Summer-associate recruiting stays mostly flat, but offer rates rise, NALP says

Law firms kept summer-associate class sizes small last year, though offer rates have recovered since the recession low of 69 percent. The median summer associate class size for students set to graduate in 2014 was five for the third year in a row, according to a press release from the…

Feb 19, 2014 4:35 PM CST

Sued by ex-girlfriend in domestic abuse case, associate vanishes from white-shoe law firm website

An associate attorney at a white-shoe New York City law firm who made headlines earlier this week after he was sued for domestic abuse by an ex-girlfriend is now no longer with Schulte Roth & Zabel. Samir Tabar’s bio page had vanished from the firm’s website as of Thursday, and…

Feb 7, 2014 3:50 PM CST

Storied Canadian firm to begin ‘orderly wind-up’ but some offices and practices will stay in place

A major Canadian law firm that has lost dozens of lawyers recently announced Wednesday night after a partner meeting that it will begin an “orderly wind-up.” However, there will be no interruption in client service, and a number of Heenan Blaikie practice groups and offices will continue to operate under…

Feb 6, 2014 12:45 PM CST

Associates are happier with more responsibility, firm’s founding partner says

BigLaw firms are taking the wrong tack when they create lower-paid apprenticeship tracks with more training and less responsibility, according to Susman Godfrey’s founding partner, Stephen Susman. New associates need more responsibility, not less, Susman argued in a recent essay for the Careerist. He outlined five ways his firm develops…

Feb 5, 2014 12:20 PM CST

7 lawyers exit Downey Brand to form new firm focusing on energy and land-use

Seven lawyers have exited one of the largest law firms in Sacramento, Calif., to form a new boutique. Known as Mitchell Chadwick, the fledgling firm has former Downey Brand partners Patrick Mitchell and G. Braiden Chadwick at the helm. They focus their practice on land use and oil, gas and…

Feb 4, 2014 4:30 PM CST

Lure of volcanoes and killer whales leads frugal BigLaw associate to quit his job

Thanks to a frugal existence and some profitable investments, an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher says he has the means to leave BigLaw to pursue his travel adventures business. Patrick Dykstra left Gibson Dunn’s Dubai office last month, touting his business in a departure memo, Above the Law reports.…

Feb 4, 2014 3:20 PM CST

Quinn Emanuel announces work-from-anywhere program

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan associates will have the option of working from any location in the world as a result of a new initiative announced by the firm. On Friday, Above the Law reported that firm chairman John Quinn had circulated a memo informing associates that they could choose…

Jan 31, 2014 7:30 PM CST

Judge sanctions Samsung and counsel over release of confidential info in big-bucks Apple patent suit

Saying that a major law firm handled proprietary information covered by a confidentiality order in big-bucks patent litigation over smartphone technology as if it were “a trapeze artist flying high without a net,” a federal magistrate judge in California has imposed sanctions on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and its…

Jan 31, 2014 5:30 PM CST

This BigLaw firm’s ‘CV blind’ policy aims to tamp down university bias

British-based law firm Clifford Chance has introduced a “CV blind” policy that hides candidates’ university information from those who are doing final interviews. The aim is to eliminate bias in favor of Oxford, Cambridge and other leading schools, the Independent reported in an exclusive story. Legal Week followed up with…

Jan 10, 2014 1:08 PM CST

Federal judge OKs fired ex-associate’s breach-of-contract suit against law firm

A fired associate attorney has no grounds for a wrongful termination suit, her former law firm argued, because she was an employee at will. However, a federal judge did not agree, dismissing only one of Taffie Jones’ claims against Flaster Greenberg, reports the Pennsylvania Record. While U.S. District Judge John…

Jan 8, 2014 11:10 PM CST

5 lawyers from well-known Calif. firm form new boutique

Five lawyers have left a well-known Sacramento, Calif., law firm to establish a new legal shop focusing on health care and employment matters. Exiting Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney for the new Kennaday, Leavitt & Daponde are name partners Kelli Kennaday, Curtis Leavitt and Michael Daponde and two additional…

Jan 7, 2014 4:52 PM CST

New job titles reflect economic challenges, changing career expectations for lawyers

Jan 1, 2014 9:00 AM CST

Bingham sanctioned for slow discovery response in ex-associate’s sleep disorder suit

A Los Angeles judge has ordered Bingham McCutchen to pay $2,430 as a sanction for slow discovery in a suit by a former associate who claims the firm failed to accommodate her sleep disorder. The sanction imposed by Judge Mel Red Recana last week is lower than the $6,255 requested…

Dec 18, 2013 2:29 PM CST

Is the law firm pyramid collapsing? BigLaw is aging with more partners than associates

1988 was a peak year for associates in BigLaw. The percentage of associates in the nation’s top 250 law firms was at its highest point that year, comprising more than 60 percent of the lawyers, Indiana University law professor William Henderson has found. Beginning in 2008, there have been fewer…

Dec 16, 2013 11:45 AM CST

The 1980s were great years if you were law firm associates—but if you were clients, not so much

Both Indiana University law professor Bill Henderson at the Legal Whiteboard and Ohio State University law professor Deborah Merritt at Law School Cafe examined the state of the legal profession in this country a generation (or more) ago. Henderson crunched some data that he says tells “an absolutely remarkable story.…

Dec 13, 2013 2:49 PM CST