Skaddenfreude

Get ready for some hardcore Skaddenfreude, because this firm seems to be screwing its associates.

* Thanks to a former Skadden attorney’s failed attempt to kill himself, police were able to retrieve a suicide note — entitled “A Sad Ending to My Life” — that revealed the lawyer’s $5M Ponzi scheme. We may have more on this later. [Am Law Daily]

* “I’m not one who believes there are too many lawyers in the country,” says Dean Thomas Guernsey of Thomas Jefferson Law. Conveniently, only 29% of TJSL’s ’13 grads are working in full-time, long-term jobs as lawyers. Kudos! [U-T San Diego]

* The government just paid the least amount of money to legal services contractors since 2008. As far as Biglaw firms are concerned, Curtis Mallet-Prevost posted “significant losses,” receiving $2M less than it did in 2013. [National Law Journal]

* Because not everyone wears gas masks, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to keep police from using tear gas on peaceful protestors in Ferguson without first issuing “clear and unambiguous warnings.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* Ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event of the evening! IT’S TIME! FIGHTING out of the blue corner, angry UFC combatants who are planning to use “renowned” antitrust firms to secure “hundreds of millions of dollars”! [Bloody Elbow / SB Nation]

You should be prepared to explain -- first to yourself, and then to others -- WHY you earn what you do.

Today, we take an inside look at the annual review process for attorneys at Skadden Arps. In this special report, we'll provide general observations on the Skadden review process, highlight noteworthy comments from leaked attorney evaluations, and show you a few reviews in their entirety. If you're interested in learning more about performance reviews at one of the world's biggest and best law firms, please keep reading....

Late last week, word started to leak out that Skadden Arps plans to close its San Francisco office, by the end of June 2011. A meeting was held on Friday where the closure was announced to the office. The S.F. office is essentially being folded into the firm’s Silicon Valley outpost. Some of the initial […]

Bonuses have just been announced at Skadden. The following memo went out earlier today to all Skadden partners, from executive partner Eric Friedman: To All Partners: The attached memo announcing a year end discretionary bonus will be sent to associates in North America on a class by class basis today. Bonuses will range from $7,500 […]

We call it Skaddenfreude: taking pleasure in the misfortune of others who work at large law firms. Today’s tale of Skaddenfreude involves a contract attorney working a project in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis. Let’s kick it off with a picture….

Nixon Peabody was a winner in Signature Flight Support Corp. v. Landow Aviation, a dispute between two aviation companies at the Washington Dulles airport. Nixon landed a victory for Signature Flight, and filed a motion for Landow to pay attorneys’ fees in the case. Landow thought Nixon’s fees were sky-high and opposed the motion, resulting […]

MTV has sunk low. Really low. Its newest program, Downtown Girls — a reality TV show about a group of hot girls living in TriBeCa — is using the New York bar exam as a dramatic narrative hook. We wrote before about the law grad on the show in our post: Why Unemployed Lawyers Shouldn’t […]

Earlier this week, we published a Lawyerly Lairs post about a graduating 3L named Jimmy. According to the blog Urban Turf, “Jimmy” is a 27-year-old law student with a job in D.C. Biglaw lined up, starting at $160,000. If that’s not enough to make you hate Jimmy, he also has a credit score of 781, […]

If you work at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, prepare to be very, very angry. From the bonus memo just issued by presiding partner Evan Chesler: Both 2006 and 2007 were extraordinary years for our Firm. In 2006 we paid large year-end bonuses to our associates, and in 2007 we further supplemented those bonuses. As a […]

The Brokeback Lawfirm scandal folded its pup tent months ago. But there’s still stuff to cover at one of ATL’s favorite firms, the venerable Sullivan & Cromwell. Here are two items. First, from a tipster: If I recall correctly, Sullivan & Cromwell sent out a memo in December or January saying that even though they […]

The litigation powerhouse of Williams & Connolly has announced associate pay raises, effective January 1, 2008. We have confirmed the fact of the raise with sources at the firm. There was no comprehensive memo, so we’re not 100 percent certain of the specific numbers. But word on the street is that the new pay scale […]

Never heard of Duval & Stachenfeld? Well, that’s about to change, thanks to the firm’s innovative approach to associate compensation, which is getting some media mentions. From an article by Kellie Schmitt in The Recorder: The 50-lawyer firm, based in New York but with a small L.A. office, starts first-year associates at $60,000 — or […]

The American Lawyer’s 2007 Associates Survey is now available, via Law.com. Good stuff! A summary of the survey’s key findings, by editor-in-chief Aric Press, appears here. The WSJ Law Blog collects additional highlights here. It seems that ATL readers and law firm consultants aren’t the only ones predicting pay raises in the reasonably near future. […]

In our recent New York Times op-ed piece praising lavish signing bonuses for Supreme Court clerks, we wrote that the bonuses “are expected to reach $250,000 this year — paid on top of starting salaries approaching $200,000.” Some people have inquired into the factual basis for our statement. As it turns out, we did some […]

The nation's capital of corporate law pays associates quite well.

We’re beginning to wonder whether this “NY to 190” business is just a big practical joke. But even though no real information has emerged, and the co-chair of Simpson’s personnel committee told us his firm is “not currently considering an increase in associate salaries,” the rumors continue to swirl. Here are two email messages we’ve […]

The day that many of you have been waiting for has arrived. Today ATL goes to ATL: the fair city of Atlanta! Based on NALP forms and prior news articles, it seems that starting salaries in the Big Peach generally range from $130,000 and $145,000 (similar to Philadelphia). At $130K: Alston & Bird; Arnall Golden […]

Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin. The AmLaw 100 rankings — The American Lawyer’s closely watched, annual listing of the hundred largest law firms in the United States, ranked by revenue — are now available. We’ll have more to say on the rankings later. Their release is a big story, deserving of multiple […]