Looking to spruce up your wardrobe for fall recruiting season? Whether you’re a law student interviewing for jobs, a partner in pursuit of a top recruit, or unemployed and waiting for the Rapture, it’s important to look your best.
Working together with Gilt Groupe, which hosts invitation-only sales of luxury brands at prices up to 70% off retail, we’ve put together a special sale just for Above the Law readers. Here’s your chance to snap up sharp and sophisticated clothing, footwear and accessories, from some of the most trusted names in menswear. See, e.g., Thomas Pink; Cole Haan; A. Testoni; Calvin Klein.
Your Above the Law editors are excited about the deals. Lat’s been on a juice fast and needs skinny slacks. Elie… does not, but his wife likes it when Elie rocks the Elie (Tahari — whose shirts will be on sale).
Check out the wares here. The sale starts today at noon and is for a limited time only — so act now, or your purchase may be time-barred. Happy shopping!
Above the Law Custom Store [Gilt Man]
Ed. note: Adrian Dayton is a lawyer and writer who advises law firms about business development through social media. He will be writing a series of guest posts for Above the Law about social media.
The opening sequence of Enemy at the Gates begins with a volunteer Russian soldier named Vassili being forced into the range of German machine guns in the Battle of Stalingrad. Unfortunately for Vassili (played by Jude Law), the Russian army has more soldiers to spare than guns. So although all the soldiers are given guns, only half the soldiers, including Vassili, are given a clip with five bullets.
As soldiers fall all around him, Vassili can’t seem to find a gun. After the battle is almost over, German machine guns are shooting any wounded men who try to escape. It is a hopeless situation, but Vassili finally gets his hands on a gun — and makes five perfect kill shots, taking down five German soldiers, including a German officer. A nearby witness writes up the account in the military newspaper, and Vassili becomes a famous sniper.
In response to last week’s post, “The All-or-Nothing Social Media Skeptics,” a few lawyers expressed frustration that I didn’t provide more concrete strategies, case studies, and tactics on utilizing social media. I won’t cover case studies on this post, although you can find some here, but I will give some specific tactics….
Continue reading “Social Media Lessons from a Russian Sniper”
We apologize again for yesterday’s technical difficulties, but if you thought we weren’t going to weigh in on the Hooters anti-fatty policy you haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention. Yesterday, a Michigan judge ruled that a weight discrimination case brought against Hooters restaurants could go forward.
When the suit was filed, back in May, I sarcastically quipped about fat people being a protected class in Michigan. Apparently, that’s exactly what’s happening. The WSJ Law Blog reports:
According to this story from the Grand Rapids Press, the suit cites Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by employers based on a number of factors. Height and weight discrimination were added in a 1976 amendment by then-state Rep. Thomas Mathieu.
Mathieu originally introduced the height and weight amendment because he was “flabbergasted” by the number of cases of unfairness involving women seeking office jobs who possessed the necessary skills and personality, but were overweight.
Let’s all take a moment to reflect on the necessary skills and personality needed to be a Hooter’s waitress…
Continue reading “Hooters and the Heavy Consequences of Having Boobs”
Ed. note: This post was compiled by one of our seven Morning Docket finalists. The finalists will be handling MD all week. As always, we welcome your thoughts in the comments.
* At Walmart you can save money and live better, except if you’re a woman. [New York Times]
* Zenovia Evans is fighting for law school transparency, one lie at a time. [Huffington Post]
* Surprisingly, bigger isn’t always better at Hooters. [WSJ Law Blog]
* California jury trials are slower than rush hour on the 405, but a new law might change that. [National Law Journal]
* It’s likely that Lindsay Lohan’s probation-mandated 12 steps will lead her back to her drug dealer. [Associated Press]
* Tiger’s divorce may have affected his golf, but you know his game is still in full swing. [New York Times
* I'm on a board, I'm on a board, SEC look at me 'cause I got proxy access to a board. [Wall Street Journal]
Ken Mehlman: Yup, he's gay.
Back in June, we wrote about the fabulous Chelsea apartment snapped up by prominent Republican lawyer Ken Mehlman. Although his résumé is strewn with achievements — he’s a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School (just like President Obama), a former partner at Akin Gump, and a current executive vice-president at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (ka-ching!) — Mehlman is most well-known as former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Because Mehlman settled in Chelsea — and took up residence in the Chelsea Mercantile building, home to such A-list gays as Marc Jacobs and Lance Bass — we couldn’t resist a little innuendo. Despite his status as a leading official of the Republican Party, which hasn’t always been down with the gays, Mehlman has long been dogged by rumors that he is a homosexual.
Now we don’t have to worry about Mehlman suing us for defamation — and litigating the interesting issue of whether calling someone a big old nelly queen constitutes defamation per se in New York. Mehlman just publicly admitted that he’s gay, in an interview with Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic. (The publication of the interview may have been accelerated, thanks to a nudge from Mike Rogers of BlogActive.)
Let’s take a closer look at the pink elephant in the room….
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Gay, Er, Day: Ken Mehlman”
Judge Royce Lamberth
Ed. note: Apologies for the technical difficulties today. Our tech team is investigating.
* This Venn diagram reveals all you need to know about what lawyers put in their bios. [the [non]billable hour]
* Is Judge Royce Lamberth (D.D.C.), the judge behind the injunction on stem-cell research funding, about to get benchslapped by the D.C. Circuit? Professor Glenn Cohen thinks it’s possible — but in the meantime, the ruling is “a disaster for the Obama administration.” [Concurring Opinions]
* If mouthy blogger Hal Turner had threatened this Georgia state court judge, he’d be lucky to wind up in prison. [ABA Journal]
* Here’s a good overview of recent legal blogging, covering the Blagojevich verdict (or non-verdict); some British legal concerns (celebrity privacy, European arrest warrants, Doctor Who, and Top Gear-related legal issues); and associate deferrals. [Infamy or Praise]
* Wachtell M&A partner Craig Wasserman, RIP. [Am Law Daily]
If there was any real spirit of conscientious agitation for liberty left in America, people would be dressing up with Native American war-paint, heading down to New York Harbor, and tossing bags of bagels in the drink. The New York Post reports:
Only Albany could find a way to tax a cut.
The cash-strapped state has been enforcing a bizarre distinction in the tax laws which requires delis and food peddlers to impose a levy on sliced bagels — even though there is no tax when the breakfast staple is sold whole.
The story broke yesterday and since then I’ve been spending most of my time figuring out how many New York State politicians I can vote against this fall. Albany can rape smokers like me as much as they want. But screwing around with New York City bagels is another thing entirely. They may take our lands, but they’ll never take our lox.
I’ve been too apoplectic to think about this from a legal perspective. So I reached out to Caleb Newquist, editor of our sister site, Going Concern. Read about all of the interesting tax implications for a state he calls the “biggest fiscal sh**show.” Meanwhile, once the whether clears up, meet me at South Street. I’ll be the svelte, sexy black man dressed up like the last Mohican trying to appear inconspicuous.
Read about Albany’s oppressive tax plan on Going Concern.
Albany Risking Outright Anarchy Enforcing Taxes on Sliced Bagels [Going Concern]
NY’s cut of bagel ‘dough’ [New York Post]
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So the debate over the Park51 project, which would place a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero, is purely about sensitivity — right? No bigotry here?
Well, somebody please tell that to Muslim cab drivers in New York City. One of them was stabbed, apparently for the crime of being a Muslim. New York 1 reports on the sad tale:
Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.
Police say the passenger asked the driver, “Are you Muslim?” When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.
The cabbie survived the attack and is being treated at an area hospital.
Alright, this happened. Now everybody take a deep breath…
Continue reading “You See What Happens, Larry? NYC Cabbie Stabbed Because He’s Muslim”
Have you been eying that pretty blonde you see on the train every morning on your way to work? Have you ever waited for the subway for over an hour on a Saturday night, drunk, really wishing you had an extra five bucks in your wallet so you could hop into a cab? Or simply, have you wanted to know the road conditions of your morning commute?
As with everything else in life these, now there’s an app for that.
Bumped.in, Fare/Share, and Waze are part of a slew of social networks for daily commuters that have cropped up over the past couple of months hoping to make your travel time more enjoyable. So for users who wish to log in, they’ll probably be someone else on the other end, willing to chat with you on the train, share a cab, or give you road updates — all based on your phone’s GPS system.
But with so much information out there, there’s the obvious question — how do you know that all the stalkers aren’t going to come out of the woodwork? How safe is your data?
Read more and comment on AltTransport…
He bakes the most wonderful pies I have ever tasted in my life.
– McLean resident Joan Bretz, discussing her neighbor Joshua Gessler, the Arnold & Porter associate and George Mason adjunct law professor accused of producing child pornography.
This one is going to get really weird, really quickly. See if you can spot the civil rights violation.
Issue 1: City council of Alexandria, Virginia, approves a permit for a new barbecue restaurant.
Issue 2: The restaurant will have an open-air, gas grille.
Did you see the potential violation? No? Well, you’re just not thinking like a lawyer — or, at the very least, you’re not thinking like an insane person. The Alexandria Gazette Packet reports:
Del Ray Attorney Ed Ablard is challenging the restaurant as a violation of his civil rights. Because the gas-fueled smoker will release particulate matter into the air, his suit charges, his civil rights will be violated.
Is a white man claiming that a barbecue joint is somehow racist towards white people? No, it’s way more crazy than that…
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: White Man Claims BBQ Joint Violates His Civil Rights”
Lindsay Lohan
Ed. note: This post was compiled by one of our seven Morning Docket finalists. The finalists will be handling MD all week. As always, we welcome your thoughts in the comments.
* I’ll take the rapist for 200, Alex. The attorney for two women who accused the WikiLeaks Grand Poobah of sex crimes denies any involvement by the Pentagon or the CIA. [CNN]
* Stem cell judge has a history of ticking off presidents and playing cards with Scalia. [Washington Post]
* Civil Libertarians upset over “pay to play” high school sports in California. Libertarians fire back that there is no such thing as a free school lunch. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Lindsay Lohan was released from UCLA Medical Center yesterday. No word yet on which lucky UCLA law student got to chauffeur her home. [New York Post]
* The Brits aren’t sick of eggs. Hopefully you guys aren’t sick of egg stories. [New York Times]
* Tyler Perry’s Lawyers Prevail in Plagiarism Lawsuit. I smell a movie title. [Am Law Daily]
* Will the Justice Department weigh in with an amicus brief in the Proposition 8 case? Unclear. Is Perry v. Schwarzenegger the coolest case name ever? Yes. [National Law Journal]
It’s been a while since we’ve had a true contestant for the title of most depressing job offered to a law student. Sure, there have been a lot of jobs that offer $10 an hour, or even $0 an hour, for legal work. But at least those jobs were offering the opportunity to put long years of legal education to some sort of use.
No, the most depressing jobs for would-be lawyers in this economy are jobs they could have easily gotten before they went to law school. Or college. Really, the most depressing job I’ve seen appeared last year, when University of Texas law students were given the opportunity to do some babysitting for extra money. That’s an opportunity you present to responsible high school students, not students at the fifteenth-best law school in the country.
If you thought those days were behind us, think again. Take a look at the job that was blasted out yesterday to students at the other law school ranked #15, UCLA Law.
Traffic in L.A. is notoriously horrible, and now one UCLA law student might profit from his or her stop-and-go driving skills…
Continue reading “UCLA Law Offers Most Depressing Job to a Law Student (2010 Edition)”
* What’s the matter with Kansas Georgia? First the judges, and now the cops (who have been accused of racial profiling in a new lawsuit). [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
* In other Georgia legal news, a federal judge has issued a 172-page opinion finding that convicted cop killer Troy Davis is not actually innocent. [SCOTUSblog via Sentencing Law and Policy]
* Fashion industry lawyer Anne Sterba explains why Madonna, the original “Material Girl,” can be successfully sued for trademark infringement relating to her “Material Girl” clothing line. [Fashionista]
* Not all lawyers go off the clock while on the can; why should factory workers? [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Some thoughts from Nicole Black on how large law firms can use social media. [Sui Generis]
* Why is Obama so darn hard to mock? [Althouse]
Yesterday, after whining about law schools on NPR, I motored over to the Fox headquarters on Sixth Avenue. They wanted me on to to talk about a post I did a couple of weeks ago, encouraging oil-spill victims to take their BP money from the $20 billion fund being administered by Ken Feinberg, instead of pursuing private lawsuits against BP. For the debate, they brought on a plaintiff’s lawyer.
I thought it was a good segment, and I do believe the BP fund will be better for the victims (and the justice system) than a slew of plaintiff’s lawyers jumping on BP — and taking a sizable cut out of whatever damages a judge (most likely) reduces.
But a commenter noted something that a few people have told me privately:
Ellie [sic], I think you are on the brink of finally embracing the fallacy of prudential regulation and the idea that government or semi-government programs are ever going to be able to take care of someone who refuses to take the most basic steps of self-preservation. I saw you on Fox News and I bet you vote Republican this November.
I don’t think I was accessing my inner elephant. But check out the clip and tell me what you think…
Continue reading “Elie on Fox Business: Do I Sound Republican to You?”
While expressing a commitment to maintain its new, incredibly transparent, merit-based salary structure, Orrick is moving its base salary back to reaffirming its commitment to $160,000 for first-year associates working in major markets. That’s right, the time for $145K in big offices is almost at an end.
UPDATE: Initially spokespeople from Orrick termed the move as one back to $160K, but our previous reporting didn’t indicate that Orrick ever came off the $160K starting salary — even after its switch to merit-based compensation. Sources now confirm that Orrick was at $160K all along; today’s salary announcement will primarily affect veteran associates.
From the memo associates received from Orrick’s CEO, Ralph Baxter:
I am pleased to announce an increase to our 2011 base salary schedule for partner track associates in our US offices. This salary schedule will be effective January 1, 2011. We will continue to monitor the legal market and will make any further adjustments necessary to remain competitive.
This change in our salary scale reinforces our continued commitment to be competitive with the world’s leading law firms and to attract and retain the best legal talent. We will continue to ensure that your total compensation reflects the increasing value you contribute to our clients and the firm through the new talent model’s performance-based career progression and bonuses that are driven by merit rather than solely by billable hours.
And there’s more good news: Orrick bumped up each of its associate “tier” levels. This means that, assuming Orrick associates get promoted “on time” relative to their peers at lockstep firms, Orrick’s base salary will once again match the market…
Continue reading “Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Orrick”
We’ve completely updated the Summer Associate Program sections in each of the Firm Snapshots with the 2010 summer associate survey results and the latest news. With on-campus interviewing already underway at most schools, law students won’t want to miss getting the inside scoop on the highlights – and lowlights – of each firm’s summer program.
So head on over to the Career Center to see how the firm you summered at, or want to interview with, stacks up. Highlights include:
- Summer associates at this litigation powerhouse brag that their “workload is super light,” completing one to five assignments over the course of the 12-week summer program, and typically spending about five hours a day on billable work. Just don’t expect to be making the lunch rounds at the city’s trendiest restaurants. Summers eat in at the firm’s dining room, which serves free but “excellent” lunch daily.
- It certainly pays to have high-profile clients at this firm, which treats its summer associates to unique social events like the Tony Awards and the NBA Draft.
- The line between summer and full-time associates is blurred at this firm, with summers “put[ting] in well over 80 hours” during some weeks to complete 15 or more assignments during the eight-week summer program. Despite their high work demands, these summer associates still find the time to be do-gooders by volunteering to cook at the Ronald McDonald House for kids and their families.
- The good old days never left this firm. Summer associates typically bill about four hours a day on assignments, leave at 5:30 p.m., play softball at Fenway Park, and still get 100% offers. But you might want to think about taking an extended post-bar trip, since you might not start work on time as a first-year associate.
- No complaints at this firm, which gives summer associates “exactly the work that they want” and still provides a “very generous” $65 lunch budget in New York. Be sure to brush up on your foreign language skills; one-third of the summer class gets to spend up to three weeks working in one of the firm’s overseas offices
For information on the summer programs at all the top firms visit the Career Center.
UMass School of Law (fka Southern New England School of Law) is open for business. Orientation happened last week, and students started classes yesterday, at Massachusetts’s first public law school.
As has been well-documented in these pages, I’m unimpressed. Put simply: there isn’t enough of a demand for new lawyers right now to justify a revamped public law school — no matter how many times you emphasize the word “public” in your press releases.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to voice my concerns to the dean of UMass Law, Robert Ward, on NPR’s Radio Boston program. Click here to listen (I start running my mouth at the 8:30 mark).
I was asked on the program to provide an alternative perspective to the dean, and that’s what I did. But the mentality of the callers was particularly interesting. They really illustrated why there is so much support for more law schools…
Continue reading “UMass Law School is Open: Law Dean Robert Ward and I Talk About It”
