Venable

Which Biglaw firm boasts a lawyer who billed 71 hours a week last year?

Which law firms issued offers to all of their summer associates?

Ed. note: This post is sponsored by NexFirm. So you’ve decided to make the jump. Persuaded by the 10 reasons to leave Biglaw, and aware of the 10 common mistakes made by lawyers who launch their own firms, you have decided to hang your shingle. What can you expect in your first few years running […]

* Billable hours in Biglaw are down 1.5 percent, and 15 percent of U.S. firms are planning to reduce their partnership ranks in early 2013. Thanks to Wells Fargo for bringing us the news of all this holiday cheer! [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* Hostess may be winding down its business and liquidating its assets, but Biglaw will always be there to clean up the crumbs. Jones Day, Venable, and Stinson Morrison Hecker obviously think money tastes better than Twinkies. [Am Law Daily]

* How’s that “don’t be evil” thing working out for you? Google’s $22.5M proposed privacy settlement with the FTC over tracking cookies planted on Safari browsers was accepted by a federal judge. [Bloomberg]

* Greenberg Traurig and Hunton & Williams face a $7.2B suit from Allen Stanford’s receiver over a former attorney of both firms’ alleged involvement in the ex-knight’s Ponzi scheme. [Houston Business Journal]

* Perhaps the third time will be the charm: ex-Mayer Brown partner Joseph Collins was convicted, again, for helping Refco steal more than $2B from investors by concealing the company’s fraud. [New York Law Journal]

* H. Warren Knight, founder of alternative dispute resolution company JAMS, RIP. [National Law Journal]

On March 12, Team Strauss/Anziska went to court to argue against New York Law School's motion to dismiss. A day later, everyone wants to know if any rulings were made in this closely watched and hotly debated case....

In August, New York Law School was hit with a class action lawsuit over the school's allegedly deceptive post-graduate employment data. The suit accused NYLS of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and deceptive business practices. Now, two months later, NYLS is packing some Biglaw heat against two small firms, and moving to dismiss the complaint....

* I’m doing Non-Sequiturs today, since Elie is too busy marching on City Hall. [Reuters] * A round-up of lawyer moves inside the Beltway — including another defection from Howrey (patent litigatrix Jennifer Dzwonczyk, to Venable). [Capital Comment / Washingtonian] * Speaking of Howrey, Professor Larry Ribstein, a partnership law guru, has some questions about […]

On Wednesday, we commended the firm of Paul Hastings for moving so quickly to support Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Since then, a number of other top law firms have pledged their support to this worthy cause. (Okay, Rush Limbaugh questions the worthiness of the cause. But we suspect that Limbaugh’s position — like that of […]

We all know that Venable is a “wacky” place to work. But is the firm also cheap? Last week, the firm announced its 2010 salary structure. It’s almost like Venable looked at all the different ways firms are handling salaries and decided to try all of them, at the same time. The firm-wide memo from […]

We are so close to the end of the Vault open threads that I’m starting to get my second wind. I don’t know much about the firms on this part of the list, but you guys do. You know a lot. You’re so smart, you probably don’t even need this quick recap of the next […]

So it appears that Detroit’s ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was carrying on other text-based affairs. His exchange of over 14,000 steamy, adulterous texts with his chief of staff made headlines last year. Now, it’s been revealed that he exchanged some inappropriate SMSes with another woman: Sheryl Robinson Wood At the time, Wood was at Kroll, a […]

Question: Will my Vault 100 firm protect my salary despite the recession? Answer: You must be using some other kind of 8-ball. Venable might be Washington, D.C.’s weirdest law firm, but you can’t eat quirky. Yesterday evening, Venable announced pay cuts for everybody. Associates, counsel, staff, non-equity partners, and even equity partners will be affected. […]

We’ve written before about a unique perk for the attorneys in Venable’s D.C. office. Like many firms, the office has a rooftop with amazing views of the nation’s capital. Unlike most firms, it also has a rooftop bocce court. The bocce balling and Venable’s representation of Michael Jackson led us to ask at the time […]

Today’s damage starts in the District. Multiple tipsters report that Venable has decided to make attorney and staff cuts today. The numbers out of Venable are relatively small compared to what we’ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks: 16 attorneys, 43 staff, 5 paralegals. A firm wide email announced the percentage of cuts: […]

As we noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, even the New York Times has taken note of the salary freeze trend at law firms. The Times reached out to Above The Law’s own David Lat for the story: Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, […]

The new year is shaping up to be a cold one. As we noted in our 2008 Year in Review series, one of the biggest stories heading into 2009 has been that of the salary freeze. Rather than instituting lock-step raises for associates entering a new class year, a number of firms have informed associates […]

The 2009 salary freeze is steadily spreading through the bottom half of the Vault 100 firms. Yesterday, Venable held a firm-wide meeting to discuss bonuses and salary. Our tipster reports that Venable is hopping on the crowded pay freeze bandwagon. Looks like we’re paying out “normal” bonuses (i.e. well below market) to those who billed […]

Venable is generally not a market leader when it comes to associate bonuses or salary. In fact, they usually don’t announce their bonuses until January. But today at 3:00 p.m. associates have been called in to discuss “the firm’s 2008 results and outlook for 2009.” Kirkland had a meeting today to discuss the obvious, and […]

Our Vault 100 series is winding down. We hope that the insiders have enjoyed the opportunity to brag (or to vent) about their firms. And that the curious have appreciated insights into life at various firms in the top 100. Here is the next bunch up for discussion (with their prestige scores in parentheses): 81. […]

Some good news from a tipster over at Venable: You can finally remove D.C.’s Weirdest Law Firm from your List of Shame. (Does the List even exist now, or is it being revamped for $190K?) A memo was just issued announcing that first-year salaries at Venable will be raised to $160,000 effective July 2008. Sure, […]