SF Chronicle editorial on Boalt Hall
 

Originally posted by Skeks in the city


Originally posted by Atticus Grinch

I was talking about Burger's proposal of subsidizing the lefty baby-lawyers who want to do legal work for lefty causes by giving them a tuition break at the expense of other lawyers. A lot of law schools already have programs like that.

There is friction over pro bono though. Oft times, litigation partners support it, while corporate partners oppose it. Litigation partners oft see it as providing useful training to baby litigators, while corpies believe it's worthless to GAs, and if anything is counterproductive, because it keeps corporate GAs from doing work that actually does provide useful experience.

www.peterthottam.com -- photos of 6 GIs & humiliated Iraqi POWS
 

Wow. Peter's found the photos and has placed them on his site. Geez, no wonder why the entire Arab world is going ballistic.

What were these idiots thinking? White trash or something more sinister?

G @ www.peterthottam.com

www.peterthottam.com -- photos of 6 GIs & humiliated Iraqi POWS
 

I think, sadly, this kind of thing happens a lot in forums filled with men under stress, this is just one of the more extreme expressions of it. Basically, when you're up against it day in and day out, humiliating someone in an inferior position seems to alleviate some of the inherent stress. Frat guys do it to pledges, football teams do it to rookies, cops do it to defendants, gangs do it to initiates. prisoners do it to new fish. There are varying degrees of humiliation, but that's usually a product of one guy in the group being unable to control himself; the rest just get pulled along for the ride. Someone with better psychology credentials than mine will have to weigh in as to why, but I'm guessing it all goes back to the old "lost your testicles? take someone else's!" theory on emasculation.

Now, the people who should be really pissed are all the female G.I.'s out in harm's way; that chick in the photos just made it open season on retaliatory rape and torture by the Iraqi bad guys (and probably some of the really pissed off good guys, too.)

SF Chronicle editorial on Boalt Hall
 

I am in favor of Boalt charging market tuition, but that is a fight not winnable in this state.

Aren't there like a zillion not for profits providing legal work to the poor? And in addition, doesn't the state fill this need in part as well? Are you suggesting that we force lawyers to do pro bono? Frankly, I think this is a great area for the universities to focus on. Many already do, but they could do more. Why not have the professors running cases/matters with students acting as associates? Is not like the professors don't have time on their hands, and this training would be far more valuable to the associates than most 2nd or 3rd year classes.

Removal of Spam
 

I told you to put your canned posts on the most relevant board and not to Spam the rest of the site.

If anyone wants to read this post, it will remain on politics.

RT

Nothing
 

I just wanted to get a certain poster off the front page of the site.

Nothing
 

Look, you. I don't know how many times I've warned you stop with this spamming, but enough is enough. What about the children?

Working for Google
 

Does anyone have any information about working for google? They appear to be on a mad hiring spree, and one can't help but be curious.

thanks,
AdL

Working for Google
 

Yeah, you're a day late and $10,000,000 dollars short. What's the point to work there now, besides the free meals and massages? That said, they are notoriously picky picky picky.

Good luck!

Working for Google
 

Just curious. They have a shitload of job postings, and I was just browsing. What do you mean by picky?

Working for Google
 

Like NY or LA biglaw processes. "Top" law schools, top grades, etc. etc.. I don't think the pay is particularly good, and you shouldn't expect very generous stock options or stock grants.

Working for Google
 

Thanks, Flinty.

Working for Google
 

Absolutely, and if you get in, maybe you could retrieve my resume from the trash. Thanks.

Working for Google
 

What he said. To wit, many of those openings have been open now for several months, if not over a year or more, and they have been presented with plenty of people who have the needed experience (note - while I had not applied, numerous friends and colleagues did). They seem to be very concerned about personality fit. And most California companies won't pay for relocation as there are already so many CA attorneys who are looking for work.

C(if I had applied, though, I would have made a kick-ass addition as the goalie on their roller hockey team)deuced

Working for Google
 

[Insert weight joke here]

OK. Thanks to some updated santeria rituals and the timely intervention of a higher power, my powers of moderation have been restored. So there'll be no more of that foolishness that went on my absence. You know who you are.

Cooley Defections
 

I have it on fairly good authority that there are several groups at Cooley that are about to jump ship. Any word?

Nothing
 

Originally posted by Iniquity

Flinty can't help himself. Monkeys like to throw their turd everywhere.

And flinty, careful re the weight of female goalies. One in my college could bench close to 300 lbs. She might have been able to break you in half -- without a strap-on.

Schadenfreude
 

Littler and client hit with $88,000 in discovery sanctions following mistrial.

You can imagine how the convo went drawing up the witness list.

"Hey, did we ever disclose these 22 guys in our form rog responses?"

"Um, just a sec. [Pause.] No."

"Okay. Whatever."

Long time gone . . .
 

Hi, All, It's been at least a year since I've even checked out the board. Surprised I'm still a member.

Okay, I admit it, I'm staff, not a lawyer, but you guys are the best for the real info.

What's the view of Morgan Lewis among associates?

Also, is there any SV firm that still treats its associates and staff like humans and not slave labor?

Thanks so very very much!

Long time gone . . .
 

Are you asking because you're still at work at midnight?

Long time gone . . .
 

I doubt you'll get a good answer to that question from attorneys, who all are probably sure that they're above average. It doesn't take a whole lot of disrespect to ruin a day.

Gene Crew asks for $3,000/hr in MSFT case fee petition. The overall request is for $258 million; T&T&C's portion merely represents a 5x multiple on their hourly rates.

Never thought I'd ever agree with anything a MSFT lawyer said, but there's a first time for everything.

$18 million of coupons for Microsoft products can last quite a while.

East Coast Invasion
 

If I wanted to work these hours I'd be a lawyer. I have a much reduced lifestyle because I wanted a life.

Mostly, I'd like to know what the associates think, if any of them post here. The ones I've talked to personally are mostly not happy.

Paralegal Jobs Near Fresno?
 

A good friend of mine is a paralegal (currently living out of state) and is moving to the Fresno area (don't ask) in the next 2 weeks. Does anyone know of any paralegal jobs open there, or of any online or print resources (besides the Fresno Bee) that might be good to check out?


C(does the Raisin Commission need help?)deuced

going in-house at Google
 

This is from yesterday's Recorder:

Knockin' on Google's Door
Going in-house at the hottest company around isn't easy

Alexei Oreskovic
The Recorder
05-18-2004

For months, the hype and hopes generated by Google's impending public stock offering have captivated the world's attention.

Closer to home, the Internet company has cast a spell on the legal profession, with local lawyers eyeing a cubicle in its Mountain View, Calif., offices the way law school students covet a clerkship at the Supreme Court.

The allure of working at the world's most popular Internet search company, and the stock option riches expected to come with it, have made Google's legal department the hottest job for an attorney in Silicon Valley.

But although the company is on a hiring spree, actively taking steps to grow its army of in-house lawyers, getting in at Google remains a challenge. Even attorneys with top-shelf credentials, and connections inside the company, report getting the cold shoulder.

With resumes pouring into its offices, Google has hired its own in-house legal recruiter to oversee attorney hiring, a practice that other recruiters say is virtually unheard of.

Anne Kerwin, the Menlo Park, Calif., recruiter who is working for Google, could not be reached for comment. Some recruiters in the region estimate that Kerwin is likely receiving hundreds of resumes for each open position at the company.

Attorneys are "very interested in the possibility of being in one of the last great startup companies -- to relive a little of the boom," says one associate who knows several people who have applied for jobs at Google.

Indeed, tales of friends and colleagues applying for a job at Google have already become ingrained in the Valley's legal folklore. Typically, the stories do not have happy endings.

One associate at a Bay Area firm recounts making two separate attempts to get a job at Google. The first time, the associate mailed his resume in response to an ad the company had posted and heard nothing back. Months later, after learning that an attorney he worked with at his previous firm was in house at Google, he tried again. Once more, his efforts failed to yield so much as an interview.

Another associate at a large Silicon Valley firm got the brush-off after advancing relatively deep into the interview process.

"I went through a couple of rounds before getting dinged," laments the associate, who graduated from a law school within the top five of the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Demand obviously outstrips supply. But the company's legal department is nevertheless expanding at a singular pace.

"Every time I turn around there's a new lawyer," says Carmen Chang, a partner at Shearman & Sterling's Menlo Park office who represents Google in Asia.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment for the story, refusing even to divulge the headcount in the company's legal department, citing the Securities and Exchange Commission's pre-IPO quiet period. Some estimate the legal department currently counts about 40 attorneys.

Google's Web site lists seven open attorney positions, including jobs in corporate, intellectual property, litigation and even a European policy counsel. While some in-house attorneys work as generalists, Google seems to favor a more regimented division of labor, requiring a greater number of attorneys to staff various practice areas.

As the company prepares to go public, it has all the legal needs of a major corporation, in addition to a unique set of circumstances.

Google's search-based advertising service, which accounted for 95 percent of the company's revenue in 2003, faces a number of crucial legal tests. Several companies have sued Google, alleging that its practice of linking keyword search results to advertisements violates their trademarks.

And Overture Services, now owned by Yahoo Inc., has also sued Google on the grounds that the search-based advertising service infringes on its patent.

"They're going to have some real legal challenges going forward," says David Moyer, an intellectual property litigator at San Francisco's Wineberg, Simmonds & Narita. "They will keep a lot of litigators busy as well as deal lawyers."

Joining the Google team is a long process. A successful candidate can go through as many as six rounds of interviews before getting hired.

"They're very picky and selective about the types of personality they're looking for," said the associate who was rejected after several rounds of interviews, noting that the company seemed particularly interested in ensuring that an applicant "will mesh with their team."

The cultural fit of a job applicant, of course, is not exactly unheard of at law firms. But at Google, it is apparently of prime importance.

The company prides itself on its culture and lifestyle, and its corporate Web site is replete with details about the rich intellectual discourse that its diverse employees engage in, the small-company feel and the on-site Google Cafe.

"Practice law Google-style," reads the section of Google's Web site dedicated to its legal recruiting. "Come work at a place where you can help define precedents, rather than just follow them."

Julie Brush, the co-founder of legal recruiting firm Solutus Legal Search, says the company is also known as very credential-conscious, both in terms of law schools and work experience.

But, she adds, Google can afford to be picky.

"They're very attractive to a lot people," says Brush. "When you're in that situation, you're in a position where you can be very selective about who you bring on and the criteria, and you also have some leverage with regard to the compensation you pay people, especially mid to lower level."

A lower salary is outweighed by the lure of stock options in a company whose IPO is expected to give the company a market value of at least $20 billion.

It's unclear whether every attorney at the company automatically receives stock options as part of the compensation package. The company's Web site notes that new employees are recommended for stock options, the price of which is based on the fair market value as determined by the board of directors.

Of course, stock option grants at this late stage in the company's development are likely not as generous as those given to earlier hires.

And as enchanting as the Google siren call is, some note that it's only drawing a limited segment of attorneys.

Unlike during the dot-com boom when lawyers from all practices abandoned their firms for the promise of in-house riches, the current desire to work at Google appears largely limited to attorneys with a focus on IP and technology companies.

With memories of stock market losses still fresh, the general populace of law firm attorneys remains wary of in-house dreams.

Even among tech-centric attorneys there is skepticism. The associate whose colleagues interviewed with Google notes that many left with a bad taste in their mouth, turned off by what seemed to be a disorganized, Wild West environment within the legal department.

Moreover, the company's vaunted culture and lifestyle hold less appeal since many attorneys expect things will change once the company becomes publicly owned.

"What you're buying into now is not what it's going to be a year from now," the associate said.

going in-house at Google
 

Why would anybody want to work there now?

going in-house at Google
 

Ask Alex_de_Large. Sounds like a cool place to work, though.

going in-house at Google
 

Well the massages look pretty good, but the article made it sound like lawyers thought they would get rich quick there. Any options they get will be at or just below the IPO price.

[list=1]better hours than biglaw

better environment than biglaw

cache of working at cool company

free lunch

free dinner

free massages

getting stock at IPO opening price better than stick in eye[/list=1]

Unbelievable pro per Complaint
 

A former student at Hastings sued the school in pro per for allegedly violating his civil rights because he is a Pakistani immigrant and a Muslim. But along the way, he threw unbelievably graphic details of an "affair" he alleges he had with a professor into his "Amended Complaint." Read all about it here.

Unbelievable pro per Complaint
 

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That is truly gross. Some sort of spree disclosure such as "describes person eating own excrement" or something would have been helpful. I didn't know graphic meant disgusting.

Unbelievable pro per Complaint
 

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The grossness is greatly lessened if you ASSume the prof is Not Me -- who protests way, way too much about hating anal. And who no doubt would love to humiliate (using sex, of course) a young Muslim boy.

I'm sure he has lots of useful information about al Qaida or Saddam or whatever. And if he happens to choke on her own corn-laced excrement, no great loss.

Unbelievable pro per Complaint
 

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Actually it isn't. No need to discuss further.

This isn't Texas -- we have standards here, y'know. -- T.S.

JFC
 

EFC
 

Homes in the Bay Area are now freakin' $520k for a single-family home. $670k for a little something in SF. Unfuckingbelievable.

HFC
 

"Homes in the Bay Area are now freakin' $520k for a single-family home. $670k for a little something in SF. Unfuckingbelievable." -c2ed

Yeah, but the economy is so strong and jobs are so plentiful it more than makes up for the high cost of living. Oh, wait; that was 5 years ago. Damn.

WSGR IP GP departs
 

The "other" GA board mentions today that GP Irwin Gross left WSGR as of last week. Any news on where he went and the underlying issues for his departure?

Sound off!

EFC
 

That's just the median. If you want to live somewhere "nice", it's a hell of a lot more than that. Hell, townhomes are $550k.