Here at Above the Law, we’ve reviewed a lot of employment discrimination complaints over the years. But this one is special.

The firm (like it matters):

Maron Marvel Bradley & Anderson.

The plaintiff:

Jennifer Braude.

Why you care:

Do I have your attention? Click after the jump for more details, plus Maron Marvel’s response.

We’ve covered the legislative twists and turns of same-sex marriage fairly closely here at ATL. But there was one notable court case we missed back in March.

We thought Dr. Li-Ann Thio’s description of anal sex as “shoving a straw up your nose to drink” was graphic, but this article by the Register on attempted same-sex female marital rape is even more explicit:

A Massachusetts woman has appeared in court on a domestic assault and battery rap after allegedly attempting to impregnate her wife with a plastic syringe containing her brother’s sperm.

Stephanie K Lighten, 26, of Pittsfield, was reportedly “all liquored up” when she made unwelcome advances towards her other half, 33-year-old Jennifer Lighten. Jennifer explained to officers that Stephanie “had been talking about trying to impregnate her for some time”, and that she’d accordingly armed herself with a “turkey baster and her brother’s semen in a sealed container”.

According to Lez Get Real, there were no rape charges per Jennifer’s request, just a domestic assault and battery charge.

Apparently these lovebirds were able to put the turkey baster incident behind them. We checked in with the Central Berkshire District Court and found out the case was dismissed in April.

US woman attacks missus with sperm-filled syringe [Register]

Before we discuss this week’s finalists, here’s a peek at some of the weddings we can’t feature due to space constraints: a former Kirkland & Ellis partner marrying the youngest-looking 62-year-old we’ve ever seen, the creator of the Anonymous Lawyer blog marrying an anonymous doctor, and a Rhodes Scholar marrying an ordinary person.

The fact these couples couldn’t make the cut should tell you a little something about the quality of the field as we near the summit of the wedding season. Here are the three lucky couples who’ve reached the finals this week:

1. Kate Adamick and Kay Diaz

2. Sabrina Charles and Jamie Dycus

3. Jessica Chilson and Franklin Reece

Read more about these newlyweds, after the jump.

* There has been plenty off talk about potential Supreme Court nominees, but how about the conservative groups gearing up to oppose them? [The Washington Post]

* Two highly qualified lesbians, Virginia Linder and Kathleen Sullivan, are apparently on Obama’s Supreme Court short list. [ABC News]

* The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions, says that an openly gay Supreme Court nominee should be treated fairly “regardless of what kind of persuasion they may have.” [Fox News]

* Meanwhile Specter has lost his seniority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and will become the chairman of the subcommittee on crime and drugs. “What we don’t want is an angry former Republican during a Supreme Court hearing,” said a Democratic staffer. [Washington Post]

* Police continue to investigate mysteries surrounding the death of Robert Wone, a Washington lawyer who was murdered in 2006. [The Blog of Legal Times]

* Did you know there was an elite “Public Integrity Section” in the Department of Justice tasked with probing corruption charges of public officials? [The New York Times]

* The Chrysler bankruptcy judge, Arthur Gonzalez, is a hotshot and has presided over Enron and Worldcom bankruptcies. [The Associated Press]

* What did Obama mean when he said he was looking for “empathy” in Souter’s replacement? [Politico]

* The rickety farm house (pictured here) where Souter grew up and to which he returns each summer is completely charming. [The Boston Globe]

* Former Bush fundraiser and ambassador to Austria, David Girard-diCarlo, joins Philadelphia firm Cozen O’Connor. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

* The California Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that let a Catholic Lutheran school expel two 16-year-old girls for having a lesbian relationship. [The Los Angeles Times]

* Trying terrorism suspects is complicated, to say the least. [The New York Times]

Big news in from Minnesota. Remember the story of the female summer associates who got drunk and started making out last year at a firm event? We covered it in our end-of-the-year Biglaw Gossip In Review post. In that post, we wondered:

What happened to our fearless heroines after summer was over? We don’t know their fates. We reached out to them by email, but they did not respond to our queries. Did they land new jobs? It’s not clear.

It has become clearer. Apparently, the two 3Ls were among the many heading into life-after-law-school without job offers. So, like these University of Missouri-Kansas City grads, they’re going entrepreneurial and launching their own firm.

Will they be able to capitalize on their Above The Law fame? How are they getting their start-up cash? And more importantly, are they hiring?

More details, after the jump.

Now that we’re a few days into 2009, we’re going to pick up the pace in our 2008 round-up posts. Some of you are getting impatient. Complained a commenter: “At this rate, we’re going to get to #1s sometime in June.”

So, onward. We previously wrote about the #5 gossip story in Biglaw. Today we’re going to hit two birds with one stone, announcing the #4 and #3 stories in law firm land (on the gossipy side; the hard news / business stories are on a separate list).

Although they’re not in the top two, these tales were in some respects the most fun for us to cover. Take a trip down memory lane, after the jump.

Last week, we attended OutLaws: A Discussion With Out Lawyers, held at the LGBT Community Center here in New York. The event featured “out lawyers sharing different perspectives and stories — how they got to where they are professionally, as well as what went right, what didn’t, how they’d approach things differently today, and the specific challenges they faced as an LGBT person.”

The panel was moderated by Lisa Linsky, a litigation partner at McDermott Will & Emery. She was joined by Michael Colosi, general counsel for Kenneth Cole; Phylliss Delgreco, associate general counsel and senior vice president at Citigroup; and Roberta Kaplan, a litigation partner at Paul Weiss.

The freewheeling discussion was quite enlightening. You can read about it after the jump.

Let’s close out the week with one more post about everyone’s favorite summer associate scandal: the girl-on-girl kiss that got two summer associates fired from the Minneapolis law firm of Lindquist & Vennum.

Earlier today, we alluded to rumors of “additional lasciviousness” at Lindquist, and now it’s time to deliver. We wouldn’t want to be accused of being teases.

Now some of you may be getting lesbian kiss fatigue (although some of you may say, “no such thing!!!”). But having received this tip, we can’t sit on it, or we’d be accused of giving you only part of the story.

From a tipster (who provided additional identifying information to explain how he’s in a position to know this, which we’ve omitted to preserve his anonymity):

“[The Kiss] happened at a bar with a bunch of summer people after dinner at a partner’s house. [One of the summers] was probably just fired as a scapegoat, because that same night [another summer] made out with a married partner. I bet they didn’t fire that girl because they were afraid of employment discrimination suits.”

Well! All this scandalous talk — faux-lesbian kisses, orgiastic firm retreats — is making us blush.

We retract any and all prior remarks suggesting the folks at Lindquist are prudes and squares. To the contrary, it sounds like the place is so buck wild that lesbian lip-action is on the mild side of the spectrum. We are — involuntarily, mind you — imagining Nancy Vollertsen dancing on a table.

Okay, this scandal may have run its course; all good things come to an end. But we remain open to corrections, in case we’ve gotten anything wrong. Feel free to send any info our way, by email (subject line: “Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal”). Thanks.

Earlier: Prior coverage of The Kiss (scroll down)

The scandal over The Kiss — the faux-lesbian smooch between two female summer associates at Lindquist & Vennum that led to their being fired — continues to reverberate throughout the blogosphere. It has even been picked up by the Minnesota Lawyer Blog, the blog of the Minnesota Lawyer print publication. After sketching out the allegations, editor Mark Cohen writes:

Without more information, it’s difficult to know what to make of this. We’ll see if the firm has anything it wants to add to what has been reported (and, if so, pass it on to you). I don’t want to make too light of the whole thing, as it is obviously no laughing matter to the two law students involved (and please, please, please refrain from posting anything that contains any identifying information). In any event, try as I may, I can’t get the refrain from “As time goes by” out of my head — You must remember this: A kiss is just a kiss.

Some readers criticize Cohen — who, after all, is a real journalist (we expressly disclaim that title, at least with respect to our ATL work) — for covering the story. In his defense, he writes:

[T]he question at [this] point becomes is there any value for our blog readers in repeating this watercooler-story as an anecdote sans any identifying information about the associates involved.

I think there is some value for our younger readers who might be first or second year associates. With all the boat cruises, clam bakes and whatnots, it can be easy to forget at times that what you are essentially on is a summer-long job audition. You should behave as such at any firm function — sanctioned or unsactioned. You can certainly argue whether termination was the appropriate sanction for what happened, but it doesn’t appear that everything that happened would have happened if one kept in mind this was a job interview.

We concur. As we wrote in our original post:

Covering the misadventures of summer associates is valuable. When the summer associate is in the wrong, the story is a cautionary tale that educates future summers about what NOT to do. When the firm is in the wrong, the story raises red flags for law students thinking about working for that firm. Either way, additional information is empowering.

In terms of the story itself, as opposed to meta-coverage, we’ve heard some interesting things through the grapevine and are working on an update (which we expect to post in the afternoon). It seems there may have been additional lasciviousness at Lindquist & Vennum. Who knew midwesterners were so randy?

If you have information you’d like to pass along, please email us (subject line: “Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal”). Thanks.

The kiss of death? [Minnesota Lawyer Blog]

Not to us, but to the City Pages of Minneapolis. And it’s not much of a response.

(In case you missed yesterday’s posts about the drunken girl-on-girl kiss that got two summer associates fired from Lindquist & Vennum, see here and here.)

From the City Pages blog, The Blotter:

Nancy Vollertsen, a partner at Lindquist & Vennum, returned our call. Here’s what she had to say:

“We have a great summer program and we don’t make employment decisions on a discriminatory basis.”

Beyond that, she declined to either confirm or deny what has been written about the alleged firings, citing the privacy of the employees.

We can see why they’ve put Vollertsen in charge. From her firm bio:

Chair of Lindquist & Vennum’s Employment Law Practice Group, Nancy practices primarily in the area of labor and employment law….

Nancy provides counseling to employers on prevention and defense of employment claims and litigation, employment termination, discipline and discharge issues, interpretation and application of various employment laws, and defense of employment discrimination claims.

For more, see the full City Pages post over here.

Scandal: Firm allegedly fires summer associates after drunken lesbian kiss [The Blotter / City Pages]

Here’s an update on the two female summer associates we wrote about earlier today. For those of you just tuning in, here’s the abridged version of their story: they were fired sometime in the past week by Lindquist & Vennum, the Minneapolis law firm, after getting drunk and kissing each other. For more details, read the original post.

It appears, however, that some of the information in the original post was in error (and we will update the prior post with a link to this post, to set the record straight, if you will). Here are some things we learned in response to our request for more tips:

1. The Kiss did not take place on a boat cruise. Rather, it went down at a social event held after the firm’s semi-annual “Partners Dinner” (to which summer associates are usually invited). Said social event / after-party took place at a local watering hole.

2. Lindquist & Vennum does take its summer associates on a boat cruise. But the summers in question are not alleged to have misbehaved on the cruise.

3. As for the extent of The Kiss, “[i]t is unclear whether the girls ‘made out’ or merely kissed on the lips.”

We should hope it was full-on making out, replete with groping. Sure, it’s the Midwest, but seriously — canning two young women because they pecked each other on the lips? Jeez. Can we please move into the 21st century?

4. Sources disagree on whether the firings were based solely on the events of that evening or whether they were premised upon a larger pattern and practice of misbehavior. One source claims that “LV didn’t fire them [just] for a little lesbian action.”

5. Another source claims, however, that the firm’s internal story is that the firings were based just on what happened on the day of The Kiss.

6. But what happened that fateful day allegedly included more than just The Kiss. The women were warned earlier that day that their drinking during firm lunches and other events was excessive. Despite that warning, they allegedly got drunk that same night, culminating in The Kiss.

7. All members of the firm have been told not to comment to anyone about the firings and to forward all requests for information to Nancy Vollertsen.

8. The women are not lesbians (and at least one has a boyfriend).

Cue I Kissed A Girl, by Katy Perry: “I kissed a girl and I liked it / The taste of her cherry chapstick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.”

9. Both summer associates are “quite attractive.”

10. One source claims that the Lindquist firm “has tolerated much more drastic behavior from male associates in the past.”

Indeed. We were wondering about a double standard, and it seems that our speculation was not far off the mark.

We do strive for accuracy and completeness, even when reporting events of less-than-cosmic significance, like summer associate stories. If you have corrections to offer or supplementary tidbits to share, please email us (subject line: “Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal”). Thanks.

P.S. With respect to the comments, please note that the standard ATL policy applies. Please do not identify these summers by name or provide additional identifying details about them (e.g., law schools).

If you see such a comment made by another poster, please email us (subject line: “Comment Removal Request”), and we will remove the comment (and ban the commenter’s IP address from future commenting). Thanks.

Update: Some interesting (and amusing) reactions from the readers of Jezebel. For example:

[M]ost of the big firms care very deeply about their images, including their reputation for diversity. They’d be psyched to have lesbians working for them, as long as they could count them in the diversity spreadsheet as gay. Faux lesbians kissing? Probably not so much.

Further Update: Partner Nancy Vollertsen issued a brief comment to the City Pages of Minneapolis. See here.

Earlier: Summer Associates of the Day: Sapphic Summers in Lesbianic Lip-Lock?

When we recently lamented the lack of summer associate scandals, in the New York Observer, did we speak too soon? Although we may be in the home stretch, law firm summer associate programs are not yet over — and neither, thankfully, are the salacious tales they generate.

Here’s a story we’ve known about for a while — it happened late last week — which has already surfaced elsewhere on the web. We’ve delayed on reporting about it because we wanted to get more confirmation and give the parties involved a chance to comment.

We reached out to numerous representatives of the firm — managing partner Daryle Uphoff, chief marketing officer Greg Wolsky, recruiting director Lisanne Weisz, diversity coordinator Nancy Vollertsen — by phone and by email, yesterday and today. We also contacted the two summers involved, via Facebook message. Nobody has gotten back to us, despite ample time to do so. We’ll have to push ahead without them.

Since we’ve heard the story from multiple sources, all offering generally consistent accounts, we are fairly confident in its accuracy. But if you have any corrections or additions to offer, please email us (subject line: “Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal”).

Here are some of the versions we heard (many tipsters sent it in):

1. Word through the grapevine is that two female summer associates at Minneapolis firm Lindquist & Vennum were fired recently for getting drunk at a firm event and making out with each other.

2. I’m an associate at a large Minneapolis firm, and word is that two female summer associates at Lindquist & Vennum, another of the large firms in town, got drunk at a summer associate event and were making out with each other. They were fired on Friday.

3. [Two summers at] Lindquist & Vennum were fired over the weekend. Drinking was involved; however, the firm supplied it to them during a boat cruise in 90+ degree weather. Can you get this posted? I want more information.

4. I am a summer associate at a Minneapolis law firm. I can tell that you that two female Lindquist and Vennum summer associates were recently fired (within the last week). I could not tell you for sure why they were fired, but the rumor is that they were drunk at some sort of firm social event (one that had partners present), and started to make out with each other.

And they got fired for this? We’re surprised the old-white-male partners didn’t cheer them on.

Update / Correction: According to reports received after this post was published, whether the SAs were “making out” or merely kissing on the lips is unclear. Furthermore, the event in question was not the boat cruise, but a post-dinner gathering at a bar. For an update post containing additional information and corrections, see here.

One tipster pointed us to some corroborating evidence:

Lindquist has removed all photos/references of the two from its summer associate section on its website.

This is true. We verified it ourselves, by comparing the current summer associate page, which lists eight summers, to an older version, which lists ten summers. (But please do not post in the comments any links to archived or cached versions of the page.)

You can read more, if you want to — if you don’t, then don’t — after the jump.

In five minutes, at 10 AM Pacific time, the California Supreme Court will hand down its ruling on same-sex marriage. We will update this post — and fill in the blank in the post’s title — once we have the substance of the ruling.

Update: The opinion is here (PDF — and thanks, commenters, for the link and excerpts). Reversing the appeals court, the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage. Slip op. at 12:

Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest. Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.

Slip op. at 120:

[T]he language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union “between a man and a woman” is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and… the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

Further Update: From the AP:

The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation’s largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings. The justices’ 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion….

The case before the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. With the ruling, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

In re Marriage Cases [Supreme Court of California (PDF)]
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban [AP]
Calif. same-sex marriage ban struck down [CNN]
Pre-Gaming the California Same-Sex Marriage Ruling [WSJ Law Blog]

Any story that gives us the chance to deploy our Lesbians category is a good thing. Here’s the latest Lawsuit of the Day, from the AP:

A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world’s gay women.

Three islanders from Lesbos - home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women - have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, “insults the identity” of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.

“My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian,” said Dimitris Lambrou. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” he said.

Leggo my… lesbo?

More lesbianic discussion, after the jump.

We mentioned this story in passing a few times. But we probably should have given it a more prominent place in these pages, since it involves one of our favorite legal celebrities: the high-powered Monica Goodling, who held top positions at the U.S. Department of Justice, and who came to prominence during the U.S. Attorney firing controversy.

Here’s an update, from NPR:

The Justice Department’s inspector general confirmed Tuesday that he is looking into whether a department lawyer was dismissed over a rumor that she is a lesbian.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie A. Hagen was informed in 2006 that her contract working on Indian affairs in the Justice Department’s Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys would not be renewed for a second year — despite receiving the highest possible performance reviews….

Glenn Fine of the Inspector General’s Office and H. Marshall Jarrett of the Office of Professional Responsibility said they are looking into whether Hagen was “discriminated against in employment decisions on the basis of alleged sexual orientation or other improper factors.”

Some claim that Hagen had “a Monica problem” — i.e., that she was not in favor with the powerful Goodling, due to these sapphic whisperings.

Now, if the allegation were that Monica Goodling fired a DOJ lawyer because of a rumor that he might be gay, we’d dismiss it out of hand. In light of her overall fabulosity, as well as her status as “a survivor” — someone who has successfully weathered serious political storms, while still looking poised, polished, and perfect — Goodling will be hailed as an icon by future generations of gay male lawyers.

But this allegation involves a rumor that a lawyer was a lesbian. That’s a whole different kettle of fish. So we’ll wait and see what the DOJ probe reveals.

Justice Inquiry Centers on Dismissal, Gay Rumors [NPR]
Confirmed: DoJ Investigators Probing Whether Goodling Fired Lawyer Due to Gay Rumors [TPM Muckraker]

In Chicago, gay lawyers get to attend exclusive parties. In New York, they enjoy a finer prize: luxury real estate.

The law schools of Columbia and NYU have been battling over faculty superstars for several years. And now NYU is bringing out the heavy artillery: multimillion-dollar condo purchases. From the New York Times:

Columbia University, in a never-ending search for a larger campus, has long had an outpost for faculty housing at 455 Central Park West — 53 apartments in an 26-story tower attached to the French Renaissance chateau at West 106th Street.

So it was something of a surprise when a foundation associated with New York University bought a large condominium in the complex. The unit, which cost $5.2 million, is built into one of the huge turrets of the chateau…. The duplex apartment has a round living and dining room with 37-foot high ceilings and Central Park views, along with three more conventional bedrooms.

Sounds fabulous! Who gets to inhabit this fabulous pad?

Find out, after the jump.

Why was Cinderella stuck in the office doing document review, while her wicked stepsisters nibbled on caviar and danced the night away?

Maybe Cinderella worked at Kirkland & Ellis, and her sisters were of the Sapphic persuasion. From a K&E tipster:

The Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis hosted a “GLBT only” party last night. The email invitation is below.

It’s illegal under Illinois law to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in the workplace. But they shouldn’t be expected to know that as attorneys, should they?

Here’s the invite:

The GLBT Subcommittee of the Firmwide Diversity Committee cordially invites All Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Attorneys and Staff to a Winter Cocktail and Hors d’Ouevres Reception Today, Thursday, January 17, 2008 Sidebar Grille.

221 N. LaSalle
Chicago
5:00 P.M. — 7:00 P.M.

Truth be told, we aren’t deeply troubled. Regardless of their technical status under the law, events for lawyers who share common interests happen all the time.

So lighten up, Mr. Tipster! You probably wouldn’t have liked the music anyway — or, for that matter, being ogled by those twinks from IT. And you definitely wouldn’t have appreciated being hit upon by that bear from Duplicating.

As a certain ATL commenter might say, “Guys in my high school used to throw special gay parties all the time. They called it Drama Club. It was no big deal.”

P.S. A more serious issue is presented by K&E’s summer associate diversity fellowship, previously discussed by Professor David Bernstein over at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Diversity Fellowship Program [Kirkland & Ellis]
Illegal Fellowship at Kirkland & Ellis? [Volokh Conspiracy]

In an earlier post about the Kumari Fulbright situation at the University of Arizona law school, we noted that the UA administration has been fairly taciturn about the whole matter. Perhaps in response to the community’s desire for more openness, Dean Toni Massaro just sent out an email discussing the matter.

It was forwarded to us by a tipster, who commented:

Can you believe this BS? It is a “welcome back” email from Dean Massaro at the University of Arizona Law School in which she “addresses” the Kumari Fulbright situation. But the Dean doesn’t really “address” anything. The school in effect says nothing at all….

With a [student] (Craig Cordes) who allegedly killed a cop in New York, a “beauty” queen gone bad, and other issues, the school needs to step up and make an affirmative statement that not only addresses these issues directly, but also defends from ridicule the few capable students at the school that have BigLaw jobs.

AZWildcat2L

AZ Wildcat 2L, why are you being so hard on Dean Massaro? Longtime ATL readers may recall that she was nominated as one of America’s hottest law school deans. One of her nominators wrote:

Not only is Dean Massaro brilliant, attractive, and self-assured, she’s also a cancer survivor AND a lesbian. It’s easy to make Advanced Con Law sexy, but how many Deans could get 3rd year students out of bed every morning for an 8 am class and have a packed classroom? Moreover, students just LOVE her Civil Procedure classes. I’m not kidding.

Check out the email from Dean Massaro, one southwestern hottie opining on another, after the jump.

Several readers drew our attention to this fascinating article from our local free weekly, the Washington City Paper:

Wanted: Gullible Lawyers
By Arin Greenwood

I was hired over e-mail. A boss I never met promised me $14,000 a month. How could I fall for that?

Two tipsters have done an especially good job teeing it up, so we’ll just quote from their plugs:

“Have you read this? Very entertaining story about a lot of people who got scammed on craigslist, a sizable portion of which were lawyers. Most interesting is the author’s take on what the goal of the scam was.”

“This is so interesting! Even if you don’t write about it (which you should: any story that includes a hapless and pathetic Columbia law grad, an Indian lesbian, Rupert Murdoch, and 15 lawyers embroiled in a scam de l’amour deserves the full treatment from ATL, no?), you just must read this! Delicious!”

We concur. It’s a bit long, but a wild (and worthwhile) story. Check it out here.

Wanted: Gullible Lawyers [Washington City Paper]
the fake job.. turned into a real article [Arin Greenwood]