September 2011
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.22.11
* Airbag makes lawyer an airhead. [Legal Blog Watch] * Antonin Scalia as Harry Potter? Antonin Scalia as Harry Potter? Justice Scalia as the rule-breaking boy-wizard who never lets the traditions and expectations of the past stop him from trying to do the right thing? Are you freaking kidding me? Scalia is the goddamn Dolores […] -
Continuing Legal Education / CLE, English Grammar and Usage, Lawyer Advertising, Pro Bono, Romance and Dating, Small Law Firms
Size Matters: Announcements and RFPs
With the departure of Jay Shepherd, small firm columnist Valerie Katz is now (at least temporarily) filling the role of small firm chica (Val) and small firm expert (Jay). Let me tell you, it is exhausting. So, she am going to do what any smart, small-firm partner would do in this situation, and she am going to delegate. And, by delegate, she means push the work off on you. She have a few new features that she would like to unveil (and she swears, it will be better than the new Facebook)... - 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… -
Bad Ideas, Document Review, Technology, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Many Corporate Boards Are Pretty Much Waiting to Get Hacked, Report Says
At this point, the lengths companies go to in order to protect data, keep it secure, and prepare for e-discovery is old news. Data breaches — and the news coverage that usually follows — have frightened many companies into at least attempting to ratchet up data security policies. Likewise with retention practices. There have been […]
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Gay, Lawsuit of the Day, Sex, Sex Scandals
Lawsuit of the Day: Is Pink a Color in the Rainbow Coalition?
We’re a little bit late on the draw with the harassment suit filed against Jesse Jackson on Tuesday. We wanted to see the complaint, and at first, the headline “Gay Guy Wishes Black People Weren’t Such D***s to Gays” seemed underwhelming. We all noticed the strange tendency of some otherwise liberal African-American civil rights leaders […] -
Biglaw, Email Scandals, Job Searches, Rudeness, Summer Associates
The Best Way to Brag About an Offer Is Under the Guise of Charity
With offer season well under way, some law students may be wondering how to tell the world that they've landed summer associate jobs without sounding like complete braggarts. Maybe you're a law student who feels only slightly guilty bragging about a job offer, so you think up a creative way to broach the subject with peers? One law student at a leading law school has got this method of breaking the news about offers on lock.... -
9th Circuit, Clerkships, Diarmuid O'Scannlain, Federal Government, Federal Judges, Money
Federal Law Clerks: No Pay Raise for You!
People don't clerk for the money. Sure, clerkship bonuses can be considerable -- but in most cases, a graduate who goes straight into a law firm will do better financially than her classmate who clerks after graduation. If you're planning to clerk or interested in clerking for a federal judge, you should be aware of the latest news about law clerk compensation.... -
Advertising, Biglaw, Career Center, Job Searches, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center: Event Etiquette for Dummies (or Sloppy 2Ls)
This fall you will be invited to attend pre-interview receptions, post-OCI dinners, and various meals and receptions during and after callback interviews. How you handle yourself during these events can have an impact on whether you receive an offer and your reputation in the firm. Follow these sensible rules, courtesy of Lateral Link’s Frank Kimball, […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: The On-Boarding Process
Two comments from folks who recently moved in-house prompt this post. The first comment came from a guy who spent more than ten years with an Am Law 100 firm before moving in-house: “When I was reading the newspaper on Sunday, I realized something. Before I moved in-house, I never truly understood ‘Dilbert’ and the […] - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Crime, Death Penalty, Deaths, Murder, Sentencing Law
Did America Just Learn That We Have The Death Penalty In Some States?
We live in a country where some states have the death penalty. Capital punishment. The "ultimate justice," people like Rick Perry say with a smirk, as if justice that ends in death is somehow preferable to justice that respects the dignity of human life. Do you not know what those sanitized words mean? Do you not know what the death penalty is? Why the hell are people so worked up over Troy Davis? -
Andrew Cuomo, Antitrust, Cars, Death Penalty, Department of Justice, Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Mergers and Acquisitions, Morning Docket, Pornography, SCOTUS, Trademarks, Violence
Morning Docket: 09.22.11
* It took SCOTUS more than four hours to write one sentence. But oh, to be a fly on the wall last night when they decided to deny a stay of execution for Troy Davis. [New York Times] * AT&T wants to take the DOJ’s antitrust case to trial. This must be some sort of […]
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5th Circuit, Benchslaps, Edith Jones, Federal Judges, Judicial Divas, Reader Polls, Ridiculousness, Rudeness, Sam Sparks, Texas, Vicious Infighting
Judicial Diva Gone Wild? Chief Judge Jones Tells Judge Dennis to 'Shut Up'
Can you enforce civility by being... uncivil? That's the question being raised, over and over again, by federal judges from Texas these days. Check out the latest craziness -- an en banc hearing before the Fifth Circuit that generated judicial fireworks, culminating in a judge essentially telling a colleague to STFU or GTFO.... -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.21.11
* Eight Amish men were sent to jail because they refused to put bright orange safety triangles on the backs of their horse-drawn buggies, but the real crime here is THEIR HAIR. [Legal Blog Watch] * Georgia seems eager to kill this guy without listening to any more pesky facts. [WSJ Law Blog] * Our […] -
Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Racism
Former 'Hate Group' Leader Chosen To Represent University of Toledo Students On Constitutional Panel
Last year, we wrote about Kyle Bristow, a student at the University of Toledo College of Law. Bristow had been the chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom student chapter at Michigan State University when he was in college. The MSU-YAF was designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Hey, we’re living […]
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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…
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…
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Cars, Drinking, DUI / DWI, Law School Deans, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: Buzzed Driving Is Still Legal
It’s not against the law to have a glass of wine or two with dinner and then drive home. — Michael Piccarreta, attorney for Lawrence Ponoroff, dean of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, discussing last week’s dismissal of a DUI charge against the dean. The legal blood-alcohol content limit in […] -
Advertising, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Thanks So Much to Our Advertisers Here at Above the Law
We would like to extend our thanks to this week’s advertisers here on Above the Law. We are honored to have these respected brand leaders as our advertisers. Please show them your support: American Express Chase College of Law Delta JD Match Kinney Recruiting (sponsor of the Asia Chronicles) Lateral Link (sponsor of the Career […] -
Caption Contests, Contests, Law Schools, Money, Pictures
Caption Contest: Money to Burn?
Some say that the only people going to law school these days are the ones who have got both time and money to burn. At the end of three years, some will leave law school with the stark realization that their hopes and dreams have gone up in flames -- figuratively, of course. But apparently, someone took that phrase literally at a law school in Virginia. Here's the photo for our latest caption contest.... -
Fame Brief, Reality TV
Fame Brief: Survivor of the Fittest at Harvard Law School
Hopefully the next edition of What Can You Do With a Law Degree? has not gone to press yet, because there is a thriving new category of jobs a JD gets you these days: reality show contestant. See? Law school is good for something. Joining the entire pantheon of lawyer-turned-reality luminaries is John Cochran, a 24-year-old Harvard Law School student who appears as a member of the "Savaii" tribe on this season's Survivor: South Pacific.... -
Biglaw, Gender, Women's Issues
The Doom Of Our Species: Intelligent Women Refuse To Spawn
We know that the movie Idiocracy stars Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. But if you are at all concerned with the future of humanity, you really need to watch it. The premise of the movie is that smart people have fewer kids than dumb people. And so, over time, humanity gets dumber. THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. And, sorry to say, but the women of Biglaw are partially to blame. WE NEED YOUR SMART BABIES.... -
7th Circuit, Benchslaps, Federal Judges, Judicial Divas, Solo Practitioners
Benchslap of the Day: A Billy Madison Style Rambling, Incoherent Complaint
It's not every day that attorneys repeatedly file "unintelligible" complaints that are "riddled with errors." But it's really not every day that an attorney attempts to file the same complaint three times and appeals to the Seventh Circuit only to get smacked down. Let's see why a lawyer faced the wrath of the Seventh Circuit this week.... -
Law Schools
Cornell Indirectly Acknowledges the Uselessness of Its Law Degree
Here is Cornell University trying to convince its own graduate students to come back to school and get yet another degree. Yeah, we know, they are being that bold. Arguably, this is just Cornell's aggressive new ad campaign for its business school, but they should at least be more discreet. The JD candidates in the class of 2014 don't even know they're being bamboozled yet....