Former Attorney General John Ashcroft
* Asian moms aren’t always enthusiastic about alternative careers for their lawyer children. [Fresh Off the Boat via The Careerist]
* What does the foreclosure scandal say about the state of the legal profession? Professor Larry Ribstein has some thoughts. [Truth on the Market]
* An attractive blonde prosecutor, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, is going after a 16-year-old accused killer. [New York Magazine]
* Recent Michigan Law grad Nick Cheolas is blogging about his struggle with cancer. That might sound depressing, but as Radley Balko of Reason notes, “Nick’s sense of humor considerably lightens the experience.” [Get Rid of the Seaward via Hit & Run]
* The Obama Administration comes to the defense of John Ashcroft — and the Supreme Court seems sympathetic. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* Never a dull moment in the Alaska Senate race. [Instapundit]
* Former ATL contributor Piercie Shafton hosts Blawg Review #286. [Blawg Review]
I would make Mexican food and get some beer and have everyone over for dinner.
– Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, explaining how she would achieve legislative consensus among state senators in Arizona, in remarks to Cardozo law students over the weekend.
Above the Law is currently experiencing its first organized boycott. Surprisingly enough, it’s coming from readers who hate typos believe that ATL has shown insensitivity towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
UPDATE: We are pleased to report that, after some productive dialogue, the boycott appears to be over. Details below.
This came as something of a shock to us. Above the Law has several LGBT writers, and our parent company, Breaking Media, has multiple LGBT employees. If you read through our archives for LGBT issues and for marriage equality, you’ll come across coverage that is extremely supportive of and sensitive to the concerns of LGBT individuals.
So what are the boycotters upset about? Let’s find out….
Continue reading “A Response to the Boycotters of Above the Law”
My former practice at a small law firm was primarily commercial and residential real estate development. The week after my bar results came in, my boss gave me a stack of documents to read through and let me sit in on a couple of closings. I watched, listened and pretended to take notes. Then one morning he popped his head into my office.
“Why don’t you take the ten o’clock?” It was more of a command than a question, and I responded by nodding and breaking into a sweat. An hour and a half later, I thanked the parties for their patience, staggered back to my office, and began thinking about my career choice. My boss said something supportive but unconvincing, like “it’ll take a few times before you find your rhythm.”
That was my first of many direct experiences with the gap between the theory and the practice of law. This gap, which I filled mostly with sweat, is the subject of a nice post by Bill MacDonald that I stumbled into over the weekend. Specifically, he writes about three aspects of law practice that receive little, if any, attention in law school.
One of his points in particular struck a chord with me — and, given its importance to making money as a small firm lawyer, it deserves some coverage here…
Continue reading “Caveat Small Firm Hopeful: Socially Inept Need Not Apply”
Sorry fellas, this is your past, not your future.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to ruin the season finale of Mad Men for those who still have it sitting in their DVRs.
Instead, I’m here to remind people that Mad Men is a television show set in a time long since past. Much to the disappointment of white males everywhere, those days are gone and never coming back.
Of course, nostalgia (and the cultural memory of a time when white men were in unquestioned positions of dominance) is a powerful thing. It must be sad to know that winning the birth lottery doesn’t pay off quite as much as it used to. But that’s no excuse for trying to force an anachronistic worldview upon your current working environment. Society has moved on; at some point living in the past stops being “traditional” and starts getting “obsolete.”
And maybe even “illegal.” That’s the argument a former secretary at the firm of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn is trying to make. She clams that the firm’s “old-school” policies created a hostile work environment and caused her to suffer a physical injury.
According to the secretary’s lawyer, administrative assistants at Honigman are required to strut to work in high heels…
Continue reading “When Your Firm’s Secretaries Could Be Cast in Mad Men, Your Firm Has Some Problems”
Few are going to stand up in support of kiddie porn, even when it’s art. Last year, the Tate Modern proposed displaying a nude portrait of Brooke Shields at age 10. It caved on those plans after objections from the “obscene publications unit” of the London Metropolitan Police, according to Caveat Viator.
Caveat Viator offers a link to the portrait, but we’d advise against checking it out. (Go watch The Blue Lagoon instead.) Cyberlaw professor Eric Goldman calls child porn “toxic,” noting that “there is no easy way to legally cure even a single download of child porn.”
Even if it’s part of your “academic research.” A New York professor considering writing a book on how to define child porn is now serving a prison sentence because of images he downloaded in the course of his research, and images left in his cached folder from Web-browsing kiddie porn sites.
Sentences range. That professor got a one-to-three year sentence, while an Alabama man with an underage porno video discovered on his computer by the Geek Squad got 10 years, as we mentioned last week. That’s for hitting download and play, not for firing up a camera and hitting record. Is that a fair sentence, or are the penalties for kiddie porn possession too exxxtreme?
Continue reading “Are We Going Too Hard On Kiddie Porn Possessors?”
Today is the official release date of Law & Reorder, a new book by Deborah Epstein Henry, a leading consultant to the legal profession. Henry, whom we’ve interviewed and written about before, is an expert on such topics as workplace restructuring, talent management, work/life balance, and the retention and promotion of lawyers — all topics that are covered in her book.
We chatted with Henry on Friday over the phone, about the changes taking place in the legal profession, whether they’re good news or bad news, and how law students and lawyers can navigate in this new environment….
Continue reading “Law & Reorder: An Interview with Deborah Epstein Henry”
Here’s a fun little judicial sight-ation from the weekend. On Saturday night, at around 9 p.m., Justice Elena Kagan was spotted in the elevator of the luxury apartment building in downtown D.C. that she calls home.
According to our tipster, Justice Kagan was wearing “mom jeans.” And carrying a pizza.
The 112th justice of the United States Supreme Court, carrying her own pizza? This is a scandal of the highest order.
A few years ago, we were traumatized by the sight of then-Judge Michael Chertoff carrying his own takeout lunch (see here, item #4). But he was a mere circuit judge, and Elena Kagan is a Supreme Court justice.
Shouldn’t Justice Kagan have one of her clerks deliver pizza to her on Saturday night? It diminishes the dignity of the entire federal judiciary to know that an associate justice of the Supreme Court has to fetch her own pizza.
So, let’s get to the important part: What brand of pizza does Her Honor favor?
Continue reading “The Eyes of the Law: Justices Eat Pizza Too”
A third-year student at Boston College Law School made a very reasonable request of the law school’s interim dean, George D. Brown: Give me my money back.
I say it’s a reasonable request, because it is customary in this country to get a refund when you buy something that is defective in some fundamental way. And the people who won’t give you a refund are usually scam artists or a**holes.
Dean George Brown doesn’t want to pull a Mel Gibson, does he?
Well, the Boston College 3L isn’t sure that Dean Brown will do the right thing. So the student wrote an impassioned open letter to the dean, which was published by EagleiOnline…
Continue reading “Boston College 3L Asks for His Money Back; Hilarity Ensues”
You know what's sad? You could have these guys, or David PaTTTerson and Crazy Carl.
* Defending horn dog senators is not unlike the banana stand. There’s always money in both. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
* The trial of the man alleged to have killed Chandra Levy is starting today. I hope they throw the book at Condit. [Washington Post]
* Justin Bieber. Laser Tag. Allegations of assault. News. [New York Post]
* The Pentagon has a 120-member team prepared to review a massive Wikileaks document dump. DOCUMENT REVIEWERS…mount up. [Reuters]
* Mexico closely watching California marijuana vote. That and fútbol. [New York Times]
* A Toronto police officer arrested a woman over bubbles and is now suing Youtube over cartoons. What’s that all aboot, eh? [Globe and Mail via Boing Boing]
* Some lawyers “chafed” at Andrew Cuomo’s direction of the Attorney General’s office. Baby powder, guys. You’re welcome. [Wall Street Journal]
Justice Alito in a tuxedo.
* Here’s a nice write-up of Justice Samuel Alito’s Wriston Lecture (which we were lucky enough to attend on Wednesday night). [Newsmax]
* You can listen to the Wriston Lecture yourself; video is now online. [Manhattan Institute via Point of Law]
* The SEC is no friend of Angelo. [Going Concern]
* An hourly rate of $3,500 is excessive for a lawyer. Who do you think you are — Ashley Dupré? [Young Lawyers Blog]
* An interview of Betty Anne Waters, the working mother turned law student played by Hilary Swank in the new movie Conviction (opening today). [Robert Ambrogi's LawSites]
* The worst kind of massage: the legal kind. [Deadspin]
* Congrats to IP lawyer Timothy Tau, who placed second (out of thousands) in the prestigious Playboy College Fiction Contest. People do read Playboy for the articles! [Playboy]
* There’s still time to cast your vote for Yale Law School’s Most Disgraceful Graduate. [Above the Law]
Steptoe: No soup burgers for you!
As previously covered in these pages, earlier this week a D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Rogue States Burgers to cease grilling operations at its Dupont Circle location. This news was met with sadness by burger lovers in the nation’s capital, but by relief from the employees of Steptoe & Johnson. Steptoe had sued Rogue States, claiming that fumes and smells from the burger purveyor were a nuisance requiring abatement.
Rogue States complied with Judge John Mott’s order. But this may not be the final act in the drama….
Continue reading “Burger Business Busted By Biglaw Will Keep On Truckin’ Cookin’”
Earlier this week, a story in the National Law Journal (subscription) reported that the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law is weaning itself off of public funding and trying to become self-sufficient on private dollars. Towards that end, ASU will be raising tuition and admitting more law students.
I wanted to wait until I calmed down before I posted on it, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. So I broke into the Bronx Zoo this morning and stole some elephant tranquilizers. I’m going to shoot up and finish this post, now.
[Mmm... serenity...]
Continue reading “Arizona State Law School Moving Towards Private Funding Model: Prepare to be Gouged, ASU Law Students”
We’ve done a lot of coverage about deferral stipends, public interest stipends, and other direct payments to graduates who are not able to secure prime, private practice employment.
If you think about it, these programs have popped up with shocking speed. In 2007, there was no such thing as a “deferral stipend” from firms, and the public interest fellowship programs offered by schools were small and for grads who wanted to wait a little while before heading into the open arms of a private law firm. Now, these programs represent the last hope for grads who are unable to secure jobs.
With everybody trying to describe what these programs are, there’s been little time to analyze how these programs work. One aspect is particularly interesting to students considering some of these stipend options: how will the stipend be taxed.
Because each program is different, the tax situations differ wildly. So you really need to work with your career service/human resource people and figure out how your stipend will be taxed.
If you didn’t put in that work with regards to the Georgetown University Law Center post-grad public interest stipend, the taxes totally screwed up your budget…
Continue reading “Taxes Eat Away at Georgetown’s Public Interest Stipend for Some Students”
Carl Paladino’s had a bad week. A no duh. It began with a bizarrely homophobic speech to Orthodox Jewish leaders last Sunday. It continued with a sad attempt to apologize for those remarks. And Carl’s crazy exploits threaten to become The Neverending Story (sans flying dog-thing with floppy ears), as yesterday the twitterverse, blogosphere and other made-up words were filled with chatter about pornographic emails, Planned Parenthood, and a Paladino campaign adviser who marched shirtless in a gay pride parade. Really, all those things happened. A full week for anyone.
So why you gotta bring up old sh*t, Juggalo?
Because it looks like we totally missed a story that came out before this week’s avalanche of goofiness. As it turns out, Carl Paladino was a law school student once. And the Syracuse Post-Standard interviewed him about his law school career last week, only to find out embellishment might come as naturally to him as rattling off homophobic rants…
Continue reading “The Crazy Carl Chronicles: Was Paladino a Law School Paladin?”
This week, in between eating as many burgers with extra onions as I could at Rogue States, and lobbying heavily for my law school to be more like Harvard and hide their GPAs (in my case, I was really hoping they could implement that retroactively), I managed to collect lots of good material for this week’s Rundown.
Among other things, the Rundown features a major merger, more on predictive coding, another Masters Conference write-up, several surveys, a cartoon caption contest, how technology is helping those in pro bono — and, oh, a bit of litigation that could last a long, long time….
Continue reading “The Rundown: This Week in Legal Technology – 10.15.10″
Ed. note: The following piece was authored by The Legal Tease, of Sweet Hot Justice fame. Check out her other musings from Sweet Hot Justice here.
If you’re the kind of person who has eyes, you’ve probably noticed that you can’t throw a vial full of Botox down an airshaft lately without hitting a cougar licking her wounds in an alley down below. Whether it’s the latest crop of is-Ashton-cheating-on-Demi rumors, or this week’s bombshell about Courtney “Cougar Town” Cox’s recent humiliation at the hands of her soon-to-be-ex hubby, Hollywood news has no shortage of commentary about famous cougars. But starlets aren’t the only targets when it comes to cougar conjecture. Even here in Big Law, the hunt for so-called cougars has been steadily on the rise.
In the past six days alone, I’ve heard not one, not two, but three anecdotes from or about lady lawyers and their brushes with cougardom. The ages of the women in question ranged from 41 to—wait for it—25. Not one is married. Not one is dating. Not one is what you might consider on the prowl or overtly sexy. All have law degrees. And they’re certainly not the only single female lawyers on the unwitting receiving end the “cougar” treatment. Everyone from yours truly to, yes, the newest ladies of the SCOTUS bench, that notorious hotbed of sexy-time shenanigans, have been slapped with the cougar card lately—whether earned or not.
Which raises the question: Does having a law degree automatically make you a cougar—regardless of your age or personality? Well, if the guys keeping score in and around Big Law are any indication, it looks like the answer, like it or not, is hell yes…
Continue reading “Does a J.D. Turn You Into a Cougar?”
* Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can’t get fooled again. Well, apparently ICE can, because they tried to deport a U.S. citizen to Mexico… twice. [Associated Press]
* This attorney probably needed a stiff drink after the Second Circuit affirmed an even stiffer $95,000 fine against him. [New York Law Journal]
* I bet J.K. Rowling wishes that she could cast some evanesco on this Harry Potter copyright infringement lawsuit. [Washington Post]
* With the help of the DOJ, Wisconsin is suing to get dirty paper companies to clean up their acts. This would never happen at Dunder Mifflin. [Green Bay Press Gazette]
* Sexual deviants, perverts, and pedophiles, oh my! Tyra Banks gets sued for featuring a 15-year-old “sex addict” on her talk show. [Hollywood Reporter]
* DADT will end on Obama’s watch. Just not right now. He’s got way more important things to do, like trample on other LBGT civil rights claims. [MSNBC; New York Times]
* If WikiLeaks had been around before 9/11, would its founder, Julian Assange, still have been accused of rape in an alleged frame-up job? I think not. [Los Angeles Times]
