While writing a post for True/Slant about child porn enthusiasts who used a private social network to trade their kiddie pics, we stumbled across the website of Lindeman, Alvarado, & Frye. The Texas criminal defense firm has a kiddie porn practice group.
We think the photo accompanying the description of the group is a little off…. UPDATE: Other practice groups include disturbing images, as pointed out by commenters.
Ed. note: Welcome to ATL’s first foray into serial fiction. “My Job Is Murder,” a mystery set in a D.C. appellate boutique, will appear one chapter at a time, M-W-F, over the next few weeks. Prior installments appear here; please read them first.
Susanna Dokupil can be reached by email at sdokupil@sbcglobal.net or on Facebook.
Despite his experience on construction cases, Tyler knew very little about actual construction. But he was fairly certain a rope ladder going up two stories to the roof was not standard for office buildings. He reached the top, pushed open a trap door, and climbed out onto the roof.
Not twenty feet away, Tyler saw a small tent and a rather well-dressed man sitting in it. He sat cross-legged, working on a laptop computer.
The man looked up. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“Uh, who are you?” asked Tyler.
“Name’s John Tiburon, attorney at law.”
Tyler gasped. “John Tiburon? The John Tiburon?”
“The very same.”
John Tiburon was a MakoProphet legend. Class: God who walks among us. Graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, clerked on the United States Supreme Court, published an article he wrote as a student in the Yale Law Journal, and argued in every federal appellate court in the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court (more than once), by the time he was thirty-five. And he had never lost a case.
Well, here’s an early Thanksgiving present from the partnership at Davis Polk & Wardwell to their associates. Bonus news.
DPW will be putting the same meal on the table as Cravath:
We are pleased to announce that associates in good standing will receive a bonus payment as outlined below. Bonuses will be paid on December 24th, 2009 in the same manner as the regular December monthly payroll, and will be subject to proration for those who arrived after January 1, 2009 and those on part-time schedules or other special arrangements. Bonuses for counsel and other attorneys will be determined on an individual basis and will be communicated and paid according to the normal time schedule.
Class of 2008: $ 7,500
Class of 2007: $10,000
Class of 2006: $15,000
Class of 2005: $20,000
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003 and senior: $30,000
We thank you for your efforts over the past year, and wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season.
The Management Committee
In this season of thankfulness, some DPW associates feel they deserve a few more blessings than what the firm is offering.
If you are a Biglaw associate and are lucky enough to score a federal clerkship, congratulations. It is a nice feather in your cap.
But in this job market, are you wise to actually accept your clerkship offer?
As many of you know, clerks have to formally resign from their firms while clerking. In the before times, in the long, long ago, this was no big deal. You resign, clerk for a year or two, and then get “re-hired” by your firm when you are ready to return to private practice.
As the legal recession took hold last year, some associates who received clerkship offers worried that their firms wouldn’t hire them back. But for the most part, people decided to take a clerkship instead of staying at the firm and risk getting laid off.
At Above the Law, we’ve heard a lot of talk about these clerks trying to come back to work now, only to find the door back into Biglaw closed.
At Cahill Gordon, we’re hearing that clerks were not re-hired despite promises to do so.
Details after the jump.
* The United Homeless Organization is a sham, according to NYAG Andrew Cuomo. [New York Times]
* People keep stealing Judge Lance Ito’s nameplate. [ABA Journal]
* Some kids utilized Facebook to incite violence against gingers. [CNN]
*Can somebody explain to me how South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford still has a job? [New York Times]
* A school security guard pepper sprayed a 14-year-old special ed. kid. But he removed the kid’s glasses first, just to make sure the spray really gets in there. [Courthouse News Service]
A distressing new trend appears to be sweeping America’s law schools. From the sun-kissed beaches of Miami to the frozen turf of the Big House, law students have been reported missing. With law school exams just around the corner, learning of the disappearance of a classmate or friend only exacerbates law student stress.
In early November, Tom “Tommy”‘ Daniels, 28, a law student at Florida International University, was reported missing. According to a news release issued by FIU, Tom Daniels was in contact with Miami Beach police on November 5 — three days after he was last seen by his friends, but before he was officially reported missing. More details appear in the Miami Herald; the full news release, including a number to call if you have information about Daniels’s whereabouts, appears after the jump.
More recently, a law student at the University of Michigan was reported missing. According to the Michigan Daily, Casey Neil McGinnis, 35, was last seen on November 11. Parents and friends of Casey McGinnis have conveyed their concern about his whereabouts to the Ann Arbor police.
A UM law student who brought McGinnis’s disappearance to our attention told us: “Everyone’s pretty freaked out right now. He’s a really nice kid, and we’re all hoping for the best.”
There is no indication of foul play in the disappearance of either student. And both Tom Daniels and Casey McGinnis seem quite capable of defending themselves. Neither may be a Shady Yassin, but both are males of substantial size — Daniels is 6’5″ and 230 pounds, and McGinnis is 6’2″ and 210 pounds. (See their photos above for help in recognizing them.)
Earlier this year, Annie Le, a Yale graduate student, was found dead in a research building on the university’s New Haven campus — on the day she was to be married. A lab co-worker of hers, Raymond Clark, stands accused of the murder.
Taken together, these recent developments raise the question: are American universities doing enough to keep their students safe? Or are these just coincidences, isolated occurrences that don’t say anything about campus safety?
A news release from FIU and a memo from Michigan, plus telephone numbers to call if you have information about either missing student, appear after the jump.
* Washingtonian Magazine’s December issue is devoted to lawyers. The magazine enlisted Kash and Lat to write the cover story: “Why Lawyers Make So Much Money.” Staff writer Marisa Kashino, formerly of the National Law Journal, names D.C.’s 30 top lawyers and writes about what it takes to make partner these days. Check it out on newsstands now. [Washingtonian Magazine]
* One website is tracking lateral hiring in the legal world. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Maybe Justice Scalia can’t separate his intellectual life from his spiritual life, but I sure can. Of course, it helps that my priest doesn’t read Above the Law. [Slate]
* Criminal justice work at the NAACP is about to get a huge shot in the arm. We are all on notice. [People]
It’s almost Thanksgiving. It is a wonderful time to reflect on all of your blessings — and maybe spare a coin for those less fortunate.
Or, if you are a lawyer — you could sue those less fortunate; especially if the unwashed masses are hurting your business. Tex Parte Blog has this lovely holiday tale:
A lawyer who owns an office building located near The Beacon, a day center for homeless people in downtown Houston, filed a suit Monday seeking a permanent injunction to shut down the operation on the ground it’s a “private nuisance.” Lawyer Harry C. Arthur seeks a minimum of $250,000 in damages from defendants Christ Church Cathedral and The Beacon to compensate him for the loss of rentals in his building and the loss of its market value.
When I first read this story this morning, I thought somebody was pulling my leg. But I suppose this is what JaKe Emeritus is doing while on winter break in addition to posting comments on ATL.
After the jump, Harry “Scrooge” Arthur makes a modest complaint that would cause Jonathan Swift to blush.
Last week Google engineer Anurag Acharya sent a shot across the bow of the multi-million dollar legal publishing business. “Starting today,” he wrote on the Google blog, people will be able to use Google Scholar to “find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts.” And in typical Google fashion, these searches will be intuitive and simple. “You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in,” he wrote.
That sounds familiar…. That sounds like a service law firms pay bajillions of dollars for every year. There’s been some speculation across the Web that Google Scholar’s new offering is a red flag for LexisNexis and Westlaw.
Robert Ambrogi of Legal Blog Watch writes:
Inevitably, Google’s announcement leads to another round of predictions that 2012 has arrived for Westlaw and LexisNexis. Scott Greenfield wonders whether the news signals the end of the duopoly. Social Media Law Student says this could fast become the preferred tool for “law students and lawyers of the younger generation (and tech-savvy elders as well).” But Carolyn Elefant says Google is unlikely to replace Wexis for some time to come. “Even as free services launch, the premium legal services still continue to improve,” she writes. “So the gap still remains between legal research haves and have-nots.”
We checked in with LexisNexis and Westlaw. They aren’t citing any fear. After the jump, get their reactions and take our poll about your plans for Google legal scholar.
What does it mean to be “newly admitted?” To us, it means endless possibilities!
We recognize that you already possess the ability and intelligence to succeed in a variety of legal professions. Our job is to expose you to various practice areas in a way that ensures those very attributes are successfully applied. Our seasoned and successful faculty present unique programs that provide an approachable and practical understanding of the avenues of achievement available as you launch a fruitful, enjoyable and promising career.
Our Live Bridge the Gap weekends satisfy the entire year of New York Newly-Admitted CLE Credits in only two days!
After physically attending a full weekend, you will receive:
• 3.0 Ethics CLE credits,
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• 7.0 Professional Practice and/or Law Practice Management CLE credits
Date: Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9, 2013 Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:35 p.m. (EST) Location:
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New York, NY 10006
Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
Deal flow has clearly picked recently up for most US associates, counsels and partners in Hong Kong/China and Singapore. We are on the phone with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, many of whom we have known for years. Further, the head of our Asia team, Evan Jowers, and Kinney’s founder and president, Robert Kinney, frequently meet in person with leading US partners in Asia to assess their needs and keep on top of the inside scoop at as many firms as possible. The need for legal recruiting help in Asia from experienced recruiters appears to be live and well. In March, Evan and Robert were in Beijing at such meetings, in April, Evan was in Hong Kong, and for half of June Evan will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Thus its pretty easy for us to tell when there has been an across-the-market pick up in capital markets and corporate work.
On an average day in Asia when Evan and Robert visit firms, they typically have 5 to 9 meetings a day, mostly with US partners in the market. The reason they have these meetings is not simply because Kinney makes a lot of US attorney placements in Asia and that a particular firm may have openings; instead these are just visits with friends. After years of working together as business partners, the folks at Kinney are actually these peoples’ friends. The firms Kinney work closely with in Asia (which is just about every law firm – call us if you want to know the one firm in the world we will never place anyone with again, ever, and why) look forward to the visits, or at least act like they do. After seven years in the market, many of the client partners are former associate candidates. Also, these US partners see Kinney as a very good source of market information as well, because they know how deep their contacts are in the market and how frequently they are speaking to counterparts at peer firms.
In a land that is right here and in a time that is right now, a technology has arisen so powerful that it can replace basic human document review. Is it time to bow down before our new robot overlords?
First, here’s a little story about me: my life in the legal world began as a paralegal. My first case was a GIANT patent infringement case that was already six years old and had involved as many as five companies, multiple US courts, the ITC and an international standards committee. I knew nothing about any of this.
On my first day, my supervisor (a paralegal with at least eight other cases driving her crazy) sat me down in front of a Concordance database with a 100,000+ patents and patent file histories. “Code these,” she said. I learned that “coding”, for the purposes of this exercise, meant manually typing the inventor’s name, the title of the patent, the assignee, the file date, and other objective data for each document. I worked on that project – and only that project – for at least the first six months of my job. After a week or so, time began to blur.
What I know, in retrospect and with absolutely certainty, is that as time began to blur, so did my judgment. So did my attention to detail. If you could tell me that I did not make at least one mistake a day – one inconsistent spelling, one reversed day and month, one incorrectly spaced title – I frankly would need to see your evidence. I would not believe it. The human mind is trainable but it is not a machine.
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While writing a post for True/Slant about child porn enthusiasts who used a private social network to trade their kiddie pics, we stumbled across the website of Lindeman, Alvarado, & Frye. The Texas criminal defense firm has a kiddie porn practice group.
