Red light, green light
 

Good to see you too, monkey boy. Your avatars seem to be increasing in their implied violence, however, which brings some concern for your mental well-being.

Go photocopy some documents for me, would you? The monotone drone of the copier may soothe your frazzled nerves.

C(and have a belt of scotch while you're at it, poor dear)deuced

Red light, green light
 

Okay, will do. How's this for an avatar instead?

http://chimp.kribb.re.kr/~www/chimp_image/08.jpg

:P

Who wants to come here now?
 

Maybe students are deciding that they don't want to deal with the Bay Area's stratospheric cost of living?

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

Maybe, but I interviewed a number of people who were considering New York and LA over the Bay Area -- not a cost of living driven choice, I think. Students expressed concern about job security, and some also expressed concern that over the long-term this was not the best place to be practicing.

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

Concur. Also, I haven't checked the websites of all the firms, but I think many of the larger nat'l firms that opened offices here (i.e. non-Bay Area based firms that came into SF/SV during the 90s and aughts) have either fairly small offices and focus on a couple practice areas or they closed up those offices.

Bay Area firms, of course, have larger offices and a larger array of practice groups but are viewed by most law students to be less stable to work for and they don't have the cachet non-SF/SV firms do. While we think many big firms here are nationally recognized, I'm often greeted with blank stares when talking with law school buddies who work back east ("Cooley? Fenwick? Never heard of them."). If a law student wants to make sure they choose a place that will help keep options open, the Bay Area firms don't always look appealing.

When the big firms here are going against a DPW, Jones Day or Covington, they will often lose the interest of law students who want to pay off loans, not live in constant fear of a layoff, make sure they are in a place that will train them well and potentially add gilt to their resumes.

C(though they should kiss the ground if they're lucky enough to get an offer anywhere these days)deuced

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

I had the sense a lot of firms around town were busy and hiring.

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

Law students? I hadn't heard that they'd greatly increased the offers they were extending for summer positions. Might be comparable to last year's levels, but I don't think most have really gone up (maybe Orrick and MoFo did, though).

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

Yeah, I don't really know about summer programs. I was thinking of laterals.

Seeing into the Vortex
 

Looks like Pennie & Edmonds is about to be swept into the vortex that is Jones Day. Not too surprising - Pennie has looked at several firms recently. Why it's held off from Jones Day can only be due to partner arrogance and feeling that it wants to be an equal with, not a step-child to, a bigger firm. But get real - partners and associates have been bleeding out of Pennie for the past couple years, including many of the very high-profile, big-book partners. They have some talented lawyers there still, but the current partners need to rub off their soft-lensed glasses and see their own wrinkles. Joining up with a firm like Jones Day may be one of the only ways they can sort of keep their teams together (the ones that haven't been decimated, at least).

C(mmm.... caffeine)deuced

Seeing into the Vortex
 

An interesting part of that article was the rumor that JD would take on the entire firm -- for one year.

That's better, I'm sure, than a simple merger in which they buy the firm and start lopping off heads the next day. Still, there's something eerie about having a merger with an articulated 12 month ramp to meet whatever JD's business expectations are.

Agreed, btw, on the Pennie bleeding over the past couple of years. We saw our share of laterals from Pennie coming through to do the interview dance.

Gatti(it was a nice soft shoe, too)gap

Bloom off the Bay Area rose
 

The lateral market is practice area dependent. The corporate lateral market is still dead.

Boomtown blues....
 

Yup, it means we're working holiday weekends again. I especially hate accommodating clients who ask me to email shit by end of day today, fifteen minutes before I was planning to leave when nobody is going to even fuckinging look at anything until Monday.

And, believe me, I'm going to make somebody's life miserable on account of this. Well, not really. Well, except mine. A girl can dream.

Cell Phone Poll
 

I have returned to the Bay Area, and I was wondering what cell phone service I should use. So here's a poll:

What cell phone service do you use?
What type of cell phone do you have?
Are you happy with either/both?
Are you planning to swtich?

I don't want to keep my LA number, and my contract is over, so I'm free.

Advice appreciated.

Cell Phone Poll
 

Sprint. Hardly wild about it, and planning to switch someday soon, but I have to figure out whose service reaches my place best.

I like my phone, but don't recall who made it.

Welcome back!