Scott Barshay

How much might the responsible recruiter have earned for making this placement?

How major a move is this, and how much might he make at his new firm?

* “Say you’ll remember me, standing in a black robe, waiting for a hearing, babe. Begging the SJC, say you will confirm me, even if it’s just in my wildest dreams, ah-ha ohh.” SCOTUS nominee Judge Merrick Garland has something in common with an overwhelming number of teenage girls: he loves Taylor Swift sing-alongs. That’s cute! [People]

* “A judge does not check his First Amendment rights at the courthouse door.” Judge Olu Stevens has filed suit against the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission on free-speech grounds in an attempt to stave off an ethics sanction for publicly commenting on Facebook about all-white juries and their “disproportionate and disparate impact on black defendants.” [Courier-Journal]

* Hardly any partners leave Cravath, but a very important one just did, and his exit is making people talk. Scott Barshay, once a top M&A partner at the firm that tends to set the associate bonus scale, has defected to Paul Weiss, where he’ll become its global head of M&A. Which clients will he take to the “dream team”? [DealBook / New York Times]

* This plaintiff’s antitrust allegations against Uber’s CEO may be “wildly implausible” and representative of an “impossibly unwieldy conspiracy,” but in Judge Jed Rakoff’s eyes, they were enough to overcome a motion to dismiss that was filed by Boies Schiller. Something tells us Uber’s legal bills are going to see some surge-pricing. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Per a study by Ravel Law, in a new index that tracks federal judges by their rulings and subsequent citations to those rulings, Michigan produces the most influential judges on the federal bench, followed by Chicago, Harvard, and Yale. Harvard has finally gotten one over on Yale — but for a measly bronze trophy. [Crain’s Detroit Business]

* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector gained 1,200 jobs in March. On top of that positive news, February’s numbers were revised from a loss of 1,500 jobs to a gain of 100 jobs. In any case, what with the huge discrepancy, we’re happy to see Dewey’s bookkeepers found new work. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

If you're smart enough to get a job at Cravath, you should be smart enough to keep client confidences, right?

It took a little longer than most of you expected, but Cravath, Swaine & Moore just announced its 2011 associate bonuses. Barring something very unforeseen, these bonuses are what many Biglaw firms, in New York and across the land, will pay out this year to their people. Historically Cravath has set the market with respect to year-end associate bonuses at major law firms. Let's take a look at the official memorandum, and engage in some analysis....

Year-end bonuses have been announced at the market-leading firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. And they are even lower than last year’s Cravath bonuses. But look, this is 2009. Welcome to the Great Recession. Your true bonus is: you get to keep your job. That shouldn’t be taken for granted, even at Cravath. Anyway, here’s […]