As regular readers of Lawyerly Lairs know well, some attorneys have beautiful — and expensive — homes. As we’ve just learned from the impressive submissions in our contest to find the best law firm offices in America, many attorneys’ workplaces are no less spectacular.
With the help of Mary Kate Sullivan, our wonderful intern here at Above the Law, I’ve winnowed the large and impressive field to eight finalists. There’s nice diversity here, in terms of firms (Biglaw versus non-Biglaw); decor (traditional versus modern); and geography (seven different cities, located all over the country).
Ed. note: This is the final column by Anonymous Partner based on his interview of a more-senior partner, “Old School Partner” (“OSP”). You can read the first column here and the second column here.
We had been talking for a while, when the conversation turned to Old School Partner’s experiences as a general counsel. He pulled no punches. “I was a very sophisticated consumer of legal services,” Old School Partner told me. In short, Old School Partner, when he turned to outside counsel, had high standards.
Having already decided to leave the security of a leadership position at a Biglaw firm for in-house life, Old School Partner demanded the same attention to detail and professionalism from his chosen outside counsel as he displayed when doing work for his former clients. As an example, he shared how he went about choosing litigation counsel.
“I was looking for counselors,” he told me, and that meant no fluffy credentials without real experience backing them up. “I wanted trial lawyers with real trial experience, who could have the confidence to forego a deposition that was not going to be of any value at trial.” Unlike many clients today, Old School Partner was willing to pay top dollar for real guidance, and did not default to assigning his cases to the lowest bidder or a firm that had a “preferred relationship” with his company. I got the sense that he viewed each case his company was engaged in as a business problem that needed solving, and was willing to pay handsomely for a solution — because he realized that throwing money at a litigation “team” was ultimately less effective and more costly than buying top-drawer help….
I believe the defendant failed a saving throw against berserker, so when he killed those people he didn't know right from wrong.
* Dressing shrinks as wizards when they testify would be an AWESOME idea. I’m serious. Why can’t we have this? And titles, too. “Your Honor, I call Dr. Freud — Ph.D in weakness management and keeper of the sacred staffs of Ivory guard — to the stand.” [Overlawyered]
* iTextbooks! Could be awesome, could widen the gap between the rich and the iPoor. [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Old lawyer accidentally smuggles a gun onto a plane, mainly because security — which noticed said gun — forgot to stop her. TSA doesn’t make us more safe, folks. It just makes us more molested. [Daily Mail]
* Apparently, LLMs go great with Brazilians. The people, not the grooming. Or maybe both — I don’t know, but I was only asked about people. [Live Mint]
* To be clear, putting slavery analogies into our math problems is bad… unless you are a college basketball or football star trying to work out how much you got paid in free tuition for last night’s game, versus how much the university made off of the performance of your team. Then the analogy is “apt.” [CBS Atlanta]
* White people problems, written by a former Cahill Gordon associate who quit to take a job in television. [Funny or Die]
* Additional impressive hires by an elite litigation boutique. How long before MoloLamken ends up on somebody’s hot list? [MoloLamken]
Law school deans — as well as other administrators, and law students — obsess over law school rankings. It’s understandable why deans fixate on rankings; for better or worse, it’s their job.
But what about law students? Should they put so much stock in rankings? Do people, specifically employers, pay too much attention to where an applicant went to law school?
May is graduation month. Once you’re out in the real world of legal employment, do folks actually care where you went to school? That’s the topic for the latest installment in the ATL career advice webcast, sponsored by the Practical Law Company: Does your law school matter?
In cooperation with our friends at the Practical Law Company, we produced a webcast, We Know What You Should Do This Summer. Career experts, including law firm partners, discussed subjects of interest to law students who want to excel as summer associates.
The recession might be officially over, but we’re not back to the glory days of 2006 and 2007. If you’ll be a summer associate this year — congratulations, by the way — you don’t want to run the risk of being no-offered.
Let’s take a look at the latest video segment, which looks at how economic times have affected what’s expected of summer associates, and offers practical advice on how to succeed as a summer….
Here at Above the Law, we try to offer practical tips for how to succeed in the legal profession. See, e.g., our recent posts about how to take vacation in Biglaw, or the best time for starting your own law firm.
Together with another company that provides useful advice and insight to lawyers, the Practical Law Company, we produced a webcast, We Know What You Should Do This Summer. A panel of career experts tackled topics of interest to law students who want to succeed over the summer — and beyond.
Prior installments of the webcast appeared here and here. Now let’s look at the latest segment….
Above the Law recently produced a webcast, We Know What You Should Do This Summer, in which a panel of career experts discussed how law students can make the most of their summers. The panel was sponsored by our friends at the Practical Law Company, which provides law students with free access to its excellent resources so they can succeed over the summer. Check out PLC’s law student home page to learn more.
We divided the webcast into different segments on discrete topics, for posting on Above the Law. We posted the first clip over here. Now, on to the second segment….
Earlier this month, Above the Law recorded a webcast, We Know What You Should Do This Summer. We convened a panel of career experts to discuss how law students can make the most of their summers. The panel was sponsored by our friends at the Practical Law Company. (We previously explained PLC and its mission over here.)
We started off with information and tips for our less fortunate readers — namely, law students (and lawyers) who have not yet found positions for the summer.
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Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
Deal flow has clearly picked recently up for most US associates, counsels and partners in Hong Kong/China and Singapore. We are on the phone with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, many of whom we have known for years. Further, the head of our Asia team, Evan Jowers, and Kinney’s founder and president, Robert Kinney, frequently meet in person with leading US partners in Asia to assess their needs and keep on top of the inside scoop at as many firms as possible. The need for legal recruiting help in Asia from experienced recruiters appears to be live and well. In March, Evan and Robert were in Beijing at such meetings, in April, Evan was in Hong Kong, and for half of June Evan will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Thus its pretty easy for us to tell when there has been an across-the-market pick up in capital markets and corporate work.
On an average day in Asia when Evan and Robert visit firms, they typically have 5 to 9 meetings a day, mostly with US partners in the market. The reason they have these meetings is not simply because Kinney makes a lot of US attorney placements in Asia and that a particular firm may have openings; instead these are just visits with friends. After years of working together as business partners, the folks at Kinney are actually these peoples’ friends. The firms Kinney work closely with in Asia (which is just about every law firm – call us if you want to know the one firm in the world we will never place anyone with again, ever, and why) look forward to the visits, or at least act like they do. After seven years in the market, many of the client partners are former associate candidates. Also, these US partners see Kinney as a very good source of market information as well, because they know how deep their contacts are in the market and how frequently they are speaking to counterparts at peer firms.
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As regular readers of Lawyerly Lairs know well, some attorneys have beautiful — and expensive — homes. As we’ve just learned from the impressive submissions in our contest to find the best law firm offices in America, many attorneys’ workplaces are no less spectacular.
