Jaime Laskis
I’m not trying to compare the claims of Jaime Laskis, a former associate at the prominent Canadian law firm of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, with those of Charlene Morisseau (a legendary Lawyer of the Day honoree, from 2007). But we’ve got two stories vaguely related to alleged employee harassment and discrimination in the legal profession, and I wanted to click them both off so I have something to change the subject with when Sweet Hot Justice asks me if she’s a cougar when we meet for drinks tonight.
Let’s start with Jaime Laskis’s story, which is a bit more newsy. Laskis was an associate in the New York office of Toronto-based Osler, who claims she suffered various forms of sexual harassment while she worked there. One partner allegedly said that Harvard University was full of “pretty women pretending to get an education.”
I know, I know, that’s sounds like a man who has never been to a Harvard party. But Laskis makes other allegations….
Continue reading “Aggrieved Women Potpourri: Sexual Harassment Canada-Style, and the Return of Charlene Morisseau”
We’ve had our first report of summer offer rates. The news comes to us from the cheesesteak city. Pepper Hamilton gave out offers in its Philadelphia office on Friday, and it did it with style.
We’re told that the office’s 11 summer associates — 8 2Ls and 3 1Ls — went to lunch together on Friday to celebrate the last day of their eight-week program. Unexpectedly, the firm’s hiring chairs Michael Subak and Solomon Hunter showed up at the downtown Philly restaurant.
They offered to tell the summers how the hiring process would work. Midway through the explanation, Hunter allegedly said, “Why don’t we break the mold here?”
Continue reading “Pepper Hamilton Surprises Its Philly Summers with a 100% Offer Rate”
Lance David Lewis had one of the best jobs in the world. He was getting paid a couple grand a week, and he didn’t have to do any work for it. Too bad it wasn’t legit.
Early last month, the former Pennsylvania lawyer was finally disbarred with consent (meaning that he can’t defend the charges against him). Why?
Well, first, he was once charged with attempted murder. However, that charge was later dropped, and he pleaded guilty to some misdemeanor assault charges. Hell, who hasn’t that happen to them at least once or twice?
Oh, and he also swindled a portion of a settlement away from one of his clients. So, thus far, he’s batting 2 for 2.
What really accelerated Lewis’s downfall from the law? Lance David Lewis may very well be one of the first e-discovery contract attorneys to be disbarred for his malfeasance on a document review project — or, better put, off of a document review project.
In nine months, Lewis managed to rake in nearly $80,000 for work he never performed, contracting at a law firm via a staffing agency. In this case, the staffing agency was HireCounsel, and the law firm was Pepper Hamilton.
So how was he able to pull this off? The Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Pennsylvania Bar lays this out in pretty excruciating detail….
Continue reading “All Play and No Work Made Lance a Disbarred Boy”
It has not been a great offer season for firms in Philadelphia. Yesterday, we learned that Morgan Lewis & Bockius offered only 27.5% of its summer class.
The news coming out of Pepper Hamilton isn’t quite as bad. But it is not great. Multiple tipsters report that Pepper Hamilton made offers to seven summers, out of 13 people its summer program.
Last year, the firm brought on 38 summers and made offers to 30. Some of our tipsters expressed concern that Pepper significantly reduced the size of its summer program, but still couldn’t find offers for everybody:
There were only a dozen of us. If they didn’t need all of us, why bring us on for the summer? You’d think a major law firm would have better counting skills.
It’s a cautionary tale for 2Ls interviewing with law firms now. Just because firms are reducing the size of their summer programs, it doesn’t mean that the firms are planning on giving offers to all of their 2010 summer associates.
Earlier: Nationwide No Offer Watch: Rocky Balboa Division Blank Rome and Pepper Hamilton
Morgan Lewis No Offer Follow Up
Our continuing coverage of no offers suggests that a 90% offer rate is actually outstanding. Today we have news from two more firms that fell short of 90% but still made offers to the majority of their 2008 summer associates.
Our tipsters were right on the money with the information that Blank Rome no offered 4 summer associates out of a class size in the mid-20s. According to Blank Rome spokesperson Topper Ray:
Our 2008 summer associate class was comprised of 28 summer associates -24 2L’s and 4 1L’s. 20 out of 24 2L’s received offers.
Ray also confirmed that the 4 1Ls received invitations to summer with the firm next year.
In this market an 83% offer rate isn’t terrible, even though Blank Rome was able to extend offers to all of their 2007 summer associates.
The news was a little worse at another Philadelphia powerhouse, Pepper Hamilton. According to Pepper Hamilton spokesperson Polly Coxe:
In 2008, Pepper Hamilton extended offers to 20 of 27 summer associates in Philadelphia (two students withdrew from consideration before we made offer decisions). Firm-wide, we made offers to 30 of 38 summer associates. This is approximately the same number of offers we extended the past two years.
More from the streets of Philadelphia after the jump.
Continue reading “Nationwide No Offer Watch: Rocky Balboa Division
Blank Rome and Pepper Hamilton”
But it didn’t result in a front-page New York Times story on the Zyprexa settlement talks. Apparently reporter Alex Berenson had independent knowledge of the settlement negotiations, and this knowledge was the basis for his story. Details over at Drug and Device Law.
In our brief and breezy post, we never claimed that the email error triggered the NYT story. But we did link to other sources that mistakenly suggested this. So if you read the original post, be sure to read this correction / clarification.
Update: Actually, the correction may itself require correction (or at least clarification). See here.
It Wasn’t Pepper’s Fault! Berenson Confirms [Drug and Device Law]
Earlier: ATL Practice Pointer: When Emailing Super-Sensitive Settlement Information, Double Check the Recipient List
