We’ve got some updates to share on the Sheryl Robinson Wood story, courtesy of the two major Detroit newspapers. If you haven’t seen the story, Robinson Wood is a Baltimore Venable lawyer who had been working as an independent monitor overseeing the Detroit police department’s effort to comply with a consent decree. She resigned last week at the behest of the judge overseeing the case after he confronted her over text messages given to the judge by the Department of Justice showing Robinson Wood had inappropriate conversations and meetings with former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report that city officials there are hopping mad and may pursue legal action to recoup some of the $10 million they’ve paid to Robinson Wood and her team over the years.

The Free Press says that, according to unnamed sources, the texts were “discreet” and “did not clearly show the pair were romantically involved.” The paper reports that “Hours before submitting a letter of resignation last week, Wood began making calls — to the department she had been monitoring for six years and to about a dozen staff members. She told them she was tired, burned out from the job and ready to move on to a new phase of her life, according to a source familiar with her last days at the post.”

The News quotes a law professor as saying that Robinson Wood “could face legal disciplinary action or criminal charges, which may lead to the city recouping some of the fees.” The News also has a city councilwoman saying that Kilpatrick lobbied heavily for Robinson Wood — then known as just Robinson — to get the monitor job.

Another councilwoman “likened Kilpatrick to Superman’s archenemy, Lex Luthor, repeatedly causing trouble for Detroit long after he left.”

Above the Law is reporting that DLA Piper will be inviting the 2009 summer associates who get job offers to come on board in January of 2011 rather than September of 2010. The firm will be encouraging the current summer associates to defer further, to January 2012.

The 2011 start date is not terribly surprising, given that last year’s crop of summer associates, who just graduated from law school in May, will not be starting until January 2010. It’s hard to imagine any firm in this economy wanting one big group of people to start in January and a second big group to start just eight months later.

The firm’s also going to wait on recruiting summers for 2010. DLA Piper will not do on-campus recruiting until November, after it sees what kind of response it gets from the 2009 summers who get offers. My guess? They’ll get a pretty darn good response, even with the 2011 or 2012 start date. In this law market, if you’re offered a job, any job, you take it. If it’s with one of the biggest firms in the world, so much the better.