August 2007

Remember the “spicy pony head” comedy sketch that we linked to earlier this week? Maybe defense lawyer Robin Shellow should some friends over for a Labor Day barbecue. And serve up spicy goat head. P.S. Fans of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah might get a kick out of the random expert […]

If the Nixon Peabody song were lawyer advertising — which, of course, it is not — it would be the best lawyer advertisement ever. And this, which a helpful reader emailed to us, would be second best: In case you can’t read the fine print at the bottom — which offers some helpful tips on […]

As you know, we’ve been doing a series of fall recruiting open threads on the Vault 100 law firms — which, of course, tend to represent large corporate defendants in litigation matters. But lately plaintiffs’ firms have been on our mind. Like Hewes & Associates, the fictional firm headed by Glenn Close in the new […]

Here’s a random legal / political celebrity sighting, sent to us last night, in real time (at around 8 PM): I’m riding the Philly-to-DC Acela, and who should be in first class but the original don of the Homeland, Tom Ridge, Esq. A dark horse candidate coming down to be reviewed as a potential AG? […]

* Slate debates Sen. Craig’s arrest and plea. [

So whatever happened to people caught up in the recent, ill-fated administration of the New York bar exam? One test taker wrote us: “I imagine you’re getting a slew of forwards on these cold-comfort NYBOLE [New York Board of Law Examiners] emails, but just the same, here you go. I didn’t have laptop problems myself […]

We linked to this interesting MSNBC article, about possible replacements for outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in Morning Docket. We’d now like to link to it again, and draw your attention to the very end of the article. Doug Kmiec, a top Justice Department official in the Reagan and Bush I administrations, is quoted as […]

Lawyers are living large, not just in Miami and New York, but in Washington, too. The Luxury Homes column, in the current issue of Washingtonian magazine, features the recent real estate purchases of two prominent lawyers. First up: political and legal commentator Laura Ingraham, who has a pretty amazing resume (UVA Law, Clarence Thomas clerkship, […]

The latest post in our series on perks / fringe benefits isn’t a “perk” per se. But it is, like true perks, a non-monetary factor that some people may take into account when choosing between law firms. The topic: eco-friendliness, or how “green” a law firm is. From a tipster: I think you should do […]

A week has passed since our last bit of clerkship bonus news. Have you heard anything on this subject that we haven’t previously reported? If so, please note it in the comments, or email us (subject line: “Clerkship Bonus Watch”). Bonus question: With respect to the Dewey Ballantine / LeBoeuf Lamb merger, whose clerkship bonus […]

Oh! Whooo! Aye. Yeah, yeah, yeaaah! Oh! Hey! Ooh, ooh, yeah! We press on with our open threads on Vault 100 law firms. Sure, these next five firms are ranked by their Vault prestige scores (indicated parenthetically). But in our opinion, every one of them is a winner: 71. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis […]

Please accept our apologies. After breaking the story on Friday afternoon, we kinda dropped the ball on the merger of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf Lamb. We’ll write more about this transaction later. Sadly, we have to head offline for a bit. But in the meantime, here’s an open thread for people to discuss the merger. […]

Congratulations to Nixon Peabody. All of the “winners” at that venerable law firm are winners once again. VH1’s Best Week Ever just named the firm’s non-theme-song song its Favorite Jam of Summer ’07! We kid you not. See here: “Everyone’s a Winner at Nixon Peabody” is officially our Favorite Jam of Summer 07! The type […]

We’re way behind on this story. Last night, from Roll Call (via Blogonaut): Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon. Craig’s arrest occurred just after […]

Memo from Jonathan Lowe to all DC associates, after the jump.

* The next Attorney General? [MSNBC] * Or will it be one of these folks? [CNN] * If you’re going to bet on it, here are some odds and wild-cards. [Slate] * NY Times investigates Fred Thompson’s early legal and political career. [NYT] * Paris Hilton settles $10m defamation suit by former fiance’s ex-girlfriend. [CNN] […]

Time for a walk down ATL memory lane. On April 20, we opened a poll about how much longer Alberto Gonzales would serve as Attorney General. In light of yesterday’s announcement that Gonzales will be stepping down as AG effective September 17, the correct answer would have been five months. But it looks like almost […]

* Oh, those crazy French people. They eat the darnedest things! [Conglomerate] * A shameless (and belated) plug: we were interviewed last week by NPR’s Mike Pesca, for an interesting story about Jonathan Lee Riches and his wacky pro se lawsuits. (We appear around the 2:30 mark.) [NPR] * Blawg Review #123 — in the […]

Our open threads on Vault 100 law firms seem to be drawing fewer comments. But we’ll finish what we’ve started. We don’t want to give you a case of these. So here is this afternoon’s set of Biglaw shops (with Vault prestige scores in parentheses): 66. Greenberg Traurig, LLP (5.631)67. Kaye Scholer LLP (5.591)68. Holland […]

Judge Loretta K. Preska (S.D.N.Y.) has it all: a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, a rich husband, and killer shoes. As well as, it appears, no patience for lawyers who play fast and loose with the rules. From the WSJ Law Blog: Cleary Gottlieb conjures images of Ivy League bookishness and international savoir faire, […]