First!!!

actually, I think Elie handled the questioning very well. Now if we can get him to work on the posts, we'll be in business.

hey elie, those comments on the typos aren't racist. even though you'd like to think they are. neither are the requisite follow-up comments on you eating donuts all day.

you'll be amazed what will happen if you stop making grammar mistakes and shilling for specific firms / schools.

oh, and try to do a little reporting once in a while. you know, like layoff charts, payscales, and actual breaking news from interviews with associates. ask lat for details.

Nice interview, Elie. Its nice to see a positive attitude on ATL every now and then. Please don't forget that.

Nice work, Mills. *****

MysTTTal

For all of the shit we give him, Mystal seems like a pretty good dude overall.

Thanks Elie. You seem like a great guy and you gave an excellent interview. Don't let these petulant little spoiled brats get you down. I can guarantee you: a) no person here who grew up middle class and knows how hard a real life is would break your balls; and b) the people who do make the silly comments are just plain panty-waists.

Yeah, I was the first commentator, and I said it before I read the interview.

Pretty solid answers, I gotta say.

Still funny, what with him not being a lawyer anymore, but I guess he also has more pull being in a "public" position and all.

elie-

i don't consider myself any more racist than the next guy, nor have i ever written a racist comment here (or anywhere else), and generally speaking i am in favor of affirmative action (in some form), but your argument is patently ridiculous. affirmative action *was* and *is* predicated upon "evening the playing field." the "affirmative action is designed to foster a plurality of viewpoints" argument, while it has some merit, was a legal argument put forth first (so far as I know, and correct me if i'm wrong) in bakke, by justice powell, in 1978. contrast this to president johnson's stated support for affirmative action, 13 years earlier: that it seeks "not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result." your statement that a white male who resents the fact that he is at a competitive disadvantage in law school admissions with an african american woman with identical (or lower) gpa/lsat numbers should simply "try harder" is ridiculous as well. i believe this was the exact argument put forward by those who were initially opposed to affirmative action in the 60s: that blacks should simply "try harder." it's ironic, elie. i'm not saying that affirmative action doesn't serve a purpose, and isn't useful to society, but it should be acknowledged for what it is, and extended not just to suspect classes, but to all people who have faced a competitive disadvantage throughout their lives, such as the poor (of any race): because then what we are seeking to achieve is a true meritocracy, predicated upon a person's ability to succeed based on the opportunities presented to him or her, which can serve as a predictor of ability to succeed in the future if given further opportunities. your flippancy about this, i believe, is exactly the reason why many otherwise liberal and progressive whites resent affirmative action.

12 - Why can't the original justification for Affirmative Action be different from the current justification for it? (Not that evening the playing field can't ALSO be justification. It can, and should.)

Nice interview.

I respectfully disagree re: affirmative action. Elie's right to say that AA isn't about fixing the sins of the past, but the notion that it's all about the benefits of diversity seems a little off.

Diversity is a great idea in the abstract, but when the rubber meets the road the policy is implemented by drastically lowering standards based on demographics. It's not the minority applicant with the 170 LSAT who gets in when the white applicant with the 171 gets turned away. It's the minority applicant with the 155. See Justice Thomas's dissent in the 2003 AA cases. Also, if AA was about diversity of thought and background, it would reflect considerations other than race.

That said, I have no sympathy for the marginal white applicant. As Elie says, perform just a little better or go succeed somewhere else. Marginal white applicants aren't entitled to anything.

I didn't follow the auditions for the new editor, and I don't recall when exactly Elie posted his picture, but I suspect that the sudden negativity is attributable to 2 things:

(1) during the Idol competition, people were comparing Elie with the prior competition; after he won and his posts became the majority of the site, people began comparing him to Lat. Lat's a tougher act to follow. To use Elie's sports analogies, the #1 pick in the NFL draft is popular with the fans before he plays a single game, but if he doesn't perform on the field quickly, the fans will turn on him quickly. Especially if he's replacing someone good.

and (2) it's easier to write quality posts a few times in a week for a competition; once you're expected to post several times a day, the quality will probably drop off.

Anyway, hopefully the interview will humanize the nastier commenters' favorite target a bit. Makes me want to tone it down.

Elie, you seem like a pretty fun guy with a balanced attitude. I don't necessarily agree with your take on AA (and I'm a female associate who is also a racial minority), but I respect your perspective. Honestly, I'm just annoyed by the memeish "MysTTTal" and "you're so fat" comments, which make reading through the comments section irritating. It also seems as though, much of the time, Lat and you could post the same thing where he'd get praised for it and you'd get flack - also irritating.

That said, here are the things I wish you'd change:
1. Work on the typos. Seriously. Proofread before you post - and if ATL editors are truly a team, get Kash or Lat or anyone else to proofread too if you're not good at it.
2. Stop overeditorializing. You'd be more entitled here if you'd built ATL from the ground up, and we were all here because we wanted to hear your personal opinion. You didn't, and we don't, necessarily. Report the news and keep your personal take on it short and sweet (or to yourself). A bit of humorous snark is good, but you're usually less funny the longer your soapbox continues.
3. Don't blame any of the comment-hatred on your race (as you seemingly did in the article.) I mean, are you seriously suggesting that the tough crowd that's ATL was able to cheer on a (suspected) gay Asian-American conservative dude, but simply can't handle a straight (AFAIK) liberal black guy? I very much doubt that.

Good interview; I liked your answers. There are numerous readers like me who enjoy what you're writing Elie and we don't submit a comment (& definitely not 15) for each post we read. We're the silent majority: we read ATL everyday (numerous times honestly), aren't grammar snobs, and roll our eyes when someone posts an inappropriate (racist, sexist) remark. I'm glad you can see the recurring IP addresses of those trolls and see through their insecurity.

13-because the argument was born as essentially a legal fiction: a way to justify affirmative action in the face of the 14th amendment. as i said above, it does have some merit, but by its logic we should be seeking a plurality of views from those who aren't simply members of suspect classes. by its logic, being a white, west virginian beekeeper, applying to a school where white, west virginian beekeepers have historically been underrepresented (but where there are a large number of black west virginian beekeepers), should entitle an applicant to equal consideration as being a black applicant to a school where blacks have historically been underrepresented, because who knows what unique perspective the white beekeeper might bring to enrich the educations of his fellow students. as it stands, of course, this is not the case: some schools do engage in "holistic" review of applicants, but there is an undeniable reliance by the majority of schools upon "quotas," whereby certain suspect classes receive preferential admissions treatment.

-12

Quinn goes with 100% bonuses! Yeeehaw!

That's enough, Peter Kalis.

I like how you complain about hateful comments even though you put a post on the actual blog mocking a woman for reporting a sexual assault to police. Stay classy, ATL.

Ditto 16.

"entering class sizes are frozen in time like the fetching smile of a prom date you haven't seen in 40 years."

Seriously? Seriously!? Who lets this man correspond with opposing counsel, much less a court or a client??

I agree with 22. Sounds like Kalis has something on his mind other than US News

Kalis's personal anecdote is a little strange. He notes that he had a "mediocre LSAT score," and "was a hard-working kid from West Virginia University, and Yale Law placed a bet on me."

What he doesn't mention is that HE WAS A RHODES SCHOLAR.

http://www.klgates.com/professionals/detail.aspx?professional=1875

I highly doubt that the top law schools are turning down Rhodes Scholars with "mediocre LSAT scores" because of the pernicious influence of US News. I doubt even more that they're turning down minority Rhodes Scholars with mediocre LSAT scores for that reason.

His overarching points are reasonable, but when you stare at the article long enough, it looks like it was written without a lot of thought.

people fuck up with grammar....so what? this isn't a well researched law article. It's a blog. It's not peer reviewed by well known scholars. it's some dudes, writing.

people who point out grammatical mistakes = dudes who have never seen a vagina (aside from porn)

* defender of elie until he disses the NY Giants (Some school in NY 2L)

Your capitalization is inconsistent, there should be a hyphen in well-researched, and I've seen your mom's (though it might have been in porn)

that's your comeback? i was expecting something a little more creative. you must go to a 2nd tier law school

*some school in ny 2L

12 hit the nail on the head. 14, why should a marginal upper middle class black candidate get preference over a white candidate with similar or slightly better qualifications?

Dear blacks,

Let's get rid of affirmative action. If you don''t find yourself admitted by the schools of your choice, just try a little harder. That's what some black guy told me people should do. Just try harder; why is that so difficult?

Thanks,
The rest of society

there is no incentive to try harder.

We love you Elie!

this site is lame...

when will they stop posting on this blog?

i agree 32 and 33...the lameness is bountiful

nice interview elie.

Lat's a minority, yet he doesn't get the treatment Elie does. Why?

1) Lat's grammar & usage are generally correct, whereas Elie's writing is littered with glaring errors - and bad writing is especially irritating to an audience of future lawyers; and

2) Lat has never used ATL as a podium for his personal political views, whereas Elie can't resist, even when the stories he posts have no relation whatsoever to law.

Using Elie's skin color to make fun of and criticize him is no different than picking any other feature of a personal target, such as height, hair color, glasses, facial features, etc. If Lat were a terrible writer, we'd all make fun of him for being a short, retarded Asian. If he were a hick from West Virginia, we'd make fun of him for being white trash that never found his way out of the trailer. It's human nature to pick one stand-out feature and use it as the basis for a caricature. I'm not saying it's mature or responsible, and I personally prefer to make fun of people by finding features that actually deserve mocking rather than using other features as proxies, but there it is.

Elie, you're blogging to an audience of cynical future lawyers. Your writing is terrible and your contributions often are lame. Hence, you will be made fun of.

Your skin color is merely a proxy. Get over it.

[Comment cross-posted to OBABL]

Kalis didn't win the Rhodes until he was at year. For those who aren't aware, you can apply up to a couple years after college graduation.

Holy shit, did anyone else read 12's post? That guy writes like he is in elementary school. Hey 12, it is called a run-on sentence and it is not your friend.

My god, the ignorance, elistism, and entitlement on this blog is incomprehensible.

I'll take a person with opinions, personality, and a sense of humor over a grammar robot any day.

Anyone can learn grammar rules and hammer others with them in order to feel superior. Not everyone can be interesting.

My god, the ignorance, elistism, and entitlement on this blog is incomprehensible.

I'll take a person with opinions, personality, and a sense of humor over a grammar robot any day.

Anyone can learn grammar rules and hammer others with them in order to feel superior. Not everyone can be interesting.

And yes, I realize I misspelled elitism. I'm sure that commenters on this blog must now think I'm a worthless human, since I can't type.

Funny how I still like myself, but still think they're pathetic.

Maybe ATL comments will no longer be considered racist if we concentrate on Elie's massiveness instead of his race.

Elie's black? I just thought he was another run-of-the-mill incompetent HLS grad. Huh.

The giants suck.

- Elie.

I've never commented before, and I doubt I will again. But Elie- you're RIGHT!!! I read this site daily and while I have no problem with the grammar corrections (honestly kind of funny) the racism and the affirmative action comments are disgusting.
I grew up working class (ok, poor) in the South and managed to get into NYC Big Law and the racism, sexism and snobbery of these elitist rich brats never ceases to amaze me. These people went to the "best,", most liberal schools in America- aren't they supposed to be the progressive ones?
Elie, you're doing a great job! It takes a lot of balls to put yourself out there everyday. I couldn't do it. Keep fighting the good fight. You DO have silent supporters.

Racism especially sucks when it is encouraged and sponsored by the government.

Remember that one speech?? Something about being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of skin. Too bad we all missed the boat on that one.

46 is clearly an idiot. MLK was for affirmative action, you dolt.