Congratulations to Caroline Nyenke and LaRue Robinson, selected by ATL readers as our August Couple of the Month in a close race. Things were a bit more lopsided in our September Couple of the Month poll, as SCOTUS clerks and lovebirds Karen Dunn and Brian Netter took the crown with 40 percent of the vote. Both couples will compete for Couple of the Year honors in a few months.

Now, this week’s contestants:

1. Molly Rusten and Peter Rosen

2. Xixi Yin and Edward Amley Jr.

3. Simrin Parmar and John Bennett

Check out these newlyweds’ pictures and bios, after the jump.

But for the state of Illinois, New York State would be receiving more national recognition for its state political situation. Even the President is embarrassed by the performance of New York Governor David Paterson.

Perhaps Paterson’s chances of beating Andrew Cuomo, or Rudolph Giuliani, or the Naked Cowboy are depressed because of stories like these. From the New York Post:

Gov. Paterson’s former economic-development czar, Avi Schick, stepped down from his post at the helm of the Empire State Development Corp. in January — but, astonishingly, continued to quietly draw his $213,000 annual salary for eight more months, The Post has learned.

Schick, who has close ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, managed to hang on to his full salary — more than what the governor earns — in return for advising Paterson on lower Manhattan issues, said ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston.

In case you’re wondering, Sheldon Silver is essentially the most powerful state official left in New York State, owing to his ability to perform his duties at a basically competent level. That is a rarity in Albany.

But how did Avi Schick’s state salary become exposed? Details after the jump.

Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.

We’ll actually be hitting a week and a half in this roundup, going back to August 1. As we’ve been saying for a while, September is not likely to be as tranquil as August was (3 layoffs, 126 people in total), and the layoffs have already started. Eleven days in, and twice as many firms have laid off almost twice as many people.

Let’s step back and start with the big picture.

The really bad news came just before the Labor Day weekend, as unemployment hit 9.7%, a 26-year high. If you really want to find a silver lining, the net job loss for August was less horrible than expected, coming in at 216,000 jobs lost for the month. The decrease in total unemployment in July is now just a blip on a 16 out of 17 month streak of worsening employment numbers. It’s not even like the improvement in July was a result of actual new jobs, either — it came from people becoming so disaffected that they stop looking for jobs entirely, which takes them off the rolls of the unemployed. Hurray for government math!

Coincidentally, BLS reported 100 jobs lost in the legal sector for the month, which is right in line with the tracker (although they’re measuring two entirely different things).

Overall, 6.9 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2008 — which, coincidentally, is also the beginning of the Law Shucks layoff tracker (we count from Cadwalader’s first round). Major firms account for just over 13,000 of those.

So what has been going on so far this month? After the jump, we analyze the looming surge.

* Earlier this month, we reported that Sonnenschein had made cuts. Of the 30 let go, 10 were income partners. [National Law Journal]

* Republican Congressman Joe Wilson may be the most hated lawyer in the U.S. today after heckling President Obama during his healthcare reform speech. [CNN]

* The income gap is narrowing thanks in part to a fall in PPP. [Wall Street Journal (subscription) via ABA Journal]

* “I don’t have to do anything you say. I’m a law student.” [Wicked Local]

* Federal judge Denny Chin — known for sentencing Bernie Madoff to 150 years, having a theatrical flair, and clocking some decent marathon times — will ascend to an appellate judgeship in New York. [New York Times]

As we get back to the Vault rankings, we encounter more firms that have engaged in stealth layoffs. And a firm that conducts mass transit layoffs.

To refresh your memory, here’s the next group:

61. Cooley Godward
62. Pillsbury
63. Sonnenschein
64. Cahill
65. Holland & Knight
66. K&L Gates
67. Nixon Peabody
68. Foley & Lardner
69. Kaye Scholer
70. Steptoe & Johnson

The penalty for having a partner announce layoffs on a train was six spots according to Vault. There have been other Pillsbury cutbacks. But the Acela incident happened when associates had Vault surveys sitting on their desks.

After the jump, let’s take a look at some of the other firms in this group.

Already today, news broke loose about layoffs at Cooley Godward and Quarles & Brady. Without the summer associate “human-shields” around, it looks like Biglaw associates could be in for a rough September.

The latest news comes from Sonnenschein. A firm spokesperson gave Above the Law the following statement:

Throughout 2009, despite the year’s business challenges for our clients in many sectors, Sonnenschein has continued to grow both in people and in new business. Like every firm, we have practice areas that are strong, and those that have weaker client demand than anticipated. As every business is doing, we continue to review ways to align our capacity with demand in these weaker areas. Where we can, we transfer resources. When we cannot, we must make prudent business decisions that unfortunately affect some very good people. While we are not alone in our professional services industry in so doing, it is never easy to make these calls. However, we are optimistic that these necessary actions will continue to place us on sound footing as we move forward aggressively into 2010.

After the jump, tipsters weigh in on the number of associates let go and their reaction to the decision.

We have an update on former Lawyer of the Day and Sonnenschein San Francisco partner Paul Glad. Glad was sued earlier this year by a Girl Scout and her mother after running into them with his Lexus.

We wrote in June:

According to the San Mateo County Times, [Glad] had stopped to pick up some delicious Girl Scout cookies. But in his excitement to get his Samoa and Thin Mint fix, he neglected to shift his car into park. His Lexus then rolled into the cookie table. The car pinned Girl Scout mother, Holly Rogers, to a wall, causing her to lose her leg. Her daughter, then 6, suffered multiple leg fractures.

Did we mention that Glad had parked in a disabled spot? And that he was on prescription painkiller OxyContin on the day of the accident?

Glad got some pain relief this week…

* UCLA Law students were successful in protecting our right to curbside carne asada. [Los Angeles Times]

* Apparently, Sonnenschein is “fat and happy” and moving its New York office. [New York Observer]

* Washington, D.C. lawyer Kenneth Feinberg has been appointed compensation czar and will get to set the salaries of CEOs at beleaguered companies getting government aid. [ABA Journal]

* The impeachment proceedings against Judge Samuel Kent — the first federal judge to be charged with a sex crime — will move on to the House of Representatives. [Associated Press]

* Sonia Sotomayor once called herself “an affirmative action baby.” [New York Times]

* San Diego lawyer Alfred Rava sued the Oakland A’s for sex discrimination after a 2004 Mother’s Day promotion that excluded males. Now ESPN columnist Rick Reilly is taking Rava and his men-ism suits for a round in the batting cage. [ESPN]

* Does SCOTUS need some affirmative action for non-Ivy League grads? [New York Times]

* White & Case partner Tom Lauria, who got SCOTUS to issue a stay in the Chrysler-Fiat deal, is pissing people off and “enjoying the heck out of it.” He may take on GM next. [Wall Street Journal]

* SCOTUS decided yesterday to lift the Chrysler-Fiat stay, so that sale can move forward. [Washington Post]

* Sonnenschein hit with a $30 million poaching suit. [American Lawyer]

* Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is threatening to sue HarperCollins if they defame him while publicizing a book on September 11. [Chicago Sun-Times]

* The Northern District of California courthouse sounds like a wild place. [Courthouse News Service]

Have you heard the one about the law firm partner, the Girl Scout, and his Lexus? Well, here it is, but we warn that it’s not very funny.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal partner Paul Glad is an experienced litigator, but he’s going to need to ramp up his public relations skills in the months ahead. He has been hit with a lawsuit that is the definition of a PR nightmare.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A 7-year-old Girl Scout and her mother filed a lawsuit today against a litigation attorney who crashed his car into them outside a Burlingame grocery store, forcing doctors to amputate one of the woman’s legs.

The driver, Paul Glad, 59, of San Mateo, was trying to park his Lexus near the entrance to the Mollie Stone’s market on Chapin Avenue on March 8, authorities said.

Glad pulled to within a few feet of where a group of Girls Scouts was selling cookies on the sidewalk at the entrance of the store, the suit said.

Glad had good intentions. According to the San Mateo County Times, he had stopped to pick up some delicious Girl Scout cookies. But in his excitement to get his Samoa and Thin Mint fix, he neglected to shift his car into park. His Lexus then rolled into the cookie table. The car pinned Girl Scout mother, Holly Rogers, to a wall, causing her to lose her leg. Her daughter, then 6, suffered multiple leg fractures.

Did we mention that Glad had parked in a disabled spot? And that he was on prescription painkiller OxyContin on the day of the accident? Yeah… that’s not the way one wants the cookie to crumble.

Glad did not comment to the mainstream media folk, but we got him on the phone last night. His response, after the jump.

Last week, we told you that Sonnenschein would be cutting its associate’s salaries. At the time, Sonnenschein pointed out the hit to first year salaries:

Our first year Associate base salary under the new approach will be set at $145,000 in most of the cities in which we operate, and the salary levels for the balance of our Associate classes vary by year and geography consistent with our standard practice.

What does “consistent with our standard practice” mean? Above the Law has received word on what the salary cuts will look like for the rest of Sonnenschein’s associates. Tipsters report:

* 2002 and above = 15%
* 2004 = 15%
* 2005 = 14%
* 2006 = 14%
* 2008 = 10%

Did anybody expect Sonnenschein to ask its more senior associates to take a larger pay cut than its junior associates?

More news from the firm after the jump.

Just a few months ago, Sonnenschein was doling out seven-figure paydays to partners from the dissolving Thacher Proffitt & Wood. Today, the firm is cutting associate salaries.

But the firm has decided to take a major swing at lockstep compensation in the process. The official statement from managing partner Elliott Portnoy starts out with the highest ambitions:

Long before the current economic upheaval that has gripped our clients and profession, survey after survey consistently confirmed a common theme: law firm associates have become increasingly unhappy in their work. Indeed, an entire industry has arisen in the blogosphere, where websites detail — often hour by hour — concerns from associate lawyers around the country and in firms of all sizes and stripes.

And yet, despite these warnings, the fundamentals of how most law firms recruit, develop, and compensate their associate lawyers have remained largely unchanged for too long — to the detriment of the current structure’s sustainability and, more importantly, to the professional reward and promise of our Associates.

As I discussed with you during today’s monthly Firmwide Associate Meeting, Sonnenschein is committed to meaningfully redesigning our relationship with our Associates. I am writing to outline the specific steps we will take together over the next eighteen months to translate our vision, and the key role Associates at Sonnenschein will continue to play in our shared future, into reality.

Hey, don’t blame it on the “blogosphere.” The industry was built this way when we found it.

More visions from Portnoy, after the jump.

More firms are pushing back the start dates of incoming first year associates. This weekend, we learned that Winston & Strawn has pushed back start dates to January 19th, 2010. Deferred associates will receive an additional $15,000 on top of their $10,000 bar stipend. The firm is also picking up health care for its incoming associates, starting in September.

We learned today that Baker & McKenzie has also pushed back start dates to January 2010. As we understand it, the firm is not offering any additional stipend other than what they normally pay out for bar expenses.

WilmerHale also announced a start date push back. According to a firm-wide memo:

As is our normal practice, we will have more than one start date. A portion of the class will start on January 20 and the remainder will start on March 17. To determine the group that will start on each date, Legal Personnel and Recruiting will work with department and practice group leaders to balance the stated interests of the incoming associates with the various needs of departments, practice groups and offices.

Those starting in January 2010 will receive a $10,000 deferral stipend on top of a $5,000 bar stipend, while the March 2010 first years will receive a $15,000 bar stipend.

But WilmerHale is also encouraging associates to take a full year off:

We also informed our incoming associates that they may defer their start dates until the fall of 2010 for a stipend in the amount of $75,000. This deferral is entirely at the option of the individual incoming associate and is not tied to his or her ability to obtain a pro bono or other public service position.

The WilmerHale deferral stipend is right at the top of the Latham-led market for these optional year-long programs. But its stipend for people being forced to start in January or March is a little on the low end.

Baker, Winston, and WilmerHale are announcing their programs late in the game. We’ll have to see if the delay puts incoming associates heading to the these firms at a disadvantage in terms of post-bar exam options.

After the jump, we check in on Sonnenschein’s late breaking, long-term deferral.

[Ed Note: On a regular day, a lot of these items could have been full posts. We’re sorry if we couldn’t give the full treatment to your particular tale of terror today.]

* Sonnenschein has closed its Charlotte office. Eleven attorneys will be relocated or let go. The ABA needs to send a special forces unit into North Carolina to search for survivors. [Am Law Daily]

* The password is “de-leveraging.” [Adam Smith, Esq.]

* Longtime Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau will not seek re-election. The D.A. — who has been legally dead for at least 3 years — wanted to spend more time focusing on his eventual resurrection [WSJ Law Blog]

* Leave your presumptions in the courtroom. Out here in the real world, we prefer wild speculation. [Wall Street Journal]

* Maybe Bono should wear orange tinted glasses exclusively? [TaxProf Blog]

* How do you sue the voice of God? [Popsquire]

On December 21, we reported on the rescue of some Thacher Proffitt lawyers by Sonnenschein. One hundred TPW attorneys were able to move over to Sonnenschein, while their colleagues went down with the ship, when Thacher dissolved the next day.

We obtained a version of the Memorandum of Understanding between Sonnenschein and the TPW partners it picked up, dated December 19, 2008. The memo provides interesting insights into aspects of law firm business that associates rarely see — and also lists the compensation of all Thacher Proffitt lawyers who were picked up by Sonnenschein.

Not surprisingly, the need to ante up comes first. The memo begins with the buy-in, explaining how much cold hard cash the TPW partners had to cough up to Sonnenschein. Sonnenschein asked TPW partners to put up 45% of their total budgeted compensation by February 28, 2009. For partners at the top end, the amount could be as high as $630K.

Maybe that’s why the firm needed to go to Vegas so badly. Now is the time to double down.

When we got a hold of the offer letters Locke Lord sent a couple of rainmakers at Morgan & Finnegan, we saw that the “budgeted compensation” for M&F’s John Sweeney was $1.6 million. For TPW partners joining Sonnenschein, the top nine equity partners are budgeted at $1.4 million each. The next seven come in at $1.275 million. Two are slotted for $1 million, and two more for $750,000. Total compensation for the 20 Thacher Proffitt partners who joined Sonnenschein as equity partners: $24.85 million.

After the jump, we take a look at the highlights, and provide a link to the full memo.

The legal world is imploding. Salary freezes. Layoffs. Baby sized bonuses. But as Sonnenschein chairman Elliott Portnoy told BusinessWeek last week, the firm sees these troubled times as ripe with opportunity, as evidenced by its cannibalization of Thacher Proffitt late last year.

Times are good apparently. Today, the majority of Sonnenschein’s partners are flying from around the country and from Europe to attend a partners’ meeting in Las Vegas. A fact mentioned by AmLaw in passing last week, and brought to our attention again yesterday by an angry tipster:

Guess which newly merged law firm is flying all of their partners to Vegas for a retreat despite massive layoffs of both attorneys and staff last month? Correct! Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal… The kicker is that these fools are choosing to stay at the Wynn, though I am not sure what level of rooms they are getting or if these grey-haired dbags will have to share.

At first, we imagined the partners cruising through the desert in convertibles, sitting around the roulette table gambling away their PPPs, lounging in Rainman suites, and getting all spa’ed up. Not so, says a source within the firm. It’s a “scaled-back partners’ meeting” not a retreat, says the source, the Thursday through Saturday schedule chockful of 130 meetings. The only firm-sponsored recreational activity will be a “fun run” on Friday morning.

Wells Fargo canceled its Vegas trip to the Wynn this week after some Congressional criticism. Our Sonnenschein source says the firm considered canceling the trip— which had been booked years in advance— but would have lost a hefty non-refundable deposit.

How Sonnenschein is trimming the fat on the Vegas trip, after the jump.

As we noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, even the New York Times has taken note of the salary freeze trend at law firms. The Times reached out to Above The Law’s own David Lat for the story:

Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, a blog about law firms and the profession.

“There is this sense that firms didn’t act prudently during the boom and now they are getting religion, and that it’s better late than never,” Mr. Lat said. “Many associates we have spoken to think the freeze probably saved jobs.”

At the beginning of the month, we did a round-up of firms that have frozen 2009 salary rates at 2008 levels. That list was 16 firms long. Since then, quite a few other firms have announced freezes. Due to frequent requests, we’re updating the round-up list since the number of firms with freezes (that we know of) has more than doubled, to 33 32. Check out the as-comprehensive-as-we-can-make-it list, after the jump.

Recently announced salary freezes include “solid ice freezes” at Blank Rome and Townsend and Townsend and Crew; and “Slurpee freezes” at Bingham McCutchen, Fish & Richardson, and Texan firm Andrews Kurth.

Memorandums, as well as a new list of all firms with “solid ice” and “Slurpee” freezes, after the jump.

The new year is shaping up to be a cold one. As we noted in our 2008 Year in Review series, one of the biggest stories heading into 2009 has been that of the salary freeze. Rather than instituting lock-step raises for associates entering a new class year, a number of firms have informed associates that their salaries will remain at 2008 levels.

There have been two types of freezes: the “Solid Ice freeze”—with salaries frozen through all of 2009—and the “Slurpee freeze”—where firms are sticking with 2008 levels for now, but promise to revisit the decision later in the year.

Many an ATL reader has requested a round-up, and we aim to please. So find your pleasure, after the jump. Some of the firms have been reported on before, and some are new.

If you know of other frozen firms, send us an e-mail at tips@abovethelaw.com with the subject, “Salary Freeze: FIRM NAME.” Also, if your firm has raised salaries as expected, feel free to send us the news, with the subject “Salary Raise: FIRM NAME.” While freezes are news, raises as expected aren’t, so we will not be covering firm by firm, but we may do a round-up.

Find the list of the sixteen firms that have frozen, after the jump.

Sonnenschein is the latest firm to adopt a creative approach to associate compensation during the financial crisis. The firm announced bonuses that can go much higher then their peer firms, but also announced a salary freeze.

First the bonus news:

We are pleased to announce that Associate productivity bonuses for 2008 range from $10,000 to $70,000. The Policy and Planning Committee has approved the attached bonus schedule which, as we have discussed during recent Firmwide Associate meetings, remains unchanged from last year and includes a step up for seniority. These bonus levels will result in some of our Associates receiving significantly higher bonuses than their peers at many of the firms with whom we compete for talent and clients, and reflect our strong belief that it is important to recognize and reward our most productive Associates.

You don’t often see a firm go the “significantly higher bonuses than their peers” language. Clearly, Sonnenschein wants its people to know they are valued.

However, no firm is an island in this economic storm. The salary freeze reflects that reality:

With respect to our Associate salary schedule, Policy and Planning has concluded, after consultation with our Practice Group Leaders and Office Managing Partners and consideration of marketplace and client factors that, effective January 1, 2009, Associates moving to the next class year in 2009 will continue to receive the same base compensation as they did in 2008.

As with Quinn Emanuel, the top bonuses are available for highest billers. But, if you were a top biller, the extra bonus offsets the lack of a pay raise.

But perhaps the larger point here is that every firm needs to come up with individualized answers to the economic client. Sonnenschein laid off 25 attorney, acquired 100 Thacher Proffitt attorneys, is paying very high bonuses to associates who bill more than 2450 hours, and is freezing associate salaries. Put another way, Sonnenschein is just another entity trying to navigate through the new economy as best it can until things settle down.

Read the full memo after the jump.

It looks like Thacher Proffitt had a “plan B” in case the King & Spalding negotiations broke down.

We mentioned on Saturday that Sonnenschein was looking into acquiring some Thacher Proffitt lawyers. AmLaw Daily reported:

Within the past week, according to the partner, as King & Spalding neared a deal with Thacher for the structured finance group, it emerged that Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal was talking to Thacher lawyers.

Tonight we’ve got news that Sonnenschein is doing a little more than talking. A Sonnenschein spokesperson reports:

[On Monday morning] We will announce the tremendous addition of 100 lawyers from Thacher Proffitt & Wood.

Happy Holidays!

What a nice present for a bunch of TPW lawyers. On Friday it looked like they’d start 2009 updating resumes, now it looks like they will be making new friends.

Morale is pretty high at Sonnenschein as well. An internal email went around Sonnenschein this evening heralding the news:

With today’s move, we dramatically enhance our national and international corporate and finance capabilities, and double the size of our New York office — both of which have been strategic priorities for Sonnenschein.

These new colleagues accelerate our global growth strategy and reaffirm our continued commitment to client service. In particular, these lawyers bring highly regarded expertise in the fields of structured finance, banking, corporate, real estate and regulatory law. Also joining is a strong and complementary group of litigators, ERISA and employee benefits, and tax lawyers.

Read the full firm-wide email after the jump. We’ll update you as more specifics become available.

It’s the most wonderful time, of the year.

Update (12:00): The WSJ Law blog is now saying that what is left of TPW will dissolve, and the vote could be happening as early as today. TPW spokespeople could not be reached for immediate comment. Stay tuned …

Update (12:21): Multiple sources have confirmed that Thacher Proffitt is dissolving today. WARN notifications will be sent around by the end of the day. For continuing coverage, click here.