As promised, we're back with our second installment of LEWW this week. We think you'll agree that this one features some of our finest contestants of the season. A SCOTUS clerkship (finally!), a Rhodes, more YLS grads -- enjoy this special Independence Day edition of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch!

Here are the names:

1. Stephanie Denton and Zeno Baucus

2. Mary Fan and Dean Kawamoto

3. Emma Terrell and Trevor Leitch

4. Courtenay Van Sciver and Peter Washkowitz

5. Maria Glover and Derek Ho

Click on the "continue reading" link below to see these couples' photos and sparkly credentials.

These aren't the best of times for Biglaw, in case you hadn't noticed. The most recent evidence: staff and lawyer layoffs at Sonnenschein, news that we broke last night (and might write more about, so feel free to email us with info).

But here is a tiny sliver of good news. In response to our open call for information about delayed start dates for incoming associates, which some law firms have been using to reduce expenses, we received very little.

First, we learned that DLA Piper has instituted a nationwide start date of October 1. This isn't terribly exciting, since October 1 isn't that late. Other firms that have announced delayed start dates have gone for late October or even January.

The change also doesn't appear to be economically motivated. From DLA spokesperson Jason Costa:

The changes were made to provide a uniform start date across all our offices. The new collective date allows us to have a uniform orientation process. We think it will also be good for the associates, since the shared start date will probably lead to a tighter knit class.

Our tipsters mentioned the availability of pay advances if needed, which Costa confirmed: "We are more than happy to give pay advances to any incoming associates who had planned to start earlier than October, and who may need the extra cash."

Second, we received more details about Pillsbury Winthrop, which previously said it was spacing out start dates "over several months."

Read the rest, after the jump.

Thanks to the worsening economy, law firms don't have enough work for the lawyers already on their payrolls. Some firms have decided to save money by having incoming first-year associates start later than originally planned. What's the point of bringing new kids on board, at starting salaries of $160,000 each, if you don't have enough work to give them?

The latest Biglaw shop to push back start dates: K&L Gates. The original firm-wide start date was September 15; the new start date is October 20.

We contacted K&L Gates for comment. The firm's director of recruiting, Roz Pitts, explained that the change was made not for any economic reason, but due to "crazy scheduling." She explained that the firm's partner retreat in Phoenix is taking place in early October, and they didn't want the first-years to start work only to have the entire partnership disappear a few weeks later. She added that the firm stands by all its offers -- i.e., no offers have been rescinded -- and that all incoming associates will be notified of the start date change by today. (Some offices started notifying associates on Friday, which is when we learned of this change.)

But even if K&L Gates were making this change for economic reasons, would there be any shame in that? Other prominent law firms have already announced postponed start dates:

1. Pillsbury Winthrop: start dates pushed back, possibly as far back as January 2009 (the firm told the Wall Street Journal that it "is staggering start dates over several months").

2. Thacher Proffitt & Wood: the start date for non-litigation first-years has been pushed back to October 20.

3. Thelen Reid: start dates for first-year associates pushed back from September 2008 to January 2009.

Do you know of a Biglaw shop that has announced it's pushing back start dates? If so, feel free to drop us a line. Thanks.

P.S. When it comes to start dates, maybe there's no way to please everyone. Back in February, some Sidley Austin associates complained about excessively early start dates.

[Ed. note: Apologies for the radio silence for much of today. Alas, we've been experiencing some rather severe technical difficulties, in connection with the site redesign and relaunch. The next few days (and perhaps weeks) may be a little bumpy around here; please bear with us. Thanks for your patience.]

Here are two pieces of information that we've heard about Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman:

1. For incoming first-year associates, their start dates, originally set for early October 2008, are being pushed back. These new associates could start as late as January 2009. The delay is due to "a serious slowdown in business."

2. For 2008 summer associates, the summer program has been reduced from 12 weeks to 10 weeks. Summer associates will not be allowed to work more than 10 weeks, even if they want to.

With respect to the first tip, concerning incoming full-time associates, we've heard it with respect to the Los Angeles office specifically. With respect to the second tip, concerning summer associates, we believe it to be a firmwide policy.

We contacted PWSP for confirmation and comment, earlier this week and again today. A firm spokesperson confirmed receipt of our inquiries but had no comment (as of the time of this posting; if we hear from her, we'll update this post).

More details, plus reactions from some of our tipsters, after the jump.

Shame on you, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Earlier this week, we promised our readers that we'd be writing about your cute little firm video. But when we tried to access the video just now on YouTube, via Legal Pad, we got this:

For those of you who never got to watch the PWSP video, it was described pretty well over at Legal Pad, "smooth jazz" and all. But we regret not being able to add our two cents. We were looking forward to describing the archival photographs of sweaty, shirtless men, featured in the "history" section of the talk, as well as to deploying this line: "I'm not just the firm chairman, I'm also a client." Sadly, that last quip is useless without the video evidence, since you can no longer witness for yourself the uncanny similarities between Jim Rishwain's demeanor and Sy Sperling's.

But don't worry, Pillsbury peeps; we don't take it personally. We're used to having the videos we write about yanked from YouTube. See, e.g., here (University of Miami 1L modeling montage), here (Quinn Emanuel recruiting video featuring sexy associate "Ivy"), here (Harvard Law School parody), and here (Columbia Law Revue).

Jim Rishwain's Good Answer [Legal Pad / Cal Law]

Law firm mergers have transformed the Biglaw landscape over the past decade. Several of the five firms in our latest open thread on Vault 100 firms have been involved in merger mania.

Here are the firms to talk about this morning:

56. Fish & Richardson P.C. (5.868)
57. Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (5.863)
58. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (5.825)
59. Goodwin Procter LLP (5.807)
60. Cooley Godward LLP (5.794)

Pillsbury Winthrop is the product of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (San Francisco), Winthrop Stimson Putnam & Roberts (New York), and Shaw Pittman (Washington). Goodwin Procter swallowed up Shea & Gardner, just as Cooley gobbled up Kronish Lieb.

Please exchange information and opinion about these five firms in the comments. Thanks.

The Vault Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]

Earlier: Vault 1-5; Vault 6-10; Vault 11-15; Vault 16-20; Vault 21-25; Vault 26-30; Vault 31-35; Vault 36-40; Vault 41-45; Vault 46-50; Vault 51-55

It's the Friday before a major holiday -- and firms are scrambling to get their pay raise announcements out the door. It's a nice way to send your bedraggled and overworked hardworking associates into a three-day weekend (assuming they don't need to come in on Monday).

We're about to sign off for the weekend, and we won't be back until Wednesday. (Billy Merck, who has filled our shoes in the past, will be your guest editor on Tuesday.)

Before we go, here are the latest salary announcements that we've confirmed:

1. McDermott Will & Emery

2. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (Hat Tip: Lateral Link)

But the Manatt "raise" has a catch. Its effective date? January 1, 2008.

HA. That's kind of funny, in a sick sort of way -- provided you're not at Manatt.

Memos appear after the jump. And we're out the door. Have a great holiday weekend!

Update (2:50 PM): We've verified the Pillsbury Winthrop raise news. Memo below.

Update (3:25 PM): Jeez, you're going to make us miss our flight to Las Vegas. Memo from the D.C. office of Winston & Strawn, added after the jump.

Over the next few weeks, hordes of summer associates will arrive at top law firms around the country. And many full-time associates -- or at least the less harried and/or curmudgeonly ones -- will rejoice, delighted by the opportunity to take summer associates out to fancy lunches, on their employer's dime.

But maybe not at Pillsbury Winthrop. Earlier this month, someone posted as follows, over at Infirmation/Greedy NY:

If you think things are tight in NYC, listen to this: Pillsbury Winthrop (NoVa/DC) just sent out a memo limiting associates to one meal per week, "and in no event should meals cost more than $15/person."

I s**t you not, they actually sent out that memo this afternoon!!!!!

We haven't verified this rumor; maybe it's apocryphal, or a joke. But if it's true, please file it under "hilarious" and "pathetic."

On a budget of $15 a head, you can maybe dine at Au Bon Pain or Cosi. Just don't indulge in (1) a cold beverage with your meal, AND (2) a post-meal coffee drink.

If you can confirm, or have a copy of the memo to share, please email us (subject line: "Pillsbury Winthrop Is Cheap"). Thanks.

(We wouldn't be completely surprised if this rumor is true. After all, Pillsbury Winthrop is one of the firms that is publicly dragging its feet on associate pay raises.)

Update: Lots of dispute in the comments over the accuracy of this rumor. We will gladly accept corrections and clarifications by email. Please provide us with your real name; we keep our sources anonymous, but we need real names so we can confirm that you actually work at Pillsbury.

One thing we can confirm, from a verified source in Pillsbury's San Francisco office:

I am an associate at Pillsbury and just read the posting about Pillsbury lunch limitations to $15 once per week. It's not true! Of course, we can take summer associates to lunch as often as we like, and they ask that we keep it to $25 per person, but can exceed that for special occassions.

But the rumor in question concerns Pillsbury's offces in northern Virginia and Washington, DC -- not San Francisco. If you work in one of those offices, we would be especially interested in hearing from you. Thanks.

Further Update: The consensus in the comments appears to be that the rumor of a $15 lunch limit IS true, but ONLY for northern Virginia (Tysons Corner).

Cheapest Lunch Date EVER? [Infirmation / Greedy NY]

Earlier: Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: In a Holding Pattern?

We now bring you... a pair of non-announcement announcements on the associate pay raise front. They're from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and DLA Piper.

As our tipster noted, Pillsbury Winthrop practically "threatens" its associates with a pay raise. Here's an excerpt from their memo (emphasis added):

We want to take the time to thoughtfully consider your views and take into account your concerns, which we share, regarding the need to stay competitive, together with the implicit work-life balance impact of additional salary increases.

In other words: "Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it."

The full text of the Pillsbury memo, plus a similar "hold your horses" memo from DLA Piper, after the jump.

In the past week or so, the romantic exploits (and misadventures) of lawyers and law students have been in the news. Here are a few noteworthy links:

1. 'ABORT' SHOCK IN GIANT DIVORCE [New York Post]

Football star Amani Toomer (at right), a wide receiver for the Giants, is divorcing his wife, Dr. Yola Dabrowski. The parties' divorce filings are full of salacious allegations, but here's what jumped out at us:

Dabrowski's papers complain that Toomer: ... * Sabotaged her dream of becoming a lawyer by stealing her computer and files, making it impossible to study for her law-school exams and leading to her getting an incomplete for the term.

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a law student's heart -- or the way to break her heart, as the case may be -- is through her papers.

Another allegation:

[W]hen she didn't want to have sex, Toomer acted "irrationally and outrageously" - once urinating on her clothes, and another time tossing her BlackBerry into the Hudson River.

Destroying your spouse's Blackberry? Now you've thrown down the gauntlet. If The War of the Roses were updated for 2007, there would surely be a scene of Blackberry destruction.

2. Date Lab [Washington Post]

"Date Lab," in which the Post sets up two people on a blind date and then writes it up, is one of our favorite guilty pleasures. This recent date, involving Pillsbury Winthrop associate Damon Colbert (at right), actually went fairly well. (The column is more fun when the dates are disasters.)

But the WaPo reader comments -- "the two shallowest people in all of Creation," "this Date Lab made me unbearably sad" -- are kinda vicious. And we thought ATL commenters were harsh....

3. Page Six: Ready To Wed [New York Post]
Gillian Hearst Engaged! [Socialite Rank]

From Page Six:

LOVE is in the air for Hearst heir Gillian Hearst-Shaw and her yearlong boyfriend, Christian Simonds. Sources say the gorgeous brunette socialite and philanthropist was proposed to with "a blindingly huge diamond engagement ring" from Simonds. Her hubby-to-be, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, popped the question last weekend, following a romantic sleigh ride for two in the Berkshires. Mazel tov!

Page Six doesn't identify his firm, but as Socialite Rank points out, Christian Simonds is an associate in the New York office of Lowenstein Sandler. Next time you make a disparaging remark about the New York office of a New Jersey law firm, ask yourself: "If my firm is so much better, then why am I not marrying a beautiful media heiress?"

4. Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel [New York Times]

Happy Anniversary to Wendi Adelson and fellow legal blogger Dan Markel, of PrawfsBlawg fame!

Divorces can get pretty darn ugly, be they personal -- e.g., Britney Spears -- or professional. Here's an interesting story about Pillsbury Winthrop, from the Recorder:

At least eight lawyers who left Pillsbury last year are being asked to return a portion or all of their 2006 earnings to the firm within 30 days -- but most say they have no intention of paying back anything, even if it means going to court.

The attorneys received letters this month claiming they had been overpaid, demanding repayments of about $30,000 to $100,000. One letter, obtained by The Recorder, explains that the ex-partner in question received a distribution greater than their actual share of the firm's profits at the time they departed....

Reactions from ex-partners who received the letters ranged from "insulted" to "furious." Many questioned the firm's accounting, the fairness and enforceability of the demands, and why they are being singled out, since not all partners who left last year got a letter.

If the ex-partners stick to their guns, the firm will have a difficult time recovering this money. Given the amounts at stake -- relatively modest, by Biglaw standards -- it may not be worth (1) the litigation costs and (2) the attendant bad publicity and airing of dirty laundry.

We don't know the identity of the partners in question. If you do know, or have any other information about this controversy, feel free to share.

Ex-Pillsbury Partners Vow to Fight Firm's Demand for Money [The Recorder via WSJ Law Blog]

Not done with your holiday shopping yet? Stumped about what to get for all those special lawyers in your life?

Howard Bashman has some ideas. So does Paul Caron (scroll down).

And, of course, don't forget to check out Illegal Briefs. Their motto? "Be a lawyer. Don't dress like one." (Thanks to commenter Peter for the tip.)

From an in-house lawyer, here's one Christmas present that was not particularly appreciated:

While my office has been flooded with good and bad holiday gifts from law firms, the award for most pretentious goes to Pilsbury Winthrop. A block of chocolate with the firm's name etched in it, with bad ad copy describing it as the finest Belgian chocolate...

An In-House Tipster

When we were at a law firm, we got all sorts of random gifts: a Tiffany money clip from an outside photocopying service, a coffee table book from a court reporting company, a case of wine from a client (that was our favorite).

Feel free to share your best and worst holiday gifts in the comments.

Gift Ideas for the Appellate Lawyer on Your Holiday Shopping List [Law.com via How Appealing]
Christmas Gifts for that Special Tax Person [TaxProf Blog]

At the White House:

* On the heels of Christopher Oprison and Cheryl Stanton, former Wilmer Hale partner Paul Eckert joins the White House Counsel's Office.

Lateral Moves:

* Nicholas H. Politan, to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (NY), from Bingham McCutchen, where he served as co-head of the project and structured finance group.

(Wild guess: He's the son of former federal judge Nicholas H. Politan (D.N.J.).)

* IP litigator Duane David-Hough, to Fish & Richardson, from Ropes & Gray (NY).

A few more moves, plus links, after the jump.

Welcome to the latest installment of Legal Fee Voyeurism, in which we dish about how much lawyers are getting paid for their labors.

Today's subject: Amtrak, the federally subsidized passenger railroad that's a perennial source of bad news. From the AP:

Amtrak cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary legal expenses, an independent investigator said Wednesday.

The legal department of the federally subsidized passenger railroad failed to properly manage its outside law firms, which charged $103 million from June 2002 through June 2005, according to a review by the Transportation Department's inspector general.

We knew Amtrak was expensive. We didn't know it was THAT expensive.*

Here are some of Amtrak's infractions:

The report found that Amtrak didn't review law firms' bills, didn't request budgets and didn't scrutinize bills. The railroad also hired expensive big-city law firms without requiring them to compete for its business, the report said.

Now you're wondering: Which major law firms had Amtrak bend over and grab its proverbial ankles?

Here's what various top firms billed Amtrak in the period from June 2002 to June 2005 (from the WSJ Law Blog):

* Landman Corsi Ballaine & Ford: $11,566.986.59
* Manatt, Phelps & Phillips: $7,381,430.82
* DLA Piper: $4,089,506.09
* Bonner Kiernan Trebach & Crociata: $3,535,246.22
* Anderson, Rasor & Partners: $3,086,981.63
* Morgan, Lewis & Bockius: $2,847,354.21
* Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman: $2,710,145.07
* Jackson Lewis: $1,353,357.76
* Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz: $1,146,223.37

Forget about the Acela. It's far more fun to ride the Amtrak Outside Counsel Gravy Train. ALL ABOARD!!!

* The high price of Amtrak tickets is one reason we risk life and limb by taking the Chinatown bus. It's tough to beat a $35 round-trip ticket between Washington and New York.

The Amtrak Report: Trouble Among the Legal Dispatchers [WSJ Law Blog]
Report: Amtrak Cost Taxpayers Millions [Associated Press]

Earlier: Prior editions of Legal Fee Voyeurism (scoll down)

We're almost caught up here at Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Today we discuss and score couples featured in the New York Times weddings page of October 8, 2006.

Again, a bit of a slow weekend for weddings involving lawyers. Here are the three couples under review:

1. Amanda Biles, Lee Reeves II

2. Katherine Dowling, Marc Axelbaum

3. Emily Weisenbach, Michael Burke

Numerical scores and commentary for each couple, after the jump.

Oodles of juicy moves today, especially out of and into the federal government. As the leaves change, so do the lawyers.

Government to Private Sector:

* Federal prosecutor John Hueston, a leader of the team that prosecuted Enron execs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, is heading for the greener pastures of Irell & Manella.

All around the country, AUSAs with white-collar criminal experience are leaving U.S. Attorney's Offices -- including our former workplace -- for the more lucrative precincts of private practice. The trend is especially pronounced in the legendary Southern District of New York, as noted by Anna Schneider-Mayerson.

Private Sector to Government:

* Corporate and securities lawyer Michael Halloran, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop, has been appointed to serve as deputy chief of staff and counselor to Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lateral Moves:

* Broker-dealer compliance specialist Steven Lofchie, to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, from Davis Polk & Wardwell. (In this day and age, compliance is a hot area. We're guessing Lofchie got offered a nice deal.)

* Tax lawyer John Narducci, to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, from White & Case.

* IP lawyer Robert Wasnofski Jr., to Dorsey & Whitney, from Baker Botts.

* M&A lawyer Sandy Feldman, to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, from Torys.

Retirements:

* Plaintiffs' lawyer Alan Schulman, of Bernstein, Litowitz -- and formerly of the indicted Milberg Weiss -- is retiring at the end of the year.

Not Going Anywhere -- Yet:

* Apple CEO Steve Jobs and HP CEO Mark Hurd are sticking around -- despite the problems that their companies face.

NY Practice Leader Leaves One Elite NY Firm for Another [NYLawyer.com]
More NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Milberg Weiss: Merger Talks Break Down; An Alum Retires [WSJ Law Blog]
Enron Prosecutor John Hueston to Join Irell & Manella [WSJ Law Blog]
The Gang That Shot Straight Is Disbanding, For a Profit [New York Observer]