Above the Law

Boutique Firms Beat The Market — See Also

Wins In The Courtroom And The Salary Race: So much money!

Kellogg Feeds Their Associates’ Wallets: They even included a special bonus!

Boutique Starts Their First-Years At $255K!: Desmarais LLP is showing off their generosity in a big way!

Quick And Speedy Compensation!: Trial boutique Elsberg Baker & Maruri matches Milbank!

Wilkinson Stekloff Joins The Salary Bonanza: Woop Woop!

Seward & Kissel Joins The Salary Train: Good on them! Now, where’s the rest of the firms?

More Prosecutorial Abuse: Prosecutor used cop database to spy on romantic competition.

Conservative Law Professors Feel The Need To Hold Back: Is this a free speech issue or what it takes to keep things social?

The ATL Law School Ranking Is Live!: See where your dream school (and actual school) place!

Formal Law Firm Mentorship Programs Are At Death’s Door

Formal mentorship programs look good on paper, but in practice, they may not be so great.

Trump Memo On AI Aims To Avoid Repeat Of Anthropic Debacle

The 'National Security Presidential Memorandum' urges closer collaboration with AI companies — as long as they’re compliant with Pentagon demands — and orders a sweeping revision of Biden-era guardrails on military AI.

Court Sanctions Lawyers From Both Sides In The Same Lawsuit For Filing Briefs With AI-Hallucinated Cases

You can't spell failure without AI.

Trouble For Midsize Law Firms: Is The Titanic Sinking?

Several factors got midsize firms to this point.

FIFA World Cup 26: Safe From Drones, Watched By Everyone?

Behind every match, every fan festival, every watch party, and every packed stadium sits an enormous security operation that most of us will never see.

Boutique Firm Raises First-Year Pay To $255,000

Firm continues to offer some of its trademark over-the-market pay.

Firm Matches Milbank’s New Salary Scale, Sealed With A Kiss…el

Exciting news for associates.

Salary Match Mania Continues At Elite Litigation Boutique

The D.C. litigation boutique is the latest firm to adopt the new market rate.

Another Boutique Firm Beats Biglaw To The Punch On Associate Pay

While many large firms remain on the sidelines, elite boutiques are moving quickly on associate pay.

Elite Litigation Powerhouse Susman Godfrey Goes Above Market On Associate Pay

Associates will earn between $5,000 and $10,000 above the new market rate.

Morning Docket: 06.10.26

* En banc rehearing of case about Kat Von D’s Miles Davis tattoo will leave one side kind of blue. [Courthouse News Service]

* Federal judge cancels trials and punishes both sides for fake AI cases. [New York Times]

* As we wait on the birthright citizenship case, Trump’s administration seems to be preemptively violating the Fourteenth Amendment. [Balls and Strikes]

* “Prosecutor admits to accessing databases to spy on romantic rival.” [ABA Journal]

* Surprising no one, the DOJ took the shadow docket ruling installing Alabama’s racist election maps and felt emboldened to declare the EEOC’s employment discrimination enforcement efforts illegal. [Reuters]

* Trump getting a new Fifth Circuit nominee, so Ken Paxton has a future after November. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Kalshi asking for employer info to avoid some instances of market manipulation. Notably not “is your dad personally ordering the strike you just bet on.” [Law360]

* Judge tells government to stop trying to get out of tariff refunds. [New York Law Journal]

Small Firm, Big Compensation — See Also

AZA Bumps Up Their Pay Scale: Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing P.C. pay their associates for their excellence!

You Get What You Pay For: Trump’s lawyers keep missing easy deadlines.

Fired Law School Dean Files Sexual Discrimination Suit: Despite clear successes, he was fired several months after marrying his husband.

Just A Nomination For Now: Will Todd Blanche actually get confirmed?

Dead Lawyer Theory: Will LLMs and laziness push out actual human lawyering?

Biglaw Partner Headed For The Federal Judiciary

Returning the 'blue slip' makes this relatively smooth sailing.

Meeting Clients Where They Are In An AI World

Using AI in an educational way moves the relationship more to one of a team with a lawyer, client, and AI tools all working together to get better results.