Julie Buxbaum is a Harvard alumna and lawyer turned novelist. Her first book, The Opposite of Love, is getting favorable reviews. As we've written about before, she's signed a deal for two books, so it's a good sign that the first is being well-received.

For the lawyers who want to be writers: her advance was likely in excess of $500,000.

Carrie Bradshaw's Smarter Sister [Washington Post]
The Opposite of Love [Amazon]

We're tired of the national lovefest for Barack Obama that is currently underway. It seems that Senator Obama, barely halfway through his first term in the U.S. Senate, can do no wrong -- and the divalicious Hillary Clinton, the fabulous former first lady who also has a complete (and highly successful) Senate term under the belt of her pantsuit, can do no right.

Everybody loves Barack. The 2008 election has turned into a run for class president, Barack is the "Cool Kid," and Hillary is the nerd -- the Tracy Flick character from Election.

Lawyers seems to love Obama, especially young, starry-eyed law firm associates. But general counsels have a weakness for him too, as reported today in Corporate Counsel:

The nation's best-paid general counsel have a clear favorite in the presidential race: Barack Obama. In the run-up to the primary season, the Illinois senator received more money from the in-house legal elite than any other candidate....

A total of 29 GCs in the top 100 have contributed to a presidential candidate so far (five gave to more than one campaign). Eight legal chiefs gave Obama a total of $20,600; Hillary Clinton raised $14,500 from six; and Christopher Dodd netted $13,000 from eight.

And publishers like to throw money at Obama too. From a post over the weekend at Boston Now:

[P]residential candidate Barack "No Experience" Obama apparently has no program for reducing foreign corporate control of the U.S. book publishing industry and other U.S. media industries.

One reason Obama might not want to propose that U.S. anti-trust laws be enforced against German media conglomerates like Bertelsmann AG is that between Election Day 2004 and his swearing in as a Senator, Obama was given a $1.7 million two-book contract by the Random House/Crown Publishers/Alfred Knopf subsidiary division of Bertelsmann AG. By signing his lucrative book contract with the German media conglomerate's U.S. subsidiary before taking office, Obama did not fall under various requirements for disclosure and reporting that applies to members of Congress who accept money from U.S. media conglomerates.

We could offer some snarky quip, but will refrain. Senator Obama complied with all applicable legal and ethical rules. His deal was brokered by Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly, the D.C. superlawyer who brokered a similar book deal for Hillary Clinton, also hammered out right before she took office.

And Hillary is our girl. If loving her is wrong, we don't want to be right.

Update: This video, in which HRC gets a bit choked up, is awesome. She's the most effective politically when she's the most personal. Remember how her political career was launched, after she was humanized as the wronged woman in L'Affaire Lewinsky?

Further Update: In the comments, some of you suggest that this post would be more appropriate for our personal blog. Thanks for the unsolicited advice, which we have taken.

We offer additional thoughts about Hillary, Obama, and the amazing video clip, in this post on our personal blog. The post's title: "Could this be Hillary's anti-Scream, her anti-Macaca moment? Could this video clip save her faltering campaign?"

The GCs' Choice: Obama [Corporate Counsel]
Obama's $1.7 Million Book Contract [Boston Now]

Our old professors continue to churn out best-selling fiction. First it was Stephen Carter, our contracts professor, who stunned the publishing world -- and the YLS faculty -- with a $4 million advance for his first thriller, The Emperor of Ocean Park.

Then our con law professor, Jed Rubenfeld, came out with a novel of his own, the creepy psychological thriller The Interpretation of Murder. (Above the Law did a post on the Rubenfeld book here.)

Now Stephen Carter is back with his second novel, New England White.

The New York Times gives it an approving review and offers us a taste of the plot:

The whiteness that appalls in Stephen L. Carter’s stylishly written new novel, “New England White,” is only partly the snow, which sifts through the “Gothic sprawl” of the university campus in “grimy, dilapidated” Elm Harbor in the late fall of 2003. In a coy author’s note we are assured that Elm Harbor is “not a thinly disguised New Haven,” so the unnamed university is presumably not a thinly disguised Yale, where Carter — author of a previous best-selling thriller, “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” as well as highly regarded books on the pitfalls of affirmative action and the proper place of religion in public life — has taught in the law school since 1982.

For Lemaster Carlyle, president of the university, the “heart of whiteness” is the creepy bedroom community of Tyler’s Landing, population 3,000, of whom five families, including the Carlyles, happen to be black. In the Landing, as it is called, Lemaster and his wife, Julia, a deputy dean of the divinity school, live in an ostentatious house with their two daughters, Vanessa (“16 going on 50”) and Jeannie, and “a smelly feline mutt” named Rainbow Coalition. Lemaster’s college roommate, now president of the United States (“the big president”) and up for re-election, sometimes calls to chat. To their envious neighbors on Hunter’s Meadow Road, “where the houses stood continents apart,” the Carlyles seem to have it all. But those “invisible spheres” Melville mentioned are about to crack the veneer of their seemingly perfect lives.

Sounds intriguing. We enjoyed The Emperor of Ocean Park until the end, which we didn't think lived up to the suspense Carter masterfully built up throughout the rest of the book (Note to Professor Carter: We're giving you more feedback here than you gave us on that contracts exam).

This news is a bit mystifying to us. From the Associated Press:

Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide whose online sex diary landed her a book deal and a Playboy photo spread but got her kicked off Capitol Hill, has filed for bankruptcy....

Cutler has spent much of her time [recently] fending off a lawsuit by ex-boyfriend and fellow DeWine staffer Robert Steinbuch, who claims Cutler's blog publicly humiliated him. He is seeking more than $20 million in damages.

In court documents filed in the case Thursday, however, Cutler says she can't even pay her American Express bill, legal fees and student loans. She submitted to the judge a copy of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition filed in New York dated Wednesday.

The lawsuit is being closely watched by online privacy groups and bloggers because the case could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of the people they interact with offline.

Our advice to Jessica: retain William P. Smith to represent you in bankruptcy court. You can pay his fees in "Happy Meals."

On a more serious note: How did the Washingtonienne wind up in this financial predicament?

We're not so good with math, so please help us out. We run some numbers, after the jump.

* So apparently the feds knew about law firm bonuses before ATL. [MSNBC]

* Guess which party just picked up two swing states. [CNN]

* Shutting down YouTube: the ultimate jealous boyfriend move. [MSNBC]

* OJ's money is going nowhere for now. [AP]

* Federal court allows suit against Vatican. [MSNBC]

Last week was short, thanks to the New Year's holiday; but it sure was busy. Here are some highlights from a very momentous week:

* No more jokes about Harriet Miers: the ill-fated ex-SCOTUS nominee has resigned as White House counsel. Speculation about her successor abounds.

* No more jokes about the Dewy Orifice: the ill-fated merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has been called off.

* Turns out that Chief Justice Rehnquist was a painkiller junkie. Once, while suffering withdrawal symptoms, he tried to bust out of a hospital in his PJs.

* Chief Judge David Levi, of the Eastern District of California, will be the new Dean of Duke Law School.

* All About Jan? Just as the aging Margo Channing's reign over Broadway was threatened by the comely Eve Harrington, the aging Linda Greenhouse's reign over One First Street is being threatened by the comely Jan Crawford Greenburg.

* Who knew? Law professors and legal bloggers sure know how to party! Photos of drunken legal academics available here and here.

* Cravath partner John Beerbower has enjoyed some amazing apartments over the years. Cravath partnership + Wealthy wife = $20 million, Park Avenue pad.

* Who's your favorite First Circuit judge? Cast your vote here.

* If you're a right-winger hoping that Justice Stevens will step down soon, don't hold your breath.

* Today's D.C. Circuit: Despite the occasional catfight, it's not as bitchy as it used to be. Sigh.

* Oppressed law clerks, your Devil Wears Prada is on its way. Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Chambermaid, by former Third Circuit clerk Saira Rao.

* Chickens help us cope with "chronic anxiety" too. After they're ground up and turned into McNuggets. [Nasty, Brutish & Short]

* "DO NOT put any person in this washing machine." Unless they're really smelly -- and small. [Overlawyered; Associated Press]

* Eliot Spitzer has a man-date. In more ways than one. [New York Daily News]

* Joan Biskupic gets a book deal. For a bio that writes itself. [How Appealing]

* Judges should too. 'Cause most of them couldn't do their own Westlaw research if their lives depended on it. [TaxProf Blog]

Saira Rao, who wrote the New York Post article we discussed this morning, has a juicy debut novel coming out this summer. Check out the blurb for Chambermaid:

The devil holds a gavel in this wickedly entertaining debut novel about a young attorney’s eventful year clerking for a federal judge. Sheila Raj is a recent graduate of a top-ten law school with dreams of working for the ACLU, but law school did not prepare her for the power-hungry sociopath, Judge Helga Friedman, who greets her on her first day. While her beleaguered colleagues begin quitting their jobs, Sheila is assigned to a high-profile death penalty case and suddenly realizes that she has to survive the year as Friedman’s chambermaid — not just her sanity, but actual lives hang in the balance.

With Chambermaid, debut novelist Saira Rao breaks the code of silence surrounding the clerkship and boldly takes us into the mysterious world of the third branch of US government, where the leaders are not elected and can never be fired. With its biting wit and laugh-out-loud humor, this novel will change everything you think you know about how great lawyers, and great judges, are made.

Saira Rao is well-equipped to write about the world of the federal judiciary. She previously clerked on the Third Circuit for Judge Dolores Sloviter -- who has been described as a "judicial diva" and a "tough cookie".

After clerking for Judge Sloviter, Saira worked at Cleary Gottlieb. She's a graduate of UVA and NYU Law School.

"Chambermaid" sounds delicious. We're counting down the days until July 2007!

Chambermaid: A Novel [Amazon.com]
Saira Rao bio [Findlaw]
Saira Rao profile [Friendster]

Update (4:55 PM): The WSJ Law Blog has put up a post that also links to Saira Rao's NYP article and the Amazon blurb for her forthcoming novel.

Earlier: Biglaw Associates: Take the Money and Run

* The Volokh Conspiracy wins Best Law Blog. Congrats to the VC crew! [The Weblog Awards 2006 via 2nd Place Winner How Appealing]

* F&@% you, FCC!. [CNN.com]

* And in my-home-state-is-not-completely-backward news... [Jurist]

* If he sold it, Ron Goldman wants the money. [AP via FindLaw]

* Internet illiterate NY Mom, who doesn't know "a kazaa from a kazoo," is dropped from recording industry's suit against her children. [AP via lexisONE]

The most infamous case of the last century has turned into one of the biggest P.R. disasters of this one.

After nearly universal criticism, from both within and outside the company, the News Corp. has pulled its plans to publish a book by O.J. Simpson -- and to air a television interview with him -- in which the ex-football star describes how he "might" have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Hypothetically, mind you. 'Cause he didn't. And he is still searching America, or at least every golf course in America, for the person who murdered his ex-wife.

(News flash: Even Rupert Murdoch will only go so far -- or sink so low.)

For those of you who are well-versed in the legal issues surrounding publishing contracts, some questions from the Washington Post:

Who owns the book now? Will Simpson still be paid? And what will happen now to Regan, whom many in the industry condemn for what they consider bottom-feeding instincts while grudgingly admiring her audacity?

Some info about these issues, from the New York Times:

Standard publishing contracts call for a percentage of an author’s advance, usually up to 50 percent, to be paid when a contract is signed, and for the remainder to be paid when the finished book is accepted by the publisher. The [anonymous] executive [involved in the deal] said Mr. Simpson’s book was covered by a standard publishing contract.

In an interview last week, Judith Regan, the publisher, said ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, had signed a contract with “a manager who represents a third party” who owned the rights to Mr. Simpson’s account.

Because the News Corporation and ReganBooks decided on their own to cancel the book and the television special, that money is likely to still have to be paid.

Your further thoughts are welcome, in the comments or via email.

Under Pressure, News Corp. Pulls Simpson Project [New York Times]
News Corp. Pulls Plug On O.J. Book, Fox Special [Washington Post]

Earlier: This Is Why the Founding Fathers Gave Us the Double Jeopardy Clause

Because if people could be tried for the same crime twice, then we'd probably never be gifted with O.J. Simpson's forthcoming magnum opus, "If I Did It."

Yes, that's right: "If I Did It." Here are the details:

Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said. The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said....

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

The interview will air days before Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," goes on sale Nov. 30. The book, published by Regan, "hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed."

The title of Simpson's book reminds us of these lines from Macbeth:

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly...

These lines refer, of course, to murder. But they could just as easily apply to O.J.'s return to the public spotlight.

So let's get this over with, and send Simpson back to the golf course forthwith -- since we can't send him to where he really belongs.

O.J. to Say How He Could Have Done It [AP via New York Times]
O.J. Simpson to Discuss Killings [Associated Press]

Or so says the Wall Street Journal, in a fascinating front-page article about the disappointing sales for the Yale law professor's debut novel, The Interpretation of Murder.

The strikingly handsome Jed Rubenfeld is a con law professor and deputy dean at Yale Law School (as well as a contestant in our Law School Dean hotties contest). Henry Holt & Co. paid Rubenfeld an advance of $800,000 for U.S. rights to his novel, and his superstar agent, Suzanne Gluck of William Morris, "sold foreign rights to 31 publishers for more than $1 million." As the WSJ explains, "[t]hat effectively valued Mr. Rubenfeld's manuscript above $1.8 million, not including the undisclosed sum Warner Bros. paid for movie rights."

But based on early sales figures, Rubenfeld's hopes of topping the bestseller list may be about as realistic as his chances of catching up with current leader Evan Caminker in the ATL hotties contest. We suspected things might not be going swimmingly when we recently saw copies of The Interpretation of Murder marked "45% Off -- Clearance" at Books A Million in Dupont Circle. (See also this reader comment.)

Update: Ann Althouse has a theory as to why Professor Rubenfeld may not be faring better in the hotties contest.

More details about Rubenfeld's foray into the literary world, after the jump.

Yesterday we wrote about Julie Buxbaum, the 2002 graduate of Harvard Law School who just landed a $500,000, two-book deal with Dial Press. We also asked you for more information about her -- where she practiced law before leaving for the writing life, what she's like as a person, etc.

Via Friendster, we learn that this Harvard Law hottie is 29 years old, in a relationship, and residing in Los Angeles. She has highbrow tastes in literature -- e.g., Interpreter of Maladies, The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- and less highbrow tastes in movies -- e.g., Revenge of the Nerds.

We also learned some things about Julie Buxbaum through your emails. One tipster stated, upon information and belief, that she worked in the L.A. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Another tipster, however, said she used to work at litigation boutique Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman. Our speculation: Julie started off at GDC, then left for Hennigan Bennett (Biglaw to boutique -- a perfectly logical career path).

The most fun tidbit about Ms. Buxbaum? That her brother was a child actor who went by the stage name Josh Blake. This piece of information is corroborated by the IMDb entry for Josh Blake, "sometimes credited as Josh Buxbaum." For devotees of the late 80's sitcom ALF, you may recall Blake as Jake Ochmonek, the "belligerent nephew" of the Tanners' next-door neighbors, who was befriended by that furry alien from the planet Melmac.

Julie Buxbaum [Friendster]
Josh Blake [IMDb]

Earlier: Harvard Law Hottie Lands Monster Book Deal

We follow the media and publishing worlds almost as closely as the legal world, so we're not quite sure how we missed this. But we did, and we're sorry. So we're bringing it to you now, a few days late -- and we apologize if you've already read about it somewhere else.

For all of you lawyers who are frustrated writers, this news may inspire or depress you, depending upon how you react to news of other people's good fortune. Here's a book deal announced last week in Publishers Marketplace:

Julie Buxbaum's debut novel THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE, about a 29-year-old attorney who lost her mother as a teenager and finds her well-constructed life falling apart when she can't commit to the man who loves her, to Susan Kamil at Dial Press, in a major deal, for publication in winter 2008, in a two-book deal, by Elaine Koster of the Elaine Koster Agency (US).

For those of you not conversant in PM-speak, "a major deal" is one with an advance of $500,000 and up.

The timing of the deal announcement was a bit ironic. That same week, Ms. Buxbaum wrote an essay for 02138, the new magazine by and about Harvard alumni, in which she waxes poetic about turning her back on Biglaw to pursue life as a sushi-starved artist. Here's the money quote:

I am currently dressed in head to toe Old Navy. My highlights are grown passed [sic] my ears. That latte is a splurge, sushi an absolute no-no. And, of course, there is the constant, nagging guilt -- like an angry rash -- when I check my dwindling bank balance, when I remember I spent close to a quarter million dollars on higher education, when I realize that it was less than a year ago that I was making six figures. I was a litigator at a top law firm, an HLS graduate, a somebody. Now, well, to be honest, I am not too sure who I am, what exactly I "do."

Not sure "what exactly you 'do,'" Julie? Try this on for size: You collect a cool half-a-mil for being the latest hot young female writer with an Ivy League degree and a chick-lit manuscript.

Best of luck, Julie. May your tale end more happily than that of the last young Harvard gal who landed a $500,000 book deal.

Anyone have any intelligence to share about the comely Ms. Buxbaum -- what she's like, where she worked as a litigatrix, etc.? If so, please chime in.

Struggling Ivy Leaguer Makes Good [Gawker]
Meet Miss Hot Young Author Chick 2007 [GalleyCat]
Julie Buxbaum: The Opposite of Love [Publishers Marketplace (subscription)]