Winning recognition in such listings as The Best Lawyers in America presents a prime marketing opportunity that can go far beyond what many lawyers realize, writes Bruce Vincent for Muse Communications.

In his article, Vincent goes into detail about the six steps lawyers can use to amplify and prolong the good news.

Those steps are: First-level marketing, notify your clients, alert industry publications, issue a press release, get social, and everything else.

Read the article.

California litigation boutique Dovel & Luner waited more than a month after big law firms started raising salaries for associates before topping everyone else with a first-year pay rate of $215,000.

Above the Law reports that the firm is “a California litigation boutique that specializes in plaintiff-side litigation on a contingency fee basis. The firm has eight lawyers (two of whom are associates), but if you look at their bios, you’ll see a glittering array of top law schools, elite clerkships, and leading Biglaw firms in their backgrounds.”

Their rate for sixth-year associates is $330,000, according to editor Staci Zaretsky.

And Dovel & Luner associates can count on bonuses based on the firm’s success, sometimes rising to as much as $700,000.

Read the Above the Law article.

Because law firms are such desirable targets for hackers, firms have had to find solutions for keeping the intruders at bay. They can use internal systems managed by employees of the firm, or they can go to a cloud-based solution, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Writing for Above the Law, Scheef & Stone partner Tom Kulik points out that SaaS platforms can help offset the cost by offloading technical and security expertise to the SaaS provider. But the standard contract terms offered by these providers do not weigh in favor of the law firm.

In the article, Kulik discusses some points to consider when a firm is considering entering into a contract for SaaS.

Read the article.

Bloomberg Law reports that O’Melveny & Myers has won the “best law firm to work for” in Vault’s 2019 annual quality of life rankings.

Vault polled about 20,000 associates to rate peer firms and their own experiences, writes Bloomberg reporter Elizabeth Olson. They were asked about satisfaction and firm culture, as well as compensation, hours and informal training and mentoring.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson held onto its No. 2 ranking in the poll.

Associates described O’Melveny as having a “laid back culture” and “super interesting work,” according to comments.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Bloomberg Law reports on a survey of mostly female lawyers that sexual harassment, including unwelcome texts, physical contact and bullying, exists at big and small law firms.

The Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts and the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership conducted the study.

“Nearly 38 percent of respondents said they’d been the recipient of an unwanted sexual email, text or instant message at work. Approximately 21 percent said they’d experienced or witnessed unwelcome physical contact at work,” reported Stephanie Russell-Kraft. “More than two-thirds of those who said they had experienced or witnessed unwelcome physical contact said they didn’t report it.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

Above the Law has updated its extensive list of law firms that have matched Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s $190,000 salary scale for new associates, with almost four dozen large firms represented.

The most-recent additions to the list, added on Thursday, include Dechert, Orrick, Akin Gump and Sherman & Sterling, each with pay scales of $190,000 for first year associates and $340,000 for senior year associates.

Those four also offer $5,000 bonuses to first years, and $25,000 to their more-senior associates.

Read the Above the Law article.

Bloomberg Law is reporting that a former partner in Jones Day’s Silicon Valley office alleged in a suit June 19 that she was kicked out of the firm after raising concerns about its treatment of female lawyers.

The former partner, Wendy Moore, alleged that the firm’s leaders retaliated against her after she voiced misgivings about the firm’s alleged sexist culture, lack of pay transparency, and marginalization of female attorneys, according to reporter Stephanie Russell-Kraft.

“The firm’s male leaders often make sexist comments and rate the attractiveness of female attorneys, paralegals, staff, and officers of the firm’s clients,” Moore’s complaint complaint says. “Business development events, too, often center on degrading stereotypes of femininity and cater to a preference for sports and alcohol.”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Recent breaking news about the potential union of Dallas’ Winstead and Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders is another example of how the media can quickly become a factor in private law firm mergers, writes Bruce Vincent in a blog post for Muse Communications.

“While it remains to be seen whether the media interest will impact any eventual union between Winstead and Troutman, the way the news became public provides key insights for other law firms that may be considering a merger,” he writes.

Vincent outlines some of the most important steps to take in such a situation. He discusses informing important audiences, such as clients; handling media requests; and the right way to follow up.

Read the article.

Bloomberg Law reports that a ruling that an ex-King & Spalding associate can go to trial on a claim he was fired for raising ethics concerns highlights a critical question for law firms—how to respond to an internal ethics complaint without appearing to retaliate?

A New York federal court rejected King & Spalding’s argument that associate David Joffe clearly was terminated for bad performance and “administrative shortcomings,” and not in retaliation for reporting ethical concerns stemming from two partners’ representation of Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp., writes Mindy L. Rattan.

“While most associates are at-will employees, New York associates are protected from retaliation after the associate reports or threatens to report ethical concerns about others in the firm,” according to Rattan.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The race to top or match big law firms’ salaries for associates took on another twist as Cravath Swaine & Moore announced it will be giving senior associates a hike that brings their compensation to $340,000.

Bloomberg Law reports that figure will beat Milbank,Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s pay for its top associates by $10,000.

Above the Law has a memo — provided by tipsters — that outlines Cravath’s compensation schedule for associate classes 2017 ($190,000) through 2010 ($340,000).

“Cravath might be late to the game, but now that it’s here, we can expect nearly every other major Biglaw firm to follow. (Sullivan & Cromwell) will be here soon. Skadden, Davis Polk, Debevoise, they’re all coming now. This is the new Biglaw associate salary,” writes Above the Law’s Elie Mystal.

Read Bloomberg Law’s article.

Read the Above the Law article.

Around half a dozen law firms have stepped up to say they will match the new $190,000 salary level for freshly minted lawyers set by Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy this week, reports Bloomberg Law, but others have been slower, or may not come forward at all, as firms try to navigate the shifting business conditions.

“Such large salary boosts can be costly, and it’s one that often is borne by the law firm. Corporations are reluctant to underwrite the six-figure salaries for lawyers straight out of law school,” explains reporter Elizabeth Olson.

She talked to James Jones, a senior fellow at Georgetown law’s Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, who agreed that clients would not be happy. Firm billing rates for the largest 100 law firms rose last year, and an across-the-board raise could indicate another hike in billing, he noted.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Bloomberg Law reports that salaries of law firm associates got a healthy boost Monday when Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP announced that it will increase pay by $10,000 for lawyers in their first three years, and $15,000 after that.

That raise will bring starting salaries for associates to $190,000, up from the current $180,000, write Elizabeth Olson and Casey Sullivan.

Competition for legal talent has grown particularly fierce when it comes to the kind of complex, high-end transactions that Milbank specializes in, Scott A. Edelman, Milbank’s chair, told Bloomberg Law.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Above the Law reports that a judge has characterized a $60,000 fee request from Latham & Watkins to be “astonishing” and “aggressive beyond any convention.”

The firm, representing the defendant in two cases brought by a Harvard professor who sued an employee of his investment fund for allegedly recording conversations, won the case on the merits. So now Latham is attempting to recover legal fees, reports editor Kathryn Rubino.

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Mitchell H. Kaplan criticized Latham for charging such a high fee “to file a brief that a first-year law student could write.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Nearly $4 million in fees are at stake in a California Supreme Court fight between a big law firm and a big client over broad advance conflict waivers the firm used in its client engagement letters, according to Bloomberg Law.

Reporter Joyce Cutler explains that Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP was “disqualified from representing J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. in a $1 billion qui tam action because the firm concurrently represented one of the hundreds of defendants in an unrelated matter. The state appeals court held the advance conflict waiver J-M gave Sheppard Mullin didn’t absolve the firm of its duty to tell J-M about the specific conflict once it came to light.”

The question for this case of first impression is whether a law firm needs to tell a sophisticated client about a specific conflict when it arises, or whether the firm can instead rely a boilerplate advance conflict waiver in the client’s engagement agreement.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Above the Law has some advice for anyone who is shocked by a billing rate of $700 an hour: Biglaw partners charge a lot for their services, so get over it.

Editor Kathryn Rubino covers the reaction to “the completely reasonable bill that Bracewell partner and former federal judge Barbara Jones has submitted for her work as the special master reviewing the materials seized in the raid of Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen’s office.”

An invoice from Jones revealed her $700 hourly rate for a total of $47,390 over a single week.

“Top rates for experienced partners approach the $2,000 mark — more than double Jones’s rate … ” Rubino writes.

Read the Above the Law article.

Law firms face some of the same challenges with their marketing that politicians deal with when trying to get elected, points out Amy Boardman Hunt in a blog post for Muse Communications.

She offers some points that law firms (and political candidates) should keep in mind when planning their marketing efforts.

The article discusses some of the finer points of such marketing qualities as consistency, clarity, brevity, novelty, authenticity, targeting, and keeping “one foot in front of the other.”

Read the article.

Sandra Goldstein, a former leader of Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s litigation department who is leaving the firm to join Kirkland & Ellis, will be well-compensated in her new role: $11 million a year for five years, plus a signing bonus, according to The New York Times.

“What has the legal profession’s upper ranks abuzz is that for decades partners almost never left Cravath voluntarily — not for other law firms, at least, let alone for a firm like Kirkland, which is in some ways Cravath’s polar opposite,” writes reporter James B. Stewart.

He adds that Kirkland has shaken up the profession and expanded its practice by poaching top partners from Cravath, Latham and Skadden Arps Meagher Slate & Flom.

Read the NY Times article.

Bloomberg Law is reporting on a a seminal study from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation found widespread mental health problems among attorneys.

The report says that approximately 40 percent of associates at large firms have unlimited vacation days, according to Matt Moody, a senior law editor at career research company Vault. “But taking vacations while billing enough hours, remaining available to clients, and meeting court deadlines can be tricky. The Vault survey found only 31 percent of associates used all their vacation days, Moody said.”

Reporter Gayle Cinquegrani writes that lawyer and licensed alcohol and drug counselor Patrick R. Krill and lead author of the Hazelden study, believes that skipping vacations can “be a set-up for anxiety, depression, alcoholism, and burnout.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

A lack of familiarity with advertising rules can lead to a firm or an individual lawyer having their ad, website, etc., labeled as “noncompliant” by the State Bar of Texas Advertising Review Department, warns Bruce Vincent of Muse Communications.

That department reviews lawyer advertising for violations under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. Those who fail to remedy noncompliant communications may be the subject of an official complaint filed with the Bar’s Chief Disciplinary Counsel.

Vincent interviewed Gene Major, director of the State Bar Advertising Review Department and director of the Bar’s Attorney Compliance Division, about the state’s lawyer advertising landscape and the common mistakes that can lead to violations.

Major discussed some of the most common mistakes and violations he sees, possible penalties, and the use of mailing lists for marketing.

Read the article.

Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates has signed on with King & Spalding — rejoining the law firm where she began her career before her 27-year tenure in the Justice Department, reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Mark Meltzer writes that Yates will be a partner in the firm’s Special Matters team and will head an independent investigations group that includes several other former government enforcement lawyers – including five former U.S. attorneys. She’ll be based in Washington and Atlanta.

Soon after he took office, President Trump fired Yates, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta as acting attorney general after she declined to enforce Trump’s proposed travel ban. Yates told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees.

Read the Business Journal article.