Disability Law

* Say sayonara to the Buffett Rule. Senate Republicans were successful in blocking the 30% tax on millionaires proposed by Democrats. And thank God, because that trickle down thing is totally working for us right now. [Wall Street Journal]

* Rich lawyers keep getting richer because they keep increasing their fees. That being said, where the hell are the bonuses? Come on now, SullCrom, are you seriously going to make us all wait until June? That’s really not very nice. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* Well, that was quick: one minute men abound in the George Zimmerman circus. Mark O’Mara filed a motion to get Judge Recksiedler off the case, and the media filed a motion to get access to sealed records. [CNN]

* A federal judge presiding over the John Edwards campaign finance trial dismissed 47 potential jurors. Dude gets around, because apparently he had slept with all of them. Nah, he wishes, though. [Bloomberg]

* As a law school, it sure is easy to claim that just under 100% of the class of 2010 was employed nine months after graduation, especially when you were the one employing them. [National Law Journal]

* Seems like the New York Times has finally caught on to the ADA troll trend. Lawyers are recruiting clients to file suits against noncompliant businesses, but at least the disabled reap the rewards. [New York Times]

* Prospective welfare recipients in Georgia have a few more months to blaze before they’ll have to pass a drug test to receive benefits. Smoke two joints before you prepare for all the incoming lawsuits. [Washington Post]

Given the tough job market, law students are doing everything they can to get a leg up on the competition. Whether that means showing up with freshly baked cookies before the interviews, or pumping out handwritten thank you notes after you meet people, students are going to the mattresses. But why should a law student handwrite his own handwritten thank you card? Surely, there is a law student out there who is just desperate enough to write another law student's thank you cards. At least that's what one student at a top law school was hoping for....

Like most of you, Valerie Katz spends her free time trying to come up with a plot idea for Miss Congeniality 3. It is hard, however, to mess with perfection. Having reached the limits of her creativity, she decided to look to actual events (and, of course, small law firm news) to serve as the inspiration for her movie plot. And she found just what I was looking for, thanks to a real-life Miss Congeniality and Mr. Social Security. Intrigued? Check out photos of a certified hottie, after the break....

A little while back, we asked how many of you had tried Adderall, the ADHD drug that some students use to get a boost around study time. A whopping 30% of you said you had tried the drug and 70% of you are lying. But now let's ask the fun question. Is using Adderall that big of a deal?

Adderall, as we understand it, is the same as Ritalin, but better. It's easy to get your hands on -- all you have to do is fake the ADHD exam and you have your very own prescription for an amphetamine for law school and beyond. Or you can bum one off of a friend as finals stress approaches. Haven't you done that? Come on, be honest....

Sadly, we now live in a world where it's harder and harder to separate out the really disabled people from those who just can't get their stuff together. To cope, Elie has developed his own little test: if he wouldn't want the disability, it's a real disability. If he'd gladly take the "disability" in exchange for a cash payout, it's probably fake. So let him ask you this: would you take a cash payout from your Biglaw firm if he afflicted you with the dreaded "I'm really sleepy" disability? Yeah, this woman would too....

Some -- but not all -- people will get special accommodations for the LSAT (and law school exams, and the bar exam, and every other exam, ad infinitum). The question is, who really deserves these special testing accommodations? Boobs or brains?

* If the Americans with Disabilities Act must protect the obese, could we at least have different levels of protection depending on whether or not your “disability” is self-inflicted? Like, if you get your legs shot off in war, that’s one thing, but if your legs crumble underneath your girth on your way to eat […]

What do Proskauer Rose and Ropes & Gray have in common (besides the seven shared letters in their firm names)? They are both leading law firms. They both have major presences, their two biggest offices, in New York and Boston. They both have blue and gray in their logos. And they are both involved in […]

* Sorry Missouri, but your reign as the “Show Me” state is over. Thanks to its immigration law, Alabama is going to be taking over as the “Show Me Your Papers” state. [CNN] * Time to review the footage. Irving Picard stands to lose the game for the Investors if he can’t get an instant […]

There are a couple of interesting employment discrimination suits floating around the blogosphere today. One is continuing on behalf of a dead, obese woman. The other involves leaky breasts. Sound like fun? The claim that is being pursued by the estate of a dead woman is slightly more newsworthy because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission […]

In a few weeks, an interesting trial will be getting underway in Queens Criminal Court here in New York. The underlying incident should provide fodder for either a Lawyer of the Day or a Judge of the Day — but it’s not clear which. The episode giving rise to the criminal charges was reported back […]

Apologies for the tardiness — this news is from last month. But it’s about the bar exam, which is still fresh in the minds of many, so it’s fair game. Some of you who took the New York bar exam last week complained of a loud, distracting, feedback-type noise in one of the rooms at […]

When traveling abroad for the first time, it seems every American is struck by the brilliance of creating paper money with a correlation between the size of a bill and its value. “That must be nice for blind people,” we think. Well, the D.C. Circuit thinks the same way. In a 2-1 ruling (PDF) issued […]

I previously wrote (here and here) about Oscar Pistorius, the Olympic hopeful who was ruled ineligible to compete in the Beijing Games by the International Association of Athletics Federations (“IAAF”) because he uses Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetic legs. With help from Dewey & LeBoeuf (disclosure: my previous employer) as his pro bono counsel, Pistorius recently challenged […]

Remember Chief Judge Edward Nottingham (D. Colorado)? We named him our Judge of the Day back in August, after he reportedly “was too drunk to remember how he spent more than $3,000 at a strip club in two consecutive days.” We subsequently honored him as our Paulie Walnuts Doppelgänger of the Day. We are hereby […]

* Like an aging babyboomer, L&O might be spending its golden years with its progeny… at TNT. Loyal fans, you will always find L&O-related news here. (And when I say “here”, I mean in Non-Sequiturs, because Lat does what he wants.) [Los Angeles Times] * Oops, they f**ked up. (And when I say “they”, I […]

* $3.19 a gallon for this? [CNN] * Hasselhoff videotape (no, not the German music video) leads to loss of custody rights. [CNN] * Bat-ban Begins — groups sue to overturn NYC ordinance.[SI] * Senators expand Attorneygate probe. [MSNBC] * Ethics of “pillow angel” surgery called unlawful. [CNN]

* They may or may not be activist, but they sure aren’t very active. [New York Times via How Appealing] * These people are going to hell… and maybe jail. [CNN] * Does a U.S. court have jurisdiction to stay the execution of Saddam Hussein? [Jurist] * Tie one on…online. [WSJ Law Blog] * Legal […]

* Judge: Paper money violates the Rehabilitation Act because blind people cannot distinguish between bills. [CNN; USA Today] * John Turley digs into recent comments by (presidential candidate?) Newt Gingrich on freedom of speech. [MSNBC] * “Oregon Lawyer Wrongly Arrested After Madrid Bombings Settles Lawsuit for $2 Million.” [Law.com; New York Times; Washington Post] * […]