Back in February, we reported that Marc Zwillinger and Christian Genetski, who previously headed up the internet practice group at Sonnenschein, were leaving to start their own firm, Zwillinger Genetski LLP. The firm is only a few months old, but it’s already at seven lawyers — and growing.
The Blog of Legal Times reports:
New Internet law boutique Zwillinger Genetski is bulking up with the addition of three attorneys, including Yahoo! Inc. associate general counsel Elizabeth Banker. The new hires nearly double the size of the three-month old Washington-based firm, bringing its headcount to seven.
The usual migration is from a law firm to an in-house job (often for lifestyle reasons). But sometimes we see moves in the reverse direction. E.g., Daniel Cooperman, who went from Apple back to Bingham McCutchen; Bear Stearns refugees, who wound up at various firms.
Elizabeth Banker is just one of the three new hires at Zwillinger Genetski….
Continue reading “Musical Chairs: Internet Boutique Spun Off from Sonnenschein Goes on Hiring Spree”
Now that both partnerships have voted, the merger between Sonnenschein and Denton Wilde is a done deal. But the ride between now and the effective merger date of September 30th could still be bumpy.
The first bump is coming from Thacher Proffitt & Wood. As TPW was dissolving, Sonnenschein scooped up 100 lawyers from Thacher Proffitt. The partners involved received significant compensation packages.
According to The Lawyer, those well-compensated partners are now thinking of leaving Sonnenschein, before the merger…
Continue reading “Ghosts of Thacher Proffitt Get SNR Denton Off on a Sour Note”
A few weeks ago, news broke that Sonnenschein would merge with the U.K.-based firm of Denton Wilde. Today the firms announced that partners on both sides of the Atlantic unanimously voted in favor of the merger. From the Sonnenschein press release:
The partnerships of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (SNR) and Denton Wilde Sapte LLP (Denton) today voted in favor of combining to form SNR Denton. Launching on September 30, 2010, SNR Denton will have more than 1,400 lawyers and professionals in 18 countries, forming a top 25 legal services provider worldwide by number of lawyers and professionals. SNR Chairman Elliott Portnoy and Denton CEO Howard Morris will serve as co-CEOs of SNR Denton.
The merger will become official on September 30th.
Congratulations to SNR-Denton partners, associates, and other employees. Let’s hope there are no redundancy layoffs on either side of the ocean.
Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: Sonnenschein to Merge with Denton Wilde
Sonnenschein isn’t going to let the recession slow down its expansion. Back during the heart of the recession, Sonnenschein saved around 100 lawyers from the sinking Thacher Profitt.
Today brings news that Sonnenschein has expanded its reach across the Atlantic Ocean. The firm has proposed a merger with U.K.-based Denton Wilde, to form SNR Denton. From the new firm’s press release:
SNR Denton would be a top 25 law firm worldwide by size, with approximately 1,400 lawyers and fee earners on four continents, a presence in 18 countries, and its two largest offices in London and New York…
SNR Chairman Elliott Portnoy, who will become co-CEO of SNR Denton, said: “This combination is the next step in our vision to create an elite, client-focused international firm that is about one thing – quality. Both firms have long enjoyed reputations as being world class, and now together we’ll have the assets and professional resources to carry that forward to new sectors, new practices, and new markets. As one firm, we will be able to serve our clients better.”
‘Tis the season for transatlantic mergers? The Sonnenschein news comes on the heels of Ho-Love (a.k.a. Hogan Lovells) beginning operations…
Continue reading “Law Firm Merger Mania: Sonnenschein to Merge with Denton Wilde”
Incoming associates get really angry when firms rescind offers for full-time employment. As Lat said this afternoon here in the office, law students react “as if rescinding offers is like eating babies.” Incoming associates understand that the market remains tough, but these recruits still have harsh words for firms that pull offers.
We can understand the concern. Remember, during the NALP conference, Executive Director James Leipold said that he didn’t think Biglaw would be able to reabsorb all the people who have been displaced. It’s a bit like musical chairs — only if you aren’t in a seat when the music stops, you have to go into the back room and perform sexual favors for a debt-collector named Rocco.
And that’s how students feel when you rescind their offers in a timely manner. When you rescind offers at a late date … let’s just say we can incorporate all of the graphic imagery above, then add inappropriate scenes involving the mothers of rescinded offerees and goats. Recent graduates become unhinged when firms pull offers late in the season.
Well, in case some firms haven’t noticed, it’s getting pretty late in the season. Finals are upon 3Ls in some places; graduation is here in other places. People are preparing to study for the bar. This is no time for firms to get cold feet about offers relied upon in good faith.
So, we offer you this open thread. Let us know which firms are pulling offers as we head towards Memorial Day. We already know that there is some bad news for a few would-be incoming associates at Sonnenschein…
Continue reading “Rescission Open Thread: Which Firms Are Pulling Offers?”
Back in December, Sonnenschein announced the outlines of its new merit-based compensation structure. At the time, the firm promised its associates more details in March.
The firm is true to its word: we’re now in March, and we have more details. Above the Law talked with a spokesperson for Sonnenschein. Here’s the top line news:
- First year compensation returns to $160,000 for first year associates.
- 12% – 15% of that compensation will be paid out as a “base bonus” in 2011.
- There are no hours or competency requirements to achieve the base bonus in 2011
- 2010 raises for veteran associates will be in accordance with Sonnenschein’s merit based tier system
According to Sonnenschein, the decision to pay 12% – 15% of 2010 associate compensation as part of a 2011 bonus will help them transition to their new compensation model. The firm wants a greater percentage of total compensation to be paid out as merit-based, end-of-the-year bonus. That new system will be fully operational in 2011, so the firm is viewing 2010 as a transition year. Again, the firm emphasized to us that there would be no hours or merit requirements for associates to receive this 12% – 15% of 2010 money next year.
Sound good? Let’s see what the tipsters have to say.
Continue reading “Sonnenschein’s New Compensation Potpourri Starts to Take Shape”
Today is the last day at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal for Marc Zwillinger and Christian Genetski — the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of SNR’s internet practice group. Their bios have already been removed from the Sonnenschein website (our links go to cached versions), and if you email them — as we did, to confirm the news — you receive an out-of-office auto-reply announcing their departure (and providing contact info for their new firm).
They’re leaving to start a boutique law firm, Zwillinger Genetski LLP, which opens for business on March 1. Zwillinger and Genetski will be joined by several associates and staffers who are currently at Sonnenschein.
“We are very excited about our new firm,” Marc Zwillinger told ATL. “As for our departure, it couldn’t be more amicable.”
How amicable? Let’s find out.
Continue reading “Musical Chairs: Sonnenschein Internet Practice Group Leaders to Launch New Boutique”
* “I think the record should reflect that the witness is vomiting.” [Young Lawyers Blog]
* Morbid adventures in lawyer advertising. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]
* PPP numbers from 2009 are not sunny at Sonnenschein. [AmLaw Daily]
* A scorned mistress wreaked revenge on her married ex-lover, putting ads up on billboards in Manhattan, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Does putting the affair’s happier times up in lights get her into false light territory? [True/Slant]
* If you’re going to a cocktail party this weekend and haven’t had time to read the Citizens United opinion yet, here are Cliffs Notes. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Over a million reasons why Kiwi Camara’s file-sharing client should be less angry with him. [Threat Level/Wired]
* Today came news of a long-time Biglaw litigator going in-house. Here’s the reverse situation: Longtime General Dynamics general counsel has returned to Jenner & Block as a partner. He talks about how Biglaw has changed since he left it 12 years ago. [National Law Journal]
On Wednesday, we commended the firm of Paul Hastings for moving so quickly to support Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Since then, a number of other top law firms have pledged their support to this worthy cause.
(Okay, Rush Limbaugh questions the worthiness of the cause. But we suspect that Limbaugh’s position — like that of Pat Robertson, who blames the earthquake on Haiti’s supposed pact with the devil — is a minority view.)
The WSJ Law Blog and Am Law Daily have gathered information about what various law firms are doing to help Haiti. We’ve combined their reports with information we’ve received from our own sources, to create a more comprehensive list.
Check it out, after the jump.
Continue reading “Update: More Law Firms Help Out Haiti”
Last month, we asked you if it was better to be laid off before the holidays, so you could adjust your holiday spending accordingly, or after the holidays, so you could bank the extra paychecks. Above the Law readers were pretty evenly split on the question: 50.8% would rather be laid off before, 49.2% wanted to hang onto their jobs through the holiday season.
Based on that poll, we can expect half of the people Sonnenschein laid off on Friday to be relatively happy with the news. The other half writes emails to Above the Law. Like this person:
Sonnenschein Nath Rosenthal laid off staff on Friday (14 days before Christmas)!
Sonnenschein confirmed the staff layoffs in a statement to Above the Law:
After an extensive and careful review of operations and staffing across the firm, we have decided to undertake a selective reduction in non-legal personnel. We have done everything possible to minimize the dislocation such a transition will make – not only on those leaving the firm, but for all our remaining employees. That includes consideration of tenure of service and other factors in determining severance and compensation continuation for those departing.
This reduction furthers our ongoing effort to right-size our workforce to best meet client needs and to achieve an appropriate attorney-staff balance.
Our restaffing will not in any way diminish our work product, business operations or our ability to deliver the highest quality service to our clients. Indeed, the firm will continue to make strategic investments in talent and professional resources. We have implemented these changes mindful that many of our clients have had to make similar adjustments in their workforce over the past 18 months.
We have great respect for all of those staff who will be moving on and are grateful for their service to Sonnenschein.
Elliott Portnoy, Chairman
David Schadler, Chief Operating Officer
No associates were affected by the staff cuts at Sonnenschein on Friday.
We can’t say the same for the next bit of news. Completely unrelated to the staff cuts, the firm has unveiled its new, non-lockstep compensation model. Let’s check it out after the jump.
Continue reading “Sonnenschein: Staff Layoffs and New Associate Compensation Model Potpourri”
Congratulations to Caroline Nyenke and LaRue Robinson, selected by ATL readers as our August Couple of the Month in a close race. Things were a bit more lopsided in our September Couple of the Month poll, as SCOTUS clerks and lovebirds Karen Dunn and Brian Netter took the crown with 40 percent of the vote. Both couples will compete for Couple of the Year honors in a few months.
Now, this week’s contestants:
1. Molly Rusten and Peter Rosen
2. Xixi Yin and Edward Amley Jr.
3. Simrin Parmar and John Bennett
Check out these newlyweds’ pictures and bios, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 10.18: Jean-John”
But for the state of Illinois, New York State would be receiving more national recognition for its state political situation. Even the President is embarrassed by the performance of New York Governor David Paterson.
Perhaps Paterson’s chances of beating Andrew Cuomo, or Rudolph Giuliani, or the Naked Cowboy are depressed because of stories like these. From the New York Post:
Gov. Paterson’s former economic-development czar, Avi Schick, stepped down from his post at the helm of the Empire State Development Corp. in January — but, astonishingly, continued to quietly draw his $213,000 annual salary for eight more months, The Post has learned.
Schick, who has close ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, managed to hang on to his full salary — more than what the governor earns — in return for advising Paterson on lower Manhattan issues, said ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston.
In case you’re wondering, Sheldon Silver is essentially the most powerful state official left in New York State, owing to his ability to perform his duties at a basically competent level. That is a rarity in Albany.
But how did Avi Schick’s state salary become exposed? Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Sonnenschein Claims Paterson Crony”
Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.
We’ll actually be hitting a week and a half in this roundup, going back to August 1. As we’ve been saying for a while, September is not likely to be as tranquil as August was (3 layoffs, 126 people in total), and the layoffs have already started. Eleven days in, and twice as many firms have laid off almost twice as many people.
Let’s step back and start with the big picture.
The really bad news came just before the Labor Day weekend, as unemployment hit 9.7%, a 26-year high. If you really want to find a silver lining, the net job loss for August was less horrible than expected, coming in at 216,000 jobs lost for the month. The decrease in total unemployment in July is now just a blip on a 16 out of 17 month streak of worsening employment numbers. It’s not even like the improvement in July was a result of actual new jobs, either — it came from people becoming so disaffected that they stop looking for jobs entirely, which takes them off the rolls of the unemployed. Hurray for government math!
Coincidentally, BLS reported 100 jobs lost in the legal sector for the month, which is right in line with the tracker (although they’re measuring two entirely different things).
Overall, 6.9 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2008 — which, coincidentally, is also the beginning of the Law Shucks layoff tracker (we count from Cadwalader’s first round). Major firms account for just over 13,000 of those.
So what has been going on so far this month? After the jump, we analyze the looming surge.
Continue reading “This Week In Layoffs: 09.13.09″
* Earlier this month, we reported that Sonnenschein had made cuts. Of the 30 let go, 10 were income partners. [National Law Journal]
* Republican Congressman Joe Wilson may be the most hated lawyer in the U.S. today after heckling President Obama during his healthcare reform speech. [CNN]
* The income gap is narrowing thanks in part to a fall in PPP. [Wall Street Journal (subscription) via ABA Journal]
* “I don’t have to do anything you say. I’m a law student.” [Wicked Local]
* Federal judge Denny Chin — known for sentencing Bernie Madoff to 150 years, having a theatrical flair, and clocking some decent marathon times — will ascend to an appellate judgeship in New York. [New York Times]
As we get back to the Vault rankings, we encounter more firms that have engaged in stealth layoffs. And a firm that conducts mass transit layoffs.
To refresh your memory, here’s the next group:
61. Cooley Godward
62. Pillsbury
63. Sonnenschein
64. Cahill
65. Holland & Knight
66. K&L Gates
67. Nixon Peabody
68. Foley & Lardner
69. Kaye Scholer
70. Steptoe & Johnson
The penalty for having a partner announce layoffs on a train was six spots according to Vault. There have been other Pillsbury cutbacks. But the Acela incident happened when associates had Vault surveys sitting on their desks.
After the jump, let’s take a look at some of the other firms in this group.
Continue reading “Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 61 – 70 (2010)”
Already today, news broke loose about layoffs at Cooley Godward and Quarles & Brady. Without the summer associate “human-shields” around, it looks like Biglaw associates could be in for a rough September.
The latest news comes from Sonnenschein. A firm spokesperson gave Above the Law the following statement:
Throughout 2009, despite the year’s business challenges for our clients in many sectors, Sonnenschein has continued to grow both in people and in new business. Like every firm, we have practice areas that are strong, and those that have weaker client demand than anticipated. As every business is doing, we continue to review ways to align our capacity with demand in these weaker areas. Where we can, we transfer resources. When we cannot, we must make prudent business decisions that unfortunately affect some very good people. While we are not alone in our professional services industry in so doing, it is never easy to make these calls. However, we are optimistic that these necessary actions will continue to place us on sound footing as we move forward aggressively into 2010.
After the jump, tipsters weigh in on the number of associates let go and their reaction to the decision.
Continue reading “Nationwide Layoff Watch: Sonnenschein Continues the September Push”
We have an update on former Lawyer of the Day and Sonnenschein San Francisco partner Paul Glad. Glad was sued earlier this year by a Girl Scout and her mother after running into them with his Lexus.
We wrote in June:
According to the San Mateo County Times, [Glad] had stopped to pick up some delicious Girl Scout cookies. But in his excitement to get his Samoa and Thin Mint fix, he neglected to shift his car into park. His Lexus then rolled into the cookie table. The car pinned Girl Scout mother, Holly Rogers, to a wall, causing her to lose her leg. Her daughter, then 6, suffered multiple leg fractures.
Did we mention that Glad had parked in a disabled spot? And that he was on prescription painkiller OxyContin on the day of the accident?
Glad got some pain relief this week…
Continue reading “The Only Crime: Sonnenschein Partner Paul Glad Can Never Eat Girl Scout Cookies Again”
* UCLA Law students were successful in protecting our right to curbside carne asada. [Los Angeles Times]
* Apparently, Sonnenschein is “fat and happy” and moving its New York office. [New York Observer]
* Washington, D.C. lawyer Kenneth Feinberg has been appointed compensation czar and will get to set the salaries of CEOs at beleaguered companies getting government aid. [ABA Journal]
* The impeachment proceedings against Judge Samuel Kent — the first federal judge to be charged with a sex crime — will move on to the House of Representatives. [Associated Press]
* Sonia Sotomayor once called herself “an affirmative action baby.” [New York Times]
* San Diego lawyer Alfred Rava sued the Oakland A’s for sex discrimination after a 2004 Mother’s Day promotion that excluded males. Now ESPN columnist Rick Reilly is taking Rava and his men-ism suits for a round in the batting cage. [ESPN]
* Does SCOTUS need some affirmative action for non-Ivy League grads? [New York Times]
* White & Case partner Tom Lauria, who got SCOTUS to issue a stay in the Chrysler-Fiat deal, is pissing people off and “enjoying the heck out of it.” He may take on GM next. [Wall Street Journal]
* SCOTUS decided yesterday to lift the Chrysler-Fiat stay, so that sale can move forward. [Washington Post]
* Sonnenschein hit with a $30 million poaching suit. [American Lawyer]
* Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is threatening to sue HarperCollins if they defame him while publicizing a book on September 11. [Chicago Sun-Times]
* The Northern District of California courthouse sounds like a wild place. [Courthouse News Service]
Have you heard the one about the law firm partner, the Girl Scout, and his Lexus? Well, here it is, but we warn that it’s not very funny.
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal partner Paul Glad is an experienced litigator, but he’s going to need to ramp up his public relations skills in the months ahead. He has been hit with a lawsuit that is the definition of a PR nightmare.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
A 7-year-old Girl Scout and her mother filed a lawsuit today against a litigation attorney who crashed his car into them outside a Burlingame grocery store, forcing doctors to amputate one of the woman’s legs.
The driver, Paul Glad, 59, of San Mateo, was trying to park his Lexus near the entrance to the Mollie Stone’s market on Chapin Avenue on March 8, authorities said.
Glad pulled to within a few feet of where a group of Girls Scouts was selling cookies on the sidewalk at the entrance of the store, the suit said.
Glad had good intentions. According to the San Mateo County Times, he had stopped to pick up some delicious Girl Scout cookies. But in his excitement to get his Samoa and Thin Mint fix, he neglected to shift his car into park. His Lexus then rolled into the cookie table. The car pinned Girl Scout mother, Holly Rogers, to a wall, causing her to lose her leg. Her daughter, then 6, suffered multiple leg fractures.
Did we mention that Glad had parked in a disabled spot? And that he was on prescription painkiller OxyContin on the day of the accident? Yeah… that’s not the way one wants the cookie to crumble.
Glad did not comment to the mainstream media folk, but we got him on the phone last night. His response, after the jump.
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Day: Paul Glad”
