CONTRIBUTORS
Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs,
Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law.
"Sound Policy" is Denise's show at
IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at
dhowell@gmail.com.
Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read
blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his
gmail address.
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at
tmighell@swbell.net.
Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded
The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at
marty@schwimmerlegal.com.
Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog
Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally,
to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at
esvenson@gmail.com.
Denise Howell
Dennis M. Kennedy
Tom Mighell
Marty Schwimmer
Ernest Svenson
1. Tim Hadley on April 5, 2006 6:56 PM writes...
I guess I don't see it. I suppose it's price fixing if the big firms collude and say, "Okay, we're all agreed that we're going to 145 [or 135, or 125] and no higher." But it's not price fixing if a firm or two start pushing salaries to $135k, or $145k, and others follow because they're worried about attracting and keeping associates. There might be some of the former, but I also suspect there's a lot of the latter. Salary information flows pretty freely among law students and young lawyers, at least starting salary information does. (More detailed information is not hard to come by, especially regarding firms with lockstep structures.) We can assume that the managers of firms also can get hold of that salary information easily and hear about changes quickly.
Meanwhile, associates expect to be paid whatever is "market" for their class of firm in their city. If they perceive that they're not being paid "market", it may not be a dealbreaker, but if they're already unhappy with their jobs it's just one more thing that they can be unhappy about, and for some it could be the last straw. Firms that already have a lot of churn are painfully aware of that.
Permalink to Comment2. Mister Thorne on April 13, 2006 4:08 PM writes...
Just finished reading your post that begins, "Thre's been a lot of discussion . . . ."
What I was most interested in was not the issue of salaries for new associates, but the use and misuse of hyphens.
What we know is this: 'price fixing' is properly hyphenated when used as an adjective, but not when used as a noun. Big deal!
My interest in hyphens arises as I've been doing a good deal of work lately for a big AmLaw 100 firm, and that's exposed me to writing practices of lawyers.
It's interesting. It seems as if attorneys take a writing class not all that different from the handwriting classes that doctors take. For some reason, attorneys just don't like serial commas, but they love serial semicolons and they truly love caps. Who teaches these lawyers to write about 'Members of Congress," "the Executive Branch," and, "the State Attorneys General?"
Do they get extra credit for capitalizing everything?
And since I'm at it, why is it that AmLaw 100 firms don't have any 'female' attorneys? For some reason, they all seem to have 'women' attorneys. Is 'women' an adjective in legal circles?
Permalink to Comment3. John on April 17, 2006 6:21 AM writes...
Thanks; the other posts may see the light of day this week.
I've been too busy working to avoid paying associates to do the same.
Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Permalink to Comment4. John on April 17, 2006 8:25 AM writes...
Thanks; the other posts may see the light of day this week.
I've been too busy working to avoid paying associates to do the same.
Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Permalink to Comment