Featured Articles

Lawyers You'll Swear At, Not Work For

David Lat
October 09, 2008 16:11

Many people have interviewing horror stories. But few people actually bother to send a letter to the offending firm. One Georgetown University Law Center student did just that. After her interview with Harris Beach the student sent a letter to James Spitz, CEO of Harris Beach: I was looking...

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Powell Goldstein

David Lat
June 20, 2008 21:58

Rumors of layoffs at Powell Goldstein have been swirling about for some time. But until now they've just been rumors. This afternoon, James J. McAlpin, Jr., chairman of Powell Goldstein, confirmed the cuts for us. We emailed him and mentioned some of the numbers we've been hearing. He...

Nationwide Pay Freeze Watch: Arnold & Porter & Scarlett O'Hara Decide 'I'll Think About it Tomorrow'

David Lat
December 30, 2008 20:35

Just before Christmas, Arnold & Porter sent around an intriguing memo. The firm refused to make any decisions regarding pay in New York at all in 2009: Associate Bonuses for Associates in All Offices Except in New York Those of you who met the previously announced thresholds and other criteria...

Orrick Plays 'Hide the Logic' During AmLaw Interview

David Lat
November 14, 2008 17:50

The legal community is still buzzing with reaction to the news of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's layoffs of 40 attorneys -- while White & Case sacrifices blood and treasure to the altar of "good timing." We don't want to pile onto Orrick, we know a lot of good people that work there. But Ralph...

Barack Obama and the Harvard Law Review

David Lat
June 23, 2008 18:35

Given our twin obsessions with the Harvard Law Review and Barack Obama, we are compelled to draw your attention to this interesting article, from the Politico (via a commenter). Summarizing Obama's tenure as HLR president, Jeffrey Ressner and Ben Smith write: The eight dense volumes produced...

Disbarment for Jack Thompson?

David Lat
June 05, 2008 17:58

Colorful Florida lawyer Jack Thompson is a two-time winner of our Lawyer of the Day award (here and here). He has appeared in these pages so often that he even has his own category tag. So this news, from the Daily Business Review, did not come as a total shock: Coral Gables attorney and...

Singapore Blogger Says 'Catch Me if You Can,' and They Do

David Lat
June 03, 2008 15:54

Gopalan Nair is a Singapore lawyer turned U.S. citizen and blogger. He runs the blog Singapore Dissident. The lesson we've learned from his story: when we launch AboveTheLaw - Singapore, we'll need to drop the Judge of the Day feature. Nair has been arrested in Singapore for "insulting a public...

Associate Life Survey: Chop! Chop! The Economy's Slow.

David Lat
December 15, 2008 15:46

We received 1,037 responses to last week's ATL / Lateral Link survey on layoffs, which is up a bit from 800 this summer. As we feared, the number of reported layoffs is also up a bit from this summer:   * Roughly 11% of associates reported public layoffs at their firms, up from about 4% this...

Global 100 Rankings: Some Firms Are Doing Just Fine

David Lat
October 02, 2008 20:47

With all the doom and gloom about the economy, it's easy to forget that some law firms are doing really, really well. American Lawyer has come out with their Global 100 rankings (subscription) report. Am Law reports that most stable global firms are based across the pond: After madly shedding...

Ask the Experts: An Inevitable Job Search

David Lat
March 05, 2009 15:13

[This article was prepared by Tricia McGrath, a director in Lateral Link's NY office.] Over the past few months, associates have been dismissed from their law firms at an unrelenting and somewhat alarming pace. Hopefully, these associates will move on to other positions in the near future and...