Word about Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe's rather odd commencement address at New York University is spreading rapidly throughout the blogosphere. It's already been picked up by Gawker and Instapundit. Here's an eyewitness account from an NYU alum:

Larry Tribe just gave a seriously weird commencement address at NYU -- especially the end, where he turns an amalgam of cosmologist / 60s love child, and tells all the grads to thank their mom and dad for screwing instead of watching TV, and thereby conceiving them....

Not to be too tough on Tribe, but I think the basic theme of the speech was that he's really, really smart and well read, and knows how to turn creative, even strange, phrases. (I thought we already knew that.)

How did Tribe get picked? Some speculation from our source:

I really think the only reason Tribe was honored, and got to speak, is that he was a key mentor to John Sexton, the president of NYU. Tribe probably recommended Sexton to be the NYU law dean, and then the NYU president, so this looks like payback.

Tribe has accomplished enough to have gotten the degree on his own merits, and I don't begrudge him it, but I'm sure the audience would have loved to have his co-recipient, Michael J. Fox, speak instead of Tribe -- Fox is vastly better known, and liked. On this point, see here.

Posted below is the "thank mom and dad for bonking" clip. A more detailed write-up from our tipster, after the jump.

Harvard University -- and that includes you, Harvard Law School -- watch out. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is out to get you. From TaxProf Blog (citing the Boston Globe):

Massachusetts lawmakers desperate for additional revenue are eyeing the endowments of deep-pocketed private colleges to bolster the state's coffers by more than $1 billion a year, asserting that the schools' rising fortunes undercut their nonprofit status.

Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5% annual assessment on colleges with endowments over $1 billion, an amount now exceeded by nine Massachusetts institutions. The proposal, which higher education specialists believe is the first of its kind across the country, drew surprising support at a debate on the State House budget last week and is attracting attention in higher education circles nationally.

The idea has prompted a range of questions, including whether it is legal to infringe upon private colleges' tax-exempt status or single them out based on their wealth. It also faces significant opposition from the colleges and some skeptical lawmakers.

And it's not just the Crimson whose blood would run under this plan:

In addition to Harvard, the legislation would affect Amherst College, Boston College, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Smith College, Tufts University, Wellesley College, and Williams College.

Two of these institutions, BC and BU, have law schools. This tax would be bad news for them, but perhaps good news -- in a schadenfreude-ish sort of way -- for Bay State competitors with more modest endowments, like Northeastern and Suffolk. Deans of poorer law schools frequently complain about having to go toe-to-toe in the U.S. News rankings against institutions with vast accumulated wealth (which keeps on accumulating, tax free).

The Boston Globe editorial board thinks this tax plan stinks, calling it "economic suicide" and "an ill-conceived money grab that ignores how vital higher education is to the local economy." What's your view?

Mass. Considers 2.5% Excise Tax on College Endowments > $1 Billion [TaxProf Blog]
Lawmakers Target $1b Endowments; Exempt Status of Schools Debated [Boston Globe]
How to strangle an economy [Boston Globe]

[Ed. note: We're all over the roofies at Bingham story. Look out for a post shortly.]

Here is a juicy bit of unconfirmed gossip, about the complicated love lives of three leading legal / political thinkers. From a Harvard Law School alum who was a year ahead of celebrity professor Samantha Power (one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals):

Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power are engaged, but apparently it's all secret because Cass hasn't told [his former paramour] Martha Nussbaum yet.

Well, it's not a secret any more.

We reached out to both Professor Sunstein and Professor Power. Neither had any comment (hence our treatment of this as unconfirmed). If you happen to have more info, please email us.

The Sunstein-Power romance, as you may recall, blossomed when they were working for the Obama campaign. Now, of course, Senator Barack Obama is on the brink of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. If he wins the general election, expect both Sunstein and Power to land plum positions in the Obama administration.

How plum? Check out Garrett Graff's fantastic piece about possible Obama cabinet picks, in the latest issue of Washingtonian magazine. Graff identifies Power, "the Pulitzer-winning human-rights researcher and author," as a "wild card" on Obama's foreign policy team.

"Wild card," indeed. As Graff notes, Power "helped tutor Obama in foreign policy, but resigned after comments where she called Hillary Clinton a 'monster.'" Graff suggests that Power "might take a leading role on the National Security Council or at the State Department or Pentagon."

And what about Cass Sunstein? He's not mentioned in the Washingtonian article, which focuses on Cabinet positions. But we could easily see Professor Sunstein, an authority on administrative law, snagging a seat on the prestigiously glistening D.C. Circuit -- en route to a possible berth on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Expect these two to be the toast of the D.C. cocktail party circuit in 2009 -- or, in the event of a John McCain victory, the most coveted company at Harvard faculty dinner parties.

Who Might Be on an Obama Cabinet? [Washingtonian]

Earlier: The Real Reason Cass Sunstein's Going to Harvard? He's Got the Power
Wanna Be A Public Intellectual? Date Cass Sunstein!

Is anyone else sick of LEWW's logo? We've grown weary of the weird paper-doll figures holding hands -- they just don't say "celebration" to us.

So we're asking our readers to help us pick a new visual for Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Some of you had gripes about ATL's new design -- here's your chance to put your stamp on a small corner of the site. Your submission can be a photo (an artistic detail shot from your own wedding, perhaps?) or a graphic of your own design. An allusion to the law would be a plus, but the most important thing is that the image convey the theme of impressive people getting married. (And, of course, it must not be an image that's copyrighted by someone else.)

Send us your entries (please e-mail them here and not to ATL's tips line). We'll pick our favorite and give you a big shout-out and heaps of gratitude for perking up this space.

And now, on to this week's finalists:

1.) Suzanne deVries and Adam Decker

2.) Kristy Hong, Jonas Blank III

3.) Elena Klau and Chad Silverman

4.) Natalie MacLean, Russell Leino

More about these candidates, after the jump.

We don't want to ruin any surprises, but we've got some high-quality material for you this week at Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. There may even be a sparkly credential or two that we haven't seen in this space in a while. (Cough -- Rhodes -- cough.)

Behold, our outstanding finalists:

1.) Keira Driansky and David Simon

2.) Maya Nath and Benjamin Curtis

3.) Alexa Davidson and Marc Suskin

4.) Francesca Harper and Eric Cohen

More about our featured couples, after the jump.

Relax, folks. We are aware that the 2009 law school rankings of U.S. News & World Report have leaked, in advance of their official Friday publication date. They're all over the blogosphere and the message boards (links collected below).

We've been sitting on this item for a little while -- coordinating with our other posts this morning, taking into account our traffic patterns, etc. There is a method to our madness.

Ideally we'd hold this item even longer (which would allow us to do a more detailed write-up). But it's clear that you're all dying to talk about the rankings RIGHT NOW. And we don't want to get any more emails and comments of the "why aren't you writing about U.S. News" variety.

So here you go. Rankings and discussion, after the jump (i.e., click on the "Continue reading" link below).

We now know the identity of Dean Elena Kagan's mystery hire at Harvard Law School. From the HLS press release:

Anne Alstott, an expert on federal income taxation, corporate taxation and tax policy as well as on social welfare policy, family policy, and feminism and economic justice, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a tenured professor, Dean Elena Kagan ’86 announced today.

Alstott is presently the Jacquin D. Bierman Professor of Taxation at Yale Law School, where she has held a tenured professorship since 1997 and the Bierman chair since 2004. At Yale, she has taught federal income taxation, corporate taxation, and subjects related to taxation and social policy. She has won three awards for outstanding teaching.

We took two courses from Professor Alstott (Tax and Advanced Tax), and she truly is an amazing teacher. Sadly, this can't be said of every professor at YLS. Great scholars, yes; great teachers, not necessarily. (Of course, this complaint is not unique to Yale; it can be said of many leading law schools.)

In addition to being admired for her scholarship and teaching, the rather attractive Professor Alstott was the object of many law student crushes. Interestingly enough, Harvard and Yale seem to have traded comely young profs. In 2006, Professor Christine Jolls left HLS for YLS.

Random tidbit: Rumor has it that Professor Alstott, known today for her liberal, pro-redistribution views, was once a staunch conservative. She was previously married to L. Gordon Crovitz, the uber-conservative former publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Congratulations to Professor Alstott on her new appointment, and to Dean Kagan and Harvard Law School on their exciting hire!

Update: While we're on the subject of Harvard Law School, if you have any thoughts on their new public service initiative, pursuant to which the school "will pay the third year of tuition for all future students who commit to work in public service for five years following graduation," feel free to opine in the comments.

We mentioned the program in Morning Docket earlier this week. But based on how many emails we've received about it, it seems some of you missed the shout-out.

Further Update: Professor Brian Leiter analyzes Professor Alstott's move, and its significance for the HLS tax faculty, over here.

Anne Alstott, expert on tax law and social welfare, will join HLS faculty [Harvard Law School]
Alstott From Yale to Harvard [Leiter's Law School Reports]

Earlier: Another Hiring Coup for Harvard Law School?

* "Are we headed for another Great Depression?" [McClatchy]

* Quelle surprise: Bear Stearns shareholder lawsuit (filed in S.D.N.Y. by Coughlin Stoia). [Bloomberg; WSJ Law Blog (PDF of complaint)]

* Speaking of Bear Stearns, here are some law firms losing out on BSC business. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Tenth Circuit reverses convictions of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. [AP]

* Harvard Law School will pay the 3L tuition of future students who agree to work for nonprofit organizations or government for five years following graduation. [New York Times via Tax Prof Blog; Harvard Law School (news release)]

* Settlement in Paul McCartney-Heather Mills divorce (more on this later). [Legal Week]

* SCOTUS to hear Second Amendment / D.C. gun control case today (more on this later too). [New York Times; Reuters]

Under the leadership of the beloved Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School continues to raid other schools for law professor talent. Word on the street is that another big hire is in the works. This past weekend, Dean Kagan crowed about her coup before a group of admitted students, saying it would be announced later this week.

We checked for news and gossip over at Leiter's Law School Reports, the definitive source for information about senior-level appointments in legal academia, but didn't see anything. Any guesses as to who will be snatched by HLS next?

In addition to the Harvard name (and endowment), Dean Kagan has other weapons in her arsenal for doing battle in the recruitment wars. She wooed Feldsuk with a million-dollar mansion, and Cass Sunstein with a million-dollar bab[e]. What fabulous prizes will Kagan bestow upon her latest hire?

Feel free to speculate and opine in the comments, or by email. Thanks.

We greatly enjoyed our recent visit to the University of Chicago Law School. The U. Chicago students were very welcoming and made us feel right at home, even inviting us to their law school musical -- which, by the way, was delightful.

(We added many of them as friends on Facebook before we were mysteriously banned from the site, without notice or explanation. So if you no longer see us on FB, it's not because we "de-friended" you, but because our account was disabled.)

A few Chicago students, however, had a bone to pick with us. They objected to this ATL post, which cast the recently announced departure of Professor Cass Sunstein -- prominent scholar, beloved teacher, and possible Supreme Court nominee under President Obama -- as a hiring coup by Harvard Law School, a triumph by HLS over Chicago. They emphasized that Professor Sunstein's leaving the Windy City for Cambridge was prompted by personal rather than professional reasons.

Professor Sunstein said as much his farewell email (emphasis added; in fact, all emphases added throughout this post, unless otherwise indicated):

I'm writing to say that I've just accepted an appointment at Harvard Law School. It is an understatement to say that I don't take this step easily or lightly. As most of you know, I've been reflecting on this question for several years. I finally decided, for personal reasons, that I need a change.

Since he's a prominent Obama supporter -- as well an adviser to the campaign, but more on that later, since it ties into our tale -- it's not surprising that Professor Sunstein is All About Change.

The law school's popular leader, Dean Saul Levmore, also stressed the personal component to Professor Sunstein's move. As he told the University of Chicago's student newspaper, the Maroon:

“I’m sort of embarrassed that [the story] said that the University of Chicago couldn’t be reached for comment,” Levmore said. “It looks like we didn’t want to talk, but the truth is that this decision [to leave Chicago for Harvard] was based on personal reasons and I respect that privacy. The media will find out about them soon enough.”

With a comment like this, Dean Levmore was basically begging us to go digging. So dig we did.

Let's see, Cass Sunstein's "personal reasons" for leaving U. Chicago... hold on a sec. Isn't Professor Sunstein part of legal academia's most fabulous power couple, together with that renowned philosopher queen, Professor Martha Nussbaum? And didn't Professor Nussbaum just turn down a Harvard offer?

That was then; this is now. What we learned in our investigation is consistent with this ATL comment, as well as this (subsequently removed) Wikipedia edit.

It appears that Professor Sunstein may be part of a new "power couple" -- in the most literal sense. Rumor has it that he's romantically involved with Professor Samantha Power -- a beautiful, brainy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who is roughly 15 years his junior. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has also been profiled in Men's Vogue (see glamorous photo, at the top of this post). What's not to like?

Update: More about Samantha Power here (from a college classmate who tried to hit on her, without success, and just ended arguing politics with her).

Now, please don't give us full credit (or blame) for bringing to light the Sunstein-Power relationship. When we attended the Chicago Law School musical last weekend, Samantha Power got a shout-out near the end of the show, when the Cass Sunstein character announced his departure for Harvard. So the rumor of her romance with Professor Sunstein is already widely known throughout the U. Chicago community (and beyond); it's no state secret. It is already known to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

We reached out to all three members of this Mensalicious love triangle, which seems to come straight out of a Saul Bellow novel. Find out what we learned -- two of them had no comment, but one of them did -- after the jump.

If we knew anything about sports, we'd say this is the legal academic equivalent of Major Player X leaving Super-Elite Team Y for Super-Elite Team Z. But we don't. So we'll just say it's one of the biggest law school hiring coups since Harvard Law School snatched half of Feldsuk from NYU.

HLS strikes again -- but this time around, the victim of their poaching is U. Chicago (where we'll be making an appearance later this week, by the way). From the Harvard Law School website:

Renowned legal scholar and political theorist Cass R. Sunstein '78 has accepted an offer to join the Harvard Law School faculty, Dean Elena Kagan '86 announced today. Sunstein, currently a tenured professor at the University of Chicago Law School, will begin teaching at HLS in the fall. He will also become director of the new Program on Risk Regulation.

"Cass Sunstein is the preeminent legal scholar of our time -- the most wide-ranging, the most prolific, the most cited, and the most influential," said Kagan. "His work in any one of the fields he pursues -- administrative law and policy, constitutional law and theory, behavioral economics and law, environmental law, to name a non-exhaustive few -- would put him in the very front ranks of legal scholars; the combination is singular and breathtaking...."

Some tipsters' takes:

"I imagine a lot of Chicago alums will be annoyed at the least."

"Yet another high-profile move to HLS. Dean Kagan has done an amazing job these past few years getting big names out to Cambridge. (I’m just annoyed because I decided to take Admin Law this semester.)"

"[W]e just learned that although Martha Nussbaum turned down Harvard and Brown last week, Cass Sunstein ACCEPTED his Harvard Law offer! I'm torn - HUGE get in Sunstein, proving Elena Kagan is unstoppable, but is this trouble for the power couple?"

In December, we attended Professor Sunstein's 2007 Distinguished Lecture at AEI in Washington, DC (where we're currently based). We were mighty impressed by the good professor, who wasn't just brilliant and articulate, but also funny and self-effacing. Congrats to HLS and Dean Kagan on this latest addition to the Cambridge constellation of legal geniuses!

Update: Additional analysis of the Sunstein move from Professor Brian Leiter appears here. It seems that all is well in Sunstein-Nussbaum land. Per Professor Leiter:

[A]s Cass told me, he will be keeping his Chicago apartment and an office at the University of Chicago Law School, and he will also continue teaching part-time at Chicago as the Harry Kalven Visiting Professor of Law (probably in the winter quarters).

Further Update / Correction: Uh, scratch that. As you may have surmised from some of the comments, Professors Nussbaum and Sunstein are no longer an item. Professor Sunstein has a new honey, Professor Samantha Power, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He's moving to Harvard in part because of this new romance. More details here.

Sunstein, Harvard, Chicago [Leiter's Law School Reports]
Nussbaum Declines Harvard, Brown Offers, and Will Remain at Chicago [Leiter's Law School Reports]
Sunstein to join Harvard Law School faculty [Harvard Law School]
Cass Sunstein bio [University of Chicago Law School]
2007 Distinguished Lecture: Extremism [American Enterprise Institute]

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- a proud graduate of Harvard Law School, and the Sullivan & Cromwell of presidential candidates -- is suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. See links below.

Today is shaping up to be a bad day for HLS grads in Massachusetts state government.

GOP sources: Romney to suspend campaign [CNN]
Romney to Quit Race [The Page / Time.com]

Taken as a group, Supreme Court clerks can claim pretty much every honor under the sun. At One First Street, Rhodes and Marshall scholars are commonplace, law review editors-in-chief are a dime a dozen, and law school valedictorians abound.

But how many SCOTUS clerks have their own IMDb entry? Meet Isaac Lidsky (Harvard 2004 / Ambro), an attorney at the Department of Justice (Civil Appellate), who was selected last week by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as her law clerk for October Term 2008. He founded the non-profit Hope for Vision, and his bio there reads:

[Isaac] is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Thomas Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before law school, Isaac founded Poindexter Systems, a now thriving internet advertising technology company in Manhattan. Isaac has been involved in raising awareness and funding for vision research for many years. He has organized several fundraising events, has appeared in the national media to promote awareness of the cause, has testified about the need for scientific funding before Congressional bodies on numerous occasions, and has served as a mentor to younger individuals afflicted with eye diseases. He has retinitis pigmentosa.

From a tipster:

I wonder if he is the first blind law clerk on the Supreme Court. I also wonder whether he's the first clerk to have thrown out the first pitch at an MLB game.

[Before law school,] Isaac had a prior life as a child actor. His most notable role, I believe, was as Barton "Weasel" Wyzell (the new Screech) on Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

Awesome. Fay Diplomas and Sears Prizes pale in comparison next to the experience of having acted opposite Dennis Haskins (aka "Mr. Belding").

Also hired as a Supreme Court clerk, but for October Term 2009: Bessie Dewar (Yale 2006 / W. Fletcher / L. Pollak (E.D. Pa.)). She's been described to us as "brilliant," "wonderfully charismatic," and "one of nicest, most smiling people to grace the halls of the Yale Law School."

The current tally of OT 2008 and OT 2009 SCOTUS clerks, with Isaac Lidsky and Bessie Dewar added, appears after the jump.

Last year, we ran a popular series of posts on the Harvard Law Review (click here and scroll down, to the posts marked with a mushroom cloud over Gannett House). The gist of the coverage, as described by one of our sources, was that the Review's new, left-leaning leadership "is running the journal into the ground with a cabal of radical ideologues, making the outgoing editors nervous about the future reputation of the journal."

We got some flak for our HLR coverage. But in view of what the Review is publishing these days, as discussed extensively in the blogosphere last week -- see, e.g., the Volokh Conspiracy and PrawfsBlawg -- we can't help gloating. Just a little.

Harvard Law Review on Punitive Damages and the 14th Amendment [Volokh Conspiracy]
Cruel and Unusual? On the Harvard Law Review's Case Comment on Philip Morris [PrawfsBlawg]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of the Harvard Law Review

No, that's not some insult hurled at the distinguished constitutional law professor by a right-wing zealot; it's a fact. From a memorandum that went out to Harvard Law School students this morning:

In order to help you plan your spring schedules, I need to let you know that Professor Laurence Tribe’s class this spring is being cancelled because he has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor that is benign but will require medical treatment. Professor Tribe has asked me to convey this information and his regrets about this necessary decision.

We wish Professor Tribe the best of luck with his treatment regimen, as well as a speedy recovery.

From one tipster:

It's just a matter of time before knee-jerk dittohead-wannabes bust out jokes like "Isn't liberalism a form of a brain disorder?" Then again, this could end up straight out of Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, if the removal of the brain tumor turns Tribe into a fire-breathing right-winger.

Professor Tribe is a public figure, and he has surely had every epithet in the book leveled at him, multiple times. Nevertheless, even if he's a big boy (who has better things to do than read blog comments), please keep the discussion civil. Thanks.

Former DLA Piper associate Charlene Morisseau isn't just our Lawyer of the Day. This high-powered litigatrix -- a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and a former editor of the Harvard Law Review -- should be hailed as a heroine by Biglaw associates everywhere.

From a most engaging article by Anthony Lin, in the New York Law Journal:

A Manhattan federal judge has thrown out a race discrimination suit brought against DLA Piper by a former associate who claimed the firm's New York office was a hostile work environment.

Charlene Morisseau, a 2001 graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was a law review editor, joined DLA Piper as a litigation associate in April 2003 but was asked to leave less than a year later. In a lawsuit filed last year, Ms. Morisseau, who is black, claimed her firing was retaliation for complaints she had made about discriminatory treatment.

She requested almost $250 million in damages from the firm and the 11 partners she individually named in the suit.

Now, we're all in favor of giving associates more money. But $250 million may be a bit much, even for a Harvard Law grad. It's about 90 percent of DLA Piper's total firm profits for 2006 ($280 million).

But it looks like Morisseau won't be seeing a dime:

Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted summary judgment to the firm Monday, finding that DLA Piper had put forth a "legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for plaintiff's termination."

"Here, the uncontradicted evidence demonstrates that plaintiff did not perform in a manner satisfactory to Piper notwithstanding her academic credentials," the judge wrote. "She was a confrontational, stubborn, and insubordinate employee in an environment in which professional personal relations, flexibility and a willingness to accept supervision were essential."

Now we've reached the good part. Here's why Charlene Morisseau should be every associate's idol:

[I]n court filings, DLA Piper denied treating Ms. Morisseau differently and said the firm had taken action because the ex-associate had exhibited a pattern of unacceptable behavior, including yelling at partners and throwing one out of her office.

The firm said Ms. Morisseau ordered former partner Marilla Ochis to "back up" out of her office after Ms. Ochis had come to discuss an e-mail exchange Ms. Morisseau had apparently taken offense to.

Have you ever fantasized about telling off your partner oppressors? Well, Charlene Morisseau has lived your dream -- and then some.

Read the rest, after the jump.

Yes, yes, LEWW has been a tad neglectful of our wedding-watching duties. Our full-time job has been, well -- full-time. And then there are all our fabulous society engagements.

Anyway, let's face it: High wedding season ended in mid-October. You know people aren't focusing on weddings when the Times hauls out the perennial "Is the Bride Changing her Name?" article. Yawn. But fear not -- while you're focusing on Christmas shopping and year-end bonuses, LEWW will be watching the weddings.

And here's the latest bunch:

1.) Matthew Morningstar and Alan Van Capelle

2.) Elizabeth Hack and Richard Larach

3.) Allison Hersh and Daniel London

4.) Hayley Lattman and Ryan Geftman

More about these couples, after the jump.

Continue reading "Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 10.14 and 10.21: Plantation, All I Ever Wanted"

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Posted In: 11th Circuit, ACLU, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, Columbia Law School, Harvard, Harvard Law School, New York Times, Peter Lattman, Racism, Reader Polls, WSJ Law Blog, Wachtell Lipton, Weddings, Yale Law School