Fil-Am Lawyer Takes Over the Wonkette

January 16, 2006

A Manhattan-based Fil-Am lawyer recently took over the Wonkette, one of the top blogs on the planet (#24 on Technorati, a Mortal Human (and #27) on the truth laid bear). Read about it here , here, and here. David Lat, whose parents immigrated to the US in the 70’s, is a former US attorney and a graduate of Yale Law School.  His dad, a Park Avenue plastic surgeon, was in the news here last year trying desperately to seek the release of some medical equipment which he donated from the US and was stuck in Customs for 5-1/2 months.

Anyway, David Lat gained fame late last year when he revealed that he was Underneath Their Robe’s Article III Groupie.  Here’s a New Yorker story about it.  It’s a great blog — a “Hollywood Insider” for the US judiciary.  UTR even has “correspondents” sending in judicial SIGHT-ations — close encounters with those-who-are-robed.

One piece of trivia that’s not been reported was that this guy once worked for arguably the most successful law firm in the world, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Krantz (topping the list at The Vault). Despite having less than 200 lawyers in a single office in New York, it is by far the most profitable law partnership - earning an estiimated $3.5 million in profits per partner.  From what I’ve heard, they offer the highest salary of any firm in NYC (in vicinity of $150K/year) with an annual bonus equal to 100% of the base pay (at least for the last couple of years).  Apparently, Mr. Lat turned all of this down for a job with the US Attorney’s Office in Newark.  Go figure.
But all that’s in the wilted past because now it’s turning up roses for this guy.