More Law Firms Specify How Part-Time Associates Can Make Partner

Associates on flex-time or part-time schedules can consult official policies on how they can still make partner at an increasing number of large law firms. Fish & Richardson, Morrison & Foerster and Ropes & Gray all recently adopted or revised policies detailing the path to partnership, the National Law Journal…

Oct 1, 2008 11:56 AM CDT

How a Lawyer Benefited from ‘Structured Procrastination’

Maryland lawyer Dana Moylan Wright felt as if she were buried under a pile of work. As her to-do list grew, her motivation waned. “At that point, I had many deadlines and was having trouble making myself do anything,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “My anxiety level would absolutely…

Sep 30, 2008 6:03 PM CDT

Average Pay is Up for In-House Lawyers, as Their Numbers Dwindle

In-house lawyers make an average of $236,000 in pay and bonuses, up from $226,000, according to a new survey of 223 larger companies. But the pay increase comes at a time when in-house staffing is softening. The average cash compensation, including bonuses, amounts to about $700,000 for general counsel and…

Sep 30, 2008 4:32 PM CDT

Facebook’s New GC is Kirkland & Ellis Partner With GOP Ties

Facebook has made a surprise choice for its general counsel by going outside the Silicon Valley to choose a lawyer with Republican ties. The social networking site hired Kirkland & Ellis partner Theodore Ullyot, according to the Recorder and Daily Journal (sub. req.). The legal recruiter who handled the search,…

Sep 30, 2008 1:31 PM CDT

Would You Moonlight at Starbucks to Get Health Insurance?

Sep 29, 2008 6:57 PM CDT

As Economy Stalls, So Do Salaries ... But Not Associate Hours

Forget about associate pay raises. In this economy, the attorney infantry at BigLaw firms should be bracing for a potential increase on a different front: their expected billable hours. Right now, Williams & Connolly remains the highest-paying Washington, D.C., law firm, as far as first-year associates are concerning, with a…

Sep 29, 2008 6:52 PM CDT

Firms Take Family-Friendly Approach to Retain Women

Responding to what the Los Angeles Times calls an exodus of female talent who are faced with dated concepts of career path, firms are changing … slowly but surely. A feature this weekend in the Times leads with environmental lawyer Loren Montgomery, who when she became pregnant eight years ago,…

Sep 29, 2008 3:34 PM CDT

Heller’s London Lawyers Seek New Law Firms

As the law firm Heller Ehrman begins an “orderly wind-down,” its 18 London lawyers are hoping to jump to new law firms. The firm has eight U.K. partners, five of them in its Venture Law Group, the Lawyer reports. An “early favorite” to acquire the group is Cooley Godward Kronish,…

Sep 29, 2008 3:14 PM CDT

Time Out NY Honors Spitzer in Top 40 Issue

In a piece celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Time Out London, it’s across-the-pond iteration Time Out New York has picked its very own Top 40 individuals to recognize, including disgraced governor and onetime crime-fighter Elliot Spitzer. Time Out explains its choice of Spitzer with the following editorial note, and invited…

Sep 26, 2008 5:23 PM CDT

Firms Eye Talent as Heller Preps to Dissolve

As the once-powerful Heller Ehrman moves toward dissolution today, all eyes will be on where the firm’s talented lawyers land and whether clients follow. Los Angeles office managing partner Nancy Cohen, an important figure in the firm’s insurance recovery practice, is believed to be headed to Proskauer Rose, the Recorder…

Sep 26, 2008 12:37 PM CDT

RIP: Gerald Margolis, Counsel to Rolling Stones, Robin Williams

Entertainment lawyer and avid surfer Gerald A. Margolis, whose high-profile clients included the Rolling Stones, R. Kelly and Robin Williams, died Sept. 15 at age 65. Margolis was diagnosed six years ago with progressive muscular atrophy and died of complications relating to pneumonia, the Los Angeles Times reports. Margolis was…

Sep 26, 2008 11:12 AM CDT

Four Law Firms on Working Mother’s List of 100 Best Companies

Working Mother Magazine has released its 2008 list of 100 best companies, and it includes four law firms. They are: Arnold & Porter, Covington & Burling, Katten Muchin Rosenman and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, the National Law Journal reports. The list was released one month after the magazine listed the…

Sep 25, 2008 12:54 PM CDT

Mexican Brothel Raid Just Part of N.Y. Lawyer’s Job

Rescuing two young girls from a Mexico City brothel, accompanied by others, including 20 armed immigration agents, isn’t usually part of a New York lawyer’s work. But it was part of the job for Linda Lopez of the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at New York’s Sanctuary for Families,…

Sep 24, 2008 10:39 PM CDT

Cross-Dressing Bankruptcy Judge Lands at Boston Law Firm

Former bankruptcy judge Robert Somma has a new job at a Boston law firm. Somma is joining the firm of Posternak Blankstein & Lund as a senior counsel in the firm’s bankruptcy department, the Boston Globe reports. The respected judge made headlines in February when he was arrested for drunken…

Sep 24, 2008 12:20 PM CDT

Judge Rules Casinos Had No Duty to Stop Lawyer’s Compulsive Gambling

A federal judge in New Jersey has dismissed a lawsuit by a former lawyer who contended seven casinos failed to stop her compulsive gambling that led to $1 million in losses and the end of her law practice. U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb said the casinos had no common-law duty…

Sep 23, 2008 11:03 AM CDT