Time to resume our series of open threads covering small (or smaller) law firms, focused on different practice areas. We’ve already written about small law firms in general, insurance law, personal injury law, trusts and estates, immigration, real estate, intellectual property, ERISA / employee benefits, and family law / divorce law. Some of these threads are still active (or could be resuscitated), so do check in on them.

Today we turn to the booming field of BANKRUPTCY. This practice area might seem depressing, given its focus on financial distress, but some people find it quite sexy.

A long time ago, the field was generally shunned by large firms, so that most firms doing bankruptcy were on the smaller side. But Biglaw embraced bankruptcy years ago, and it’s probably glad it did. The bankruptcy departments of large law firms are super-busy these days, providing a partial hedge to the weakness on the transactional side.

What about bankruptcy boutiques — how are they doing? Some material to kick off the discussion, after the jump.

Let’s return to our series of open threads on small law firms in different practice areas. We’ve covered seven fields so far; check them out here.

The latest topic to tackle: FAMILY LAW. This is the area of law that our somewhat cantankerous, dearly departed grandmother urged us to enter. She was firmly convinced that when a couple splits up, the divorce lawyers end up with all the couple’s money.

But not everyone is a fan of this practice area. Dahlia Lithwick, Slate’s fabulous and funny Supreme Court correspondent, previously practiced family law at a small firm in Reno, Nevada. It seems that she found divorce law depressing rather than enriching.

Here’s what Lithwick said during a talk at UVA Law School last year, when we asked what led her to move from practicing law to writing about it:

“One thing that really helps is doing doing divorce law.” After representing clients in their “bickering over the pots and pans,” she said, everything else starts to look much more attractive.

That seems like a rather negative take on the field, doesn’t it? In fairness to family law, it has its upsides.

Find out the advantages of this field — and check out the inside of this greeting card (above right), courtesy of the folks at Pig Spigot — after the jump.

Remember Jane Allen Clark? She’s the Texas attorney who originally used the quasi-racy photo on the left for her lawyer profile on the state bar website. After we wrote about it, she replaced it with the more staid portrait on the right:

But where did that first photo come from? An eagle-eyed reader drew something to our attention….

Let’s push forward with our series of open threads on small law firms in different practice areas. To see what we’ve covered so far, click here and scroll down.

Today’s topic: ERISA LAW. For those of you who aren’t familiar with ERISA, we’ll quote a prior post of ours:

For all of you non-lawyers — or for those of you who sat in the back row in law school — ERISA stands for the “Employee Retirement Income Security Act.” It’s the federal law, originally passed in 1974 and subsequently amended, that governs the administration of pension and employee benefit plans. So yes, it’s pension law.

This area of law may not sound sexy, but it has some sexy practitioners. Back in 2006, we held an ERISA lawyer hotties contest. Feel free to check out the male nominees, the female nominees, and the ultimate winners.

More substantive thoughts on ERISA practice, after the jump.

Last month, we linked to the Texas Bar profile for Jane Allen Clark. At right, it was racier than most of the bar association photos we come across.

We wrote at the time:

We called Jane Allen Clark to ask about the photo, and how she chose it. “I just liked it,” she told us. “We all want to look like L.A. Law, I guess.”

After getting our call, she speculated that “maybe [she] shouldn’t have used that particular photo.”

After the Above The Law post, she decided to get rid of this particular photo.

See the replacement after the jump. In our opinion, it’s much worse.

You see partners spinning off from bigger firms to start their own shops all the time. We’ve covered some of these high-profile partners that are still taking the risk during the recession, like the Skadden partners who formed BuckleySandler, or the Boies, Schiller partners who formed Stone & Magnanini.

But starting your own firm isn’t the exclusive domain of partners. Associates start their own shops all the time, even in this market. Last week, we learned that two Quinn Emanuel associates were taking the plunge and forming their own firm, Colt Wallerstein LLP:

Colt Wallerstein is founded by Doug Colt and Tom Wallerstein, two former Quinn Emanuel attorneys. Claude Stern, the managing partner of Quinn’s Silicon Valley office, said of the pair: “For years, I have worked closely with both Doug and Tom. I have trusted them with my clients’ most sensitive information and they have excelled in managing complex, sophisticated, and difficult commercial litigation. Doug and Tom are terrific, client-focused lawyers with a keen sense of the practical.”

These two attorneys weren’t laid off from Quinn. They say they were on partnership track at a firm where profits per partner march ever upwards. So you have to ask, “Why the hell would you leave a stable, well-paying job in the middle of a recession? Do you also enjoy looking gift horses in the mouth?”

After the jump, Wallerstein answers some of our questions.

Today we resume our series of open threads about small law firms focused on different areas of practice. For background on the series, see this post.

We’ve received lots of positive feedback on the series. Here are some representatives comments from the last thread, on insurance law:

54 - This is a GREAT GREAT GREAT thread - please do more. I’d be interested in seeing threads on immigration practice, real estate practice, prosecution and public defense (state/municipal, not federal - reality check here - the DOJ is not an option for 99% of attorneys).

86 - [K]eep open threads on small law like this coming! They’re informative for everyone, whether or not they are interested or not in working in such an area.

94 - This is a good thread. (I can’t believe it.) Thanks to the veterans who are providing substantive info and advice.

Our latest practice area for focus: PERSONAL INJURY LAW.

If this subject interests you, read more after the jump.

The comments on last month’s post about small law firms were uncommonly good. Readers shared valuable insights and information about life beyond Biglaw, including discussion of the pluses and minuses of working at a small — or smaller (size is relative) — law firm.

One commenter — after pointing out that non-Biglaw firms come in many shapes and sizes, making it hard to generalize — had this excellent suggestion:

You know what would be really helpful? A variety of open threads on different types of small firms. Do one or two threads a day getting people’s input on salaries in boutique regulatory firms, other types of transactional, plaintiffs firms, insurance defense, class action boutiques, whatever.

As someone that’s focusing my search primarily on small firms, it’s been really difficult trying to get a sense of what my salary demands should be. Short of asking my friends how much they make, the information really doesn’t exist in any useful form. A variety of open threads focusing on specific practice areas and what people can expect for salaries and benefits would probably be really beneficial to many readers.

Salary demands? How about just hoping that you have a salary?

But we like this idea for an occasional series of open threads, focusing on small firms with different specialties. Today’s topic: firms that practice INSURANCE LAW.

If this interests you, read more after the jump.

An ATL reader sent along a link to an attorney profile at the Texas State Bar website, with the following request:

Please find out if this is for real.

The photo on the State Bar of Texas website that prompted the reader’s plea to us, plus the backstory behind the picture — after the jump.

Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.

Dear Lat,

Thank you so much for the back-to-school care package you sent when I started classes at Solo Practice University! I must ask: where did you find the Wonder Twins pencil box? I absolutely adore it, and I love the Trapper Keeper (and the puffy stickers with googly eyes!) you picked out. I am also crazy about the Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, and the note you included was very thoughtful. (I’m not sure that “Knock ‘em dead!” is appropriate advice for a lawyer, but why split hairs?)

I’ll address, seriatim, the questions you posed in your enclosed letter. Regarding your first question (“What are you going to wear on your first day of class??”), I had a hard time deciding between the plaid skirt, button-down shirt, and penny loafers you helped me pick out when we went back-to-school shopping, and something a little more casual, like the Guns ‘n Roses t-shirt and holey jeans you turned your nose up at when I was modeling outfits. (I believe your exact words were “If you think you’re leaving the house dressed like that, young lady, think again,” and “If I put a 7-11 hot dog and a Slurpee in your hand, you’d look like Britney Spears - on a bad day.”)

But that, my fashion-forward friend, is the beauty of Solo Practice University: I don’t have to leave my house to go to class. Susan Cartier Liebel, the headmistress of Solo Practice University, calls it “carpet commuting,” but since, as you know, I live in true Manhattan-style squalor and thus do not have a carpet, I simply call it “convenient.” In any event (and because I also do not have an air conditioner), I opted for a tank top with a large coffee stain on the front, and shorts. Though I was certain my mother would pop out of the closet, smack me on the back of the head, and remind to “dress for the job you want,” she did not make an appearance. The cats, however, channeling her disapproval, looked at me with disdain.

As for your second question, things here at Solo Practice University, or “SPU,” as we call it on campus, are going well. The classes that SPU has to offer are - at this point - too numerous to list here, but as you know, they are divided four general areas: Substantive Law, Marketing and Management, Technology, and Work/Life Balance. In fact, the course content is so voluminous that I spent a few undignified minutes wringing my hands, uncertain about where to begin. (Again, the beauty of SPU is that no one can observe, firsthand, your minor meltdowns.)

No, Lat: there’s no need to start gathering piles of Zoloft for my next care package (although a little Valium never hurt anyone - let’s talk later). It turns out that my generalized anxieties, and the sense of being overwhelmed by the nuts and bolts of solo practice, were a valuable object lesson. Many people, Susan told me, are derailed by their fear of solo practice. One of her goals, therefore, was simply to “demystify” the reality of lawyering without a net. This led me to a minor, but useful, epiphany about one of my perceived barriers to solo practice: my fear of commitment.

Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.

As the summer drifts by with no sign of viable employment prospects, I realize I am suffering from a pernicious affliction which, while common amongst lawyers, has reached epidemic proportions here in the breadline. In a word, the problem is this: slavery.

No, friends: I’m not referring to the kind of involuntary servitude expressly prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment (of which I am not, of course, making light). I’m talking about the unique bondage of the BlackBerry, which ensnares us with invisible, but often impermeable, shackles. Or, if you are infinitely cooler and have an iPhone, there’s probably an app for that.

Following this realization, I resolve to develop a more normal relationship with my BlackBerry. No one is calling or emailing to offer me a fantastic job, I remind myself. Being hyper-attuned to the blinking red light that would, in theory, alert me to new messages or missed calls has not, thus far, caused any new messages or missed calls to materialize. So, I decide, I will take the bold step of leaving my BlackBerry at home when I go out to do errands.

“Don’t worry,” I say to the device anxiously, as I prepare for a Berry-free outing. “I won’t be gone long.” In some cultures, offering reassurance to a phone might be considered … well, strange. But those cultures, I tell myself, are judgmental and parochial.

Alas, my leap of faith is rewarded with an email from a recruiter looking to fill a temporary position “ASAP!!,” and although I send him my resume as soon as I can, he writes back to tell me that the job has already been filled. Irritated, I notice that I have also missed a call. When I check my voicemail, there is a message from a former colleague. “You didn’t respond to the Evite, Roxana,” she says. “I hope you didn’t forget about our reunion dinner tomorrow night.”

The dinner she is referring to is a yearly gathering for alumni of a Big Law Firm where I once worked — which, in fact, I forgot about. But, while I usually look forward to the event, I find myself regarding it with dread. How many times will I have to announce that I was laid off? How many questions will I have to answer about my job search? What if I’m the only person there who is unemployed?

Starting your own law firm: it isn’t for everyone. Some of you may recall that Roxana, of Notes from the Breadline, viewed herself as ill-suited to solo practice.

But many other lawyers do want to strike out on their own. And some attorneys, faced with the difficult legal job market, decide that they have no choice but to hang up a shingle.

The final panel of Tuesday’s conference, Getting Back in the Game: How to Restart Your Career in a Down Economy, was devoted to the subject of how to start and grow your own law firm. Four successful solo or small-firm lawyers told their stories and offered advice.

Read about the discussion — covering such nuts-and-bolts topics as office space, malpractice insurance, and how much it might cost to set up your own firm — after the jump.

Yesterday, the Exquisite Rap Duo dropped a new album. What’s especially exquisite about the album is that it’s the work of Anthony McNamer, an IP attorney in Portland, Oregon.

McNamer is a ‘95 Stanford Law grad who has worked for Bingham McCutchen and for Davis Wright Tremaine, clerked in American Samoa, and founded his own small three-person firm, McNamer and Company, five years ago. The firm does IP work and media, entertainment, and sports law.

“I’m probably the biggest music lawyer in Portland… but that’s not saying much,” McNamer told us. He is also on the short list for most extreme athletes looking for a lawyer, he said, representing them when sponsorship deals go awry or in “right of publicity” cases.

McNamer sent us an e-mail last week to let us know about his “rap group” and debut album:

You don’t hear about many big firm lawyer to rap group transitions. Word.

Apparently, McNamer is unaware of his East Coast rival, Mekka Don, who went from being a Weil first year to being a self-proclaimed savior of hip hop. Word.

We surfed over to his website and listened to some of the songs. As for our favorite, we’re torn between the one about not being able to look tough on a BMX bike and “Best Friends with a Gay Dude” about his college best friend coming out after graduation, which McNamer informed us is 100% autobiographical. The latter includes samples from Cher’s “Believe.” If you haven’t guessed yet, McNamer’s rap has a funny side. But he doesn’t consider his work to be pure novelty. “I don’t want to be Weird Al,” said McNamer.

We also watched the music video for Calculator Watch; the humorous approach reminded us strongly of Law Revue videos. We followed that hunch and discovered during our interview that McNamer was once a lead writer for Stanford’s version of Law Revue. None of the songs on Nine Mile (We Go The Extra Mile) employ legal humor, though. “I know from doing [Stanford’s Law School Musical] that law stuff isn’t very funny,” said McNamer.

We spoke to McNamer yesterday about his music, founding his own law firm, and how his legal career will help boost his musical stylings. Check out his video and the beauty of having your own firm in Portland — HINT: his target for weekly billables is 15 hours — after the jump.

Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.

Friends, family, and complete strangers have, at times, suggested this response to unemployment: “Hang out a shingle!” I may have mentioned, in past columns, that I don’t care for the idea. In fact, I may have mentioned it on more than one occasion.

Whether to hang out a shingle seems to be one of life’s persistent questions. Recently, I was chatting with my editor here at Above the Law and, sure enough, it came up in our conversation. “So,” Lat said, “why don’t you want to hang out a shingle?” Before I knew it, I had been tasked with compiling a list of reasons why, exactly, I don’t think that hanging the much-discussed shingle is for me. So, in no particular order, here goes.

1. Shingles aren’t free.

There’s a reason why some clients and companies have begun to seek legal advice that is freshly made in India, the Philippines, and other offshore locations. The rates charged by stateside lawyers are the sum total of a number of components, many of which are substantive, and related to the expertise provided by a particular attorney. But a lawyer’s price tag also reflects pesky factors like overhead, which can be considerable. Although I imagine that I could fashion the actual shingle using DIY techniques learned in high school, or on one of many shows on Bravo (or perhaps a design model borrowed from successful lemonade stands everywhere), there is the not-insignificant matter of where the shingle would hang. Office spaces in New York range in price, but they start at around $1,000 per month, which — if you’re lucky — may buy you something like this.

Mind you, this is just for office space. All of those things we take for granted when the firm provides them, from copy paper to computers, require additional expenditures. While it may be true that when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, it is also true that most landlords / vendors / putative office staff generally will not agree to be paid in “nothings.”

More reasons, after the jump.

Who says the associate bonus news has dried up? Check out the latest announcement to make its way to our inbox:

LAW OFFICES OF DAVID C. MCGRAIL
676A Ninth Avenue #211, New York, NY 10036
Ph: (646) 290-6496 Fax: (646) 224-8377

MEMORANDUM TO ALL U.S. ATTORNEYS

November 8, 2007

We are delighted to announce that the Firm will pay special bonuses to all U.S. attorneys, in the amounts set forth below.

Class of 2000: $60,003

The special bonuses will supplement the Firm’s normal year-end U.S. bonuses. In lieu of special and year-end bonuses, U.S. attorneys may opt for a 100% equity stake in the Firm.

It is our pleasure to work with such an extraordinarily talented, quick-witted, well-read, handsome, modest group of lawyers. Thanks to your hard work, 2007 has been the Firm’s best year ever. While our securitization, antitrust, environmental, mass tort, tax, trust and estates, and patent litigation practices remain nonexistent, our bankruptcy/restructuring and general corporate practices have flourished. Profits are up infinity percent from 2006. We look forward to seeing you all and celebrating this year’s successes at the holiday party at “Go Sushi” on 51st and 9th.

The Firm urges you not to circulate this memo to muckraking legal tabloids such as Above the Law. We recognize that our special bonuses exceed those offered by Cravath and others, and we don’t want to hurt their feelings.

Law Offices of David McGrail [official website]

It’s not as great as this lawyer ad. Nor does it rise to the level of the Nixon Peabody non-theme song.

But this lawyer advertisement, spotted in a Houston area convenience store, is pretty cute. And in a world in which software license agreements have choice-of-law clauses like this one, who’s to say that it won’t be effective?

(The attorney behind the ad is Wayne Heller, who appears to be a solo practitioner focused on criminal defense work.)

Trust me, I know… [Flickr]
Wayne A. Heller [FindLaw Lawyer Directory]

* We know you guys never tire of talking about the tough job market for graduates of non-top-tier law schools. Here is Sam Kamin’s take on Amir Efrati’s WSJ piece. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Can’t get a Biglaw gig, perhaps because you’re a Tier 2 (or Tier 3 or Tier 4) grad? Why not hang out your own shingle? [Build A Solo Practice, LLC]

* Still on this week’s non-top-tier law school theme, Dave Hoffman wonders: “[I]s there a point to law school beyond sorting students?” [Concurring Opinions]

* Vault is beloved not just by prestige-obsessed law students, but by investors, too. A private equity firm just bought a stake in Vault that values it at $60-$85 million. [alarm: clock]

* We have no difficulty believing this SCOTUS clerk gossip. [BeldarBlogs]

* Maybe Vanessa Hudgens should pay her lawyer in kind. Autographed nudie pics would surely fetch a pretty penny on eBay. [E! Online]

* Wondering whether there’s a double jeopardy issue with respect to the state charges against Michael Vick? [WSJ Law Blog]

* Want to pick up some advice on the voir dire process — and catch up on the last week of legal blogging at the same time? Check out Blawg Review #127, by trial lawyer and jury consultant Anne Reed. [Deliberations via Blawg Review]

We recently were sent this pay raise announcement, which we reprint with the permission of the sender:

I will pay my first year associate $175,000.

I just need to generate the income to hire someone at that pay level.

Frank M. Feibelman
Attorney at Law
5206 Markel Road
Richmond, VA 23230

Okay, here’s Mr. Feibelman’s real point, which is a fair one: “Bear in mind that not all of your readers are Big Law lawyers; some are sole practitioners.”

And here is one other thing to keep in mind. Biglaw attorneys, be thankful for your deep-pocketed clients, who allow you to practice law without too many cost considerations.

To be sure, even big corporate clients are becoming more cost-conscious — and complaining about high fees. But they’re still not as cheap cost-conscious as small businesses and individuals, the typical clients of sole practitioners, who freak out over legal bills when they reach into the five figures.

P.S. Speaking of solo practitioners — how much does the typical one earn? Their incomes can vary widely, but we’d be interested in a random sampling. If you’re a sole practitioner, please describe the nature of your practice and how much you earn, by posting in the comments. Thanks.

Frank M. Feibelman: Attorney at Law [official website]
Associate Salary Wars: The GCs Strike Back [WSJ Law Blog]

[Ed. note: We’ll get back to associate pay raises shortly. But for those of you with no interest in the staggeringly high sums being earned by your Biglaw buddies, Stella Q has some Non-Sequiturs for you.]

* I’m not sure how they do it, but Reputation Defender can rid cyberspace of slanderous detritus, even if you’re probably the one who put it out there in the first place. [Reputation Defender via Daily Candy]

* For those of you who are solo practitioners and/or have your face on a bus, then this service may actually make good business sense. [Blawg]

* So we’ve been preoccupied with Charney, Shanetta and the tightening of the golden handcuffs — don’t forget the juicy bits (betrayal! secrets! lies! some racial stuff!?) coming out of the Scooter Libby trial too. [Dean’s World via Media Bloggers]

* Puns kill. [Law.com]

* Is it presumptuous for the gorgeous, ageless Sidney Poitier to identify with Thurgood Marshall? (The answer is no, doubters! The evidence lies in these 25 questions.) [Vanity Fair]

* Yeah, but do any of them look like this? Also, I welcome recommendations as to up-and-coming bloggers or just quirky, personal favorites. [Blawg Review]

Or MySpace. Or Facebook. So we can only speculate as to what her “Hobbies and Interests” are — in addition to terrorizing summer interns, rifling through employees’ desks, and vigorously enforcing the use of binder clips over paper clips (allegedly).

But Shanetta Cutlar’s erstwhile nemesis in the DOJ’s Special Litigation Section, Ty Clevenger, does have a bare-bones Friendster profile. It’s not terribly exciting — we learn that he’s 37, and from Texas — but here it is, for what it’s worth:

One of you wondered what Ty is up to these days, since Cutlar forced him out of the Section. Clevenger informs us:

“I’m moving back to Texas and opening my own practice. Mostly civil, including civil rights, and maybe a little appellate and criminal. I figured if I was going to work for a jerk, it might as well be me.”

It takes guts to hang up your own shingle and start a solo practice. We admire the young lawyers who are brave enough to do it. So even though our heart will always belong to Shanetta Y. Cutlar, we wish Ty Clevenger the best of luck with his new venture.

P.S. We have invited Shanetta Cutlar to join Friendster:

If she sets up a profile, you’ll be the first to know about it.

Ty Clevenger [Friendster]

Earlier: Prior coverage of the Special Litigation Section under Shanetta Cutlar (scroll down)