We were beset by technical difficulties here at ATL yesterday (as we explained in our Twitter feed). We apologize for the site outages; hopefully the situation will be better next week.

At least we didn’t have to go out in the snow. Our brethren in D.C. were not as fortunate. The Washington Post reports:

The full weight of winter brought life in much of the Washington region to a standstill Saturday as a storm predicted to be one of the most powerful on record dumped 12 to 21 inches of snow overnight. …

[O]fficials pleaded with people to stay off the roads until conditions improve. People were confined to their homes by the mountains of snow, many in the dark as trees brought down power lines.

Stay off the roads? But we’ve got an LSAT to take, damn it.

Thanks to all of you who sent along good wishes after the birth of Baby Lin. It’s been a busy two months, but we’re emerging from the vicious beatdown that is new parenthood. (By which we mean that we’re sleeping in luxurious two-hour stretches and showering almost daily.)

We’ve been keeping up with the NYT weddings, but as usual the November and December offerings were relatively weak, which gives us a good excuse to eliminate the dreary matches (e.g., Fordham-marries-Fordham; Cardozo 1L, no picture; U. Penn., blah, blah) and bring you each month’s top three. And if ATL management accuses of slacking off, we’re totally playing the mommy card.

We’ll be back soon with December’s couples and our 2009 Couple of the Year reader poll.

Here are your November couples:

1. Mia Feldbaum and Mark McGoldrick

2. Lisa Rockefeller and Edward Sebelius

3. Stephen Davis and Jeffrey Busch

Read more about these newlyweds, after the jump.

Given the state of the legal economy, I don’t have a problem with grade inflation at top law schools. The job market is terrible enough as it is. If an extra (inflated and totally BS) third of a grade helps a student get a job right now, I think that is fine. Whatever, sometimes you have to “juke the stats,” and I understand that.

But it’s not cool when schools institute grade inflation secretly and hope nobody will notice. It’s not cool when schools try to pass off grade inflation as something other than grade inflation. Law schools have to do what they have to do, but there is no reason to pretend that everybody is stupid.

At Harvard Law School and at Georgetown University Law Center, the administrations have decided that their students need things to be a little easier. But neither law school seems willing to admit that the economy played a role in their sudden embrace of grade reform.

Details after the jump.

Big news today from Georgetown University Law Center. The law school’s dean, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, is stepping down from his position.

But he is leaving Georgetown for a good cause. Dean Aleinikoff will be the new “Deputy High Commissioner in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.”

From law school dean to “Deputy High Commissioner”? That, my friends, is a title bump.

The instant reaction from the (numerous) Georgetown tipsters who sent us the news has been to wish Dean Aleinikoff the best of luck. “He will be missed,” seems to be the prevailing sentiment.

Sam Arora, president of the Georgetown Student Bar Association, had this to say:

“We are sad to lose Dean Aleinikoff but excited to see what he will do on the world stage. Alex’s leadership in expanding Georgetown’s transnational legal curriculum and focus on the future of legal profession has made us a stronger institution.”

And so Georgetown becomes the latest law school in search of a dean. I tell you what, some of these deferred or laid off associates need to get on the “dean track.” There are seemingly always opportunities available for people who want to run a law school.

Read the full goodbye letter after the jump.

Many ‘08 law school grads are about to take a step up to second year associate level at Biglaw firms across the land. You’re feeling pretty proud? And lucky to have a Biglaw gig these days, right?

Well, eat your hearts out. Michael Edwards, Georgetown Law ‘08 grad, has already been appointed a judge. He took his seat on the bench in Indiana City Court on Tuesday. From WTHI TV:

The Indiana Supreme Court appointed a new attorney to become a temporary judge in a southern Indiana City Court. Michael Edwards is a Naval Academy graduate, former Marine, and now the city court judge in Bicknell.

A Georgetown classmate tipped us off to the news:

This is one of my friends from GULC’s class of 2008. Already a judge! Ridiculous!

So how’d Edwards come to the attention of the Indiana Supreme Court? Judge Edwards’ ascension to the bench is a result of malfeasance by a prior judge, but was also due in part to a pushed back start date at a Chicago Biglaw firm.

From what we can tell, Janero Marchand was just your normal everyday law student. Well, a normal everyday law student who allegedly dated this woman.

Hey, the man likes fine clothes and fine women; there’s nothing wrong with that. But the gossip blog Bossip blew up his world this morning, when it made Marchand front page news:

According to our source, Rihanna has been spotted around town with a new man accompanying her by the name of Janero Marchand. 22 year old Janero is the former boyfriend of video chick Dollicia Bryan and is a current NYU Law Student. Janero, who wishes to stay out of the limelight, has been the missing link to Rihanna’s life; offering her love and support during her split with Chris Brown.

As the cops in a South Park episode might say, “nice … nice.”

There’s only one problem with the story, it’s not true.

Pesky, pesky details after the jump.

Many summers can already see the writing on the wall. It’s going to be a no-offer party this fall. Law school career service professionals are trying to prepare their students for the inevitable.

The career services offices at Georgetown University Law Center sent around a very thoughtful letter, on Friday. Summer associates should take heed. Let’s get the obvious news out of the way first:

What are we hearing?

I have been speaking with many of our close contacts in law firms across the country to assess what firms are planning in terms of post-graduate offers to their summer associates. Most firms indicate that they are waiting until the latest possible date to finalize their strategy so as to take into account as much market information as possible, but a few themes are emerging:

1. Unlike past years, many firms will not be making offers to all or almost all their summers. I hear of offer rates that range from 80% at the high end to 50% at the low end. Note that there is significant variation from firm to firm and region to region, and all the firms I speak with are trying their best to make offers to as many of their summer associates as possible.

2. Many firms are considering making deferred offers to some or all of their current summer associates to begin work sometime in 2011, and some have already announced that they will do so. Firms are not clear as to what stipend, if any, they will pay deferred associates in the coming year, and what conditions (e.g. working in the public sector) must be met to receive a stipend.

The class of 2009 thought that they were the “lost generation.” But would they want to switch places with the class of 2010?

After the jump, more bad news from GULC career services.

Another week, another NYT Vows column comparing the bride to a giant coniferous tree (“The bride stood stately and erect, echoing the Redwoods that surrounded them … “). Seriously, could they maybe assign Vows once a month to a real writer, just to make it a little less chirpy and insipid? What about Maureen Dowd? What about Paul Krugman?

Here are this week’s finalists, including the tree-like bride:

1. Alizah Diamond and Itai Maytal

2. Stefanie Schneider and David Alpert

3. Anya Emerson and Jonah Staw

After the jump, our non-chirpy analysis of these couples.

Six impressive lawyers headline our survey of this week’s NYT wedding pages. Even more impressive is that four of them are still clinging to Biglaw jobs — assuming, of course, that bad news does not await any of our returning honeymooners.

Here are the finalists:

1. Neda Karamouz and Stephen Vander Stoep

2. Danielle Cohen and Bradley Friedman

3. Leslie Tobin and Nathan Ostrander

Click on the link below to get the story on these newlyweds’ degrees, jobs, and china patterns.

Georgetown is the latest top school to try to come up with innovative ways to help its graduates deal with the global economic crisis. The headline news is that GULC will be offering an extended health care plan to graduates who need it. At least for a little while:

Health insurance. If you currently carry the University’s student Premier Plan, you will be covered under the current policy until midnight on August 14, 2009. All students covered under this plan will then be eligible to enroll for a six month extension through February 14, 2010; shorter or longer extensions are not available. Contact the Student Health Insurance Office at https://www4.georgetown.edu/uis/keybridge/keyform/form.cfm?FormID=2954 for further information about coverage, cost, and registration. While the Law Center does not endorse any insurance plan other than our own Premier Plan, there are other options that you might wish to explore. Dean of Students Mitch Bailin will be sending to you this week detailed information about options available through the ABA Law Student Division and www.studentcare.com, as well as more information about extending coverage through the student Premier Plan.

An extension to February 14th should help people with January start dates.

After the jump, we see that Georgetown is doing a whole host of things to try to help its new graduates.

Yesterday we learned the identities of Justice Clarence Thomas’s outstanding law clerks for October Term 2009. With the very interesting exception of Justice David Souter — who appears not to have hired yet, but email us if we’re wrong — the justices are done hiring for OT 2009.

Based on the SCOTUS clerk roster thus far, here are the top five feeder schools:

1. Harvard: 8
1. Yale: 8
3. UVA: 4
4. Georgetown: 2
4. Michigan: 2

And here are the top five eight feeder judges (note the four-way tie for fifth):

1. J. Harvie Wilkinson (4th Cir.): 4
2. D. Ginsburg (D.C. Cir.): 3
2. O’Scannlain (9th Cir.): 3
2. Sutton (6th Cir.): 3
5. Garland (D.C. Cir.): 2
5. Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.): 2
5. Kozinski (9th Cir.): 2
5. Reinhardt (9th Cir.): 2

Check out the full lists, for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

Due to a glitch in the NYT’s online weddings section last week, today’s edition is a double feature. Trust us — it’s worth the wait! We have three choice entries, two of which feature scions of some of America’s most notable families.

1. Rian Balfour and Russell Marcus

2. Allison Circle and Robert Sassower

3. Maeve Townsend and David McKean

Marvel at the prestige of these couples, after the jump.

There’s an interesting job opening Orrick is extending to a number of recent graduates. We got this information from Georgetown University Law Center, but we understand that Orrick has posted this job at a couple of top schools:

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (Wheeling, WV) - Orrick currently has an excellent opportunity for recent law school graduates in its Global Operations Center in Wheeling, WV. The position is an entry level Career Attorney in its dynamic and growing Emerging Companies Group (ECG).

The economy is bad. Everybody knows that. But are we really living in a world where students at the nation’s best law schools are looking at “career attorney” jobs in West Virginia? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this can’t be what GULC students were hoping for when they began their law school journey.

A tipster explains exactly what we are talking about, after the jump.

We regularly receive tips about free events, often educational or charitable in nature, that might interest our readers. Because we don’t have the ability to give shout-outs to all, and to ensure consistent treatment, we direct everyone with events to promote to mention them in our Community section.

If your event is more commercial in nature, you can advertise on ATL. If your budget is limited, you can do a quicklisting, which will appear on the ATL main page.

We will mention events featuring participation by Above the Law. We will also mention events sponsored by our advertisers, like the happy hour sponsored by Major Lindsey & Africa, and the launch party of Practical Law Company.

If you’ll be in Washington next Tuesday, here’s an event at Georgetown Law, featuring yours truly (see the 11:45 a.m. panel), that might interest you:

Empirical Research on the Legal Profession: Insights from Theory and Practice

When: Tuesday, March 3, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Speakers: Various. Check out the full schedule of events.
Where: Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
Cost: Free, but please register in advance.

Hope to see you there!

Conference on Empirical Research on the Legal Profession [Empirical Legal Studies]
Empirical Research on the Legal Profession: Insights from Theory and Practice [PDF]

Remember Lisa Loeb? She got married last week. She’s 40 and still wearing those funky glasses.

Unfortunately, she didn’t marry a lawyer, so she isn’t eligible to be one of finalists. Here they are (only two this week):

1. Emily Rubin and Daniel Feldman

2. Leah Yoon and Cyrus Frelinghuysen

Read more about these couples, after the jump.

Some of our friendly commenters frequently gripe about the high number of Rabbi-officiated weddings featured in this space. They’ll be delighted to know that only one of our three weddings this week is a straight-up Rabbi wedding. The others were jointly officiated by a Rabbi and a Mennonite minister and a Rabbi and a bankruptcy judge. Yay for diversity!

Here are this week’s lucky finalists:

1. Harper Fertig and James Robinson

2. Marion Ringel and Joshua Panas

3. Julie Hootkin and Benjamin Schneider

Read all about these couples, after the jump.

Twenty-seven-year-old hottie marries much older non-hottie: Normally a match like this would be explained by the groom’s (1) job at Goldman, (2) trust fund, or (3) peerage. But no, this groom is (drumroll) the associate dean for finance and administration at Yeshiva’s Cardozo School of Law. This is how bad the economy is, folks: Attractive women are marrying associate deans of non-T14 law schools.

Here are this week’s finalists:

1. Adrienne Lockie and Adav Noti

2. Inna Dexter and Benjamin Nussdorf

3. Arlene Hong and Darren Duffy

For our analysis of these couples, click on the link below.

Former SCOTUS Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is on a mission to educate. As reported last summer, she’s working with Georgetown University and Arizona State University on a “free, interactive, web-based program designed to teach and engage students in civics.” It’s called Our Courts, and it’s now live.

By having civics lessons in the form of online games, O’Connor hopes to trick the kids into thinking they’re having fun while they learn about the court system and constitutional rights. It brings back fond memories of The Oregon Trail, and an excuse to play video games in class. Though to be honest, we can’t remember what we really learned from that game, beyond the immense satisfaction of shooting down buffalo.

The site did a half-launch back in the fall, and has since re-designed. The games are still not live, but are promised by the start of the 2009 school year. This was the original home page (we’ve pointed out some elements that we wouldn’t want you to miss):

That design is no more. Out with the old, in with the new:

Somehow, the avatars are cuter than the real kids. Which home page do you prefer?

Our Courts: 21st Century Civics

Earlier: Sandra Day Gets Her Game On

The winter wedding announcements are often a prestige wasteland, but we’re actually quite pleased with the caliber of the couples we’ve been able to round up for the first 2009 edition of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch (which admittedly includes some entries from late 2008).

Here are your contestant couples:

1. Bella Sewall and David Wolitz

2. Daniela Jampel and Matthew Schneid

3. Jaime Teitelman and Howard Wachtel

Click on the link below to read more about these newlyweds.

Last May, we held an open thread about law school transfer students as second-class citizens, based on the University of Connecticut’s Maya Angelou-inspired “Phenomenal Transfer” poem. There was quite a lot of anti-transfer-student sentiment in the thread, though some former transfer students chimed in to say that they had experienced no animosity in their new homes.

For those put off by transfer students, there were three main themes in the thread:

Transfer students are gunners.

Transfer students get to skip out on the hellish first year at a top school, and then ride the curve to graduation.

Law schools game the system with transfer students. They get the extra tuition money and avoid hurting their US News ranking by not factoring in the GPAs and LSAT scores of transfer students.

Transfer students may well be gunners, but they are also being gunned… as in hunted. In “Northwestern Unapologetically Poaches 1Ls at Other Schools,” Paul Caron of the TaxProf Blog pointed us to a recent ABA Journal article that picks up on the themes of our open thread. From the Journal:

Northwestern University Law School is actively—and unapologetically—re­cruit­­ing top-performing law students from lower-ranked schools, a practice that some deans claim is becoming commonplace at elite institutions.

Each year, 150 or so of Northwestern’s 5,000 applicants turned down for first-year admission receive letters inviting them to apply again for “conditional acceptance” the following fall. [Ed. note: Northwestern later revised these numbers with the ABA Journal, saying they only extend 15-25 conditional acceptances each year.]

Deans of lower-tier schools resent the predatory practice. The Journal quotes Northwestern Dean David Van Zandt as saying the poaching allegation is “probably true,” but that, “Chrysler and General Motors don’t agree not to poach each other’s customers.”

Really, Dean Van Zandt? You’re looking to Chrysler and GM as your business role models?

More on transfers, and a look at the number of students bagged by top schools, after the jump.