Yesterday, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker announced that the university is thinking about founding a law school. It would be Delaware’s first public law school — Widener Law School is a private institution.
It will be some time before the proposed law school is ready for approval by the Delaware Board of Trustees. Law school advocates need to do a feasibility study and submit a business plan to see if the state can afford the new school. Nobody requires the law school to submit any kind of “business plan” for how graduates of the proposed law school will get jobs that pay enough to cover their debt burdens. Once again, graduate outcomes are completely ancillary to the discussion of whether or not a new law school makes sense.
If they jump through all of the hoops, the president hopes the new law school will be up and running by the fall of 2015. Harker’s letter to the University of Delaware community makes it sound like he hopes the new law school will be one of the legacies of his administration.
The legacy of future graduates from Delaware Law is not something anybody seems to give a damn about…
Continue reading “University of Delaware Starts the New Law School Process”
Lawrence Taylor
* Lawrence Taylor’s lawyers accuse cops of false start in their arrest of Taylor for statutory rape. [New York Daily News]
* Listen, we know Julian Assange did something illegal. We just need to do a helluva lot of research to figure out what it is! And your constant, y’know, questions and stuff aren’t going to help us any. So why don’t you make like Onyx and Bacdafucup?! [New York Times]
* Joe Miller’s like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps sucking and sucking and… [Los Angeles Times]
* Is Allen Stanford too hopped up on goofballs to stand trial? [WSJ Law Blog]
* Cybernews, iNerds! The FDA isn’t allowed to block the import of e-cigarettes! Totally Macintosh! [Reuters]
* Today is the first of many days in which Arizona must put up or ¡CALLATE LA BOCA! in front of The Supremes. [USA Today]
Embarcadero Center (at right): Skadden's soon-to-be-former S.F. home.
Late last week, word started to leak out that Skadden Arps plans to close its San Francisco office, by the end of June 2011. A meeting was held on Friday where the closure was announced to the office. The S.F. office is essentially being folded into the firm’s Silicon Valley outpost.
Some of the initial reactions expressed concern. “Unclear with respect to job security,” said one source. “My cynical side wonders if this isn’t layoffs in disguise,” said another.
But further examination of the situation suggests that this is, as some might say, no big deal….
Continue reading “Skadden Takes Its Heart from San Francisco — and Closes Its S.F. Office”
This shouldn’t come as any great surprise, but Dewey & LeBoeuf has announced bonuses for its U.S. counsel and associates. And — shocker — they are following the 2010 Cravath bonus scale.
For the most part; there are some caveats and prerequisites. And there’s also some extra upside, for selected top performers.
You know you’re getting deeper into bonus season when the announcements start getting complicated. The early memos — generally straight Cravath matches, with very few qualifiers — are simple and straightforward.
So let’s look at the Dewey & LeBoeuf memo, shall we?
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Dewey & LeBoeuf Matches
(With footnotes, one good.)”
* Elizabeth Edwards has passed away, R.I.P. (Wait, John and Rielle — too soon, too soon.) [WRAL]
* During the New York Attorney General Debate, I predicted that Eric Dinallo would make a good partner at Debevoise & Plimpton. He just seemed so “nice.” Well, turns out I was spot on: Dinallo and Debevoise are a match made in nice people heaven. [Am Law Daily]
* Now that Charlie Rangel has been told he’s a naughty boy, can we get back to the whackjob known as Maxine Waters? [Dealbreaker]
* What it’s like to be addicted to M&A transactions, from the perspective of a retired Skadden partner. [Deal Journal]
* No Drama Obama gets a little bit feisty when defending his decision to extend the Bush tax cuts. In the words of Nice Guy Eddie: “You beat on this prick enough, he’ll tell you he started the Chicago fire. That don’t necessarily make it f**kin’ so.” [Business Insider]
* Back in the day, video could help the wrongly accused, just like DNA helps now. [DNAinfo]
* Lawyers fear change almost as much as Garth from Wayne’s World. [Belly of the Beast via ABA Journal]
I’d have to say I’m not particularly optimistic that they’re going to get this done.
— Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, discussing whether or not the Senate will vote to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” before the end of this year.
This legal uncertainty is not going away anytime soon.
— Jeh Johnson, general counsel to the Defense Department (and former Paul Weiss partner), also discussing DADT.
Well, this is not going to make Bingham McCutchen partners happy. A judge today ruled that the marital agreement between Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and wife Jamie McCourt is invalid — and therefore Frank might not have sole ownership of the Dodgers.
We wrote about Bingham’s boo-boo back in September. Some copies of the postnuptial agreement use the word “inclusive” in a way that would have given Frank sole ownership, while others use the word “exclusive,” which would have made Jamie a co-owner.
Bingham’s agreement may have been thrown out by the court, but don’t think for a second that Frank McCourt is done fighting for sole control of the team…
Continue reading “Drafting Fail: Court Rules Jamie McCourt Owns A Piece of the L.A. Dodgers”
Reginald Brown of WilmerHale
Last week we brought you the top New York partners to work for (see here, here, and here), as nominated by our readers. This week we head inside the Beltway to highlight the best partners to work for in Washington, D.C.
The following six partners work at some of the most prestigious law firms in the country: Foley & Lardner, WilmerHale, Akin Gump, Skadden, Covington & Burling, and Cleary Gottlieb. For more information about these firms generally, visit the Career Center.
Let’s learn what it takes to be a top partner in the nation’s capital….
Continue reading “Career Center Survey Results: Top Partners to Work for – Washington, D.C. (Part 1)”
Image via Wikipedia
I’m not overly familiar with the popular porn spots around the Internetz, but I understand that a good number of people are big fans of the homegrown selections that can be found on YouPorn – essentially YouTube for naked, lascivious types. The site is currently the 72nd most popular site on the Web, according to people who rank that stuff.
Everyone’s turned on by different kinds of things. If you’re a YouPorn visitor, I hope you’re into being “sniffed.”
Last week, over at my list-loving home, I wrote about researchers who discovered that YouPorn is one of a number of sites that exploit a Web security flaw to look at visitors’ Web browsing history. Tech types call it “history sniffing” or “history hijacking.” (If you lust for the technical details of how YouPorn used Javascript to look at the color of visitors’ browser underthings, check that out here.)
YouPorn wanted to know what other porn sites its visitors had been unfaithful with, so it sniffed their browsers for a list of 22 other sexxxy sites. Looks like I’ve helped cause my first class action lawsuit. On Friday, two California men, miffed about getting sniffed, filed a complaint alleging cybercrime and violation of consumer law protections. They’re seeking class action status.
Any other classy YouPorn watchers want to hop on this one?
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: YouPorn Sued for Sniffing its Users”
Protectionism? You betcha!
Bowing to pressure from arguably every unemployed or underemployed American-trained attorney, the American Bar Association has delayed its controversial decision about whether or not to start accrediting foreign law schools. Back in August, we told you that the ABA was thinking about unleashing foreign-educated attorneys upon bar examinations across the country. And apparently on this one rare occasion the ABA chose against flooding the market with even more attorneys when there are not enough jobs to go around.
Should attorneys be openly happy about this blatant protectionism? I don’t know — have you tried to get a job in this market?
The only thing global competition is going to do is push down legal salaries, while having zero effect on the cost of legal education….
Continue reading “ABA Delays Decision on Whether to Accredit Foreign Law Schools”
JoEllen Lyons Dillon
Pennsylvania legal circles are buzzing over a discrimination lawsuit filed yesterday in federal district court by a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith. One source who informed us of the suit referred to “some really interesting allegations” against the firm.
A corporate and energy law partner at Reed Smith, JoEllen Lyons Dillon, alleges that her firm pays and promotes women less than men. Yawn; that’s definitely not “really interesting.” While unfortunate — or even outrage-inducing — if true, one could say the same thing about dozens, if not hundreds, of large law firms.
Far more interesting is Dillon’s claim that “work was diverted … to female attorneys who were willing to engage in sexual relations with members of [Reed Smith] management or with whom members of [Reed Smith] management had sought to engage in such relations.” Dillon alleges that because she “did not engage in such relations,” she was professionally penalized.
David DeNinno
Dillon decided instead to have “relations” with her husband, resulting in the birth of twins. After she took time off to take care of the two tots, “her total compensation decreased, by almost half,” according to the complaint. Dillon claims that when she objected to this pay cut, partner David DeNinno, former chair of the Business & Finance Department at RS, asked if she was “done having babies yet.”
That’s just for starters. Dillon claims to have more dirt on her firm….
Continue reading “Discrimination Lawsuit Potpourri: Reed Smith and Akin Gump”
According to Hildebrandt, lawyers aren’t naturally overly critical, risk-averse people who are emotionally dead inside. It’s stress that makes lawyers behave this way.
Those are the top-line results of a Hildebrandt study. The consulting firm did personality tests on 1,800 lawyers from four large law firms. The surveys tested both partners and associates, in attempt to find the traits of “high performers.”
The results shouldn’t surprise anybody….
Continue reading “Stress Is What Makes Lawyers Act Like Lawyers”
Julian Assange
* Julian Assange was arrested at a London police station last night. What a dumb place for Julian Assange to be hanging out. What a stupid, stupid place. [CNN]
* I can’t tell whether this story is real or not, but the Supreme Court heard the case yesterday of a deceased Korean War veteran diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. [Washington Post]
* Also yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the gender-bias suit against Wal-Mart can continue as a class action lawsuit or, alternatively, whether all of these women should wear red bracelets. [Bloomberg Businessweek]
* A robosigning “kingpin” is in serious legal trouble. Robots haven’t gotten such a bad rap since the Roomba. I said, the Roomba. [Reuters]
* The NFL Players Association is preparing to file a grievance accusing the NFL of collusion related to restricted free agents last offseason. They should also file assault charges against the Patriots due to the absolute pistol-whipping they gave the Jets last night. [ESPN]
* Divorce is skyrocketing in Iran. Reached for comment, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remarked, “In Iran we don’t have divorce like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.” [New York Times]
* So Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics were found guilty of manslaughter by a French court, in the crash of a Concorde a decade ago. Check out the monetary damages. Is that insanely low? I’ll await your analysis in the comments. k thx. [Los Angeles Times]
Granny wants you to not be an idiot.
Pure lunacy is on display today in the Dear Prudence column on Slate. A prospective law student is set to take the December administration of the LSAT. But his or her grandmother — for ease of reference, I’ll use the male pronoun throughout this post — recently lost a battle with Alzheimer’s. Hence this question to Prudence (from questioner “Funerals and Such”):
I lost my grandmother yesterday, and I am devastated as we were very close. She had Alzheimer’s for years, and I made my peace with this some time ago. My family has planned the funeral for Saturday.
Here is the problem: My LSAT is Saturday, and I have waited for years for an opportunity to pursue law school. (I am near 30.) I told my mom that I couldn’t make the funeral because I cannot reschedule the LSAT, and she was furious! I have been on the phone with the LSAT people all morning, pleading to reschedule. No luck. Mom has informed me that she and my family are really disappointed with me, and I need to be at the funeral in order to pay my respects.
I don’t want to disappoint my family, but I have waited my entire life for this chance at law school, and I don’t want to give it up now. Additionally, if I don’t take the LSAT on Saturday, I will miss the opportunity to take it again in February (possible surgery), and I can kiss law school for next fall goodbye!
Yeah, this fellow is trying to decide between taking the LSAT or honoring his dead grandmother, and it’s apparently an open question. He’s going to make an excellent Biglaw attorney someday.
In the meantime, Prudence and I disagree about the appropriate response….
Continue reading “Prospective Law Student Must Choose Between LSAT and Dead Grandma”
* Loyola of Los Angeles has launched a new faculty blog. In the latest post, Professor Cesare Romano asks: Do states have human rights? [Summary Judgments]
* And what happens if a nation-state disappears underwater — is it still a nation? [Associated Press]
* Speaking of global warming, it’s going back to SCOTUS; here’s Professor Jonathan Adler’s take on the cert grant in American Electric Power v. Connecticut. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* Marc Randazza on the TSA: “[T]he TSA is ‘making us safe’ by letting the dumbest, most uneducated swine in the country (TSA agents) have a blanket license to feel up our kids, AND to try and make a GAME of it?” [The Legal Satyricon]
* Former Northwestern SBA president Todd Belcore — who, by the way, was exonerated of the charge against him (note the update) — is now writing for HuffPo. [Huffington Post]
* Congratulations to everyone who just passed the MPRE — you can learn your score on the MPRE website. [MPRE Services]
I don’t remember the moment I first learned how to wipe my ass without hurting myself. I don’t think I received a special present or accolade for that momentous life event. But perhaps my parents did take notice in this way:
MOM: Our little boy just successfully wiped himself without incident!
DAD: Good. Maybe you were right when you prevented me from taking him out back and shooting him.
The point is that successfully using toilet paper is a basic skill in civilized society. If you have an accident while administering toilet paper to yourself, it’s the kind of thing you really want to keep to yourself.
Unless, of course, you think you can get money out of the mishap. America baby, the only place where hurting yourself while performing basic hygienic practices can lead to a tort payday.
A Michigan woman broke her hand while trying to get toilet paper out of a dispenser in a restaurant bathroom. And now the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that her case can be presented to a jury….
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: Woman Breaks Hand Trying to Wipe Bum”
When asked about the decision in Bush v. Gore, Justice Antonin Scalia — one of the best legal minds in modern American history — tells questioners to “get over it.” That’s right, the Supreme Court decided the winner of a popular presidential election, and one of the architects of that decision wants people to not care about it anymore. Is he serious? I wish Scalia could just “get over” the fact that privacy is a right now, but nobody begrudges him the right to ask questions about it.
It’s the ten-year anniversary of the Bush v. Gore decision, and everybody is talking about it, in part because the Court does not talk about it. Writing in the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin tells us that in the decade since the five “conservative” justices stopped Florida’s recount, the Supreme Court has cited Bush v. Gore exactly zero times. Think about that: it’s been ten years since the Supreme Court picked the president, and the Court is kind of hoping everybody forgets about it. Bush v. Gore is like a stripper the Court killed in Vegas when it was there for a bachelor’s party. “She’s got no friends or family, strippers die all the time in Vegas, let’s get back to the hotel and NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.”
But this isn’t some drunk broad you can drive into the Atlantic Ocean and hope everybody covers for you. This is a presidential election! And whether or not they talk about it, the effect of Bush v. Gore is very evident today — and not just because of the five SCOTUS votes that were more important than everybody else’s….
Continue reading “Ten Years After Bush v. Gore, the Stench Lingers”
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s new column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann.
I’ve spent my whole life watching my ignorance be exposed.
When I worked at a small firm in California, I thought the whole litigation world was my oyster: We handled all civil cases (other than immigration or family law matters) in all state and federal courts in California.
I moved to a huge firm in Cleveland and lost my bearings: I now held myself out as being able to handle any civil case filed in any court in the United States. (This was a big change. When I worked in California, at least I knew what advance sheets to read. Cleveland set me adrift at sea.) Now, surely, the world was my oyster.
Wrong again. Now I’ve gone in-house, and I’m ultimately responsible for all litigation filed against my company anywhere in the world. The world is my oyster….
Continue reading “Inside Straight: Overseeing International Litigation”
We’ve set up our liveblog of the Ninth Circuit oral arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the Proposition 8 / same-sex marriage case. For a comprehensive account of what has happened in the litigation thus far, see this great FAQ by Chris Geidner, over at Poliglot.
You can watch streaming video of the arguments over at C-SPAN. And you can join our liveblog, after the jump….
Continue reading “Liveblogging the Prop 8 Ninth Circuit Oral Arguments”
It’s been a rough couple of week for Akin Gump. First, Steven Pesner made the firm look bad by exposing his own egomania. The man is now a case study in inappropriate partner behavior, so that should be coming to an Akin recruiting brochure near you.
Then, as we mentioned in Morning Docket, the firm got hit with a racial discrimination lawsuit on Friday. Evidently, racial harmony at Akin “is not so good right now in case you did not know.”
Given all that bad news, let’s focus on something positive (it is the holiday season, after all). Akin Gump has announced associate bonuses, and the firm is matching the Cravath structure, at least in New York. That makes sense: Akin Gump partners are meeting the minimum standard of bonus payout, while Akin Gump associates are putting forth minimal effort towards updating their time entries. What’s fair is fair.
What’s potentially not fair is the timing of the bonus payments. Akin Gump associates will have to wait until 2011 to actually collect their 2010 bonuses….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: At Akin Gump, Timing is Everything”
