Posts on ‘September 2nd, 2009’

Given the economy and state of the legal market, many third-year law students may find themselves without an offer at the end of this summer. Firms have fewer positions to offer, and they will have to be more discriminating in their choices than in years past. Unfortunately, additional job prospects may be bleak in this down economy in which firms are laying off attorneys. So, what is a 3L without an offer to do? BCG Attorney Search’s Suzanne Dupree Howe provides some strategies for finding a job.

Today, more than ever, marketing planning is essential to every lawyer in private practice — whether you are a first-year associate, a junior partner or a managing partner. Let’s face it, says consultant Kimberly Alford Rice, the economy is still shaky, law firms are still bleeding layoffs, clients are continuing to tighten their legal budgets and the collective business pie is shrinking. Rice outlines nine reasons for developing a marketing plan, including helping you to take control of your own career.

Mayer Brown on Tuesday brought on board a former Simpson Thacher project finance partner as part of an effort to boost the firm’s presence in New York. George Miller will be Mayer Brown’s first project finance partner in New York and will be tasked with working to build up a practice to complement similar efforts in the firm’s other outposts. Miller is the most recent of a string of lateral hires by Mayer Brown in New York.

An Internet radio company has filed a straight-on challenge to the constitutionality of the Copyright Royalty Board, the panel that determines the rates companies pay for statutory copyright licenses. In a complaint filed Monday, Live365 argued that the royalty board violates the Constitution’s appointments clause, because its members are selected by the librarian of Congress. The suit argues that because of their significant authority, the non-Article III judges must be selected by the president.

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity said Tuesday the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and two other lobbying groups are suspected of holding receptions where lawmakers were offered food and drink in excess of the value allowed by law. Under 2007 ethics reforms, legislators can accept only items of “nominal” value, such as a cup of coffee.

Internet gambling proponents suffered a major setback Tuesday when a federal appeals court refused to strike down a 2006 law in which Congress banned all Internet gambling transactions that would be illegal in the gambler’s state. The 3rd Circuit panel rejected arguments that the law should be declared void for vagueness, finding that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 “clearly provides a person of ordinary intelligence with adequate notice of the conduct that it prohibits.”

The receiver in an alleged $347 million Ponzi scheme has filed a malpractice lawsuit against Holland & Knight and partner Scott MacLeod, claiming they failed to provide investors with crucial information about the disbarred attorney behind the investments. The suit accuses the firm and its attorney of preparing disclosure documents for investors that failed to mention that Arthur Nadel, who headed the hedge funds, was a disbarred New York attorney who had drained a client’s escrow account.

The 9th Circuit on Tuesday invited outside parties to weigh in regarding whether William Ruehle, the former chief financial officer of Broadcom Corp., should have assumed that statements he made to company lawyers during an internal investigation into stock options backdating were protected by the attorney-client privilege. During oral arguments, a three-judge panel concluded that the issue was important enough to warrant additional input from parties including the American Bar Association.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has hired fewer law clerks than usual, generating speculation that the leader of the court’s liberals will retire next year. If Stevens does step down, he would give President Barack Obama his second high court opening in two years. Obama chose Justice Sonia Sotomayor for the court when Justice David Souter announced his retirement in May. Souter’s failure to hire clerks was the first signal that he was contemplating leaving the court.

Englewood, N.J., won a partial victory Monday in its effort to stop construction at the Libyan-owned residential property that was to be a site for Muammar Qaddafi to pitch his Bedouin tent during a U.S. visit. Bergen County Chancery Judge Peter Doyne granted a temporary restraining order against work on the property in light of Englewood’s claims of site violations on the project. Qaddafi’s plans to stay at the estate caused a furor, with Gov. Jon Corzine stating that Qaddafi is unwelcome in New Jersey.