Archive for November 2009

Morning Docket: 11.20.09

By Elie Mystal

Nic Cage not super.jpg* Reaction to Full-Cravath’s (f.k.a. Skadden) bonus continues to ripple through the blogosphere. [ABA Journal]
* Details continue to leak out about a merger between Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. Apparently, Ho-Love will retain separate profit pools for the two sets of partners. [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
* Junior Gotti is so close to a mistrial he can feel it. [Daily News]
* Nic Cage got ruined during the financial crisis, according to his estranged business manager. [Courthouse News Service]
* Oprah Winfrey will end her popular talk show in 2011. Notice how I wrote that blurb without using the words “queen,” or “throne.” You’re welcome. [ABC]
* In honor of Full-Cravath’s bonus:

UCLA Protest Follow Up: On The Ground at UCLA Law

By Elie Mystal

UCLA School of Law logo.JPGEarlier today, we reported that protests over the proposed tuition hike at UCLA got a bit testy. But we also noted that the protests didn’t seem to include a lot of law students, even though their tuition is going through the roof as well. One friend had this apathetic response when asked about the protests:

Dude, I have finals. And my 2L grades matter because I’ll be doing 3L recruiting. Unless we’re protesting canceled summer programs, count me out.

We wanted to know how the law school generally was reacting to today’s festivities, so we reached out to the UCLA Student Bar Association President, Lenny Sandoval. We asked him why law student participation seemed lacking:

Being a third year with one foot out the door, it’s tough for me to give a totally representative view, but while I agree that the involvement of law students as a whole is a bit subdued, I think the reaction from the identity organizations and their leadership (Raza, BLSA, etc.) has been very supportive and vocal of the undergraduate led movements. Based on FB status updates and gChat blurbs I saw at least 6 or 7 people either returning from the protests or planning on going to the protests, so that’s something at least.

Sandoval also noted that law students need to be a little bit more careful when it comes to potentially getting arrested than college kids.
That’s certainly true, especially in this economy. There’s no sense having your tuition jacked up and hurting your chances at snagging a legal job.
But something other than fear and general apathy might be driving down law student participation in civil disobedience. We also spoke with UCLA Law professor Stephen Bainbridge and he notes that people at the law school might just be paying a little bit more attention to the general state of affairs with the U.C. system than your average college student.
Thoughts from Professor Bainbridge after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs 11.19.09

By Elie Mystal

Superdome Katrina engineers.JPG* The Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t care about black people. [WSJ Blog]
* Thank God for Brian Leiter. Here’s what the Super Lawyers rankings look like, adjusted for class size, not adjusted for U.S. News Top-14 status. Now I can comfortably say, HLS to #1! [Brian Leiter's Law School Reports]
* Sometimes I park, in handicapped spaces, while handicapped people, make handicapped … Oww. I think the PC police just tasered my fingers. [Wild Wild Law]
* Your lawyering skills aren’t going to matter much if you can’t sell it. [Bar & Bench]
* David Hamilton will ascend to the 7th Circuit. Finally. [BLT]
* The IRS does not apologize. [Going Concern]
* Where is the physical evidence in the Robert Wone case? [Who Murdered Robert Wone]

If You Got Married in Texas in the Last Few Years, Are You Really Married?

By Kashmir Hill

wedding marriage.jpgThat’s the news we’re hearing out of Austin today. When Texas added a constitutional amendment in 2005 banning gay marriage, it may have actually banned all marriage, says attorney general candidate (and former Vinson & Elkins partner) Barbara Ann Radnofsky.
Fort Worth Star Telegram broke the story. Slate sums it up:

A Houston lawyer who is the Democratic candidate for attorney general claims that a 2005 Constitutional amendment that was supposed to ban gay marriages actually took the whole thing a bit further than anyone expected. The amendment states that “marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.” So far, so good.
But then comes Subsection B: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.” That was supposed to ban any form of civil unions or domestic partnership but may have put the legal status of all Texas marriages in doubt.

Texas: 3500 sq ft, a Lexus and babies out of wedlock?

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Breaking: Skadden Bonuses Are Out … And Not Very Exciting

By Elie Mystal

2009 Associate bonus watch above the law.JPGSkadden has decided to match the Cravath scale.
Here’s the scale:

2008 — $7,500
2007 — $10,000
2006 — $15,000
2005 — $20,000
2004 — $25,000
2003 — $30,000
2002 — $30,000

With Skadden and Cravath on the same page, the rest of this bonus season might be devoid of any real drama. Associates will take their $7,500 and up and like it.
Skadden’s move here isn’t all that surprising. Last year, the firm doubled the Cravath payment. While that generated a lot of positive press for the firm, evidently good cheer isn’t something that shows up on the partners’ bottom line.
And you know that Cravath has to be happy about this. Now the firm won’t have to look like it paid low bonuses two years in a row.
We should expect the rest of the top firms to fall in line. Now the question turns to firms that are not in the position of Cravath, Skadden, and Cleary. Will they fall into line with the big boys, or might they go even lower?
Then again, how much lower can this bar really go?
After the jump, check out the memo senior associates got from Skadden about their Cravath bonus.

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  • 19 Nov 2009 at 3:03 PM
  • Blogging

Making a Vulgar Comment Now Gets You Fired?

By Elie Mystal

New Yorker nobody knows you are a dog.JPGAs an editor of Above the Law, I find the headline below amusing. As a commenter on Above the Law, some of you will find the headline terrifying. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A single vulgar word cost a man his job on Friday.

Well, that’s putting way too nice of a spin on it. It’s not like somebody put in a vulgar comment and then the secret police crashed his cubicle and then kicked him out on the street.
No, the blogger who noticed and deleted the vulgar comment called the commenter’s employer:

A few minutes later, the same guy posted the same single-word comment again. I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail alert that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school. So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included.

Armed with the IP address, the IT people at the school quickly found out who posted the comment. The commenter was confronted and resigned.
Would I ever do something like that? No. Because I’m drunk with alcohol, not power.
Let me explain after the jump.

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Obama: Starting to Get the Hang of This Whole ‘Prejudging’ Thing

By Elie Mystal

Obama Nobel.jpgPresident Obama seems to have made up his mind about the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed circus trial that will be coming to a New York courthouse near you. The Associate Press reports (gavel bang: ABA Journal):

Obama, in a series of TV interviews during his trip to Asia, said those offended by the legal rights accorded Mohammed by virtue of his facing a civilian trial rather than a military tribunal won’t find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.”

I’ve argued that Obama isn’t as cool as everybody makes him out to be, but that was certainly some cold-ass rhetoric. “[W]hen the death penalty is applied to him”? Damn brother, you sending in the Wolf too?
Of course, after the jump, the lawyer part of Obama’s brain kicks in and he backpedals like a professional cornerback.

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UCLA Students Protest Fee Hikes

By Elie Mystal

A tipster just sent in this video from UCLA:

Berkeley students, take note. That is how you cause a ruckus.
The AP reports:

About 200 demonstrators are chanting and marching around a UCLA building where University of California regents are scheduled to vote on a 32 percent fee increase for next year.
Protesters from several UC campuses stayed overnight at a campus tent city to take part in a second day of demonstrations on Thursday.
UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton says 30 to 50 students also have staged a sit-in at an ethnic studies building and have chained shut the doors. They’re peaceful and are being allowed to stay.

Sadly, reports indicate that it is predominately college students that are involved in today’s shenanigans. Are all the law students already mentally beaten?
We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
Get mad, but stay safe. Rubber bullets hurt like hell.
Protesters gather at UCLA to oppose UC fee hike [Associated Press]
UPDATE: UCLA student protest now in full swing [True/Slant]
Earlier: Berkeley Law Students, How Did the ‘Not Ironic’ Strike Go?

Is it Illegal Not to Tip?

By Elie Mystal

Mr Pink no tip.JPGSomewhere Mr. Pink is smiling. The Express-Times reports:

Moravian College senior Leslie Pope and John Wagner, a Lehigh University graduate student, were handcuffed and transported from the Lehigh Pub to Bethlehem police headquarters Oct. 23 after failing to pay a mandatory 18 percent gratuity.
Pope and Wagner, members of a party of eight during happy hour, refused to pay a $16.35 service charge on top of their $73.87 tab because of what they say was shoddy service as well as a surcharge that was nearly 5 percent higher than the 18 percent listed on the menu.
“Gratuity is thanking you for your service,” Pope, 22, said. “You can’t give us terrible, terrible service and expect a tip.”

These kids don’t have any idea about what they’re talking about. These people bust their ass. This is a hard job.
According to Pope and Wagner the service was really bad. After the jump, a tipster throws out some counterclaim ideas.

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Northwestern Law Adjusts Super Lawyers Rankings and Is Pleased with Itself

By Elie Mystal

northwestern law school.gifA couple of days ago, we mentioned the new Super Lawyers Law School Rankings. The list ranks law schools by their number of Super Lawyer alumni. At the time, we noted that a potential flaw with the magazine’s methodology was that it is just looking at raw numbers. The rankings aren’t adjusted for class size.
Northwestern Law placed #18 on the list. That’s not too bad if you care about things like rankings. The school placed higher than other traditional Top-14 law schools like Stanford, Duke, and Cornell.
But Northwestern Law Dean David E. Van Zandt does care about rankings. He cares about them a great deal. And while #18 is certainly respectable, it wasn’t quite enough for Dean Van Zandt. Here’s part of his email to Northwestern law students:

As you know, I am a proponent of rankings in general and believe they provide a useful source of consumer information for applicants as well as employers. While their methodology needs improving, I applaud Super Lawyers Magazine for developing a ranking that is based on career performance outputs.

So — in a brilliant exercise of Descartian rationale — Dean Van Zandt changed the list. He (or somebody that works for him) went and changed the methodology to make Northwestern look even more awesome.
Let’s check out Super Lawyers according to Van Zandt after the jump.

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This week’s headlines from AsiaLegalBlog.com

By asialegalblog

cypress recruiting logo.gif
This week’s headlines from AsiaLegalBlog.com
1) Weekly Asia Legal Job Openings
Since 2001, Cypress has offered the most extensive and up-to-date job bank focused exclusively on associate and partner opportunities in Hong Kong (42), Tokyo (24), Beijing (38), Shanghai (33) and the Middle East (15)….
2) Obama Tours Asia with Focus on Opening Foreign–Markets
As part of President Barack Obama¹s current tour of Asia, he is sending the message that the US wants more open trade with countries like China. That message resonates strongly with US law firms and lawyers who are interested in pursuing business opportunities in China….
3) Asia-Related CLE Opportunites
Cypress has found the following courses for lawyers looking to increase their knowledge on the Asian legal market while also taking care of their CLE requirements….
4) Asia Deal Watch
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP has represented a Goldman Sachs International, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, JP Morgan Securities Ltd and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc as initial purchasers…
5) Partner Moves & Promotions
Allen & Overy has hired Mallesons Stephen Jaques¹s litigation partner Simon Clarke to its Hong Kong office. Clarke has 15 years of extensive experience in complex litigation andcontentious regulatory work in Asia which the firm is eager to use….
6) Trailing Spouses and Other Dependants
If you want to know how the international assignment is really going, ask the spouse. It is well known that the success or failure of a stint abroad can depend almost entirely on the level of contentedness of the trailing family members. We offer some personal insights…
This information is supplied by cypressrecruiting.com, the first and only US-based legal recruiting firm to specialize exclusively on law firm and in-house placements in the China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Middle East, and Russia legal markets. Click here to see our available opportunities.

British Firms Catch Outsourcing Fever

By Elie Mystal

outsourcing biglaw aba tsunami.gifIt appears that Magic Circle firms have fallen in love with outsourcing. Most American associates will hope that like Mad Cow disease, the outsourcing craze stays on English side of the ocean. The Lawyer reports:

Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the first magic circle firm to outsource legal work as an increasing number of UK firms embrace legal process outsourcing (LPO) in a bid to reduce their overheads.
The firm has partnered with LPO provider Integreon to outsource basic litigation document review to teams in New York and Mumbai, in what could generate a 30-50 per cent cost saving.

Anybody think we’ll see some geographic hypocrisy in the comment thread? Outsourcing to New York = good, outsourcing to Mumbai = bad? Or will everybody simply agree that outsourcing = apocalyptic?
After the jump, The Lawyer has an excellent chart that shows us where British firms stand with regards to outsourcing.

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Morning Docket 11.19.09

By Kashmir Hill

Thumbnail image for plane.jpg* Duke law grad Stanley Hilton, 60, sues San Francisco Airport (and some 500 others) for $15 million for ruining his life. The airport noise, which sounds like “bombs dropping in a war zone,” caused his marriage and career to fall apart, he alleges. [San Mateo County Times via San Francisco Chronicle]
* The Ninth Circuit rules that L.A. public defender is entitled to health benefits for his same-sex spouse. [Mercury News]
* ‘I don’t. Furthermore, I am pressing charges.’ New Jersey attorney Steve Hallett accuses woman of harassment after she runs a fake engagement notice. [Trentonian]
* Eric Holder still feeling the heat from his decision to try 9/11 masterminds in a civilian court. [Chicago Tribune]
* … Some questions about the trial that are actually interesting. [Concurring Opinions]
* Terrorist attorney Lynne Stewart is heading to jail. [Associated Press]
* Say it ain’t so, H&H. [Associated Press]

Berkeley Law Students, How Did the ‘Not Ironic’ Strike Go?

By Elie Mystal

Berkeley Law School Boalt Hall.jpgYesterday, we told you that big tuition hikes could be coming to schools in the University of California system. But we didn’t know that Berkeley students had a plan to do something about it. They’re going out on strike! With university workers who want a raise! Or something!
Hey, it’s the Berkeley way. When they are pissed about something, they protest. It’s better than the Harvard way; when we’re pissed about something, we ask Daddy to fire somebody.
[Yale way = invite SCOTUS justice to speak about the issue, ask justice only clerkship application questions. UT way = shoot it. NYU way = wait to see how Columbia handles the problem. I could go on and on.]
The protest was scheduled for today. Those hardcore Berkeley students were even asking professors to reschedule classes so more people could participate in the strike.
(Wait for it)
Yes, you read that correctly. Students wanted to strike, but didn’t want to risk missing class.
After the jump, the Berkeley law blog, Nuts & Boalts explains the problems with this plan:

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Non-Sequiturs: 11.18.09

By Elie Mystal

Jack Daniels.jpg* In Tennessee you can run for elected office under a fake name. I predict “Jack Daniels” will be Tennessee’s next Governor. [Young Lawyers Blog]
* Kash did some research on what search terms people use to find us. The results are disturbing. [True/Slant]
* Some companies just don’t like the U.S. court system. [Going Concern]
* A health care surcharge could be taxing. [Blackbook Legal]
* William Kunstler’s children are educating people about their father. [Gothamist]
* Lat, in living color. [The Law.TV]

1L’s Promising Pundit Career Cut Short Because of Harvard Law Finals?

By Kashmir Hill

jeremy haber.jpgJeremy Haber’s star rose and and fell before we had a chance to draft a post. Haber is a first year student at Harvard Law School and recently made the finals in the Washington Post’s “America’s Next Great Pundit” contest. From the Harvard Crimson via ABA Journal:

Jeremy L. Haber, a first year student at the Law School, is one of four finalists remaining in the Post’s “America’s Next Great Pundit” contest, the winner of which will write 13 weekly op-ed columns on a topic of his choice.
Haber, who said he entered the contest on an impulse, has emerged from over 4,800 entrants to outlast six other finalists — including a Nobel laureate in physics, an assistant secretary of commerce in the Bush administration, and a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

These are the columns that got him into the final rounds. Unfortunately, some other finals got in the way of his punditry. He is a 1L and it is mid-November…

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My Job Is Murder: Of Death, Detectives, and Defibrillators

By Susanna Dokupil

My Job Is Murder.jpgEd. 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.
The elevator opened again, and a flurry of blue uniforms quickly surrounded ken Thrax’s office and began marking it with yellow tape. Class: Fighter.
Tyler was a thinker, not a fighter. He left quietly, not wanting to get involved, especially if that yellow sticky note was one of Thrax’s last acts….
Tyler went down the hall to Katarina’s office. He spotted her head amongst the piles of books and case printouts. She was so engrossed in a volume of Miller’s Federal Practice and Procedure that she hadn’t even noticed his entry. He smiled.
Tyler rapped lightly on the doorframe. Katarina jumped. “Sorry,” he said, suppressing a chuckle. “Want to get dinner?”

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Law Student of the Day: Did Pissed-Off Iowan Pee on Girlfriend’s Belongings?

By Elie Mystal

University of Iowa College of Law logo.jpgHow would you like to be sitting in property class at Iowa College of Law, and realizing that you are in the same section as this guy? The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports:

An Iowa City man is accused of physically and verbally abusing his live-in girlfriend on Sunday.
According to Iowa City police, Alvin K. Seals, 35, choked the woman after an argument and caused her to hit a wall with her elbow. The woman scraped her elbow and also cut her finger during the struggle, police said.

A tipster reports:

Seals is a 1L at Iowa College of Law. Word on the street is he dropped one of the three doctrinal first-semester classes (property) already.

Alvin Kwesi Seals apparently has quite the temper. More urine soaked allegations, after the jump.

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Lack of Commitment to Diversity Angers McGuire Woods Partner

By Elie Mystal

McGuire Woods logo.jpgIt’s nice to see a firm maintaining its commitment to diversity despite tough economic times. Changing the culture of Biglaw is a hard thing to do, but it starts at the top.
It looks like the partners at McGuireWoods understand that. But a McGuireWoods tipster reports that you can’t just force terrified and busy associates to embrace every diversity initiative the firm has to offer:

I am an associate at McGuire Woods and we got this email this morning from the managing partner of the Chicago office and a lot of us are disgusted. He sent it to all attorneys in the Chicago office.

Is this really the way to get us interested in diversity? Maybe they should question their commitment to associates in this time of financial distress. This was an optional event where they sent an invitation once to remind us of its occurrence.

A managing partner calling out his office for a lack of commitment to diversity? That is just not something you see everyday.
Let’s take a look a the pro-diversity email that angered a bunch of Chicago associates, after the jump.

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Judge of the Day: Michael Edwards

By Kashmir Hill

indiana judge michael edwards.jpgMany ’08 law school grads are about to take a step up to second year associate level at Biglaw firms across the land. You’re feeling pretty proud? And lucky to have a Biglaw gig these days, right?
Well, eat your hearts out. Michael Edwards, Georgetown Law ’08 grad, has already been appointed a judge. He took his seat on the bench in Indiana City Court on Tuesday. From WTHI TV:

The Indiana Supreme Court appointed a new attorney to become a temporary judge in a southern Indiana City Court. Michael Edwards is a Naval Academy graduate, former Marine, and now the city court judge in Bicknell.

A Georgetown classmate tipped us off to the news:

This is one of my friends from GULC’s class of 2008. Already a judge! Ridiculous!

So how’d Edwards come to the attention of the Indiana Supreme Court? Judge Edwards’ ascension to the bench is a result of malfeasance by a prior judge, but was also due in part to a pushed back start date at a Chicago Biglaw firm.

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