June 2010
-
Clerkships, Election Law, Politics, State Judges, Weirdness
Looking for a Job? Wanna Be a Minnesota Judge?Some updates in the bizarre MN judgeship situation.
Yesterday we broke the story of a strange situation concerning a Minnesota judicial race. Judge Thomas G. Armstrong (10th District Court 3), a 30-year veteran of the bench, filed to run for reelection last month. Unsurprisingly, the longtime judge was initially unopposed. Hours before the filing deadline — which fell on Tuesday, June 1, at […] -
Biglaw, Partner Issues
New Managing Partners Bringing New Blood to BiglawLeadership changes at Baker & McKenzie, Dechert.
Over the last 24 hours, there have been some managing partner shake-ups at some notable large law firms. Let’s tackle the news in Vault order. First up: Baker & McKenzie. The firm has gone international to find its next managing partner. The WSJ Law Blog reports: [I]f anyone had any doubts about the firm’s commitment […] - Sponsored
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar on April 10th, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Associate Advice, pls hndle thx
Pls Hndle Thx: The FAQs
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com. Here at the Pls Hndle Thx factory located in my parents’ basement, we receive hundreds of emails a week begging us for advice. And by “hundreds of emails,” I mean two, one of which I’m pretty confident Elie writes and sends from […]
-
Biglaw, Billable Hours
The Hours: Results
Earlier this week, we ran an open thread how people are doing on their hours. We also had a survey asking people to tell us how many hours they are on track for. We received strong reader participation in the poll, but there was a flaw in the survey. According to commenters: elie. you need […] -
Crime, Lawyer of the Day, Violence
A Defense Lawyer Who's Not Afraid of a Fight
Yesterday’s Lawyer of the Day was a public defender who could use a little defending himself — after he allegedly choked a prosecutor. Inside a courthouse, of all places. The story is even better than we first reported. From the Chicago Sun-Times: The men went downstairs to the first floor, where [public defender Henry] Hams […] -
Fantasy SCOTUS, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
FantasySCOTUS: Revisiting American Needle, Graham v. Florida, Comstock, and Berghuis
The Supreme Court is headed down the home stretch. Of the 86 cases argued during the October 2009 term, 59 have been decided and only 27 are remaining. While we are still waiting for results the biggest cases of the term, including McDonald v. Chicago, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, and Doe v. Reed, the […] -
Biglaw, Feminism, Gender, Kids, Women's Issues
Will New York's Nanny Law Make It Harder for Career Women?
The New York State Senate yesterday passed its version of the Nanny Law. If signed by Governor Paterson, the law would require employers to give domestic workers paid vacation and sick days, as well as 14 days notice before termination. The benefits would apply to legal and illegal immigrants. Essentially, it would require people to […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.04.10
* The papers of Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom Elena Kagan clerked, may offer the left some reassurance on Kagan’s liberal bona fides. [CBS News] * Meanwhile, a USA Today/Gallup poll finds that public support for confirming Kagan is a little on the low side compared to that of other recent nominees (except for Harriet […]
- Sponsored
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Learn how emerging tools will likely change and enhance the work of lawyers for years to come in this new report. -
Admin, Announcements, Media and Journalism, Shameless Plugs, Technology
An ATL Housekeeping Announcement: The Full RSS Feed Is Back
Ed. note: If you don’t access Above the Law through an RSS reader, or if you don’t even know what an RSS reader is, feel free to ignore this post. To those of you who have been clamoring for a restoration of ATL’s full RSS feed, your pleas have not fallen on deaf ears. We’ve […] -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 06.03.10
* In case there was any doubt, here’s photographic proof that Jerry O’Connell’s new show “The Defenders” is at least in part based on some crazy lawyers in Vegas. [Wild Wild Law] * If you require the services of Lat’s parents, make sure you ask for the ATL discount. [Bergen Record] * University of San […] -
Law Schools, Movies, Videos, YouTube
Law Student of the Day: Star Wars Kid
Hello, what have we here? Based on the approximately ten billion emails we’ve received about this into tips@abovethelaw.com in the last few hours, it seems a lot of you already know that the “Star Wars kid” has decided to attend law school. We think the first Kamino-like flood of emails linked to the story on […] -
American Bar Association / ABA, Wall Street
ABA Trying to Push Back Against the Financial Reform Bill
The ABA might remain silent when it comes to stopping law schools from taking financial advantage of law students. They might pass rules that allow legal work to flow freely overseas, damaging the livelihoods of lawyers back home. But when it comes to Congress potentially stepping in to regulate lawyers, the organization finds its voice […] -
Crime, Lawyer of the Day, Violence
Lawyer of the Day: Public Defender Needs Defending
Apparently there was a choking in Chicago — and it didn’t involve the Cubs. From the Chicago Sun-Times: A Cook County prosecutor was hospitalized this morning after being choked in a hallway of the 26th and California criminal courthouse, allegedly by an assistant public defender, police said. The 50-year-old assistant state’s attorney “might be injured […]
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
This AI-Powered Document Tool Will Meet You Where You Are
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Sponsored
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
-
Clerkships, Election Law, Politics, State Judges, Weirdness
Did a Minnesota judge and his law clerk attempt to collude to put a clerk on the bench?
Something odd is going on in the great state of Minnesota. The deadline for filing to run for judicial office in the North Star State was this past Tuesday, June 1, at 5 PM. Incumbent judges usually face no challengers, since it’s practically impossible to unseat an even marginally competent incumbent. One such incumbent was […] -
BP, Disasters / Emergencies, Jamie Gorelick
Can Jamie Gorelick Clean Up BP's Mess?
Jamie Gorelick is a Washington D.C. power lawyer. She’s a former Deputy Attorney General, former general counsel to the Defense Department, and current partner at WilmerHale, where she chairs the national security and public policy practice groups. She’s had — and continues to have — an amazing career. But does she really want to be […] -
Baseball, Sports
Free Legal Advice For Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig
Last night, I was momentarily distracted from watching the Mets blow another Johan Santana start by the game between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. As most sports fans already know, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game last night — only he didn’t get credit for it, because umpire Jim Joyce blew the […] -
Federal Judges, Quote of the Day, S.D.N.Y.
Quote of the Day: And maybe the Court worked one summer as a waitress, too?
[D]efendants oppose the motion on the grounds that the plaintiffs have failed to specify what their job duties are, and so have not established that they and the other members of the proposed class are similarly situated. This is a ridiculous argument. The Court has not spent her life under a toadstool — I know […] -
Citigroup, Hotties, Ridiculousness, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, Wall Street
Lawsuit of the Day: Woman Claims She Was Fired for Being Too Attractive
You know something is capturing cultural attention when your mother asks, “Did you write about that woman who got fired for being attractive?” Earlier this week, the Village Voice ran a cover story on a woman who is suing Citibank for wrongful termination. She claims that her bosses found her too hot — and thus […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.03.10
* J.P. Morgan Chase gets smacked, hard. [Wall Street Journal] * The Blagojevich trial is going to be more dramatic than TNT’s summer lineup. [Chicago Sun-Times] * Southern prosecutors are still very successful at excluding African-Americans from juries. [New York Times] * .. Which isn’t to say the South hasn’t made a lot of progress. […]
-
Judge of the Day, Marijuana, Minority Issues, Racism, Rudeness, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns
Judge of the Day: Peggy GehlFloridian jurist admires Jews; Jamaicans, not so much.
Southern Florida has been hit by a storm of insensitivity that has achieved gale force — Peggy Gehl force. Complaints about Judge Peggy Gehl and inappropriate comments she allegedly made from the bench were recently lodged with Chief Judge Victor Tobin of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. (The story broke last week in the South Florida […]