Above The Law's Top Ten Most Popular Stories of 2009

We thought about trying to curate a list of the most important legal stories of 2009. But then the National Law Journal upped the ante with the Biggest Stories of the Decade.

Rather than telling you what was most important, we’re enlisting Google Analytics to tell you what was most popular at Above The Law this year, based on pageviews and traffic. After AboveTheLaw.com itself, the most clicked ATL url was our Layoffs tag, reflecting one of the most important ongoing stories here this year.

Hopefully, that’s not the case in 2010.

So what were the most popular posts at ATL in 2009?

10. Now this is a cover letter: ‘Unemployed J.D. Candidate’ sent his resume and transcript to Bingham McCutchen, as well as a cover letter compiling the praise he has received from other top firms in their rejection letters. Points for creativity, but Bingham wasn’t impressed enough to hire him.

The rest of the top ten, after the jump.

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9. Nationwide Layoff Watch: Latham Cuts 440 (190 Associates, 250 Staff): In 2008, Latham & Watkins was crowned Biglaw’s coolest firm. In 2009, it became downright icy.

8. Justice Scalia Responds to Fordham Privacy Invasion!: After we discovered that Fordham law professor Joel Reidenberg had assigned his class to digitally stalk Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, we reached out to the Supreme Court for a comment. Nino did not disappoint.

7. Davis Polk’s Website Makeover: Now With 100 Percent Way More Hotties!: Davis Polk & Wardwell has a reputation for hiring the best, brightest, and most beautiful. When they rolled out a new website this year, they put their assets on display.

6. Nationwide Layoff Getting Laid Watch: White & Case: An attorney in White & Case’s Miami office got caught up in a love triangle involving a married woman, who we nicknamed SexyLexus. A transcript of their BlackBerry sext messages made the rounds at White & Case and beyond thanks to her cuckolded husband.

5. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to New York (Or: Pillsbury associates, brace yourselves.): This likely resulted in Pillsbury partner Robert Robbins making it a policy to sit in the quiet car on the Acela.

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4. U.S. News 2010 Law School Rankings: Who doesn’t love lists?

3. Ballard Spahr Does Body Shots: Ballard Spahr’s website makeover was even more fun than Davis Polk’s. The firm has two photos for each of its associates: a head shot and a body shot. When we polled you, over 68% of respondents said they objected to their firm making them take a body shot. After our post went up, a good number of the female associates whose profiles we linked had their photos taken down. But the men don’t seem to mind being ogled.

2. Breaking: A Sad Day at Kilpatrick Stockton: After being laid off, Mark Levy, the 59-year-old chair of the firm’s Supreme Court practice group, shot himself in his D.C. office.

1. Quinn Emanuel Associate Has Reservations About ‘Redskin’ Victory: After Quinn brought home a win for the Redskins against Native Americans offended by the team’s name, partner Robert Raskopf sent out a firm-wide email announcing the victory that was 17 years in coming. One first-year associate unwisely hit Reply All to let him know that not everyone at the firm was happy for him.

Those were our top stories of 2009: a mix of humor, tragedy, and gossip. If you had favorite stories that didn’t make the cut, feel free to volunteer them in the comments.