Chubbs Peterson
* Professor Rick Hasen thinks the Illinois Supreme Court is leaning towards letting Rahm Emanuel back into the race for Mayor of Chicago. Hopefully this means that Emanuel’s lawyer, Kevin Forde, will get his family back really soon. [Election Law Blog]
* Have you ever seen a notary in a bar, drunk, with her notary kit? It’s actually kind of hot. [What About Clients?]
* David Freedman, the unemployed Chicago-Kent law review editor recently featured in these pages (with his permission), describes his day on Above the Law. [The Law Movie Review]
* Noorain Khan, a former student of Amy Chua at YLS, interviews the Tiger Mother herself. Chua sounds a bit hurt — but a high-six-figures book advance has great healing power. [Jezebel]
* We’d like to dedicate this blurb to Chubbs Peterson. Alligators on golf courses are dangers to all of us. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Lawyers travel a lot. Here’s what you can do with all of those hotel toiletries (which Lat has confessed to hoarding). [Ross Fishman's Law Marketing Blog]
Law firm layoffs might be down, but they’re not out. Today we bring news of staff layoffs in the Los Angeles office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
We heard reports that approximately 12 out of 18 support staff members have been or will be laid off. According to these reports, eleven were laid off earlier this month, and one will be leaving in a few weeks.
In response to an inquiry from Above the Law, a spokesperson for the firm confirmed the essential accuracy of these reports. No associates were affected by the reduction, she noted.
“This was a difficult move; we had to let go of some very good people,” said Gerard F. Cruse, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, in a statement issued to ATL. “But, despite the fact we had another record year last year, the recession has impacted our L.A. office and we couldn’t continue to be overstaffed there. We are confident about its future and are planning the L.A. office’s expansion.”
Some additional information, after the jump.
Continue reading “Staff Layoff Watch: Hughes Hubbard & Reed (Los Angeles)”
Layoffs dropped sharply in 2010.
This evening, many of us — and six Supreme Court justices, according to an announcement this morning from the Court — will listen to the State of the Union address. Don’t be shocked if President Obama tells us that the state of the union is “strong.” When was the last time a president appeared before us to announce that the union is in shambles? (Even Jimmy Carter never did that.)
The truth lies somewhere in between strength and shambles. And that’s true not just of the United States, but of the world of large law firms.
Let’s talk about two indicators: layoffs, and bonuses — including a reader poll, on whether firms will match Sullivan & Cromwell’s yummy spring bonuses….
Continue reading “The State of Biglaw: With Layoffs Down Dramatically, Will Spring Bring Bonuses?”
Do we really need to make it easier for people to have weapons on school campuses? Really? We’re not worried about school shootings anymore? Is the Second Amendment really so broad that it requires us to allow students to weaponize their law school dorm rooms? Is there no “safe zone” in America where I can go and be reasonably assured of not being hit with an unintended, stray, accidental bullet fired from a hand cannon a man was legally allowed to possess just because George Washington needed some well-armed farmers to defeat the British?
According Idaho Law 2L Aaron Tribble, his right to have a firearm in his dorm room trumps his classmates’ rights to not have to live on campus with potentially crazy gunmen in legal possession of weapons. Tribble has filed suit against the University of Idaho over its policy that bans guns on campus.
He claims that the rule violates his Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights to possess a gun in his on-campus home…
Continue reading “Idaho Law Student Wants Right to Carry Guns on Campus”
If everyone hates this lady, why is her book selling so incredibly well? Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother has been a blockbuster, ranking in Amazon’s top five last week. Parents have had no trouble laying down $25 and sacrificing five hours of late-night television to soak up Chua’s story.
— bestselling author Po Bronson, writing in New York magazine about Yale law professor Amy Chua and her new, highly controversial book.
When it comes to working on holidays, we all know that Biglaw attorneys are some of the worst offenders. In today’s Career Center survey, brought to you by Lateral Link, tell us if you were off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, or if it was just business as usual. Then check back later this week for the survey results.
Gone baby gone.
It’s been pretty slow here at the Above the Law circumcision law desk. So slow, in fact, that Lat has considered putting me on another assignment: “There’s just not enough news surrounding the intersection of foreskin and the legal community. While I appreciate your enthusiasm for the amusing dong beat…I don’t know if the financials can possibly justify keeping you on.”
Every time he starts in on this speech, I have to break out a photo of 16 vaguely ethnic kids that I claim to take care of. This happens at least twice a week.
So you can imagine how excited I was to find this fascinating tale that might shock and amaze you. It’s the story of a full-time lawyer and part-time exhibitionist named….
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Day: The Foreskin Restorer”
By now you’ve probably watched or seen an ad for MTV Skins, a fictional show about, well… I’ll let MTV explain this gem:
Skins is a wild ride through the lives of a group of high school friends stumbling through the mine field of adolescence… and stepping on most of the mines as they go….
Be it sex, drugs, the breadth of friendships or the depth of heartbreaks, Skins is an emotional mosh-pit that slams through the insanity of teenage years.
Picture My So-Called Life with seedier plots, despicable characters and more drugs, alcohol and indiscriminate sex than you can shake an H&M blazer at.
Doesn’t sound that bad, right?
Continue reading “Fame Brief: Is MTV’s ‘Skins’ Child Porn?”
* “Rahm Emanuel faces a double-barreled legal problem.” Good thing we’re okay with violence-tinged political metaphors again, because those Tribune writers killed that opener. [Chicago Tribune]
* A report released yesterday charged the Bush White House with breaking the law during the ’06 elections, which sent shockwaves through the small but growing community of scholars dedicated to issues that nobody cares about anymore. [TPM]
* 2010 saw far fewer layoffs in the world of BigLaw than 2009. 2011 is sure to have even fewer, right? And then, 2012… well, in 2012 the world ends. [Law Shucks]
* States are saving money by helping ex-convicts find jobs. Those with prison journal experience should have no problem securing jobs. Should. [New York Times]
* A New York cabbie who overcharged customers will have his day in court — or, as the inimitable Post puts it, “Scam hack to trial.” [New York Post]
* Two amateur historians stand accused of altering a pardon issued by Abraham Lincoln. They also stand accused of altering this photo. [Washington Post]
Justice Alito is going to the State of the Union this year? Not true, not true!
Tomorrow night, many of us will tune in to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address — hoping to catch more catfighting than on an episode of Jersey Shore.
Last year’s SOTU did not disappoint drama-seekers. As you may recall, an Article II vs. Article III smackdown took place: President Obama chided the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision, with six members of the Court sitting a stone’s throw away from him, and Justice Samuel Alito responded by mouthing “not true” at the POTUS.
(Speaking of Citizens United, the decision celebrated its one-year anniversary last week, on January 21. And as Josh Blackman notes, the world has not come to an end, contrary to the dire predictions of distraught liberals. Of course, experts in this area — including some Obama-supporting liberals — told us that Citizens United wasn’t that big a deal.)
Thanks to last year’s juicy Obama v. Alito showdown, numerous commentators have wondered: Will Supreme Court justices attend the State of the Union this year? If so, which ones?
Let’s make some predictions, justice by justice….
Continue reading “Will SCOTUS Go to the SOTU This Year?”
Donald Verrilli
* Obama plans to nominate Don Verrilli as the next Solicitor General. He’s currently working a former partner at Jenner & Block, currently working at the White House. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Through his attorney, Judy Clarke, a smiling and nodding Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty today to charges arising out of the Tucson shootings. [Washington Post]
* Just like Justice Elena Kagan, Vice President Joe Biden was called for — and quickly dismissed from — jury duty. [Delaware Online]
Hannibal didn't need a college degree.
* A divorce lawyer points out that Amy Chua’s parenting techniques would likely break down if she got divorced. [Huffington Post]
* This is easily the best thing I’ve read about the situation in Tunisia. Call the country a casualty of the higher education “bubble” — and consider yourself warned. [NetNet / CNBC]
* A cyberlaw-centric Blawg Review, on the twenty-seventh anniversary of the first Apple Macintosh sales. [Cyberlaw Central via Blawg Review]
I’m not going to lie: I love Taco Bell. It’s my favorite fast food. One of the most consistently annoying aspects of my life is that I’ve never lived near a Taco Bell. I always have to go out of my way to get it.
Now, generally my wife and I learn how to cook things that we like but don’t have easy access to. I can turn my kitchen into a lobster holocaust zone. We buy beef and grind it ourselves to make Shake Shack burgers. I’ve even once had a chef from a restaurant in Vegas email me a recipe of a dish I particularly enjoyed.
But I’ve never, ever come close to recreating the taste of a Taco Bell taco. Oh, I can make tacos, and they are tasty, but I can’t get the Taco Bell thing right.
Now I know why. I’m using real beef. Taco Bell is apparently using… something else…
Continue reading “You Didn’t Really Think You Were Eating ‘Beef’ at Taco Bell, Did You?”
Friday brought good news for associates at Sullivan & Cromwell. The firm announced generous springtime bonuses, which will double bonus compensation for some of the more junior classes. If you missed the news, which broke late on Friday, check it out over here.
But Friday brought even better news about litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel. As reported by Am Law Daily, the firm’s profits per partner in 2010 were 16 percent higher than in 2009.
So what kind of numbers are we talking about? PPP at QE is a seven-figure number, of course — but what’s the first digit?
Continue reading “Quinn Emanuel Profits Per Partner Head Higher Into the Stratosphere”
An appellate panel voted 2-1 today to kick former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel off of the ballot for the Chicago mayoralty elections. The majority concluded that Emanuel didn’t meet the residency requirements.
What happens next?
Continue reading “Rahm Emanuel Booted From Chicago Ballot”
We talk a lot about how expensive legal education is and how prospective law students need to think rationally about their debt exposure before they try to finance a legal education.
I’m not sure if this law student did any of that thinking. But I am sure that her solution to the high cost of legal education is pretty ridiculous. After selling off most of her “excess” possessions on eBay, she decided to use the site to solicit direction donations for her legal education. She’s not taking on more debt, she’s not going out and getting a job — she’s asking for charity.
Welcome to legal education in the new decade…
Continue reading “Law Student Solicits Donations on eBay”
Who knew that working for a conservative think tank paid so well?
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Virginia Thomas, the politically active wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, earned over $680,000 over five years while working at the Heritage Foundation. That’s pretty nice scratch.
A possible problem: according to Common Cause, Clarence Thomas never reported the income in his federal financial disclosures…
Continue reading “Clarence Thomas and His Wife’s $680,000 of Unreported Income”
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s new column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann.
First, a story; then, an attempt to find a job for an unemployed former editor-in-chief of the Chicago-Kent Law Review.
Here’s the story: After I wrote The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law, I thought about how to maximize sales of the book. I had the clever (if I do say so myself) idea of sending free copies to the editors-in-chief of a bunch of law reviews. I figured that those folks were likely to (1) read a book and (2) be “opinion leaders” on their respective campuses, so word of the book would spread.
But there was a fly in my ointment. If you send a law student a book, the student is likely to read the book and pass it on to a friend, who will do the same in turn. That generates readers (which is nice), but it doesn’t generate sales (which is nicer).
How do you prevent this?
Continue reading “Inside Straight: Hire This Unemployed Chicago-Kent Editor-in-Chief!”
* The case against Jared Lee Loughner may take years, so get used to that sh*t-eating wackadoo grin. It’s going to be around awhile. [Associated Press]
* Former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being defended on the taxpayers’ dime. Except, the dime is worth millions. Numismatists found the last two sentences hilarious. [New York Times]
* A woman accused of baby snatching in 1987 just turned herself into authorities. It boggles the mind that anyone would steal a baby. You insert food and you receive poop. They’re what I imagine ATM machines in Third World countries are like. [CNN]
* Art forgery that doesn’t amount to fraud. A long piece that’s well worth the time. Bill it under professional reading. [Financial Times]
* The newly elected Colorado Secretary of State will continue “moonlighting” as a lawyer to make a few extra bucks. $68,500. Not enough to make you rich in the 3-0-3. [Denver Post]
* Justice Scalia is scheduled to speak to the Tea Party Caucus today. This Op-ed? A Hater’s Guide. [Washington Post]
* This article argues that both sides are right in the debate over the constitutionality of Obamacare. It tastes great AND is less filling. [National Law Journal via WSJ Law Blog]
* It falls to former Patton Boggs attorney DeMaurice Smith to ensure there is football played next year. Lockout or no, Jay Cutler will refuse to play. [New York Times]
Southern belle asks: "What is a hockey?"
* The owners of the Atlanta Thrashers are suing King & Spalding, claiming that a flawed contract is preventing them from selling the team. Yeah, it’s the lawyers’ fault; it has nothing to do with the fact that you own an ice hockey team in freaking Georgia. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
* It won’t be long now before chain-smoking hipsters lobby the FDA to stop cigarette companies from unfairly marketing to poseurs. [Good]
* Thomas Cooley law professors kissing a pig. I don’t even need a joke here. [TaxProf Blog]
* And the numbers of first time LSAT test takers goes… down. Significantly! [Legal Skills Prof Blog]
* Hawaii Senate stops praying. [Associated Press]
* Woman paralyzed by a hickey. No, it’s just a medical oddity, not a date-rapist who evolved venom. [Village Voice]
