Gracing the front page of today's Washington Post is an article that will appeal to many ATL readers. It's by Post reporter Ian Shapira, who previously wrote this interesting piece about summer associates. Here's the headline:

Okay, not a terribly novel development. As one of several ATL readers who wrote us about this story observed, "it's not exactly Man Bites Dog."

But even if the article may not be earth-shattering, it's a well-crafted, thought-provoking piece. We think it will get an interesting discussion going. Also, anything that gets a general audience to care about the niche topic of law firms, like a front page WaPo article, is a good thing in our book.

Excerpts and observations, after the jump.

Soon we'll be all caught up in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Here are the three couples for the weekend of December 23-24, 2006:

1. Kathryn Connor, John Ridley Jr.

2. Ilyse Langer, Steve Metzger

3. Nancy Montgomery, Leonard Lombard

Discussion of these couples appears after the jump.

It has been a while since our last round-up of notable moves within the legal profession. So there's a lot to report today:

Law Firm to... Prison?

* Former Milberg Weiss name partner Steven Schulman resigned from the firm to pursue “new ventures.” The most important of these "ventures" will surely be fighting federal charges of making illegal payments to plaintiffs in past cases.

Law Firms to In-House:

* Securities lawyer Stephen Cutler is leaving his partnership at WilmerHale to become general counsel of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the banking giant. From a tipster who works in securities law: "This is a big deal."

Colleagues of Cutler described the JP Morgan gig to the WSJ Law Blog as a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. Translation: Who wouldn't want to make mid- instead of low-seven-figures?

* Another WilmerHale departure: J. Kevin McCarthy is taking over as top lawyer of the Cowen Group, an investment bank.

Government to Private Sector:

* Former New Jersey Chief Justice Deborah Poritz joins the Princeton office of Drinker Biddle & Reath, as of counsel. She stepped down from the New Jersey Supreme Court in October, after reaching the mandatory retirement age.

Government Promotion:

* David Nocenti, current counsel to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, will become counsel to the governor effective January 1.

Academia-Biglaw Alliance:

* Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, the renowned constitutional scholar and SCOTUS litigator, is entering into a consulting arrangement with Akin Gump.

Akin Gump is developing a Supreme Court practice. Earlier this year, they added young SCOTUS superstar Tom Goldstein to their line-up.

Lateral Moves:

* Securities-enforcement lawyer Chuck Davidow, to Paul Weiss (DC), from WilmerHale.

Another loss for WilmerHale -- on top of the previously reported departure of Paul Eckert for the White House Counsel's Office.

Why are so many partners leaving WilmerHale? A Hillary Clinton administration is still two years away.

* IP lawyer Joseph Gioconda, to DLA Piper (New York), from Kirkland & Ellis.

* Corporate lawyer Eric Lerner, to Kramer Levin, from Katten Muchin Rosenman.

* Tax lawyer Thomas Giegerich, to McDermott Will & Emery (NY), from Dewey Ballantine (about to merge with Orrick to form Dewy Orifice).

New Partners:

* Bryan Cave: Eleven new partners. Names here.

Due to the sheer number of links today, we've placed them after the jump.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of KSR International v. Teleflex. Here's our quick-and-dirty summary of the proceedings.

Subject Matter / Question Presented: To qualify for patent protection, an invention must be novel, useful, and not “obvious” to a person of “ordinary skill” in the field. So how do you determine "obviousness" when you have an invention that combines already-existing products? And is the Federal Circuit’s three-part “teaching-suggestion-motivation” test for obviousness a bunch of moronic nonsense?

Money Quote(s):

From the NYT:

When [veteran SCOTUS litigator Tom] Goldstein noted that “every single major patent bar association in the country has filed on our side,” the chief justice interjected: “Well, which way does that cut? That just indicates that this is profitable for the patent bar.” And when Mr. Goldstein referred to experts who had testified that the Teleflex patent was not obvious, the chief justice asked: “Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something’s not obvious? I mean, the least insightful person you can find?”

From the Legal Times:

“Three imponderable nouns,” is how Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed the test, also calling it “gobbledygook” for good measure.

Likely Outcome: The Federal Circuit will probably get benchslapped by the SCOTUS. As Tony Mauro notes:

[W]hen Justice Stephen Breyer said he had read the briefs in the case “15 times” and still could not understand the “motivation” prong of the test, Scalia chimed in, “Like Justice Breyer, I don’t understand.”

The implied message to the Federal Circuit seemed to be: If two of the brainier justices on the Supreme Court don’t have a clue what you are talking about, a new test might be in order.

For those of you looking for a substantive, eyewitness account of the argument, we reprint below the report of Joseph (Jay) R. DelMaster, Jr., a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Washington. His account includes advice about how to proceed in patent prosecutions while we await the Supreme Court's decision.

Check it out, after the jump.

Law Firm Mergers:

Actually, they're really acquisitions:

* Washington-based Crowell & Moring is building up its New York office by acquiring King Pagano Harrison, the health care/labor-and-employment boutique, and by picking up partners from IP boutique Morgan & Finnegan.

* Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath is "merging" with Chicago-based Gardner Carton & Douglas. The new entity will keep the Drinker Biddle name and will be chaired by Drinker Biddle's current chairman, Alfred W. Putnam Jr.

(Translation: Gardner Carton = Drinker Biddle's beeatch.)

Out the Door:

* Casualties of the options backdating scandal: Bruce Karatz, CEO of KB Home (and a lawyer by training), and Richard Hirst, KB Home's chief legal officer.

Crowell & Moring Acquires 20 Lawyers From Litigation Boutique [Legal Times via Law.com]
Firm Boosts NY Office With Boutique Acquisition, Raid [NYLawyer.com]
Firms Merge [NYLawyer.com]
Backdating Scandal Fells Top Homebuilding CEO [WSJ Law Blog]