Announcements

Above The Law’s Top Ten Most Popular Stories of 2009

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Happy new year 2009.jpgWe thought about trying to curate a list of the most important legal stories of 2009. But then the National Law Journal upped the ante with the Biggest Stories of the Decade.

Rather than telling you what was most important, we’re enlisting Google Analytics to tell you what was most popular at Above The Law this year, based on pageviews and traffic. After AboveTheLaw.com itself, the most clicked ATL url was our Layoffs tag, reflecting one of the most important ongoing stories here this year.

Hopefully, that’s not the case in 2010.

So what were the most popular posts at ATL in 2009?

10. Now this is a cover letter: ‘Unemployed J.D. Candidate’ sent his resume and transcript to Bingham McCutchen, as well as a cover letter compiling the praise he has received from other top firms in their rejection letters. Points for creativity, but Bingham wasn’t impressed enough to hire him.

The rest of the top ten, after the jump.

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Happy Holidays from Above the Law

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Elie Mystal Kashmir Hill David Lat ATL editors Above the Law editors.jpg‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Internetz,
Not many creatures were clicking, not even Biglaw cadets;
The BlackBerrys were silenced and set aside with care,
Because RIM crashed again and no emails were there.
Corporate lawyers were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of billable hours danced in their heads…

We expect next week to be a quiet one. Your Above the Law editors will still be around, checking tips and looking back at the big stories of 2009, but we’ll be publishing fewer posts per day.

If you want a legal fix over the holidays, think about entering the Do I Have A Right? ATL Challenge. The tournament runs through January 8. Hint: If your score is below 10,000, you might want to play again. And parents, think about partnering with your child to enter the contest as it’s aimed at middle schoolers. You can find out now whether you need to start a law school tuition fund for them.

Happy holidays!

Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers

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thank you post it note.JPGA quick word of thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law:

If you’re interested in advertising on Above the Law or any other site in the Breaking Media network, download our media kits, or email advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!

ATL Visits the West Coast

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Los Angeles palm trees Above the Law blog.jpgIn light of the frigid temperatures and snow we’ve been experiencing here in New York, Elie and yours truly have decided to visit sunny Los Angeles on January 7, 2010. We’ll be doing two events, both of them free and open to the public:
1. The Future of Big Law
When: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 12 noon.
Speakers: David Lat and Elie Mystal, editors, Above the Law
Where: UCLA Law School, 71 Dodd Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (room TBA).
Cost: Free. Lunch will be served.
2. Reception at Corkbar
When: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Description: Meet and mingle with the editors of Above the Law and other lawyers from the area during this informal networking opportunity.
Where: Corkbar, 403 West 12th Street, Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90015.
Cost: Free. Appetizers will be provided; no host bar.
These events are being sponsored by the Los Angeles Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, the Libertarian Law Council, and the UCLA chapters of the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society.
Please reserve a spot by emailing la.fedsoc@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!

Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers

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thank you post it note.JPGA quick word of thanks to this week’s advertisers on Above the Law:

If you’re interested in advertising on Above the Law or any other site in the Breaking Media network, download our media kits, or email advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!

Above the Law and Breaking Media Continue Pursuit of World Domination

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Breaking Media logo.jpgGreetings, Above the Law readers. We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you an announcement relating to our parent company, Breaking Media.
From our press release:

Jonah Bloom, currently editor of Crain Communications’ Advertising Age, will be joining Breaking Media, the B2B digital blog network that publishes the popular sites Above The Law, DealBreaker, Going Concern and Fashionista, as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief. In addition, Breaking Media announces that Matt Creamer, senior editor at Advertising Age, will be joining the company as Executive Editor. They begin January 4.

Bloom and Creamer bring to Breaking Media extensive experience in B2B news and information. During their tenure, Bloom and Creamer helped lead the transformation of Ad Age into multiplatform information brand, greatly expanding its audience and its digital presence with newsletters and blogs and evolving the content to serve the media and marketing business with intelligence that went well beyond breaking news.

At Breaking Media, Bloom and Creamer, along with Publisher-Chief Operating Officer David Minkin, will be charged with the continued growth of the company’s existing stable of websites and with leading expansion into new coverage areas.

What does this mean for ATL on a day-to-day basis? Well, your above-signed writer will be returning his full-time focus to writing and editing posts on Above the Law. Observant commenters have noticed our byline appearing with increased frequency over the past few weeks; now you know why.
UPDATE: In response to some of your comments, we’re happy to report that the rest of Team ATL — Elie, Kash, and all the columnists — will remain in place.
FURTHER UPDATE: To the extent that this is a “demotion” for us, it was one that we requested (and that the company accommodated). Above the Law is our baby, and given our “control freak” tendencies, we wanted maximum involvement with it.
Full press release, after the jump.

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Voting Is Underway for the ABA Journal Blawg 100
(And we respectfully request your support.)

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ABA Journal Blawg 100 2009 badge.jpgThe legal blogs selected for the ABA Journal Blawg 100 have been announced. In case you’re not familiar with this fine tradition, now in its third year, the Blawg 100 are “the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal.”
The 100 websites are divided into various categories, and then readers vote for their favorite in each. This year, Above the Law is defending its title in the News category. Although we are up against some excellent competition — check out all the nominees here — we hope you’ll do us the honor of voting for us.
This year the voting process is a little different. You need to be a registered user of the ABA Journal website in order to vote. Registering is free and easy; you can do so here. Voting ends on December 31, 2009.
We have many friends in the legal blogosphere, so we will refrain from making endorsements in the other categories. If you’re looking for voting guidance, though, feel free to check out Marc Randazza’s picks over at The Legal Satyricon.
Congratulations to all the Blawg 100, and good luck to everyone in the reader voting. May the best blog(s) win!
ABA Journal Blawg 100 – News [ABA Journal]
ABA Journal Blawg 100 – All Categories [ABA Journal]

Happy Thanksgiving from Your Friends at ATL

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Thanksgiving turkey Above the Law blog.jpgGreetings, Above the Law readers. Please accept our wishes for a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We hope you aren’t spending much time in front of the computer today (or tomorrow, which is effectively a holiday too). But if you are — for some depressing reason, like work — feel free to bemoan your fate in the comments.

We will keep you company over the next two days. We won’t be writing as much as usual, but we will be publishing a few posts for those of you who happen to be around.

This year has been a tough one for the nation, as well as for many ATL readers. Despite the difficulties, please take time to reflect upon what you’re thankful for. Some possibilities: your job, if you still have it, even though you might not love it; your bonus / partnership draw, if you’re getting one, even if it’s smaller than last year; your health, even if it could be better; your family, even if you want to throttle them sometimes; and your friends. (These are just obvious starting points; feel free to list more blessings in the comments.)

As for your ATL editors, we are obviously thankful for you, our readers. Our audience is sizable, devoted, and growing: our 2009 traffic year-to-date is up by over 120 percent over last year (i.e., it has more than doubled).

Thank you for your site visits and pageviews, your comments (even the mean ones), and all the great tips you send us (often by email, but by many other methods as well). To the extent that this site is a useful source of information and/or entertainment, it’s because of you. So, thank you — and Happy Thanksgiving!

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: Maternity Leave

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champagne glasses small.jpg
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.

Breaking: Jones v. Minkin Dismissed!!!
(Plaintiff voluntarily dismisses lawsuit against ATL.)

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David Minkin publisher AbovetheLaw Dealbreaker Breaking Media.jpgYesterday’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.

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.

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(Plaintiff voluntarily dismisses lawsuit against ATL.)“

ATL Goes to ATL: Elie Hits Hotlanta

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Elie Atlanta time.jpgThe 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]

Happy Blogiversary to… Us! Above the Law Turns Three

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third birthday three.jpgThree 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