August 2008
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2nd Circuit, Cass Sunstein, New York Times, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samantha Power, Supreme Court Clerks, Weddings
Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: July's Couple of the Month
Good news for Legal Eagle Wedding Watchers: LEWW will be returning to a more frequent and timely posting schedule! Beginning next week, we’ll once again feature our gold standard of three fabulous couples per week to ogle and dissect. We’ll bring you more hot August weddings tomorrow and Friday, but for now, it’s time for […] -
Disasters / Emergencies
Why Does Tropical Storm Fay Hate UF?
Tropical Storm Fay — what a beeatch! Doesn’t she know the job market is tough enough as it is? The rising 2Ls at the University of Florida are really getting screwed because of Tropical Storm Fay. This thing hasn’t even hit land and is not even remotely near our school (but admittedly, probably is near […] - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: Dreading That Review?
We received about 600 responses to this week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on associate reviews, and there were some interesting twists. First, while most firms, 60%, only conduct reviews once a year, a growing number, 35%, are providing six-month reviews as well. A handful of firms split the difference, conducting six-month reviews for laterals […]
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Law Schools
The NYU Experience: Now 100% Metro-Terrible
A tipster pointed out that NYU has revamped their website. According to the tipster, “It’s hilariously awful and probably can indicate to the Violet alumni [at ATL] just how uncool the student body has become.” This new web presence can only be understood as a direct challenge to former NYU students to find and pummel […] -
Biglaw, Job Searches, Vault 100 open threads - 2009, Vault rankings, Williams & Connolly
Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 11-15 (2009)
In honor of the new Vault rankings, we’re doing a series of open threads on the 100 most prominent law firms. We invite you to compare and contrast the firms in the comments. In the last open thread on Vault firms 6-10, there was an animated discussion about litigation at Cleary and which Kirkland office […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.20.08
* College presidents around the country join campaign to lower the national drinking age to 18. [Associated Press] * Post-September 11 laws have allowed the federal government to track the movement of U.S. citizens across land borders, with the data to be kept on record for 15 years. Is anyone really surprised? [Washington Post] * […]
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Layoffs, Secretaries / Administrative Assistants
What's Going on at Reed Smith?
The law firm of Reed Smith — which, as its Google listing reminds us, is “[o]ne of the 15 largest law firms in the world” — has been in the news a lot lately. Here’s a quick recap. Some of the news has been good, and some not-so-good. Let’s get the bad news over with […] -
ATL Idol
ATL Idol: Frolic & Detour's Farewell
[Ed. note: This is the farewell post of FROLIC & DETOUR, who was recently eliminated from ATL Idol, the “reality blogging” competition that picked ATL’s new editor. It is marked with F&D’s avatar (at right).] I’ve speculated about whether Sophist and I know each other. Well, we do. We wrote the HLS Parody together. Now […] - Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Rank Stupidity, Screw-Ups, Summer Associates
Summer Associate of the Day: The Shearman & Sterling Slacker
Last week we covered some goings-on — or non-goings-on, to those of you who found them boring — at Shearman & Sterling. Here’s a quick update. We reported that, according to the firm, there have been no staff layoffs. One source writes: I’d like to know how they define administrative staff, as they laid off […] -
Pro Bono, Public Interest
Saving Babies or Bucks? A New Lawyer's Dilemma
A recent bar passer sent this query into Freakonomics: I recently passed the bar and am currently applying for jobs. My main concern is bringing out the most charitable result. Should I work in the nonprofit section where my services are passed directly along to the most needy, or should I get the high-paying firm […] -
Admin, Announcements, ATL Idol
And Now The Hard Part(Or: Meet ATL's incoming editor.)
My name is ELIE YING MYSTAL, f/k/a SOPHIST, and it looks like I will be taking over day-to-day editorial responsibilities here at Above the Law. I would like to thank everybody who read anything that I’ve written over the past three weeks. I’ve always found writing to be a deeply personal experience and so I […] -
Layoffs, Libraries / Librarians, Paralegals, Secretaries / Administrative Assistants
Nationwide Layoff Watch: Fried Frank Follow-Up
As promised, we bring you an update on yesterday’s coverage of staff layoffs at Fried Frank. Here are a few additional details, from the National Law Journal (subscription): Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson is reducing administrative staff in New York and Washington. The reductions, which a firm spokeswoman said were less than 10% of […] -
Job Searches, Kevin Newsom, R. Ted Cruz, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks
A Hot New Trend: State Solicitors General
Former Supreme Court clerks, also known as the Elect, have no shortage of job opportunities. And a new development in state government is giving them even more. From the National Law Journal: A trend among states in recent years to appoint a solicitor general has increased opportunities for young attorneys to get into court and […]
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
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Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
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Biglaw, Job Searches, Vault 100 open threads - 2009
Fall Recruiting Open Thread: Vault 6-10 (2009)
We’re back with the next installment of open threads on the Vault 100 law firms. A particularly insightful comment from the last post on the top five firms: [Davis Polk & Wardwell] and [Sullivan & Cromwell] do very similar work. DPW has a stronger underwriters’ practice, Sullivan is marginally better on the issuer side. DPW […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.19.08
* Obama and McCain name their least favorite Supreme Court justices. McCain hates four of them; Obama focused his hatin’ on just one. [Legal Times] * The legal battle over the 2008 presidency gets started in Ohio. “The Ohio Republican Party yesterday threatened legal action if Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner allows Ohioans to […]
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Admin, Announcements, ATL Idol, Blog Wars, Blogging
ATL Idol: Congratulations to Your New Editor!
Apologies for the delay. We had to wait for Vizu to certify the poll results as anomaly-free, which they just did. Congratulations to the winner of our ATL Idol “reality blogging” competition, who will become Above the Law’s new editor-in-chief: SOPHIST!!! With almost 1900 votes cast, SOPHIST (avatar at right) prevailed over your other finalist, […] -
Blogging, Google / Search Engines, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 08.18.08
* Nationwide Layoff Watch: Nannies. [Dealbreaker] * Was Findlaw gaming Google? Bad, Findlaw, bad. [Real Lawyers Have Blogs] * Stupid Patent Case of the Week? [Mendelson’s Musings] * We knew him way back when: a profile of Atlanta AUSA Jon-Peter Kelly (with whom we went to high school and college). [Fulton County Daily Report] * […] -
Lawsuit of the Day, Religion
Lawsuit of the Day: Knights of the Templar v. The Pope
If legal novelist John Grisham and Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown were to get together and make a literary baby, it would look a lot like our lawsuit of the day. From London’s Daily Telegraph: The heirs of the Knights Templar have launched a legal battle in Spain to force the Pope to restore […] -
Layoffs, Libraries / Librarians, Paralegals, Secretaries / Administrative Assistants
Nationwide Layoff Watch: Fried Frank Staff Layoffs
Last week we started hearing rumors of imminent staff layoffs at Fried Frank. The rumors have now come true, as we’ve been hearing from multiple sources. Today appears to be the big day. We submitted an inquiry to the firm. A spokesperson issued the following statement: Over two years ago Fried Frank began a review […] -
Barack Obama, Biglaw, Money, Politics, Tax Law
The Obama Tax Plan(Or: Ted Frank's What's the Matter with Manhattan?)
[Ed. note: Ted Frank’s posts analyzing presidential candidate Barack Obama’s tax plan, available here and here, were some of the most popular in ATL history. They generated over 900 comments and thousands of pageviews. Because there have been some developments on this front since February, when Ted Frank first issued his analysis, we requested an […]