Law Firms
Blog Suspends Skadden ‘Hot Associates’ Contest, Says Memo Prompted Decision
Posted Feb 11, 2008, 10:36 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Updated: The Skadden Insider blog says it has decided to suspend nominations for its hottest male associate contest after a critical memo from Henry Baer, who is of counsel at Skadden.
The blog posted part a memo that Baer sent to all the firm’s lawyers. “We're guessing that he was talking about us,” the blog says. The memo read:
“The firm recognizes that blogs are prevalent in today's culture and that blogs about Skadden are to be expected. Nonetheless, we believe that the ‘contests’ on one of these blogs [are] inappropriate and [do] not reflect our values and standards of behavior. Numerous attorneys at the firm have expressed their concern and, in some cases, embarrassment at such contests. We urge the authors of the blog to consider both the privacy and feelings of the affected attorneys and to discontinue the contests.”
In an e-mail to ABAJournal.com, Baer confirmed that the memo referred to the hot associates contest and that the portion quoted on the blog was accurate.
In response to the memo, the blog says that the contest, “although sophomoric, was done all in good fun. We're sorry if anyone was embarrassed by it.”
But the change of heart came too late for the hottest female associate contest. The blog crowned a winner last Monday, based on an online vote. The blog says the photos it posted of the nominees were publicly available from Facebook and MySpace.
A hat tip to Legal Pad, which posted news of the dispute.
Updated at 10:48 AM to include confirmation from Baer.
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Comments
Posted by MSG - 6 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
I can’t believe that the lawyers at one of the world’s largest law firms can be so stupid and immature. This really bolsters the clients claims as to why they do not want to pay for inexperienced associates’ time. On the other hand, the large law firms are getting what they pay for when only hiring from elite law schools who are in large part attended by pampered children who have no clue about the real life.
Posted by H.J.P. Deebirde - 6 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes ago
The saddest thing about this is not the sophomoric nature of it all--rather the honest belief that you can find anything (male or female) walking around as a lawyer that could ever be objectively be considered “HOT”. These specimens dont even rate a 1 on the Richter Scale, let alone the Peter Meter.. NO ONE is going to ever look at these guys (or gals) and call them hot in the real world. I’ll take any skank working at McDonalds over this kind of “hot” any day. No one who goes to law school and winds up doing well is worth a serious gander at, unless of course you’re looking for nerdy guys or women that you would need a 5th of Scotch to swig before taking home. That, my friend, is NOT hot. I say if you want hot, go look at the Dallas Cowboy cheer leaders. On the other hand if you want a cow or some other barnyard animal, then look to these law firm “beauty contests” and you’ll find many a qualifying heifer!
Posted by Alvin DeBeers - 6 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 21 hours, 28 minutes ago
Points well taken #s 1 & 2, but there are some good points to sponsoring these contests Having had a “gander” at the female contestants (see http://skaddeninsider.blogspot.com/2008/01/hottest-female-associate.html ), I agree there are no Vanna Whites in the group. Sorry, I am not a football fan. Moreover, I once knew a litigation associate at Skadden, and while she was no true bathing beauty, she could have won hands down over these, at least in my book. Of course, she recently went “in house” so I don’t think the contest would have permitted her entry; unless it was open to former associates and other friends of the firm. As to the good points of having these contests, it provides the contestants with the ability to tell people that they were in a beauty contest, no small feat generally and specifically for lawyers who typically have their noses in the books, rather than on the runway. Let’s just be glad these things go on so that we can look at them and wish....."were I only 20 years younger!”
Posted by Tod Bentley - 6 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, 19 minutes ago
I understand that some people don’t like rating contest because they never win. And now that they are adults they can look down on them, and say how juvenile they are. Who cares, clients don’t care, the ones that do probably were unpopular as kids. People need to get a sense of humor. If anything, I would think a client would be more concerned about some associates expensive drinking problems or their coke addictions that actually cost money, rather then some harmless blog about who is hot or not in the firm. Seriously, the people complaining about this stuff clearly need to get a life.