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DOJ Budget Adds Lawyers, Beefs Up National Security Funding

The U.S. Justice Department’s proposed budget for fiscal 2012 includes proposals to beef up national security with five more lawyers and 71 law enforcement agents. The $28.2 billion budget proposal represents a 1.7 percent increase in budget authority, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times and a press…

Feb 15, 2011 2:53 PM CST

How a Forgotten Trip for Batteries Jump-Started a Lawyer’s Recovery

Alcoholic lawyers think they can stop drinking any time, but the reality is different. A blogger writing under the name “Alcoholic Attorney” talks about his own struggles in a new series of posts at the Lawyerist, a practice management blog that calls itself a lawyering survival guide. Alcoholic Attorney finally…

Feb 15, 2011 12:00 PM CST

Layoffs of Hundreds Follow Foreclosure Firm’s Loss of Fannie Mae Files

After news that Fannie Mae had pulled its foreclosure cases from the Ben-Ezra & Katz law firm and a name partner had been held in contempt over documents irregularities in one case comes news of layoffs. The Hollywood, Fla., firm axed nearly half of its 568 employees today, reports the…

Feb 15, 2011 12:32 AM CST

Hogan Lovells Woos and Wins 5-Partner Howrey Team Headed by IP Litigation Rainmaker

The San Francisco office of Howrey has just lost another leading rainmaker. Intellectual property litigator K.T. “Sunny” Cherian moved to Hogan Lovells on Saturday along with a four-partner team from Howrey and a reputed $10 million book of business, the Recorder reports. As the Recorder notes, Cherian’s move may not…

Feb 15, 2011 12:01 AM CST

Attorney Is Suspended Over Misrepresentations on Job Application

A Connecticut lawyer who applied for a staff attorney job with a state worker’s compensation agency wound up suspended over misrepresentations on his resumé after the woman assigned to check his references alerted lawyer disciplinary authorities. Contrary to what Mark Villeneuve claimed in his resumé, he hadn’t graduated with honors…

Feb 14, 2011 10:58 PM CST

If You Are an Ex-Supreme Court Clerk and Good Looking, Susman Godfrey Wants You

Lawyers hoping to snare a job at Susman Godfrey will have to have a federal clerkship under their belts. And good looks won’t hurt, either. Those nuggets come from an interview Susman Godfrey’s name partner Stephen Susman gave to the Careerist. He told the blog that all job offers at…

Feb 14, 2011 12:19 PM CST

ABA Young Lawyers Want Law Schools to Provide Better Jobs, Salary Data Up Front

The ABA’s Young Lawyers Division on Saturday voted to press for greater transparency for would-be lawyers considering law school to give them a greater understanding of the risks of assuming the sometimes staggering debt required to obtain a J.D. The division’s assembly adopted a multipoint policy resolution dubbed “Truth in…

Feb 13, 2011 2:55 PM CST

Crim Defense Colleagues Throw Going Away Party for Mickey Sherman, Headed to Club Fed

Michael “Mickey” Sherman isn’t complaining. The 64-year-old Connecticut criminal defense attorney did the crime, and now he’ll have to do the time—a year and a day—for failing to pay his federal income tax. “I didn’t get railroaded. I made a mistake. I never groused about paying the price,” he tells…

Feb 12, 2011 12:10 AM CST

NAACP Hires ‘Trailblazing’ Solo as General Counsel

Solo practitioner and ‘10 Legal Rebel Kim M. Keenan has been tapped as general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Keenan—the youngest attorney and second woman to hold the position—was selected, in part, for her dedication to “redressing the inequities still impacting women and people…

Feb 11, 2011 7:05 PM CST

Meet Travis Laster, Unusual Delaware Chancery Judge Who Focuses on ‘Darker Underside’ of Cases

The newest judge in one of the nation’s most respected corporate courts is unusually outspoken about what he calls “the darker underside” of securities class actions and his opinion of lawyers on both sides of the case. Vice Chancellor Travis Laster, who is in his early 40s, calls plaintiffs attorneys…

Feb 11, 2011 6:32 PM CST

Legal Profession Ranks 10th for Happiness, Jobs Website Says

Think legal professionals are unhappy? Think again. A new analysis by the job site CareerBliss.com has determined that lawyers and employees in legal jobs are the tenth happiest workers, according to the Forbes magazine blog Girl Friday and a CareerBliss press release. The legal profession was rated less happy than…

Feb 11, 2011 4:00 PM CST

Is 2011 the Year of the Free-Agent Lawyer?

2010 was the year of law firm outsourcing, as firms increasingly sent their administrative and routine legal work to offshore and nearshore locations, according to Canadian legal consultant Jordan Furlong. He ticks off the developments at Law21, including WilmerHale’s outsourcing of back office work to Ohio and Thomson Reuters’ acquisition…

Feb 11, 2011 11:59 AM CST

Is Practice Like ‘Boston Legal’? Will I Make Big Bucks? For $5K, Cornell Offers Prelaws Some Answers

Is the real life of a practicing lawyer similar to what is portrayed on Boston Legal and Law & Order? How much time does a lawyer spend arguing constitutional issues? Can a lawyer expect to make a lot of money? Would-be legal eagles who are still in college can spend…

Feb 11, 2011 2:11 AM CST

King & Spalding Hires 14 Lawyers from Filice Brown; Two Partners Refused to Go

King & Spalding is building its litigation practice in California by hiring 14 lawyers from Filice Brown Eassa & McLeod in Oakland. The group includes three partners: Gennero “Gus” Filice III, Peter Strotz and Nicholas Kayhan, the Recorder reports. Filice, one of the founders of Filice Brown, told the publication…

Feb 10, 2011 2:07 PM CST

Law Firms Flaunt Profits with Spring Bonuses, Even as Partnership Remains Elusive

Several large law firms are paying associates spring bonuses, even as partnership is becoming even more difficult to attain. Law firms “have been tripping over each other” in their zeal for spring bonuses, the Careerist blog observes, citing reports in Above the Law and the Am Law Daily. “I don’t…

Feb 10, 2011 1:20 PM CST