The rumors circulated back in August, but now it looks like it’s finally happening. From Marc Ambinder, shortly before 11 on Thursday night:
Sources in government say that White House Counsel Gregory Craig has decided to resign, and that the president’s personal lawyer, Robert Bauer, will take his place. A formal announcement is slated next week, though word might drop tomorrow.
Looks like that announcement is getting sped up. More after the jump.
UPDATE: Greg Craig’s resignation letter, also after the jump.
Continue reading “Musical Chairs: Greg Craig Out as White House Counsel, Bob Bauer In”
Welcome back to “The Pile Up” caption contest. We presented ATL readers with this photo and asked for possible captions:
With over 500 entries, we felt as if we were living the horror of the photo. But we waded through the submissions and whittled them down to our top ten. Check out our favorites and vote for the best one after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Caption Contest Finalists: The Pile Up”
* Rapper calls himself “C-Murder.” Rapper commits murder. Rapper gets convicted for murder. Rapper bitches and moans like a little baby boy that he can’t afford to appeal his conviction. Which one of those things doesn’t belong? (Wait a minute, why am I making fun of a homicidal rapper who might get out of jail? Please tell Mr. Murder that I meant no disrespect.) [New Orleans Times-Picayune]
* How Twitter can help you find a job. [Let's Talk Turkey]
* Is Justice Ginsburg getting a little weird? [Holy Hullabaloos]
* Gloria Allred wants a bit of Carrie Prejean’s ass. [Radar]
* “Shut the door, have a seat.” [Ideoblog]
* There’s a Costco in Manhattan, in case you are looking to stretch your deferral dollar. [Transracial]
* Homeland Security really needs to get rid of color coded threat levels. [Litination]
Our long, national, helium induced nightmare is almost over. CNN is reporting that Richard and Mayumi Heene — parents of Falcon “Balloon Boy” Heene — will plead guilty tomorrow:
The Larimer County district attorney’s office Thursday said Richard Heene has been charged with one count of attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and Mayumi Heene has been charged with one count of false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor.
Richard Heene turned himself in Thursday afternoon and was released on his own recognizance, authorities said.
The Heenes will appear Friday in Larimer County Court, where they are expected to plead guilty, their attorneys said.
I think we’ve all learned an important lesson. Children, be they in a balloon, down a well, with a fox, or in a box, do not constitute breaking national news.
Not that there is going to be a lot of sympathy for the Heenes, but it does appear that they got strong armed into this guilty plea.
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Balloon Boy Parents to Plead Guilty”
It wasn’t that long ago — just back in August 2008 — that the ABA changed its rules to allow the outsourcing of American legal work. In the midst of the recession, a lot of people are still trying to figure out if outsourcing will cause a more fundamental change to the nature of the Biglaw business model than anything we’ve seen during the credit crunch.
Now, the ABA is asking its lawyers to share their opinion on outsourcing. This week’s ABA Intellectual Property Law section e-letter contains a link to a very interesting survey. Here’s the description from the e-letter:
Outsourcing Task Force Seeks Survey Input From You
The American Bar Association’s Outsourcing Task Force is conducting a survey on outsourcing. The objective of the Task Force, at the Request of ABA President-Elect Steve Zack, is a Report with Recommendations to the House of Delegates on the subject at next year’s Annual Meeting.
An important means of collecting input from a broader cross section of the
ABA is an online survey which can be accessed at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229LAVJNGRM.
As input from the broadest possible range of American lawyers is critical, the Task Force would greatly appreciate if every member could take a moment to complete this survey.
Immediate Past Section Chair Gordon Arnold is a member of the Task Force and serves as its Liaison to the Section of Intellectual Property Law. He strongly encourages all to complete this survey.
IP lawyers, here is one chance to voice your opinion.
After the jump, some we post a couple of the questions the task force is asking.
Continue reading “The ABA Wants Your Thoughts on Outsourcing”
We receive a lot of interesting emails here at Above the Law. Once law firms started deferring their deferred incoming associates for a second time, we started getting emails like the one below. Since I don’t really know how to respond to the people who have been asking this type of question, I figured I’d throw it out to you guys for your expert advice:
Can you do a story about the size of deferral stipends? Particularly, breaking down the math of expenses showing that some firm’s stipends are too small. For instance, [Redacted] is paying deferred first years only $3300 per month before taxes. After taxes this only comes out to like $2600 per month. Most law students went to expensive schools with $150,000 debt (not to mention undergrad debt), and have $1,000 per month loan payments starting this month even if you select the maximum 30 year repayment plan. Under the 10 year payment plan, loan payments are $1500 per month. When you consider that rent in New York, DC, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco is at least $1,200 (being very very conservative), that leaves no money to pay for things like food or utilities. They expect us to basically spend more than we make for 3, 6, 9, 12+ months? This is practically a layoff. I don’t have the finances or rich parents to go 6+ months with no money. Firms like [Redacted] need to pay at least the market $5,000 per month so that the deferred first years have enough to live on. Especially when our original offer letter promised us “market compensation.”
Is there anything useful we can tell this person (and the other incoming associates in the same position)? Let’s try after the jump.
Continue reading “Open Thread: Are Deferral Stipends Too Small?”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the National Law Journal reports that partners are successfully hanging onto their jobs despite this recession.
Associates and “other attorneys” are not:
Law firms since 2005 had increased the number of “other” attorneys — a category comprising counsel, of counsel, senior counsel and staff attorneys — to help handle boom-time business.
But in 2009, they cut about 10% of those attorneys, for a loss of 1,113 lawyers. By comparison, NLJ 250 firms shed 8.7% of associates in 2009. This year, 46 “other” attorneys worked at the average NLJ 250 firm, compared to 50 the year before.
Yeah, it is not a good time to be an expensive senior counsel or of counsel that doesn’t bring in business. On the bright side, at least senior attorneys and counsel have a career track record they can market if they have been laid off.
Staff attorneys cannot say the same thing. Their troubles have been well documented. Staff attorney programs getting pinched because of the recession generally. And the increased reliance on outsourcing is a double whammy to staff attorney job security.
But after the jump, the NLJ reports that partners appear to be safe.
Continue reading “Associates and ‘Other Attorneys’ Lose Jobs, Partners Hold Steady”
Fact: Eliot Spitzer had sex with prostitutes.
Fact: Eliot Spitzer is a hypocrite.
Fact: David Paterson has been a horrible Governor.
Conclusion: Having sex with prostitutes and being a total hypocrite isn’t the worst thing in the world?
And so, the rehabilitation of Eliot Spitzer continues. He’s on T.V., he’s writing, he’s teaching a class. I think the lesson here is supposed to be that a man’s inability to keep it in his pants doesn’t mean that he can’t be a useful voice about the economic crisis and regulatory reform.
So it’s not entirely surprising that Spitzer has been invited to speak at Harvard University by HLS professor Lawrence Lessig. The ABA Journal reports on the focus of the talk:
Spitzer’s lecture apparently will focus on law and policy: It is titled “From Ayn Rand to Ken Feinberg–How Quickly the Paradigm Shifts. What Should Be the Rationale for Government Participation in the Market?” according to a Harvard website listing for the free public talk.
Fair enough, but Professor Lessig is the director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. And it’s the Center for Ethics that will be hosting the event.
Ethics + Eliot = Ewww.
You know things are off when a pimp is writing to a Harvard Law School professor to complain. That is precisely what is happening here, according to the Daily News. Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Client #9 to Speak at Harvard’s Center for Ethics”
English couple Caroline and Steve Cartwright have a healthy sex life. But it doesn’t sound healthy. According to BBC News, their love-making sounds to neighbors like “murder” and has been described as “unnatural.” So prudish, those Brits.
Neighbors complained the noise kept them up all night, making them oversleep in the morning and arrive late to work.
Apparently Caroline Cartwright is the noisy one in the couple. She was convicted of “breaching a noise abatement notice.” She appealed the conviction:
She argued she had a right to “respect for her private and family life” under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.
So do the British courts respect a woman’s right to be vocal about her pleasure?
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day (from Across the Pond): Climactic Noise Pollution”
A little while ago, we asked our readers to tell us if their jobs are making them sick. Over 51% of our respondents reported feeling some kind of depression.
I guess that means we have some fantastic attorneys reading Above the Law. A new study from Australia says that general unhappiness has a positive correlation with many of the the skills great lawyers posses:
The study, authored by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales, showed that people in a negative mood were more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people, who were more likely to believe anything they were told.
So the happy idiot is actually a very smart person cursed with a pleasant disposition?
I always thought that being a miserable bastard was a symptom of Biglaw success, not the cause of it:
“Our research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.”
More from bizarro world after the jump.
Continue reading “Depression Makes You A Better Lawyer”
* Special report: What a first-year law student looks like to an outsider. “It might surprise some students to learn that talking to a real-life law student is not actually all that scary,” writes the reporter. [Oregon Daily Emerald]
* The paralyzed still have the right to bear arms. [Associated Press]
* The ex-communications director for California AG Jerry Brown has been recording all of his phone calls with reporters without notifying them, a violation of the two-party consent requirements in California. Now all those transcripts have been turned over to news agencies thanks to FOIA. [Los Angeles Times]
* Kentucky attorney sues “supercalifragilistic.” [Lexington Herald-Leader]
* South Carolina doesn’t believe. [The Week]
* Will judges have to face civil suits from those they misjudge? [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]
* No touchdowns for NFL lawyers. [ESPN]
Last month, we reported that bankrupt law firm Heller Ehrman would be selling some of its art to raise money for its creditors. Heller hopes to raise $1 million (or more) through a series of sales, in New York and California.
The first of several Heller art auctions took place yesterday at Bonhams & Butterfields, at 580 Madison Avenue in New York. We attended, both to cover the proceedings and in the hope of making a purchase or two. (The most important works from the Heller collection will be sold next year, but those pieces — by artists like Diebenkorn, Lichtenstein, and Serra — are a bit beyond our price range.)
Upon arrival at Bonhams, we checked in with a receptionist. We were asked to provide our driver’s license and credit card for photocopying, which we did. Buyers can pay for purchases with either a credit card or a check, but the auction house still copies your credit card for its records.
(There is a slight discount for using a check or cash over a credit card. The buyer’s premium, a commission paid by the winning bidder to the auction house, is 22 percent of the purchase price for credit cards, but 20 percent for cash or check.)
After supplying the requested documentation and filling out a short form, we were given a paddle for bidding. We were hoping for something wooden; the word “paddle” conjures up images of spanking — fun! Instead, we received a laminated card of gray and white plastic, printed with the number “238″ (our bidder number).
Did we make any purchases? How well did the Heller Ehrman art sell? Find out, plus check out pictures of the art, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Field Trip: The Heller Ehrman Art Auction”
Williams Mullen is a prominent Richmond-based law firm that is “100 years strong,” according to its website. For 18 of those years, Vietnam native Hanh Nguyen Allgood, 53, was a case manager for the firm. She left in March 2007.
Apparently, the departure was not “all good” with her. She has filed a $950,000 lawsuit against the firm, alleging discrimination and sexual harassment, according to Style Weekly.
Litigation partner Robert Eicher bears the brunt of Allgood’s sexual harassment allegations. According to her complaint [PDF], he asked when he first met her whether “her vagina was vertical or horizontal,” a reference to “a horrible racial slur bandied about by some American soldiers during the Viet Nam War contending that Vietnamese women had vertical vaginas.”
And then there was the cucumber incident….
UPDATE: A statement from the firm has been added after the jump.
Continue reading “Racial Discrimination and Sexual Harassment — With a Cucumber? — Alleged at Williams Mullen”
* Happy Veteran’s Day. Thanks to all who serve. [Army JAG; Navy JAG]
* If you think law school looks like a terrible financial investment, you are correct. [Tax Prof Blog]
* Punching women isn’t the best way to make a point about racial injustice. [The Legal Satyricon]
* A pro-wrestler fell down, but not by design. Predictably, he decided to sue. [Chicago Now]
* What’s wrong with cutting off the hands of those who steal (online content) again? [Simple Justice]
* What’s the difference between journalism and blogging? Some thoughts from Lat. [Yale Daily News]
* Josh Blackman created a Supreme Court fantasy league. You get points for predicting the outcome of the case and which justices will be in the majority and minority. [FantasySCOTUS]
After Cleary announced its 2009 associate bonus, we asked you if the market had been set at the Cravath level. In response to the question “is it over,” 83% of you said “yes.”
Not so fast my friends. There was an all associates meeting at the D.C. office of Sidley Austin. Tipsters report that the Sidley bonus could be larger than it was last year.
Details from our tipsters after the jump.
Continue reading “Sidley Austin Associate’s Town Hall Delivers Encouraging Bonus News”
Ed. note: Welcome to ATL’s first foray into serial fiction. “My Job Is Murder,” a mystery set in a D.C. appellate boutique firm, will appear one chapter at a time, M-W-F, over the next few weeks. The first chapter appears here; please read it first.
The author, a former appellate lawyer, wishes to emphasize that any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Except for the geeky stuff. Appellate lawyers really are that geeky.
Susanna Dokupil can be reached by email at sdokupil@sbcglobal.net or on Facebook.
Tyler headed down to the firm lobby to meet Mark and the 2L summer associates: Katarina from Harvard and Alex from University of Chicago. He knew Mark would want to go to Solstice, the trendy new restaurant in the basement of their building. Mark was efficient like that. Experience Points: about 2700/yr, very respectable.
Tyler hated Solstice. Overpriced, overpresented, and underflavored. But the name, he thought, was fitting. Every day in this building was the longest day of the year.
The elevator reached its destination with a bit of a thud. Mark, Katarina, and Alex were already waiting for him. Mark waved him over. “We were just thinking of going to Solstice,” he said. “Sure,” said Tyler, suppressing an eye roll.
He had met Alex before. Class: Summer Associate. Level: 1. High Intelligence, moderate Charisma. Experience Points: perhaps 50? Alignment: Lawful good. He had quickly developed a reputation as an incredibly nice guy.
And then there was Katarina. Class: Sorceress! Level: 1. Clad in the standard 2L-clone-just-bought-lightweight-wool-dark-suit uniform. But summer associates were well advised to stand out for their work quality rather than their appearance, so her choice probably indicated decent judgment. Something about her, however, exuded a certain geekiness.
“This is Tyler. He also went to Harvard, and then he clerked for Judge Pyrrha on the Fifteenth Circuit.” Mark broke in helpfully.
“Oh, I heard her speak at Harvard last year on the original understanding of the Ninth Amendment. She was amazing,” Katarina replied.
Alignment: Libertarian.
Continue reading “My Job Is Murder: Of Solstice and Summer Associates”
The American Bar Association has a plan to help out unemployed lawyers with their student loans. Seriously. An actual plan. The National Law Journal reports:
The ABA wants the government to let unemployed graduates convert private loans into federal ones. The change could allow them to defer repaying those loans for as long as three years.
The plan is so simple and helpful that I’m almost positive Congress will find a way to horribly mess it up. The ABA wants to let people borrow money from the government to pay off their private loans. Then unemployed lawyers can put their new federal loans into deferment for up to three years if they need to.
The effort is in its early stages — executives of the largest provider of private law school loans, Access Group Inc., weren’t even aware of it, according to spokeswoman Linda Smith.
“This is really intended to give them some breathing room,” said ABA President Carolyn Lamm.
The plan was proposed by the ABA’s recently formed Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs, which is examining how lawyers can confront the recession.
Of course, nobody knows precisely how the plan is going to work.
Continue reading “The ABA Has a Plan for Law School Loans”
The Associated Press reports that John J. O’Connor III died today at 79 of complications arising from Alzheimer’s disease.
John and Sandra Day O’Connor met as law students at Stanford.
The O’Connors were married in 1952 and became a leading couple on Washington’s social scene when they moved from Arizona in 1981 following her confirmation as the first woman on the Supreme Court.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stepped down from the Supreme Court in 2005 in order to care for her husband as his Alzheimer’s disease worsened.
Husband of retired Justice O’Connor dies [Associated Press]
Justice O’Connor’s Husband Dead at 79 [BLT]
Sandra Day O’Connor’s Husband Dies [Washington Post]
We’ve mentioned Corri Fetman before, mainly because she’s a lawyer who has posed for Playboy. But today she’s making news that doesn’t have anything to do with her boobs. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The Chicago divorce lawyer who stirred up controversy with a racy billboard for her law firm and later bared it all for Playboy is now being sued by the magazine.
Playboy alleges in a suit filed Monday that Corri Fetman is trying to steal the phrase “Lawyer of Love” that it coined for an advice column Fetman briefly wrote for the magazine’s Web site.
Alright, today’s Corri Fetman’s news is tangentially related to her boobs.
Fetman isn’t one to receive service from Playboy lying down. In fact she fired the first shot at Playboy.
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Corri Fetman (a.k.a. Lawyer of Love) Sued By Playboy”
In today’s Morning Docket, we mentioned the recent benchslap administered to Sidley Austin by Judge Diane Cannon (pictured), an Illinois state court judge. Lynne Marek of the NLJ reports:
A court hearing on Tuesday in Chicago at which former Northwestern University journalism students planned to fight a subpoena for their records and grades turned into a judicial lambasting of their Sidley Austin lawyers.
It started when Judge Diane Gordon Cannon of the Cook County Circuit Court called the lawyers, partner Richard O’Brien and associate Linda Friedlieb, to the bench before prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office had even arrived. She asked who had written the brief she was holding. O’Brien and Friedlieb responded that they had submitted the reply supporting the motion to quash the subpoena.
Judge Cannon was, suffice it to say, not happy about the Sidley Austin brief.
Her Honor’s complaints — plus discussion of whether they were justified, and a reader poll — after the jump.
Continue reading “The Sidley Brief in the McKinney Matter:
Was It Appropriate?”
