February 2008

We sometimes find the Obama campaign to be maddeningly perfect. So Texas attorney Kirk Watson wins our Lawyer of the Day prize, for managing to humanize — through his screw-up, on national television — this picture-perfect, messianic movement. A good summary, from a tipster: Last night, at around 11 p.m., Chris Matthews really humiliated Texas […]

The stereotypical law professor might be viewed as too disengaged from the “real world” to be a good politician. But as Barack Obama shows, it’s quite possible to move from legal academia into political life. Now another prominent young law prof — who, by the way, is an outspoken Obama supporter — is contemplating Congress. […]

Time for lunch. We leave you with this appetizing email, which went out yesterday to the students and faculty of UC Hastings College of the Law. From: [redacted] Subject: Installation of green bike enclosure Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:21:33 -0800 To: [U.C. Hastings students and faculty] Please be advised. The new green bike enclosure […]

It’s not just Pepper Hamilton. Email screw-ups are committed by even the most renowned lawyers — like longtime Skadden Arps partner Sheila Birnbaum, a living legend of the product liability defense bar. As we previously wrote, “Birnbaum, who heads Skadden’s Complex Mass Tort and Insurance Group, has a nickname reflecting her expertise: ‘The Queen of […]

Here is an update / correction to last week’s post about associate compensation at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell. From Tex Parte Blog (via Sophistic Miltonian Serbonian Blog): Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell wants to make it clear that the firm has a single associate pay system, says Jerry Clements [pictured], chairwoman of the 721-lawyer […]

Many ATL readers have a weakness for obscure debates about punctuation, grammar, usage, and style. See, e.g., here, here, and here. It makes sense; after all, lawyers are paid to worry about such things as proper comma placement. So we weren’t surprised when several of you drew our attention to this interesting New York Times […]

* Federal judge shuts down website devoted to posting leaked information and documents. We no likee. [New York Times] * SCOTUS won’t hear wiretapping case. [How Appealing (linkwrap)] * But they have picked up another case on the exclusionary rule. [New York Times] * Government rebuttals in L’Affaire Scruggs. [WSJ Law Blog] * A look […]

Or at least his robes. A quick update on a recent Judge of the Day, from Robert Ambrogi over at Legal Blog Watch: By all accounts, Robert Somma had been a top-notch U.S. bankruptcy judge since his appointment to the bench in 2004 and a top-notch bankruptcy practitioner for many years before that. The sense […]

* A user’s guide to the snazzy new version of our sibling site, DealBreaker. The redesigned ATL, which will make its debut sometime in the next few weeks, will look similar. [DealBreaker] * “There is basically a large sector of white workers with arts majors” — e.g., marriage counselors, therapists, and lawyers — “that would […]

Some time ago, we received this request by email: Is there any way to do a posting or open thread about what COLA biglaw firms are handing out overseas? Specifically, I was interested in what associates are getting to go to Dubai. At the time, we viewed the topic as rather obscure, of interest to […]

An excerpt from an ad in the “legal jobs” section of the Denver craigslist: The ideal candidate would be admitted to practice Colorado State Bar, and have at least 4 to 7 years experience. Experienced professional demeanor in client contact both in person and on the telephone is a must. Ability to work and adapt […]

Yesterday, we posted some preliminary results from last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements. Today, we’re going to get a little bit deeper into the maternity leave data. We now have more than 600 responses, and roughly three-fifths of respondents have reported that their firms offer twelve weeks of paid […]

The thirteen commissioners of Miami-Dade County are expected on Thursday to approve a proposal to spend $347 million in taxpayer money to build a new 37,000-seat, retractable roof stadium for the Florida Marlins. This proposal would not only provide a huge subsidy to the team’s much maligned owner, Jeffrey Loria, but it also might violate […]

If we knew anything about sports, we’d say this is the legal academic equivalent of Major Player X leaving Super-Elite Team Y for Super-Elite Team Z. But we don’t. So we’ll just say it’s one of the biggest law school hiring coups since Harvard Law School snatched half of Feldsuk from NYU. HLS strikes again […]

Here’s something from the ATL mailbag that we thought might be a good topic for discussion. It concerns the professional prospects of staff attorneys at large law firms: I have a friend that is a staff attorney at a Vault 100 firm. He kind of keeps it a secret. He started at a tiny firm […]

* Is that legal? Apparently so. The Clinton campaign may pursue Obama’s pledged delegates, who technically are not required to vote for Obama. [Politico] * A portrait of radical Islam in the United States, based on analysis of court cases. [New York Times via How Appealing] * Thomson Corp., aka the folks who bring you […]

The law firm perks keep rolling in. From a source at Seyfarth Shaw: Following the recent trend of enhanced BigLaw perks, Seyfarth announced changes to their leave policy for associates. Previously, associates were given 4 weeks of vacation per year. Now, associates can now take (at least hypothetically) as much leave as they want so […]

* Is it okay for a law professor to exclude white students from her review sessions? [Blackprof via PrawfsBlawg] * Speaking of law profs, students like ’em hot. And we needed a research paper to tell us this? [TaxProf Blog] * A utilitarian analysis of the question we raised on Valentine’s Day: Should lawyers date […]

We received about 600 responses to last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements. One reader made a very interesting suggestion in the comments: Justin – how about you keep a list of where law firms are on parental leave? Sort of like the list Lat kept going showing who was […]

Happy Presidents’ Day! In honor of the executive branch, unitary or not, ATL will be on a reduced publication schedule today. * Where’s the beef? Not on your grocery shelves, thankfully, as the USDA orders the largest meat recall in its history. [Washington Post] * Obama woos Edwards. [AP] * “Harold and Kumar Escape From […]