Inadmissible

Employers began on-campus interviews (OCI) last week at five of Texas’ nine American Bar Association -accredited law schools, primarily in search of 2011 summer associates. At least four of the largest firms in Texas say they plan to hire more summer associates for 2011 than they did this year. “We’re going to have a bigger” summer program in 2011, says Vinson & Elkins hiring partner Tom Leatherbury . “We’re going to have a total firmwide program that we hope is about 20 to 25 larger in 2Ls,” he says. “What that means in Texas is that we’re going from 60 in Texas to about 80 in Texas,” he says, referring to the number of summer associates. Although the 2011 summer class will be larger at V&E than it was this summer, it won’t be back to the 2009 level, when V&E had 109 second-year summer associates in Texas, Leatherbury says. He also says that the firm’s 2011 summer associate program will last 10 weeks, instead of the eight-week program of 2010. “We have a mandatory start date [in 2011], unless their exams are later, that they need to start with us on May 23,” he says. “We’re looking forward to next summer. I think, fortunately, our clients are very busy.” Another Houston-based firm, Baker Botts , expects to hire about 10 percent more second-year law students for the summer of 2011 than the 35 it hired for this summer, says hiring partner Cristina Rodriguez . “Who do we want to bring in for [summer] 2011 to hire [as a full-time associate] for 2012? That’s really the question,” she says. The firm schedules call-back interviews within a day or two of OCI, she says. A call back is a full day of six interviews, including a lunch and dinner, at the firm’s Houston office, she says. “The students are eager to know and to plan,” she says. “We try to be pretty quick about it. From the call back, we make the offer to come work in the summer program.” Washington, D.C.-based Patton Boggs is planning a larger Texas summer associate class for 2011, says Michelle Suarez , partner in charge of the firm’s Dallas office. “We’re looking to hire a bit of a bigger class next summer, four to five second-years, and hopefully two 1Ls,” Suarez says. The firm had three second-year summer associates in its Texas offices this year. “We always keep our classes small enough to where we feel we’ll be able to make offers to everybody,” Suarez says. “This summer was the smallest class in a long time out of conservatism with the uncertainty about the economy. Our optimism about next year is that 2010 is going well and steady and so we’re ready to reach out for a few more” summer associates. Angela Fontana , hiring partner for the Dallas office of New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges , says her firm, which had seven second-year summer associates in Texas this summer, plans to hire more for 2011, although it has not finalized how many. “We’re simply planning for future business, and by the time we roll around for 2012 graduates, we’re anticipating that we’ll have increased needs,” she says. Lawyers with five other large firms say they plan to hire about the same number of second-year summer associates in 2011 as they did for 2010. Those firms and the number of 2010 second-year Texas summer associates are: Hunton & Williams (2); Jones Day (22); Kelly Hart & Hallman (8); Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell (21); and Thompson and Knight (15). OCI began last week at Baylor University School of Law in Waco, South Texas College of Law in Houston, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas, the University of Houston Law Center , and the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. The four schools hosting OCI later this month are St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock, and Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth.

Threats Reported

On two occasions, prison officials have told former U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent that he has been threatened in prison, his wife and criminal-defense attorney say. But Sarah Kent and Dick DeGuerin contend they know little about the alleged threats. The first allegedly occurred in September 2009 while Kent was in custody at the federal medical facility in Devens, Mass. As a result, Kent was transferred from that prison, say Sarah Kent and DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson in Houston. The second allegedly occurred last fall, shortly after the former Galveston federal judge arrived at the Demilly Correctional Institution in Polk City, Fla., Sarah Kent and DeGuerin say. In neither instance was Kent approached directly, they say, and DeGuerin adds that Kent “didn’t have any trouble” at Devens. Kent began serving a 33-month sentence in June 2009 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in exchange for prosecutors dropping five sexual abuse charges against him. Kent filed a motion Aug. 2 asking the judge who sentenced him to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence. Kent alleges the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has been “subjecting him to conditions tantamount to psychological and physical torture” since he began serving his sentence in June 2009, and alleges he has been mistreated while in Florida. On Aug. 17, Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson issued an order giving the government until Sept. 15 to “show cause, if any, why the relief requested should not be granted.” Sarah Kent says that in September 2009, she received a 45-second telephone call from her husband, when he told her the BOP was moving him from Devens because of a “death threat.” Over the next six weeks, Sarah Kent says she had no idea of her husband’s location and all of her letters to him were returned as undeliverable. “It was really a nightmare for me,” she says. “It was the longest 42 days in my life.” DeGuerin also says he did not know Kent’s location during those weeks. After Kent was turned over to Florida Department of Corrections custody in October 2009, he was placed at Demilly, according to his motion, where Sarah Kent and DeGuerin say Sam Kent was threatened via a note. However, the two say it’s their understanding the threat allegedly came from another inmate, who was then transferred to another prison. BOP spokesman Ed Ross says he can’t discuss why Kent was moved from Devens. However, he notes that “if a threat is perceived, a transfer could be one way to resolve that issue.” The Florida Department of Corrections has not acknowledged that Kent is in its custody; spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Ratchiff says, “Since I can’t say if he’s here, I can’t respond” to questions. Sarah Kent says her husband teaches classes to inmates trying to earn a General Educational Development diploma and he is working on a memoir. She says they sold their house to pay legal bills, and she has been living in a small cabin they own in far West Texas. She says she travels to Florida about every 10 weeks to visit her husband.