Biglaw, Email Scandals, Technology

ATL Public Service Announcement: Watch Out for ‘Brian Willmer’ of ‘Willmer Hale’

By David Lat

Is “phishing” running rampant throughout the legal community? A few weeks ago, Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School fell victim to a phishing scam. As the HLS Help Desk helpfully explained at the time, “Phishing emails are fraudulent email messages claiming to be from a legitimate source that ask you to send confidential information […]

Biglaw, Federal Government, Jamie Gorelick, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Seth Waxman, Ted Olson

How Much Do D.C. Lawyers Make? A Washington Lawyer Salary Survey

By David Lat

What are the differences between Washington lawyers and New York lawyers? One broad generalization — crude, but largely accurate — is that D.C. attorneys are all about power and prestige, and NYC attorneys are all about money. It’s certainly true that, in the Biglaw world, New York-based law firms generally enjoy higher profits per partner […]

Akin Gump, Biglaw, Law Firm Mergers, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Rankings

Law Firm Merger Mania: Opinions on Orrick + Akin

By David Lat

Yesterday we discussed the merger talks that are currently taking place between Akin Gump and Orrick. We solicited your views on a possible combination, and we received some interesting feedback (in the comments and by other means). Let’s start with the happy stuff. Here are some positive takes on an Orrick / Akin merger, from […]

Advertising, Biglaw, Career Center, Shameless Plugs, Summer Associates, This Is an Ad

Career Center: WilmerHale’s Summer Associates, For the Win

By Above the Law

In anticipation of the release of the summer associate survey results, last week we highlighted the firm with the highest response rate among summer associates, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman.  Today we want to congratulate and feature WilmerHale, for having the highest overall number of respondents to the summer associate survey. In a time when […]

Associate Bonus Watch 2010, Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Bonuses, Killing Lockstep, Money, Sheppard Mullin

WilmerHale Brings Clarity to Its Merit-Based Compensation Program

By Kashmir Hill & Elie Mystal

The heady days of the “mutually assured destruction” approach to associate compensation by Biglaw firms are behind us. But some associates would still like to see how they are doing in comparison to their colleagues at other firms. A tipster recently wrote us: Can you do a post requesting commenters to post grade schedules a […]

BP, Disasters / Emergencies, Jamie Gorelick

Can Jamie Gorelick Clean Up BP’s Mess?

By Elie Mystal

Jamie Gorelick is a Washington D.C. power lawyer. She’s a former Deputy Attorney General, former general counsel to the Defense Department, and current partner at WilmerHale, where she chairs the national security and public policy practice groups. She’s had — and continues to have — an amazing career. But does she really want to be […]

Biglaw, Conferences / Symposia, Partner Issues

Why Must Law Firms Be Strategic?
Insights from WilmerHale, Cravath, and McDermott.

By David Lat

This week brought good news from WilmerHale. The firm’s profits per partner climbed by approximately 7 percent last year, from $1.08 million in 2008 to $1.16 million in 2009, according to the National Law Journal. The increase in PPP was driven, in part, by a dip in partner headcount (from about 330 in 2008 to […]

Biglaw, Layoffs, Paralegals, Secretaries / Administrative Assistants, Staff Layoffs

Staff Layoff Watch: WilmerHale Lays Off 57 Staffers

By Elie Mystal

We don’t have all of the details, but multiple sources report that WilmerHale is laying off 57 staffers today (secretaries and paralegals). We understand that the staff is being informed right now. We don’t have information about what (if any) severance package is being offered to the departed staff. Our sources report that the layoffs […]

Biglaw, Hot Document, Internal Memos, Layoffs

Departures from WilmerHale: An Interesting Internal Memo

By David Lat

Last month, the firm of WilmerHale denied that any layoffs have taken place at the firm. The accuracy of that statement depends on what the meaning of “layoff” is. In an internal memo obtained by Above the Law, the firm acknowledges that “a very small number of individuals” have been asked to leave WH for […]

Biglaw, Layoffs, Severance

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Getting the Message Across to WilmerHale Associates

By Elie Mystal

Here on Above the Law, we have extensively covered layoffs caused by the shrinking economy. We’ve also covered stealth layoffs. And we’ve covered performance review layoffs that have been done out in the open. But at WilmerHale it looks like we are seeing an example of this: economically induced performance reviews resulting in stealth messages […]