LEWW was recently hospitalized for a series of events that resulted in the birth of an actual human being for which we are now responsible. We’ll be taking a brief hiatus from our Legal Eagle Wedding-Watching duties while we adjust to life with this screaming, pooping bundle of adorableness.

The Lat/Mystal regime is far less generous with maternity leave than Biglaw, so we won’t be gone for anything approaching 18 weeks. And we’ll be keeping track of the weddings that occur while we’re away, so don’t think you can escape our attention by getting married now. We’ll catch up with everything upon our return.

Yesterday’s Lawsuit of the Day — Jones v. Minkin, a $44 million lawsuit against yours truly, Above the Law publisher David Minkin, and Dead Horse Media (now known as Breaking Media) — has been voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff, University of Miami law professor Donald Jones.

Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i)(B), the dismissal is without prejudice. If Professor Jones wants to refile, he should note the statute of limitations (which had already run as to most of our posts about him by the time his complaint was filed).

There was NO SETTLEMENT in this case. Above the Law has made no changes to our prior posts, and we have paid no money to Professor Jones. The case was dismissed by the plaintiff without anything from our side, except a letter from our lawyer.

UPDATE (3:35 PM): We have offered Professor Jones a guest post on Above the Law in which to provide his side of the story, about either the lawsuit or the underlying facts. We have offered to keep the comments on that post closed or open, depending on his preference. (And we would have done this in the first place, had he made such a request.)

A huge thanks to our counsel, Marc Randazza.

Comment from Randazza, plus links to the notice of voluntary dismissal and other news outlets and blogs — we will UPDATE continually, so do check back for fresh links — after the jump.

The devil is going down to Georgia. Our very own Elie Mystal will be on the midnight train, and the party won’t stop until eight in the morning.

If you’ll be in Atlanta this coming Monday, November 2, please check out the following event:

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LAWYERS
Monday, November 2, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
State Bar of Georgia
104 Marietta Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30303

Please join GAWL and its distinguished panel presenters for a lively and informative session on Social Media for Lawyers. We will explore how legal blogs and web resources have become a vital source of law firm information for attorneys, and how firms and attorneys can use these resources to shape their image in the legal community - both from a career development standpoint and to enhance business development efforts. Our presenters and moderator are: Mike Allen, President of Lateral Link; Elie Mystal, Editor of Above the Law; Jenny DeVaughn, Social Media Specialist and Founder of Social Precision; and Jackie Hutter, Intellectual Property Strategist and Founder and Principal of The Hutter Group. A special thanks goes out to Jordan Abshire of Lateral Link for his help in coordinating this program.

You can register online at www.gawl.org. Hope you can make it!

Social Media for Lawyers [Georgia Association for Women Lawyers]

Three years ago yesterday, on August 30, 2006, Above the Law was born. Read the letter from the editor that started it all. (If you find this site occasionally immature, cut us some slack; we’re three years old.)

Reaching the three-year mark is a notable milestone for a blog. According to Jim Beck and Mark Herrmann, over at Drug and Device Law:

Legal blogs are like small businesses: Half of ‘em fail in the first year, and 90 percent of ‘em fail in the next five.

But we’re still here. Our traffic (and revenue) continue to grow, knock on wood. And we have you — our readers, sources, advertisers, and friends — to thank. So, thank you.

If you’d like to send us birthday gifts — a reader sent Roxana a lovely Starbucks card the other day, and the rest of us are jealous — our snail mail address is 262 Mott Street, Suite 102A, New York, NY 10012. The third anniversary — or blogiversary, as the case may be — is the leather anniversary. So you can give Lat a leather business card holder, Kash a leather laptop case (or a leather fringe bikini), and Elie the rest of the cow.

(You can also send us news tips or juicy documents by snail mail. They’d be a nice change of pace from our usual hard-copy mail: handwritten letters from prisoners, alleging they were framed.)

In any event, thank you for joining our ATL community. We deeply appreciate your visits, tips, and continued support.

Earlier: Happy Labor Day! (And Happy Blogiversary to ATL)
Happy Birthday to ATL — and Happy Labor Day to All!
Letter from the Editor: Welcome to Above the Law

Please feel free to attend a presentation by yours truly. Details after the jump.

Your above-signed writer will be delivering the keynote address at this year’s ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference, taking place in Philadelphia from November 12-13, 2009. In this tough economy, the subject of how to market your law firm effectively is more important than ever.

To learn more about the conference, click here. To register, click here. Early bird registration closes on August 31, after which rates will increase. So don’t delay — register today!

ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference 2009 [American Bar Association]

If you’ll be in New York on Monday, August 24, you might be interested in this event, brought to you by Above the Law and our friends at Applied Discovery:

SPACE IS LIMITED. To request an invitation, please email InviteRequest@breakingmedia.com. Please include your name, employer, and job title in your response. If we can accommodate you, we will send you a confirmation by email.

Thanks! We hope to see you on the 24th.

If you’ll be in New York on Monday, August 24, you might be interested in this event, brought to you by Above the Law and our friends at Applied Discovery:

SPACE IS LIMITED. To request an invitation, please email InviteRequest@breakingmedia.com. Please include your name, employer, and job title in your response. If we can accommodate you, we will send you a confirmation by email.

Thanks! We hope to see you on the 24th.

If you’ll be in New York on Monday, August 24, you might be interested in this event, brought to you by Above the Law and our friends at Applied Discovery:

SPACE IS LIMITED. To request an invitation, please email InviteRequest@breakingmedia.com. Please include your name, employer, and job title in your response. If we can accommodate you, we will send you a confirmation by email.

Thanks! We hope to see you on the 24th.

If you’ll be in New York on Monday, August 24, you might be interested in this event, brought to you by Above the Law and our friends at Applied Discovery:

SPACE IS LIMITED. To request an invitation, please email InviteRequest@breakingmedia.com. Please include your name, employer, and job title in your response. If we can accommodate you, we will send you a confirmation by email.

Thanks! We hope to see you on the 24th.

This is really of interest only to hard-core ATL groupies. But if you’d like to know our policy on preserving the anonymity of law students who do embarrassing things — and why we identified the alleged Law Student Spitter by name yesterday, even though we generally keep names out of summer associate stories — then check out the statement we issued to the UVA Law Blog.

One caveat: this is our policy with respect to law students. We deal with lawyers — or “attorneys,” if you think the words have different meanings — on more of a case-by-case basis.

David Lat’s Take on Covering the “Felony Arrest Case” [UVA Law Blog]

The Breaking Media family of sites — which until now consisted of Above the Law, Dealbreaker, and Fashionista — continues to grow. Today ATL welcomes a little sibling: Going Concern, a blog for accountants, CFOs, and business finance executives.

Going Concern will be similar to ATL, but aimed at CPAs rather than JDs, or the Big Four as opposed to Big Law. The site will also cover smaller accounting firms and chief financial officers from major companies, offering the heady mix of original news, insider analysis, and edgy entertainment that you’ve come to expect from Breaking Media. Going Concern will try its darnedest to make accounting sexy. (They said it couldn’t be done for the legal space, but Above the Law proved them wrong.)

Please spread the word, especially to your friends who work in the field of accounting. You can check out Going Concern here, and you can learn more by reading the links collected below. If you’re interested in advertising opportunities, on Going Concern or any of our other sites, please email us. Thanks!

Going Concern [official website]
New Finance Blog Aims To ‘Make Accounting Sexy’ [MediaPost]
Breaking Media Launches Going Concern [Mediabistro via Fishbowl NY]
Site launched to follow accounting industry [Talking Biz News]

The Career Center, brought to you by Above the Law and Lateral Link, continues to see tremendous traffic, with almost 200,000 pageviews in its first two months. Thanks to all of your feedback and tips, we are continually updating the firm snapshots with new information (some good, some not so good). Keep checking to see how your firm’s profile is evolving.

In the past week, we’ve updated the profiles for each of the following firms:

Alston & Bird LLP
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Cahill Gordon & Reindell LLP
DLA Piper
Kaye Scholer
Orrick
Ropes & Gray LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP
Venable LLP

Thanks to all of you who have sent in tips. Feel free to send additional updates to careercenter@abovethelaw.com. We also encourage you to share information about your firm by signing up and taking our four-question survey.

If you are a summer associate and want to participate in a quick summer associate survey, please email careercenter@abovethelaw.com. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who attended last week’s cocktail hour and panel discussion, Market Volatility & Your Finances. The well-attended event — held at the headquarters of AXA Advisors, in a spacious room with stunning views of Central Park (see above) — was informative and fun.

A special thanks to Larry Bahr and AXA Advisors for hosting the evening. If you’re looking for a financial advisor to help you navigate these challenging times, you should definitely drop Larry a line.

We’ll be doing more Above the Law events in the future. If you’re interested in possibly sponsoring an event, please contact our sales and marketing director, Elyse DiPierri, by email (subject line: “Event Sponsorship”).

Check out the pictures, after the jump.

ATL will be on a reduced publication schedule today, in observance of Independence Day. Most of you are out of the office, and we are too.

But not everyone has the day off. From one tipster:

While the rest of downtown Chicago is dead, away on vacation or taking the day off, Katten employees are hard at work today. The office demeanor is less than pleasant. Just another way for Katten to thank their hard working employees. Maybe we shouldn’t complain since those of us that work there still have jobs. Happy 4th of July!

Are you in the office today? Feel free to complain, in the comments.

If not, enjoy the three-day weekend. We’ll see you on Monday.

A while back, Above the Law put out a call for new interns.

We were flooded with applications. Nearly 80 people sent in résumés, writing samples, and funny emails showing they had the stuff to deal with the irreverent world of Above the Law. We saw many qualified candidates, and we want to thank everybody who applied.

We have selected three people to join the fray. They’ve been working behind the scenes for a couple of weeks now. Moderating comments, editing copy, and conducting research projects. We’re now ready to publicly welcome them to the larger ATL community.

After the jump, say hello to Karen, Matt, and Alex. Each one of our new contributors has taken the time to write a brief bio, for your amusement.

You’d be surprised by how often we receive requests for financial advice around here (even though that’s really more the province of Dealbreaker). E.g., should I refinance my law school loans? How much should I be saving for retirement? I’ve just been laid off; what should I do with my 401(k)?

These questions lie beyond our expertise. So we’ve put together a panel of experts to offer insight into current market conditions and what they mean for your personal finances. This free event is taking place on MONDAY, JUNE 29, at 6:30 PM.

The roundtable will be preceded by a sunset cocktail hour, in a room with stunning Central Park views (see above). So come enjoy free drinks with the ATL editors (Lat, Elie, Kash and Marin); pick up some complimentary swag, including Above the Law t-shirts and gavel-shaped stress balls; and then sit down for an informative panel discussion:

MARKET VOLATILITY AND YOUR FINANCES

When: Monday, June 29, 2009, at 6:30 p.m.

Where: 1345 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York

Speakers:

• Sam Mari, VP, AllianceBernstein
• Bob Stansbury, VP, AXA Equitable
• Deborah O’Neil, J.D., CFPTM, CLU, VP AXA Equitable’s Advanced Markets Team
• David Lat, Above the Law (moderator)

Cost: The event is free and open to the public — feel free to bring friends — but RSVPs are required. Please email rsvp@breakingmedia.com.

The event is less than a week away, and although admission is free, seats are limited. We’ve already received a fair number of responses — so if you think you might be interested in going, please rsvp to save a spot for yourself.

Hope to see you there!

We regularly receive tips about educational or charitable events that might interest our readers. Because we don’t have the ability to give shout-outs to all, and to ensure equal treatment, we direct everyone with events of a non-commercial nature to mention them in our Community section (which, by the way, is overflowing with openings for deferred associates right now).

(The Community section is for non-profit events or opportunities. If what you’re trying to promote is commercial in nature, please advertise. Commercial postings will be pulled from the Community.)

Our rule against event promotion admits of exceptions. We will mention events featuring significant participation by Above the Law editors — like this one, taking place this coming Tuesday, July 16:

Breaking Back into a Large Law Firm: How to Make Your Way Back into a Top Law Firm

Moderator: BRIAN DALTON, Managing Editor, Vault.com and Editor Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms

Speakers: DAVID LAT, Founding Editor, AboveTheLaw.com; T.J. DUANE, Principal, Lateral Link; HELEN LONG, Director Legal Recruiting at Ropes & Gray LLP; JOHN J. CANNON III, Hiring Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP.

The panel is part of an a day-long conference, co-sponsored by the New York City Bar and Vault, with the following mission:

Affected by the current financial crisis, many lawyers are finding themselves looking for employment. This program is designed to assist job-seeking attorneys in learning how best to market themselves whether they are looking to go to a firm, start their own practice or are considering an alternative legal career.

For details and registration, click here. Hope to see you there!

Getting Back in the Game: How to Restart Your Career in a Down Economy [The Association of the Bar of the City of New York]

Last week, we brought you information about which firms respect your weekends — and which don’t. This week, we tackle a related topic: vacation. As noted earlier today, it’s an area where firms have been making changes lately.

At which firms are your vacations safe? And at which firms might vacation time be at risk — assuming your firm hasn’t given you a permanent vacation (a la McDermott)?

Most associates at top law firms said that it is uncommon for vacations to be canceled, but it happens sometimes. Firms where vacations appear to be the safest include Akin Gump, Sidley, Weil and Winston, where more than one-third of the associates at each firm report that it is very rare for associates to be expected to cancel vacation.

Honorable mention goes to Dechert, Baker & McKenzie, Milbank, Orrick, Skadden, and Willkie.

At which firms is vacation cancellation more likely? After the jump.

We’ve received countless requests for shout-outs from worthy non-profit organizations that are seeking deferred associates and/or associates on leave from their law firms (pursuant to such programs as Skadden’s Sidebar program, Dewey’s DL Pursuits, etc.). Alas, due to the sheer number of these requests, we can’t mention them all on the main ATL homepage (which would be transformed from a blog into a bulletin board if we were to do so).

To treat these requests in a fair and consistent manner, we direct every public interest organization with a need for such help to post in our Community section, where readers can create posts on topics of their choosing (subject to moderation). The Community section is also where you can post information about charitable benefits and other events.

Update / Note: At the current time, only registered users can create Community posts — mere “guests” do not have this capability. So if you’d like to start a Community thread, please register as a site user.

Check out the Community section for yourself, and peruse the non-profit opportunities posted here, by clicking here. Additional opportunities also appear in the Resources section of the Career Center.

If you’d like the greater visibility of appearing on the ATL homepage, please consider advertising. In addition to full-scale banner campaigns and Sponsored Content, we now offer Quicklistings — an eminently affordable option, at $250 each. Thanks!

P.S. If you are a for-profit organization or have commercial goods or services to offer, please do not post in the Community section. Instead, please contact us about advertising on Above the Law. Postings of a commercial nature in the Community section will be removed. Thanks again.