Earlier today, a reader emailed us:

Google Trends has O’Melveny & Meyers listed as “spicy” today. Any idea why?

Here’s a screenshot. It’s impressive that, on April 14, OMM is right behind “tax extension” and actually ahead of “irs extension form”:

So what could be driving OMM’s fame? Its involvement in the high-profile Harry Potter copyright case, in which it’s representing Warner Bros. and author J.K. Rowling?

Quite possibly. But there may be an additional (and less fortunate) reason for said “spiciness.” From a different reader:

O’Melveny & Myers appears to have been hacked, with their name being listed on some Form AO-088 subpoenas being sent around. I wonder how many people have received these e-mails. They contain a link to click to download the entire subpoena. Is this the first case of a law firm being used to spread a virus?

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Although OMM’s name appears on fake “subpoenas” making the rounds in cyberspace, it was NOT the firm whose computers were inflitrated. Rather, it was the federal court system whose computers were hacked (which may not be surprising — government can’t afford the same level of cyber-protection as a private law firm).

We learned this after contacting an O’Melveny spokesperson. She helpfully put us in touch with Marty Metz, Director of Information Technology for the firm, who explained the situation:

“The emails come from a uscourts dot gov address. They include a reference to a subpoena in a case that has been long since over, and [some] even misspell O’Melveny’s name. It’s an internet hoax, a spam attack.”

More details, after the jump.

If you’re a judiciary junkie who used to read Underneath Their Robes, the judicial news and gossip site that was our first foray into blogging, you may be mildly amused by this strange piece of spam.

Jeffrey Toobin — legal affairs writer for the New Yorker and author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, one of our favorite books in 2007 — forwarded the rather bizarre email to us yesterday. Check it out, after the jump.