April 2011
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Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners
Size Matters: I Get Schooled By The Dean Of Solo Practice University
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Size Matters, one of Above the Law’s new columns for small-firm lawyers. It is not easy staying abreast of all of the important issues affecting small firms, but I do it because my words impact our nation’s policy. Do you think it was a coincidence that less […] -
Commencement, Evan Caminker, Gay, Gay Marriage, Law Schools, Politics
Michigan Law School Invites Ohio Senator With 'Anti-Gay Politics' To Speak At Senior Day
What’s more strange about that headline? That Michigan Law would invite a guy who stands against the civil rights of certain members of the Michigan Law community, or that Michigan Law would invite a representative from Ohio to speak to its outgoing students? I’m going with the latter. Rob Portman graduated from the University of […] - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Advertising, Biglaw, Career Center, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center Tip of the Day: Evaluating the Counteroffer — Should You Stay or Should You Go? (Part 4)
In the first, second and third parts of our Career Center “Tip of the Day” series, focused on how to evaluate a counteroffer, we covered the importance of re-evaluating your current employment situation, assessing what the new firm is offering, and analyzing the counteroffer of your current firm. It is now time for you to […]
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Alex Kozinski, Defamation, Federal Judges, Free Speech, Media and Journalism, Technology
Did Blogging Kill the First Amendment?
Our buddy, the Honorable Alex Kozinski, is on a roll. On Monday, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit benchslapped a pair of wealthy, persistently annoying and mildly famous identical twins. The same day, he gave a lecture at San Francisco’s Golden Gate University School of Law, where he […] -
Biglaw, Celebrities, Fame Brief, Fast Food, Food, Reality TV, Television
Fame Brief: Former Paul Hastings Associate May Be America's Next Great Restaurateur
What do you get when you cross Top Chef with Mark Cuban’s The Benefactor (anybody remember that? HA), steal half the name of America’s Next Top Model, and throw in inexplicably famous “chef” Curtis Stone? Only the single greatest reality show on NBC during the 8 p.m. time slot on Sundays: America’s Next Great Restaurant. […] -
Barry Bonds, Baseball, Blogging, Media and Journalism, Sports, Television
ESPN Legal Analyst Does Disservice to All Mankind
Last night, Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice, while the jury hung on all other counts, resulting in a mistrial as to those counts. We posted about it. Now, I don’t expect non-lawyers to really understand what “obstruction of justice” means. I certainly don’t expect them to understand what a “mistrial” is. […] -
Craigslist, Job Searches
Pathetic Job Potpourri
Whenever it feels like things are getting better in the legal economy, Craigslist shows up to remind everybody just how crappy things still are. If you want to know why there is a higher education bubble (and there is a higher education bubble), you need only look at the kind of pathetic salaries offered to […] -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.14.11
* Pay for play pay for an “A” attorney Damian Bonazzoli got suspended from practice for six months. At $300 a pop and without a job, it may be time to get back into pushing papers on Craigslist. [Worcester Telegram & Gazette] * “I cannot explain why men do what they do.” Sorry, Lynette Taylor, […]
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Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Education / Schools, Job Searches, Law Schools, Money, Student Loans
A 1L Who Should Stay In Law School
People think that I believe that nobody should go to law school ever, and that anybody who is currently in law school should drop out immediately. And, to be fair, I do think that many people in law school today have made terrible personal and financial decisions and have entered a world of pain that […] -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 04.13.11
* It looks like Jonathan Lee Riches has some competition. Check out this crazy lawsuit filed against Apple (and many other defendants), by one David Louis Whitehead. Why do the wackos always have three names? [Apple Insider] * Check out Professor Glenn Reynolds’s interesting argument against a federally-mandated drinking age of 21. “If you get […] -
Barry Bonds, Baseball, Crime, Sports, Trials
Breaking: Barry Bonds Found Guilty of Obstructing Justice; Mistrial Declared On Other Counts
After four days of deliberating over whether or not former baseball great Barry Bonds lied about his use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, the jury could not reach agreement on a number of charges the government made against Bonds. But the feds nailed him on the obstruction of justice count. From ESPN: The guilty […] -
Grade Reform, Law Schools
How Many Inflated 'A-pluses' Do You Need To Get A Job In D.C.?
We’ve seen it in California; we’ve seen it in New York. Now it looks like Puff the Magic Grade-Inflating Dragon is heading for Washington, D.C. Yes sir, a school in the D.C. market has decided that the reason its students can’t get jobs has nothing to do with the quality of education or services the […] -
Benchslaps, Federal Judges, Kids, Litigators, Pregnancy / Paternity, Rudeness, Trials
Federal Judge Benchslaps Plaintiffs' Counsel: Stop Being Tools
A trial was scheduled to start in Kansas federal court on June 14, 2011. Defendants moved for a short continuance because one of their lawyers is expecting his first child on July 3. (The lawyer in question, Bryan Erman, is quite cute — check out that chin dimple.) Plaintiffs’ counsel objected to the continuance — […]
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Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.
Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The rise of remote work has dramatically reshaped the relationship between Lawyers and Law Firms, see how Scale LLP has taken the steps to get…
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use.
Sponsored
Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms.
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Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
If 2023 introduced legal professionals to generative AI, then 2024 will be when law firms start adapting to utilize it. Things are moving fast, so…
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Advertising, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Gracias a Nuestros Anunciantes
Check out the latest offerings in Sponsored Content: An investment solution for busy associates (no, not Bernie Madoff). The dawning of a new day in transcript management. And now, thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law…. -
Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Biglaw Firm Warns Associates They'll Be 'Disappointed' With Comp
You know associates are pissed when they end their emails to Above the Law with lines like this one, from a message we received last night: NO ONE SHOULD COME HERE. EVERYONE HERE SHOULD LEAVE. That’s what happens when you tell your associates that they’re going to get paid significantly below market and like it. […] -
Associate Advice, Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: On Outer-Directedness
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Law firms, and in-house law departments, should be outer-directed. I realize that I just invented the word “outer-directed,” and sensible people might choose to call this concept being “client-focused.” But “outer-directedness” is broader than […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2010, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money
Associate Bonus Watch: Goodwin Procter's 'Special' Bonuses
The law firm of Cromwell & Goodwin might be fake, but the law firm of Goodwin Procter is very real. As is the news of spring bonuses at the firm. Whoops, sorry — make that “special bonuses.” That’s the terminology used by Goodwin Procter to refer to the supplemental payments. Let’s look at the memo […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Not Worth It
Ed. note: This post is by Will Meyerhofer, a former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney turned psychotherapist. He holds degrees from Harvard, NYU Law, and The Hunter College School of Social Work, and he blogs at The People’s Therapist. His new book, Life is a Brief Opportunity for Joy, is available on Amazon (affiliate link). I […] -
Department of Justice, Google / Search Engines, Insider Trading, Michael Jackson, Morning Docket, Trials, Violence, Women's Issues
Morning Docket: 04.13.11
* Raj Rajaratnam’s got a cute insider trading friend named Octopussy. Maybe he’s been doing some other insider trading, if you know what I mean. [Bloomberg] * Florida redefines “beating it.” It may be time to reconsider things if you’re paying $2.99 to watch a hate crime with your pants off. Come on, at least […]
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Biglaw, Contests, Lawyer of the Day, Reader Polls
Lawyer of the Month: We Like It When People Just Walk Away
So this month, we went out of our way to nominate potential Lawyers of the Month who were still breathing. The desire of our readers to bestow this honor posthumously is laudable, but we don’t want to this feature to end up like the “dead people” reel at the Oscars, where folks bet on which […]