Careers

Cravath Partner Offers Practice Tips

In the 30-plus years he has been a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, John Beerbower has learned a few things about litigation. Among them: Don’t try to be the client’s friend. Yet listen, empathize and try to understand what the client wants. (It’s often not what the client thinks…

Mar 26, 2008 12:58 AM CDT

Move Over AmLaw 100, Here’s the Lawyer’s Spin on the Top 50

In a reinvention of the AmLaw 100, a United Kingdom legal publication has compiled a list of the top 50 U.S. law firms based on revenue. Atop the list is DLA Piper, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Latham & Watkins; Baker & McKenzie; and Sidley Austin. Together,…

Mar 25, 2008 7:45 PM CDT

Just Say No? Associates Dish on When They Did ... and Didn’t

Plumbers get paid at a significantly higher rate for after-hours jobs. But law firm associates are often asked—no, expected—to accept last-minute after-hours work assignments, not only for no additional pay but even when the work interferes with significant family and social obligations. When should an associate just say no to…

Mar 25, 2008 4:45 PM CDT

Blogger Carolyn Elefant Is Solo ‘Poster Child’

Blogger Carolyn Elefant has made a name for herself and become “a poster child for solo practice,” Legal Times (sub. req.) writes in a profile. Elefant, whose solo practice focuses on energy law, advises lawyers about the benefits of solo life and helps solo lawyers network and pass along work.…

Mar 25, 2008 4:29 PM CDT

What Women Lawyers Can Learn from Hillary: The ‘B’ Word Isn’t Bad

Women lawyers fighting for recognition in a male-dominated profession can learn a few things from Hillary Clinton. One lesson: Being labeled a bitch isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That’s the conclusion of Kathleen Wu, a partner in Andrews Kurth in Dallas, who noted in a column for Texas Lawyer that…

Mar 25, 2008 11:46 AM CDT

Wachtell Partners Make By Far the Most: $4.48M, on Average

Updated: Despite all the hoopla over megafirms’ megaprofits in 2007, the three law firms that for the first time topped $2 billion in gross revenue weren’t where the real money was being made. Once again, profits per equity partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were breathtaking—$4.48 million. The just-over-200-lawyer…

Mar 24, 2008 5:43 PM CDT

Summer Hiring Down at BigLaw Firms

Apparently because of the slowing economy, a number of major law firms are pulling back from the record-breaking summer hiring of 2007 and are expecting smaller summer associate classes this year. At Kirkland & Ellis, for instance, the Chicago-based firm is planning to host 190 summer associates, down from 229…

Mar 24, 2008 4:41 PM CDT

Law Firm Leverage Could Determine Which Associates Get the Ax

Small or medium-size law firms that focus on structured finance and mergers and acquisitions are hardest hit by the credit crisis. And associates could also take a hit if these kinds of firms don’t have enough of a capital cushion to weather the crisis, a legal recruiter told the New…

Mar 24, 2008 11:28 AM CDT

The Baby Effect: More Billables for Men, Fewer for Women

A Canadian study suggests that having children leads to fewer billable hours for female lawyers and more for their male counterparts. The study of 670 lawyers at an Alberta law firm found that mothers with school-aged children billed fewer hours than childless women, while fathers with preschool-aged children billed more…

Mar 24, 2008 11:06 AM CDT

From Solo Practice to Tort King: Meet Jere Beasley

Almost broke and looking for work as an Alabama lawyer 30 years ago, Jere Beasley wasn’t having any luck. “I couldn’t get a job, so I opened a one-person law firm,” he tells the Associated Press. Now recognized as one of the nation’s tort kings, the 72-year-old attorney reigns at…

Mar 22, 2008 12:34 AM CDT

Female Associate Unhappy at Mintz Firm, One of the ‘Best Law Firms for Women’

A female associate has filed a state administrative law complaint against her Boston-based law firm, claiming sex discrimination and retaliation. Kamee Verdrager filed a complaint against Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, “alleging that she was demoted because of her gender and treated…

Mar 21, 2008 10:56 PM CDT

6 Partners Leave Frisco’s Howard,Rice But Profits Reportedly are Strong

After staff layoffs last year, six longtime partners have quietly left Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. However, the San Francisco firm has been hiring a significant number of associates, even though its attorney roster has dropped from a high of about 140 in 2002 to 113 today, and…

Mar 21, 2008 10:03 PM CDT

Top Lawyers to Consider Diversity Initiatives at Upcoming Summit

More than 100 general counsel and law firm managing partners plan to focus on specifics when they meet next month in Arizona on improving diversity in the profession. The conference, the Call to Action Summit, will be the second major national meeting designed to prod the profession to increase hiring…

Mar 21, 2008 5:12 PM CDT

Ex-Associate Files $75M Suit, Claims She Was Window Dressing at Clifford Chance

A former Haitian associate has filed a $75 million discrimination lawsuit against Clifford Chance that contends the firm gave her boring work and fired her when she complained. The New York Sun reports that the plaintiff, Caroline Memnon, is “claiming that the firm used her only as window dressing because…

Mar 21, 2008 4:07 PM CDT

Zuckerman Spaeder Closes Miami Office After Partner Losses

Zuckerman Spaeder has decided to close its Miami office after four out of five partners there jumped to Carlton Fields. The decision was announced in a press release, the Daily Business Review reports. The lawyers who will be joining Carlton Fields are managing partner Walter Tache; partners Michael Pasano, Stephen…

Mar 20, 2008 4:05 PM CDT