March 2008

A tipster sends us troubling news from the University of Chicago Law School: University of Chicago Students got an e-mail from Dean Levmore today announcing that the Law School will be turning off internet access in classrooms beginning next quarter. We express our deepest sympathies for Chicago students who will have to check ATL for […]

As many of you may recall, from our prior coverage of him, Jonathan Lee Riches is in a South Carolina prison until 2012 for wire fraud and conspiracy. He’s killing his time by filing a ridiculous number of ridiculous lawsuits in courts across the country, nicely summarized in this overview of his oeuvre, in the […]

This month’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, focused on which firm you would choose if you could go anywhere, was dominated by Latham & Watkins and Wachtell Lipton. But several firms were close behind.   * Respondents had several reasons to applaud Latham: “Prestige”, “Friends there are happy”, “Awesome firm, awesome people”, “They rock”, “Prestige, […]

Young New Hampshire lawyer Daniel Hynes, who is just 27, has earned a place among our Lawyers of the Day for extorting hair salons. Feel free to use the Power of the Law Degree to ensure that your landlord heats your apartment adequately. But using it to threaten beauty parlors… that’s just wrong. From the […]

Coming soon to a theater near you: Howrey LLP: The Movie? Late last week, several readers here in Washington reported unusual activity at the Howrey offices: “Howrey is doing a film shoot in the lobby of its DC office… Multiracial attorneys in suits everywhere… Looks serious.” “I was in the building where Howrey’s DC offices […]

* State makes VA Tech families settlement offer to prevent litigation. [CNN] * Questioning Justice Scalia’s math on innocents in prison. [New York Times] * New Pakistani PM releases jailed judges. [MSNBC] * DOJ Antitrust approves XM / Sirius merger. But FCC still needs to weigh in. [New York Times] * Fox refuses to pay […]

There are already about a half-dozen major law school ranking schemes out there. So why not create one more? The folks over at Vault, already famous for their super-influential law firm rankings, have tried their hand at ranking law schools. Not surprisingly, given Vault’s focus on the world of large law firms, even their law-school […]

* Noted SCOTUS litigator Carter Phillips (right) promises Tony Mauro that he will drop the F-bomb and S-bomb before the Supreme Court. [Legal Times (subscription)] * Is the California Supreme Court the most influential state supreme court? Or are they just the biggest troublemakers? [Sophistic Miltonian Serbonian Blog ©] * Congratulations! “U.S. States Lead the […]

For some of Lawyers of the Day, things eventually get better. For others, however, they only get worse. For Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his law-student lov-ah, Christine Beatty, they’ve gotten worse. From the AP: Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a one-time rising star and Detroit’s youngest elected leader, was charged Monday with perjury and other counts […]

Researchers at the University of Calgary have conducted a sociological study of 670 attorneys working in law firms to measure the impact of having children on work productivity. The researchers spend a good amount of time raving about billable hours, which made measuring productivity a breeze for them. Yay for billable hours! We do not […]

Last season, Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king, batted .276 with 28 home runs and 75 runs scored. Bonds also reached base 48 percent of the time—the best in all of baseball. This season, however, Bonds is unemployed. The San Francisco Giants, his former team, prefer to play journeymen outfielders Dave Roberts […]

With JPMorgan quintupling its offer for Bear Stearns earlier this morning, it seems like an appropriate time to discuss last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, which asked you whether you were afraid the recent Bear Stearns collapse would hurt your career. Twenty-seven percent of you said yes. New Yorkers were the most concerned, with […]

As we can see from the comments, you’re already all over this NYT story. We linked to it in Morning Docket, but here’s a little more. Andrew Ross Sorkin writes: JPMorgan and Bear were prompted to renegotiate after shareholders began threatening to block the deal and it emerged that several “mistakes” were included in the […]

It sounds like Gibson Guitars is pissed that people prefer Guitar Hero remote controllers to real guitars. Gibson is seeking revenge on the hugely popular video game through official legal channels: The Guitar Hero series has sold more than 14 million units in North America and raked in more than $1 billion since 2005. Gibson […]

Some ATL readers may find our Lawyer of the Day posts frivolous, but there are valuable lessons in each one. Texan lawyer Adam “Bulletproof” Reposa has many lessons to impart. Lesson one: how not to show one’s displeasure with a judge’s ruling. From the Austin American-Statesman: Adam Reposa, 33, was held in contempt of court […]

* Professor Akhil Amar: Obama and Clinton can take turns being president. Say what? [Slate] * JPMorgan could raise Bear Sterns bid to $10 a share. [New York Times] * IOC engages in “silent diplomacy” with China on human rights issues. [ESPN] * Radical hippie mom accidentally released from jail for a few days. [CNN] […]

Despite the recent turmoil in the economy and the stock market, all appears to be well at Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy. A tipster provided us with the highlights of chairman Mel Immergut’s “State of the Firm” address from last week: 1. Primary caregiver leave is now 18 weeks paid. 2. Blackberries will get replaced every […]

* A cool job opportunity for a college senior or recent undergraduate with an interest in the law: work for noted Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein. [SCOTUSblog] * A cool job opportunity for C students with a “sick sense of humor”: work for the Rockstahl Law Office in Twin Falls, ID. [Idaho State Bar – […]

For the record, here’s some follow-up on two Bay State lawyers previously discussed in these pages, who have been cleared of the charges against them. At least to some extent. First, remember Carl Stanley McGee (right), who was arrested after being accused of going down on a 15-year-old boy? Earlier this week, Florida prosecutors decided […]

Can’t we all just get along? This is our second story today about an associate claiming discrimination by her law firm. No wonder Kirkland & Ellis has adopted a new mandatory arbitration policy. From Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: An associate in the employment, labor and benefits section of the Boston firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, […]