

(Also for those of you don’t know, the ever-useful urban dictionary defines “pimp hand” as “the hand used to smack your ho’s around,” but has no definition for “mojo hand”)…

Reached Friday at Weil Gotshal where he still works, Herrera told Legal Pad he sued because he was out of options for resolving the problems. He has yet to serve the firm, and said he was contemplating Friday just how to do it.

Wikipedia says the mojo hand is a kind of magic charm. We still don’t know what a mojo hand is, but we want one!

As a former paralegal, Kash was most amused by Herrera’s complaint that he was given “repetitive, unchallenging and un-enriching tasks.” Welcome to being a paralegal!

Lawyer’s ‘Pimp Hand’ Mojos Up A Staffer’s Suit? [Legal Pad]
Complaint: Herrera v. Weil, Gotshal & Manges [PDF]

The bad news continues to roll in. Becker & Poliakoff, which just announced across-the-board pay cuts for its lawyers, isn’t the only Florida firm that’s hurting.

From a report by Julie Kay, for the upcoming issue of the National Law Journal:

In another sign of the hard times facing the legal industry, particularly in real-estate heavy South Florida, two local law firms — Holland & Knight and Shutts & Bowen — have laid off non-lawyer staffers.

On a day that could be dubbed Black Friday in South Florida legal circles, Tampa-based Holland & Knight, one of Florida’s largest and most venerable firms with 1,150 lawyers, laid off 70 staffers Friday, including legal secretaries, IT and accounting staff. No lawyers were laid off.

The layoffs of about four employees in each of Holland’s 17 offices represented 5% of Holland’s non-lawyer workforce.

Shutts & Bowen, a 200-lawyer, Miami-based firm, Friday laid off nine people, all entry level file clerks or paralegal clerks. No lawyers or legal secretaries were affected.

Holland & Knight spokeswoman Susan Bass told the Daily Business Review that the firm “had some redundancies and inefficiencies.” Seventy staffers is a whole lot of redundancies.

Read more — about prior layoffs at H&K, and the situation over at Greenberg Traurig — below the fold.

BIG announcement. A magazine designed for paralegals is launching next month. It’s called KNOW — a strangely generic title. The full name is “KNOW: The Magazine for Paralegals.” It’s not to be confused with KNOW: The Science Magazine for Curious Kids.

As a former paralegal, I am fairly certain I would not have read this magazine. But I was one of those fresh-faced university grads trying to figure out whether I wanted to go to law school, and was not planning to be a career paralegal gal.

According to the promo, KNOW is an “outside-the-box, informative magazine balancing workstyle and life balance for paralegals.” Here are some of the articles planned for the first issue:

Famous TV Stars: What Fans Don’t Know About These Former Paralegals

Work Less, Earn More: Can You Ditch the 24/7 Stressful Routine?

The 10 Most Influential Paralegals in the Country

Trends Guaranteed to Change the Paralegal Profession

Diversity’s Little Secret: Are Caucasian Paralegals Doing Enough to Support African-American Paralegals?

Paralegals Succeeding Against All the Odds

Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry

In terms of industry niche publications, they’ve hit all the hot topics in the first issue: celebrities, diversity, and gender. Where do you go from there? We suggest an article ranking paralegal schools.

We’re skeptical. But we’ll pose the question to our paralegal readers. What do you think? Have you been wondering about how to succeed against all odds? Or whether Caucasian Paralegals are doing enough to support their African-American comrades in arms?

Update: We invite you to suggest article subjects for future issues of KNOW magazine, in the comments. E.g.: “Life beyond Paralegaling: Turning that Senior Partner’s ‘Stain’ into a Multi-Million Dollar Child Support Settlement.”

New Magazine for Paralegals [Estrin Report]

This week is chockful of holidays: Earth Day, Passover, and tomorrow, Administrative Professionals’ Day. (We apologize for putting Passover in the same sentence as the other two.)

Many of you are wondering what to do for secretaries, administrative assistants, and/or paralegals:

Administrative Professional’s Day is coming up this Wednesday. I found your column on gifts for secretaries on Christmas to be invaluable. Could you run something similar for Administrative Professional’s Day?

According to Wikipedia, “the day is often ‘celebrated’ by giving one’s assistant flowers, candy, small gifts, lunch at a restaurant, and time off.”

This is an open thread to allow you to discuss your plans. Will you do gifts for your secretary? For your paralegals? What gift, and what price range, are you planning on?

As a side note, the best gift Kash received as a paralegal was a gift card for Banana Republic. Clothing gift cards are cooler than bookstore gift cards.