* A White House petition started by a young lawyer asking that at least student loan interest be tax deductible like interest on a mortgage to help out those folks like, frankly, most lawyers, who make too much money to deduct their student loans. [WhiteHouse.gov]

* Antoinette “Toni” Bush, partner-in-charge of Skadden’s communications group, is leaving the firm to become global head of government affairs for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Free tip: brush up on your hacking law. [Am Law Daily]

* The Department of Energy may adopt a new “commercial maturity test” to get rolling on the backlog of liquid natural gas export license requests. And that, of course, will spur the inevitable lawsuits. [Breaking Energy]

* Apparently, President Obama dreams of “going Bulworth and resents the “Harry Potter theory of the presidency,” that the President can wave a wand and make things happen. So he’s pro Pras, Maya, and ODB, and anti-Hagrid. Who’s anti-Hagrid??? [New York Times]

* Lois Lerner, the manager at the center of the IRS “scandal,” has backed out of delivering the keynote at the WNEU Law commencement. I’m pretty sure Staci would do a better job… of running the IRS. [Boston Herald]

* Overlawyered blasts the Daily Caller for trying to tie Lerner to Obama via her husband, Michael Miles of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan because the large firm had some ties to Obama. Blerg. Meanwhile, this “partisan scandal” is turning out to be bipartisan entirely based on which IRS office the groups dealt with. [Overlawyered]

* Congratulations to this guy. Must have been a hell of a feast. [WDRB]

You may (or may not) be surprised by how few women sit on the executive committees of the top law firms in the country.

What will happen to the capital contributions of former Dewey partners? And on that subject, who are the latest defectors, and where are they going?

Dewey & LeBoeuf has cut off severance payments to previously laid-off employees. How are they reacting to the news?

Today we head into the nation’s capital to bring you six of the best partners to work for as chosen by our readers. These partners go above and beyond the call of duty, and do so while working at some of the finest law firms: Akin Gump, SNR Denton, Hogan Lovells, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan,…

Congratulations to Sutherland. The firm’s band, “Sutherland Comfort,” won the 2010 Battle of the Law Firm Bands in D.C. on Thursday night. Sutherland Comfort defeated a host of worthy challengers — including “Dangerous Communication Device,” the Williams & Connolly band that won the contest in the past two years. And congratulations to the organizers of…

The day that many of you have been waiting for has arrived. Today ATL goes to ATL: the fair city of Atlanta! Based on NALP forms and prior news articles, it seems that starting salaries in the Big Peach generally range from $130,000 and $145,000 (similar to Philadelphia). At $130K: Alston & Bird; Arnall Golden…