1. company town
    Notes Go Missing in Charney CaseLAW • Gallion & Spielvogel is drawn into Aaron Charney case when notes the firm kept during a settlement conference are destroyed. [Soloway via Above the Law] • State Chief Judge Judith Kaye asks business leaders to lobby for judicial pay raises. [Crain’s] • Harvard Law tops the list of 25 leading schools based on the success of its graduates. [Law Dragon via Above the Law]
  2. intel
    Marc Ecko’s Secret: ‘Luck of the Schmuck’ If you’ve ever wanted business advice from Marc Ecko — the 34-year-old money machine behind his self-named white-suburban-kids-who-dig-hip-hop clothing line — last night was your shot. It was the inaugural installment of CIT’s “Behind the Business” conversation, and the conversation was with Ecko. It was a chance to learn how, over fourteen years, the business he started in his parents’ garage grew to report billings of $1.5 billion last year — and it was also a chance to hear buttoned-up business journalist Andrew Shapiro say things like “How did you hook up with 50 Cent?” and “Tell me about your street cred.” Ecko explained his success — how he managed to attract investors in 1996, when his company was $6 million in debt: “LOS. They don’t teach you that in business school — luck of the schmuck” — and we caught up with him after the talk for some one-on-one advice.
  3. company town
    How Much Is Mike Bloomberg Worth?FINANCE • Will new accounting rules force a clearer picture of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s net worth? [Breaking Views via WSJ] • Two of the thirteen people recently indicted for insider trading were Long Island football heroes. [Newsday] • Students graduating from the country’s leading MBA programs can command starting salaries over $180,000. [Bloomberg]
  4. company town
    Weinstein Goes from Film to FashionFASHION • As rumored, film producer Harvey Weinstein bought Halston. [Reuters via CNNMoney] • Ralph Lauren will be honored with the CFDA’s first-ever “American Fashion Legend Award.” [British Vogue] • Sarah Jessica Parker to launch her own line, Bitten. [The Daily]
  5. company town
    Giant Bonuses for Former Clerks Make Judges Feel Even WorseLAW • Associate pay raises are pretty good, but $200,000 signing bonuses for former Supreme Court clerks are even better. [Slate] • Ben Rosenberg starts work today as chief trial counsel for the New York State attorney general’s office. His first task is to win back some of Dick Grasso’s money from the NYSE. [Law Blog/WSJ] • Lawyers who play Second Life are bringing their real legal expertise to this artificial world. [ABA Journal via Legal Blog Watch]
  7. company town
    NYSE President-To-Be Better Watch His BackFINANCE • In the ongoing war between man and machine at the NYSE, incoming Exchange president says he doesn’t want “five guys named Vinnie” completing his trades. [NYP] • Operation Spamalot: SEC suspends trading on 35 stocks promoted in recent spam campaigns. [NYT] • Ivan Boesky slated to appear in the can’t-believe-it’s-not-out-already sequel to Forrest Gump. [/Film via DealBreaker]
  8. company town
    Heatherette Honcho Throws Weirdly Normal Birthday PartyFASHION • Heatherette designer Traver Rains turned 30! And, apparently, his “Wild West” surprise party started on time and everyone invited actually got inside. [Fashionista] • Calvin Klein has high hopes that CK in2u will replicate the success of CK One. [NYT] • Giorgio Armani will design uniforms for Russell Crowe’s Australian rugby team. [British Vogue]
  9. company town
    Hovering Parents Overtake Corporate RecruitingFINANCE • Big firms concede to overinvolved parents and now include them in the recruiting process of recent grads. [Career Journal/WSJ] • Happy belated 70th birthday, Ivan Boesky! [DealBreaker] • The management maxims offered in business books might just be bull, not foxes and hedgehogs. [Forbes]
  10. intel
    State Comptroller Says the Horse Can’t Do New State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s “Review of the Financial Plan of the City of New York” is not a fun read, but it’s as exuberant as a PDF from a .gov source can get. Tax collections are “far beyond the City’s expectations.” Surplus time all around! Plus, “conservative economic assumptions” lowball robust revenue forecasts for 2007. Our attention, however, was drawn to the travails of one city-related public authority floundering among all that splendor: the Off-Track Betting Corporation. Turns out the OTB’s on a bit of a cold streak owing to “significant fiscal stress” and “rising expenses.” By the end of 2006, it was down to $18 million in cash, which it swears will be enough to sustain operations in 2007. Notably, DiNapoli doesn’t endorse that assessment, instead citing unnamed officials. And so the OTB is left in the unenviable position of actually waiting for its own horse to come in. Review of the Financial Plan of the City of New York [Office of the State Comptroller]
  11. company town
    Tyra’s Audience Yearns for ‘Oprah’ TicketsFASHION • Tyra makes audience wear swimsuits and flaunt their weight. No car giveaways here. [Fashionista] • Jeweler Raymond Weil’s breach-of-contract suit against Charlize Theron (he says she wore Dior) moves to federal court. [British Vogue] • Ralph Lauren and Johann Rupert join up for a new luxury watch and jewelry line. [WWD]
  12. company town
    ‘Voice’ Voiceless, AgainMEDIA • David Blum out at the Village Voice. He was the fourth editor there since December 2005. [Gawker] • Flummoxing DVR users everywhere, ABC green-lights a sitcom based on the Geico cavemen commercials. [WSJ] • Pulitzer judging starts today at Columbia University; judges from Willamette Week, the Indianapolis Star, and others read actual printed copies of newspaper articles. [E&P]
  13. company town
    Warren Buffett Wants a New Warren BuffettFINANCE • Buffett 2.0: Oracle of Omaha seeks young understudy to take over Berkshire. [Fortune] • Thirteen charged with insider training, including Morgan Stanley, UBS, Bear Stearns, and Bank of America employees. [NYT] • Goldman, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley traders rate own firms barely above junk-bond status. [Bloomberg]
  14. company town
    It’ll Always Be Brian Williams’s ShowMEDIA • NBC to fire Nightly News exec producer John Reiss. But is it for ratings, or does Reiss not get along with anchor Brian Williams? [NYT and LAT] • Tunku Varadarajan moves from an editorial-page writer to an assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, only the third time in 50 years someone has jumped that divide. [NYO] • Bellevue Hospital starts its own imprint; wannabe Ken Keseys hope for literary success. [NYT]
  15. company town
    Traders Feared Terrorist AttacksFINANCE • The Dow’s fall yesterday convinced some traders that terrorists had attacked the city once again. “Our first thought was that they blew up Grand Central, or the Empire State building, or the GW,” one said. [DealBreaker] • Adding insult to sell-off, Merrill Lynch slugged five big banks with a lowered rating, downgrading Goldman, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse to neutral from buy. [Bloomberg] • Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein says that the market for buyouts will cool. “There will be declines. We can’t continue like this forever.” Speak for yourself, rich guy. [DealBook/NYT]
  16. company town
    Steven Soderbergh’s Life Not Interrupted By Jury DutyLAW • Director Steven Soderbergh gets out of jury duty in an Upper East Side sex-crimes trial. [NYT] • Roger Meltzer leaves Cahill Gordon & Reindell and takes his $20 million book of business to DLA Piper, where he will be the head of corporate finance. [The American Lawyer] • With his Anna Nicole Smith antics, Judge Larry Seidlin makes the best case against cameras in the courtroom. [Crime & Federalism via Inside Opinions]
  17. company town
    Goldman Bonuses Depress AllFINANCE • Goldman lieutenants score $52.5 million bonuses, take home more than most Wall Street CEOs. [NYT] • Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman calls making a $36 billion real-estate deal “an out-of-body experience.” [Knowledge@Wharton via DealBreaker] • Are public companies going private just so the CEO can make more money? [DealBook/NYT]
  18. company town
    Lauren Bush Saves the World One Handbag at a TimeFASHION • Presidential niece Lauren Bush is developing a socially conscious clothing line, no doubt inspired by her family’s long-time commitment to environmental causes. [Fashion Week Daily] • A PETA soldier storms the Prada runway in Milan, gets tackled by security. [Elle.com] • The 18-year-old sister of model Luisel Ramos, whose death six months ago triggered the skinny-model ban in Milan, has also passed away from complications related to an eating disorder. [Downtown Darling]
  19. company town
    The Guy With the Biggest Birthday Party WinsFINANCE • Birthday parties aside, Stephen A. Schwarzman tops Fortune’s private-equity power list. [Fortune via CNNMoney] • Jeff Dorman, a senior managing director of prime brokerage services at Bear Sterns, resigned late last week. Poor guy didn’t even last a year. [DealBook/NYT] • Is Jim Healy, head of fixed income at Credit Suisse, about to resign because of friction with new heads Brady Dugan and Michael Ryan? [DealBreaker]
  20. company town
    Anyone Want to Buy a Lad Mag?MEDIA • Felix Dennis puts Maxim, Stuff, and Blender officially on the auction block. [NYP] • Did David Lynch plan this advertising campaign? Annie Leibovitz shoots Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham, Beyoncé, and Lyle Lovett for ads promoting Disney theme-parks. [Radar Online] • Steve Rattner thinks newspapers should be nonprofits, but Jack Shafer says that’s a horrible idea. [WSJ and Slate]
  21. company town
    We Can’t Wait for the Wax Heatherette FASHION • Kate Moss is the latest fashion celeb to be immortalized in wax. Visitors to Madame Tussauds in London can have their photos taken next to her on a bed. How apropos. [Downtown Darling] • In an attempt to fatten up models, Krispy Kreme is sponsoring London Fashion Week parties. [On the Runway] • Gisele Bündchen will walk just one runway this season — Dolce & Gabbana in Milan. The Brazilian supermodel is the face of D&G’s new fragrance, aptly named the One. [Fashion Week Daily]
  22. company town
    Fashion T-Shirts Get PersonalFASHION • Henry Holland’s new line of naughty tees was finally revealed. Our favorite? WHAM BAM JESSICA STAM! [Fashionista] • GLAAD is honoring Tom Ford at its annual Media Awards. Must not have seen that creepy Vanity Fair cover. [Fashion Week Daily] • According to Yigal Azrouel and Viktor & Rolf, le geek c’est chic once again. [FlyPaper]
  23. company town
    Top Moneymaker Leaves LehmanFINANCE • Lehman lost its top-producing banker on Friday to a sudden resignation. Was Woody Young passed over for head of the finance group? [NYT] • Monday morning got you feeling uninspired? Ninja Stockbroker will return you to market-high glory. [Nova Cartoons via DealBreaker] • Fresh off its blowout purchase of Equity Office, the Blackstone Group scoops up Pinnacle Foods (Duncan Hines, Vlasic) for $2.16 Billion. [AP via CBS News]
  24. company town
    Associates’ Pay Up, Partners’ Profits Down?LAW • Aaron Charney had secret settlement talks with Sullivan & Cromwell as late as January 31. A sticking point: the destruction of Charney’s home hard-drive. [Above the Law] • Former Thacher Proffitt & Wood associate pleads guilty to insider trading — firm happy to learn Amir Rosenthal wasn’t using client information. [NYLJ] • Will partner profits stay flat because of associate pay raises? [NLJ via DealBook/NYT]
  25. company town
    Sulzberger Tires of Wondering Whether Print Is DeadMEDIA • Pinch Sulzberger: “Will we print the NYT in five years? I don’t care.” [Haaretz via E&P] • GE CEO Jeff Immelt calls a Post story about a sale or spinoff of NBC Universal, “more or less made-up stupid drivel.” [Fortune] • Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen “too big” to share VF’s Hollywood cover. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Chris Rock, and Jack Black apparently not so big. [Deadline Hollywood/LA Weekly]
  26. company town
    Blood Money: Blodget vs. CramerFINANCIAL • Stock picker Henry Blodget threw a party for his new advice book, The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual, then challenged rival stock picker Jim Cramer to an on-air debate. [DealBreaker] • Vornado finally cried uncle in its battle with the Blackstone Group to buy the nation’s largest office landlord. [DealBook/NYT] • Heads are rolling at hedge fund D.B. Zwirn & Co., which was busted in October for misallocating expenses. [NYP]
  27. company town
    Paper Trail Disturbed at Sullivan & CromwellLAW • Did Aaron Charney “misplace” documents belonging to a partner’s file at Sullivan & Cromwell? The firm’s countersuit suggests so. [Above the Law] • Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is rising up the ranks of most profitable firms, thanks to some cut-throat tactics and, apparently, a wicked bowling night. [New York Law Journal] • Save a life, become a hero, and suffer the (tax) consequences. A law professor explains why the Subway Superman might get walloped by the IRS this tax season. [Mauled Again via Legal Blog Watch]
  28. company town
    How Clean Is Your Company Cafeteria?MEDIA • The cafeteria at Bloomberg LP got a bad score from the city Health Department. Hearst and Condé Nast were much more sanitary. [Radar Online] • Serendipity exists for online newspapers as well as print, thank you very much. [WSJ] • Despite what former GE boss Jack Welch had to say about him recently, Jeff Zucker is getting a promotion at NBC. [LAT]
  29. company town
    Arthur Sulzberger Punishes Morgan StanleyFINANCE • The Ochs-Sulzberger family wants their money out of Morgan Stanley, after a London-based Morgan managing director tried to incite a shareholder revolt at the Times. [Fortune via CNNMoney] • Hedge-fund heavies like T. Boone Pickens, Paul Tudor Jones II, and Carl Icahn have all donated to Rudy Giuliani’s exploratory committee. They maxed out their donation: a whopping $2,100. [DealBook/NYT] • Equity Office’s board rejects Vornado’s cash-and-stock takeover bid and instead goes for Blackstone’s cash offer of $54 a share. Shareholders will likely vote next week. [CNNMoney]
  30. company town
    Proenza Schouler Shoots Too Early at TargetFASHION • Proenza Schouler’s Target line was available online for four hours yesterday (three days before its official debut), causing mass Internet shopper hysteria. [Fashionista] • Snejana Onopka, one of the poster girls for the current Save the Models movement, is rumored to be skipping New York Fashion Week. [FlyPaper] • Jordan Scott, former designer at Betsey Johnson and child of the East Village, will launch his first collection during Fashion Week. [British Vogue]
  31. company town
    Star Takes the Stand, Forgets Her Past LAW • Back before Star Jones married a beard and was thwarted by Barbara Walters, she had to prosecute guys named T-Black and A. [NYP] • With New Jersey opening the door to “irreconcilable differences” in divorces, New York may now be the only state that forbids “no-fault” splits. [New Jersey Law Blog via New York Divorce Report] • New York State’s chief judge says underpaid jurists are at a new “level of frustration and anger and despair” over their meager paychecks. [NYLJ]
  32. company town
    Bloated Executive Birthday Parties are Back!FINANCE • Stephen A. Schwartzman’s 60th-birthday bacchanal will have 1,500 guests marching around the drill room of the Park Avenue armory on February 13. [NYT] • Management tips from Super Bowl coaches: Don’t scream at your employees. [WSJ] • At Citigroup, CEO Charles Prince can either improve the company’s performance, or break it up. [Crain’s]
  33. company town
    CNBC Backs Anchor Maria BartiromoMEDIA • The story of the jet-fueled relationship between ex-Citigroup exec Todd Thompson and CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo has turned from a snowball into an avalanche. [WSJ] • Newspapers eliminated about 1,500 positions in 2006, an improvement over 2005, when 2,500 scribes took a walk. [E&P] • Putting scratch-and-sniff ads in the Wall Street Journal actually makes us less inclined to read a newspaper. [AdAge]
  34. company town
    Uniqlo’s Success Brings More Japanese RetailFASHION • Following the ultrasuccessful debut of Uniqlo, Japanese store Muji to open two stores in NYC. [WWD] • Libertine settled its copyright-infringement suit against knockoff king Allen Schwartz. [Downtown Darling] • Tyra Banks gains weight, laments fashion’s unreasonable expectations. [People] FINANCE • Merrill’s top brass gave themselves a big ($172 million) pat on the back for a job well done in 2006. [WSJ ] • Venture capitalists invested $2 billion in 249 companies in the New York area last year, up 18 percent from 2005. It was the highest level of funding since 2001, when the Internet broke. [Crain’s] • If increasing the size of the biggest leverage buyout bid in history doesn’t make Stephen Schwarzman sweat, the Blackstone Group should be just fine. [DealBook]
  35. in other news
    Teen-Business Trend Less Good for Us Than We ThoughtBecause we’re continually informed that all kids do these days is hang out online tweaking their MySpace pages, we’ve been getting a bit worried about how that generation will possibly be equipped to take care of us in our old age. But our fears were briefly dispelled this morning when we read in the Times that the hottest trend among those pubescent buggers is starting one’s own businesses. (A teen who makes payroll, we reasoned, will become an adult who pays nursing-home bills.) Our joy, however, disappeared when we saw the inevitable quote from teen expert and newly minted MySpace icon Atoosa Rubenstein: “Now it’s social currency to have your own business. It used to be your wardrobe or your sport. Now your own business makes a statement about you and your interests. It almost breaks down into cliques: the future C.E.O. types, the fashionistas making T-shirts, the Webby guys tutoring adults on the computer or selling games on eBay.” Sigh. So actually this isn’t about nascent financial responsibility but rather just about signifying who gives and who receives the virtual wedgie? Great. Back to hoping Social Security works out. Barons Before Bedtime [NYT]
  36. company town
    Sullivan & Cromwell Bleeds AssociatesLAW • Sullivan & Cromwell lost about 30 percent of its associates in 2004 and 2005. It might take more than a raise to fix that. [WSJ] • Don’t despair, associates! Where Simpson Thacher goes, Milbank Tweed, Sullivan & Cromwell, Paul Weiss, Cleary Gottlieb, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft are sure to follow. [Above the Law] • Long Island lawyer Gary Berenholtz, who once exposed a corrupt Brooklyn judge, stole money from clients and his partner’s widow to fund fine dining and finer vacations. [NYP] FINANCE • The New York Stock Exchange will trade almost exclusively electronically by the end of today; investment firms will continue to lay off floor traders. [WSJ] • The New York City employees’ pension fund is the lead plaintiff in a suit against Apple Computer Inc. for overcompensating executives with illegal stock options. [Reuters]
  37. company town
    Yeah, We Should Have Gone to Law SchoolLAW • Simpson Thacher & Barlett has raised first-year associate salaries from $145K to $160K. Expect the rest of the white-shoe firms to follow suit. [Above the Law] • Lawyers dissed in Oscar nominations. Whither Atticus Finch? [Law Blog] FASHION Is Valentino retiring? The rumor — straight from yesterday’s couture show — has the designer stepping down in July. [Fashion Week Daily] • The latest Chanel accessory: furniture. The company is commissioning a red chair inspired by a Swiss Army knife. [WWD]
  38. in other news
    Pfizer Closes Brooklyn Plant, Fails to Update Website Employees at Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in South Williamsburg might want to sneak out with some Zoloft tonight: The pharmaceutical giant announced this afternoon that it will lay off 10,000 workers and close several sites, including the Brooklyn facility. The plant will close incrementally over the next two years, with the last of its 600 employees muttering Viagra jokes to himself at the end of 2008. We don’t know anyone who works at the Pfizer plant, but the Internet introduced us to Earl and Michael, two Williamsburg workers who might want to revise the generous quotes they gave to a Pfizer employment Website. Earl apparently joined the company as a temp in 1995, eventually rising to a tableting shift team leader. “Stay focused, and take your job seriously,” he recommends to prospective employees. “The opportunities are there.” Michael, a maintenance team leader, worked at the plant since 1969. “I received encouragement and sought out the knowledge I needed to succeed,” he recalled. “The opportunities still exist today.” Or not. Expect the site at 630 Flushing Avenue to go condo any minute. Working for Pfizer Global Manufacturing [Official site] Pfizer to Lay Off 10,000 Workers [NYT]
  39. the morning line
    Hillary! • We’re 48 hours into Hillary’s official campaign for the presidency, and already the Times is wondering who’d fill her Senate seat. Names that have come up: Paterson, Meeks, Velasquez, Lowey — and even Suozzi. A News survey, meantime, finds Hillary beating Obama handily — in New York City. (Of course, we’re pretty sure Gore and Kerry did likewise to Bush here.) [NYT, NYDN] • Damon Mootoo, the deaf guy from Guyana who disappeared in Queens last week hours after arriving in the United States, was finally found and returned to his relatives. He said he lived in cars and backyards for four days. [NY1] • Tired of the busy signals when you try calling for that Per Se reservation exactly two months in advance? You’ll be thrilled to learn that a new service charges clients $35 to $45 to nab them rezzies at tough-to-get-into hot spots. [NYP] • London may be edging out Gotham as the biz capital of the world, due in part to the United States’ lawsuit-heavy culture and tough immigration rules, says a new $500,000 report. [NYDN] • Waitress, the movie made by New York indie-film actress Adrienne Shelly before she was murdered in her apartment last year, was shown to applause and tears at Sundance. [1010WINS]