* In Russia, TV watches jury. Did I do that right? [New York Times]
* Charlie don’t surf, but Charlie does walk. Looks like the House needs a Rangel wrangler. [Washington Post]
* A California woman was charged with conspiring to aid Somali terrorists. I just listened to that Katy Perry song, looking for a joke. Jesus. That song is a real turd, isn’t it? [Associated Press]
* The New Jersey Senate must not have caught Elie’s star-making turn on Fox News. [Newark Star-Ledger]
* First, they came first for our jerbs, and you didn’t speak up. Then they came for our in-state tuition… [Los Angeles Times]
* Well, Juggalo Law is my job. My real passion is Foreskin Law. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* Unless coyotes can eat bedbugs they’re totally freaking useless! [ABA Journal]
* Social security disability judges are receiving violent threats from the people they rule against. Sorry, if you can physically menace a judge, you can probably show up to work and sort office supplies. [Associated Press]
* I’m starting to like this ABA President, Stephen Zack guy. If we could convince him to stop just one ridiculous law school, I bet we could hang out and pound some Four Lokos together. [ABA Now]
* Arizona approves medical marijuana but still hates foreigners. Finally, some excellent news for John McCain. [CNN]
* U.K. Blawg Reviews always make me wonder what would happen if would-be British lawyers had to pay American prices for legal education. Would they revolt? Would they all find something else to do? I mean, you just can’t imagine this system being imposed on another people in a way where they would stand for it. [Pink Tape via Blawg Review]
* We don’t do a lot of charitable shout outs around here (there are so many great causes), but Jim Levy has been a great internet friend and actually running a half marathon would surely kill me. [Leukemia & Lymphoma Society]
We don’t cover Touro Law School a lot on these pages because frankly it would just be mean. The school, located in New York, is ranked fourth tier by U.S. News, and that’s probably generous. The school charges $40,000 a year which is just… I mean… Well, “crime, boy I don’t know.”
Its reputation just isn’t the best. I had drinks with a St. John’s Law graduate once, and after calling me an “elitist prick” she said, without a hint of irony, “Great lawyers can come from anywhere, Elie. We’re not talking about Touro here, we’re talking about real, legitimate law schools that you overlook.”
Fair enough. But really, there’s no reason to look at Touro Law differently than any number of law schools the ABA allows to run around doing their thing. At least, there was no reason until today, when the New York Post unleashed a scathing report which they probably stole from someone else without giving credit that detailed the shenanigans of the late Bernard Lander, the president of Touro College, who was apparently the best paid university president in the country.
While the allegations focus on the college and not the law school, the taint on Touro is terrible….
Continue reading “Turns Out Touro Is Even Crappier More Troubled Than We Thought”
On the Quote of the Day posted over the weekend, a commenter wrote: “In my head I’ve changed the name of this blog from ‘Above the Law’ to ‘The law is f**king stupid and dumb and anyone who goes into it is an idiot forever and did I mention it’s dumb.’ There are still reasons to pursue law.”
This is a fair point. Here at ATL, we do want to encourage debate about the value of a legal education, and we do want people who are thinking of going to law school — many of whom read this site — to go to law school for good reasons, after engaging in sufficient reflection and research. But we don’t want readers to mistake this site for one of the “law school scam” blogs, or to think that we’re opposed to law school for all people under all circumstances. (Of course we aren’t, if for no reason other than self-interest: the more law students and lawyers out there, the more potential readers for Above the Law.)
We’ve previously written in defense of going to law school. See, e.g., my post with that very title.
And last month we solicited from you, our readers, some pro-law-school thoughts. Let’s explore some of them, shall we?
Continue reading “In Defense of Going to Law School: A Prudential Perspective (Part 2)”
It’s been a while since we took a look at how little lawyers are willing to pay new attorneys. But today we’ve got two jobs which pay a combined salary of $1,000 per/month. I guess these employers are trying to ensure that whoever takes these jobs will show up to work on time because the new employees will leaving for work from the subway station bathroom.
Actually, saying that these two jobs have a combined salary of $1,000 per/month is a little misleading. Our first job pays $1,000, our second one pays nothing at all. It’s always nice to see lawyers who want other lawyers to contribute their legal expertise for $0. It really says a lot about how lawyers themselves value their own profession.
Let’s get to it. I’m sure some of you are at home, ogling daytime cable news anchors, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to fall into your lap…
Continue reading “God Awful Jobs for Lawyers Potpourri”
I am a lawyer by creation, but not by practice. I’m a lawyer technically, but I wouldn’t hire me to write your will.
– Columbia law professor Tim Wu, in an interview with the New York Times about his new book, The Master Switch.
Once again, fear, overreaction, and the Nanny State have crushed liberty and common sense. Four Loko, a caffeinated, alcoholic beverage, will no longer be distributed in New York State. This follows previous Four Loko bannings in Washington, Michigan, Utah, and Oklahoma.
Good job parents, you’ve succeeded in making a foul tasting alcoholic beverage the most sought after item at college parties. Because telling kids that they can’t have something always works so much better than educating them about proper use and moderation, right? “Just say no to drinking Four Loko!” (Instead, funnel it on an empty stomach if you really want to get wasted.) Oh wait, was that supposed to be a secret? Well you know parents, if your kids don’t learn how to drink from you, I guess they’ll have to learn it from me.
How obvious is it that all of this government attention is helping Four Loko sales? So obvious that the makers of Four Loko agreed to the ban voluntarily. It’s like that scene in Jedi only if Four Loko was the Emperor sitting there saying “Take your Government weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant.”
I am taking crazy pills, or is the government playing right into the hands of Four Loko makers?
Continue reading “Nannies Win: Four Loko Stops Shipments to New York State”
Welcome to the second installment of Under the Shingle, an occasional round-up of news and musings from the world of small firms and solo practitioners. In other words, you get a break from me — mostly.
I’ve added a bit of play-by-play to explain and connect these links, which cover such topics as the intersection of solo firms and SCOTUS, solos going big, and the big bad ABA trying to put their laws on your solo body.
Solo to SCOTUS:
A 33-year-old solo on why he left his Biglaw office in favor of working out of a spare bedroom and having his mother as his paralegal: “I wanted to create my own reality.” Well, now his reality includes SCOTUS experience after being granted cert at the last second. Before any of you aspiring solos out there get too excited, know this: his reality also includes borrowing cash from his little brother and eating a lot of PB&Js.
More links, after the jump.
Continue reading “Under the Shingle: 11.15.2010″
He probably would have made a great modern law professor, but Aristotle would be a crappy practicing attorney.
Here’s an argument you don’t hear everyday: law firms who hire the smartest people are hurting their business.
That’s the gist of the argument by Bill Henderson, a professor at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law who studies the legal profession (and whom we’ve quoted often in these pages). At least if we define “smart” as people who did very well on the LSAT and go to the “best” (as in highest-ranked) law schools. Henderson says that there are a lot of different skills that go into being a profitable lawyer, and being a slightly better standardized test taker than somebody else is not the most important of those skills.
Hey, you know what Aristotle says: “I know enough to know that being able to quote myself makes me an over-educated douche who can barely balance my abacus.”…
Continue reading “Does Hiring Smart People Hurt Law Firms?”
* College presidents have no problem putting food on their families. [Bloomberg]
* Legal aid in Florida in need of financial aid. This blurb has aids. [Palm Beach Post]
* Lawsuits are the new synthetic collateralized debt obligations. Amirite? [New York Times]
* A dead son, an unusual sentence, and the most riveting thing you’ll read today. [St. Petersburg Times via WSJ Law Blog]
* We’re now going to play a game called “Equity Partners Win.” It’s real simple. No matter what you do…equity partners win. [Am Law Daily]
* The dulcet tones of Charlie Rangel will reverberate throughout the capitol today as he defends himself in his ethics trial. [Washington Post]
* Will the last lawyer working on Joe Miller’s campaign turn out the lights? [Huffington Post]
You have to wonder what amount of research the student in question pursued before deciding that law school was a good idea, which then leads you to ask whether you’d want him as your lawyer. Sounds like he would be a good candidate for a sub prime interest-only mortgage, until he wanted a bailout on that, too.
– “Steve” of Geneva, NY, whose comment on the New York Times’s Bucks Blog was highlighted in Saturday’s print edition of the Times (page B5).
Warning: golf carts can kill.
* Today the Supreme Court denied the Log Cabin Republicans’ request to dissolve the Ninth Circuit’s stay pending appeal in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” case. Here’s Chris Geidner’s very interesting take on what happened and why it matters. [Metro Weekly]
* In other SCOTUS news, via Tony Mauro, the Court will hand down its first signed opinion of the Term on Monday. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
Random aside: Please email us with news of any Supreme Court clerk hires since our last update. We have almost enough news to do a fresh post.
* Not only this is tragic, but it’s also going to be very, very expensive for someone (and/or their insurer). [TribLocal via Chicago Breaking News]
* Good news for Quinn Emanuel this week in its quest to get paid by the Winklevi (or should that be “Winklevii”?). [Buleyean String / Forbes]
* Maybe Mel Gibson should go to law school. His legal analysis skills need work, and he can certainly afford it. [Radar Online]
This year The Apprentice, a television show in which contestants compete for the privilege of working for Donald Trump, features 16 who are down on their luck, having lost previous jobs or otherwise having to start anew. No fewer than five of them are lawyers.
– from Trouble with the Law, an article about American law school graduates “finding that their chosen career is less lucrative than they had hoped,” in The Economist.
‘Tis the season for… salary surveys. Earlier this week, we discussed the results of Washingtonian magazine’s D.C. lawyer salary survey. The upshot: lawyers in the nation’s capital are doing quite well for themselves.
Today we bring you the results of, and commentary on, a recent in-house counsel salary survey. It was conducted by the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins consulting firm and covered in Corporate Counsel magazine, among other outlets.
Just like some of the government lawyers and judges discussed in the D.C. salary survey, it seems that corporate counsel have pretty sweet gigs. They earn well into the six figures, without the soul-crushing requirement of billing 2000 or 3000 hours at a sweatshop law firm.
So let’s get to it. What’s the 2010 average base salary for in-house lawyers?
Continue reading “How Much Do In-House Lawyers Make?”
So you want to go to law school....
Remember the hilarious So You Want To Go To Law School video? The genius behind it, Virginia lawyer David Kazzie, recently sat down with The Careerist to share the backstory behind the video (which was one of the 25 most-viewed videos last month in YouTube’s film/animation section).
So who is David Kazzie? And has he done other law-related videos?
Continue reading “So You Want to Go to Law School: The Backstory, and a Sequel”
Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com
Dear ATL,
I have 12 years of state and local tax experience. I am currently a Tax Manager at a large company. I have managed the second largest tax audit defense group in the country. My current [law school] GPA is 3.4, with no curve. Do you think I can obtain employment with a midsized or large firm?
– Quit Playin’ Games With My Audit
Dear Quit Playin’ Games With My Audit,
Generally speaking, law firms wet the bed when a new associate rolls up to the firm and announces that he or she wants to do tax. Nobody wants to do tax, ever, and if you apply to firms with a cover letter stating that you want to do tax AND have legitimate tax experience (not just taking Tax in law school), the lights will dim, the disco ball will drop, Dream Weaver will start playing, and interviews will be yours for the picking….
Continue reading “Pls Hndle Thx: Doing ‘Tax Work’”
Bridget Jones found herself a super-fit Brit, but Proskauer is still looking for a U.K. mate.
In 2011, lawyers at Proskauer Rose will enjoy snazzy, firm-provided iPads. But they won’t be able to look forward to an influx of British colleagues with super-posh accents.
As reported by Legal Week, Proskauer and SJ Berwin have called off their merger talks, after nine long months of discussions. The extensive snogging will not culminate in shagging.
This year has seen lots of action on the transatlantic merger front — e.g., Hogan Lovells, SNR Denton, and Squire Sanders Hammonds. But it looks like Proskauer Berwin — or Berwin Proskauer, or SJ Proskauer? — will not be coming to pass.
(Unless the firms pull a Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton or a Newsweek Daily Beast, and merge with each other anyway after declaring their talks dead.)
So what led to the demise of the Proskauer / SJ Berwin merger talks?
Continue reading “A Hiccup for the Transatlantic Trend: Proskauer and SJ Berwin Call Off Merger Talks”
Yesterday we started receiving multiple reports of staff layoffs at DLA Piper. The reports related to various U.S. offices of the firm, including (but not limited to) Baltimore and Sacramento. They concerned support staff, including secretaries, but not lawyers. In terms of the scale of the layoffs, no hard numbers were available.
One source expressed surprise at the staff cuts, in light of the firm touting strong results as of late. For example, just last month DLA Piper fared quite well in the M&A league tables. The firm has also been making a decent number of lateral hires, suggesting expansion rather than contraction.
In response to an inquiry from Above the Law, DLA Piper confirmed an unspecified number of staff reductions, and issued a statement….
Continue reading “Nationwide Staff Layoff Watch: DLA Piper”
There is nothing I hate more than people who try to use the law to change the facts of history or science. I hate when Creationists try to take their Sunday School teachings into science class. I hate when Confederates try to retell the “War of Northern Aggression” in a way that ignores the abject racism that started the entire conflict. And I hate when parents sue because history textbooks aren’t sanitized to include enough bunny rabbits and rainbows when they are educating children about slavery.
That last thing is new. I only realized parents like this existed when I read a story in the Macomb Daily (gavel bang: ABA Journal). Apparently an African-American parent got angry over “outrageous statements” in a textbook used in his daughter’s class. The outrage: the textbook used the n-word… in the context of teaching children about the history of slavery in this country.
He claims his daughter was traumatized by the book, and he’s seeking more than $25,000 damages from the school.
Please God, let’s hope he doesn’t get it. Everybody should be “traumatized” by slavery when they first hear about it in grade school. It was a goddamn traumatic thing to put people through. And we can’t live in a world where that trauma is banished from our history books….
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: Parent Sues School for Teaching His Daughter About Slavery”
* In Russia, TV watches jury. Did I do that right? [New York Times]
