Law Professors
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American Bar Association / ABA, Antonin Scalia, Deaths, Elena Kagan, Law Professors, Law Schools, Morning Docket, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 03.18.14
* Justice Elena Kagan is looking forward to hunting a new kind of game next year with Justice Antonin Scalia. Gobble gobble, bitches. They’re going after wild turkeys, and not the whiskey. [Legal Times]
* If you’ve been wondering why Morrison & Foerster is referred to as MoFo, the backstory isn’t as cool as we were led to believe. It was the firm’s teletype address. [Capital Business / Washington Post]
* Don’t worry, law profs, your precious tenure protections aren’t going anywhere yet. The ABA has officially given up on its quest to remove tenure as an accreditation requirement. [National Law Journal]
* Nicholas Spaeth, the former state attorney general of North Dakota who sued a slew of law schools for age discrimination after being passed over for a job after AALS, was found dead yesterday. RIP. [Inforum]
* If you’ve been waitlisted, send a letter of continuing interest. Convince them you’ll be employed within 10 months of graduation, and watch the acceptance letters roll on in. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]
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3rd Circuit, Deaths, Department of Justice, Federal Government, Federal Judges, Immigration, Judicial Nominations, Law Professors, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Morning Docket, Racism, SCOTUS, Securities Law, Supreme Court, Video games, Violence
Morning Docket: 03.06.14
* Foreclosure attorney Bruce Richardson alleges that Hogan Lovells partner David Dunn hit him with a briefcase in front of a court officer. That’s how they roll in state court. (Expect more on this later.) [New York Daily News; New York Post]
* From cop killer to nomination killer: Mumia’s the word that stopped Debo Adegbile’s nomination to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. [Washington Post]
* In happier nomination news, congratulations to former Breyer clerk Vince Chhabria, as well as to Beth Freeman and James Donato, on getting confirmed to the federal bench for the Northern District of California. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* It’s been a good week for amicus briefs. Congrats to Professors Adam Pritchard and Todd Henderson for getting the attention — and perhaps the votes — of several SCOTUS justices. [New York Times]
* How a Cornell law student got her father to foot the bill for half of her pricey legal education. [ATL Redline]
* As I predicted, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in United States v. Maloney didn’t sweep the alleged prosecutorial misconduct under the rug by granting the government motion without comment. [The Atlantic]
* RACEISM™ alert: federal prosecutors allege that deputies to a North Carolina sheriff accused of racial profiling of Latinos shared links to a violent and racist video game. [Raleigh News & Observer]
* Speaking of mistreatment of Latinos, a recent Third Circuit decision spells good news for some immigrant communities. [Allentown Morning Call]
* Sarah Tran, the law professor who taught class from her hospital bed, RIP. [Give Forward]
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Affirmative Action, Education / Schools, Law Professors, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Politics, Racism
On Racism At UCLA Law And False Dichotomies
Conservative columnist Tamara Tabo offers her take on the UCLA Law racism controversy.
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Job Searches, Law Professors, Law Schools
Qui Tam: A Study Of The Legal Profession In Verse
Please welcome Above the Law's new poet in residence, who will be sharing poems about the legal profession in our pages. -
Affirmative Action, Education / Schools, Law Professors, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Racism
Racism Abounds At UCLA School of Law
The racial climate at this school seems to be completely out of hand. -
Adam Liptak, Harvard Law Review, Law Professors, Law Reviews, Law Schools, Orin Kerr, Rankings, Social Media, Social Networking Websites, Twittering
America's Next Top Law Review: New Rankings!
Who just dethroned the Harvard Law Review as the nation's #1 law journal? -
Education / Schools, Job Searches, Law Professors, Law Schools, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners
5 Classes That Prospective Solo Practitioners Should Take In Law School
What law school classes should aspiring small-firm lawyers or solo practitioners take? Columnist Carolyn Elefant lists her five favorites. -
Biglaw, Education / Schools, Job Searches, Law Professors, Law Schools
Best Classes For Biglaw
It doesn't look like "practice ready" means what you think it means. - Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The rise of remote work has dramatically reshaped the relationship between Lawyers and Law Firms, see how Scale LLP has taken the steps to get… -
Job Searches, Law Professors, Law Schools, Lunacy, Weirdness
Is This The Craziest Law Professor Job Application Ever?
Insane, unsolicited law professor "application" shows up in inboxes around the country. Are you ready to hire a professor for way too much money to do no teaching? -
Alan Dershowitz, Law Professors, Nude Dancing, Pornography, Sex, Theater
Legal Luminary's Daughter Appears Naked
Which prominent lawyer's daughter is starring in an explicit play about the porn industry? -
Crime, Department of Justice, DUI / DWI, Health Care / Medicine, Law Professors, Legal Research, Non-Sequiturs, Paralegals, Rape, Westlaw
Non-Sequiturs: 02.17.14
* Were you using Westlaw last week and saw this image? Here’s why… [Westlaw] * A federal judge is charged with DUI. And there’s video of the arrest! [American Press] * A heartwrenching poem from a law professor about discrimination. Wait, it’s not about race or gender discrimination but about not getting tenure as a legal writing professor. Yeah, that makes sense. [TaxProf Blog] * Criminal defense lawyers are part-counselor, listening to the woes of their clients. Should basic instruction in therapy be part of professional training? [Katz Justice] * The collapse of legal industry could be happening again, this time to the medical profession. [The Atlantic] * Jeez, I had no idea that the paralegal industry is enjoying such a surge in hiring. I guess it makes sense… you get all the drudgery work of a young lawyer at half the cost. [George Washington University] * A new DOJ report confirms what we all expected: Montana law enforcement officials are kind of terrible at prosecuting sexual assault cases. [Jezebel] -
7th Circuit, Antitrust, Benchslaps, Books, Free Speech, Gay, Law Professors, Law School Deans, Non-Sequiturs, Richard Posner
Non-Sequiturs: 02.13.14
* O.J. Simpson is pursuing a hunger strike because he’s looking to die. If only he knew who the real killers were, they could help him out. [Radar Online] * Dean I. Richard Gershon of Ole Miss Law thinks Elie is just wrong. [Law Deans on Legal Education Blog] * In continuing Seventh Circuit benchslappiness, Judge Richard Posner got feisty with an attorney for Notre Dame who kept interrupting him. If this lawyer keeps it up, Posner’s going to treat his client like Alabama did a year ago. [Chicago Tribune] * Comcast wants to buy Time Warner, pending DOJ approval. The DOJ wants to talk to Comcast, but they’re only available to talk between 10 and 10:15 on alternating Wednesdays. [ATL Redline] * California and New Jersey have banned gay conversion therapy programs. Is that the best way to combat these schemes? [New York Times] * A look at getting started as an entrepreneur. See, there’s hope after bailing on practicing law. [Big Law Rebel] * Daria Roithmayr of USC Law thinks The Triple Package (affiliate link), the new book by Yale’s Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, doesn’t hold water. I mean, since when are we holding academics to writing “scholarship” as opposed to “controversy bait”? Professors need to eat, after all. [Slate] * A cop who got in trouble for bashing Obama online thought he was protected by the First Amendment. The court disagreed. [IT-Lex] -
Biglaw, Canada, Gay, Law Professors, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Securities and Exchange Commission, Trials
Morning Docket: 02.13.14
* This guessing game is over, even though we’d guessed this from the start. After decamping from the Securities and Exchange Commission, George Canellos will return to his old stomping grounds at Milbank Tweed. [DealBook / New York Times]
* You can’t insult Duke and get away with it. Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton secured a one-year no-contact order against Addison Chance, the e-cig retailer who sent “menacing and harassing” emails and voicemails to a partner. [Winston-Salem Journal]
* Heenan Blaikie’s talks may have fallen through with DLA Piper, but another Biglaw firm swooped in to rescue more than 20 of the failed Canadian firm’s survivors. You can call Dentons their knight in shining billable hours. [Globe and Mail]
* You can’t always get what you want. Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsaernaev’s trial is scheduled for November 2014, despite his lawyers asking for a September 2015 start date. [Bloomberg]
* A Tennessee lawmaker just introduced the “Turn the Gays Away” bill, which would allow businesses to refuse goods and services to gay people. If this isn’t ‘MURICA, we don’t know what is. [MyFOX Memphis]
* “We have offered generous buyouts—generous by anyone’s standards—and we are now waiting for volunteers.” Yeah, good luck with that. Things don’t look great for profs at Albany Law. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Football, Gay, Law Professors, Law Schools, Non-Sequiturs, Student Loans, Television, White-Collar Crime
Non-Sequiturs: 02.11.14
* Lawyer decides to fight City Hall… with spray-can graffiti. [KING] * A new survey finds that pre-law students want a 2-year law school model. They want to come out of law school with 33 percent less debt? Shocking. [Kaplan Test Prep] * Should law schools fire professors who stop writing post-tenure? I mean who does that? I thought tenured professors work harder than ever. [PrawfsBlawg] * A look at the future of computer forensics via Almost Human. Frankly, when I think of the future of criminal policing I think of a different Karl Urban vehicle. [The Legal Geeks] * With the revelation that standout defensive end Michael Sam is gay, a number of NFL types are trotting out the whole “he’ll be a distraction” excuse. That’s a pretty stupid excuse. [Lawyers, Guns & Money] * Who is the “tipsy coachman”? [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * It’s a zombie! The living dead! Or maybe just a living woman that banks have declared dead despite all evidence to the contrary. [ATL Redline] * Remember Brandon Hamilton? He used to be the the assistant dean of admissions at Louisville Law before he promised students $2.4 million more in scholarships than the school had to give. Well, he finalized his plea bargain. [The Courier-Journal] -
Harvard, Insider Trading, Law Professors, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Non-Sequiturs, Screw-Ups, Sex, Sex Scandals, Tax Law, United Kingdom / Great Britain, Wall Street
Non-Sequiturs: 02.10.14
* The Woody Allen-Mia Farrow custody findings were pretty damning. But for legal geeks, the important point is footnote 1, where the opinion shouts out then-clerk, now federal judge Analisa Torres for her role in drafting the opinion. [Huffington Post] * Um… you shouldn’t do that with a sea anemone. [Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals] * Judge Stanwood Duval presided over the criminal trial of a BP engineer arising from the BP oil spill. He forgot to mention that he was a plaintiff in a suit against BP arising from the BP oil spill. Oops.[New Orleans Times-Picayune] * Maybe Harvard needs some new tax lawyers. [Chronicle of Higher Education] * Apparently, the Brits aren’t too thorough with their background checks. A lawyer got exposed for lying about having two Harvard degrees. It only took bar authorities 9 years to figure it out. [Legal Cheek] * Elie weighs in on the McGruff the crime dog story from last week. [ATL Redline] * And part of the problem with the background check may start at the law school stage — the U.K. doesn’t consider criminal convictions for fraud in the U.S. as “relevant” for future practitioners of law. One tipster wonders if Stephen Glass should try his luck outside America? [New York Times] * UNLV Professor Nancy Rapoport offers some mixed thoughts on the Santa Clara professor’s “Local Rules.” [Nancy Rapoport's Blogspot] * Mathew Martoma’s conviction probably doesn’t mean all that much. Except to him, of course. For him it means some quality time in federal prison. [Dealbreaker] -
Law Professors, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Layoffs, Money, Videos
Even Professor Hitler Is Feeling The Pinch Of Law School Cutbacks
Tenured professors freak out in a bunker when they realize they're soon going to be begging for work -- like mere students. -
Law Professors, Law Schools, Legal Research, Ridiculousness
A Law Professor's Detailed, Ridiculous, Condescending 'Local Rules' For Class
Just how many ways can you lose a letter grade in this class? -
American Bar Association / ABA, Bar Exams, Biglaw, Law Professors, Law Schools, Layoffs, Midsize Firms / Regional Firms, Money, Morning Docket, Music, Partner Profits, Texas, You Go Girl
Morning Docket: 02.07.14
* According to the latest Citi report, the Am Law 50 outperformed the rest of their ilk in terms of net profits and profits per equity partner. As for the rest, ha ha ha, enjoy all of your “modest” returns. [Am Law Daily]
* The ABA’s Standards Review Committee is close to a decision on its bar-exam passage standard for accreditation. It’s tough to protect students and law schools at the same time. [National Law Journal]
* Oh my! Professors at Albany Law are incredibly pissed the school would dare imply they suggested lowering academic standards to put asses in seats and stave off faculty layoffs. [New York Law Journal]
* Wendy Davis has left her position at Cantey Hanger, one of Fort Worth’s largest law firms, to dedicate herself fully to her bid to become Texas’ Next Top Governor. You stand, girl! [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
* Yuna, a Malaysian pop star with a law degree who’s worked with artists like Pharrell, doesn’t think she’ll be able to fall back on her J.D. now that she’s in America. Funny, because many Americans feel exactly the same way. [Pittsburgh City Paper]
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Animal Law, Attorney Misconduct, Baseball, Biglaw, California, Contracts, Death Penalty, Disasters / Emergencies, DUI / DWI, Kids, Lateral Moves, Law Professors, Law Schools, Non-Sequiturs, Television
Non-Sequiturs: 02.05.14
* Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, has left Akin Gump’s dugout. He hopes to hit it out of the park and slide into his new home at Jackson Lewis. Please, no more baseball references. :( [Am Law Daily] * Thanks to Virginia, the electric chair may be making a comeback when drugs for lethal injection aren’t available. OMG, that’s so freakin’ lame. Bring back the breaking wheel or death by disembowelment. [Gawker] * A lawyer won’t have to pay an ex-law student $1M after making a hyperbolic challenge in a TV interview. Better luck reading the Leonard v. Pepsico case next time, pal. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Protip: when you’ve been suspended for your “contemptuous attitude,” bragging that one of the judges who disciplined you thinks you’re “probably the best DUI lawyer” isn’t smart. [Santa Barbara Independent] * If you watch The Walking Dead, you’ve probably wondered if all of the killing was legal — because you’re a lawyer, and you can’t enjoy anything anymore. Here’s your answer, from a UC Hastings Law prof. [GQ] * If you’d like your chickens to live a life of luxury before you eat them and their eggs, then you’re going to love this law in California. If not, you can move to Missouri. See Elie squawk about it here. [ATL Redline] * Ian Whittle, a recent George Mason Law grad, took a break from watching the saddest Super Bowl ever to save a little girl from drowning in a pond. Check out the news coverage, after the jump. [CBS 6 WTVR] -
Law Professors, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Layoffs, Money
Tenured Faculty Cuts Are Coming To A New York Law School -- But Which One? And When?
Which law school is the latest to announce a possible pruning of its ranks?