September 2009

New York State Bar Association Listserv Madness

By

NYSBA New York State Bar Association.jpgA couple of days ago, an attorney sent in an email to the New York State Bar Association listserv. Like many people, the attorney was looking for a job. He decided to ask the listserv for some helpful tips:

Subject: [nysba-nonres] (somewhat) new attorney still seeking first FT position
From: [Redacted]
To: nysba-nonres@lists.nysba.org
Its a difficult time for new lawyers graduating with gigantic student loan debts and a bad economy. I’ve been searching for two years sending out hundreds of resumes and applying for an online jobs every chance I get but it now seems hopeless.
I’m a Fordham Law School graduate and have an internship working at a small bankruptcy/divorce/immigration firm and also have been doing debt collection in state court and attending 341 hearings as a per diem attorney. I also have an interest in criminal law and litigation and therefore took hands on courses in law school: civil litigation drafting, trial advocacy, fundamental lawyering skills, criminal procedure.
I want a full time position but contract work would be helpful also.
If anyone has any suggestion as to where to apply or what to do please advise.

Everybody tells you to network to find a job in this economy. But what if you don’t know anybody? One can understand how the state bar association listserv could seem like a viable option to a recent Fordgam graduate.
Were the employed attorneys helpful to the young Fordham ram? What do you think?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “New York State Bar Association Listserv Madness”

113 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 09.17.09

By

Martin Luther OMM OMelveny.jpg* Yesterday’s O’Melveny news is still rippling through the blogosphere. Will the firm now be known as the Martin Luther of Biglaw? [Law and More]
* Remember, if you are in Washington, D.C. next Wednesday September 23rd, head down to Georgetown to meet David Lat and talk about new media and the law. [Georgetown Federalist Society Blog]
* One prominent legal blogger — and BC Law grad — is disappointed with Professor Fitzgibbon. Not because the Professor expressed his viewpoint, but because of his blatant distortion of the truth. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Can 1Ls going to law school in Maryland let us know about the defense of home case law in the state? Thanks. [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Legal Rebel Tour, the week one recap. [ABA Journal]

32 Comments

Clerkship Application Season: D-Day

By

law clerk judicial clerkship Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgIt’s the afternoon of Thursday, September 17. Do you know where your clerkship is?
Today is the first day, pursuant to the Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2009 — which some judges follow, and some don’t — when interviews may be held and offers made. The plan even specifies a time of day for interviews and offers to begin — “8.00 a.m. (EDT)” — perhaps because, in years past, some judges brought applicants in for midnight meetings.
Relive the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, perhaps by (anonymously) disclosing your credentials and the clerkship(s) you got (or didn’t get), in the comments to this open thread.
Law Clerk Addict
Clerkship Notification Blog: 2010-11 Clerkship Season
THE LAW CLERK HIRING PLAN FOR 2009 [Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan]
About OSCAR [Online System for Clerkship Application & Review]
Earlier: Clerkship Application Season: Clear The Phones
Clerkship Application Season: Open Thread

131 Comments

Monica Goodling, Vindicated

By

Monica Goodling 4 Monica M Goodling sexy pose Above the Law blog.jpgOh happy day! It brings us news of a beloved figure who has been long absent from these pages: Monica Goodling, our favorite DOJ diva. And the news for Goodling, a high-ranking and influential official in the Bush Administration’s Justice Department, is good.
Remember the case of Gerlich v. U.S. Department of Justice, the putative class action brought by Honors Program rejects who claimed they weren’t hired for political reasons? Many of the claims, as brought by individual plaintiffs — a somewhat dodgy motion for class certification remains pending — have been resoundingly dismissed.
From the Washington Post:

A federal judge this week dismissed civil claims against former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, rejecting a lawsuit by job applicants who argue that they were blacklisted from the Justice Department during the Bush era because of their ideology.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates concluded that the unsuccessful job candidates had not followed the appropriate steps in the civil service system before filing their lawsuit in the District last year….

More discussion and links, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Monica Goodling, Vindicated”

74 Comments

Career Center: How Is Your Career Looking?

By

Career Center AboveTheLaw Lateral Link ATL.jpg
Over the last month, we’ve seen a significant spike in the number of ATL readers making use of the information on the Career Center. With hundreds of thousands of visitors to the law firm snapshots and tens of thousands of law firm comparisons generated on the Career Center, we want to know what is on our readers’ minds when it comes to your careers.
Could it be that a year after Lehman’s collapse, and with Bernake’s reassurances that the recession is "very likely over," attorneys feel it is safe to go back on the job hunt? Perhaps the recent layoffs are creating concern that things are getting worse, and people want to know their options? Either way, the good news is that our friends over at Lateral Link tell us that hiring is starting to pick up and they have dozens of attorneys interviewing, so options are out there.

If you have information about your firm that you want to share with other career center users, please email us at careercenter@abovethelaw.com. Thanks.
ATL Career Center [powered by Lateral Link]

Judge Stephen G. Larson Resigns Because Judges are Underpaid (But Are They Really?)

By

Judge Stephen Larson.jpgFederal judges have been complaining about their salaries for years now, but all they’ve managed to get recently is a small cost of living increase.
Federal judge Stephen Larson of the Central District of California is taking a stand on the issue — by quitting. From the National Law Journal:

U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson of the Los Angeles-based Central District of California said in a prepared statement on Sept. 15 that the failure by Congress to increase judicial salaries made it impossible to support his seven children, all under age 18.

“The costs associated with raising our family are increasing significantly, while our salary remains stagnant and, in terms of purchasing power, is actually declining,” he said. “The short of it is that I know I must place my family’s interest, particularly the future of my children, ahead of my own fervent desire to remain a federal judge.”

We can see where he’s coming from. Larson, 44, hasn’t seen big(law) money since 1991, when he was a second-year associate at O’Melveny & Myers. Since then he’s been in public service, as an assistant U.S. attorney and a judge.
We have so many questions!

  • Where is he heading to make the big bucks? If O’Melveny’s taking him back, we hope Larson is aware of the firm’s five-year plan, and the need for Biglaw partners “to produce — and sacrifice — in order to help firms thrive in the future.” (Our words, not theirs.)
  • Will he lose his income (and residence) at University of La Verne law school? He was appointed Distinguished Jurist in Residence there earlier this year.
  • Is this an argument in favor of raising judicial salaries, or against having seven kids? [FN1]

    • Finally, we wonder: are federal judges underpaid? Find out how much judges make, and vote in our poll as to whether they’re underpaid, after the jump.

    double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Judge Stephen G. Larson Resigns Because Judges are Underpaid (But Are They Really?)”

    144 Comments

    Biglaw Perk Watch: Clifford Chance’s Lingerie Allowance?

    By

    Lawyer no pants.jpgLike most days, I started my morning with a Red Bull and the best morning man in the business, Pat Kiernan. Everything was proceeding normally, until I received this tip in the ATL inbox:

    Women lawyers at City firm Clifford Chance have been given a £90 lingerie allowance.

    Now, as you can well imagine, I don’t normally “spring” into anything — much less action. But within nanoseconds of receiving this information, I fired off a flurry of emails.
    It turns out that the story comes from the Guardian – U.K. Here are some additional details about this (lacy?) fringe benefit:

    Women lawyers at top City firm Clifford Chance are bucking the trend for reduced expenses now that their £90 lingerie-and-blouse allowance, if they work later than 11pm, has been reinstated. Inevitably dubbed the “90 nicker knicker allowance”, this may or may not be the most reliable indicator yet that the credit crunch is over. (Business is apparently so hectic that the firm has also installed sleeping pods.)

    If you “work” later than 11 o’clock, you get to buy new panties? Why didn’t I think of that? More importantly, why didn’t Ben Franklin think of that and put it in the Constitution?
    After consulting colleagues in London, a spokesperson for Clifford Chance in New York got back to me about bringing this commitment to sensual excellence to America. Sadly, it turns out that what sounds like one of the greatest Biglaw perks ever is in fact just a pedestrian acknowledgment of basic hygiene.

    double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Biglaw Perk Watch: Clifford Chance’s Lingerie Allowance?”

    76 Comments

    Peering Into The Crystal Ball for Obama’s Judicial Picks
    (Plus a live chat with the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin)

    By

    Barack Obama small President Barack Obama.jpgThe current New Yorker has an interesting piece by Jeffrey Toobin on President Obama’s judicial picks. Toobin took part in a live chat about the piece at NewYorker.com right now earlier today if you’re interested. (Try not to crash their website.).
    UPDATE: The chat’s quite interesting. Toobin reveals why he likes Justice Souter best and answers this young wannabe judge’s question:

    11:31 Guest: I’m a 25 year old law student, I want to be a judge, and my roommate smokes pot. How worried should I be? Do you think people will still care when I’m older?

    11:32 Jeffrey Toobin: Don’t inhale! I’m kidding. I don’t think it will make a bit of difference. Our president has more or less admitted he was a pretty big pothead in his day, and it’s been a non-issue. Certainly the fact that your roommate smokes — not you — is irrelevant.

    Toobin’s piece is available online to non-subscribers here. If you don’t feel like clicking through seven pages, here’s the ATL reader’s digest version:
    Jeffrey Toobin small CNN New Yorker legal lawyer Above the Law blog.jpg

  • Aging liberal judges hung on through the Bush era, but once a Dem took over, they were ready to hang up their robes. Additionally, since 2006, Senator Patrick Leahy has prevented Bush’s nominees from getting through the Judiciary Committee. Now vacancies abound in the federal judiciary.
  • Bush kicked ass in choosing judges; Obama is taking his sweet time. In the first eight months of their respective terms, Bush nominated 52 judges while Obama has chosen 17.
  • Obama says he’s looking for “experiential diversity” in his judicial nominations: “not just judges and prosecutors but public defenders and lawyers in private practice.” But his first batch of nominees are mainly former judges, like SCOTUS justice Sonia Sotomayor and Indianapolis federal district judge David Hamilton, nominated by Obama to the Seventh Circuit.
    More bullets, after the jump.

    double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Peering Into The Crystal Ball for Obama’s Judicial Picks
    (Plus a live chat with the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin)”

    • 27 Comments

    Boston College Defends Anti-Gay Marriage Professor

    By

    Yesterday, we talked about a Boston College Law professor, Scott Fitzgibbon, who went up to Maine to shoot an anti-gay-marriage commercial. John Garvey, Dean of Boston College Law, didn’t respond to us, but he did send around an email to the BC Law community. As many predicted, Dean Garvey defended Professor Fitzgibbon. Here is the pertinent part of Dean Garvey’s letter:

    Professor Fitzgibbon, as a member of our faculty, is free to express his views. His public statements represent his own opinions, as the advertisement makes clear, and do not state any official position of Boston College Law School. We also have faculty members who hold a contrary view, which they too are free to express publicly. Many have done so while referring to themselves as BC Law professors. One of them has publicly led the fight to oppose the Solomon Amendment on the grounds that it is an affront to gay and lesbian students and prospective members of the U.S. military. Others have taken controversial positions on such subjects as abortion, euthanasia, and the treatment of detainees.

    I believe that free expression is central to our mission as a law school committed to public discourse and the free exchange of ideas and opinions. We have faculty and students from many different backgrounds, and with many different points of view. It is our expectation that they will continue to engage in public discourse, and argue their positions with passion and civility, with the intellectual freedom that an academic institution affords to us all.

    Dean Garvey is clearly right insofar as academic institutions must be grounded on the free exchange of thoughts and ideas, even when those ideas are controversial.

    But as NYU Law Dean Richard Revesz found out, the gay marriage issue isn’t always as simple as a mere intellectual debate. If you believe that marriage is a basic civil right, then the issue can transcend the normal bounds of academic discourse.

    Not surprisingly, Above the Law readers have some opinions on whether Dean Garvey is taking the correct stance here. We present Dean Garvery’s full letter and some of the best comments and emails, after the jump.

    double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Boston College Defends Anti-Gay Marriage Professor”

    149 Comments

    Morning Docket 09.17.09

    By

    Constitution.jpg* Happy Constitution Day. [Concurring Opinions]
    * Georgia judge Clay Land reprimanded an attorney and threw out an Army captain’s “birther movement” lawsuit, which opposed Iraq deployment based on Barack Obama’s supposed illegitimacy to be president. [Ledger-Enquirer]
    * What else could Congress do to Joe Wilson? [Slate]
    * Pace Law is offering an accelerated degree program, so that new students can start this January and finish at the same time as those starting now. Because we need more lawyers and we need them fast! [Pace Law School]
    * The lab technician, taken into custody yesterday in connection with the killing of Yale graduate student Annie Le, is now under arrest and charged with her death by suffocation. [New York Times]
    * We suspect Washington, D.C.’s massive population of young lawyers is to blame for this. [Yahoo News]
    * Jones Day wants to apply the whiteout to Lehman’s bankruptcy order. [American Lawyer]

    27 Comments
    Page 10 of 17371...67891011121314...1737