Saturday, November 21, 2009 11:36 AM - By Elie Mystal
Yesterday I had the quintessential New York City moment. At the bodega around the corner from Breaking Media’s lavish Nolita office, the bodega’s proprietor engaged me and two other people in a conversation involving three languages. I was speaking English, another guy was speaking Spanish, and I believe the third woman was speaking Portuguese, and the bodega owner was talking to all of us and translating where necessary.
I love this town!
I would have loved this conversation if we had been talking about dog poop. But instead the four of us were talking about a lawsuit that New Yorkers have been buzzing about all day. The cover story in yesterday’s Daily News involves a pretty lady (pictured) suing her co-op board:
Christina Ambers, once dubbed the “Heidi Klum of foot models,” says a romance with her porter-turned-husband, Angel Rotger, turned her into a pariah among workers at 340 E. 74th St., who made her hail taxis and retrieve packages on her own.
“I hope that people can understand how awful it is to come home and to then be treated with hostility in a building where I have paid a lot of money to live,” Ambers told the Daily News. “Nobody should have to live this way.”
Oh, to live on the Upper East Side — as I do — is to know the true definition of pettiness.
At the bodega, I made the mistake of telling my interlocutors that I “write a legal blog.” At that point, the bodega owner, the construction worker who speaks Spanish, and the Brazilian nanny had all kinds of legal questions.
Details about the suit and the street-level reaction, after the jump.
Friday, November 20, 2009 2:57 PM - By Elie Mystal
Are you sick of taking phone calls at 4:30 on Friday? Would you rather be the one making the phone calls? If so, this Job of the Week might be for you. As always the Job of the Week is brought to you by Lateral Link. Today’s job is another position with one of Lateral Link’s in-house clients. Over the last 4 months Lateral Link has placed more than a dozen attorneys in in-house positions throughout the United States.
Position: Vice President
Location: Orange County, CA
Description: With more than $750 billion of assets under management, and offices around the globe, this Investment Management company is one of the world’s foremost bond fund managers, overseeing more than 70 mutual funds invested in such financial instruments as corporate paper, emerging markets debt, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps, and real estate investment trusts (REITs), as well as stocks. The company is seeking a Vice President, Attorney with a minimum of three to six years of experience in securities laws applicable to registered investment advisers, including the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work on cutting edge legal and regulatory matters, such as analyzing compliance and trading issues, drafting and reviewing compliance policies, negotiating agreements, including investment management agreements, participating in special projects, such as regulatory audits, litigation matters and general corporate work, and resolving legal issues in connection with expansion of its business model and development of new products.
If you are a candidate, please see Position #5567 on Lateral Link. If you are not a member you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com. If you are an employer seeking top legal talent for your company, please contact Michael Allen, Principal of Lateral Link, at mallen@laterallink.com or 213.785.2344.
Friday, November 20, 2009 2:02 PM - By Elie Mystal
The bonus news is coming fast and furious today. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is trying to nail down the market at the Cravath level. Multiple tipsters sent in the STB bonus announcement and the firm is following Cravath at all class levels.
Regular Above the Law readers will note that there is absolutely no surprise about Simpson’s bonus. Last year at around this time — when there was still a clear separation between Skadden’s bonus and Cravath’s bonus — Simpson rushed in to follow Cravath.
Given that history, we don’t know a lot of people that expected Simpson to do anything other than follow Cravath. Long gone are the days when Simpson led the charge to $160K.
But don’t forget about Sullivan & Cromwell. The firm’s had a good year, and with all of its competitors falling in line behind Cravath, they could get some real market separation here with a bonus that is still smaller than what they paid out last year.
What a fun Friday. I wonder if anybody else will rush out a bonus announcement before five o’clock? I’m going to need another Red Bull.
Friday, November 20, 2009 1:40 PM - By Elie Mystal
Seyfarth Shaw is set to become the latest firm to flip its incoming associates the Bird. A very angry tipster reports:
[Seyfarth] just deferred all incoming associates to October 2010 with only $2000/month as a stipend beginning on our former start date of January 19, 2010! It’s a joke … we know for a fact that they were busy and could have afforded us. It is a firm managed by horrible, greedy, selfish individuals … This is amusing, in light of the fact that the firm turned a profit last year …
We would like to warn anyone considering accepting an offer from the firm to STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is particularly disconcerting for those of us who turned down offers from Biglaw in favor of a firm that apparently “cared soooo much” about us. Go Vault or go home.
Whoa, tell us what you really think. You have to wonder if these deferred incoming associates will come up with any fun banners about their would-be employer.
As angry as the deferred incoming associates appear to be, it is not at all clear that Seyfarth could have afforded to bring on a new class of people at this time. In addition to telling the incoming associates to wait for almost another year, today the firm announced that it was cutting first year associate salaries.
Details and a statement from Seyfarth, after the jump.
Friday, November 20, 2009 12:36 PM - By Elie Mystal
Earlier this month, we asked you if holiday parties were still on this year. Many people said that they were, albeit more subdued than the halcyon days of yore.
But one deferred associate had this question:
Aside from the question of which firms may be abandoning their holiday parties this year, it would be interesting to see which firms are inviting their deferred associates. As of now I don’t think the firm that deferred me is …
You know, it never occurred to me that firms would invite deferred associates the holiday party. At first blush, the idea sounds ludicrous. Why would they invite people who are not employees to the employee party?
I’m willing to bet that it never occurred to most firms either. But remember, deferring incoming associates is a completely new thing. There are no rules for this stuff; the legal industry is making it up as it goes along.
So, as long as we are setting new standards here, why shouldn’t a firm invite deferred associates to the party?
From: The Executive Committee
To: ASSOCIATES - NY; ASSOCIATES - DC
Cc: PARTNERS - FIRMWIDE
Sent: Fri Nov 20 11:11:01 2009
Subject: 2009 Associate Bonuses
The Executive Committee is pleased to announce the following year-end bonuses for associates:
Class of 2008: $7,500
Class of 2007: $10,000
Class of 2006: $15,000
Class of 2005: $20,000
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003: $30,000
Class of 2002 and senior: $30,000
Bonuses will be paid on December 18, 2009, consistent with our customary practices.
The Firm greatly appreciates the efforts of our associates over the course of the year.
Don’t feel bad, guys; there are a lot of great things you can do with $7,500.
Friday, November 20, 2009 9:01 AM - By Elie Mystal
* Reaction to Full-Cravath’s (f.k.a. Skadden) bonus continues to ripple through the blogosphere. [ABA Journal]
* Details continue to leak out about a merger between Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. Apparently, Ho-Love will retain separate profit pools for the two sets of partners. [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
* Junior Gotti is so close to a mistrial he can feel it. [Daily News]
* Nic Cage got ruined during the financial crisis, according to his estranged business manager. [Courthouse News Service]
* Oprah Winfrey will end her popular talk show in 2011. Notice how I wrote that blurb without using the words “queen,” or “throne.” You’re welcome. [ABC]
Thursday, November 19, 2009 6:18 PM - By Elie Mystal
Earlier today, we reported that protests over the proposed tuition hike at UCLA got a bit testy. But we also noted that the protests didn’t seem to include a lot of law students, even though their tuition is going through the roof as well. One friend had this apathetic response when asked about the protests:
Dude, I have finals. And my 2L grades matter because I’ll be doing 3L recruiting. Unless we’re protesting canceled summer programs, count me out.
We wanted to know how the law school generally was reacting to today’s festivities, so we reached out to the UCLA Student Bar Association President, Lenny Sandoval. We asked him why law student participation seemed lacking:
Being a third year with one foot out the door, it’s tough for me to give a totally representative view, but while I agree that the involvement of law students as a whole is a bit subdued, I think the reaction from the identity organizations and their leadership (Raza, BLSA, etc.) has been very supportive and vocal of the undergraduate led movements. Based on FB status updates and gChat blurbs I saw at least 6 or 7 people either returning from the protests or planning on going to the protests, so that’s something at least.
Sandoval also noted that law students need to be a little bit more careful when it comes to potentially getting arrested than college kids.
That’s certainly true, especially in this economy. There’s no sense having your tuition jacked up and hurting your chances at snagging a legal job.
But something other than fear and general apathy might be driving down law student participation in civil disobedience. We also spoke with UCLA Law professor Stephen Bainbridge and he notes that people at the law school might just be paying a little bit more attention to the general state of affairs with the U.C. system than your average college student.
Thoughts from Professor Bainbridge after the jump.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 5:34 PM - By Elie Mystal
* The Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t care about black people. [WSJ Blog]
* Thank God for Brian Leiter. Here’s what the Super Lawyers rankings look like, adjusted for class size, not adjusted for U.S. News Top-14 status. Now I can comfortably say, HLS to #1! [Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports]
* Sometimes I park, in handicapped spaces, while handicapped people, make handicapped … Oww. I think the PC police just tasered my fingers. [Wild Wild Law]
* Your lawyering skills aren’t going to matter much if you can’t sell it. [Bar & Bench]
* David Hamilton will ascend to the 7th Circuit. Finally. [BLT]
36. Mentoring relationships, even "water-cooler" talk, is a two way street. How many 50-plus year old partners want to develop a mentoring relationship with a young black kid?
In my experience, the entire process of mentoring is self obsessed. You see a person and think "hey, he reminds me of me when I was young." You mentor that person by telling him/her all the things you wish you had known when you were just starting out. That kind of *familiarity* doesn't always exist between an old white partner and a young minority, no matter what law school they both attended.
That said whenever I did find a shared interest or experience with a partner, (politics, gambling, the guy with great Mets tickets) I actively tried to use that as the seed for a positive professional relationship, and for the most part I think I was successful. I felt it was my responsibility to actively make older white partners comfortable with me, instead of assuming that they would be because they should.
Granted, I was younger, less jaded, and more desperate then than I am now.
But the point is simply that developing such a relationship is a really big hurdle for minorities and women in a different way than it is for young white men.
Anyway, JaKe FTW. Excuse me I have to go ban 40 now.
--Elie
The problem with the pro-environmental argument is that it is easily solved by providing metal silverware instead of plastic. Why not do that? Is it too expensive? If so, I refer you back to the rant on exactly what $70K buys you these days.
--Elie
Thanks to the commenters and tipsters that pointed out the mistake in the original version of the story. As I explain above, it looks like one of our tipsters added their own commentary to Urquhart's email. The version above has been passed off on by the tipsters who pointed out the initial error.
This was an honest mistake, there was no desire to sensationalize on my part. I apologize for the error, thanks again to the QE people who emailed in,
Elie = guy who checks his email after business hours.
Ha ha guys. I was actually going to post this early yesterday morning, but we had breaking news. Then I was going to post it last night during the game. But then another "homespun" manager decided to leave a tiring Pedro in the game to pitch to Matsui, and I became distracted.
--Elie
@7. You know, I really thought about that choice a lot. Ultimately, I went with Frank because of Jay-Z's outrageous claim in that song that he is the "new" Frank Sinatra.
Not so fast my friend. Could Jay-Z get there? It's possible (and that in itself is a compliment). But Frank was a cultural icon in this country for decades. Decades. Shawn Carter isn't there yet.
I redacted the name of the firm because I didn't want to single any one firm out. Since, as I said, I've gotten this type of email about a lot of different firms.
--Elie
46. I too am slowly coming around to the idea that NAFTA was a terrible idea, despite the fact that I was a big supporter at the time.
One problem that you did not address is that everybody kind of knew that it would hurt our manufacturing base. But the countervailing benefit was supposed to be the larger market for American goods.
We (NAFTA supporters) underestimated the ability of the corporations that benefit from NAFTA to keep the vast majority of the profits without reinvesting that money back into their companies in the form of higher wages to their middle class workers. We knew NAFTA was going to hurt blue collar workers, but we thought it would help middle class white collar workers much more than it has. Instead, NAFTA has been great for the captains of industry, but not for many more Americans beyond that.
And really, it hasn't been all that good for American consumers either. You know, if we could buy discounted generic Canadian drugs, that would be one thing ...
--Elie
10. No. there are gradations among the star system as far as I can tell. (firms aren't ordered alphabetically between stars and what not). There are Am Law 200 firms that received 4.5 stars overall that didn't rate as highly as the ones I listed.
--Elie
18: you have to be a member of the ACC
19. Based on my (again, arbitrary criteria) none. But there are a number of 4.5 and 4.0 star firms that are not listed in this post.
20: yes. thanks.
--Elie
34. This post includes all of the am law 200 firms with five or more reviews that received five stars. It also includes all of the am law 200 firms with five or more reviews that received 3.5 stars.
This post *does not* include all of the am law 200 firms with five or more reviews that received between 4.5 and 4.0 stars.
Upon reflection, I should have just posted the 5 star firms and the 3.5 star firms. I thought readers would appreciate seeing more firms rather than less, but I should have sacrificed that for clarity's sake.
The only place I'm running to tomorrow is Professor Thom's to see Michigan finally take down Ohio State. It's been too long, but this year the Buckeyes are getting waxed. And I'll be keeping an eye on The Game too.
And yes, the seal the ATL office Friday night and oxygen is slowly replace by CO2, so I could be getting a bit loopy. Oh look, it's Bo Schembechler. Hello coach, I'm glad you'll be on the sidelines tomorrow.
--Elie
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Yesterday I had the quintessential New York City moment. At the bodega around the corner from Breaking Media’s lavish Nolita office, the bodega’s proprietor engaged me and two other people in a conversation involving three languages. I was speaking English, another guy was speaking Spanish, and I believe the third woman was speaking Portuguese, and the bodega owner was talking to all of us and translating where necessary.
Continue reading "Lawsuit of the Day: Hand Model Sues Meanies on Co-Op Board"
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