Category: News Feeds

If you are looking for generous bonuses, look no further than Hueston Hennigan. The elite boutique law firm that regularly crushes the market with bonuses has done it again. Insiders report associates earning many multiples of the market bonus numbers. These are indeed generous bonuses, but expected for Hueston Hennigan associates. And this is in addition to the firm’s “generous” contributions to associate 401(k) accounts (staff get in on that action as well)!

The firm also supported their employees with special bonuses for staff and  tech stipends back in April, and then were early adopters of the associate special bonuses. But as Brian Hennigan noted when sharing news of associate bonuses, it’s important to recognize the struggles others are going through during and do what we can to help:

As you know (or will soon know), you each received news of your bonuses today. As has been true every year, our bonuses remain above market. These bonuses reflect our gratitude to you for your exceptional work always, but particularly in these unprecedented times. But we should also be aware that times are tough for many in our communities, and those of us who have benefitted from good fortune should also extend grace. So while we should celebrate the great work we have done for our clients this year, we should remain mindful of our neighbors’ struggles and our roles in helping alleviate them.

Hope to “see” you all at the holiday party tomorrow,

Brian

An important message during these trying times.

Remember, we depend on ATL tipsters when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

With holiday season upon us, it looks like Biglaw firms are doing more to spread good cheer than just announce bonuses. Some firms have decided to do away with their COVID-19 austerity measures.

Yesterday, Kelley, Drye & Warren — a firm that placed 135th in the latest Am Law 200 rankings, with $232,400,000 in gross revenue in 2019 — announced that the salary reductions it made earlier this year will be completely eliminated on the first day of the new year. Here’s an excerpt from a memo that James Carr, the firm’s chairman, sent to everyone on Thursday:

We are now in a position to restore salaries to pre-COVID levels and will eliminate the remaining COVID salary reductions effective January 1, 2021, for stipulated payment partners, special counsel and associates, and impacted administrative staff. Salary withheld from May 1 through December 31, 2020 will be repaid in a lump sum on December 31. Equity partner draws will return to pre-COVID levels beginning in January. This decision reflects our optimism for the continued financial health of Kelley Drye as well as our sincere gratitude to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible.

If you recall, the firm cut salaries by 10 percent across the board for all lawyers and employees earning over $100,000, and slashed equity partners’ draws on a a proportional basis by as much as 20 percent. In September Carr announced that those reductions would be halved for everyone except partners. As if the end of the cuts wasn’t exciting enough, we imagine that everyone at Kelley Drye must be thrilled they’ll be receiving big checks with their withheld salaries as a New Year’s Eve gift.

Let’s hope more firms are able to roll back COVID-19 austerity measures before the end of 2020. That would help everyone have a really happy new year.

(Flip to the next page to read the full Kelley Drye memo.)

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries or restoring previous cuts, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Kinney Recruiting has been asked by a named partner of a high-end boutique firm in New York to conduct a search for a mid-level litigation associate with at least three (3) years of experience. The firm handles high-profile cases across the country that involve various matters including complex commercial litigation, antitrust, intellectual property, and white-collar defense and investigations. This associate will have the opportunity to develop hands-on litigation skills, such as taking and defending depositions and going to trial, in the very near term.  Of course, working remotely until Fall 2021 is a given.

Strong to exceptional academic achievement at a nationally-recognized US law school is required, as is admission to the New York bar.  The ideal candidate would also have a federal (district or appellate) level clerkship.

If you have all this and are excited about taking an important role in “bet the company” cases, get in touch with us immediately at jobs@kinneyrecruiting.com.

Kinney Recruiting has been asked by a named partner of a high-end boutique firm in New York to conduct a search for a mid-level litigation associate with at least three (3) years of experience. The firm handles high-profile cases across the country that involve various matters including complex commercial litigation, antitrust, intellectual property, and white-collar defense and investigations. This associate will have the opportunity to develop hands-on litigation skills, such as taking and defending depositions and going to trial, in the very near term.  Of course, working remotely until Fall 2021 is a given.

Strong to exceptional academic achievement at a nationally-recognized US law school is required, as is admission to the New York bar.  The ideal candidate would also have a federal (district or appellate) level clerkship.

If you have all this and are excited about taking an important role in “bet the company” cases, get in touch with us immediately at jobs@kinneyrecruiting.com.

After graduating from Columbia Law School earlier this year, Naomi Biden, the daughter of Hunter Biden and his first wife Kathleen, is poised to join the Biglaw ranks in January. The Washingtonian reports that the newly minted JD will be joining Arnold & Porter’s 55-member incoming class.

In relocating her legal career to the District, she follows in the footsteps of Tiffany Trump, who chose to attend Georgetown Law when her dad moved into the White House. Thus, the transition from Tiffany to Naomi as the new “First Lawyer” will complete the peaceful transfer of power in the Above the Law universe. And as it turns out, Naomi and Tiffany are friends in the way elites are, and snapping pictures together while partying in the Hamptons. See, we can all cross the aisle and get along over mimosas at the beach house!

In any event, while we’re waiting on Tiffany’s next career move, her buddy will move into the largest law firm lobbying shop in the country right as her grandpa becomes president. Hopefully, she’ll be joining literally any other practice area within the firm.

But before she starts billing up a storm to get those suspiciously light bonuses, she’s offering some pro bono legal analysis for Donald Trump:

That was funny on November 9, but as I flip through the Texas v. Pennsylvania papers, we’ve moved well beyond parody.

Naomi Biden Will Join a DC Law Firm in January [Washingtonian]

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

The year 2020 has been full of changes — some bad, some good, but all important and necessary for us to deal with, both as lawyers and as human beings. And many of these changes have involved technology — for example, the increased adoption and use of videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

If you’re seeking guidance in terms of how to navigate these changing times, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s talk about change management — the process, tools, and techniques used to manage the human side of change.

Last month, I had the privilege and pleasure of moderating a free webinar, “Change Management and Technology,” featuring the following expert panelists:

• Monique Burt Williams – CEO, Cadence Counsel
• Brittanie Chin-Merkerson – Change Management Consultant, Johnson Controls
• Julie Honor – General Counsel, 3Q Digital
• Bill Kirst – Senior Principal, West Monroe
• Olga V. Mack – Chief Executive Officer, Parley Pro

Olga Mack should be familiar to many of you, as one of Above the Law’s most popular and longstanding columnists.

In case you missed the insights that she and the other panelists had to share, we’ve got you covered. You can watch video of the complete webinar below. Enjoy!

Earlier:

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. This post is by David Lat, a Managing Director in the New York office, where he focuses on placing top associates, partners, and partner groups into preeminent law firms around the country.

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Cadence Counsel is the in-house division of Lateral Link, one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices worldwide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click here to find out more about us.

Fred Shapiro, a Yale Law School librarian and editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” has long been compiling a list of the 10 most notable quotes of a given year. But 2020 posed challenges. 

“I try to get some positive quotes into the lists each year, but the times we live in are not very positive,” Shapiro told ALM’s Karen Sloan. “As a result, the quotes that stand out tend to be horrific or ridiculous.”

At the top of the list for 2020 is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s somehow controversial plea to “Wear a mask.”

The 10 quotes also involve police violence, racism, the presidential election, and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish. 

Read the full list below. 

Fauci’s Plea ‘Wear A Mask’ Tops List of 2020 Notable Quotes [The Associated Press] 
‘Wear a Mask’ Tops Yale Law Librarian’s Annual List of Notable Quotes [Law.com] 

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Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with questions or comments and to connect on LinkedIn.

It was only last year that we brought you the story of Dr. Leon the Lawyer Cat. The adorable little guy was a former stray that took shelter from a storm inside the Order of Attorneys of Brazil building (a Brazilian bar association roughly equivalent to the American Bar Association). Taken with Dr. Leon, the board of the OAB actually hired him as an attorney and gave him official duties welcoming guests to the building. It was everything good and cute in the world.

But 2020 just keeps on taking, doesn’t it? I regret to inform you that in June, Dr. Leon passed away. According to his Instagram account, it seems Dr. Leon was poisoned, likely by an animal or insect he was in contact with. His human handlers eulogized Dr. Leon, saying, “Leon healed whatever our distress was with a simple contact, we definitely don’t know what it will be like without him. But one thing we know for sure, we will ensure that he stays alive among us.”

True to the sentiments in the post, the OAB has continued the animal rights work that Dr. Leon inspired. And that includes adopting a new cattorney that will take up Dr. Leon’s mantle.

Introducing Dr. Leona, the cat attorney.

The cat attorney is dead. Long live the cat attorney.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Give the COVID-19 vaccine to prisoners before law-abiding people? Are you out of your freaking mind?

Prisoners should be last. It’s like the old saying goes: “Don’t do the crime if you don’t want to die in an overcrowded prison during a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic that began after you committed your offense.” Or something like that.

I realize that the American Medical Association has called for COVID-19 vaccines to be given to people who live and work in prisons, jails, and detention centers due to the unique risks people in confinement face and because outbreaks in prison can spread to the local communities. Aside from staff acting as carriers, we know 10,000 people leave prison every week.

I am also aware that an expert from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security recently told The New York Times that people in prison should be treated like everyone else who is forced to live in a congregate setting. But it’s not like prisoners are six times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than people outside. They’re only 5.5 times more likely. Relax.

Since when did we start listening to a bunch of egghead doctors anyway? We are Americans. If this pandemic has reminded us of anything, it’s that we don’t listen to a bunch of “medical experts” with their “science” and “life-saving” advice. We know what’s right and wrong. And there’s nothing righter than treating criminals wrong.

Mississippi’s Governor Tate Reeves nailed it early on, when COVID-19 started spreading through the hellscape known as the Mississippi prison system. Reeves said the state would not use “the excuse of a pandemic” to release anyone early, no matter how vulnerable they were. Right on, governor! Seriously, “preventing unnecessary mass casualties” is right up there with “the dog ate my homework” on the list of lame excuses.

Now that the vaccines are ready, this is not time to go soft. That is why I appreciated the response by Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis last week to a draft report prepared by his state’s medical professionals that recommended getting the vaccines to prisoners before healthy elderly people. “There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven’t committed any crime,” he said. “That’s obvious.” I mean, duh!

Polis’ impeccable logic — that we should prioritize vaccination not by health risk or need but by personal virtue — made me think we should pump the brakes on distribution and implement that approach nationwide. Americans of all ages could be given a Personal Virtue Rating (PVR) to determine when they can receive the vaccine.

People in prison, of course, would have the lowest PVR scores. Then there’d be people like me, who might appear to be successful and contributing members of society on the surface, but who have served time in the past and therefore would score low. How about an 85-year-old man with several comorbidities? He might appear healthwise to be a high priority to receive the vaccine, but shouldn’t we first find out if he ever cheated on his spouse, told an off-color joke, or underpaid his taxes?

We have to have standards. This is not a time to listen to soft-headed leaders like Jesus Christ, who commanded His followers to care for sick prisoners, or Pope Francis, who says we share a common humanity with people in prison — where “but for the grace of God” go we. Spare us the virtue signaling, guys.

I am doing my part, but it’s not easy. I recently heard from a terrified woman whose husband is in prison for selling drugs. The man has several CDC risk factors and very well might die or be permanently compromised if he contracts COVID-19. Recently, several people in his facility tested positive, and because there is no social distancing, there is a good chance it will continue to spread. Would I help? she asked through tears.

I told her that I had two teenage daughters, and while they may face the smallest risk of harm from COVID-19, they were (mostly) sweet and innocent children and therefore deserved the vaccine before her criminal husband. I patiently explained that emergency medical decisions should be guided by personal virtue, not science. I asked if she had considered the fact that lots of prison deaths, however unnecessary medically, might deter others from breaking the law.

I hope she — and the thousands of other families with loved ones in prison — can understand. It’s obvious.

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Kevin Ring is a former Capitol Hill staffer, Biglaw partner, and federal lobbyist. He is currently the president of FAMM, a nonprofit, nonpartisan criminal justice reform advocacy group. Back when ATL still had comments, “FREE KEVIN RING” was briefly a meme. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinARing.

* A “robot lawyer” startup, that once focused on parking tickets, is now helping users file FOIA requests. Hope the platform can’t write the Morning Docket… [TechCrunch]

* A new lawyer for the Trump Campaign allegedly argued that Kamala Harris was not a natural-born U.S. citizen. [Forbes]

* The Department of Justice is suing the State of Alabama over allegedly substandard prison conditions. [NPR]

* Jerry Falwell, Jr. has dropped a defamation lawsuit he filed against Liberty University. [New York Post]

* A federal judge has approved a class action of fighters suing the UFC for allegedly being a monopoly. They should have put a trial by ordeal clause in their contracts, may be quicker to settle this dispute in the octagon… [Bloomberg Law]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.