The August 6 post in the laterals/hiring section of The Blog of Legal Times explains how Clifford Chance succeeded in luring three top attorneys from Sidley Austin's white-collar practice. Clifford Chance has also managed to woo Wendy Wysong to join as a new partner. Looks like Clifford Chance is really packing power into its litigation and dispute resolution group.
The August 6 post at Eric Turkewitz's New York Personal Injury Law Blog, "Former Client Running Ads Against Hogan & Hartson," reports on a mysterious and anonymous person advertising that people disgruntled with Hogan & Hartson should call his or her number to complain. We love mysteries, as does Turkewitz.
In his August 3 post at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices, "Doom and Gloom for the Legal Profession—It's Coming," Gerry Riskin advises law firms to keep contingency plans ready since those disregarding the indications of an imminent recession may be the worst affected. Riskin considers the following factors, along with a host of others, specific indications that the legal fraternity may be in for a setback:
- the visible disparities between views of general counsel and law firms
- associate starting salaries (and their impact on all salaries)
- the trend toward "de-equitization of partners"
- "law firms going public" (an anticipated trend)
- partners' obsession with remuneration
- expectations of continually increasing revenues, PPP, and PPL
- the surrealism of the financial expectations of new lawyers
- comments from Citigroup's law firm market specialists
- dramatic drops in demand for attorneys in many traditionally hot practice areas
- overstaffing (at all levels and in most practice areas)
- internally competitive behavior as the pie shrinks
That's all for this week, folks. Take care.
