Thomas O’Brien is the former U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. He recently joined Paul Hastings, which trumpeted his arrival in a press release. Tom O’Brien is a public figure — he used to be the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate — so he’s used to a little public scrutiny.

But O’Brien couldn’t have been prepared for what happened when his girlfriend’s estranged husband took an unauthorized stroll through her email inbox. The husband found emails between O’Brien and his wife, and they didn’t make him happy.

Instead of handling the situation like a rational adult, the husband — we’ll call him “Ken” — decided to bombard the professional networks of both O’Brien and his wife (also an attorney) with the “pillow talk” emails he discovered. Ken attempted to cast the relationship between O’Brien and his (Ken’s) wife as an affair.

This is not the first time such a thing has happened. Back in 2008, the New York Times reported on a husband’s similar vendetta against a successful Wall Street banker, carried out online. Earlier this year, as Above the Law readers may recall, a cuckolded husband emailed sexting messages between his wife and a White & Case attorney to all of the lawyers at White & Case in Miami.

Ken took this aggressive strategy one insane step further, apparently emailing every lawyer he could think of. You may have already received Ken’s emails, especially if you’re in California, from Ken himself or via email forward.

Is spamming an entire professional network the new revenge of the spurned lover? Are lawyers, as members of a profession that is surprisingly small and highly reputation-conscious, especially vulnerable to this tactic? Does this approach actually work?

After the jump, let’s look at the offense and the (over)reaction.

Ed. note: This post has been updated. Please read below (updates in bold).

Not all Biglaw types are luxuriating in 1600 hours for the year. Some are still working long hours and spending late nights at the office. There can be hazards to late night assignments: canceled dinner plans, sleep deprivation, and running across an armed robbery in the car garage.

Such was the case last night, in a garage shared by many firms, including Paul Hastings. A Los Angeles attorney sent us this e-mail last night at midnight EDT/ 9 p.m. PDT:

This evening, some attys in the office received the following email:

“In case you guys were planning on leaving the office, there’s an armed car jacking going on in j2, its barricaded and cops aren’t letting anyone in. Some sort of stand-off with the cops now.”

Our correspondent has since retired. We have inquiries in to Paul Hastings but have not gotten an official statement yet. Are there any early risers on the West Coast who know more about this? Send us tips at tips@abovethelaw.com.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles garage in question is shared by Paul Hastings and other noteworthy Biglaw firms, such as Morgan Lewis, Winston & Strawn, and Jones Day.

The full story from a building manager is that a woman — we don’t know her Biglaw affiliation, if any — was approached by a man in the parking lot who demanded that she surrender her car keys. She did and called the police. That precipitated the closing of the garage. The police investigated the crime scene for a couple of hours, which is why nobody was allowed to leave the building during that time. No “stand-off,” just a crime scene investigation.

The criminal was not apprehended, but police reports indicate that the criminal left behind some physical evidence. As we understand it, the car jacker was not armed.

We’ll keep updating this post as we have more details to report.

As we roll through the next segment of the 2010 Vault rankings, we get into some firms that have been caught testing the stealth layoff waters. To refresh your memory, here is the next list of firms:

31. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy
32. Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker
33. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
34. Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
35. Winston & Strawn
36. Allen & Overy
37. Willkie Farr & Gallagher
38. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
39. Baker Botts
40. Munger Tolles & Olson

Check out the big move by Munger. It’s up 11 spots on this year’s list. And let’s not forget about the firm’s #1 A-List ranking by Am Law earlier this year. Munger’s managed to do all of this without laying off a massive number of associates. Hopefully other Biglaw firms (and current 2Ls) will take note.

We know people have strong opinions about some of the firms on this list. Let’s get into them after the jump.

Yesterday, we reported that Paul Hastings would be allowing its class of 2010 associates to start on time in the fall of 2010. We received this information directly from a Paul Hastings spokesperson.

Sadly for future Paul Hastings associates, the spokesperson was in error. Here’s the new quote:

Paul Hastings will have some of its new associates start in the fall of 2010, but some new associates will start in the January 2011.

In our poll yesterday, 57% of you said you would rather risk summering at a firm with a 75% offer rate for the guarantee of starting on time. Well, I guess that firm is not Paul Hastings.

Earlier: Paul Hastings Offer Rates

There has been a lot of chatter about the offer situation at Paul Hastings. Right now, we understand that about 50% of the current summer class has received an offer to return to the firm. The other 50% are in limbo.

Above the Law talked with a spokesperson for Paul Hastings. We have some good news, some bad news, and some great news to report.

First the good news: Paul Hastings intends to make offers to between 70% and 75% of its current summer class, firm wide. That means as many as half of the people who haven’t heard anything about their offers could be receiving an opportunity for full time employment. Yay.

Obviously, the bad news is that there will be quite a few summers that will not be getting an offer from Paul Hastings.

At least the firm is being upfront about the reason to no offer between 25% and 30% of the class. Paul Hastings told us “it’s the economy.” You can’t get any more straightforward than that.

We understand that Paul Hastings will end the suspense for its summers by the end of the program. The summer program wraps up over the next two weeks at the firm.

But for the majority of Paul Hastings summers that will be getting a full-time offer, there is some truly great news for you just after the jump.

Update / Correction: Please see after the jump.

Earlier this week, we reported on staff layoffs at Paul Hastings. Since Lehman collapsed, Paul Hastings has been through few rounds of attorney layoffs as well.

But Paul Hastings partners haven’t exactly been sitting back and counting cash. Especially younger partners. Above the Law has been able to confirm that a number of partners have been de-equitized since the beginning of the global financial crisis.

Our sources didn’t have overall numbers. But, one tipster put it like this:

You should cover what is going on at Paul Hastings … don’t forget that things are sh**** for jr. partners too.

No doubt.

But according to Paul Hastings spokespeople, the only thing happening at Paul Hastings is “business as usual.”

More details after the jump.

In this economy, firms are looking for efficiency wherever they can find it. Above the Law has been able to confirm that 25 staffers will be let go at the end of July as Paul Hastings moves its document production services to its Los Angeles office. The goal, as we understand it, is to centralize the firm’s document production services and make them more efficient.

The move will result in 25 terminated positions in New York and other Paul Hastings offices around the the country. But the firm is also creating new positions for staffers in L.A.

The affected personnel have been informed of the cuts. But Paul Hastings’s spokespeople report that those staffers have been encouraged to apply for the new L.A. document work. Successful applicants will have their relocation expenses paid by the firm.

And the weather is nicer in L.A.

Staffers who are unable to secure a position in L.A. — or who simply don’t want to go — will receive a severance package.

As Maria von Trapp might say: Whenever God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window. Of course, Maria von Trapp married a super wealthy guy but still ended up living in Vermont, so maybe she doesn’t have the most applicable advice.

Perhaps Micheal Ray Richardson has some advice that is more relevant to the current situation?

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of staff layoffs

Many law school graduates are preparing for an endless summer. Endless in that they won’t be starting work until well into the winter. At this point, the majority of firms are starting 2009 graduates in January 2010. There are some outliers though — some firms are starting new associates as early as September 2009, and some are offering them start dates as late as January 2011.

Here are a few of the latest additions to the deferred start dates list from the past week:

We reported yesterday that Paul Hastings laid off a bunch of associates. In that report, we mentioned that a firm wide meeting was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. today. We’re getting the first reports from that meeting, and not surprisingly, associates received more information about the layoffs.

A tipster reports that Paul Hastings management emphasized that yesterday’s layoffs were the first round of “economic” layoffs. Apparently, all of the other PH layoffs that we’ve reported were performance based:

Previous terminations were performance based. But for world-wide economic downturn, the associates let go at this time would still be with the firm. Firm looked at past three months of performance and projected hours for 2009 and adjusted headcount to meet those expected hours. The decision was made on a department and office basis. It was not a flat 5% reduction. Some groups had no attorney or staff reductions and some offices had only very small reductions.

But there is also some good news for the remaining Paul Hastings employees.

More details after the jump.

At the beginning of February, we reported that Paul Hastings laid off a number of associates in its Atlanta office. At the end of February, the firm laid off some people in Los Angeles (and Shanghai). But it looks like today, Paul Hastings is laying off a much larger group of people. Here is the official statement from the firm:

In light of the deteriorating global financial market, we have announced today a regretted but necessary step of reducing our workforce by 44 associates and 87 staff. We are appreciative of our colleagues’ contributions to the Firm during their tenure. Affected employees have been offered severance benefits to ease their transition.

The news is pouring in from all of the firm’s offices, but the deepest cuts seem to be in Atlanta.

We understand that the firm is firing first years today as well.

On Monday, our sources started alerting us to a firm wide meeting that is scheduled for 11:00 am Wednesday. We understood that meeting to be the standard yearly meeting where associates received their bonuses. But now, there should be a lot more to talk about. A (laid off) tipster reports:

If PH screws me out of my bonus, I’m going to [vague threat] that f****** [specific threat]. Also [general anger].

Read the internal firm wide memo after the jump.

Earlier this month, we reported that Paul Hastings laid off a number of attorneys in its Atlanta office. Last week, we learned that the firm Paul Hastings took a slight dip in profits per partner in 2008.

You know what is coming next. A tipster reports:

I just wanted to let you know that stealth layoffs are ongoing at Paul Hastings. Rumor has it that the grim reaper is making rounds to many offices [in California].

Other tipsters report that the current round of layoffs at Paul Hastings has a truly international feel:

I heard that PH laid off 50% of its associates in the Shanghai office as compared to the same time last year.

We’re still waiting for a firm response after the jump.

* America can call off its search for Lance Armstrong’s stolen bike. I think we’ve found the culprit. [TaxProf Blog]

* For the avoidance of doubt, please see enclosed link (“Enclosure A”). [Courtoons]

* Jim Newell, blogger, thinks that lawyers in D.C. are not losing their jobs fast enough. Jim Newell may soon learn the downside to publishing under his real name. [NBC Washington]

* Residents of Miami high rise condo Buckley Towers won a $20 million verdict against an insurance company for damage sustained during Hurricane Wilma. With that kind of money in the mattresses, next week’s canasta tournament promises to be a nail biter. [South Florida Business Journal]

* Profits per partner are… wait for it… wait for it… DOWN at Simpson Thacher and Paul Hastings. And yet they still make more money than you. ZING. [The Lawyer]

* More on Michael Mukasey’s move. [Am Law Daily]

Rumors have been flying into ATL about what’s going down in the ATL all week. We are now able to report that the Atlanta office of Paul Hastings is going through a round of layoffs. Most of our sources agree that approximately ten associates have been let go.

The ten people represent about 15% of Paul Hastings’ associates in Atlanta, according to many tipsters and the latest NALP figures.

The firm furnished ATL with this response:

As in previous years, there is some limited turnover taking place in our Atlanta office as part of our annual performance evaluation process, as well as from attrition.

Some tipsters have expressed concern over the way Paul Hastings is communicating with associates:

Nobody has announced anything, and this is all being done in total silence from the PH partners and management…

The layoffs have not surprised any of the tipsters we talked with. Many report that work is slow, bordering on non-existent, in the Atlanta office.

If this is happening in Atlanta, you have to wonder if there are stealth layoffs happening in New York or California. If you have any information, send it in to tips@abovethelaw.com.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of law firm layoffs

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: time to announce Above the Law’s top two stories for 2008, on the gossip front. We’ve also been recapping the top stories on the business side of the fence, but stories about the business of law are available from many other outlets. Juicy law firm gossip is harder to come by.

Our two leading gossip stories were broken here at ATL. They were subsequently picked up by mainstream media outlets, but we covered them first.

Read about the two stories, after the jump.

Eric Holzer is was a tax attorney at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. But he’s been caught up in a $4.8 million insider trading scheme along with a bunch of day traders, a1994 Playboy Playmate; and Lee Corbin, a partner at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever LLP, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription).

(Corbin is being spared the ignominy of Lawyer of the Day, as he is only a “relief defendant” in the case. He is not charged with wrongdoing, but is being sued for ill-gotten gains as he acted on the advice of his son, one of the day traders.)

Sadly, Holzer threw his career away for just a little more than one year of a junior Biglaw associate salary. From the SEC press release:

Eric Holzer, age 34, Devlin’s friend and a tax associate in the New York City office of an international law firm, traded in at least three of the transactions. Holzer reaped profits of $175,000 in his own accounts and two accounts controlled by his father. Holzer gave Devlin cash, some of which came from shares he had his father buy on Devlin’s behalf.

According to The New York Law Journal, the scheme was led by Matt Devlin, a Lehman Brothers rep whose wife was a Brunswick Group partner. He referred to her as a “golden goose” and used information gleaned from her work to advise his friends on investments. When Devlin got caught, he helped bring his friends down.

More after the jump.

In connection with on-campus interviewing season, we’re giving you a chance to assess the firms that made this year’s Vault 100 list of most prestigious law firms. The previous open threads listed firms in groups of five, but to up the pace, we’ll list them by ten from here on out. Here’s the next group, with prestige scores in parentheses:

21. O’Melveny & Myers LLP (6.815)
22. Clifford Chance LLP (6.772)
23. Jones Day (6.763)
24. Morrison & Foerster LLP (6.657)
25. Hogan & Hartson LLP (6.579)
26. Linklaters (6.574)
27. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (6.512)
28. Ropes & Gray LLP (6.501)
29. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP (6.494)
30. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker (6.481)

We note Magic Circle firm Linklaters making a big leap from the high 30s in the 2008 list to #26 this year — perhaps because its “notable perks” include group retreats to Europe, a drinks trolley, and an on-site doctor and dentist.

Compare. Contrast. Discuss. Thanks.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

If you’re tired of reading about Shinyung Oh, the former Paul Hastings associate who sent a now-famous farewell email, fear not. The story is on its last legs.

We just wanted to tie up a loose end. Earlier this week, we wondered about whether she was still at Paul Hastings. Here’s the answer, courtesy of Shinyung Oh herself:

I’m no longer with Paul Hastings. Because I didn’t sign the release, my termination was effective as of sometime last week. If I had signed the release, I would have technically stayed on (on an inactive basis) until the end of July.

We wish Shinyung the best of luck in her future endeavors.

We also contacted the firm for comment; they had none. (An aside: Contrary to what some folks apparently think, we welcome hearing from the law firms that we write about. We often reach out to them for comment, especially on sensitive items, but they should also feel free to contact us sua sponte.)

One final thing. In the comments on our various Paul Hastings posts, there was occasionally a “piling on” quality, with lots of commenters lambasting PH (and some attacking Shinyung Oh as well).

But the comments are not necessarily representative of the ATL readership at large. Please take our two quick polls. Feel free to take whatever considerations you want into account when casting your vote (i.e., the polls aren’t based solely on the recent controversy).

Before we issued our report on lawyer layoffs at Paul Hastings, we reached out to the firm for comment. Eileen King, Global Director of Public Relations for Paul Hastings, told us that “the firm does not comment on employment law matters.”

Or something. After being subjected to waterboarding the enhanced interrogation techniques of the American Lawyer, Paul Hastings was moved to speak:

King told The Am Law Daily that while some associates have been let go, they were part of typical annual performance reviews. While she declines to say how many had been let go, King says the numbers were in line with last year’s cuts.

“There is always resulting turnover [after performance reviews], but we have not done any layoffs,” King says. “It’s really normal attrition based on performance evaluations, and the numbers show year over year that we’re up in associates. We’re a healthy firm in terms of head count and real revenue perspective, and the numbers really say the story in my mind.”

We’d be interested in seeing some actual numbers, in terms of this year’s cuts compared to last year’s cuts. It should also be noted that a firm can still lay off associates and see its headcount increase (if voluntary attrition slows, as it does during a bad economy, but new associates, from prior summer associate classes, continue to arrive).

But if PH says there have been no layoffs, then there have been no layoffs. Laying off associates? It’s just a state of mind. One firm’s “layoffs” are another firm’s “normal, performance-related attrition.”

King says the firm’s revenue and head count situation is healthy. Associate head count, she adds, is up “considerably” for the year, and the firm expects to welcome a larger summer associate class than in 2007. Revenue increased 19.9 percent in 2007, to $925 million. Profits per partner were up 19.6 percent, to $1.92 million.

A dramatic increase in PPP isn’t necessarily a rebuttal to the layoff claims. As Shinyung Oh, author of the famous PH Farewell Email, told the WSJ Law Blog, in explaining why she sent her dramatic missive, “I want [laid-off associates] to feel like they’re not completely alone and not to worry about their own performance when it’s the firm doing something for economic reasons… [or a] desire to increase partner profits.”

Speaking of Shinyung Oh, her bio is no longer on the PH website. Has she been officially terminated?

We’re looking into the situation. If you know anything, feel free to drop us a line.

Paul Hastings Denies Reports of Layoffs [American Lawyer]
Paul Hastings scotches lay-off reports [Legal Week]

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Paul Hastings

The folks over at the WSJ Law Blog have just given us a late-night treat: an interview with Shinyung Oh of Paul Hastings.

Oh is the author of the famous (and fabulous) PH Farewell Email — aka The Email That Launched A Thousand Blog Comments — and a heroine in the eyes of many Biglaw associates around the country. Here are a few highlights from the interview:

[T]he former associate, Shinyung Oh (University of Chicago ’93, Georgetown Law ’98), a commercial litigation lawyer…. says she sent the now-infamous email because she didn’t want other associates who may be laid off because of downsizing by the firm – but told it is because of their performance – to doubt their own abilities.

“I want them to feel like they’re not completely alone and not to worry about their own performance when it’s the firm doing something for economic reasons” and because of a “desire to increase partner profits,” she said.

Inducing crippling self-doubt among associates is one of the most pernicious things about “stealth layoffs,” in which economically-driven dismissals are cast by firms as purely performance-based. We know this from having spoken to stealth-layoff victims, who have described how their self-confidence was shattered when their firms dismissed them, purportedly for poor performance.

While there may be a “six of one, half-dozen of another” quality to this debate — as Dan Weiner of Hughes Hubbard & Reed just told the WSJ Law Blog, “is it economic or is it performance-related is a false dichotomy,” since if you have to make cuts, “you’re not going to pick people randomly” — we still think it’s the better part of valor for firms to take the reputational hit, rather than stick it to their associates. At any rate, it’s certainly fair for law students and lateral candidates to shun firms that get called out for being less-than-candid about their personnel decisions.

Back to the interview. Here’s the $64,000 — or three-months-severance — question: What was Shinyung Oh thinking when she sent out that email?

[Oh said] she knew that the email, which was sent to associates firm-wide, litigation partners in her office and the top management of Paul Hastings, could ruin her chances of landing another big-firm job. She said she isn’t considering suing the firm, and said she doesn’t feel she was discriminated against because of her pregnancy.

Oh Shinyung, are you sure? After Aaron Charney settled with Sullivan & Cromwell, he got himself a nice new apartment. Then again, if you were planning to sue, you probably shouldn’t have told the Wall Street Journal that you didn’t feel discriminated against on account of your pregnancy.

As for what’s next, Oh, who immigrated from South Korea when she was eight and grew up in New York and Houston, said she’s not sure. But she said that since the email was posted online, she’s received an outpouring of support from lawyers in the Bay Area and across the country. Several are trying to help her find a new job.

Shinyung, if you’re looking for headhunter recommendations, drop us a line — we can hook you up. And if you ever get the urge to send out another barn-burning, firmwide email, definitely give us a heads up. Based on the way that your email resonated with readers, it’s clear that you have writerly talent that deserves a wider audience.

In all seriousness, we wish Shinyung Oh the best of luck. We commend her for the courage it took to write that farewell email. We have every confidence that she will land on her feet — recall our prior post, quoting a colleague who praised her as someone who “ran a huge class action and got excellent results” — and we look forward to following her career in the years ahead.

Update: Jane Genova shares our optimism about Oh’s future. She writes: Oh “has almost an infinite number of fresh career options, within and outside law…. [enumerates options]…. Being the good solider, girl scout or boy scout has no payoff in the current career marketplace. Bold risks do…. Wild risk is the only secure path.”

P.S. Congrats to Amir Efrati on the interview. Read the full post over here. Check out a copy of Shinyung Oh’s 2006 performance review, also obtained by the WSJ, over here (PDF).

A screencap of her firm bio is saved for posterity, after the jump.

Fired Paul Hastings Associate Talks to Law Blog [WSJ Law Blog]
The New Risky Business - Shinyung Oh’s E-Mail Strategy [Law and More]

Earlier: Breaking: A Dramatic Farewell Email (And proof of Paul Hastings layoffs.)
Miscarriage of Justice at Paul Hastings? The Blogosphere Reacts
Nationwide Layoff Watch: Paul Hastings

Rumors of lawyer layoffs at Paul Hastings have been circulating for quite some time, since late last year. For example, back in November, we heard that the firm laid off / fired several associates in the real estate group. But we heard that secondhand, and we were unable to get confirmation, so we never wrote about it.

(That happens all the time, by the way. We get lots of gossip, but much of it never sees the light of day.)

Why has the PH layoff news been so elusive? One source explained: “A former Paul Hastings partner said PH likes to do its layoffs a little at a time, so they stay under the radar. I guess that didn’t work out too well this time.”

You can say that again. This week’s bombshell — an emotional farewell email from an associate in San Francisco who was laid off six days after her miscarriage (hereinafter “the PH Farewell Email”) — confirms the rumors: Paul Hastings has been laying off associates. But it has been doing so quietly, in small clumps, spread out over many months.

If the other laid-off lawyers got the same deal as the author of the PH Farewell Email, they received a three-month severance package. This appears to be standard or “market” for the latest round of Biglaw layoffs. For more details about the Paul Hastings severance deal — e.g., health insurance, vacation, access to firm email and voicemail — see the agreement (which also provides that the departure “is and will be classified as a resignation”).

Also note the agreement’s strict confidentiality provisions. In a nutshell, Paul Hastings has been buying the silence of the laid-off lawyers — and up until this week, the strategy was working quite nicely. PH isn’t a leading employment-law shop for nothing. They know how to draft a tight agreement, how to keep firings on the down-low, and how to keep terminated employees silent.

But now, in the wake of the PH Farewell Email, the floodgates have opened. Yesterday we solicited tips about Paul Hastings lawyer layoffs — and we received a wealth of information, from current and former PH lawyers, no longer afraid to speak out. (Of course, to be on the safe side, most of these sources emailed us from home, using their personal email accounts.)

The results of our investigation, after the jump (i.e., click on the “Continue reading” link below).