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Skadden Matches Cravath Bonuses; Associates Will Get Up to $35K

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom will pay its associates bonuses ranging from $7,000 to $35,000, matching the scale announced earlier this week by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The amounts match last year’s bonuses, except that the $35,000 to be paid to the most senior associates represents a $5,000 boost,…

Nov 24, 2010 12:51 PM CST

Gratitude Researcher Says Lawyers Are a Difficult Crowd

What makes a grateful person? Gratitude researcher Robert Emmons of the University of California at Davis explains with a joke, the Lawyers Wellbeing Blog reports. An optimist sees the glass as half full. The pessimist sees the glass as half empty. The grateful person is happy to have a glass.…

Nov 24, 2010 12:00 PM CST

Citigroup Seeks Lawyer to Oversee Social Media

The growth of social media means more marketing opportunities for businesses—and more legal headaches. Evidence of the trend comes on the job front: Citigroup is hiring a lawyer to oversee its presence on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The bank has a job listing for a new…

Nov 23, 2010 2:34 PM CST

Is Document Review a ‘Scarlet Letter’ on Lawyer Resumés?

Document review work can help pay the bills for laid-off lawyers, but is it a career killer? That’s the question raised by readers of a Corporette blog post on job-hunting advice, the Careerist blog reports. One commenter suggested contract work can both pay the bills and account for down time…

Nov 23, 2010 1:52 PM CST

Starting at a New Firm? Keep Quiet and Learn the Lay of the Land

If you are jumping to a new law firm, learning the ropes means more than just figuring out the new technology and time-keeping systems. Besides handling logistics, you will also need to get a read on law firm hierarchies, according to a Lawjobs.com article by legal search consultants Valerie Fontaine…

Nov 23, 2010 11:30 AM CST

BigLaw Bonus Season Begins as Cravath Announces Range of $7,500 to $35,000

Kicking off a keenly anticipated BigLaw bonus season in which associates–and partners–at competing firms wait and watch to see how others are doing, Cravath Swaine & Moore has announced end-of-year salary supplements starting at $7,500 for those in its first-year associate ranks before September. At the top of the scale,…

Nov 22, 2010 8:57 PM CST

Nine Health Law Lawyers Jump from Buchanan Ingersoll to Carlton Fields

Nine lawyers are leaving Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney to join the health care practice group at Carlton Fields in Tampa. The group is led by James Kennedy III, who practiced with Carlton Fields as a partner 18 years ago, according to a press release. Other one-time Carlton Fields lawyers are…

Nov 22, 2010 4:25 PM CST

Wannamayksumpnuvit? Lawyer Takes 11 Years of Speech Lessons

Patrick Mullin was tired of the complaining. A tax and criminal defense lawyer who practices in New York and New Jersey, he would attend legal training seminars where colleagues complained that his thick accent made him impossible to understand. Mullin had a New York accent, and he decided to do…

Nov 22, 2010 3:05 PM CST

Profs Who Studied Importance of ‘Ingratiatory Behavior’ Offer Brown-Nosing Basics

Managers with legal backgrounds are particularly skilled at “ingratiatory behavior,” according to two business professors who have studied corporate leaders who won board appointments at other firms. Besides lawyers, managers and directors with backgrounds in politics, sales, or the upper class are good at sophisticated ingratiation, according to the researchers,…

Nov 22, 2010 2:01 PM CST

What Are Lawyer Success Traits? Study Can’t Account for Politics and Luck, Critic Says

Will a new for-profit venture designed to identify the traits that make lawyers successful end up making law firms less diverse and more insular? That’s the question raised by former Kirkland & Ellis partner Steven Harper. Writing for the Am Law Daily, Harper notes the new enterprise by Indiana University…

Nov 22, 2010 1:10 PM CST

Why Job Hunters Should Be Concerned When the Interviewer Leans Back

When you’re interviewing for a job, body language is important—and that includes your interviewer’s body language. If the interviewer is irritated, she may shake her head, sigh, drum her fingers, rub her face, fold her arms or lean back, according to legal search consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass. If…

Nov 22, 2010 12:00 PM CST

Foreclosure Lawyer Fighting to Keep Own Home; Last Mortgage Payment Made in Dec. 2006

A Florida lawyer who’s gotten national publicity as an expert in foreclosure defense has one thing in common with his clients–he’s fighting to keep his home, too. Peter Ticktin and his wife haven’t made a payment on their nearly 4,000-square-foot Boca Raton house since December 2006 and were sued by…

Nov 20, 2010 12:34 AM CST

After Acquisition by Thomson Reuters, Pangea3 Legal Outsourcer Is Set to Open US Offices

The Indian legal outsourcing company Pangea3 is eying a U.S. expansion following its acquisition by Thomson Reuters, the company that owns West Publishing. CEO Sanjay Kamlani tells Legally India that the company sought to be acquired by Thomson Reuters partly because of its plan to open offices in the United…

Nov 19, 2010 2:55 PM CST

Outsourcing, Not Bar Review Prep, Evidently Part of Thomson Reuters’ Strategic Plan

Thomson Reuters, the owner of West Publishing and BarBri, has a new strategic plan, and it apparently does not include the bar prep business. Students taking the BarBri course got an e-mail yesterday evening informing them that BarBri’s parent company is exploring the possible sale of the business, Above the…

Nov 19, 2010 12:07 PM CST

New Era of Tolerance as 2nd Transgender Judge Takes to Bench This Week

It appears that a new era of tolerance may be dawning as far as diversity on the bench is concerned: Days after a San Francisco-area county claimed to have elected the first transgender trial judge in the country, another transgender judge has been appointed to sit on the municipal court…

Nov 18, 2010 9:58 PM CST