September 2012
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Biglaw, Clarence Thomas, Department of Justice, Federal Government, Job Searches, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Patents, Pro Bono, Public Interest, Rankings, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks, Technology
Morning Docket: 09.24.12
* Hey, “regular students” with “regular backgrounds,” you may be able to get a job as a SCOTUS clerk, because Justice Clarence Thomas is the Supreme Court’s honey badger in that he doesn’t give a sh*t about rankings. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
* Because $1.05 bill wasn’t quite enough, Apple is asking for additional damages in its patent war lawsuit against Samsung. Ohh, come on, Judge Koh, it’s just an extra $535 million. Everyone else is doing it, come on. Just give us the money. [Bloomberg]
* The D.C. Circuit suit about White House visitor logs is kind of like a recurring issue we see with law schools, in that transparency here means “[w]e will disclose what records we want you to see.” [National Law Journal]
* Skadden is teaming up with local legal aid groups to start a pro bono initiative in D.C. We hear they’ll be handing out gift cards as a show of appreciation to those who sign up. [Capital Business / Washington Post]
* Sumner Redstone recently donated $18M to BU Law. Will his successor be as charitable? From Columbia Law to Shearman & Sterling to media mogul: meet Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom. [New York Times]
* “The employment statistics really are the collective impact of individual choices.” And one of them was attending law school anyway, despite all of the negative media attention they’ve received. [Cincinnati Enquirer]
* Remember the Harvard Law student who ran for Student Government President and pledged to resign after rewriting the organization’s constitution? Well, he graduated, but at least he got a draft in. [Harvard Crimson]
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Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Dissolution, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Dewey Know Which Partners Signed On To The Partnership Contribution Plan? Yes -- And How Much They'll Pay, Too
Which high-profile ex-partners of Dewey & LeBoeuf have signed up for the global settlement, and how much are they paying? - Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
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Antonin Scalia, California, Drugs, Election Law, Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Gay Marriage, Marijuana, Non-Sequiturs, Politics, Richard Posner, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 09.21.12
* You can kiss your dreams of seeing Prop 8 being taken up by the Supreme Court goodbye if the justices decide to proceed with “more cautious DOMA challenges.” [Slate] * Well, at least one person is getting annoyed by the endless back and forth between Posner and Scalia. But that’s just one person. We’ll continue to beat that horse until it’s extra dead. [Althouse] * Is this like the new WebMD, but for law? With prompts like, “Can that crazy neighbor buy a gun?,” it looks like a suitable place for legal hypochondriacs to call home. [myRight] * Oh yay, I don’t like to get into election law and politics, so it’s a good thing that The Simpsons did all my work for me on this one: “Stopping all Americans from voting is for the protection of all Americans.” [PrawfsBlawg] * Kat over at Corporette wants to know what your top five tailoring alterations are — because after all, it’s pretty hard to dress for success in Biglaw if your pants are dragging on the floor. [Corporette] * You’d have to be super-dee-duper high to think that disguising your pot plants as Christmas trees in the middle of the desert to throw the police off your tracks would actually work. [Legally Weird / FindLaw]
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Antonin Scalia, Benchslaps, Books, Constitutional Law, Federal Judges, Quote of the Day, Reader Polls, Richard Posner, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Quote of the Day: A Time-Out in Posner v. Scalia?
Here is Judge Richard Posner's (delicately worded) response to Justice Scalia calling him a liar. -
In-House Counsel, Practice Pointers
Moonlighting: How Do You Know If You’re A Bad Lawyer?
What are some signs that you may be a below average lawyer? Insights from in-house columnist Susan Moon... -
Election 2012, Law Schools, Politics, Racism, Texas
Texas Politician Tells Law Student to Go To Afghanistan -- Notwithstanding The Fact That The Kid Is An American Citizen Born In Pakistan
Texas politician racially insults law student. Shockingly, this will probably have no effect on her chances at reelection... -
Entertainment Law, Television, Videos, YouTube
Mr. Legal Entertainment: The Younger, Hotter Judge Judy
Check out this fabulous interview with law school graduate Erica Rose of The Bachelor Pad... -
Law Schools, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns
Michigan Law Professors Have The Coolest Friends
Michigan Law professor has West Wing friends... - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Caption Contests, Contests, Pictures
Caption Contest Finalists: Batman & Robin LLP
Where do legal superheroes go to conduct business? Vote for the finalists in our latest caption contest! -
Affirmative Action, American Constitution Society (ACS), Constitutional Law, Gay, Gay Marriage, Minority Issues, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas
Kaiser’s Guide To Bluffing Your Way Through Knowledge About The Supreme Court's New Term to Non-Lawyers
October first is the start of the new Supreme Court term, and Matt Kaiser has some ideas on how you can bluff your way through knowledge about OT 2012... -
Biglaw, Lateral Moves, Law Firm Mergers, Media and Journalism, Money, Musical Chairs, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Everything Is Great, K&L States: Peter Kalis Comes Out Swinging
Peter Kalis, chairman and global managing partner of K&L Gates, issues a forceful response to speculation in the media about the state of the firm. -
Fabulosity, Money, Rankings
The Richest Lawyers (or Law School Graduates) in America: Lawyers on the Forbes 400
Who are the richest lawyers (or law school graduates) in America? Let's look at the 40 or so who made the 2012 Forbes 400. -
Art, Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Career Alternatives, Depositions, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Morning Docket, State Judges, Television, Videos
Morning Docket: 09.21.12
* Martin Bienenstock, Dewey’s former bankruptcy head, offered some free legal advice to the firm’s bankruptcy advisers: “[P]lease get real about the unfinished business claims.” [WSJ Law Blog]
* In other interesting Dewey news, you’re never going to guess what Steve DiCarmine’s been doing since the firm went under. He of the orange skin tone is making it work at Parsons. [Am Law Daily]
* Remember Kenechukwu Okoli, the guy who slapped a Paul Hastings partner in the face during a depo and then sued him for assault? Yeeaah, that suit got dismissed. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
* NerdWallet has created an online law school comparison tool, but users will only get to choose from 50 schools, none of which are in the so-called U.S. News second tier. Guess they don’t think Cooley is the second-best school in the country. How rude. [Bucks / New York Times]
* Cecilia Gimenez, the woman from Spain who accidentally turned a fresco of Christ into a portrait of a monkey, is now seeking royalties from funds the church levied as entrance fees to see her “work of art.” [Telegraph]
* Bridget Mary McCormack, a candidate for Michigan’s Supreme Court, has a simple tip for putting together the best judicial campaign video ever: all you need to do is reunite the cast of The West Wing. Check it out….
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Biglaw, Lateral Moves, Law Firm Mergers, Money, Musical Chairs, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Sheppard Mullin, Snell & Wilmer
Partners Streaming Out Of The K&L Gates?
What's going on at K&L Gates? Reports have surfaced of significant partner departures. -
Celebrities, Drinking, Federal Judges, Football, Gay, Gay Marriage, Marijuana, Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.20.12
* In the continuing tales of “It’s not easy being Green(berg)” the firm is settling more than 30 claims from NFL players who say the firm didn’t warn them about investing in an unlicensed casino project. Well, at it’s least better than investing in unlicensed dog-fighting. [Daily Business Review] * Professor Dale Carpenter, author of a new book (affiliate link) about Lawrence v. Texas, wonders: If gay marriage goes to SCOTUS, could Justice Scalia get hoisted with his own petard? [SCOTUSblog] * Fiona Apple was arrested for pot at the same Texas border stop as Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, and hacker wunderkind George Hotz. What she needs is a good defense… attorney. [TMZ] * If I got stuck behind one of these d-bags who pays tolls with a hundred-dollar bill, I would be more concerned about whether it’s a civil rights violation for me to smash their back window with a tire iron. [FindLaw] * Hey beer nerds, the top secret White House brew recipe has been declassified. This is some crucial government transparency in action. [Legal Blog Watch] -
Google / Search Engines, Intellectual Property, Patents, Tax Law, Technology, Trademarks
Thanks to Cool New Crowd-Sourcing Website, Now You Can Help Prevent Bogus Patents
A new collaboration between Google, the USPTO, and Stack Exchange hopes to use crowd-sourcing to end America's patent wars... -
Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Election 2012, Jeffrey Toobin, Politics, Quote of the Day, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Television
Quote of the Day: IMHO, A Gay Polar Bear Would Make a Great Supreme Court Justice
Does Jeffrey Toobin think Obama will appoint a gay polar bear to the Supreme Court? -
ATL Career Center Survey, Job Survey, Start Dates, Unemployment
The Great Non-Deferral of 2012
Are start dates for first-year associates at major law firms back to normal, i.e., where they were before the Great Recession? And what about the class sizes for entering associates? -
Boutique Law Firms, Lawyer Advertising, Small Law Firms
From Biglaw to Boutique: Keeping It Real
How can you balance the tension between perception and reality when forming a new firm? Insights from small-firm columnist Tom Wallerstein... -
Benchslaps, Divorce Train Wrecks, Money, Unemployment, United Kingdom / Great Britain, Vicious Infighting
Abandon The Wedding Ship -- And Then Set Fire to the Lifeboats!
These British attorneys are going through divorce hell like you wouldn't believe...