March 2010

In a move that can best be described as cheap, Latham & Watkins joins a growing list of firms that will not allow associates to accrue vacation time. Why would a firm deny its associates the opportunity to get paid out for unused vacation days when they leave the firm (voluntarily or involuntarily)? Because it […]

I was trying to engage my class, moving about the room, and I saw a student watching a graphic porn video on his laptop. Really? And this guy hopes to be a practicing lawyer in nine months? — An unidentified law professor, complaining about student laptop misuse in class.

Welcome to the latest installment in our career alternatives series, in which we explore opportunities for attorneys outside the world of large law firms. We know and love the world of Biglaw — it’s our focus here at Above the Law — but we realize that there are other things you can do with a […]

* Could dirty chickens take money away from legal Terrapins? [Food Safety News and Maryland Reporter] * The Ninth Circuit finds that Seattle police officers were justified in Tasering a seven-month-pregnant woman three times when she refused to get out of her car and sign a speeding ticket. Dissenting judge Marsha Berzon thinks justice was […]

A tipster reports that USC’s Gould School of Law has a new proactive solution to student debt: death or permanent and total disability. That’s right, USC kids. If you can’t get a job coming out of the Gould School of Law, you could always just die. Perhaps not the J.D. you had in mind when […]

* Do female suicide bombers get to hook up with virgins in paradise? Would that even be desirable? I mean, aren’t virgin men the nice way of saying “men who are pathetically incompetent in bed”? [Slate] * Here’s a counter-argument to my anti-sin tax post. I’d agree with the argument if sin taxes weren’t imposed […]

We’ve written before about partner departures from White & Case. Earlier this month, we discussed the firm’s Palo Alto office, which has recently lost some talent. The latest partner to leave: patent litigator Jennifer L. Yokoyama, who has accepted an in-house position at Nike. Her departure from W&C is effective April 2. “We are sorry […]

This is the kind of story that sounds unbelievable — until you realize that it’s dealing with the people who run Utah. The WSJ Law Blog reports: Utah Governor Gary Herbert on Saturday authorized the use of eminent domain to take some of the U.S. government’s most valuable parcels. A state is invoking the Takings […]

It’s one of the few things still shrouded in secrecy at most firms: which partners have equity in the firm and which don’t. Actual partners, of course, get a share in the firm’s profits, and are part of the PPP calculations reported by Am Law. Non-equity partners get the partner honorific, but in actuality they’re […]

Earlier this month, we broke the news of three prominent Proskauer partners — Louis Solomon, Hal Shaftel, and Colin Underwood — jumping ship to Cadwalader. In addition, Michael Lazaroff, who has been senior counsel at Proskauer, will join Cadwalader as special counsel (as noted in the New York Law Journal). In its press release, Cadwalader […]

CORRECTION AND UPDATE (12/6/2010): We are advised as follows by a knowledgeable source: “There was never a charge of ‘fleeing’ the police or anything of the sort. Todd was, in fact, ‘pulled over’ while parked in the parking lot of his hotel and the only charge against him, driving under the influence, has been dismissed.” […]

The prospect of Lady Justice blindfolded and on roller skates is simply too terrifying to contemplate. — Dahlia Lithwick

Today, the National Law Journal lets us in on an ambitious project. The publication has tried to identify the 40 most influential lawyers of the decade. The 40 people they came up with are relatively well known to the general Above the Law readership, but they won’t be household names to your lay-friends: The list […]

The high cost of living in New York is no secret. It may be contributing, at least in part, to D.C.’s current thrashing of New York in our 2010 March Madness competition. But could New York’s expensiveness also be contributing to… a wave of rampant illegality in NYC? If you’re a Gothamite, is your living […]

* The Chicago Tribune takes a close look at the Tribune Company’s bankruptcy bills, and doesn’t like that Sidley Austin has charged $110,000 for photocopies. [Chicago Tribune via Romenesko] * The lawyer behind the legal discovery that has brought sex abuse in the Catholic Church — and Pope Benedict XVI’s knowledge of it — to […]

Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker. In February, unemployment rose in 27 states and declined in just six. We already knew the unemployment rate was steady at 9.7%, but as we’ve […]

New York readers can attest to the nasty weather on Monday night. Unfortunately, I had scheduled two blind dates for ATL Courtship Connections that evening. Everyone was wet and not in the good way. Well, actually, there was some good wetness on one of the dates. One date ended with a make-out session in the […]

* Susan Finkelstein (pictured), the Philadelphia Phillies fan who offered love for World Series tickets, was convicted for attempted prostitution. [Legal Blog Watch] * If California legalizes pot, maybe all the voters will get high and support gay marriage. Free love. [True/Slant] * Can somebody please tell me who the hell Justin Beiber is? [THR […]

The Supreme Court has yet to decide 56 cases for the October 2009 term. In this installment, we provide predictions for Bilski v. Kappos, American Needle Inc. v. NFL, Free Enterprise Fund and Beckstead and Watts, LLP v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Black v. United States, and Graham v. Florida. American Needle considers whether […]

Many of the things I enjoy in life (smoking, drinking, kicking children who speak out of turn) are either illegal or subject to a sin tax. Luckily, most of the laws against my illegal vices are unenforceable if I commit infractions discretely. (“I don’t know what happened to little Jimmy. He must have fallen onto […]