Blind Item

Now that Labor Day is behind us, fall is fast approaching. You can tell by the chill in the evening air. Or is that just the cold offers we're feeling? We recently heard a story about a pretty cold offer. This summer associate, who wasn't the most popular person in her class, received a full-time employment offer "contingent upon obtaining a federal clerkship." Given how hard it is to land a federal judicial clerkship, that's a pretty cold offer. But wait, it gets better....

Could the legal economy be returning to normal? Could the dark days of indentured servitude for recent law school graduates be coming to an end? Not so fast....

Do you know why people go to law school? For most people, it’s not because they “love the law” or because they want to be part of the system of justice. It’s because they want to make money. Lots and lots of dirty, sexy money. Granted, there are easier ways to make money in this […]

We’ve already shown you what it looks like when an associate gets laid off from a law firm. It’s not pretty. What does it look like when a law firm fires — or tries to fire — a partner? Well, that is even uglier….

A prominent partner left his white-shoe law firm some time ago, purportedly for falsifying expenses. A juicy detail that is less widely known: some of the fake expenses were for what might be described as improper forms of entertainment. (This blind item — relating to someone who left his firm prior to 2010 — has […]

Actually, we’re not sure that it’s herpes; that’s just a guess, based on context clues. But apparently some prominent, white-shoe law firm has been hit by an outbreak of a sexually-transmitted disease. Check out this Biglaw blind item….

No matter when it’s done, job hunting usually sucks balls. When done in the middle of the Great Recession, it feels like the balls are covered in tangled hair and pointy skin-piercing spikes. It’s painful and you have to be careful. One disgruntled attorney recently emailed us about a company that he suspects is trying […]

I have been a lifelong cannabis user, on an almost daily basis since I was in high school. I am now the managing partner of a very successful law firm in the Washington, D.C. area. I have been in a professional law practice for almost 27 years. I work 60+ hours a week, and all […]

Over the weekend, the New York Times took employers to task for taking advantage of university kids eager to get work experience. Unpaid internships abound, and the recession has made it easier for corporate employers to cry poor, and bring on free labor. However, there are strict federal guidelines [PDF] around unpaid internships, and many […]

Working from home is one of the perks of living in the Internet age. The downside is that work more easily intrudes into the rest of your life. But being chained to your BlackBerry is better than being chained to your office chair. A partner in the Miami office of an AmLaw 50 firm doesn’t […]

We’ve provided extensive coverage of a recent Biglaw blind item, concerning an unidentified law firm in Manhattan planning multiple rounds of layoffs for later this year. If you’re tired of this little parlor game, then stop reading here. But if you enjoy rampant speculation, surf over to Law Shucks, which has crunched the numbers again […]

Based on a Washington Post article profiling the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement and career coaching company, we constructed a Biglaw blind item: Which New York law firm, having already completed two rounds of layoffs, has hired the Five O’Clock Club to help it carry out additional layoffs (in August, October, and November)? After we […]

On Monday, we tossed out a blind item about future layoffs at a Manhattan law firm, mentioned in the Washington Post as a client of the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement firm. On Tuesday, with the help of Law Shucks, we narrowed down the list of suspects. We’re happy to report that we can advance […]

Yesterday, we wrote about a Washington Post article profiling a layoff consultant who advises companies on conducting mass firings. The article caught our attention because one of those who called Kim Hall of the Five O’Clock Club during the course of the article was a “law firm in Manhattan,” planning a third round of layoffs […]

The Washington Post had an article this weekend on Kim Hall of the Five O’Clock Club, who makes her living on layoffs. She advises companies on how to fire employees en masse and also offers guidance to the newly unemployed workers. At $2,000 per severanced head. The article describes a “day in the life” of […]

Late last month, we heard reports that one prominent law firm was not complying with the hiring rules and timetable set forth by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). More specifically, we heard that this firm was refusing to follow NALP’s 45-day rule for accepting offers of summer employment. Rather, the firm was giving […]

On Monday, we offered you a blind item about a major law firm giving “fake work” to its summer associates. Some commenters thought we were criticizing the practice, but if you go back and read our original post, you won’t find any criticism. To the contrary, we enumerated the advantages of this policy (which found […]

Here’s an interesting rumor we’ve heard. We’re a little short on details, and we’re trying to chase down additional confirmation. We thought we’d toss it out as a blind item and solicit the missing information from you, our readers. This is what we’re hearing. One large law firm is so hard up for work that […]