So we're asking our readers to help us pick a new visual for Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Some of you had gripes about ATL's new design -- here's your chance to put your stamp on a small corner of the site. Your submission can be a photo (an artistic detail shot from your own wedding, perhaps?) or a graphic of your own design. An allusion to the law would be a plus, but the most important thing is that the image convey the theme of impressive people getting married. (And, of course, it must not be an image that's copyrighted by someone else.)

Send us your entries (please e-mail them here and not to ATL's tips line). We'll pick our favorite and give you a big shout-out and heaps of gratitude for perking up this space.

And now, on to this week's finalists:

1.) Suzanne deVries and Adam Decker

2.) Kristy Hong, Jonas Blank III

3.) Elena Klau and Chad Silverman

4.) Natalie MacLean, Russell Leino

More about these candidates, after the jump.

We received 1,036 responses to last week's ATL / Lateral Link survey on where you'd most want to work, which, in turn, was based on your nominations last month.

Here's how it turned out:

Survey Results: Which Firm Would You Most Want To Work For?

Overall, Latham & Watkins dominated the field, pulling in almost one fifth of all votes. Latham was the most popular choice among voters in L.A., the Bay Area, and Washington, DC, and was particularly favored by tax lawyers and litigators.

Runner-up Wachtell was actually the top choice of respondents in New York, narrowly besting Davis Polk and Latham. It was also, by far, the most popular pick among M&A lawyers, with roughly 30% of their vote.

Kirkland placed third overall, but was the top choice of Chicago respondents and patent lawyers, with almost twice as many votes as the next most popular firm in Chicago (Latham) and almost as many patent votes as the next two firms combined (Latham and Quinn).

Williams & Connolly, Ropes & Gray, and Davis Polk tied for fourth, with Ropes & Gray dominating the Boston vote, Williams & Connolly pwning DC (and gaining the second highest vote from litigators after Latham), and Davis Polk rocking the investment management scene (with Ropes & Gray running second best in that field).

Paul Hastings was the clear winner among labor & employment attorneys, winning almost 70% of the vote, and was also the most popular choice among real estate attorneys and lawyers in Atlanta.

On the Magic Circle front, Linklaters proved more popular than Allen & Overy, and was actually the most popular choice among securities lawyers. Allen & Overy was the most popular choice among structured finance attorneys.

This month's ATL / Lateral Link survey, focused on which firm you would choose if you could go anywhere, was dominated by Latham & Watkins and Wachtell Lipton. But several firms were close behind.

  * Respondents had several reasons to applaud Latham: "Prestige", "Friends there are happy", "Awesome firm, awesome people", "They rock", "Prestige, substantive work, great litigation practice", and "Top notch clients and matters; kick ass bonuses; selective hiring in a good way (need good grades plus a good; personality); Vault top 10 without the stuffiness of originating on the east coast; good growth but no risk of Brobecking (great management + tons of funds).....should I go on?" Or, as one respondent summed it up: "ass kickers."

  * At Wachtell, with 2007 profits per partner of $4.48 million, money played a key factor in respondents' enthusiasm for the firm: "100% bonus", "money", "it's all about the cash", "I want the compensation!", "money honey" and, of course, "CASH."

  * "Money" was also a big plus for Cravath (even though their profits per partner were a mere $3.3 million). Voters also noted "Prestige, training, can go anywhere else afterwards."

  * "Prestige" and "Exit opportunities" also won several votes for Skadden, who also had more than $2 billion in revenues last year. (Their SideBar program is pretty cool, too.)

  * "Bonuses and work" were praised at Kirkland & Ellis, as was stability: "They're well positioned for the credit crunch and M&A downturn. And the pay's better, of course."

  * Sullivan & Cromwell was also coveted for "good work, and $$$$" as well as "reputation." With profits per partner of $3.13 million, that "$$$$" is appealing at multiple levels.

  * Paul Hastings surged in popularity as respondents complemented their labor & employment practice and their compensation structures in Atlanta and Chicago.

  * In an incendiary match-up, Davis Polk was heralded as "da bomb", while Boston heavyweight Ropes & Gray was declared "the bomb."

  * Among the Magic Circle firms, Allen & Overy supporters declared "Great offices, european attitude" while Linklaters was called "the best globally, both in equity and debt."

  * Debevoise won several votes for its combination of "prestige and culture".

  * Litigators were torn between Quinn Emanuel, where "hard core litigators with a great reputation" create an atmosphere where "[p]ersonality, quirkiness, and fun seem prevalent," and Williams & Connolly, as "the best litigatio[n] shop. Period."

So of these fourteen juggernauts of practice, prestige, and sweet, sweet profits, who would you most like to work for?

Cast your vote in today's ATL / Lateral Link survey, after the jump.

At ATL, we have a special place in our heart for the intersection of law and media. Thus, we are moved to report on the publisher of Slate, Cliff Sloan, leaving the media world to become a partner at Skadden Arps. From The Washington Post:

Slate, the daily online magazine owned by The Washington Post Co., said publisher Cliff Sloan will leave to become a partner in a law firm. John Alderman, vice president of business development at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, or WPNI, will replace Sloan on April 1, the company said. Sloan will join Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The double Harvard grad is a member of the Elect (Stevens / OT 1985). Someone needs to update his Wikipedia page with the new gig.

There's no announcement on the Skadden site yet, so we don't know what his focus area will be. Maybe he'll work to improve the Skadden website. The bright red background hurts our eyes!

As for Slate, they've just launched Convictions, a new legal blog, with oodles of boldface legal names as contributors. We'd list some of the writers, but that would risk omitting others, and almost all of them are bigwigs of the bar or blogosphere. So just check the site out for yourself, by clicking here.

Slate Publisher to Leave for Law Firm [The Washington Post]
Slate Announces New Publisher [Business Wire]
Convictions [Slate]

We don't think that we'll post every single announcement about new and improved parental leave policies, since Justin Bernold is already tracking them through this handy-dandy table. But we will let you know about the big ones.

Today's announcement qualifies. The latest firm to move to the new benchmark of 18 weeks paid maternity leave is one of the biggest of the big: Skadden. When all those Skadden hotties become Skadden mommies, they'll be able to enjoy 50 percent more time with their kids than before (the old policy was 12 weeks).

Announcement, after the jump.

Everyone's written about this story already; we don't have much to add. Maybe we'll write more later if the spirit moves us, but we're not feeling terribly inspired right now.

In the meantime, check out the numerous links collected below, opine in the comments, and take our poll. We're curious about what you think of legal hotties contests. We've done a few around here, including contests for America's hottest ERISA lawyer and hottest law school dean, but we haven't held one in a while. Whether we do more may depend upon the results of this poll.

For those of you who approve of, and never got the chance to vote in, the Skadden "Hottest Female Associate" contest -- nominees here, winner here -- it has been resurrected over at Gawker. Vote for your favorite SASMF hottie over here.

Here's an open thread request we've received from multiple sources. A representative message:

I'm trying to gather more info about firms / offices that pay NYC salary + NYC bonus in secondary markets. For example, I believe that Weil and Skadden both do in Dallas and Houston, but none of the other firms in Texas do. I don't know if you've done a post about this before, but I think it might be interesting, because $205K goes really far in TX.

Skadden Wilmington is another possible example.

That's correct about Skadden in Wilmington. Another well-paying secondary market: Charlotte. A CLT tipster tells us: "Mayer Brown, Dechert, Dewey, and Cadwalader have all increased salaries to $160K here in Charlotte."

Hold on a sec -- Cadwalader? Didn't they just lay off 35 lawyers, including some in Charlotte?

Yes, they did -- but they also raised salaries for the survivors. More after the jump.

[Ed. note: As you may recall, last month we solicited applications for the position of ATL's sports columnist. We thank the many fine applicants who threw their hats into the ring.

Today we're pleased to introduce you to this site's new sportswriter: Marc Edelman, a sports lawyer and law professor. You can reach him directly by email (click here). And now, without further ado, we turn the floor over to Professor Edelman.]

As a young boy, I remember sitting with my father watching Super Bowl XXI. In that game, New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms completed 22-of-25 passes for 268 yards, leading my hometown G-Men to a 39-20 victory over John Elway’s Denver Broncos. At that moment, I knew that I would one day work in sports.

Flash forward 21 years. The Giants are back in the Super Bowl. Their then-famous center Bart Oates is now a practicing attorney, and I recently was named as a professor of sports law at New York Law School, Seton Hall University, and Manhattanville College. I am also the new sports columnist at Above the Law.

In the coming weeks, my column Sports and the Law will focus on issues involving the legal aspects of sports, including moral issues, labor policy, and antitrust policy (or lack thereof). This column will also discuss how lawyers can find jobs in the sports field.

Read the first column, after the jump.

Here's an update to last week's post about how various law firms fared in recruiting summer associates for this year. That post, including the comments, featured oodles of info about the expected summer class sizes at different Biglaw shops.

Now we bring you a few more data points. First, just a few short hours after our post went up, this email went around the New York office of Latham & Watkins:

As we move forward into 2008, the Recruiting Committee and the Recruiting Department would like to thank each of you for your support and participation in last year’s recruiting efforts. Your involvement in the summer program and our fall recruiting efforts was “priceless”. Thanks to your efforts, our summer program and fall hiring results were incredibly successful. The recruiting efforts resulted in 61 first years (not including judicial clerks, which we are currently in the midst of recruiting) starting next fall and a summer class of 80 summer associates (our largest to date!). Thank you all again and a very happy and healthy 2008 to each of you.

It's nice when firms are so responsive to our inquiries.

In addition, a few tipsters emailed us unofficial information about how their firms did in the recruiting process. Check it out, after the jump.

The Legal Eagle Wedding Watch is kicking off 2008 with a few leftovers from 2007. But we think you'll agree that these offerings are worth savoring. These couples have got a little bit of everything: brains, looks, athletic ability, and (something that never goes stale) lots and lots of money.

Here are the contenders:

1.) Ellen Zajac and Teddy Schwarzman

2.) Stephanie Alperin and Eric Biderman

3.) Erica Greenbaum and Mark Gerson

4.) Katherine Van Loon and Jon Steitz

More about these couples, after the jump.

In the current issue of the Legal Times, Attila Berry has this report:

A Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom attorney died in Australia last week. According to the Courier-Mail in Brisbane, Mark Bronson, a 44-year-old partner in the firm's Tokyo office, flew into the Brisbane airport on Nov. 21 and was stopped by customs officials after a drug-sniffing dog took an interest in him.

The officials scanned his baggage, and his luggage tested positive for cocaine, though preliminary tests can be inaccurate. Then while talking with the customs officers, Bronson had a seizure, fell to the floor and began vomiting. He died later that day in the hospital.

[T]he cause of death has not been determined, and a scan showed that he wasn't carrying drugs in his body. However, the news article says his vomit allegedly tested positive for cocaine, and he may have thrown up pieces of plastic as well.

Last week we also heard this gossip about Skadden Tokyo -- which, as noted below, is NOT TRUE:

I heard a rumor that an associate in Skadden's Tokyo office died of overwork (karoshi in Japanese). This info is secondhand though.

We wonder whether this false rumor arose out of the passing of Mr. Bronson. Cocaine and overwork are constant companions.

Correction / Update: As we suspected, it appears that the news about Mr. Bronson was transformed by the rumor mill into this urban legend of death through overwork. We understand that no associate in Skadden's Tokyo office, or any other office for that matter, has died from overwork.

Skadden Partner Dies After Drug Search [Legal Times]
Mark L. Bronson [Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom]
So Many Japanese Die of Over-Work They Have a Word for It [Blogonaut]

Our latest column for the New York Observer addresses a seasonal subject: law firm holiday parties. Here's the opening:

Law firm holiday parties aren’t what they used to be. In bygone days, the booze-fueled blasts yielded up tales of M&A lawyers making out with each other in darkened corners, partners dancing drunkenly with paralegals young enough to be their daughters and similarly dubious behavior.

In recent years, however, stories of scandal have become less common. Perhaps guests are more afraid of public embarrassment, now that cellphone photos of carousing legal eagles can be uploaded to the Internet in minutes....

But even if they’re not as wild and crazy as they used to be, law firm holiday parties still reflect, in ways large and small, the cultures and personalities of the firms throwing them. Let’s have a look, shall we?

You can read the rest of the column -- which describes the December festivities of Wachtell, Cravath, Sullivan & Cromwell, Skadden, Cadwalader, and Fried Frank -- by clicking here.

Boogie, Counselor! Which Law Firm Gives the Best Party? [New York Observer]

Wondering where to spend New Year's Eve this year? Well, if you're in New York City, do you have any friends over at Skadden? Surely you must. Considering that the firm recently passed the 2,000 attorney mark, everyone has friends at Skadden (if they don't work there themselves).

From an internal email by "New York office guru" Wally Schwartz, posted at the Skadden Insider blog:

Since our 4 Times Square office is located in such close proximity to New York City's New Year's Eve celebration many employees have rung in the New Year by viewing the festivities from our offices. For the most part these gatherings have been enjoyable and appropriate. However, during last year's celebration there were several problems caused by an excessive number of guests, and, in some cases, excessive drinking.

[T]he following policies are being implemented for this year's celebration:

Each employee is limited to inviting a maximum of three guests, each of whom must be registered with security....

Guests must be accompanied, or met, by their Skadden host in order to be admitted.

No alcohol will be permitted.

A New Year's Eve celebration without booze? That sucks.

Moral of the story: If you're spending New Year's Eve at SASMF, get royally trashed before showing up at Four Times Square.

No vodka in the Skadden lemonade [Skadden Insider]

Are you a law student in the D.C. area looking for a part-time job to help you pay for books and the "cheapest sh*t the liquor stores sell?"

Well, Skadden has a great opportunity for you. That is, so long as you don't want to sleep. Our tipster passed along this listing from the GW Jobs Board:

Major international law firm is seeking a law student to join its overnight Legal Assistant staff. The ability to perform legal research, cite check, Blue Book, shepardize, proofread and use Lexis/Westlaw is required, in addition to providing general support to attorneys in various practice areas, as assigned. Individual must be flexible and able to work independently, follow instructions well, and have an eye for detail. A skills test will be administered. Competitive salary and excellent benefits package commensurate with experience. EOE.

The scheduled hours are: Monday night through Friday morning
Midnight - 5:00 a.m.
(20 hours per week)

We especially recommend this position for a 1L, because you might as well go balls-to-the-wall on sleep deprivation. It's all about the experience, man. That's what you'll tell the grandkids about one day.

Skadden associates were notified of their bonuses by emails to individual classes, so we have no global memo confirming the numbers up and down the ladder.

But we have confirmation of the year-end and special bonus matches for the classes of 2007, 2005, and 2004.

Developing... Check back for updates.

Several updates, after the jump.

That's the debate currently raging in the Los Angeles office of Skadden. It was triggered by some exuberant, multicolored emails from a Gay Colleague, promoting the Skadden LA AIDS Walk team.

From the delicious (but sporadically updated) Skadden Insider:

[T]he e-mails weren't well received by everyone because "they are pretty aggressive and unprofessional. Just the tone of voice, the five thousand colors, the naming of names of who contributed and who didn't."

Our source continued: "And of course, some ignorant fools are going around saying, "I don't go around calling myself the 'straight associate'! Anyway, it was pretty funny. It was a gay gay gay Friday."

Check out the full post, which reprints the (literally) colorful email, over here.

And read about another instance of public shaming at Skadden, after the jump.

After Sullivan & Cromwell announced its new bonus program for senior associates, we received a bunch of messages like this one:

Can you please do a thread to see if other NYC firms have matched or plan to match the S&C recent bonus pool system for senior associates? Seems like there's been no reaction to this by any other firms.

Does this mean the other firms no longer offer top-of-the-market compensation for senior associates?

We're not aware of any other New York firms matching the S&C move. But we hear that Skadden is... establishing a committee!

More after the jump.

This firm-wide email was sent out by Skadden Executive Partner Robert C. Sheehan about 15 minutes ago:

From: Robert Sheehan
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 11:50 AM
To: EVERYONE EUROPE DL; EVERYONE NORTH AMERICA DL; EVERYONE PACIFIC RIM DL
Subject: Another Milestone

MEMORANDUM

October 11, 2007

TO: All Personnel

FROM: Bob Sheehan

RE: Another Milestone

Sometime in the last few days our contingent of attorneys passed the 2,000 mark. This is a remarkable achievement for any firm, but for one established not so very long ago (e.g., I was the 30th attorney here when I arrived in 1969), it is an indicator of astounding success.

Congratulations to all of us, past and present, for helping to make Skadden, Arps the success that we have become. Special thanks go to Messrs. Skadden, Arps and Slate for their decision to form the Firm on April 1, 1948 and for the decision to hire Joe Flom as their first associate later that year.

Two thousand souls, fed into the billable-hours machine that is Skadden. But accredited U.S. law schools graduate over 40,000 students a year, some of whom have souls, so there's still room for growth.

Onward and upward, SASMF!!!

Update: We've just learned that Mr. Sheehan went to our alma mater, Regis High School. Deo et Patriae -- et Skadden!

Law school can be thought of as a Harry Potter-style "sorting hat" for law students (as Dave Hoffman suggests). Similarly, the recent round of pay raises can be thought of as a sorting hat for law firms.

Nathan Carlile has this excellent article in the current issue of the Legal Times:

Call it a near miss.

Earlier this year, New York’s Simpson Thacher & Bartlett raised starting salaries for first-year associates to $160,000. In the competition to recruit top talent, the tactic was similar to one used by Kenyan marathon runners: a midrace burst to separate elite competitors from the pack of pretenders.

But while Simpson’s bump momentarily opened up a $25,000 gap between top-end New York firms and their Washington counterparts, the pack soon matched the move. Eight months later, starting salaries for first-years at most of the 200 largest firms nationwide remain bunched at $160,000.

More discussion -- including rumors of Skadden leading a new round of pay raises in New York City -- after the jump.

As we mentioned before, we regularly receive all sorts of apocryphal rumors related to the fall recruiting process.

The gossip can be salacious and fun to read -- even if turns out to be untrue. Like this rumor, which we heard from a University of Virginia law student quite some time ago:

Skadden has not interviewed here on grounds yet.... [Ed. note: We believe that they have by now.]

There are some rumors going around the school that a handful of my classmates, all of whom are minorities, have already received offers from Skadden. Obviously, any rumor must be taken with a grain of salt, but the word here is that offers were made very early to minority candidates in an effort to attract more minorities. I know of at least two with offers and both are African-American. Neither worked for Skadden last summer, which is the red flag in my eyes....

As I said, I'm not too familiar with the NALP rules, but others have indicated to me that those early offers are not proper given the NALP rules and regulations. I personally could not care -- I'm not interested in Skadden or the markets in which Skadden is interviewing for at UVa -- but I read the site regularly and wanted to pass along the information.

Sadly, it appears that this gossip -- while juicy and potentially controversial -- is not true.

The explanation appears after the jump.