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How Come Boris Johnson Ignores The Legal Beagles?

Posted on September 10, 2008
London’s colourful mayor Boris Johnson has put London legal noses out of joint by ignoring their representation on London’s International Business Advisory Council, a body set up to improve London’s role as a place to live and work.  Legal work is a major economic contributor to London’s economy, but lawyers themselves are miffed at missing [...

Legal Jobs For Women - Smashing The Glass Ceiling

Posted on September 08, 2008
There’s been a lot of talk in recent times about women in law, but in the UK anyway, there are more women lawyers breaking into the ranks of the top firms, according to the  The Lawyer UK 200 Annual Report. The?findings?are?in ­contrast to a report from the UK ­Equality and Human Rights ­Commission, which last week found [...

Big Legal Job + Big Star Client = Big Publicity

Posted on August 31, 2008
Not too many people had heard of Fiona Shackleton until she recently had a client come in the door called Paul McCartney.  Now, according to The Lawyer she’s the biggest name in English law - or was over the past year.  Over the past 12 months Shackleton, a partner at Payne Hicks Beach in London, had [...

Legal Jobs One Thing - But What Do The Lawyers Think of the Poor?

Posted on August 26, 2008
A recent article in The Guardian took a look at wealth attitudes and, of course, included a section on lawyers which was, of course, reasonably unflattering.  Although the lawyers tended to come out better than the bankers. In the extract printed on Monday, the authors profess surprise and disdain at the partners? ignorance about how the [...

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NZ Legal Jobs - Are they as easy as they used to be to come by?

Posted on August 21, 2008
During the completion of our NZ Legal Jobs report (coming so soon it will make your nose bleed), we talked to a number of recruiters and others and one thing became apparent.  The tightening law market in the UK and elsewhere does not necessarily mean there will be a tsunami of returning lawyers to the [...

Seeking A Law Job With One Of Those American Outfits in London?

Posted on August 19, 2008
It’s generally thought that US firms are tougher and harder-nosed on their employees than their UK counterparts, but a recent study by The Lawyer shows that’s not necessarily the case, with retention rates for qualifying trainees being 100% in some cases...

?USBs Get Degrees? - How Hard Is It To Get A Law Degree, Anyhow?

Posted on August 18, 2008
We received an article at LawFuel yesterday from an Otago University law student, entitled “USB’s Get Degrees” - catchy, eh?  The theme of the article was that law students can get degrees - and good grades - by adopting a few tactics that see them fail to attend class, examine prior papers and - of [...

Women In Law - Why Women Leave Law Jobs, And Others Don?t

Posted on August 13, 2008
Working Mother  has announced its second annual ‘Best Law Firms For Women’ list, showing that although the playing field is not yet level its getting better.  The stats show nearly four of five female associates leave their firm in the first five years...

Kiwi Lawyers Abroad - What Sort of Legal Job Can They Expect?

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Big OE (overseas experience) is what many New Zealand lawyers expect, but the credit crunch has changed a lot of that for those from Australia and New Zealand who travel to the big markets, particularly Britain.  LawFuel reported on the scene looking at the effect of the well documented ?credit crunch?  and what it [...

Women Leaving The Law? How Come? And What Can Be Done About It?

Posted on August 04, 2008
The whole issue of women in law is a persistant one, particularly given the rapid rise of women graduates and women lawyers who enter the profession only to then ‘disappear’ some place.  Where?  Well, in an article from the NY Law Journal, that we published here, the stats for the US show that women represent only [...

Are Aussie & Kiwi Lawyers Heading Home? We Don?t Think So

Posted on August 01, 2008
Talk of a major downturn in the legal market has many law firms in Australia and New Zealand rubbing their hands together at the prospect of all those Gen-Y, overpaid London ex-pats at last turning their heads towards home.  Likely?  No, we don’t think so...

More Legal Job Layoffs Stateside - Cadwaladers? Go Into Round Two

Posted on July 31, 2008
More layoffs at Cadwalader’s shows the continuation of the credit crunch for law firms in the States (and elsewhere). The fact is, a great chunk of work - mortgage-backed securities - has evaporated and firms like Cadwaladers and others are not facing just a short term ‘blip’, but rather a major shakeout in their workbase...

More Legal Job Layoffs Stateside - Cadwaladers? Go Into Round Two

Posted on July 31, 2008
More layoffs at Cadwalader’s shows the continuation of the credit crunch for law firms in the States (and elsewhere). The fact is, a great chunk of work - mortgage-backed securities - has evaporated and firms like Cadwaladers and others are not facing just a short term ‘blip’, but rather a major shakeout in their workbase...

Don?t Worry. Be Happy. Is It True In Most Legal Jobs?

Posted on July 28, 2008
Happiness and the law.  Do they mix?  Or are they a case of never the twain meeting?  A post in the JD Bliss blog reports on Stephen Ellis, a partner at the Cleveland office of Tucker, Ellis & West, a 150-lawyer full-service firm.  A happy–and successful–lawyer who has spent 36 years in the profession, Ellis challenges [...

Worried About Your Legal Job? Here?s What the CEOs Have To Say

Posted on July 17, 2008
The credit crunch and other issues have occupied the minds of lawyers in recent months, but what does it mean for law firms in terms of the outlook?  LegalWeek published an outlook from top firms managing partners.  A sampling:  Tim Jones, Freshfields - ?Litigation is a big practice area right now...

Being Paid For Taking A Law Job . . The New Internet Way

Posted on June 30, 2008
Two new Internet law recruitment sites offer bonus payments to lawyers who sign up to their listed jobs.

Life After The Big Law Job Letdown

Posted on June 26, 2008
The new blog from former Paul Hastings associate Shinyung Oh whose email on life in the firm went web-wide, big time.

A Quality Law Degree In Two Years? Come On.

Posted on June 22, 2008
The ABA lifted a requirement that law degrees be over six semesters right back in 2004 - a major deal that lead to the odd legal institution instituting their two-year law degrees. But now, a more esteemed name in legal education, NorthWestern University has entered the fray with it’s two-year degree...

Climate Change Law Jobs Heat Up

Posted on June 07, 2008
Credit crunching and other issues may have slowed down the growth of firms in the financial sector, but the ever-increasing range of new opportunities includes climate change law.  Carbon trading, new climate regulations, environmental iniatives of all types have created a plethora of new opportunities, which younger lawyers are primed to seize...

When Law Jobs Go Bad - Sentencing Melvyn Weiss

Posted on May 27, 2008
It’s kind of unusual for a defendant to file his own sentencing memo to a court, but when the defendant is class action guru-turned-defendant Mel Weiss well, anything can happen.  The WSJ Law Blog published the memo, which carried more than 275 letters attesting to the good-turned-bad lawyer’s good deeds...

Law Jobs Go At DC Attorney General?s Office

Posted on May 24, 2008
Many may think that public law is for whimps and not for the real stuff, well in the case of the Washington DC Attorney General’s office the plan is to transform the office into a “first rate law firm” - starting with what all first rate law firms do and firing lawyers...

Pregnancy, Adoption And Law Jobs That Recognize Them

Posted on May 20, 2008
Sullivan & Cromwell started the ball rolling - their generous (18 paid weeks’ maternity leave) started in July and now other firms are joining the queue to be nice to mothers.  That generosity hasn’t always been the case, of course, but the work/life thing is catching and as American Lawyer point out, similar policies extend to adoptive [...

Law Job Layoffs, Pregnancy And Unwanted Emails - A Paul Hastings PR Nightmare

Posted on May 09, 2008
The brouhaha over Paul Hastings associate Shinyung Ho has been all over the law blogs this week and points up some of the key issues for not only pregnant “life stylers” seeking a life along with a law careers, but also the way large firms handle layoffs...

Oprah?s Lawyer - Now What Sort of Law Job Would That Be?

Posted on May 01, 2008
Celebrities with one name are pretty big - that’s why they have one name - but what about the lawyers who act for them or, in Oprah’s case, the Chicago attorney she found because she liked his tie. William L Becker got the call in 1988 because Oprah had been searching for a lawyer...

Law Partnerships - And A New Law Career Path For Some Firms

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Lawyer have a story on the new partners entering the fray - ah, we mean partnerships - in the UK.  Hammonds take the cake for the most new partners, as you can see from The Lawyer’s pic, below.  The firm now has nine per cent of its total partner as ‘new chums’, compared to most [...

Looking For Work-Life Balance? Then A Law Job May Be TOOO Much

Posted on April 27, 2008
The good old State Bar of New York has come out with a work/life balance report that shows that the holy grail of work/life balance is as elusive as ever, with lawyers missing out on the chance to play a part not only in the community, but also in their own families...

Top Law Jobs At Top Places To Work

Posted on January 23, 2008
Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Places To Work include five US law firms - Arnold and Porter (Staffers get 12 weeks paid maternity leave and profit sharing of 7.5% of salary. The less you make, the less you pay for health-insurance premiums.) Alston & Bird (Both the legal and nonlegal staff get super benefits, including 90 days of paid [...

The One Company You Don?t Want To Work For - According To Google?s Eric Schmidt

Posted on January 21, 2008
So you want to work for Google?  Okay, you don?t want to work for Google necessarily, but you would like to know what their top man, Eric Schmidt?s advice might be if you?re looking for anything from a legal job to a loafing job at a go-nowhere corporation? Well Sheryl Sandberg joined Google in 2001 [...

Retiring Rich - The Lawyers From Clifford Chance

Posted on January 16, 2008
Retirement looms for increasing numbers of baby boomers and the legal media in the UK have covered moves by Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance to move its retirement practice in line with the new British age discrimination law - something larger firms are perhaps more aware of than ever with age, sex, race and religious [...

Times Are Getting Tougher On The Law Jobs Front

Posted on January 13, 2008
We’ve predicted tougher times ahead on the legal jobs front for a little while - hardly an act of mind-blowing prescience given the credit crunch - but it’s beginning to get ugly with layoffs and belt tightening all round with some of the major law firms...

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