Here's an idea for how Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft -- America's Firingest Law Firm™, which laid off 35 lawyers in January, and then 96 more last month -- can keep its surviving attorneys (plus all those incoming first-years) gainfully employed.

Have them work on the litigation over managing partner Robert Link's Hamptons house.

Cadwalader Managing Partner In Hamptons Real Estate Squabble [Am Law Daily]
Robert O. Link, Jr. v. Richard Sarcona: Complaint (PDF) [Am Law Daily]
3 Halsey Path, Southampton, NY [Zillow]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Robert Link (scroll down)
Prior ATL coverage of CWT (scroll down)

If you'll be interviewing at law firms this fall, make sure you double check the address of the place you're headed to. Law firms are constantly on the move and trading spaces. From the New York Observer (which follows commercial real estate as obsessively as we follow law firm layoffs):

Entertainment law powerhouse Pryor Cashman, whose clients include Penthouse founder Bob Guccione and numerous American Idol contestants, is in negotiations for 100,000 square feet at 605 Third Avenue, the 44-story glass box of a building owned by Fisher Brothers....

[T]he firm right now occupies about 100,000 square feet of contiguous space in three buildings, which means three leases--all of which expire at the end of next year--and three landlords.

That sounds rather inefficient -- and annoying. But there are other firms that occupy multiple buildings in the same city. E.g., Skadden and Mayer Brown, in D.C.

Pryor Cashman isn't the only law firm in search of new digs. The Observer reports that Paul Weiss and Fitzpatrick Cella are also in search of over 100,000 square feet apiece.

Favored American Idol Lawyers Negotiating Lease at 605 Third [New York Observer]

[Ed. note: This post is by ALEX, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Alex's avatar (at right).]

Biglaw lawyers:

Every single one of your non-lawyer friends and family members think that you know "the law" because you're lawyers. You don't. You work in biglaw. Don't worry, ATL will give you some small-building law to use when the inevitable email arrives or you need some lawyerly advice yourself.

Today's topic: landlord-tenant law.

August is almost upon us. Lots of people are moving. Summers, law-school grads, Cadwalader attorneys. Maybe there's still time to knock some dollars off of your last rent check. I spoke to an attorney who handles landlord-tenant issues in New York. He works in a really small building and likes to golf on Thursday afternoons.

Nutshell after the jump.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen is expected to rule this week in a trial between county taxpayer and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman and the county itself, as to whether the county must put to referendum its plan to spend $347 million in taxpayer money to build a new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins. The stadium initiative is part of a wider county spending package that is intended to rebuild much of Little Havana, as well as create a tunnel to the Port of Miami and a new streetcar system.

For those of you not following this case, in February 2008 the thirteen Miami-Dade County commissioners approved plans to build a new 37,000-seat, retractable-roof baseball stadium to induce Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria to keep his team in Miami beyond expiration of the club's 2010 lease (previously blogged about here). Although the deal only calls for Loria to contribute $155 million toward the new ballpark, it offers Loria full rights to all stadium revenues throughout the year, including permission to keep all proceeds from selling ballpark naming rights. Even when compared to most recent public-private stadium partnerships, this agreement is a sweetheart deal for Loria, an owner who never invested much of his own money into the team.

Last week, Braman argued in court that Miami-Dade County cannot approve this spending package without a public referendum for two different reasons. First, a recent Florida Supreme Court ruling in Strand v. Escambia County (PDF) (2007) holds that Article VII, Section 12 of the Florida Constitution requires a referendum on any property tax money pledged to finance bonds for a project extending beyond one year. Although funding for the new Marlins stadium technically comes from tourist taxes (and not property taxes), Braman contends this distinction is irrelevant because, according to him, Miami-Dade County is playing a "shell game" by shifting tourist tax funding for other projects to the stadium bonds, and then replacing lost funding from those other projects with property-tax money.

In addition, Braman claims the stadium project does not serve a paramount municipal purpose, as is required for public funding under the Florida Constitution. This claim relies heavily on the 1966 Florida Supreme Court decision in Brandes v. City of Deerfield Beach, which held that building a professional baseball stadium is not a predominantly municipal purpose. A more recent Florida Supreme Court decision, Poe v. Hillsborough County (1997), actually allowed public spending to build a football stadium for shared use between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and various public high school teams. However, Braman, in a recent Miami Herald editorial, differentiates Poe because in Poe the funding was first put to public vote. (Note: one could also differentiate Poe because building that stadium benefited public high school football players.)

Read more, after the jump.

Yesterday, at 4 p.m. Pacific time, Judge Marsha Pechman was supposed to issue her ruling in City of Seattle v. Professional Basketball Club, LLC, regarding whether the City of Seattle could specifically enforce its lease agreement and require the Sonics basketball team to play in KeyArena through the 2009-10 season. After waiting more than an hour for Pechman's ruling, however, it was finally announced that the parties had privately settled the matter.

According to several published reports, the City of Seattle agreed to allow Clay Bennett's ownership group to get out of their lease, opening the door for the Sonics to immediately move to Bennett's hometown of Oklahoma City, OK. In exchange, Bennett will have to pay the city $45 million in immediate damages, as well as potentially an additional $30 million in future damages, if the Washington legislature authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena and the City of Seattle still does not obtain a new NBA franchise by 2013.

Bennett's ownership group will also have to leave the Sonics name and colors behind in Seattle -- something the group probably does not mind in the least.

An assessment of the settlement, below the fold.

Today's Washington Post has this interesting article about the living conditions of "enemy combatant" Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. Marri has been held in solitary confinement for 6 1/2 years. Although he has been accused of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, he has yet to be tried for any crime.

The bulk of the article focuses on concerns that Marri's lawyers have raised about his well-being and mental health. They argue that years of isolation have impaired his ability to participate in his own defense.

Their concerns appear to be serious and well-founded. But the real estate voyeur in us found this paragraph to be the most interesting:

Marri has a 1,000-square-foot dayroom with cable television and recently was given access to a computer. He also can read books from an approximately 400-volume library, including religious texts; has his own exercise equipment; and can read articles from USA Today and a local newspaper, except for news about the counterterrorism effort, along with magazines such as Men's Fitness and PC World.

With 1,000 square feet of living space to himself, Marri is living better than most Manhattanites. But that periodical selection leaves something to be desired. Were those Marri's selections, or the Pentagon's picks? Why not, say, the New York Times and Vanity Fair?

(But photoshop those Miley Cyrus pics to put her in a burqa.)

Lawyers Fear for Marri's Sanity [Washington Post via How Appealing]

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.

Earlier this month, there was some discussion in the comments about law firms possibly cutting associate salaries to cope with the economic downturn. The scenario sounded far-fetched -- but maybe it's not as far-fetched as some might have hoped.

Look, we aren't saying that the sky is falling. There's a world of difference between a law firm based in Fort Lauderdale, with 128 lawyers and extensive exposure to Florida real estate, and the giants of Biglaw, with hundreds of millions (or even billions) in revenue, profits per partner well into the seven figures, and diversified practices.

But still, nobody would call this good news. From the Daily Business Review:

Attorneys at Becker & Poliakoff are being hit with a 12 percent pay cut for the foreseeable future to help the real estate-dominated firm deal with a drop in profitability and delays in collections.

Becker & Poliakoff is the first major South Florida firm to turn to its lawyers to make cuts to help it deal with the economic slowdown and real estate downturn. Other firms have trimmed staff jobs, including paralegals and secretaries, and cut back on other expenses to help cope with the economic landscape.

Alan Becker, the firm's managing shareholder, informed attorneys and support staff about the pay deferment plan via podcast Wednesday. The cut took effect Thursday and affects only lawyers. No layoffs are expected.

So that's the silver lining to the proverbial cloud. You've suffered a 12 percent haircut on your salary, but at least your job is secure.

We don't know what the Becker & Poliakoff pay scale is, but we're guessing it's well below the $160K scale. Back in 2003, it looks like their starting salaries were in the $63K-$70K range.

But just out of curiosity, what would Biglaw salaries look like if they were trimmed in this manner? If a 12 percent reduction were applied to the first three steps of the standard New York pay scale, salaries would go from 160-170-185 to 141-150-163.

More discussion, after the jump.

In Lawyerly Lairs, we follow the real-estate moves of leading lawyers and law firms. The focus is typically residential. For example, last year we visited the Park Avenue apartment of this year's commencement speaker at Georgetown Law, Joel Klein.

But every now and then, we go commercial, and write about law firm offices. E.g., Cleary Gottlieb; Gibson Dunn; Cravath.

Today's featured tenant: Paul Weiss. From the New York Observer:

High-powered law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is in negotiations with Vornado Realty Trust for more than one-third of the tower planned for atop the Port Authority bus station, a move that, if cemented, would extend the legal establishment’s apparently inexorable drift westward from the white-shoe stronghold of midtown.

A source close to the negotiations confirmed that Paul, Weiss is in serious, though early, negotiations to take 500,000 square feet in the middle of the 42-story building slated to rise from a platform atop the seedy bus terminal.

Seedy is right -- but there are advantages to being based at Port Authority. Check out this list of shops and restaurants. It will be easy for beleaguered associates to slip away to Duane Reade, to fill that prescription for anti-anxiety medication. And lavish lunches at Munchy's Gourmet -- second floor, South Wing -- will seal the deal for PW recruits.

Meanwhile, another top law firm is venturing beyond midtown. Also from the Observer (which covers the commercial real estate world as thoroughly as we cover Biglaw):

The largest tenant in the GM Building is relocating a portion of its operations from the gilded midtown tower to the decidedly humbler environs of downtown Brooklyn.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a global law firm with a New York staff of 1,300, has signed a lease for 35,000 square feet at Brooklyn’s 15 Metrotech Center, owned by Forest City Ratner.

Over the past few years, Brooklyn has been booming, growing increasingly attractive as a residential option for young professionals. But if you're a Manhattan snob and Weil associate, have no fear. The Brooklyn digs will house information systems, finance, and operations; the lawyers will stay in the GM Building.

P.S. Speaking of the GM Building, here's a digression on "safe email." One ATL tipster likes to email us, using a non-work email account, from a computer in that building's Apple store.

But you don't need to be quite that cloak-and-dagger. It's usually safe to email us, from a non-work account, using the web browser on your wireless device (like a Blackberry or iPhone); that traffic doesn't pass through your law firm's servers.

Of course, to be ultra-cautious, wait until you get home, and email us from your personal computer. Thanks.

Law Firm Nears Lease Atop Bus Terminal [New York Observer]
Big Manhattan Law Firm Exits GM Building for ... Downtown Brooklyn [New York Observer]
Terminal Information & Services [Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]

Why do the gay lawyers land all the fabulous real estate? Just a few days after this installment of Lawyerly Lairs, profiling the palatial pads of two same-sex couples, we learn of a third such couple living large in New York.

A reader sums it up nicely: "This seems right up our alley for Lawyerly Lairs: Manhattan / East Hampton real estate, Yale Law alum (then Paul Weiss before going in-house), Ivy League pedigree on both sides of the same-sex partnership, and shout-outs by the New York Times."

Indeed it is. Read about the charmed life of architect Michael Haverland and lawyer-turned novelist Philip Galanes, follow their successful adventures in NYC real estate (and furniture collecting), and ogle photos of their luxurious Upper East Side and East Hampton homes, in this NYT article.

Starting Over, and Over, and Over [New York Times]
Philip Galanes biography [galaneshaverland.com]

Earlier: Lawyerly Lairs: Gay Gotham Edition

* Renomination of Steven Bradbury to head OLC seen as diss to Dems. [New York Times]

* Barry Bonds seeks dismissal of perjury charges. Depends on what the meaning of "is" is? [San Francisco Chronicle via How Appealing]

* Senate debates whether to grant phone companies immunity from suits arising out of their helping out on warrantless wiretapping. [Washington Post]

* Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan seeks Supreme Court review of his conviction. [Chicago Tribune via How Appealing]

* Also turning to the SCOTUS: cheeky pro se litigant who forestalled foreclosure for 11 years. [WSJ Law Blog]

* You've got mail? Maybe not, at least at the White House, which is having some email archiving problems. [Washington Post]

Or maybe yesterday. From Tuesday's New York Times, an article that still sits on top of the Most Emailed Articles list:

Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom. What makes Ms. Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault.

Ms. Ummel claims that the agent hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission.

Real estate lawyers and brokers say the case, which goes to trial in North County Superior Court on Monday, is likely to be the first of many in which regretful or resentful buyers seek redress from the agents who found them a home and arranged its purchase.

It's an interesting case. We're a bit skeptical, but maybe that's just us. Read the full NYT article, which contains more of the facts, then feel free to take our poll if you like:

Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Sue Agent [New York Times]

In Chicago, gay lawyers get to attend exclusive parties. In New York, they enjoy a finer prize: luxury real estate.

The law schools of Columbia and NYU have been battling over faculty superstars for several years. And now NYU is bringing out the heavy artillery: multimillion-dollar condo purchases. From the New York Times:

Columbia University, in a never-ending search for a larger campus, has long had an outpost for faculty housing at 455 Central Park West — 53 apartments in an 26-story tower attached to the French Renaissance chateau at West 106th Street.

So it was something of a surprise when a foundation associated with New York University bought a large condominium in the complex. The unit, which cost $5.2 million, is built into one of the huge turrets of the chateau.... The duplex apartment has a round living and dining room with 37-foot high ceilings and Central Park views, along with three more conventional bedrooms.

Sounds fabulous! Who gets to inhabit this fabulous pad?

Find out, after the jump.

In the wake of this story, which had a happy ending, we received this email:

I read about you helping the woman with cancer who wanted to wear her hat in court.

I'm handicapped, paralyzed with a closed head injury.

I'm in a wheelchair and rarely leave my condo except to see doctors.

I've lived in my condo since August 1989. I brought the bird feeder from Mom's house after she died.

Now Ms. [xxxx], the new Property Manager, has ordered me to get rid of my water and chipmunk ramp.

I've been here 18 years. She's been here less than a year.

My whole outside world is my patio with the bird feeder, and water and chipmunk ramp.

I have appealed to [xxxx] Management in Buffalo Grove, IL, but they won't help me.

I hope you will.

We're much better at helping Biglaw associates secure pay raises, or law clerks snag clerkship bonuses. The law governing whether a Chicago condo tenant is entitled to keep a chipmunk ramp on her patio lies outside our expertise. Also, we're not admitted in Illinois.

But if you're a landlord / tenant lawyer in Illinois who might be willing to help our correspondent, please email us, and we will put you in touch with her. Thanks.

If you're not already a member of Lateral Link, you can sign up through their website. Membership, which is free and confidential, allows you to learn about new legal opportunities as they become available. Successfully placed candidates receive a $10,000 placement bonus.

Positions: In-House Counsel - Real Estate, In-House Counsel - Corporate

Location: Newton, Massachusetts

Position Descriptions:

Corporate: Seeking a transactional attorney with four or more years of large law firm experience. Corporate, securities, finance/project finance or energy experience is a plus but not a requirement. Public company experience and SarbOx also a plus but not a requirement. The candidate must be comfortable working in a relatively unstructured environment and will be expected to handle day-to-day tasks while reporting to GC on larger issues. This person will work primarily with the GC and the finance team. The candidate must be able to work in a fast-paced environment and be able to handle multiple demands and transactions. The Company is growing quickly and it is a very dynamic workplace; the ideal candidate must be able to accommodate change relatively quickly.

Real Estate: Seeking candidate with four or more years of transactional real estate experience. The ideal candidate has experience with lenders and equity investors, can identify and resolve title issues, and can review real estate documents (including project leases, easements, crossing agreements, commercial leases). This candidate would be responsible for working with developers on land acquisitions for Company projects and would work with the GC, Assistant GC and the finance team on resolving issues and getting projects financed. The candidate must be able to work in a fast-paced environment and be able to handle multiple demands and transactions. The Company is growing quickly and it is a very dynamic workplace; therefore the ideal candidate must be able to accommodate change relatively quickly. The candidate needs to have good communication and interpersonal skills, as they will be dealing with rural landowners and employees inside the company.

Company Description: This privately held company is a leader in wind power production, with more than 40 wind farms in development across the country. Based in Newton, Massachusetts, the company is focused on wind farm development, ownership and operation. The company builds primarily in the Northeast, West and Hawaii, and is already producing nearly 100 MW of energy through three operational wind farms. The company is currently developing more than 3,500 MW of wind power projects in several markets through various subsidiary companies. The company is managed and supported by a team of more than 100 talented and dedicated individuals committed to the company’s environment.

For more information, see job # 7661 and job # 7662 on Lateral Link.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings (scroll down)

* Rest in peace, Benazir Bhutto; God knows you weren't able to live in it. [CNN]

* That seems like a pretty good starting point for liability against the zoo. [BBC]

* We don't know if you know Tom Goldstein, but he's a pretty big deal. [SCOTUSBlog]

* If he could only apply all of that genius to acquiring some money to actually make a mortgage payment... [WSJ Law Blog]

If Aaron Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell ever gets turned into a movie, there will be a little epilogue at the end, to inform viewers of the fates of the dramatis personae. Here is our version of it.

Aaron Charney is believed to be happy, spending time with friends, and presumably enjoying those settlement proceeds. No word yet on his future employer (assuming he returns to the work force). Meanwhile, his erstwhile nemesis, partner Eric Krautheimer, passed the California bar and moved out to Los Angeles. He still works for S&C, but now gets to lead more of his own deals.

And what about Gera Grinberg, the former S&C associate who would have been a key witness in the case, who was joined at the hip -- professionally, but not personally -- with Aaron Charney? We've learned two pieces of good news about him:

First, he has landed himself a new job. We understand that he is now the general counsel to a small real estate development company.

Second, on the personal front, here's some news that will put to rest any and all the rumors that he might be gay. Gera Grinberg is engaged (to a woman). His fiancee is a former associate at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, now working in-house for a large hotel company.

Congratulations and best wishes to Gera Grinberg and the future Mrs. Grinberg!

P.S. We still don't know whether he has resolved any of his outstanding issues with S&C. But considering how well Grinberg's life is going right now, both professionally and personally, maybe he should just let bygones be bygones?

Not a heck of a lot going on today, a Friday in the holiday season. So let's fall back on a staple of these pages: New York real estate.

If you're an associate at Cleary Gottlieb who's a fan of the current offices at One Liberty Plaza, congratulations. You're not going anywhere anytime soon. From today's New York Post:

[P]owerhouse law firm Cleary Gottlieb inked a deal to expand by 100,000 square feet at One Liberty Plaza. The law firm just signed a 20-year lease for 550,000 square-feet with landlord Brookfield Properties after more than a year of what Newmark Knight Frank broker Mark Weiss called "very competitive" and "very intricate" negotiations.

Cleary Gottlieb previously had 450,000 square feet under a lease due to expire in 2010. The "competitive" aspect was an attempt by Larry Silverstein to lure the firm to his new 7 World Trade Center.

Seven World Trade is a beautiful new building. But it's expensive; we're guessing Cleary got a very good deal to stay in its current spot. (The terms of the renewal were not disclosed.)

Meanwhile, a few miles uptown, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is making a move. Details after the jump.

The idea of pitying people taking home seven figures sounds dubious. But check out this great article, by the American Lawyer's Vivia Chen (who's not doing too badly herself, at least based on her magnificent mink coat). Here's the fantastic, rather literary lede:

The prize was a home-cooked dinner for eight, prepared by a parent-one of New York's most celebrated chefs and a perennial on the Food Network. The bidding started at $3,000-a fabulous bargain. Nearly two dozen paddles shot up in the air. The bidders were the usual suspects-Wall Streeters, big-firm lawyers, a sprinkling of doctors, a few people with money but no visible means of support.

Nursed by a steady stream of champagne cocktails, the bidders were a competitive lot. At $7,000, the doctors dropped out of the game; at $10,000, most of the other professionals were gone; at $15,000, the lawyers and the trust fund babies bit the dust. With only the financial titans in the game, the bidding got intense: $20,000, $25,000, $30,000. Sold for $40,000! The winner: the wife of a 30-something hedge fund manager.

There's nothing like a fund-raiser at a private school in Manhattan to define your social station. Time was, lawyers were near the top of the heap. Investment bankers and other finance types have long eclipsed them, but the difference used to be one of degree. Then came private equity investors and hedge-funders, and lawyers nose-dived on the socioeconomic ladder.

"Face it, we have no status," says an Am Law 100 partner of the pecking order at his sons' private school. "We go to these school functions, and this well-heeled group looks right through you. They won't give you the time of day. You're just one step ahead of the doorman."

Biglaw partners, "one step ahead of the doorman"? Killer quote. Fabulous work, Vivia.

More after the jump.

One of ATL's more popular and long-running features is Lawyerly Lairs, in which we take you inside the luxurious homes of prominent members of the legal profession -- leading lawyers, judges, and law professors. Past posts have featured a law professor's $30 million Manhattan mansion, a commercial litigator's $7 million waterfront estate in Miami, and the former home of Aaron Charney.

But it looks like it won't be necessary for us to visit Chicago, where the real estate purchases of attorneys are already thoroughly covered, by a site called Chicago Block Shopper. From Legal Blog Watch:

Did you know that Mel M. Justak, an estate-planning associate at Reed Smith in Chicago, and his wife just sold their two-bedroom condo in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood? They got $340,000 for it, $4,000 less than they paid to purchase it in 2003. Perkins Coie IP associate Douglas L. Sawyer and his wife fared better in selling their four-bedroom Lincoln Park home, receiving $1 million for a place they bought in 2005 for $925,000. Meanwhile, Faith Bugel, a staff attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, and David A. Rickard got a good deal for themselves in purchasing a four-bedroom, 5.1 bath home in Lincoln Park for $1.73 million. They bought it from Chicago Title, which paid a million more for the property in 2003.

How does Robert Ambrogi know all this? Find out, after the jump.