March 2010
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Art, Biglaw, Career Alternatives
ATL Field Trip: Playing With LEGOs on a Saturday
This past weekend, two of your ATL editors paid a visit to Agora Gallery in Chelsea. We wanted to see for ourselves the LEGO brick sculptures of Nathan Sawaya, the lawyer turned LEGO artist. As explained in our profile of Sawaya, the NYU Law grad left Winston & Strawn for a $30,000-a-year job as a […]
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When I first read this headline on the ABA Journal this morning, I became very excited: Poll Finds 55% Would Support Openly Gay Justice Gay Justice? How awesome! Justice is way too straight. Basic black letter laws and stuffy proceedings. It’d be far more exciting and visually interesting if Lady Justice was a little bit […]
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“I’ve landed a job as an associate at a top law firm, but why am I paying 7% on my student loans?”
I became a lawyer without really understanding that the job cuts time off of your life. My work hours are long, I can’t see my family or friends, and I am constantly at the mercy of the partner or the client. On top of everything, at one point, I was paying 7% on my law school loans. […]
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Latham Lathams Accrued Vacation
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 […]
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Bad Ideas, Pornography, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: Because Law School Is About Learning How to Screw People
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.
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Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Private Investigation / Business Intelligence
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 […]
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* 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 […]
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USC’s Ultimate Solution for Student Debt
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 […]
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* 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 […]
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In-House Counsel, Litigatrix, Musical Chairs, White & Case
Musical Chairs: Another White & Case Partner Departure
Jennifer Yokoyama Goes In-House to Nike.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 […]
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Lessons Learned from the Top eDiscovery Cases and Trends from 2014
The adage that law turns slowly does not hold in eDiscovery. This year saw unprecedented sanction awards for falling behind the curve. Courts did not hesitate to engage with advanced and nuanced technological issues. For lawyers and other eDiscovery professionals who plan on maintaining basic competence, these cases and trends shouldn’t be overlooked. For a full exploration of trends and developments in this area of case law, check out this on-demand webinar.
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Utah Invokes Eminent Domain Against the Federal Government
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 […]
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Email Scandals, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Screw-Ups, Tax Law
Here’s One Way To Reveal Your Firm’s Non-Equity Partners
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 […]
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The Proskauer-to-Cadwalader Litigation Defections: Another Perspective
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 […]
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Crime, DUI / DWI, Law Schools, Police
Northwestern SBA President Now In Trouble With the Real Police (UPDATE: Charge Dismissed)
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.” […]
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The prospect of Lady Justice blindfolded and on roller skates is simply too terrifying to contemplate. – Dahlia Lithwick
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Most Influential Lawyers of the Aughts
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 […]
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Are You Breaking the Law Right Now?
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 […]
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* 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 […]
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This Week in Layoffs: 03.28.10
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 […]
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KINNEY’S TOP DOGS IN HONG KONG OVER THE NEXT 10 DAYS
For about the 40th time in the last five years, Kinney Recruiting’s got a team flying to Hong Kong for visits with clients and candidates. Please feel free to reach out to Evan and Robert at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com and set up a meeting with them if you would like to discuss your career and the market.
