September 2011
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Law Schools, Quote of the Day, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Unemployment
Quote of the Day: How Can We Help People to Stop Suing Us?
Law schools are scrambling to figure out a way to employ their graduates. What better way than to teach them how to become solo practitioners? -
Associate Advice, Litigators, Partner Issues, Small Law Firms
Small Firms, Big Lawyers: Supervising Partners and Teaching Partners
Recently, small firm columnist Jay Shepherd talked to a fourth-year-associate friend who'd been working at a new small firm for several months. When Shepherd asked him how it was going, his friend said "great" in a way that suggested anything but. A partner was making his friend's life a living hell. What made this partner so horrible? It wasn't so much that the partner was horrible. It was that he was merely a "supervising partner".... - Sponsored
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. -
Law Schools
How Can Law Students Win the War Against Their Lockers?
It's the beginning of a new school year, and starting fresh at law school is hard. So, if you think walking is tough, just imagine the anxiety that law students across the country were confronted with when they received their locker assignments. These kids must have so much pent up post-traumatic stress from getting shoved into their lockers in high school that they repressed the ability to use combination locks. Where do these students go to law school, and what is the school doing to assist them?
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Announcements, Conferences / Symposia, Technology
Greetings from the Legal Technology Leadership Summit
Greetings from the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. It’s lovely here (despite the presence of a few love bugs). We can see the ocean, hear the tides, and smell the salt air from our oceanfront balconies. Three members of the Above the Law team — David Lat, Elie Mystal, and Chris Danzig — are down […] -
Antitrust, Basketball, Breasts, Mergers and Acquisitions, Morning Docket, Pictures, Privacy, Sex, Utah
Morning Docket: 09.07.11
* Sprint hopped in bed with Skadden to sue AT&T over its proposed merger with T-Mobile. Somewhere in America, the Verizon guy is cackling with glee. “Can you hear me now, b*tches?” [Bloomberg] * “I would love to dominate and humiliate and degrade you, privately of course.” Remember this guy? Six of the nine charges […]
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California, Exercise, Law School Deans, Law Schools
Walk With Me
Editor Elie Mystal isn't a big fan of walking. He finds the activity primitive in terms of travel. So, it should go almost without saying that the person ready to implement the walking meeting concept is an academic out in California. That's right, a law school out west is ready to bring you the walking office hours.... -
Books, California, Deaths, Defamation, Family Law, Gay, Gay Marriage, Holidays and Seasons, Money, Non-Sequiturs, Partner Issues, Technology, Utah
Non-Sequiturs: 09.06.11
* Prop 8 made an appearance today at the California Supreme Court before newly seated Justice Goodwin Liu. As suspected, the liberal Liu immediately made the proponents have sex with each other as he cackled “I hate families.” [Poliglot / Metro Weekly] * Next time a TSA agent sticks her hand down your pants and […] -
Biglaw, BuckleySandler, Gay, Gay Marriage, Health Care / Medicine, Money, Perks / Fringe Benefits, Tax Law, Williams Mullen
Biglaw Perk Watch: More Firms Adopt the Gay Gross-Up
We have been tracking which leading law firms offer the perk we've nicknamed the gay gross-up. If you're inclined towards formality, you can call it the "tax offset for domestic partner health benefits." For an explanation of what this perk is all about, read this prior post. Since our last round-up, additional prominent law firms have adopted this policy. Let's check out the latest list.... - Sponsored
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… -
Small Law Firms
Size Matters: In Praise of Nepotism
Nepotism is not a new concept. Small firm columnist Valerie Katz would bet that anyone reading this article can imagine an example where nepotism played a role in one's obtaining a legal job, rising to prominence at a law firm, or securing a client. Some people, including myself, used to scoff at those people. She thought that one should rise or fall based solely on his merit. She was wrong (and naive).... -
New York Times, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: Happy Lawyers Are Better Lawyers
Our research shows that inner work life has a profound impact on workers’ creativity, productivity, commitment and collegiality. Employees are far more likely to have new ideas on days when they feel happier. Conventional wisdom suggests that pressure enhances performance; our real-time data, however, shows that workers perform better when they are happily engaged in […] -
Advertising, Biglaw, Career Center, Holidays and Seasons, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center Survey: Did You Work on Labor Day?
Who celebrated Labor Day with an end of summer bash, and who was too busy laboring away on billable work? Tell us by taking our short and confidential survey, brought to you by Lateral Link, and then check back later in the week for the survey results. In the meantime, you can visit the Career […] -
Biglaw, Letter from London, Partner Issues, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Letter from London: On the Brink of a Double Dip?
Welcome to Letter from London, a weekly look at the U.K. legal world by our London correspondent, Alex Aldridge. He asked various managing partners what European debt contagion would mean for large law firms in the U.K. And, predictably, they reeled off the standard recession line about law firms being “well placed to handle the anticipated wave of restructuring work.” The worry is what happens after the restructuring is complete... -
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Job Searches, Law Schools, Paralegals, Reader Polls, Student Loans
Should This Young Woman Go to Law School?
A bright, 23-year-old woman is thinking of going to law school. Should she do it? Let's learn about the particulars of her case....
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
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Divorce Train Wrecks, Family Law, Sex, Sex Scandals
Putting the 'French' in 'Kiss': Man Sued By Ex-Wife Over Lack of Sex
Apparently the French aren't such great lovers anymore. A 2010 poll found that 76% of people surveyed were having relationship problems due to a poor sex life. And it seems that a poor sex life was what brought about a divorce between Jean-Louis B. and Monique, a middle-aged French couple. But after enduring 21 years of a near sexless marriage, a divorce was simply not enough. Mrs. B. wanted to be compensated for the lack of sexual rendezvous with her ex-husband, so she sued him for it.... -
Biglaw, California, Email Scandals, Facebook, Job Searches, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Pictures, Technology
Morning Docket: 09.06.11
* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 100 new jobs were added to the legal industry last month. About 40,000 students graduated from law school this spring. You do the math. [Am Law Daily] * This Maryland law school dean thinks that the U.S. News rankings “generalize about things that are not generalizable.” Come […]
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Job Searches, Quote of the Day, Wall Street Journal
Quote of the Day: So tell me more about this whole 'occupational therapy' thing....
There are 64 open jobs in occupational therapy for every 100 working in the field, the [SimplyHired.com] site’s data show. Yet online job listings for these positions get 50 times fewer clicks than the hardest-to-place industry — the legal field. Meanwhile, unemployed lawyers now find themselves in the country’s most cutthroat race for a job, […] -
Admin, Announcements, Antitrust, Bankruptcy, Baseball, Benchslaps, Biglaw, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Department of Justice, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Federal Government, Heller Ehrman, Holidays and Seasons, Morning Docket, Sports, State Judges, Trials
Morning Docket: 09.05.11
Ed. note: Due to the Labor Day holiday, we’ll be on a reduced publication schedule today. We’ll be back to normal tomorrow. A restful and happy Labor Day to all! * More about the Delaware benchslap that we covered last week (including the news that Judge Peggy Ableman’s pajama party did not go forward as […]
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Celebrities, D.C. Circuit, Douglas Ginsburg, Federal Judges, Feeder Judges, Intellectual Property, Law Schools, Madonna, Non-Sequiturs, Religion, Securities and Exchange Commission, Trademarks, Wall Street
Non-Sequiturs: 09.02.11
* Judge Douglas Ginsburg (D.C. Cir.) is taking senior status and joining the NYU Law faculty. Query how this will affect his feeding (and no, we’re not talking about New York versus D.C. restaurants). [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times] * “Two Examples of Things Not to Say When You’re at Your Local IRS […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2011, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: Making It Rain Makes No Common Cents
There was no rational foundation to do [the spring bonuses]. It was not as if suddenly all the law firms in The Am Law 100 were minting money. — Ralph Baxter, longtime chairman and CEO of Orrick (shortly before he was overheard screaming at the Wheeling career associates to mint more money). -
Antonin Scalia, English Grammar and Usage, Gender, Reader Polls
Grammer Pole of the Weak: Gender-Neutral Language and You
Happy Friday, and welcome to the latest edition of Above the Law’s Grammer Pole of the Weak, a column where we turn questions of English grammar and usage over to our readers for discussion and debate. Last week, we discovered that 82% of our readers are willing to strangle, maim, and kill over the use […]