Even in an era of $160,000 salaries for first-year associates - plus bonuses - not every young lawyer is feeling equally flush. Law school debt can take a big bite of the fattest law firm paychecks, while the slowing economy has produced a steady trickle of law firm layoffs. Many associates are feeling squeezed - and a lot of them are minority lawyers.
The Recorder
March 24, 2008
Plaintiffs in employment suits might suspect ex-bosses are hiding documents in discovery, but they can't always prove it. Charles Wisch, who represents a former Foley & Lardner legal secretary, thinks he can. When his client was fired, she took more than 800 pages of files, which Wisch thinks will be a road map to other Foley files helpful to the age discrimination suit. It's not every day someone admits to stealing documents. But some lawyers say the dispute shows a nagging problem in discrimination suits.
The Associated Press
March 19, 2008
The Supreme Court threw out the death sentence and conviction in a Louisiana murder case Wednesday, citing racial prejudice in the actions of a prosecutor who kept blacks off the jury. By a 7-2 vote, the justices said state prosecutor Jim Williams improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted Allen Snyder of killing his estranged wife's companion. Snyder is black, and the jurors were white.
The Legal Intelligencer
March 20, 2008
The question of why the legal industry, which was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, hasn't been able to do a good job of diversification opened a recent program by the Villanova Law Minority Alumni Society called "Why Diversity Matters." Part of the problem, said Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor A. Michael Pratt, is that the demands of being a lawyer have caused many minority attorneys to forget their "rabble-rouser days" and fear speaking out against injustices.
Daily Business Review
March 18, 2008
Some small South Florida businesses are finding that the so-called "Gateway to Latin America" opens only so far when they try to hold onto their executives and managers. Immigration attorneys say the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has taken a stricter view of multinational executives and is denying more L-1 visas, which allow international transfers of employees with specialized knowledge. Attorneys are also accusing CIS of being biased against small companies in its decision making.
The National Law Journal
March 12, 2008
With the numbers of some minority groups still low at law firms and with competition for minority candidates intense, law firms are putting their resources toward "pipeline" projects, with the goal of grooming college and high school students to become attorneys. "We began to ask ourselves whether we should reach back further to increase the opportunities for diverse students to succeed in college," says Kirkland & Ellis partner Kevin Evanich, whose firm helps provide scholarships and workshops.
