Resorting to violence is part of human nature. We see it all the time, especially in children. When arguments fail, when hope wanes, the fists come out. Most people are willing to fight long before they are willing to admit that their entire worldview is wrong.
Institutions are no different; they will fight to preserve the way they’ve always done things before they will change, even if their old ways are ass-backwards and likely to lead to ruin.
This desire to fight instead of change is how I understand the Department of Education story that has been blowing up the internet today. Apparently the Department of Education — not the police or the military, but the DOE — got a warrant to send in a SWAT team after a person who was delinquent in paying back their student loans.
A SWAT team, guys — a freaking SWAT team, over some unpaid debts.
UPDATE: Please note the important updates and corrections to this story, after the jump.
Now I ask you, does that sound like the behavior of an institution that is confident about the state of the student loan economy, or does that sound like an organization trying to keep things together by using force and terror?
Continue reading “Department of Education Hopes Police State Can Prevent Student Loan Bubble From Bursting”
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Dear ATL,
I just received my A.A. in Paralegal Studies. Will this be useful at all? How do attorneys view paralegals? I don’t need an attorney to like me. I just need one to pay me.
– Wrong Kind of Associate
Dear Wrong Kind of Associate,
I’m going to be honest here and say that I had to Google “A.A. degree.” I thought it might be it something called an “Associates Degree,” which I’ve seen advertised on the subway, but I wasn’t sure because I’ve never seen that abbreviation in real life and wanted to be absolutely certain about it before I tore you a new one….
Continue reading “Pls Hndle Thx: A Degree More Useless Than a J.D.?”
Last month, we broke the news of seven key corporate partners leaving O’Melveny & Myers to join Paul Weiss. Shortly thereafter, we learned that two other prominent partners were leaving O’Melveny to join Weil Gotshal.
Of course, partners come and partners go at large law firms — but some of these nine were major rainmakers and practice group heads. Paul Weiss snagged Gregory Ezring, who chaired O’Melveny’s corporate finance and capital markets practice, and Brad Okun, who headed O’Melveny’s tax practice. Meanwhile, Weil scored Harvey Eisenberg, a leading private-equity adviser, and M&A partner Douglas Ryder.
Could something more be going on at OMM?
“You guys are missing a huge story about O’Melveny,” a tipster recently told us. “In the last two years or so, around 60 partners have disappeared.”
“The pace is now quickening,” this source added. “Since January 1, around 10% of the OMM partners, including many practice group leaders and other key rainmakers, have departed.”
These numbers sound significant — but, in fairness to O’Melveny, they should be viewed in context. Let’s hear what the firm had to say about them….
Continue reading “What’s Going On At O’Melveny & Myers?”
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).
My client wasn’t getting enough sleep. I assumed it was insomnia, but that didn’t fit the bill. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sleep; it was that she wouldn’t sleep. She was staying up from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., lying in bed — mostly, playing Angry Birds.
Those few hours were the only time she was left alone all day – no one from the firm called to assign her something awful to do or yell at her for something awful she’d done. To relinquish this sliver of “me time,” even for sleep, was out of the question….
Continue reading “A Little ‘Me Time’”
Yeah, but are bison community property in Wyoming?
* Just a little off the top: this prisoner is suing because Virginia won’t give her the kind of cut that she wants. [Wall Street Journal]
* There are probably more bison than gay people in Wyoming, but now the latter can get divorced there. All two of them. [ABA Journal]
* Bloggers from Garden State now have more limited coverage under the state’s press shield law. In true Jersey style, all the action in this case happened on a porn site. [Reuters]
* If I were the muse for this pro-life billboard, I’d be more embarrassed about dating the guy pictured than the abortion in question. He looks like he plays a lot of D & D. [Healthland / TIME]
* I’m usually a fan of toilet humor, but this lawsuit gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “dropping the kids off at the pool.” [Birmingham News]
* Now that real weed is legal in Connecticut, fake weed might be criminalized. The stoner-like logic of lawmakers knows no bounds. [NBC Connecticut]
I don’t have a problem with appointing an openly gay person. Because they’re not going to try to put sharia law in our laws.
– Herman Cain, Republican presidential candidate, explaining why he would consider appointing an openly gay person to his cabinet, even though he would not appoint a Muslim to the federal bench or to his cabinet. (Gavel bang: Andrew Sullivan / The Dish.)
The location of the chain on the frank is a bit... suggestive.
* Oh goodness — this might be too much Weiner, even for me. It’s the transcript (PDF) of Anthony Weiner’s nine-month cyber sex relationship with a 40-year-old blackjack dealer in Las Vegas. [Radar Online]
* This wiener probably isn’t getting a “World’s Best Dad” mug on Father’s Day from his ex-Skadden daughter. [Law Shucks]
* In continuing wiener coverage, anti-circumcision queen Jena Troutman is cutting out her crusade against circumcision in Santa Monica. [The Atlantic Wire]
* Rounding out our wiener news, here’s a dispatch from Chicago. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Musical Chairs: Mark Walker, former managing partner at über-diverse Cleary Gottlieb, is leaving the firm for Lazard, the über-elite investment bank. Ka-ching! [Am Law Daily]
* Think that accounting firms are so much more family-friendly than law firms? Think again. [The Careerist]
* There are several new listings on the Above the Law Jobs Board. Check it out! [ATL Jobs Board]
Your summer associateship should be unfit for television (reality TV or otherwise).
What you do during your summer clerkship should not be viewed as a potential plot line in a TV series — or your future at the firm will last as long as The Deep End. From your fashion prowess to your social interactions, you should really be remembered for your work ethic and social competence. When you are being considered for a permanent position at summer’s end, you don’t want to be known as “Jäger Boy” or “Cleavage Girl.”
It only takes one momentary lapse in judgment to derail your future at the firm. Read these tips, brought to you by Frank Kimball of Lateral Link, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner.…
Continue reading “Is Your Summer Clerkship Too Boring for a TV Show? Good!”
An old white male and his younger diverse peeps.
Law firm diversity matters. It matters to corporate clients, many of them public companies that want to demonstrate their commitment to diversity through their selection of vendors and service providers — which is what law firms are, at the end of the day. It matters to the law students and lawyers that firms are trying to recruit — which is the premise behind the data collection conducted by Building A Better Legal Profession.
So there should be keen interest in the latest edition of the American Lawyer’s Diversity Scorecard 2011, which the magazine just released. As Am Law explains, the Scorecard constitutes its annual ranking of large law firms by their percentage of minority attorneys and minority partners.
Let’s take a look at the top firms for diversity. Did your firm make the list?
Continue reading “Which Law Firms Are Most Diverse? Let’s Look at the Rankings”
There is a small-firm lawyer I know who does not appear to me to be super at anything, other than perhaps being super-gross (yes, I am aware that I speak like a little girl on the playground). I recall a meeting in his office wherein he used his pen to clean his teeth, which resulted in his pen exploding on his shirt. Undeterred by his mess, this man continued to advocate for his client by explaining to me “all’s” he knew about a certain subject. As I was getting up to leave that meeting, I saw several wall mountings that indicated that he had been selected for inclusion in the SuperLawyers listing for several years in a row.
That experience made me wonder whether the SuperLawyers list, at least when it comes to small-firm attorneys, was somewhat less than “super.” Indeed, I felt that small-firm lawyers were disproportionately recognized as SuperLawyers. Who does not know a small-firm attorney selected for inclusion in that list?
So I decided to expose the SuperLawyers conspiracy….
Continue reading “Size Matters: Are You Super?”
Anna Nicole Smith (via Getty Images).
During her short lifetime, Anna Nicole Smith managed to sell sex, jeans, weight-loss pills and, with her reality show, a sense of superiority to millions of Americans who could take some solace in the fact that they were not that messed up. She was voluptuous, then she was just plain fat, then she was voluptuous again and, all the while, she slurred her words and giggled through a series of unfortunate events that were all surely her own doing, right? She asked for all of this, right? The deaths and bankruptcies, rises and falls. She had it coming and when her life became entangled in a series of lawsuits, well… that was the natural outgrowth of a life lived so stupidly.
And then she died. Because, of course she did. And the lawsuits refuse to die. Because, of course they do. As noted last fall on this website, the Supreme Court took up one last (?) appeal in the case involving Anna Nicole Smith and sex and money. Except, the Court employs euphemisms like jurisdiction and congressional intent and non-Article III bankruptcy judges, because heaven forfend or something.
As her case flops and wheezes its way to the finish line, now is the perfect time for a look back at Anna Nicole’s life….
Continue reading “The Peculiarly American Anna Nicole Smith”
There was a threat of a filibuster, but it was averted. Last night, the Senate confirmed Donald Verrilli Jr. to serve as U.S. solicitor general, by a vote of 72-16.
As one might expect of an SG, Verrilli has an incredible résumé. He graduated from Yale College and Columbia Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review, then clerked for two legendary judges, Judge J. Skelly Wright (D.C. Cir.) and Justice William Brennan.
And that was just the start of a long and phenomenally successful legal career. Let’s go drool over Don Verrilli’s credentials — and check out his net worth, which is quite robust….
Continue reading “Musical Chairs: Don Verrilli Confirmed As Solicitor General”
We have a definite theme for this week’s installment of the Bar Review Diaries: stress!
Big surprise, right? What’s not stressful about a multi-day test that culminates three years of study and kind of determines your entire future?
Our columnists are in the thick of their review, and by the looks of it, anxiety is starting to creep in….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: How Do We Deal With Stress?”
I spent last week with a bunch of journos working from a beach house in the Outer Banks. I set my computer up in the house’s crow nest, blogging with a view of the ocean and a cool sea breeze. “Lunch hour” was spent playing in the waves. At night, we would make frozen drinks (summer cocktail recommendation: Jameson M&M milkshakes) and sit beneath the stars debating whether or not Anthony Weiner was cocky enough to send out that Twitter pic. This is perfect, I thought to myself.
But then late Tuesday night, it got even better, as I got to throw a little vicarious pleasure into the mix. At 10:10 p.m., my Droid buzzed with an email from a Courtship Connection couple I had sent to the Black Rooster pub earlier that night: “Full recap from us tomorrow but we have been making out all over Dupont!”
As regular readers know, that’s a rarity in this series. So what was it about this pairing that awakened the lawyers’ libidos?
Continue reading “Courtship Connection: Very Public Displays of Affection”
* DSK pleaded not guilty. In more interesting news, hotel maids are lobbying for panic buttons. Help, I’ve fallen onto a foreigner’s penis and I can’t get up? [Bloomberg]
* The Supreme Court confirms that it isn’t cool to give a guy blue balls, especially when it’s on tape. A ten second rub ‘n tug just doesn’t cut it, ladies. [CNN Justice]
* Paying a disputed bill with 2,500 pennies is douchey conduct for sure, but not disorderly. [News Feed / TIME]
* The Maine Senate rejected a bill outlawing violence against fetuses. What’s aggravated assault against a fetus, anyway? Most people probably hope that procreating while ugly doesn’t count. [Associated Press]
* How can you get in-state tuition if you’re here illegally? Doesn’t that kind of not make any sense, like, at all? [Los Angeles Times]
* The Supreme Court refused to hear Wesley Snipes’s tax case simply because they’re hoping that the actor will consider filming the prequel to Blade while in jail: Shank. [Reuters]
* Are you ready for some football? YEAH! Well, too bad. You’re not going to get any because of the NFL’s Hail Mary motion. [CBS Sports]
Ask the Tooth Fairy, son.
The phone’s been ringing off the hook here at the Circumcision Law Desk all weekend, so I apologize in advance if this post comes off sounding a bit distracted. Oftentimes, the intersection of foreskin and law is a lonely corridor filled with nothing but shattered dreams and crying babies.
A screaming anti-semitism comes across the sky.
Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article that did a pretty good job of illuminating where we are at in the pitched legal battle over circumcision. As mentioned at the end of the last dispatch from the Circumcision Law Desk, the forces of full-bodied penises have turned their attention to passing legislation that outlaws circumcision.
As Elie pointed out two weeks ago, San Franciscans will be voting this fall on whether to ban circumcision. And they’re not alone.
After the jump, find out what happens when people stop being polite and start trying to pass laws that outlaw circumcision and, in the process, piss off an entire religion (and blogger Andrew Sullivan)….
Continue reading “Circumcision, Anti-Semitism, and You”
Anthony Weiner at today's press conference (via Getty Images).
* Kashmir Hill’s take on Weinergate. She shares my admiration for Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sculpted physique, as showcased in his shirtless pics. [Not-So Private Parts / Forbes]
* Charles Colman poses a question for intellectual-property types to puzzle over: “at what point is a slogan so descriptive that it would simply be unreasonable to let just one company use it”? [Law of Fashion]
* Ross Fishman asks: How can law firms in smaller cities and legal markets generate inbound referrals? [Ross's Law Marketing Blog]
Kathy Ruemmler
* A closer look at Kathryn Ruemmler, President Obama’s new White House counsel — who’s only 40 years old. [WSJ Law Blog]
* What does the Indian legal community think of the growing trend of “onshoring” (i.e., keeping legal work here in the U.S., but outsourcing away from expensive markets / providers)? [Legally India]
* Summer associates in New York: check out this helpful guide to free and fun things in NYC. [Axiom]
We’ve reached the end of our career advice webcast, We Know What You Should Do This Summer, in which a panel of experts provided career advice for this summer. The panel was sponsored by our friends at the Practical Law Company, which provides law students with free access to its excellent resources so they can succeed over the summer. Check out PLC’s law student home page to learn more.
Check out the last installment, as well as links to all of the prior segments, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Webcast: Career Advice for This Summer (Part 7):
A Final Note on Networking.“
This may be a sad commentary on the challenges facing young lawyers today. A 25-year-old solo practitioner in Sycamore, Illinois, has been accused of trying to supplement her income through prostitution.
Last week, attorney Reema N. Bajaj was charged with three counts of prostitution. The charges arise out of two incidents that allegedly took place on August 13, 2010, and May 10, 2011. But police allege that Bajaj has been engaging in prostitution activity for several years, even before she was admitted to the Illinois bar.
As it turns out, Reema Bajaj is a rather pretty woman. In light of her attractiveness — see pics after the jump — it’s surprising how little she was allegedly charging for her services….
Continue reading “It’s Hard Out Here For… A Lawyer Accused of Prostitution”
