* Not surprisingly, New York personal injury lawyers have a pretty different take on the litigiousness of New Yorkers. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]
* Don’t be a limp litigator. But you shouldn’t be an a-hole attorney either. [Underdog]
* Clients are just hammering lawyers over their fees. Who do they think they are? It’s like they think the law is a service industry. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Can a college’s sexual harassment policy violate the First Amendment? [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* We mentioned the Underneath Their Robes excellent live blog of the Sotomayor hearings. Don’t forget SCOTUSblog either [SCOTUSblog]
* I argued that the confirmation hearings aren’t a complete waste of time, but I just spent three days locked in my house watching C-Span, so I could be a little loopy. [NYT: Room for Debate]
Archive for July 2009
A new Forbes report (hat tip: Overlawyered) has some pretty shocking statistics about how much money New York City spends on lawsuits:
New York City spends more money on lawsuits than the next five largest American cities–Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia–combined.
The city’s $568 million outlay in fiscal year 2008 was more than double what it spent 15 years ago and 20 times what it paid in 1977. New York now allocates more taxpayer dollars to settling personal-injury lawsuits than it does to parks, transportation, homeless services or the City University system.
There are some New York plaintiff’s lawyers that are getting the job done.
I don’t want to risk the ire of the plaintiff’s bar, but couldn’t they give the city a little bit of a discount given the collapse of the financial markets and the global economic recession? The first rule of parasitic symbiotic behavior is to avoid killing off the host.
Just kidding. There’s no need to blame lawyers when there are so many New York State politicians running around that we can blame.
More details after the jump.
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Posted in:
Clerkships, Job Searches, UVA Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
To the Lifeboats! Penn and UVA Allow Unlimited Clerkship Applications
By David Lat
As goes Harvard Law School, so goes the rest of the law school world. Last month, HLS pointed its students towards an escape from Biglaw purgatory: clerkships.
Now Penn Law is doing the same, revising its clerkship policy to allow students to blanket the country — and cyberspace — with clerkship applications. From Law Clerk Addict:
JUDGE LIMIT POLICY
In light of the current market conditions and the expectation that the competition for clerkships this year will be greater than in the past, CPP and the Faculty Clerkship Committee decided to reconsider the 100 judge limit and have agreed to the following new limit: Applicants will be limited to 75 paper applications. There is no limit on the number of OSCAR judges you may apply to.
At least there’s still a limit on paper applications. Trees everywhere are breathing sighs of relief.
(For those of you who clerked in the Mesozoic Era, as we did, OSCAR has nothing to do with the Academy Awards; rather, it’s the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review.)
Update: UVA is following suit. Full message after the jump.
More after the jump.
Continue reading “To the Lifeboats! Penn and UVA Allow Unlimited Clerkship Applications”
It’s not often that the worlds of law and fashion intersect. There’s much more overlap between the worlds of law and finance, ably covered by our colleagues at Dealbreaker.
But an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo into the practice known as “astroturfing” offers us this opportunity to give a shout-out to the glamorous world of beauty and fashion. Read more (and comment) over at our sister site, Fashionista.
Cuomo’s Beauty Crackdown [Fashionista]
We’re going to finish off this live blog of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings with a bang. The last two Senators to ask questions of Sotomayor will be the very experienced Arlen Specter, and the Senator in his first week on the job, Al Franken.
This morning we learned that 70% of Above the Law readers believe that the Senators should be focusing on Sotomayor’s judicial record instead of her previous speeches. But many commenters thought that was a false dichotomy, and that Senators should take into account all of the available evidence and statements.
We also learned that Sotomayor really, really likes Perry Mason.
Check after the jump for the last round of updates from the first round of the Senate confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor.
Continue reading “Two More Senators For Round 1 Questions of Sotomayor”
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Posted in:
Judge of the Day
Judge of the Day? Only if you really hate deadbeat dads who aren’t dads.
By Elie Mystal
Speaking about whether or not judges should be empathetic, try this one on for size. A homeless man in Georgia has been jailed for over a year for failure to pay child support for a kid. He is not the biological parent and the judge knew he wasn’t the biological parent at the time he sent the man to jail.
Excuse me, I need to quickly sign my papers demanding support from Tavis Smiley.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
In the 1980s, Hatley had a relationship with Essie Lee Morrison, who became pregnant, had a baby boy and told [homeless man Frank Hatley] the child was his, according to court records. The couple never married and split up shortly after Travon was born in 1987….
But in 2000, DNA samples from Hatley and Travon showed the two were not related, according to a court records.
With the help of a Georgia Legal Services lawyer, Hatley went to court and was relieved of his responsibility to pay future child support. But he still had to deal with being a deadbeat dad when it was assumed that he was really the dad.
Notwithstanding the fact that he was not the biological father, Hatley paid child support for years. More details after the jump.
Continue reading “Judge of the Day? Only if you really hate deadbeat dads who aren’t dads.”
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Posted in:
Federal Government, Job Searches, Layoffs, Notes from the Breadline
Notes from the Breadline: Workingman’s Blues
By Roxana St. Thomas
Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email (at roxanastthomas@gmail.com), follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.
Searching for a job is often described as a marathon. “It’s not a sprint,” people will tell you knowingly, often adding that it “might take a few months.” When my own job search began, I heard this pearl of wisdom from countless recruiters, all of whom encouraged me to “be patient.” “Don’t worry,” they told me. “Something will come up.”
Several months on, I have determined that the marathon analogy may be a bit of an understatement. Sure: Giovanna found a job in short order, but for many of us, looking for work is more like an Iron Man, the Iditarod, a long ocean voyage, or a marathon followed by an extended push to the summit of a high peak. Carrying a heavy pack. I can imagine the captain’s log for such a journey. “Day 180,” it would read. “Morale is low. Rations are scarce. The cats are restless; I fear that a mutiny is not far off.”
Not long ago, I stopped by Lat’s office for a chat about this dismal state of affairs. “This isn’t getting any easier,” I said. “Does anyone find a job these days?”
“Think of it as a marathon, Roxana,” Lat said, stroking his chin wisely. He offered me a cup of coffee, which flows from a garden-sized fountain topped with a naked, burbling Cupid standing on one foot, in his office. Then he paused to consider my question. A moment later, it became clear to me that he could not think of anyone who had, in fact, found a job. “I get the picture,” I said glumly.
But a few days later, Lat delivered some encouraging news: he knew someone who had found a job. “It took a while,” he said of his acquaintance, “but he did it.” In fact, Lat explained, it had taken the acquaintance a remarkably long time to find work. Even more remarkable, however, was how long the man’s job search had taken, despite his impeccable credentials and extensive network of well-connected lawyers.
I decided to talk to the lucky fellow about his experience in – and getting out of – the breadline. Perhaps, I thought, he could inspire us, provide some insight, or (at the very least) make us feel better about our collective inability to find gainful employment. A few days later, I reached out to our new friend, who I’ll call “Max.” (He asked that his real name not be used.)
Read about Max’s job search, after the jump.
Continue reading “Notes from the Breadline: Workingman’s Blues”
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Posted in:
Job Searches, Law Schools
Emory Law School Suggests Calm Amidst Economic Storm
By Elie Mystal
The Emory School of Law seemed to have an immediate reaction to the blockbuster news that Morgan Lewis & Bockius would be canceling its entire 2010 summer program. Just a few hours after we broke the news about the Morgan Lewis cancellation, Emory sent out a letter to all of its rising 2Ls:
Employers are continuing to re-evaluate their hiring needs for summer 2010 and beyond. Accordingly, we anticipate there will be additional adjustments in their recruitment plans at Emory Law and other law schools. We will continue to pass this information along to you as soon as we receive it.
It is understandable that messages concerning employer cancellations and news about law firm layoffs are discouraging. However, despite the challenging times, we encourage you to focus on the elements of the career development process within your control:
Unfortunately, the elements of the career development process within the control of students is severely limited. Emory’s main advice seems to be: try everything:
As your individual circumstances permit, apply as broadly as possible within all geographic areas where you have ties and in which you would consider living and working (including secondary markets).
Maintain an open mind regarding employer type and size; many attorneys have positive experiences and develop the required knowledge and skills while paving the way to their dream job.
Apply here, there, and everywhere.
You know, when Emory — a school some would say is located in a secondary market — is urging students to look at “secondary markets,” things might be even worse out there for the class of 2011 than they appear.
Are there secondary markets out there that are booming? How’s hiring in Guam going?
Read the full Emory letter after the jump.
Continue reading “Emory Law School Suggests Calm Amidst Economic Storm”
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Posted in:
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor Day 3: How Many More Questions Could They Possibly Have?
By Elie Mystal
It’s the third day of the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings and we’re still here. We will be liveblogging until all the Senators on the Judiciary Committee have been given a chance to ask one round of questions. We’re hoping that will be accomplished by lunchtime.
Yesterday, Sotomayor found a bunch of different ways to backtrack from the “wise Latina” comment.
But the real difference between the Republicans and the Democrats during this hearing has been the Republican focus on Sotomayor’s speeches, against the Democratic focus on Sotomayor’s 17 year record on the bench.
Which aspect of Sotomayor’s history should be the focus of the Senators’ questions? On the one hand, focusing on her judicial record seems appropriate when confirming somebody to be a Justice. On the other hand, we’re talking about a person who is asking to be appointed for life to a job from which there is no further promotion. Could her personal views be more indicative of her future judicial philosophy than her past history of moderate jurisprudence? Remember, this is the person that will be replacing David Souter.
Take our reader poll below. After the jump, check out our live blog updates for the rest of the first round of questioning. Highlights will include Arlen Specter (who is used to speaking a lot earlier at these confirmation hearings) and the newest U.S. Senator, Al Franken.
Continue reading “Sonia Sotomayor Day 3: How Many More Questions Could They Possibly Have?”
* Left-brainers turn right-brainers in the recession, including a lawyer turned designer about whom we’ve previously written. [USA Today via ABA Journal]
* Bob Cohn of TheAtlantic.com sat down with Justice Stephen Breyer to talk about confirmation hearings, the future of SCOTUS and blogs, and why he might be glad his doppelganger Justice has stepped down. [Ideas/Atlantic]
* Legal experts and prosecutors are grappling with the Supreme Court’s decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts. Getting lab analysts out of the lab and into court is a challenge, they say. [Washington Post]
* What’s the payoff for giving up custody rights of Michael Jackson’s children? [MTV]
* A cosmetic surgery company will pay $300,000 to the State of New York for instructing employees to give facelifts to online reviews. [New York Times]
* LA is the country’s meanest city. And Berkeley is the tenth meanest! [Los Angeles Times]
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Posted in:
Carlton Fields, Contests, Fabulosity, Fish & Richardson, Summer Associates
ATL Summer Associate Event Contest of 2009: Fish & Richardson Roller Derby vs. Carlton Fields Fishing Trip
By Kashmir Hill
Last week, we brought you our five finalists in the ATL Summer Associate Event Contest of 2009. The top two vote-getters are too close to declare one a winner, so we’re having a run-off.
Southeast firm Carlton Fields garnered almost 32% of the over 2,500 votes for taking its Tampa summer associates on a daylong fishing trip, with multiple swimming, beach, and bar stops along the way. IP firm Fish & Richardson captured 34% of the vote for “Harpdrygal IV,” an event shrouded in mystery revealed on the day of to be an all-female roller derby.
We checked back in with the firms and have some additional information about the events to inform your voting. We also have photos, but from the roller derby only. No Carlton Fields associates in bathing suits, though we can direct you to the summer associates’ photos and you can use your imaginations. After the jump.
* Here’s a great wrap up of what some star legal commentators are saying about the Sotomayor confirmation hearing. [Mediaite]
* If you want to read some of my more politically charged thoughts from today’s Sotomayor hearings, I have a few. [True/Slant]
* Have laid off associates been working on their Visual Resumes and posting them to YouTube? [Let's Talk Turkey]
* Can you file your taxes jointly with you same-sex partner? Apparently not. But hey, marriage is just a religious word and not a legal concept right? [TaxProf Blog]
* A popular legal blog is officially ending anonymous comments. [What About Clients?]
* Bill Clinton said that he is “basically in support” of gay marriage. Sure you are President Clinton, so long as they don’t tell you about it. [Law Dork 2.0]
The middle of the summer would seem to be a dead period for American law schools. Law students are gone, working as summer associates or interns (if they were lucky enough to snag something). On-campus interviewing won’t start for a few more weeks (or even later, if more firms adopt the Orrick model).
But the summer is a period of critical importance for one particular group: transfer students. During the summer months, transfer applicants learn what school(s) they’ve been admitted to, then decide if — and where — they’d like to transfer.
This year, transfer applications take place against the backdrop of the tanking economy. Does the Great Recession increase or reduce the appeal of transferring? On the one hand, given the super-competitive job market, you might think it’s more important than ever to attend a highly ranked school. On the other hand, if you’re at a lower-ranked school that has given you generous scholarship support, this might not be the best time to jump ship for a more expensive school (and take on more debt as a result).
If you have thoughts to share on the transfer application process this year, or if you’re an aspiring transfer student eager to compare notes with fellow transfers, this open thread is for you.
Transfer Students — The Data [Empirical Legal Studies]
Henderson on transfer students [Ideoblog]
Transfer Students, Part-time Programs, and US News Rankings: A Response to Ribstein [Empirical Legal Studies]
Earlier: Transfer Students: Second-Class Citizens?
Morgan Lewis Chairman Fran Milone just finished a video conference with all associates and staff at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. And he unleashed some big news. Morgan Lewis is making some major changes in response to the continuing economic recession. Here are the top bullet points:
* Eliminating lockstep compensation for 2010.
* Canceling on-campus interviewing during the fall of 2009.
* Canceling the 2010 Summer Associate Program.
* Pushing back the start dates of current summer associates to 2011.
The firm has already communicated their decision to law schools who had expected to host MLB interviewers this fall.
After the jump, Mr. Milone offers a brief statement about these decisions.
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Posted in:
Hogan & Hartson, Start Dates, Summer Associates
Hogan & Hartson Pushes Back Start Dates for Current Summers to 2011
By Elie Mystal
Hogan & Hartson has already pushed back start dates for its incoming first year associates. The firm has laid off staff and laid off associates. And the firm has lowered associate salaries.
With all that writing on the wall, current Hogan summer associates couldn’t have been terribly surprised by today’s news. Here’s part of an internal email announcing the push back of class of 2010 start dates to 2011 for the D.C. and Northern Virginia offices:
We accordingly have decided that the offers we give this year’s summer class in D.C. and Northern Virginia will be for 2011. Deferring this class’s arrival for one year allows us the opportunity to make more offers to this year’s class than we otherwise could. U.S. offices other than D.C. and Northern Virginia similarly have assessed their needs for 2010 and 2011 and have made, or will be making, deferral decisions particular to those offices’ requirements.
The specifics of the deferral program have not yet been decided — only that the start date will be in 2011, not 2010.. The summers learned this news this morning; we hope you will make yourselves available to them to discuss the issue if, or when, they come to you for advice about their deferral year.
The firm declined to comment further on this matter.
In case they weren’t already, I hope that Hogan summers have been saving their money. It might have to last them for a while.
Earlier: Nationwide Start Date Watch: Hogan & Hartson Is Moving On Back
Staff Layoff Watch: Hogan & Hartson Lays Off 93 Staff
Hogan & Hartson Lets Go of 30 Senior Associates
Hogan & Hartson: ’1800 Hours’ Track Follow Up

We hope you’ve been enjoying our liveblogging of Day 2 of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. If you missed the morning session, you can check it out here.
To bring you up to speed. The “wise Latina” comment has indeed been the big ticket item of the day. Sotomayor has backtracked from it all morning. She stated clearly that she didn’t mean to imply that Latina’s were better at judging than other ethnic groups. She then doubled down and said of the comment: “It was bad.”
Pretty high rhetoric from a potential SCOTUS Justice, don’t you think.
Sotomayor hasn’t apologized for the remark, so there’s still something for Lindsey Graham to do when he gets his turn.
Meanwhile, on the Ricci front, Sotomayor has been sticking to the point that she was simply applying the law and that SCOTUS changed the law when it reversed the Second Circuit’s opinion on that front. So far, the Republican Senators seem massively underwhelmed by that proposition. I don’t recall a Senator asking her flat out if she thought that the test administered to the New Haven firefighters was racist. She probably wouldn’t answer, but isn’t that really the heart of what people want to know about her opinion here?
Coming back from lunch at 2:00 p.m., Chuck Grassley is up first. He should provide the first serious discussion of a woman’s right to choose. But let’s hope he suggests that somebody should hang themselves again.
Check after the jump for live updates of the hearing.
One of the reasons why law firms try to treat their alumni well is that you never know when they will come back and throw a little business your way. The current governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, put in a year at Hogan & Hartson — after 12 years as a district attorney, before running for Governor.
When Governor Ritter had some legal work to do concerning the dispersal of federal stimulus funds, he threw it Hogan & Hartson’s way.
This happens all of the time, right? Not so fast my friends, Am Law Daily reports that there is more going on in Denver:
Now halfway through his first term, Ritter is under fire for allegedly turning down a $75-per-hour offer from his state’s attorney general’s office to handle legal matters related to the disbursement of federal stimulus package funds. Instead, he allegedly granted a no-bid contract to his former firm at six times the cost.
The Denver Post reports that lawyers for Ritter told the state AG’s office in February they would hire outside counsel to help Colorado with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Fair use of executive prerogative, or should he have sought out the lowest legal fees available for the state?
More details after the jump.
Continue reading “Governor Bill Ritter And The Hogan Connection”
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Posted in:
George Washington University Law School, Job Searches
OCI Update: Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner At George Washington
By Elie MystalLast week, we covered the firms that are (and are not) coming to UVA Law School for On-grounds Recruiting. Further down the U.S. News Law School Rankings list, the news looks even worse.
A source from George Washington Law School reports that things are not looking great for fall recruiting at GW:
The cancellation list at GW just gets longer each day…
DPW still has GW on its own (brand-new) website, but apparently they’re not coming anymore. Can’t blame them, no need to reach down into the 30s in this economy and the folks at top law schools are vying for a firm job already. No surprise that DLA and Orrick pulled out, they probably don’t need any more attorneys on payroll as it is.
You’ll remember that GW law students were already apoplectic about the school’s precipitous drop in the U.S. News rankings. At the time, we wrote:
It’s too early to tell if the rankings drop will result in a sudden and dramatic change to Dean Lawrence’s job security. Does one magazine really hold such power?
After the jump, let’s take a look at the list of cancellations at GW.
Continue reading “OCI Update: Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner At George Washington”
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Posted in:
Hot Document, Internal Memos, Layoffs, WilmerHale
Departures from WilmerHale: An Interesting Internal Memo
By David LatLast month, the firm of WilmerHale denied that any layoffs have taken place at the firm. The accuracy of that statement depends on what the meaning of “layoff” is.
In an internal memo obtained by Above the Law, the firm acknowledges that “a very small number of individuals” have been asked to leave WH for economic reasons. The memo also notes that the performance review process “is affected by the reality of current economic conditions, as performance issues sometimes come to light more when business is slower.”
(This may constitute some welcome candor. Other firms try to claim, somewhat implausibly, that performance reviews are utterly unaffected by the economy, i.e., that associates are judged by the exact same standards as in boom times.)
Still, the knowledge that the economy contributed to one’s purportedly performance-based dismissal is cold comfort. From an affected associate at WilmerHale:
I was one of the ones that was cut for “performance” reasons. My evaluations were [several] pages long, single spaced — of accolades… with one half of one sentence that mentioned something I could improve on… from one partner out of [many] that evaluated me. I was let go based on that one phase, copied and pasted on the front of the eval…. Unlike the claim [in the memo] that the firm cannot give associates “three or four” chances to make improvements, I had never received a similar comment in the past.
Many partners were apparently left out of the process of deciding which associates to cut — and as a result have begun to “vent” to the associates that were cut about the process. We (as cut associates) actually had the incredibly uncomfortable task of informing partners that we worked with, who did not know we had been cut, that we were leaving. The resulting frustration of partners has led to a leak of a few tidbits of info on the numbers cut. The numbers floating around differ, but I’ve heard that between 10-15% of all associates firm wide were informed of their “transitions” over the past month. Apparently, another round may be coming in the fall.
Anxiety-inducing for current WilmerHale associates, but perhaps not a surprise. Expect a number of firms to trim their ranks after summer associates head back to school.
More discussion, plus the full memo, after the jump.
Continue reading “Departures from WilmerHale: An Interesting Internal Memo”
Now it gets fun. Yesterday, we liveblogged the opening statements from the Senate Judiciary Committee and Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Today, it’s time to get real with questions, answers, and more questions.
And we’ll be liveblogging it all for you again.
I’ve done a full preview for non-lawyers over on True/Slant. But regular Above the Law readers should be already prepared for all of the hard hitting substantive questions about constitutional interpretation.
To the extent that our U.S. Senators actually care about constitutional interpretation. It’s much more likely that we are in for a full day of “wise Latina” quips and a whole bunch of talking about one case (Ricci v. DeStefano) from Sotomayor’s 18 year judicial record.
Which is totally fair of course. This is the Senate’s one chance to ask questions of a person who is appointed for life and won’t ever need another promotion.
It should be fun. Check back throughout the day for updates, after the jump.



