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  • 18 Jun 2010 at 1:33 PM

Update: The Fastest Biglaw Lawyer in New York

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Lawyers like going the extra mile — and we’re not just talking about meticulousness in contract drafting. For whatever reason, many lawyers like to run. Some go long distances, like the marathon (an event where lawyers excel, especially at young ages). Others are in for the shorter haul — e.g., last night’s Lawyers Have Heart 5K, in Boston. (Congratulations to all the finishers — and to Bingham, whose team raised the most money for the American Heart Association.)

Yesterday we did a quick item on lawyers and law firms participating in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in New York. We solicited your tips about interesting attorney participants in the race. Several readers wrote in to identify the finisher they believe to be the fastest runner from a large law firm.

Who is he, and where does he work?

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  • 15 Jun 2010 at 4:23 PM

Musical Chairs: Internet Boutique Spun Off from Sonnenschein Goes on Hiring Spree

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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….

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  • 15 Jun 2010 at 1:15 PM

Did Quinn Emanuel Hire, Then Fire, a Convicted Sex Offender?

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CHECK YOU EMPLOYEE BACKGROUND. That appears to be the lesson learned by the New York office of litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel.

A source at QE recently sent us an email with this dramatic subject heading: “A rapist among us.. Quinn Emanuel.” Here’s the allegation:

[Earlier this month] our Records Manager, [name redacted - hereinafter "Got-a-Record Manager"], was fired. He’s been employed at Quinn for over 2 years. Termination Reason: He was a convicted rapist. He’s been convicted since 1987. He was charged with sodomy and first degree rape. I shudder to think that we had a rapist among us and the firm who claims to do background check on employees did not even catch this. An employee did a simple Google search on him and came up with it…. How did the firm miss this?

The tipster provided links to Got-a-Record Manager’s (1) LinkedIn profile, showing his employment at Quinn Emanuel as a “Records Manager,” and (2) a sex offender profile on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website, containing Got-a-Record Manager’s name and photo. If you enter Got-a-Record Manager’s (uncommon) name into Google, the first result in his sex offender registration and the third result is his LinkedIn profile.

How did this come up? According to our source, “People just like to Google others for fun, and this time someone got a surprise.” Indeed.

Was Got-a-Record’s criminal record “a surprise” to the powers-that-be at QE? We reached out to the firm for comment….

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  • 26 May 2010 at 1:25 PM

Meet This Season’s Lawyers from The Bachelorette

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This past Monday, middle-aged housewives, quadriplegics who were not able to turn the channel, and yours truly tuned into the 763rd 20th season of The Bachelor franchise.

This season stars Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky, an unemployed 25-year-old who quit her job at Facebook and moved back in with her parents to be on the show. Fans of the series will recall that Ali was a castoff from last season’s Bachelor, where she endeared herself to fans by wearing low-cut dresses, crying frequently, and vaguely resembling a poor man’s Reese Witherspoon as seen in dim light through cataracts. Anyhow, she’s back this season and more determined than ever to find love with one of 25 white bachelors, not including the one Hispanic dude, Roberto.

Figuring that regular guys might be intimidated by Ali’s professional ambition and success, the Bachelorette producers assembled a squad of gentleman callers that simply cannot fail to impress. There is the “outdoorsman,” the “dental sales associate,” the “medical sales associate,” the landscaper, the “internet account executive,” and even the weatherman. Also vying for Ali’s heart are two of our very own kind: LAWYERS.

So, who are these guys?

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  • 09 May 2010 at 10:15 PM

Breaking: Obama to Nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to U.S. Supreme Court

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We’ve all known this was coming — especially after Judge Diane Wood got a fateful phone call earlier tonight. And now that one of the big networks has declared it, we consider it reportable news (sort of like election results).

Above the Law commenters, consider the Kagan released. From NBC News (via SCOTUSblog):

President Barack Obama will nominate U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, NBC News’ Pete Williams reported late Sunday night.

Kagan, 50, served as the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009. Obama nominated her to serve in her current post as solicitor general early in 2009, and she won Senate confirmation by a vote of 61-31. She is the first woman to serve as solicitor general of the United States.

The foregoing paragraph says it all. The case for Kagan can be made “by the numbers,” namely, two numbers: 50 and 61….

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  • 07 May 2010 at 4:42 PM

Is Litigation in America Heading Toward A Perfect Storm?

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I spend quite a bit of my time tracking complex litigation. I would say that I do it so I can keep material fresh for my blog, but that would not be whole truth. I keep current with happenings in the litigation market for survival. Since I contract often to make my way in this world, knowing when that market is busy or slow is an absolute must.

Well, what a difference a couple of years make. Back in 2008, it seemed like the sky was falling. Above The Law, partnering with Law Shucks, reported almost everyday on associate layoffs. At the time, I was hunting down document reviews as a legal recruiter for a small staffing outfit. Several of my contract attorney friends called me, and most of those calls were very depressing. People were begging for work, having been unemployed for months in a D.C. market that normally kept attorneys steadily working. Many were emotionally upset, having watched their savings dwindle down to their last few dollars. When would the market pick back up? When would the economy turn around?

Now, fast forward to the present. Events in this country are sending litigation toward a perfect storm. I’m talking sea-change. Something we have never seen in this market before. So much so, this next decade may be one of the best for legal technology and Biglaw. I will give you six reasons after the jump.

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  • 29 Apr 2010 at 2:51 PM

CRIMSON DNA Apologizes, But Gawker Outs Her

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I got an email this afternoon from Maureen O’Connor of Gawker, letting us know that she had outed CRIMSON DNA:

Great post on the Harvard 3-L who started the racist email war. We just did a follow-up.

We’ve made great efforts to keep the identity of the Harvard 3L under wraps, terming her CRIMSON DNA and deleting mentions of her real name in the comment section. Now that she has been publicly outed, on a site much larger than our own, we will no longer be moderating the comments.

Still, for us, the story was about the fact that a Harvard law student with a prestigious clerkship holds these views and about the reaction from Black Law Student Associations. We did not think that her identity was an important component of the story, nor that she was a typical public figure whose name should be disclosed. Obviously, those of you spamming the comments with her name disagree, as does Gawker.

We won’t say her life is ruined, but it’s certainly not been a good week. People have emailed the judge she’s rumored to be clerking for. She has issued an apology. And the Harvard Law School dean has issued a statement, distancing the school from DNA’s views. And hell, it’s finals time.

Here’s an excerpt from her apology to the incoming and outgoing presidents of the Harvard Black Law Students Association, available in full after the jump:

I am deeply sorry for the pain caused by my email. I never intended to cause any harm, and I am heartbroken and devastated by the harm that has ensued. I would give anything to take it back.

So what set this all off? A cat fight, apparently…

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  • 27 Apr 2010 at 12:49 PM

Congratulations to Elizabeth Wurtzel!

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Congratulations to Elizabeth Wurtzel! The celebrated writer, who now works at Boies Schiller, just passed the New York bar exam. (As we noted earlier, February bar exam results for New York were released today.)

More discussion after the jump.

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  • 20 Apr 2010 at 6:37 PM

Non-Sequiturs: 04.20.10

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* When will the White House put forward its Supreme Court nominee? Expect an announcement between May 1 and 15. [Newsweek]

* Elsewhere in nomination news, Michelle Malkin assesses Professor Goodwin Liu’s performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. [Michelle Malkin]

* Worst oral argument ever? [The Legal Satyricon]

* An explanation of the SEC’s complaint against Goldman Sachs (from the interesting perspective of an Indian lawyer working in the United States). [Bar & Bench]

* Winstead awards scholarship and job offers to three law students. Grouses our tipster: “This is the same firm that no offered an entire summer class a month before they even showed up and fired people a week before they were supposed to start full time employment.” [Tex Parte Blog]

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  • 20 Apr 2010 at 3:12 PM

Lawyerly Lairs: A Finnegan Associate’s Televised House Hunt

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Last week, we mentioned that D.C. lawyer Chris Chan was going to be featured on My First Place, on HGTV. The episode aired last Thursday — and, for those of you who missed it, it will re-air on Tuesday, May 11.

Here’s a brief blurb, from HGTV, about the episode:

For Chris Chan, buying a home in Chinatown would allow him to stay close to work in Washington D.C. and also stay connected to his heritage in a neighborhood he grew to love as a renter. After a long search in this expensive city and some tough negotiating, he finally gets a good deal on his dream condo. But surprise lending restrictions on new construction bring everything to a halt. For months, the only thing Chris can do is wait and wonder whether he’ll ever get to close on his first place.

We chatted with Chan, a patent prosecutor and litigator at Finnegan, about his experience appearing on television….

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