January 2012
-
Bad Ideas, Craigslist, Job Searches, Law Schools
How to Succeed in Law School Without Really Trying? Make a College Kid Do Your Work
Hey 1Ls, is law school getting you down? Are you tired of doing your 1L bitchwork, like briefing cases? Then have we got a deal for you! For the low, low price of a weekly cup of coffee, you can outsource all of your undesirable tasks to an up-and-coming sucker! Because why try your hardest to succeed when you can get someone else to do it for you? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 01.31.12
* Squatters rights, FTW. As long as you are not on an oil field or a electric chair factory, they probably don’t even care about squatters in Texas. [Dallas Morning News] * Cops can’t buy touristy gear with the NYPD logo on it? But I thought the Taser was a toy. [DNAInfo] * Student loan […] - Sponsored
Why Do AI And Legal Professionals Make The Perfect Partnership?
For many legal departments, generative AI is the technology they’ve been waiting for. -
Small Law Firms, Wall Street Journal
Size Matters: To Sir With Love
These days, it's hard to get a law job, hard to keep a law job, and in Valerie Katz's experience, hard to stomach a law job. And, according to that Wall Street Journal article that everyone posted as a Facebook status, law firms want to keep the number of associates low, work them like dogs, and pay them like, well, high-paid professionals. This means that recent graduates are still screwed. Just when she thought all was lost, however, she found a positive story about law firms. And, of course, because that is how we roll, it involves a small firm....
-
Career Alternatives, Federal Government, Job Searches, Law Schools
Congratuations to the 2012 Presidential Management Fellows Finalists
Here at Above the Law, we try to notify our readers about job opportunities for law students and lawyers. Some of these positions are less desirable and some are more desirable, but hey: in this economy, a job is a job. (At least as long as it pays. Some jobs don’t, of course.) Back in […] -
Disability Law, Facebook, Job Searches, Law Schools
How Much for an Ivy-Educated Scribe?
Given the tough job market, law students are doing everything they can to get a leg up on the competition. Whether that means showing up with freshly baked cookies before the interviews, or pumping out handwritten thank you notes after you meet people, students are going to the mattresses. But why should a law student handwrite his own handwritten thank you card? Surely, there is a law student out there who is just desperate enough to write another law student's thank you cards. At least that's what one student at a top law school was hoping for.... -
Advertising, Career Center, Intellectual Property, Labor / Employment, Lateral Moves, Shameless Plugs
Career Center: State of the Market - Atlanta
This week, Lateral Link Director Scott Hodes gives us some insight into the increase in lateral hirings in the Empire State of the South. Atlanta has emerged as one of the best lateral associate markets in the country. While 2009 was slow as in most markets, 2010 signaled a comeback, and 2011 confirmed the upward […] -
Biglaw, Minority Issues, Racism
What's Going On With Mayer Brown's Title VII Suit?
Back in 2009, we wrote about a Title VII suit that a former associate filed against Mayer Brown. To make a long story short (read our prior posts for the full background), Venus Yvette Springs, an African American woman, alleges that the firm discriminated against her because of her race, and eventually fired her in […] -
Law Schools, Lawyerly Lairs, Real Estate
Lawyerly Lairs: The 99 Percent Edition
Most installments of Lawyerly Lairs, our inside look at the nests of legal eagles, involve residences of utter fabulosity. We realize that most Americans, or even most lawyers, don't live in such luxury. And we're interested in learning about how the other half lives. We'll get the 99 percent ball rolling with a look at two current law students who braved the brutal renters' market here in New York. What school do they attend, and how did their hunt turn out? - Sponsored
How Transactional Lawyers Can Better Serve (And Maintain) Their Clients
Sign up and join us for our CLE webinar. From importing your checklist to delivering the closing book, you can bolster client service throughout the… -
Conferences / Symposia, Technology
Live at LegalTech: No More Boxing Robots
So, I’ve been in New York for a few days now. I’ve eaten pizza the way you are supposed to, I’ve spent a lot of time underground, and I’ve stayed out drinking until 4 a.m. Just the usual stuff people do here. But I didn’t fly 3,000 miles just for Fat Sal’s. I’m spending this […] -
Biglaw, Rankings
Apparently They Don't Brand for Prestige
We like to talk a lot about prestige around here, but at Cravath, associates are learning that you can't spend "prestige points" on your student debt repayments. Branding is a little easier to take to the bank. It's something that firm managers and leaders work hard to develop and maintain that can directly lead to business opportunities. As we mentioned in yesterday's Morning Docket, Am Law Daily published an Acritas report on firm branding. The results will surprise the prestige conscious among you.... -
Allen & Overy, Job Searches, Letter from London, Magic Circle, Student Loans, Unemployment, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Letter from London: Can Jobless U.S. Law Grads Find Work in Britain?
What happens when you put thirty American lawyers in a London pub where the drinks are free for the evening? Well, let’s just say it’s rather different to what happens when thirty British lawyers are assembled in equivalent conditions. The attendees at last week’s inaugural Benedict Arnold Society meeting for young and young-ish American lawyers […] -
Biglaw, Copyright, Election 2012, Federal Government, Health Care / Medicine, Law Professors, Law Schools, LLMs, Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.31.12
* “Members of Congress are not above the law,” and that’s why the Senate will likely approve a ban on insider trading of non-public information by the end of the week. Say hello to the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. [Boston Globe] * Eye of newt tiger, and toe of frog, wool of bat, […]
-
Education / Schools, Law Schools
Is Business School the Answer?
It’s been a while since we had a good Xtranormal video. The So You Want To Go To Law School sensation inspired a number of predictable spinoffs. But that mediocre flow eventually subsided. But Xtranormal is still a pretty funny way of getting your point across. A tipster came across a good one over at […]
Sponsored
Sponsored
Law Firms Now Have A Choice In Their Document Comparison Software
Six months on since its launch, over 200 firms worldwide are now using Draftable Legal for accurate and reliable document comparison, including UK Top 50…
Sponsored
Generative AI In Legal Work — What’s Fact And What’s Fiction?
Zach Warren from the Thomson Reuters Institute discusses the potential and the pitfalls.
Sponsored
How Transactional Lawyers Can Better Serve (And Maintain) Their Clients
Sign up and join us for our CLE webinar. From importing your checklist to delivering the closing book, you can bolster client service throughout the…
Sponsored
Sponsored
Why Do AI And Legal Professionals Make The Perfect Partnership?
For many legal departments, generative AI is the technology they’ve been waiting for.
Sponsored
AI’s Impact On Law Firms Of Every Size
How solo lawyers, midsize firms, and global large law firms have an opportunity to adjust the way they work.
-
Constitutional Law, Department of Justice, Health Care / Medicine, John Yoo, Law Professors, Musical Chairs, Non-Sequiturs, Peter Lattman, Richard Epstein, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Videos, YouTube
Non-Sequiturs: 01.30.12
* Are you still trying to make sense of the conflicting opinions in United States v. Jones, the GPS tracking case recently decided by the Supreme Court? Professor Barry Friedman has this helpful round-up. [New York Times] * Elsewhere in law professors opining on SCOTUS, what do Professors Richard Epstein and John Yoo predict the […] -
Conferences / Symposia, Document Review, Federal Judges, Quote of the Day, S.D.N.Y., Technology
Quote of the Day: Keyword Searching? You're Doing It Wrong
Keyword searching is absolutely terrible, in terms of statistical responsiveness. — Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck (S.D.N.Y.), in a panel today at the LegalTech conference. He spoke alongside Wachtell Lipton counsel Maura Grossman and Jackson Lewis partner Ralph Losey, on a panel that aimed to demystify cutting-edge, computer-assisted e-discovery technology. Peck is a vocal proponent of […] -
Art, Career Alternatives, Weirdness
Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Vampire?
Lawyers, have you been looking for a unique way to do some self-branding? Of course, we don’t mean that you should literally brand yourself, but this Mexican lawyer did just that. She turned herself into a walking piece of art, and is now known as the “Vampire Woman” by her colleagues in the tattoo and […] -
Banking Law, Career Alternatives, Job Searches, Law Schools
Things You Can Do With a Law Degree: Bank Teller
Last week, Elie derisively noted that legal blogs were pushing a silly story in U.S. News about great careers that you can pursue with a law degree. No matter how bad legal hiring gets, law schools like pushing the "you can do anything with a law degree" angle, based on the anecdotal evidence of those who were lucky enough to parlay their J.D. degrees into something non-legal. Obviously, Elie's got some anecdotes of his own. But here's a job, a real live job, that's actually being offered to law students as we speak (or type). If you really want to know "what you can do with a law degree," take a freaking look.... -
Small Law Firms
The Practice: Do You or Your Client Understand the Scope of Representation? (Part II)
So the matter/case (whatever you call it) is over. You’ve resolved the contract dispute, formed the corporate entity, ended the marriage, had the criminal case dismissed, resolved whatever the client’s issue was for which you were retained. You’ve taken Brian Tannebaum's advice and narrowly defined the scope of representation in your written, signed retainer agreement. Now what? -
Celebrities, David Otunga, Pro Bono, Television
Case Closed: David Otunga Steps Out of the Ring to Return to the Courtroom
Harvard Law School graduate and former Sidley associate, David Otunga, has been flexing his muscles in the ring since 2008, but our tipsters were unimpressed, noting, “From Harvard Law School to I Love New York to the WWE. Unfortunately the next stop is probably porn.” Well, sorry to disappoint you, but Otunga hasn't signed up for his porn industry debut just yet. Instead, he took a momentary break from wrestling to make his return to the courtroom.... -
Biglaw, Job Searches, Law Schools, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Wall Street Journal, White & Case
Biglaw's New Normal Isn't Great For New Talent
As we mentioned in Morning Docket yesterday, the Wall Street Journal has a good article about how various recession-era cutbacks have become entrenched in Biglaw. If you have been paying attention or are a current law student, you know the issues: smaller entry-level classes, stagnant salaries, and a partnership track long enough to make a first-year Ph.D. student laugh. Other industries use economic downturns to retool their business models and develop new ways to compete. Not Biglaw....