We know you guys love arguing over stuff in the comments. So here’s some red meat for your to chew upon: Vault’s list of the top 25 most underrated law schools.
Is your law school on the list? Should it be?
Here are the top 10, as collected over at TaxProf Blog:
1. Emory
2. Fordham
3. Howard
4. Chicago-Kent
5. Oregon
6. George Mason
7. Illinois
8. William & Mary
9. Vanderbilt
10. Georgia
What we’d like to see: a list of the ten most OVERrated law schools.
(Yeah, we know — there is a fair case that our alma mater should be on any such list. But the Vault list looks at schools from the perspective of law firms looking for associates to hire, not law schools looking for prospective faculty members.)
Most Underrated Law Schools [Vault via TaxProf Blog]
March 2007
Here are the rest of our photos from the delightful AEF annual dinner. We posted the first batch of pictures, along with a brief write-up, over here.
The balance of the pics, plus a few stray comments, appear after the jump.
Our recent post about Supreme Court clerk hiring for October 2007 generated a wealth of tips — just as we hoped it would. You drew our attention to a number of future clerks whose hirings were not reflected in our last listing.
Like Leslie Kendrick, a former Rhodes scholar and current Wilkinson clerk. We like the story of how Justice Souter offered her a job:
Kendrick was working at her desk on an ordinary Friday afternoon when the call from Souter came though. “I wondered if you were still in the market for a clerkship?” she recalled Souter asking. Of course, the answer was yes.
We believe that we now have the names of all the OT 2007 clerks. Also, Justice Thomas has hired almost all of his OT 2008 clerks, and Justice Alito has hired at least one.
You can check out the complete listing of next Term’s clerks, as well as some OT 2008 info, after the jump.
Continue reading “October Term 2007 Clerk Hiring: Filling in the Blanks”
The Honorable Richard Conway Casey, of the Southern District of New York, passed away yesterday. He was well-known for being the first blind person to be named a federal trial judge. (Appeals court judge David Tatel, of the D.C. Circuit, was the first blind federal judge.)
An amusing anecdote about Judge Casey, from the AP:
Judge Richard Conway Casey recalls the time he accidentally bumped into a courtroom wall at the beginning of a mob trial. Lawyers and spectators shifted uncomfortably – for just a moment.
“You’re fired!” Casey, 68, told his law clerk, who had accompanied him. “Bring back my guide dog!”
The courtroom burst into laughter.
We extend our condolences to Judge Casey’s family and to his extended family of former law clerks.
Richard C. Casey bio [FJC]
Richard C. Casey [Wikipedia]
Blind Federal Judge an Inspiration [Associated Press]
Please take a few seconds to fill out our (anonymous) reader survey. You can access it by clicking here.
And please don’t overlook question number 9, in which you can offer us editorial feedback — what you like, what you dislike, what you’d like to see more or less of in these pages, etc. Thanks!
Above the Law Reader Survey [SurveyMonkey.com]
Look, we were not trying to be coy in our last post. We are just trying, as one commenter suggested, not to get our asses sued.
Here is what we can tell you for now. The following facts have been confirmed with multiple sources:
1. Thomas “Tad” DiBiase is a prominent, well-connected assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He served (and may technically still be) the Director of Professional Development for the office, as well as Deputy Chief of the Homicide Section.
2. His duties as Director of Professional Development include making sure assistant U.S. attorneys all get their mandatory ethics and sexual harrassment training.
3. Earlier this week, something changed with respect to Mr. DiBiase’s employment status. We haven’t nailed this down yet. But if you send a message to his DOJ email address, you receive the following:
I will be out of the office until further notice. I will not be checking my email. Please call Glenn Kirschner at 514-xxxx regarding any homicide matters.
We’ll have more to share once we hear back from more sources. Since yesterday, we’ve left multiple voice-mail and e-mail messages for Mr. DiBiase (who still has DOJ voice-mail and email accounts); a lawyer we’re told is representing him; and Channing Phillips, the office spokesperson.
Nobody has gotten back to us — but you can’t accuse us of not trying to verify our facts. We are crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s on this one. We don’t want to be accused of reckless disregard with respect to anything.
(You may comment on this post. But please remember that, under Section 230, individual commenters — NOT ATL — bear legal responsibility for their own comments. Thank you.)
Earlier: Request for Information: AUSA Tad DiBiase
Poor James Sandman. He’s a partner at Arnold & Porter, one of Washington’s most prestigious law firms, and he’s president of the DC Bar. But ever since he wrote that mean article complaining about associate pay raises, nobody will sit next to him at parties….
(Okay, we jest. The seats next to Jim Sandman were subsequently filled. In fact, he was at our table — and we found him to be a most agreeable dinner companion. There were some associates sitting near him, and Mr. Sandman made no attempt to steal food from their mouths.)
Earlier this week, we attended — and served as the emcee for — the annual benefit dinner of the Asian Pacific American Bar Assocation Educational Fund (AEF).
It was a wonderful event (and not just ’cause we won two Supreme Court bobbleheads in the silent auction). It featured inspiring speeches from Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of Boat People SOS, and Congresswoman Mazie K. Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii. It was tons of fun. And it raised money for AEF’s charitable and educational activities, including its public service fellowships for law students.
Of course we took lots of pictures. Check out the first batch — more will follow later — after the jump.
We’ve reviewed the excerpts from the Aaron Charney deposition that were attached to Charney’s court filings from yesterday. We’ve culled out some highlights, so you can review them for yourself and reach your own conclusions.
(We realize, of course, that this is just Aaron Charney’s side of the story. But at this point, in the absence of deposition testimony from Gera Grinberg or any S&C lawyers, it’s all we’ve got. Obviously you should read it with the caveat that Charney isn’t exactly a disinterested witness.)
For starters, here’s Charney’s testimony about the alleged “we’ve represented the Nazis” comment by Sullivan & Cromwell partner Gandolfo “Vince” DiBlasi:
Additional juicy excerpts, after the jump.
Continue reading “Brokeback Lawfirm: Highlights from Aaron Charney’s Deposition”
Here’s an open thread to discuss compensation developments at intellectual property firms. We’ll kick off the discussion with this tip:
Morgan & Finnegan (following competitors Dickstein, Fitzpatrick Cella, Kenyon & Kenyon, and Fish & Richardson) is now at $160,000/year effective April 1. Most of the associates are in the New York office, so I’m not sure how this affects DC.
This year’s summer class is making more then 25% more than last year’s summer class. (The firm didn’t go to $135K for regular associates until the middle of last summer, and they didn’t adjust summer associate salaries.)
We don’t want to leave the IP folks out of all the fun. Please gossip away in the comments!
Earlier: Prior news about associate pay raises (scroll down)
* Judge knows unconstitutional restriction of free speech rights when he sees it. [Washington Post via How Appealing]
* Six degrees of deportation. [CNN]
* Subpoenas a go-go!. [Jurist]
* Arizona McSettlement. [AP via Findlaw]
* Excuse me while I sue this guy. [Andrews Publications via Findlaw]
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The evolution of relationships between the genders continues. Currently, in law firms, there is an interesting conundrum; balancing the desire for a gender-blind workplace where “the best lawyer gets the work and advances” and the reality of navigating the complicated maze created by the fact that, in general, men and women do possess differences in their work styles. These variations impact who they work with, how they work, how they build professional connections and how organizations ultimately leverage, reward and recognize the talents of all.
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How A Fictional Story Of Henry Ford Will Help You Stop Giving Business Away
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Henry Ford sat on his workbench and sighed. A year earlier, he had personally built 13,000 Model Ts with his own hands. Fashioning lugnuts and tie rods by hand, Ford was loath to ask for help. Sure, there were things about the car that he didn’t quite understand. This explains the lack of reliable navigation systems in the Model T. But Ford persevered because he knew that unless he did everything, he could not reliably call these cars his own.“Unless my own personal toil is responsible for it, it may as well be called a Hyundai,” Ford remarked at the time.
The preceding may sound unfamiliar because it is categorically untrue. And also monumentally stupid. Henry Ford didn’t build all those cars by hand. He had help and plenty of it. Almost exactly one hundred years ago, Henry Ford opened up the most technologically advanced assembly line the world had ever seen. Built on the premise that work can be chopped up into digestible pieces and completed by many men better than one, the line ushered in an age of unparalleled productivity.
Today, an attorney refers business because he can’t do everything the client asks of him.
There are three reasons why this is way dumber than a made-up Henry Ford story…
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Business Is Booming in Hong Kong and China and What It Means for U.S. Associate Lateral Hiring There
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Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: [email protected].
Since late last year, things have been booming in Hong Kong / China in cap markets, especially Hong Kong IPOs. M&A deal flow has recently been getting a bit stronger as well. Although one can’t predict such things with any certainty, all signs are pointing to a banner entire 2014 for the top end US corporate and cap markets practices in Hong Kong / China. This is not really new news, as its been the feeling most in the market have had for a few months now and things continue to look good.
The head of our Asia practice, Evan Jowers, has been in Hong Kong for about 10 days a month (with trips every other month to both Shanghai and Bejing) for the past 7 months, and spending most of his time there meeting with senior US hiring partners at just about all the major US and UK firms there, as well as prospective candidates at all associate levels and partner levels, and when in the US, Evan works Asia hours and is regularly on the phone with such persons, as our the other members of our Asia team. Our Yuliya Vinokurova is in Hong Kong every other month and Robert is there about 5 times a year as well. While we have a solid Asia team of recruiters, Evan Jowers will spend at least some time with all of our candidates for Asia position. We have had long standing relationships, and good friendships in some cases, with hiring partners and other senior US partners in Asia for 8 years now.
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