Today the winners of Lawyer of the Day honors are obvious. Congratulations to Arthur Cutillo, Michael Kimelman, and Jason Goldbfarb, three attorneys who stand accused of involvement in the infamous Galleon Group insider trading scheme.

Both Cutillo and Kimelman have distinguished pedigrees, with ties to two top firms. Cutillo (left), a holder of an M.S. in chemical engineering as well as a J.D. (both from Villanova), was an associate at the white-shoe firm of Ropes & Gray. Kimelman (right), a partner at Incremental Capital LLC, once worked as an associate at super-prestigious Sullivan & Cromwell. Check out Cutillo’s firm bio and Kimelman’s LinkedIn profile over here.

The third charged lawyer, Jason Goldfarb, apparently worked as a personal injury lawyer in Brooklyn. He allegedly served as a conduit of information between Cutillo and Zvi Goffer — the former Galleon employee apparently referred to as “Octopussy” at the SEC, because “he had his arms in so many insider” trading schemes.

More on our three honorees, after the jump.

The news was first reported by CNBC. See Dealbreaker for more details.

We have phone calls and emails in to Ropes & Gray and are waiting to hear back. We will keep you posted on further developments.

If you have more info, please email us. Thanks.

UPDATE (10:00 AM): According to Bloomberg, the FBI has arrested Arthur Cutillo (pictured). He is no longer on the Ropes & Gray website, but you can find his bio via Google Cache. Interestingly enough, he was an IP litigator, not a corporate attorney.

CNBC is now reporting that a Ropes & Gray employee allegedly provided inside information about various “going private” transactions the firm was involved in. Some of these transactions apparently involved companies heavily dependent upon intellectual property, such as technology companies.

UPDATE (10:10 AM): In case the Google Cache entry is removed, we have posted Arthur Cutillo’s bio after the jump. He graduated from Rutgers (undergrad) and Villanova (law), and he worked at Merck before joining Ropes.

UPDATE (10:15 AM): Here is a statement from Ropes & Gray:

We are deeply disappointed to learn about this situation, which suggests an extreme breach of this person’s duty of trust to our clients and to the firm. We cannot comment in detail on an ongoing investigation but we are moving quickly to protect our clients and are cooperating fully with authorities.

UPDATE (12:15 PM): U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.) is giving a press conference discussing the charges. One of the other individuals charged, Michael Kimelman, once worked as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell.

UPDATE (4:30 PM): We’ve honored Artie Cutillo, Michael Kimelman, and a third lawyer, Jason Goldfarb, as our Lawyers of the Day.

Art Cutillo’s Ropes bio and Mike Kimelman’s LinkedIn profile, after the jump.

Seven Arrested In Insider Trading Case [Dealbreaker]

According to the Center for Disease Control, these are the groups most at risk for swine flu:

* Children younger than 2 years old;
* Adults 65 years of age or older;
* Pregnant women and women up to 2 weeks postpartum (including following pregnancy loss)
* Persons with the following conditions:
* Chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (except hypertension), renal, hepatic, hematological (including sickle cell disease), or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus);
* Disorders that that can compromise respiratory function or the handling of respiratory secretions or that can increase the risk for aspiration (e.g., cognitive dysfunction, spinal cord injuries, seizure disorders, or other neuromuscular disorders)
*Immunosuppression, including that caused by medications or by HIV;

Oh wait, I think the CDC forgot a group: Biglaw lawyers. Ropes & Gray apparently thinks that its lawyers are at risk — so like any good company, the firm is “stockpiling” swine flu drugs. The Boston Globe reports:

The Boston-based law firm Ropes & Gray made arrangements this month for hundreds of its employees and their families to obtain the antiviral medicine Tamiflu to protect them from swine flu, a move that the company calls a wise precaution but that public health officials criticized as medically questionable stockpiling.

Hoarding swine flu medication? Really? That is not cool.

Additional details after the jump.

The stalk-and-eventually-marry-your-doorman phenomenon continues to enthrall the NYT weddings editors. This week they shine the spotlight on yet another bride — this time a producer at CNN — who found love in the lobby. LEWW encourages female Biglaw associates to embrace this trend. You’re in and out of office buildings all day, ladies — open your eyes to the lusciousness perched behind those security desks!

And now, this week’s finalist couples:

1. Monique Mendez and Graham O’Donoghue

2. Ashlee Conley and Andrew Veit

3. Anne Claiborne and Andrew Grotto

Read all about these newlyweds, after the jump.

You can still call yourself prestigious if you work at the firms that make up today’s fall recruiting open thread. But once you are outside of the Vault top 20, people start talking about “firm culture” at least as much as they talk about prestige.

Here’s the next batch:

21. Shearman & Sterling
22. O’Melveny & Myers
23. Quinn Emanuel
24. Ropes & Gray
25. Hogan & Hartson
26. Clifford Chance
27. Morrison & Foerster
28. Mayer Brown
29. Linklaters
30. Boies Schiller & Flexner

The slide continues for Shearman & Sterling. The firm was ranked #19 last year, and is down two spots this year. Is there any specific reason for the fall?

After the jump, let’s look at the firms rising up through the rankings.

It seems like the summer associates just arrived, yet many are already packing up their Biglaw bags to head back to school. This may be due in part to shorter summer associate programs this year, but that’s besides the point.

Summer associates departing the offices of Ropes & Gray have big smiles plastered on their faces. The firm has delivered good news, say tipsters:

During the week or two leading up to the end of the summer program, the Partner in charge of the summers met with all the SAs for reviews. In these reviews, ALL SAs got offers. There is not even a buzz about anyone getting no-offered or cold offered!

We checked in with the firm. A spokesperson put a very slight damper on the excitement, but also delivered some good deferral stipend news for 2010 law grads, after the jump.

If the class of 2009 is like the main cast on Lost, then the class of 2010 is starting to look like the Tailies. Ropes & Gray has decided to defer its current summer class until “Sometime, 2011.”

Here is the firm-wide memo that all Ropes & Gray associates received last week:

As we recently communicated to summer associates, we will be making offers to them according to the usual standards and in the same numbers as in the past. We have not set a definite start date for them, but it will be no earlier than January 2011. We are encouraging current summer associates to consider pursuing a clerkship or NAP fellowship.

Just like Cravath Skadden, Ropes is promising that its summer offer rate will be commensurate with past years. However, just like Cravath Skadden, Ropes makes no mention of any kind of incoming first-year deferral stipend that it intends to offer to the class of 2010.

UPDATE: We now know what kind of stipend Ropes will be giving to the class of 2010. See here.

In March, Ropes announced its New Alternatives plan, which deferred the class of 2009 to January 2010. Now the firm is encouraging its current summers (class of 2010) to seek a public interest fellowship between law school graduation and the new start date at the firm.

At least current Ropes summer associates should come out of this summer with offers in hand. There are a lot of Biglaw summers that would sign up for that, regardless of when they can actually start after graduation.

Read the full Ropes & Gray memo, after the jump.

Before we discuss this week’s finalists, here’s a peek at some of the weddings we can’t feature due to space constraints: a former Kirkland & Ellis partner marrying the youngest-looking 62-year-old we’ve ever seen, the creator of the Anonymous Lawyer blog marrying an anonymous doctor, and a Rhodes Scholar marrying an ordinary person.

The fact these couples couldn’t make the cut should tell you a little something about the quality of the field as we near the summit of the wedding season. Here are the three lucky couples who’ve reached the finals this week:

1. Kate Adamick and Kay Diaz

2. Sabrina Charles and Jamie Dycus

3. Jessica Chilson and Franklin Reece

Read more about these newlyweds, after the jump.

The “spring review process” at Ropes & Gray got underway this week, and early reports indicate the Boston-based firm is doing some heavy spring cleaning.

Sources tell us the firm has spoiled the Memorial Day weekends of 30 to 40 of its associates. Upon information and belief, approximately eight first-years [Ed. note: see update below] two first-years are among those whose three-day weekends will be spent firing up laser printers instead of barbecue grills.

The departed are being told it’s for “performance reasons.” An attorney in the Boston office indicates that the firings could continue into next week:

Stealth layoffs are going on at Ropes & Gray right now. Performance reviews started this past Monday and will be continuing through next Friday. So far, more than 10 associates, almost entirely first and second years, have been fired. Word on the street is that the layoffs are widespread, but the firm hasn’t acknowledged anything. The firing takes place at the review itself. When associates who are getting laid-off show up for their reviews, there are two people there — the partner and HR. People who have been laid off have 1 month to leave. No word on what kind of severance they’re getting.

The firm’s spokesman would not confirm the number let go, but says the firings are part of the “normal review process.” Ropes “understand[s] that associates who have received disappointing messages in this environment can readily interpret the reviews as layoffs,” said the spokesman, but the firm says that’s not the case, in its statement released to Above The Law this morning. Here’s an excerpt:

Ropes & Gray is completing its normal associate performance review process, just as we do twice each year in the spring and fall. Like our peers, we have an “up or out” system, so this process, as in the past, will result in the departure of some associates across all departments, primarily from the mid-level associate ranks.

The spokesman declined to confirm total number of associates fired or that first years were let go. He said that “very, very few, if any” first years were among those fired. But tipsters say otherwise.

UPDATE (1:30 P.M.): After the post went up, Ropes decided to release more information. Here’s the firm’s additional statement:

First, a total of two first-year associates received reviews resulting in the end of their employment, and the total number of first- and second-years receiving negative reviews is considerably less than 10. Second, there is no HR person in the room. These are reviews, not terminations. Third, it is not correct that “people who have been laid off have one month to leave.” The departure time is considerably more generous than that.

Full statement from the firm, and more from sources, after the jump.

As we mentioned earlier today, there is significant variation among firms offering some sort of deferral stipend or public interest externship. Should the money from the firm be contingent upon finding employment in a public interest organization? Should it be paid out monthly or up front? And of course, how much money is on the table.

The difficulty facing firms — and incoming associates who thought they had jobs lined up for the fall — is that management is trying to make the rules up as they go along. Law firms want to be competitive with peer institutions, but each firm has its own bottom line that can’t be ignored.

At the same time, public interest organizations are flush with resumes of highly qualified people who can work for free. But they must also be concerned with the fact that these new recruits likely never wanted to do any public interest work, and will be desperate to go back to their Biglaw jobs (if available) in a year’s time.

And there are still so many options that have not been tried. As one tipster pointed out to us today:

Wouldn’t this be a good time for all these young lawyers to take two years off to serve their country.

You can’t get more “public interest” than serving your country. And if patriotism doesn’t motivate you, just think about how “JAG Corps” will look on your resume when this recession is all over. We’re living in a bizzaro “Hey, you never know” kind of world.

These are all complicated issues, and all of the players seem to be doing the best they can with them. After the jump, we take a look at Ropes & Gray, which is trying to balance the new issues associated with its “new alternatives” program.

Ropes & Gray is locked in a fierce battle with Davis Polk in our ATL Bracket (remember, voting doesn’t close until Sunday). I’m not sure if this latest news helps or hurts their chances.

Ropes isn’t laying anybody off, but it is deferring the start dates for its incoming first year associates. The firm informed 3Ls today that their start has been pushed back to January, 2010.

But that is not all. All Ropes is taking alternative steps to deal with the challenging market. According to a firm wide email that just went out:

In response, we are rolling out a program that offers all associates non-traditional opportunities for continued professional and personal development both outside and inside the firm…. The program comprises the following initiatives, all of which are described in greater detail on a new infoNet area that you can access [Redacted]

* Public interest fellowship opportunities—including both practice of law work and non-practice of law work.

* Sabbatical opportunities.

* Enhanced access to potentially non-billable training and development assignments, and credit towards our 1900 hour target for certain training activities on client matters even though they are not billed to clients.

* Deferred start for the incoming class of 2009 to early January 2010 (this is being communicated to the incoming class in a separate memo).

The memo doesn’t mention what kind of stipend is available to Ropes associates that take the “alternative” path towards career development.

Just like with Skadden’s expansion of the Sidebar program, we don’t know what will happen if Ropes associates choose to stay the course at the firm and ride out the tough times. But this plan at least gives people the option of doing something while work is slow.

Read the full memo after the jump.

There is a lot of speculation going around about the 2009 summer associate program at various firms. Most people assume that this year’s summer programs will be very different from previous years, yet nobody knows just what to expect.

Ropes & Gray waded into the information vacuum to share some general thoughts with its prospective summer associates. As many 2Ls are finding out, “summer” doesn’t last as long as it used to:

[G]iven the worldwide moderation in the demand for legal services, a number of our practice areas are not as busy as they were in the recent past. In order to appropriately manage the summer program, we therefore have decided that all summer associates will spend ten weeks with us this summer (our usual minimum requirement), rather than having the option to extend to eleven or twelve weeks. We believe a ten-week program will allow us to distribute work in a more concentrated and focused fashion, giving you a better professional experience for the time that you are here.

I imagine that Ropes isn’t the only firm wondering how it can find work for a bunch of law students when senior attorneys are busy hoarding work already.

Then again, there will probably be work to do since the firm just laid off 106 staffers. Could summer associates be helpful in picking up some of the work that has been left behind by former paralegals? “Substantive legal work” is in the eye of the beholder?

But it’s not all doom and gloom for summers heading to Ropes this year. After the jump, some encouraging news.

Rumors were swirling around Ropes & Gray all day today. Now, Ropes chairman Brad Malt is letting everybody in on the bad news:

[W]e have reluctantly decided to eliminate 106 staff positions across all departments in the firm, or 10% of non-lawyer staff. While I know this is painful news, I felt it was important to share with all personnel as soon as appropriate.

No associates were part of the layoffs.

Just two weeks ago, we noted that Ropes was looking pretty healthy as it expanded its New York presence. But Malt acknowledged the reality of the current market crisis:

In October I wrote to you about the strength of our firm in the face of changing economic circumstances. I also said that our strength does not render us immune to what is happening in the broader economy. Our clients and marketplace have been seriously affected by the continuing global economic downturn, and the recession is now widely seen as the most serious since the 1930s.

Good luck to former Ropes employees. Read Malt’s full message after the jump.

Ropes & Gray is looking mighty healthy these days. As we reported earlier, there was no freeze for the Boston-based firm; their associates got class year raises as expected. And this week, the New York Observer reports the firm is stretching out its legs in New York, taking a new floor in its 1211 Avenue of the Americas building:

The law firm activated a provision of its 2005 lease of 250,000 square feet that allows it to take an additional floor in the tower… The lease gives Ropes & Gray the 32nd floor, which the Royal Bank of Scotland recently gave up, in addition to the space it occupies on floors 35 through 40 in the 45-story cloudbuster.

Up, up, and away, says Ropes & Gray. While bonus season suggests the New York market sucks is weak, Ropes spokesman John Tuerck says:

We see New York as a key growth market, and this signals our intent to continue expanding there… It’s a core element of our strategic plan to keep growing in New York.

Ropes has a “diversified client base” in New York, says Tuerck, and a good cross section of practice groups there, including (but not limited to) debt financing, IP litigation, government enforcement, and private equity.

More on Ropes’ plans to take over the world (or at least New York, Chicago, and Asia), as well as the Ropes class year raise memo, after the jump.

Ropes & Gray has announced the bonus structure they will be paying to junior associates across all of their offices. While the structure is nominally a Half-Skadden payout (which might work just fine for Boston based attorneys), there are a bunch of interesting caveats.

The basic structure is as follows:

Class: Base Salary: Bonus: Total Compensation

2008: $160,000: $17,500 (prorated): $177,500

2007: $160,000: $17,500: $177,500

2006: $170,000: $20,000: $190,000

But there are some opportunities for top Ropes associates to make a lot more, while associates who are low on hours get nothing:

As you know, we have an activity target of at least 1,900 billable and pro bono hours to be eligible for a bonus. This year, we have increased bonuses from the above scale for associates who worked substantially more than the targeted amount, and decreased rather than eliminated bonuses for many associates who worked substantially less. We did not apply the hours target to associates in the class of 2008 because their integration into client matters is still in progress. We have also adjusted bonuses in unusual circumstances where an associate’s performance review is substantially below our expectations.

More after the jump, including the full Ropes & Gray bonus memo.

In last Wednesday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, we asked you whether you billed over Columbus Day Weekend this year.

We received 1,175 responses, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that 26% of you had a pleasant three-day weekend. Associates in Boston were most likely to enjoy a discovery-free Columbus Day, with offices at Bingham, Goodwin Procter, and Ropes & Gray reportedly closed for the day. Overall, 46% of Boston respondents reported that they had not worked over the holiday weekend, followed by 36% of respondents in Philadelphia.

Of course, not all respondents were so lucky. As one associate commented:

One of the name partners threw a hissy fit when someone asked for the time off, because “Columbus Day isn’t Christmas, and this weekend is just like every other weekend.” We were only absent one associate on Monday. Everyone else not a partner was working.

Nice.

Of those who spent time at the office, though, only 65% said that their office was actually open. Among worker bees whose offices were actually closed, 52% said that they simply had things they needed to get done. Another 21% said that a partner had told them to work over the weekend, while 8% said a client had asked them to finish something. 13% said they needed the hours.

But two percent of respondents who worked over Columbus Day weekend even though the office was closed said that they just “wanted to impress people,” which is just sad roughly consistent with prior holiday surveys.

Overall, about 58% of respondents who worked over Columbus Day weekend believed that the work was worth it.

—
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.

Last week we told you that Jenner & Block held a firm-wide pep talk to assure associates that everything was going great.

Apparently, this is the new trend. Terrified associates are being told that they have nothing to fear, for now.

Last week Ropes & Gray’s chairman Brad Malt sent out this email:

We’re living in extraordinary times, and I know many of you are concerned about what the current turmoil in the financial markets might mean to us here at Ropes & Gray. I’d like to offer some thoughts on why we are well positioned to weather the turbulence in the marketplace.

Our firm is over 140 years old, in no small part because we always build for the long term. We have weathered many recessions, starting with the Panic of 1873, and we have always emerged stronger. Today, we possess many competitive advantages, including diversified practice offerings and a diverse client base. Thankfully, we do not depend for our bread and butter on the kinds of companies or markets that are most troubled right now. While recent events have felt unsettling for many people, nothing that is happening should distract us from continuing to execute our strategic plan and deliver excellent client service.

The recent turmoil in the financial markets has also presented the firm with important opportunities to advise clients, including some of the companies affected by recent events. Among the many examples, we obtained a temporary restraining order for our broker-dealer client, Ameriprise Financial Services, in the first case involving a money market fund to “break the buck.†An extraordinary cross-disciplinary and cross-office team reached a multi-billion dollar agreement to purchase Neuberger Berman’s investment management business and Lehman Brother’s fixed income and alternative asset businesses. We are representing various senior officers of major financial institutions in investigations of sub-prime lending activities and related class action lawsuits. And we have advised numerous hedge funds, CDO funds, mutual funds and other clients on other aspects of the market situation, including analysis of distressed securities, advice about credit default swap counterparties, advice about the new short-sale restrictions, and bankruptcy rules.

In the longer term, we are very well positioned to take advantage of opportunities that will arise from the changing market environment, and we continue to invest in lawyers and staff to help us do so. We were delighted recently to welcome our associate Class of 2008, and we actively continue to hire for summer 2009 and beyond.

To be clear, we are not immune to what’s happening in the wider world. However, I believe the strengths we have built in our firm, our proven agility in addressing changing market landscapes, and the dedication and high caliber of you, our people, will enable us to withstand the short-term market challenges. As always, we are grateful for your continuing hard work and commitment.

This letter reads somewhat like DPW and Debevoise emails where those firms touted their post-meltdown successes.

O’Melveny & Myers shows firms how to send a spooky reassurance email 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

Several firms have announced new parental leave policies. We’ll highlight them here, and Justin will be adding the information to his maternity leave and paternity leave cheat sheets.

1. Allen & Overy is one of the three firms to comply with what is becoming the industry standard of 18 weeks paid maternity leave. Paternity leave is 4 weeks. A&O also included parental leave for support staff in its e-mail: maternity leave of 12 weeks and parental leave of 4 weeks.

2. Heller Ehrman is upping its paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, while paternity leave will stay at 6 weeks.

3. Ropes & Gray is giving moms 18 weeks of parental leave (up from 13 weeks) and giving dads 4 weeks (up from 2 weeks).

The firms’ parental leave announcements are available after the jump.

Bless us, Father, for we have sinned. Last night we watched the Bachelorette.

It was for journalistic reasons — really. We wanted to do an update to our prior post, about a lawyer competing for the hand of the Bachelorette, DeAnna Pappas.

Or make that “lawyers”? He’s not identified as a lawyer in his bio, which refers to him merely as a “senior analyst,” but Eric Papachristos, 31, apparently works in the Boston office of Ropes & Gray.

In addition, according to the Boston Herald (which confirms his Ropes & Gray connection), Eric co-owns Gypsy Bar, Victoria’s Diner, and The Breakfast Club. We aren’t familiar with these fine establishments, but if you are, feel free to chime in.

Sadly for him, Eric might want to keep his day job(s), since he was eliminated last night from the Bachelorette. He tried to bond with DeAnna over their shared Greek heritage, but she was having none of it. As he was sent home, Eric confessed that “it hurts to be rejected” and that he’s “never had to compete for someone’s affection before.”

Correction: Whoops, sorry about that. Although Eric works for Ropes, he is not a lawyer; he handles “Financial Planning and Analysis” for the firm. See his LinkedIn profile (via a commenter).

But another legal eagle, Jeremy Anderson, fared much better. He’s now viewed by his fellow contestants as the frontrunner, having racked up two roses. Here’s how he succeeded, from EW.com:

In the Dodger dugout, he told DeAnna that both of his parents are dead and that he’s had a hard time opening up because he’s trying to protect himself and his family. DeAnna, whose mother died of cancer when she was 12, now has someone who knows what she’s experienced. Jeremy’s position on the show, and maybe even in DeAnna’s heart, seems secure. Is he for real?

Real or not, he’s quite a hottie (with ample upper-body strength — he came in second fared well in the push-up contest). Furthermore, when Jeremy and DeAnna got their smooch on, he looked like a good kisser.

But Eric, who got the boot, isn’t bad-looking either. He got sent home, even though some less attractive gents (in our opinion) were allowed to stay on.

Who’s hotter, Eric or Jeremy? Compare their headshots at the top of this post, then take our poll below.

Update: As noted in the comments, there is a second lawyer on the show: Fred, a 30-year-old lawyer from Chicago. If you know more about his professional background — for example, where he went to law school or where he works — please enlighten us (in the comments or by email).

Earlier: SMU Law Grad to Vie for the Bachelorette’s Heart