Careers

Sideshow ‘Geek’ Seeks Law Degree

Corrected: As classes begin today at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich., it appears likely that one incoming student will stand out just a bit from the other first-years. Eduardo Arrocha, 45, otherwise known as “Eak the Geek,” a self-described sideshow freak, has decided it’s time for a…

Sep 4, 2007 7:54 PM CDT

Funny Videos Woo Associates

A Boston law firm is trying to woo associates with humorous video clips posted to its Web site that portray a frazzled “megafirm” lawyer who works hard but doesn’t get into the courtroom. The clips posted by Choate, Hall & Stewart contrast the megafirm lawyer with the calmly assured Choate…

Aug 29, 2007 11:07 AM CDT

More Career Choices for Women Lawyers

Women lawyers are moving into a broader range of practice areas as traditional expectations about appropriate legal career choices for female attorneys are erased. It is now commonplace to see women in intellectual property, health care, and financial and investment services practices, reports Crain’s Detroit Business, noting that some 44…

Aug 20, 2007 7:56 PM CDT

Hard Job Hunt, $40-$70 K, for ‘07 Grads

Competition for graduates of the nation’s biggest and best-known law schools has driven starting salaries at some major firms well over $150,000 and prompted whispers of a once-unthinkable $200,000 at some point in the foreseeable future. But legal job-market reality is much different for the vast majority of those with…

Aug 15, 2007 7:19 PM CDT

Working Mother Lists Top 50 Law Firms

A new player has just entered the law-firm rankings game. Working Mother magazine, in an issue that arrived on newsstands today, has listed 50 law firms that it considers particularly attuned to the concerns of its readers. “In this, our inaugural Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for…

Aug 14, 2007 3:30 PM CDT

ABA: End Forced Retirement

The ABA House of Delegates decided Monday that the time has come for law firms to put mandatory age-based retirement policies out to pasture. In addition to recommending that law firms end those policies, the House of Delegates urged that law firms evaluate their older partners on the basis of…

Aug 14, 2007 2:10 AM CDT

Alec Scott, Esq: ‘Why I Escaped the Law’

It isn’t just many American lawyers who feel overworked and dispirited. Their Canadian counterparts increasingly feel the same way, according to an article in next month’s issue of Toronto Life magazine. Author Alec Scott, a lawyer who is now a journalist, says that getting fired from a big Toronto firm…

Aug 13, 2007 11:09 PM CDT

Blogging for Success

Blogging was the ticket to success for Harvard University law student Jeremy Blachman. After interviewing for work as a summer associate, he created an online character called Anonymous Lawyer that was based on the partners he had met. Readers believed the writer who wrote about his e-mail obsession and his…

Aug 13, 2007 4:01 PM CDT

Still Counting Firsts at the ‘Maggies’

More than 1,300 people showed up for the 17th annual Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon honoring women whose legal careers have been pathbreaking and more. It was a full house Sunday in a huge conference room at the Moscone Center at the ABA Annual Meeting in San…

Aug 12, 2007 10:13 PM CDT

Pants Judge Gets Job Warning

The administrative law judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million is getting an official notice that he may be out of a job. The Commission on Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges in Washington, D.C., sent Roy Pearson a warning letter yesterday, the Washington Post reports. It…

Aug 8, 2007 2:09 PM CDT

5 Nixon Attys Defect to Edwards in NYC

Adding more oomph to the New York City attorney roster of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, five lawyers have jumped ship from Nixon Peabody to join the firm. The two joining as partners, Alphonso E. Tindall, Jr., and Todd J. Peterson, will work with existing Edwards partners in New York…

Aug 7, 2007 8:01 PM CDT

Less Laughter as FL Lawyer Dies at 75

Sy Gaer, a beloved longtime Miami defense attorney known in courthouse circles for his cantankerous charm and unfailing sense of humor, has died following intestinal surgery. He was 75. Never at a loss for words, Gaer was quoted in the Miami Herald late last year in one classic courtroom exchange:…

Aug 7, 2007 7:09 PM CDT

New Career: Hedge Fund Sleuth

Some attorneys are on a lucrative but unusual career path: They help hedge funds gather intelligence about pending cases so money managers can make informed investment decisions. The lawyers dig through court files and monitor court hearings and trials to analyze the cases, earning as much as $800 an hour.…

Aug 7, 2007 6:40 PM CDT

Four Sidley Partners Moving

London-based Clifford Chance has hired four partners from Sidley Austin’s Washington, D.C., office. Three of the lawyers represent companies in white-collar crime investigations, Legal Times reports. They are Juan Morillo, Steven Cottreau and Stephen Nickelsburg. Another lawyer, Wendy Wysong, was former deputy assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement in…

Aug 7, 2007 10:54 AM CDT

Party Almost Over for 2007 ‘Summers’

Question: When can a law student get paid for traveling to London? Answer: When he or she is working as a summer associate at Dechert. The 1000-attorney firm took all 99 of its 2007 summer associates in 17 offices in the U.S. and Europe to London, where it also has…

Aug 6, 2007 10:44 PM CDT