Recently, the Chicago based law firm of Winston & Strawn lost four partners to competing firms. Roger Lucas, Jeff Marwil, Paul Possinger and Mark Thomas are the partners who recently left Winston & Strawn. Lucas was picked up by the firm Ropes & Gray as a Tax/Benefits partner. Marwil, Possinger and Thomas were all added to the firm Proskauer Rose as Bankruptcy partners.

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Nowadays if you’re a lawyer and a partner stops by your office it probably isn’t good news.  Chances are pretty good that you’re about to get laid off.  As bad as that may seem it’s much worse to find out you’re getting laid off because you read about it on a legal blog.  It’s a fact of life leaks happen.  But when partners at top firms just blab too loudly about layoffs  on a commuter train it should be inexcusable.  But who are we to judge, right?  Wrong.  Judge away.  The partners name is Robert Robbins and he works at the firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

Here is the news : 

Debevoise and Plimpton announced today that Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney General of the United States and Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, will join their litigation practice as a partner.

Mukasey said: “I am pleased to be joining one of the world’s leading international law firms and look forward to working with the very talented lawyers at Debevoise. The firm’s highly regarded litigation and investigations practice will provide an excellent platform for challenging and exciting work.”

Get all the details

Read an interview with WSJ Law Blog

Former Covington & Burling Partner, Eric Holder, was confirmed by the Senate yesterday as Attorney General in the Obama Administration. Although the GOP objected, the confirmation was approved by a 75 to 21 vote.

From the Washington Post, “The Senate confirmed Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation’s first African American attorney general by a vote of 75 to 21 yesterday, opening a new chapter for a Justice Department that had suffered under allegations of improper political influence and policy disputes over wiretapping and harsh interrogation practices.

Holder, 58, will arrive at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington today for a swearing-in ceremony and to greet some of the department’s 110,000 employees.

“The need for new leadership at the Department of Justice is as critical today as it’s ever been,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). “This confirmation is going to do a great deal to restore the morale and the purpose throughout the department.”

When Big Law partners are tapped by the DOJ or the White House they often benefit their firms with extra prestige. Only slightly less beneficial is the opportunity that some of their firm colleagues receive when they are picked to serve alongside these partners in high profile public positions. Eric Holder Jr. and David Ogden, partners at Covington & Burling and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, respectively, are now reaching out to their own firms to fill vacancies on their staff. Check out who gets picked up here .

If you’re an attorney in New York (or anywhere actually), it seems that all the biglaw firms are laying off.  But with so many layoffs it is hard to keep track of which firms have and which have not actually done layoffs.  Here is a list of firms that have made cuts through the associate ranks as well as staff:

In January of 2008, Cadwalader laid off 35 attorneys due the slow down in structured finance/CMBS.  At the time the associates were told that there would be no more layoffs.  Associates settled in and got comfortable only to find out in August that another 96 were getting axed.  Being the high standing law firm that they are, Cadwalader paid a generous severance through the end of the year as a way of keeping their word that there would be no more layoffs.

Now Cadwalader has laid off 9 more associates and the remaining associates have taken pay cuts (if at all) depending upon billable hours and office location.  But the real news is that two newly minted associates who started in October are now unemployed.  Perhaps it was foolish for a summer associate to accept an offer from Cadwalader in the first place.  But maybe Cadwalader should just stop handing out jobs for a while.  At least until they stop bleeding.

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