The Vault Law Blog's Top 10 Stories of 2010

1. State of the job market

• NALP numbers confirm depressing job outlook for law grads (5/25/10)
• Bleak horizon for new JDs (5/6/10)
• At leaner and meaner law firms, partners feel the pain, too (2/24/10)
• Abundance of laid-off lawyers offers rich pickings for contract work (7/6/10)
• Legal Process Outsourcing: not a fad (3/31/10)

2. Bonuses holding at 2009 levels – except for a few outliers

• BigLaw bonuses remain at 2009 levels for US firms, climb at UK firms (11.29.10)
• Underdog to buck the trend, double Cravath bonuses? (12.7.10)

3. Recession’s impact on diversity

• Law students under the gun; government lawyers get some relief; and discrimination claims climb (9.24.10)
• Bias claims keep labor & employment lawyers busy (3.2.10)
• Law firm diversity progress stalled by economy, according to survey results (9.29.10)
• Diversity success will have been achieved when the profession reflects the community (8.11.10)
• ABA President Carolyn Lamm discusses next steps to achieving a more diverse legal profession (8.9.10)

4. Visions of the BigLaw future

• Extreme Makeover: Law Firm Edition (3.23.10)
• Law Firm of the 21st Century: the Clients’ Revolution? (3.19.10)
• "Law Firm Economics: What's Really Happening Inside Law Firms Today" (3.3.10)
• Howrey's First Tier: so far, so good? (4.26.10)
• Alternative fee arrangements: not the cure for the billable blues? (3.9.10)

5. Rethinking the law school model

• 5 ways to approach law school reform (10.22.10)
• Law schools report offers good news and bad news (2.22.10)
• Dreams of a debt-free life, law student edition (5.13.10)
• Would "full and fair disclosure" by law schools alter the BigLaw landscape? (5.11.10)

6. Financial regulation

• Lessons from Lehman (9.20.10)
• Goldman & the FCIC: an e-discovery showdown? (6.10.10)
• The impact of financial regulation on banks, hedge funds, ratings firms and the lawyers who love them (5.21.10)
• 4 ways of looking at FinReg & The Law (4.16.10)
• Where were the lawyers? More Lehman details emerge (4.13.10)

7. Health care reform

• Girding for battle on health reform (5.11.10)
• More on health care, the courts and the Constitution (3.29.10)
• Friday miscellany: Health Care Reform (3.26.10)

8. Midterm shellacking

• The Midterm "Shellacking": 6 implications for the legal industry (9.9.10)

9. Supreme Court refill

• SCOTUS 1.0 (9.22.10)
• Scalia: "My wife calls me 'Mr. Clueless'" (5.26.10)
• 10 ways to look at Justice John Paul Stevens (4.26.10)
• Supreme similarities sarcastically noted (4.12.10)

10. Transatlantic mergers

• Transatlantic mergers on the rise, but new rules make it harder to practice across borders (10.1.10)
• SNR Denton movie unlikely to spawn sequel (5.27.10)
• A new global law firm emerges: Sonnenschein and Denton Wilde Sapte to unite (5.26.10)
• Hammonds’ brand: going, going, nearly gone (11.15.10)
• LETTER FROM LONDON: Collapse of Proskauer Talks Won't End SJ Berwin's U.S. Ambitions (12.3.10)

Happy New Year from Times Square!