This week — in between tweeting some really funny stuff (such as how I want to blow up airports — it was so funny!), buying up every last can of Four Loko that I could get my hands on, and forwarding Skadden employee evaluations to all of my friends — I spent the rest of the time tracking the news articles and blog posts I wanted to cover in The Rundown.
Among other things in this edition, a prominent e-discovery company offers its predictions for 2011, a big fish swallows a little fish, and we engage in more Touro talk (this time positive).
There is even a crossword puzzle — seriously, a crossword puzzle…
Continue reading “The Rundown: This Week in Legal Technology – 11.19.10″
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com
Greetings,
My firm, like so many, has decided not to purchase and send holiday cards for our clients, instead relying on those stupid ecards. Ostensibly this is part of our “Going Green” initiative. More likely it puts more green in the partners’ pockets. Whatever.
I’d like to send actual paper cards to some of my clients and contacts. These are people who are not social friends, but with whom I have a business relationship, or would like to maintain professional contact. My questions:
1. Should I send them my regular family holiday card (photo of me with the wife & kids and a holiday greeting)? Most of the people to whom I would send this have never met my wife or kids, and in many cases probably don’t know they even exist.
2. If not, should I get a generic card or a customized card with my name on the card? what about other info (firm name, phone, email, etc.)?
3. Should I include a business card with my holiday card?
4. Should I forget the whole thing and just send ecards? or nothing at all?
Thanks,
Bah Humbug
Dear Bah Humbug,
These detailed questions require a very organized response. Let’s break down each option you’ve laid out…
Continue reading “Pls Hndle Thx: Hallmark of Justice”
Sorry, we’re still waiting for the Biglaw bonus shoe to drop. While you wait, here’s some good news in the Biglaw benefits area (a la Proskauer’s iPad announcement).
On Wednesday, I asked: “Remember Google’s gay gross-up? Barclays is doing it too. Will law firms follow suit?”
At least one law firm is stepping up to the plate to help domestically-partnered employees with their health-benefit-related tax burdens. The firm of Morrison & Foerster issued the following statement to Above the Law, from firm chair Keith Wetmore: “Starting in 2011, Morrison & Foerster will begin offering an additional benefit payment to assist with the tax obligation that same-sex and opposite sex Staff and Non-Partner Attorneys pay when they elect Domestic Partner health benefits.”
This is excellent news, and we commend MoFo for taking this step. Hopefully it will inspire additional firms to move in this direction. Note also that the policy applies not just to same-sex couples, but also to opposite-sex couples who are similarly situated — which might be a way of addressing the criticisms of some that the gay gross-up is unfair to heterosexual couples.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in “law firms being nice to gay people” news, let’s give some props to Shearman & Sterling….
Continue reading “Biglaw Perk Watch: MoFo Takes a Stand for Fairness”
Harvard Law School professor and liberal intellectual icon Laurence Tribe is leaving the Department of Justice early because of symptoms related to his brain tumor.
(Oh, stop your gasping, it’s a benign brain tumor. I can make jokes about benign brain tumors in headlines.)
Tribe, a person who is most definitely as smart as he thinks he is, specifically highlighted his medical condition as the reason for his departure. Apparently he does not want anybody to think that he’s leaving because of his leaked letter to President Obama about Justice Sotomayor’s abilities. I’d imagine he also didn’t want to give the impression that he’s abandoning a president who is not nearly as liberal as many hoped he would be. (Or that he’s still mad over the elevator incident at the Georgetown Safeway.)
According to the HLS press release the tumor that will cut short his public service still allows him to teach at the second-best law school in the country….
Continue reading “Larry Tribe Leaving DOJ Because His Brain Hurts”
The lawyers have your back, you cute little bed bug sniffing dog.
Now this is what I’m talking about. These bedbugs think they’re so powerful. They think they’ve got us by the balls. They think they can just come into this city and take things over.
Well, in the words of Dr. Peter Venkman, “Nobody steps on [rich tourists sleeping at the Waldorf] in my town!” Light ‘em up, boys. It’s time these critters learned how we do things downtown.
And for this problem we’re going to unleash one of our most powerful weapons: an ARMY of landlord-tenant lawyers, who are ridiculously skillful. These guys are not to be messed with. Have you ever tried to evict someone in New York City? I bet it didn’t work out for you. Landlord-tenant lawyers in this city are what trained pit bulls want to be when they grow up.
The lawyers will stop these damned bedbugs. They’ll make it so damn expensive for landlords who don’t correct the problem that your super will personally eat all of the critters in the building if that’s the only way to make them go away….
Continue reading “There’s Only One Way to Deal With Bedbugs: Release the Sharks”
R.I.P., Afghan hero dog.
* There will be a candlelight vigil and a possible lawsuit over the mistaken euthanasia of Target, the “Afghan Hero Dog.” That entire sentence made no sense to me. [New York Times]
* The bad news for Steven Rattner is that he’s being publicly slapped around by Andrew Cuomo. The good news, if there is any, is that in a couple of months…no cuomo. [New York Times Dealbook]
* The House Ethics Panel recommends that Charlie Rangel be censured. Censure is a term of art that means “wag of the finger.” That’ll learn him. [Bloomberg]
* Cam Newton’s attorney claims the Auburn quarterback never asked for money. Of course not. That’s what dads agents are for. [Associated Press]
* After the “failure” of Ahmed Ghailani’s civilian trial, Guantanamo may git mo trials. Best joke of all time! [Washington Post]
* Joe Miller ain’t going out like that. [Alaska Dispatch]
Hang onto your hats, your legal world is about to get rocked. At least behind the scenes.
Thomson Reuters, owner of West Publishing and BAR/BRI is selling BAR/BRI. The reports have been confirmed by people who are enrolled in BAR/BRI. They all received an email from the company tonight.
Above the Law obtained a copy of this stunning email containing the news….
Continue reading “Thomson Reuters Exploring Sale of BAR/BRI, Will Acquire Pangea3″
In the comments earlier today, I remarked that it feels like law students are gearing up for finals. You can just tell. We’re getting more and more psuedo-substantive legal arguments that only look at one side of the issue, but are said as if the commenter is some kind of expert in whatever law he or she is talking about.
It’s cute. I really like this time of year. It’s like watching chicks frantically trying to learn how to fly before the flock has to migrate south.
[Cue David Attenborough voice] While it appears that the youngsters are having fun and games, this is a time of deadly seriousness for the students. Nerves are getting frayed; passions are inflamed. In the American South, we have an example of just what can happen when two law students collide over proper social etiquette at a time when ‘A’s are scarce. At a place called Florida State University College of Law, a missed assignment sent two dominant females into the arena called “Facebook”….
Continue reading “Facebook Catfight At Florida State Law”
* UC-Irvine prof will have a T.V. show based on her work of evaluating the memories of criminal witnesses. So if you were wondering who got Dumbledore’s Pensieve in his will, it was Professor Elizabeth Loftus. [Orange County Register]
* I’m not sure that there will ever be a contender to the U.S. News rankings. But I’m in full support of behavioral testing as part of the LSAT. [Concurring Opinions]
* Chuck D looks to some offshore help to fight the power. [Legally India]
* Why are notifications for class actions limited to print publications? Couldn’t that be done, on I don’t know, on Above the Law or something similar? I bet it’d be a lot cheaper? [The Lawyerist]
* Remember those Wisconsin Law grads accused of sexual assault during a drunken three-way? They’ve had their law licenses suspended. [Am Law Daily]
This is an artichoke. Warning: don't eat the whole damn thing.
Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.
– Margo Channing (Bette Davis), All About Eve
Warning: consumption of artichokes can be hazardous to your health. Especially if you eat the entire thing, leaves and all.
This is a lesson that Arturo Carvajal, a doctor in Miami, learned the hard way. According to Dr. Carvajal, in May 2009 he ate at a Houston’s restaurant in Miami Beach, where he ordered the grilled artichoke special. Having never eaten an artichoke before, he ate the whole thing — including the tough, practically inedible outer portion of the leaves.
After doing so, Dr. Carvajal experienced… tummy trouble. One “exploratory laparotomy” later, he learned that he had artichoke leaves stuck inside his bowel. Oy.
Now, Dr. Caravajal is suing….
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: Doctor Sues Restaurant for Not Educating Him About Artichokes”
We’ve covered in loving detail the alleged misadventures of Judge Jack Camp (N.D. Ga.). As you may recall, Judge Camp is the Atlanta federal judge who stands accused of purchasing and enjoying illegal drugs. And purchasing — and presumably enjoying — illegal sex, from an exotic dancer named Sherry Ann Ramos.
Last month, Judge Camp’s attorney stated that His Honor planned to plead not guilty. The possibility of seeing Judge Camp back in the courtroom, but maybe in an orange jumpsuit rather than a black robe, got us all excited.
But it now appears that the judge has had a change of heart. Much to the dismay of trial-seeking AUSAs around the country, defendants plead, they always plead….
Continue reading “Update: Judge Jack Camp to Plead Guilty”
Ben Wallace will be a great lawyer. Book it.
He’s in his late-30s and has been around the block and seen the world.
He can self-finance his own education and won’t need to make a whole lot of money when he gets out of school.
He has talked to actual practicing attorneys in his hometown to get a sense of what they do for a living.
He’s already thinking about his marketing strategy to sell his legal skills to clients.
Former NBA defensive player of the year Ben Wallace wants to go to law school when he’s done with basketball. He thinks he wants to be a defense attorney.
I think that would be a wonderful decision for him. Not only will he get to experience the intellectual joys of learning a new trade, he’ll be able to employ himself after he’s done and he won’t be in a mountain of debt. Don’t call me a law school hater, I just want everybody to make informed and financially sound decisions like Ben Wallace…
Continue reading “I Finally Found Somebody Who Should Go To Law School: NBA Star Ben Wallace”
Ed. note: This is the first installment of Inside Straight, the new in-house counsel column by Mark Herrmann, which we announced earlier this week.
On Friday, you were a litigator: You wrote briefs, argued motions, took depositions, and tried cases.
On Monday, you were a litigator: You identified loss contingencies, minimized them, quantified them, and removed them from a balance sheet.
What happened?
Continue reading “Inside Straight: The Inside Story”
Members of the “lost generation” who managed to snag those elusive Biglaw offers are generally being viewed as welcome additions to their firms. According to our survey results, the majority of respondents report that Class of 2009 and 2010 associates started on time, and have enough billable work.
Although most of the more senior associates think the first-year associates will be cut first if the economy heads south again, a number of newbies are actually very confident about their job security. (That’s especially true of first-years at this New York firm.)
What are some of the other survey findings?
Continue reading “Career Center: First-Year Associate Survey Results”
This has been a bad week for: the makers of Four Loko, personal responsibility, intelligent regulation, and natural selection. The FDA put the hammer to Four Loko, announcing that caffeine was a dangerous additive to alcohol. In response, the makers of Four Loko agreed to remove caffeine from their products.
Of course, this will stop nothing. I wrote an editorial in the New York Daily News trying to help parents understand that one drink isn’t the cause of their kids’ alcohol issues:
I’ve seen people between the ages of 18 and 25 put alcohol in: coffee, soft drinks, diet soft drinks, Jell-O laced with pixie sticks (for the sugar – but it’s the same principle), and, of course, Red Bull. I’ve seen fat people pop diet pills in the middle of a bender to stave off the coming dawn. I’ve seen a person crush up Ritalin pills, place them in champagne, and call it a celebration. I’m just describing, not endorsing, these habits.
This regulation is utterly futile. There is already a YouTube clip which instructs people how to make their own Four Loko.
You can read me taking a flamethrower to the Nanny State at the Daily News. It’s a preview of what I’ll be saying once FDA makes caffeine a schedule 4 controlled substance or something.
Four Loko ban a crazy idea: Do what you will, young people will still mix caffeine and alcohol [New York Daily News]
Earlier: Nannies Win: Four Loko Stops Shipments to New York State
Brick and mortar is so last century. Nowadays, one can get an entire post-secondary education without ever leaving the comfort of home, including a law degree (no I’m not talking about Belmont) and an LLM. Then, with your degrees and fully developed agoraphobia in hand, you can move seamlessly into a fully virtual law practice and stay in your sweatpants all day — well, depending on what state you’re in.
From a reader:
Earlier this year, the NJ [Advisory Committee on Ethics] held that having a virtual office is not a bona-fide office within the meaning of the NJ Rules of Professional Conduct. This adds another significant cost to setting up your own shop since you have to rent a place all the time, not just for meetings. . . . I am not sure whether NJ is unique in this regard, but the decision seems wrong and anti-competitive to me and it is the smallest of firms which are the most likely to be effected by the rule.
New Jersey is not unique in this regard, but it is among a dying breed. Recently, its Delaware River neighbor issued an opinion that many small firm lawyers hope is yet another nail in the coffin of physical office constraints….
Continue reading “Virtual Law Offices Are a Real Issue for Small Law Firms”
Sometimes it’s not the person, it’s the principle. You all remember Andrew Shirvell. He’s the former assistant in the Michigan’s Attorney General’s Office who started a hate blog directed at Chris Armstrong, a Michigan student body president who happens to be gay.
As Shirvell’s actions came to light, he was banned from Michigan’s campus (he had been going there to harass Armstrong). It seemed like the smart thing to do, not just for protection of gays and lesbians at Michigan, but hey, one less tool hanging around campus can’t be a bad thing.
But not according to the Michigan student chapter of the ACLU. The organization is using the Shirvell case to condemn the school’s trespass policy…
Continue reading “University of Michigan Student ACLU Defends Andrew Shirvell”
* Ahmed Ghailani is facing up to life in prison. The terrorists have won. [Associated Press]
* A Christian student group at UC Hastings Law refused to allow gay members and lost their school funding. Then they lost their court case. Might I suggest losing their religion? That’s me in the corner… [San Francisco Chronicle]
* Disappointed that this story about “one of San Francisco’s most notorious predators” didn’t involve Chris Hansen. That guy cracks me up. [The Bay Citizen]
* The Supreme Court, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. [New York Times]
* Congressional Republicans have turned to activist judges to strike down the work of activist congressmen. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Unless Russia pays his legal bills, Viktor Bout is headed for a fate far worse than inspiring a Nicolas Cage performance. [Am Law Daily]
