Lateral Moves
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Move Along: How And Why Partners Switch Law Firms
We’ve got a legal recruiter to provide you with some of her best-kept secrets.
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* Trump’s people want a new Special Counsel to investigate the Special Counsel over a potential conflict that has nothing to do with the first Special Counsel. Things are going well. [Huffington Post]
* Boutiques give out big bonuses and they can do it because handing out big bonuses is barely any skin off their noses. But, that won’t stop some Biglaw firms from trying to screw over their associates. [American Lawyer]
* Public companies, by and large, aren’t identifying cybersecurity as a risk on their SEC filings. That’s… likely a problem. [Corporate Counsel]
* It’s possible that Biglaw has come around on litigation finance. [Law360]
* Obama alums are flocking to elite law schools. I have a feeling that’s not going to happen with this administration’s refugees.
[National Law Journal]* Are we looking at a hot lateral market next year? [American Lawyer]
* With Star Wars about to drop, let’s check in on Kylo Ren’s insanity defense. [The Legal Geeks]
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* Settlements have been reached between Berkeley Law, the school’s former dean, and the dean’s former assistant. If you recall, then dean Sujit Chaudry was accused of sexually harassing his assistant, and as part of the settlement, he’ll have to pay $100K in fees and charitable donations, but will be considered to be on “sabbatical” until May 2018, keeping all of his benefits. Hmm, do we think this is fair? [Mercury News]
* “We have not livestreamed before, but that’s not to say that won’t happen in this case.” The Fourth Circuit is considering livestreaming oral arguments for travel ban 2.0, much like what the Ninth Circuit did with oral arguments for Trump’s first travel ban. Maybe you’ll be able to do some “professional development” billing… [National Law Journal]
* “Arkansas does not intend to torture plaintiffs to death.” Judge Kristine G. Baker (E.D. Ark.) has halted a whirlwind series of eight executions — the state’s first executions scheduled since 2005 — citing a “threat of irreparable harm” if the drug midazolam is used as part of the lethal injection drug protocol and somehow fails. [New York Times]
* More and more out-of-state Biglaw firms are flocking to Houston, Texas, to open their own offices, which has inspired many lawyers to leave their current firms for greener pastures — in terms of both money and opportunities. But is there enough legal work to go around with all of the new competition? Only time will tell. [Houston Chronicle]
* Ten Harvard Law student affinity groups are gunning for Professor David B. Wilkins to become the next dean of the school after Martha Minow steps down at the end of the year. They’ve written a letter to the university president, imploring him to take their advice and select their dean candidate for the position. Check it out. [Harvard Crimson]
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* Remember when Trump recaptured the news cycle from the string of blunders and Russian scandals that rocked his first month? That seems like just yesterday…. [Washington Post]
* What happens to lawyers after they
publicly demean themselvesappear on The Bachelor? [The Ringer]* After a massive scandal, Wells Fargo is slashing executive pay in the name of accountability. Well, by “slashing,” they mean “the people who failed to pick up the fraud will still make millions,” but it’s the tokenistic thought that counts. [Corporate Counsel]
* JP Morgan replaced 360,000 hours of annual legal work with a robot that does the work in seconds. That sounds impressive, but when you control for Biglaw hour padding the software really replaced about 20 minutes of work. [Bloomberg Markets]
* Yahoo’s GC resigned over their cybersecurity kerfuffle. Most Americans greet the news by wondering, “wait, Yahoo is still around?” [NY Times]
* Salary increases may be nice, but it just intensifies senior skepticism over what young associates really bring to the table. [Law360]
* Gibson Dunn building its Houston office on with Latham laterals. [Texas Lawyer]
* Even with revenue down, Bryan Cave manages to get PPP up. [Am Law Daily]