September 2008

Law Firm Mergers

Breaking: Thelen Cancels 2009 Summer Associate Program

Too many tipsters to count have alerted us that Thelen appears to have canceled their 2009 summer associate program. People who had scheduled call backs with Thelen were informed this afternoon. As we understand it, this is a firm-wide decision affecting every office. We also believe Thelen has canceled all remaining OCI interviews. A few […]

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 09.09.08

* Some sage interviewing advice for women that doesn’t involve cleavage, but sadly does involve proper ring placement. [Lexis Hub / BBPL] * Can fighting anti-trust lawyers be sexy? Or are they just the Klingons at a Star Trek Convention? [Antitrust Review] * Nicolas Cage settled his tax troubles for $666K. But he owes the […]

Law Schools

Advice Round-up: The law school saga begins

Last week, we welcomed a new group of 1Ls to the law school fold. As part of the initiation, we asked for tips from readers on how to best tackle the first year of law school. Readers provided lots and lots of good advice. And bad advice. And healthy debate about which outlines to use. […]

Drugs

Potheads Are The New Protected Class

Everybody wants to be a part of a protected class. Trust me, it’s great fun (right up until the moment I try to get a cab home in the rain tonight). But unless you are a racial minority, a woman, or have suffered some sort of horrible disability, the joys of having to go through […]

Biglaw

OCI Bloopers By Students: Share Your Horror Stories

We’ve done a few posts on screw-ups and rudeness on the part of lawyers conducting on-campus interviews (see here and here). But what about the interviewees? They’re not perfect either — even if some of them think they are. What are some ways that law students have torpedoed their chances of getting callbacks or summer […]

Intellectual Property

iPod Inventor Receives Credit, No Cash

Steve Jobs did not invent the iPod. Neither did Bibble. No, the inventor of the iPod is Kane Kramer, a British guy who stored three and a half minutes of music on a microchip in 1979. In fairness to Apple, they did not “steal” Kramer’s idea. According to the Daily Mail, Kramer set up a […]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket 09.09.08

* The DOJ is prepping for its antitrust showdown with Google. It has hired Hogan and Hartson partner (and former legal Mouseketeer) Sandy Litvack for the case. [Information Week] * Berkeley tree-sitters refuse to comply with court ruling and come down for the sake of a new athletic center. Even after getting immunity for throwing […]

Fabulosity

Do Robes Make the Judge?

Over the weekend, the New York Times had an interesting article about New York judges and their robes. It begins: In Britain, judges are wedded to a tradition of elegant attire: scarlet and ermine robes, tippets over the shoulders, black girdles and, of course, the crimped, gray horsehair wig. Minor correction: British judges have dispensed […]

Bar Exams

MPRE Results Are Out: Open Thread

As we’ve previously observed, “we’re not really sure how much there is to say about the MPRE. It’s not a super-difficult test, and it hasn’t exactly achieved the mythical status of the bar exam as a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers.” But it seems, judging from all the emails we’ve received, that some of […]

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 09.08.08

* The new Dean of Texas Tech school of law will be …? Well it should be Bobby Knight shouldn’t it? [Res Ipsa Blog] * Yale Law Women announced their top ten family friendly firms. [Yale Law School] * Mike Cernovich tries the end this meme that associates should pay their law firms. He uses […]

No Offers

Update: Squire Sanders Now Claims Only One Staff Attorney Offer

Earlier today we reported that Squire, Sanders & Dempsey extended offers to 76% of their summer class, but that an untold number of those summers received staff attorney offers. Well, after an initial “no comment” on the staff attorney question, Squire Sanders decided to clarify their statement: The firm made one staff attorney offer. The […]

Layoffs

International Layoff Watch: JPMorgan Chases Out Bear Stearns Lawyers

Lawyer layoffs: they’re not just an American phenomenon. Last month, for example, DLA Piper laid off lawyers in London. Here’s more layoff news from that fair city, from TheLawyer.com: More than half of the UK lawyers at US investment bank Bear Stearns have been axed since the ­collapsed bank was taken over by JPMorgan. Out of 23 lawyers […]