Last month, we asked you to share your stories of summer associate craziness. Based on the responses we received, I feel very sorry for the 2009 summer associates. Obviously the days of summers peeing off the side of a Duck Boat are long gone.

This story we received from summers at Weil Gotshal in New York illustrates the difference between summer 2009 and actual fun:

Did you hear about the Weil partner who got a summer so wasted from shots the summer barfed on himself in the bathroom at a firm event?

Were this year’s summers really so dull that partners had to be the ones to encourage after-work debauchery? I mean seriously, if you can make it to the bathroom, you probably could have had at least one more shot.

The Weil summer rallies after the boot, after the jump.

Commenters often complain that we feature too many Biglaw associates in this space — uninspiring young people who’ve drifted through college and law school and are now drones at soulless firms. We’re delighted that this week, Biglaw associates make up only one-third of our couples. Rounding out the field are a soulless-drone partner and a former associate who abandoned Biglaw for the classic refuge of the disillusioned JD: law teaching. Enjoy this foray into the unexpected!

Our couples:

1. Caroline Dougherty and Marc Packer

2. Patricia Wencelblat and Richard Cooper

3. Tania Tetlow and Gordon Stewart

Get the details on these newlyweds and vote for your favorite couple, after the jump.

The stalk-and-eventually-marry-your-doorman phenomenon continues to enthrall the NYT weddings editors. This week they shine the spotlight on yet another bride — this time a producer at CNN — who found love in the lobby. LEWW encourages female Biglaw associates to embrace this trend. You’re in and out of office buildings all day, ladies — open your eyes to the lusciousness perched behind those security desks!

And now, this week’s finalist couples:

1. Monique Mendez and Graham O’Donoghue

2. Ashlee Conley and Andrew Veit

3. Anne Claiborne and Andrew Grotto

Read all about these newlyweds, after the jump.

Moving right along with our Vault open threads, it’s time to take a look at the firms ranked #6 - #10.

6. Weil Gotshal
7. Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
8. Cleary
9. Covington & Burling
10. Kirkland & Ellis

Weil’s strong move up the Vault charts — the firm was ranked #9 last year — shows the power of high profile work. The Lehman bankruptcy and the General Motors restructuring were just two of the many recognizable matters Weil has had its hands on in the past 12 months.

But Weil also seems to have timed the Vault rankings quite well. The firm didn’t start deferring incoming first years until March, didn’t start laying off staff until May, and didn’t start laying off associates closing offices until the end of June.

Regardless of whether or not those moves catch up with Weil next year, right now is Weil’s time to shine in the warm recruiting light of sixth place. Congrats.

Let’s look at the other firms after the jump.

Don’t get too comfortable with that shiny new #6 Vault ranking, Weil Gotshal. The firm just got served, Texas style. The ABA Journal reports:

The Texas judge who ordered Microsoft to pay $290 million for infringing a patent included a $40 million enhancement that he said was partly justified because of alleged trial misconduct by a lawyer from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis tacked on the $40 million penalty because of evidence of willful infringement. But also “favoring enhancement,” he said in an opinion, was trial conduct by lawyer Matthew Douglas Powers, a Weil Gotshal partner.

Matthew Douglas Powers is a big name in IP circles. And he’s the co-chair of Weil’s litigation department. But he’s not going to comment on Judge Davis’s $40 million critique of his trial performance.

What were the judge’s reasons for admonishing Powers? Check after the jump.

Based on a Washington Post article profiling the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement and career coaching company, we constructed a Biglaw blind item:

Which New York law firm, having already completed two rounds of layoffs, has hired the Five O’Clock Club to help it carry out additional layoffs (in August, October, and November)?

After we ran the item, several firms came forward to declare they’re not the firm in question. And now they’re joined by one more: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis contacted ATL to say that it isn’t the firm with layoffs in the works. In fact, Morgan Lewis claims that it shouldn’t even be on the shortlist of contenders.

Read why — and check out the list of the Five O’Clock Club’s clients, including some very prestigious law firms that haven’t publicly admitted to layoffs — after the jump.

Summer programs at many firms are shorter this year than last year. That means the summer is over at a lot of places, and summer associates are starting to learn their fates.

So far, there is some surprising news. Summers are getting offers. Many people have reported that their firm has given full, 100% offers to 2009 summer associates. Summers at Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk are just some of the people reporting good news:

Davis Polk & Wardwell and Sullivan & Cromwell have extended offers to all of their summer associates.

Update (12:35): Additional tipsters inform us that Davis Polk has only given 100% offers to the summers that have already left. That is about half of the summer associates. The rest of the SAs leave on Friday, so we’ll see.

We also have received word that Cravath is making 100% offers.

After the jump, let’s look at a few more firms that we believe are making full offers to this year’s summer associates.

The legal job market is a little dicey right now, leading some law grads to question the worth of their shiny new J.D. degree. Suffolk Law grads — and not just the ones who can’t get dates — are really questioning the value of their degrees, after an ill-timed job advertisement from Weil Gotshal & Manges went out on their career services list-serv:

Dear 2009 Graduates,

I wanted to make you aware of a great opportunity currently posted on Symplicity. Please find the job information below. Interested parties should apply through Symplicity with a resume and cover letter.

Employer: Weil Gotshal & Manges, LLP (Boston, MA)

Title: Paralegal Position for ‘09 Graduate

Description: This posting is for the class of 2009 grads who are not deferred for another position. Monday-Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm, flexibility with overtime required.

Yay, that Suffolk law degree can get you into Biglaw! But there’s a catch.

More after the jump.

Big news from Weil Gotshal today. The firm previously deferred its incoming associates to January 2010, with the option of deferring until January 2011 (with a $75,000 stipend).

In recognition of the fact that it will have some of the class of 2009 starting in January 2011, the firm is offering current summers — i.e., the class of 2010 — the option of deferring until January 2012. Above the Law received the following statement from Weil Gotshal:

Earlier today, we informed our 2009 summer associates of the following:

* We are offering each summer associate who receives an offer of permanent employment at the conclusion of this year’s Summer Program the option of deferring his or her start date from January 2011 to January 2012.

* Each incoming associate electing to defer will receive a $75,000 stipend and health care benefits. In order to receive this stipend, the deferring associate must spend 1,000 hours during the deferral year performing some form of Firm-approved public service work in the US or abroad, including interning for a judge, or working for a Firm client.

* An incoming associate may decide to travel or take a paid position during the deferral year. The Firm will only pay the stipend to those people doing public service work. However, the Firm will provide health care benefits to all deferring associates.

* As we did with the successful deferral program for the class of 2009 associates, we will assist those who elect to defer with identifying public service placements, clerkships, and client opportunities.

The earliest current summers can start at Weil is January 2011 (and that is of course dependent on whether they receive an offer from the firm). But the option to defer until 2012 is even more evidence that the class of 2010 could be worse off than the class of 2009.

Don’t even get me started on the class of 2011.

More details from the firm statement, after the jump.

Since the recession hit the American economy with full force, Weil Gotshal has received some very high profile work. But it is not immune from the economic problems within the legal industry. The firm recently fired nearly 80 staffers, and in March the firm deferred some of its incoming first years until 2011.

Today brings more unfortunate news for Weil Gotshal employees. According to an internal communication obtained by Above the Law, the firm is closing its office in Austin. One partner, sixteen associates, and eleven staffers will be affected by the move.

The partner, Kevin Kudlac, will be relocating to Weil’s Houston office. All the associates and staff have been offered an opportunity to transfer to one of Weil’s other offices. If they don’t transfer, they’ll receive severance benefits.

Good luck, displaced Texans. I hear Houston is lovely this time of year.

Check out a screen shot of the Weil email after the jump.

Working at a firm that gets high profile work doesn’t make you immune to the ravages of the tanking economy. Above the Law can now confirm that Weil Gotshal has laid off 79 staffers. We received the following statement from a Weil spokesperson:

Effective today, the Firm has eliminated 79 administrative positions across its US offices. The decision to undertake this action has been an extremely difficult one; the fact that many peer law firms were forced to make similar moves is of little consolation. In taking these steps, we have made every possible effort to be fair-minded and those who are affected have received severance packages that provide transitional income and benefits, with access to a range of services that include healthcare and career guidance. We believe the package we have designed to assist those whose positions have been eliminated more than meets industry norms.

For those keeping score at home, this means that Weil believes it is perfectly able to handle the mega-bankruptcy work it is involved in without the benefit of extra staffers — or a fresh class of incoming associates.

If staff isn’t safe at Weil, are they safe anywhere?

The Weil statement goes on to cite cost concerns from its clients as the reason for the layoffs:

The buyers of legal services - many of whom are experiencing declining markets or even financial distress - are demanding that their service providers produce the most cost-efficient product possible. We have to be cognizant of this industry-wide expectation and plan accordingly.

Have Weil staffers been crushed under the wheel of economic efficiency? Congratulations to the survivors. Good luck to those that have been let go. Luckily, tomorrow is Saturday. Nobody gets laid off on Saturday.

Read the full statement after the jump.

The recently released Michael Vick can expect no quarter from most animal lovers. I forget how long he was in jail, but if his sentence didn’t involve a dog biting him in the ass every day, then it wasn’t long enough.

But Vick is (or was) merely a retailer in the world of inhumane treatment of animals. The real outrage should be directed at the wholesalers. And that is just what Weil Gotshal appears to be doing. The firm won a major victory against the alleged puppy mill Wizard of Claws, in Broward County Circuit Court:

The Broward County Circuit Court has issued a ruling refusing to dismiss several defendants from a major class action lawsuit against a south Florida puppy dealer known as “Wizard of Claws.” The suit, filed in 2007, accuses Wizard of Claws, its owners, and its affiliates of defrauding customers by misrepresenting the origin of puppies, and by selling puppy mill dogs who suffer from severe health problems and genetic defects.

The court’s order allows plaintiffs to proceed with their claims against three entities sharing common ownership with Wizard of Claws — Celebrity Kennels, Inc., Dog Breeder Kennel, Inc. and Puppies for Sale, Inc. — and also directs the defendants to turn over records regarding the puppies they have sold to the public. The court also ordered the owners of Wizard of Claws to sit for depositions concerning their business practices.

This victory has been a long time coming for lawyers at Weil Gotshal. More details after the jump.

* Starwood Hotels sued Hilton Hotels yesterday, accusing its rival of using “stolen confidential Starwood documents” to develop a new chain of lux hotels. Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal reports that Hilton’s in-house legal team unknowingly came across the boxes of stolen documents while preparing for a different case. Since the documents were unrelated to the case, the lawyers sent them back to Starwood in an “abundance of caution,” not realizing they were part of a devious corporate espionage plot. Whoops. [Wall Street Journal (subscription) and USA Today]

* Nationwide Same Sex Marriage Watch: New York Governor David Paterson wants New York to join the list of states with wedding bell rights for all. [New York Times]

* The Pirate Bay crew were found guilty in Sweden of violating copyright law for the file-sharing services their site provides. [New York Times]

* WilmerHale sends yet another attorney from its ranks over into the open arms of Obama. Partner Stephen Preston, who spent the Clinton years at the Pentagon and the DOJ, will be nominated to be the CIA’s general counsel. [BLT/Legal Times]

* Nationwide Bankruptcy Deal Watch: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is pressuring the MGM Mirage to fold its hand and file for bankruptcy. Earlier reports suggested Dewey & LeBoeuf would be the firm to help reshuffle those cards. [Wall Street Journal (subscription) and Associated Press]

* In other bankruptcy news, Weil and Kirkland are teaming up to help General Growth become General Restructuring. [Bankruptcy Beat/Wall Street Journal]

* The NYCLU is suing the NYPD to protect Yankees fans’ right to hate America. [Gothamist and New York Law Journal]

* Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan is resigning this weekend. Among those gunning for his job are two Foley Hoag partners: Michael B. Keating and Martin Murphy. That’s a little awkward when it comes to intra-firm politics, no? [Boston Globe]

* Former ATL ‘Lawyer’ of the Day Howard Kieffer was back in the courtroom this week, being convicted of mail fraud and making false statements. [Associated Press]

* Easter’s celebration of resurrection has inspired Eliot Spitzer. He’s contemplating another run for Attorney General. [New York Post]

* Earlier this week, a judge ruled that law firms need to make it clear that they are representing the company and not individual employees during the course of their investigations— Irell & Manella was on the short end of that ruling. Stanford Group’s former CIO was likely following that case closely. She has filed a malpractice and conspiracy complaint against Proskauer Rose and others for the same practices. [Courthouse News Service]

* More on the monster $55.1 million Lehman bill submitted in Manhattan bankruptcy court by Weil Gotshal. In addition to over 100,000 billable hours over four months, the bill includes “$200,000 for business meals, $439,000 for computerized and “other” research, [and] $115,000 on local transportation and $287,000 on duplicating charges.” Sigh. Just when Americans were starting to hate bankers more than lawyers. [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]

* Former AG Alberto Gonzales might want to consult with Henry Kissinger (on planning vacations abroad when the world wants to put you on trial for war crimes). Spanish prosecutors are expected to indict him along with the rest of the “Bush Six” today. Columbia adjunct law professor Scott Horton gives a rundown of the political dimensions of the torture case. [Daily Beast]

* Music producer Phil Spector found guilty of hurting our eyes with his hair. And second-degree murder. He’ll be sentenced to at least 18 years. [Los Angeles Times]

* SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas took questions from a small group of high school students in Washington, D.C. recently. He admitted that when he gets depressed, he goes online. We were hoping he would say he surfed over to Above The Law, but instead, he likes to look up Douglas MacArthur speeches. [New York Times]

* Student loans suck, but you gotta pay them. Or risk losing your law license, like this Houston attorney. No Lexus and 3500 sq ft for him. [National Law Journal] … Update 6:57 p.m.: A tipster wrote in to clarify the details of this story:

After reading the opinion and the briefs, it’s clear that he was not disbarred for failure to pay off the debt. He was disbarred for his failure to meet deadlines given by the bar. The bar gave him a deadline by which he was to either start making payments or discharge the debt through bankruptcy. He failed to do either. In light of the fact that this was a deadline that they had previously extended, they concluded his cavalier attitude towards their deadline was evidence of his irresponsibility and thus his lack of fitness for the practice of law.

* The New York Times praises President Obama’s decision to reinstate the American Bar Association as reviewers of judicial nominations and defends the ABA against charges of liberal bias when vetting. [New York Times]

* Wisconsin parents made up a fake law firm to mail goods to their imprisoned son without having them screened, thanks to attorney-client privilege. Diabolical… but very creative. [Daily Citizen]

* Weil wants to collect $55 million for its work as bankruptcy counsel to Lehman Brothers. Partners, associates, and paralegals combined billed over 100,000 to the matter over four months, with about a third of those hours coming just from partners and senior counsel. [Bloomberg]

A few weeks ago, Weil Gotshal announced that the firm is asking associates to defer until January, 2011. It seems now that Weil’s chairman, Stephen J. Dannhauser, is offering some further clarification to incoming first years.

The chairman sent around a letter to Weil first years — via snail mail — with some extra notes about the deferral program. First the good news. Mr. Dannhauser promises that anybody who does accept the deferral option will have a job waiting for them when they come back:

A number of you have asked whether you will have a position as an associate at the firm in January 2011 if you defer your start date. I would personally like to assure you that if you defer your start date, you will have a position with Weil Gotshal in January 2011.

A cynical tipster notes:

There is a question as to what could constitute “a position.” On the payroll receiving a stipend, contract attorney, paralegal?

A sarcastic tipster adds:

This reminds me of when Weil Gotshal promised me I’d have a position when I got there in October 2009.

The firm did not respond to our request for comment.

But looking at the positive side, it is an objectively good thing that the firm’s chairman is promising first years that the deferral program is something more than a delay before firing half of the class.

However, some of the good news for incoming first year associates doubles as bad news for incoming summer associates. Details after the jump.

Ed. note: The legal world is much bigger than New York, or Washington, or even the United States. Welcome to Letter from London, a weekly dispatch from the other side of the pond. Our U.K. correspondent, Isaac Smith, will expose ATL readers to the latest goings-on in the London legal world. You can reach Isaac by email, at isaacsmithlondon@googlemail.com.

The G20 summit, accompanied by its anti-capitalist sideshow, arrives in London this week - and UK Big Law is feeling a little scared.

Law firms are warning employees not to wear suits on Wednesday or Thursday so as to avoid being targeted in the violent protests planned around London’s financial district.

Which provokes an interesting question: how ghetto does a corporate lawyer need to dress in order to avoid arousing suspicion as to their true identity?

We’ll soon find out.

It all seems a bit unfair, really. It’s not as if lawyers got the super big bonuses. And now their salaries are actually falling. If those nasty anti-capitalists had bothered to have a quick scan of The Lawyer last Wednesday, they’d have seen that Shearman & Sterling’s London office had followed Freshfields in cutting newly qualified associate salaries by 8%.

Are we going back in time? More after the jump.

Almost a month ago, Latham & Watkins set the market in terms of incoming first year deferral programs Latham offered $75K to associates who saw their start dates with the firm pushed back for a year.

Many firms have followed, but none have topped. Today, Weil, Gotshal & Manges is taking a run at Latham’s high water mark.

A tipster reports sent us a Weil memo that announces the firm’s new deferred start date program. It’s a bit complicated. Weil is pushing back the start date for all incoming associates until January, 2010. But, in addition to bar expenses, the firm will be paying associates $15,000 in September 2009. That is more than anybody else who has deferred start dates to the first of the year.

But Weil is also asking associates to volunteer for have their start dates pushed back until January, 2011. Yes, I said “2011.” That would be longer than any firm (at this point) is asking its incoming first years to wait. However, if associates push back until 2011, Weil will give you $75,000 — if you work for a firm approved public interest organization — on top of the $15K they will receive in September, 2009. Should an associate choose not to work for that time, Weil will offer $60,000 (on top of the initial $15K).

That is not all that is happening over at Weil today. More details after the jump.

We’ve often explored the studio space in terms of what a “performance-based layoff” actually means. But today we can report about at least one person who would have been fired in this market or any other.

According to multiple sources, both inside and outside Weil Gotshal, the firm recently fired an associate for failure to graduate from law school.

How did this escape the notice of Weil personnel? How was he outed? What was he thinking?

Well, Weil did not respond to our requests for comment. But we imagine that it is not unusual for firms to hire a summer based on 1L grades, make them an offer when the summer is over, and then never really look at a transcript again.

What we do know is that the associate “attended” NYU Law School. Tipsters report that he then did some study abroad and thought his credits would transfer back over to NYU. They did not. He never made them up, hence, no diploma, no graduation.

But this story is a little beyond a technicality. More details after the jump.

From the department of obvious, Weil Gotshal & Manges managed to make lots of money last year. Gross revenue and profits per partner are up at the firm. AmLaw Daily reports:

Recession or no, Weil’s partners are far from suffering. Profits per equity partner were up 7.5 percent to $2.3 million, while the number of equity partners splitting the pie shrank for the second year in a row, from a high of 200 lawyers in 2006 to 184 in 2008.

We’re not sure how these numbers affect the tech stipend.

The strong profit numbers and high profile work still left associates with only Half-Skadden bonuses, but Weil has not historically been a market leader when it comes to that aspect of associate compensation.

Perhaps there is a good reason for that, revenue per lawyer actually went down at Weil in 2008:

Gross revenue at Weil, Gotshal & Manges rose slightly in 2008, with the firm managing modest growth in a punishing year. The New York-based firm brought in $1.23 billion, up 4.75 percent from 2007. Revenue per lawyer was down two percent, however, to just over $1 million.

How did Weil manage to raise PPP in this challenging market? More facts that should be obvious after the jump.