February 2012

Last week Britain was treated to the surreal sight of a junior lawyer collecting a lifetime achievement award for his services to pop music. Dave Rowntree, drummer in the band Blur — honoured with a lifetime achievement award at Wednesday’s BRIT awards — now spends his days working as a trainee lawyer at London corporate firm Kingsley Napley, and plays music part-time. And he's not the only British celebrity who now works at a law firm....

* Justice Clarence Thomas for president? Hey, it could happen. Lat and Kash’s 2010 proposal is getting a second look. [Daily Beast]

* Speaking of presidents, the Arizona and Michigan primary elections are today. I know folks on the coast often don’t pay too much attention to those middle-of-the-country states, but it will be interesting to see what the Illegal Immigration State and Crippled American Auto State have to say about our ragtag bunch of Republican presidential candidates. [New York Times]

* Emails published yesterday by Wikileaks appear to show that Pakistani military intelligence knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding in the months before Seal Team Six raided his garrison and killed him. I hope Wikileaks has juicier material in the pipeline? [Telegraph]

* Congratulations to Tony West, who will become acting associate attorney general, the No. 3 post in the Justice Department. [Chicago Tribune]

* Interesting report on tensions between the White House and the NSA, which has tried to get permission to monitor private web activity, perhaps at the expense of privacy. But Google knows everything you do on your computer, so why shouldn’t the government? [Washington Post]

Here’s the photo for our latest caption contest....

* Wow. David Brock, head of the liberal watchdog group Media Matters, “paid a former domestic partner $850,000 after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization’s donors and the IRS,” according to allegations in a lawsuit. [Instapundit] * Is the Supreme Court going to gut affirmative action in the Fisher case? Not necessarily, according […]

Are you interested in working for a "legal baller"? Well, do you happen to be a "[y]oung attractive hip female"?

Right now in Atlanta, a former operations manager at General Electric is standing trial for allegedly murdering the husband of his female coworker and alleged lover. It’s a twisty tale of romance, deception, and violence, something you might find in an airport bookstore. The strangest part of what has been dubbed the Dunwoody Day Care […]

The Howrey estate is embroiled in the painstaking process of destroying old files or returning them to former clients. There is still a long, long way to go. In today's Washington Post, we get to see a vivid illustration of the problems involved in putting to rest a massive law firm that bridged the paper and electronic eras. It is also a good cautionary tale for other firms: these documents will not just go away, even if your firm bites the dust…

Are the lawsuits against law schools over allegedly misleading employment data going to succeed? Some law professors opine on this question.

What's going down at Dewey? Some claim the firm is experiencing financial difficulties, and there have been some partner departures and reports of associate layoffs. But Dewey claims that it's really just business as usual over there. Let's tackle the question: Where's Le Boeuf?

Being out of the office is something lawyers need to do to avoid hating the practice of law, but it is becoming more and more looked down upon....

Last night, a dramatic scene unfolded in the parking lot of a movie theater. A suspected drunk driver allegedly took off without his headlights on, hit two police cruisers, terrified several witnesses, and then slammed his car into a tree, killing himself. The driver was a graduate of a top law school and an associate at a law firm....

When we create rules, we want people to follow them. When we build incentives into rules, we want people to be motivated by those incentives. But the rule-makers cannot foresee all of the consequences of the rules they create. In the end, we're counting on people to act in good faith and use common sense. Will that work?

* It’s hard to get a mortgage if you have a lot of student debt, even if you make a lot of money. Who needs a house anyway? Your advanced degree will keep you warm. [BusinessWeek]

* A civil trial over BP’s Gulf Oil spill was supposed to start today, but it was postponed at the last minute. Is it just me or does it smell like settlement in here? [New York Times]

* As if anyone needed another reason to never take a Carnival Cruise… [CNN]

* The Catholic Church just couldn’t handle sharing its ignominious spotlight with Penn State any longer. Attorneys allege that the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, former Archbishop of Philadelphia, destroyed a list of 35 active priests accused of child sexual abuse. [Washington Post]

* Some movie with no sound, color, explosions, or giant robots won a bunch of Academy Awards last night. I can’t say I care too much. Here’s a rundown of some classic cine con lawyers instead. [ABA Journal]

* Advice for art collectors: CHECK YOU PROVENANCE. [New York Times]

* Michael Rothenberg, executive director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, RIP. [New York Law Journal]

While most of America has been going gaga for God’s new chosen athlete, Jeremy Lin, I’ve been quietly lamenting the fact that my own hometown TTT excuse for an NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, were the ones who gave him up. it seems like everyone wants a piece of the Linsanity, even on a […]

* So, your colleague or family member dies, suddenly, after allegedly being worked into the ground. But it’s my blog post about it that “turned the sad situation into a nightmare”? I think instead of lamenting for a fluff piece in a local paper, the media geniuses at Dinsmore should respond to a legitimate press inquiry. [West Virginia Record] * The Dharun Ravi trial is under way. I’ll be calling it the Ravi trial, not the Tyler Clementi trial. Because Tyler Clementi is the kid that tragically killed himself, while Dharun Ravi is the very much alive person who has already had his life ruined even thought he didn’t kill anybody. [Metropolis] * Are law firms finally starting to make money off of their investments in social media? [Legal Blog Watch] * HoLove is getting a Brazilian. [Legal Week] * Mmm… Section 230. [Paid Content.org] * Does pot make you less productive, or does lack of productivity make you smoke pot? Or, man, have you ever thought that, like, maybe the pot was smoking you, or something? [What About Clients?] * If you go to the second hour of this show, at about the 33-minute mark, you’ll hear me start to absolutely lose my mind over the Supreme Court’s decision to grant cert in Fisher. [WBEZ]

Sometimes we get news that makes us think, "maybe it will all be ok." Like the Texas judge turning the tables on the folks who use religion to curtail the rights and health of other people. This judge has an ax to grind about the inability of gays to get married. If you will, please imagine a world where straight people could not get married either...

It doesn't come as a galloping shock to anybody that lawyers average less sleep than almost anybody else. What is surprising is the figure. What the hell kind of lazy lawyer is getting seven entire hours of sleep every day?

In the last installment of Moonlighting, we examined the importance of understanding the big picture at work. This week, we’ll consider one method of finding out more about the big picture: asking questions. Not the dumb ones. The good ones. So what are some good questions that can help us to see the bigger picture? […]

Emory Law Professor Howard Abrams submitted an application to become the next Dean of Emory Law School, and boy did he call out the school and legal academia for the backwards process of choosing deans and running law schools. He wants Emory to get better. He wants law schools to get back to providing value to the students instead of just taking their money. As a result, he probably has no chance of getting the job...

Bradley Manning, the American traitor or human rights champion depending on your perspective, was back in court yesterday. His court-martial officially began, and he now faces 22 serious charges that could carry a life sentence, if he is convicted. The 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst allegedly gave more than 700,000 classified documents to Julian Assange, the […]