Careers

Home Depot Lays Off an Estimated 17 In-House Legal Staff

An unnamed source who reportedly was among those adversely affected says perhaps 17 in-house legal staff are included in Home Depot’s layoff of 500 corporate employees late last month. The downsizing involves 10 percent across-the-board cuts in departments throughout Home Depot’s corporate headquarters, notes the Fulton County Daily Report. “Some…

Feb 21, 2008 8:39 PM CST

Legal Gossip Maven David Lat Dishes on Above the Law

Updated: Harvard. Yale. Wachtell. Federal prosecutor. Federal appeals court clerkship. All are part of David Lat’s impressive resume. Yet the 32-year-old is now prominent not in a traditional legal job but as the editor of one of the nation’s most-talked-about legal blogs, Above the Law. A self-described legal tabloid, it…

Feb 21, 2008 6:45 PM CST

Retired at 90, Lawyer Shares Secrets of Good Life

After 50 years of law practice, Edna Shalala was ready to retire. But now, six years later, the 96-year-old is living the good life, reports the Miami Herald. A fractured wrist is keeping her off the course—for now. But Shalala expects to be swinging her clubs again as soon as…

Feb 19, 2008 6:29 PM CST

Lawyer Who ‘Worked’ 1,286 Days in a Year: ‘Common Practice’

Updated: A lawyer who was reported as simultaneously working as a full-time employee for five different Long Island school districts in order to qualify for a government pension and other benefits says such arrangements were common practice. Lawrence W. Reich actually was in private practice and representing the five districts…

Feb 15, 2008 10:40 PM CST

WSJ: Top First-Year Pay Has Hit Ceiling

Despite big profits for 2007 recently reportedly by a number of major U.S.-based law firms, associates shouldn’t expect pay increases anytime soon. At least for now, salaries for the nation’s highest-paid first-year associates are likely to stay at $160,000 because of the struggling economy, reports the Wall Street Journal Law…

Feb 15, 2008 8:44 PM CST

Suitcase-Holding Beauty Is a Lawyer

One of the models who holds suitcases on Deal or No Deal is Stacey Gardner, a law grad who passed the California bar a couple years ago, the New York Times reports. Gardner is a graduate of Southwestern Law School and a practicing lawyer, according to the show’s Web site.…

Feb 15, 2008 4:35 PM CST

$2.4M in Profits Per Partner Could Bring 3 More U.K. Law Firms into Top 10

Three more law firms based in the United Kingdom are “tantalizingly close” to making the top 10 list of the world’s most profitable firms, the American Lawyer reports. Already in the top 10 are U.K. firms Linklaters and Slaughter and May. Now three more firms are nipping at their heels:…

Feb 15, 2008 1:20 PM CST

More Major US Firms Report Major Profits

After news of record-breaking gross revenue at two U.S. legal goliaths, handsome profits for 2007 have been reported by four more BigLaw firms. Weil Gotshal & Manges soared past the $2 million mark in profits per equity partner, up 11 percent from last year to $2.11 million. Meanwhile, another New…

Feb 14, 2008 9:01 PM CST

Skadden Joins Latham at Record $2B Revenue Level

Following swiftly on the heels of the news that total 2007 revenue for Latham & Watkins exceeded $2 billion, another major U.S. law firm has joined in the record-breaking announcement. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom also had gross revenue of more than $2 billion in 2007, reports the Lawyer.…

Feb 13, 2008 6:43 PM CST

$10K Bonus Offered to Lawyers Landing Jobs Via New Service

Two new online job-matching services can help lawyers and law students in their career searches. One of the services, Lateral Link, offers $10,000 bonuses to members who obtain jobs at law firms through its listings, the Wall Street Journal reports. The service, offered by a legal recruiting firm, generally allows…

Feb 13, 2008 1:13 PM CST

King & Spalding Tops List of Partner Promotion Percentages

The number of associates and counsel promoted to partnerships at the nation’s largest law firms increased by 5.2 percent this year, but the hike didn’t keep up with the 6.6 percent increase in law firm growth. As a result, fewer people were promoted in relative terms, the National Law Journal…

Feb 12, 2008 12:09 PM CST

Hedge Fund Sues Over General Counsel’s $10M Bonus

A hedge fund has filed a lawsuit claiming that a $10 million bonus awarded to the general counsel of Transmeta Corp. is “outrageous, illegal and unconscionable.” The stockholder’s derivative suit was filed by Riley Investment Management, which owns about 7 percent of Transmeta and has offered to buy the company,…

Feb 12, 2008 11:45 AM CST

Onetime Law Firm Gofer Now a Corporate Counsel

When Ryan Swift got a job as a gofer, making sure the coffee machine was filled and fetching sandwiches for lawyers at Holland & Knight in Atlanta, his mother told him he just needed to get his foot in the door. It turns out she was right. “I told them…

Feb 11, 2008 10:35 PM CST

ABA OKs Conditional Admission to Bar for Would-Be Lawyers with Addiction, Mental Problems

The ABA has adopted a model rule that would grant conditional admission to the practice of law to applicants who have experienced chemical dependency or mental health conditions that otherwise would have rendered the applicants unfit to practice law. The rule would grant conditional admission to such applicants who demonstrate…

Feb 11, 2008 8:03 PM CST

New Merit-Based Associate Pay at U.K.‘s Norton Rose

A well-known British firm is eliminating its traditional experience-based associate pay system and moving to a system that rewards with higher salaries those who demonstrate legal skills. Norton Rose will divide associates into three groups: those who are newly admitted, those who are essentially midlevel associates, based on their demonstrated…

Feb 11, 2008 5:25 PM CST