Paid to NOT Work?

I want this job!

To save money while the economy is down, the law firm Skadden offered 125 associate attorneys to take a year off at 1/3 of their salaries. That may not sound like fun if you're making $15 an hour. But a Skadden associate apparently makes $240,000 a year, so to get paid $80,000 NOT to work for a year would be heaven.

Shoot, $80,000 a year even to work for a year sounds like heaven right about now.

Of course, I'd hate to be a Skadden client who has to pay obscene attorney fees to cover associates who are not even working. I wonder if the clients realize when they pay their attorney fees that they are being seriously overbilled?