The first month of the new year turned out to be a great one for lawyers, but as usual, we don’t exactly mean that in the nicest of ways. January brought us new legal controversies of all varieties, from all kinds of places.
With terroristic threats allegedly made by an associate at one Biglaw firm, and scandalous sexual allegations raised by a partner from another one, we knew that we’d have a crop of crass and sex-crazed behavior for this round of our Lawyer of the Month competition.
That being said, let’s check out our nominees for the month of January….
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Month: January Reader Poll”
Above the Law’s 2011 Lawyer of the Year contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who nominated a lawyer; thanks to our finalists, for being such accomplished and interesting individuals; and thanks to all the voters, who picked our victor.
Here are ATL’s past Lawyers of the Year:
For 2011, who will join their distinguished ranks? Let’s find out….
Continue reading “ATL’s 2011 Lawyer of the Year: The Winner!”
Many law firms send out rather lame holiday cards, cards that marketing guru Ross Fishman would describe as “boring pieces of crap.” Thankfully that wasn’t the case for the eleven finalists in our third annual law firm holiday card contest.
Some of these cards were clever, some were beautiful, and some were funny. All of them were excellent, deserving of recognition and praise for the thoughtfulness and creativity that went into them.
Okay, enough with the sentimental and sappy stuff — you’re lawyers, and you’re competitive. You want to know who won….
Continue reading “ATL Holiday Card Contest: The Winner!”
The year is quickly drawing to a close, but we have unfinished business to conduct here at Above the Law. We still have to crown our Lawyer of the Year for 2011.
Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for nominations. We’ve narrowed down the nominees to a field of twelve (although you’ll see only eleven options in the poll because one is a joint nomination). As in past years, the contenders run the gamut from distinguished to despicable.
And the nominees are….
Continue reading “ATL’s 2011 Lawyer of the Year: The Finalists!”
The field of contenders for our third annual law firm holiday card contest was more impressive than ever. We received numerous nominations, and we thank everyone who participated. It took many hours to review the plethora of submissions.
We could complain about how some of you failed to follow contest rule #3, limiting the contest to “cards that are unusually clever, funny, or cool…. cards with some attitude, with that extra je ne sais quoi.” But we won’t; the holiday spirit has us in a good mood. You are all wonderful!
But some of you are more wonderful than others. Let’s look at this year’s finalists….
Continue reading “ATL Holiday Card Contest: The Finalists!”
With just two weeks left in the year 2011, we thought that now would be a good time to ask you, our loyal readers, to submit your nominations for Above the Law’s fifth annual LAWYER OF THE YEAR competition.
We’ll be running the show just like we’ve done it in the past: you submit your nominees (in the comments to this post), we’ll review them and pick a slate of finalists, and then you’ll vote on them in a reader poll.
The winner will be bestowed with the glorious, honorific title of ATL’s Lawyer of the Year for 2011.
So, what are the criteria for nominations? We’ll break it down for you….
Continue reading “ATL’s 2011 Lawyer of the Year: Nominations Needed”
We are pleased and proud to announce Above the Law’s third annual law firm holiday card contest. This happy, heartwarming feature is a Christmastime favorite, as beloved as figgy pudding. It’s the perfect cure for the bonus season blues.
For the past two years, Biglaw and small firms have duked it out for the distinction of having the best Christmas card. Last year’s honors went to a small firm: Proctor Heyman, the Delaware corporate litigation and counseling boutique. In the inaugural holiday card contest, a large firm prevailed: Akin Gump (which recently announced its bonuses, at least in New York).
We’ve already received several emails asking about when this year’s contest would start. The answer is: it starts today!
Read on — and read carefully — for the official contest rules….
Continue reading “Above the Law’s Third Annual Holiday Card Contest”
In our November edition of the Lawyer of the Month competition, we brought you three male candidates who just didn’t give a damn. We offered our readers an anti-military law professor, but he wasn’t able to rock the vote. Next up, we had a family law judge who beat his daughter on camera, but even this villainous act wasn’t enough to take the win.
At the end of the day, the man who didn’t want the title won it in a landslide victory, with 65 percent of the vote….
Continue reading “November Lawyer of the Month: Cheaters Never Win (Until Now)”
Last week, we asked you to pick your choice for the worst law school in New York. It turned out to be one of most active polls on the site. So many of you had strong opinions.
Your choice for the worst law school was overwhelming — so strong that one would hope that the administration would notice and do something to improve the school’s reputation in the community.
But the battle for the worst school in the five boroughs was heated. Let’s check out the results….
Continue reading “Landslide Choice For Worst Law School In New York”
It’s an intriguing question. There are 11 ABA-accredited law schools in New York City and Long Island (I’m including Pace, even though the law school is in White Plains). Personally I love them all. Seriously, any one of them can produce a story about great idiocy that I can make fun of on the internet. That’s all I really care about.
But law students in New York argue over the strengths and weaknesses of their law schools all the time. Or at the very least they often mutter about the idiots across town under their breath.
While some students like to argue that they go to the “best” law school in New York, that’s a less interesting question. And there are so many Yale students running around town (New Haven is only 90 minutes away), so saying you go to the best law school in New York feels a little bit like saying you’re the tallest midget.
It’s a bit douchy to argue over who’s best, but it’s pretty fun to argue over which law school is the worst. Nobody thinks that they go to the absolute worst law school in the city. But that means one student body is dead wrong.
Let’s find out who!
Continue reading “What’s The Worst Law School In New York?”
Earlier this week, we asked our readers to submit possible captions for this photo:
On Wednesday, you voted on the finalists, and now it’s time to announce the winner of our most recent caption contest….
Continue reading “Caption Contest Winner: Have a Seat…”
The voting for the best legally themed Halloween costume was close this year.
Very close.
The contest pitted a group against a couple. It pitted NYU Law against the University of Minnesota Law School — Big City v. Heartland. And when all the votes were counted, the final margin was seven votes, out of over 2,400 votes cast!
Should we have a run-off? Hell no! This isn’t youth soccer. The votes are final and winner takes all. Let’s see who gets the coveted Above the Law t-shirt(s)….
Continue reading “2011 Legally Themed Halloween Costume Contest Winner”
Earlier this week, we asked readers to submit possible captions for this photo:
Let’s have a look at what our readers were able to come up with, and then vote on the finalists….
Continue reading “Caption Contest Finalists: Have a Seat…”
It’s time to announce the winner of October’s Lawyer of the Month competition. Our readers had a motley crew of female lawyers behaving badly to choose from, and one male attorney who probably would have loved to keep company with them all.
But which kind of lawyer do our readers like the best? Drunk, naked, rich, or slutty ones? In this polling cycle, we learned that money can buy just about anything, except enough votes to win an ATL contest….
Continue reading “October Lawyer of the Month: Drunk and Disorderly”
Some people say that you’d have to be crazy to go to law school during these times of economic instability, but people keep going. Some go because they’re delusional — they think that they’ll be in the top ten percent of the class. Some go because they’re narcissistic — they think that they’ll get to listen to themselves talk for hours on end in a law school classroom. Some go because they’re masochists — they think that they’ll get beaten by the Socratic method and the curve.
Have law schools realized that their students may need psychiatric intervention?
Here’s the photo for our latest caption contest….
Continue reading “Caption Contest: Have a Seat…”
Oh Halloween, a time when the keenest minds have an opportunity to dress up as obscure legal concepts that will baffle their friends.
But not Above the Law readers. Oh, we get the jokes, all the jokes. Which is probably a little sad….
Continue reading “Legally Themed Halloween Costume Contest: 2011″
It seems like lawyers got a little wild last month, especially the ladies. In fact, our candidate pool for October’s Lawyer of the Month contest was mostly dominated by women. Score one for women’s equality in the legal profession, even if we’re out there embarrassing ourselves.
Only one of our candidates is a man, but given his choice in women, he’d probably love to be surrounded by all of these hot messes.
Last month, we offered you the sex, violence, and stupidity edition of the competition. We suppose you can call this one Lawyer of the Month: Drunk, Slutty, and Naked. Let’s check out our nominees for the month of October….
Continue reading “Lawyer of the Month: October Reader Poll”
Most of you will be going out on Saturday for Halloween. If anybody is going as a legally themed character, send in your pictures, by email (subject line: “Halloween Costume”). We’ll judge them and pick out the best ones. Winners will get t-shirts and respect. Last year was pretty great, so keep the good times rolling.
Here’s a YouTube clip with an attractive woman offering some fashion advice for law people this weekend….
Continue reading “Some Fashion Tips for Legal Types This Halloween”
Here at Above the Law, it seems like we complain about the American Bar Association on an almost daily basis. But you know what? It’s Friday, so we’re going to cut the ABA some slack.
We’re a little tardy to the party on this one, but today we have some news for law students that could possibly put some money into their pockets, all courtesy of the ABA.
Shocking, right? Law students, you’ll want to take part in this sweepstakes, but act fast, because it all comes to an end on Halloween….
Continue reading “Law Students: The ABA Wants to Help You ‘Put a Dent in Your Debt’”
Some people — for example, Chief Justice John Roberts — are not fans of contemporary legal scholarship. These critics might say, “You’d have to pay me to read the writings of a law professor!”
Well, what if a law professor were willing to pay you to check out his writings? And what if the writings in question were not, say, 150-page law review articles on “the influence of Immanuel Kant on evidentiary approaches in 18th-century Bulgaria,” but fun stuff — like song lyrics?
Continue reading “Some Random Friday Fun: A Law Professor Turned Songwriter”
