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We Don't KNOW How This Magazine for Paralegals Will Do

Know.jpgBIG announcement. A magazine designed for paralegals is launching next month. It's called KNOW -- a strangely generic title. The full name is "KNOW: The Magazine for Paralegals." It's not to be confused with KNOW: The Science Magazine for Curious Kids.

As a former paralegal, I am fairly certain I would not have read this magazine. But I was one of those fresh-faced university grads trying to figure out whether I wanted to go to law school, and was not planning to be a career paralegal gal.

According to the promo, KNOW is an "outside-the-box, informative magazine balancing workstyle and life balance for paralegals." Here are some of the articles planned for the first issue:

  • Famous TV Stars: What Fans Don't Know About These Former Paralegals
  • Work Less, Earn More: Can You Ditch the 24/7 Stressful Routine?
  • The 10 Most Influential Paralegals in the Country
  • Trends Guaranteed to Change the Paralegal Profession
  • Diversity's Little Secret: Are Caucasian Paralegals Doing Enough to Support African-American Paralegals?
  • Paralegals Succeeding Against All the Odds
  • Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry
  • In terms of industry niche publications, they've hit all the hot topics in the first issue: celebrities, diversity, and gender. Where do you go from there? We suggest an article ranking paralegal schools.

    We're skeptical. But we'll pose the question to our paralegal readers. What do you think? Have you been wondering about how to succeed against all odds? Or whether Caucasian Paralegals are doing enough to support their African-American comrades in arms?

    Update: We invite you to suggest article subjects for future issues of KNOW magazine, in the comments. E.g.: "Life beyond Paralegaling: Turning that Senior Partner's 'Stain' into a Multi-Million Dollar Child Support Settlement."

    New Magazine for Paralegals [Estrin Report]

    The Man Behind the New York Times's Legal Coverage

    liptak.jpgAdam Liptak is the national legal reporter for New York Times, though he'll soon be taking over the Supreme Court beat from Linda Greenhouse.

    Liptak's answering questions from readers this week, so the NYTimes has a feature on him:

    He first joined The Times as a copyboy in 1984, after graduation from Yale University, where he was an editor of The Yale Daily News Magazine, with a degree in English. In addition to clerical work and fetching coffee, he assisted the reporter M.A. Farber in covering the trial of a libel suit brought by Gen. William Westmoreland against CBS.

    Mr. Liptak returned to Yale for a law degree, graduating in 1988. During law school, he worked as a summer clerk in the The New York Times Company's legal department. After graduating, he spent four years at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, a New York City law firm, as a litigation associate specializing in First Amendment matters.

    In 1992, he returned to The Times's legal department, spending a decade advising The Times and the company's other newspapers, television stations and new media properties on defamation, privacy, newsgathering and related issues, and he frequently litigated media and commercial cases.

    In 2002, Liptak gave into the writing itch and joined the news staff. For those of you aspiring to make the jump from law to journalism, you can draw inspiration from Liptak's interesting career path.

    The Times readers have lots of serious questions for Liptak, about the SCOTUS voter id ruling, the death penalty, the question of balance, etc. No gossipy questions about Biglaw vs Bigmedia salaries, or filling Linda Greenhouse's heels. Oh well, there are two days of questions left...

    Talk to the Newsroom: Adam Liptak, National Legal Reporter [New York Times]

    The Incredible Shrinking Summer Program?

    summer associate program ATL Above the Law blog.jpgSummer associates will be starting up at law firms any day now. So what's it like to be a summer associate during a recession challenging economic times? That's the subject of our column in this week's New York Observer.

    Some time ago, we solicited your input:

    When it comes to summer programs, is Biglaw cutting back? Will Skadden Prom be moved from Rockefeller Center to Dave & Buster's? Will farewell dinners at Per Se or Citronelle be replaced by brown-bag lunches in the firm cafeteria?

    Probably not. Considering how awful the economy is, Biglaw isn't making as many changes as one might expect to summer programs. Firms don't seem to be revoking perks or scaling back on the lavishness of events. As law-firm consultant James Jones of Hildebrandt told Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal, large law firms are “tinkering around the edges rather than doing anything really radical.”

    So firms aren't overhauling their summer programs -- but they are making some subtle adjustments. Read more in our column, which you can access by clicking here.

    Crash Diet for Law Firms: Less Dessert for Summer Associates [New York Observer]

    Other Uses for the Law Degree: Megyn Kelly

    13_61_kelly_megyn_2007_320.jpgThe story of a lawyer-turned-journalist is a familiar one. See, e.g., Jeffrey Toobin, of the New Yorker and CNN; Jan Crawford Greenburg, of ABC News; Adam Liptak, of the New York Times (recently anointed as successor to Linda Greenhouse on the SCOTUS beat); and ATL's very own David Lat.

    Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz penned an interesting profile last week of Megyn Kelly, Biglaw attorney turned national Fox News anchor:

    Four years ago, Kelly was a Washington lawyer pleading with WJLA-TV for part-time work. Now she's the co-anchor of two Fox shows, including a new 5 p.m. hour on the presidential campaign.

    "When I was practicing law and had to do these 13-, 14-, 16-hour days, I was miserable," she says. Now, "you get off the set, you have that post-show high."

    What about the high you get from 10 hours of document review? C'mon, you know you miss it...

    Megyn Kelly Megyn Kendall Above the Law blog.jpgAccording to her Wiki bio, Kelly got her law degree from Albany Law School, then worked for Jones Day before joining the Fox team.

    "Here is this woman who was strikingly attractive but has tremendous air presence and a very strong voice," [Fox's Washington managing editor, Brit Hume] says. "We were knocked out. It was screamingly obvious that this was someone with tremendous potential."

    What's more, says Hume, "she seemed to get what we've talked about with 'fair and balanced news' . . . She came in believing there was a left bias in the news. That's not common." He quickly created an opening for her.

    The lesson to be taken from Kelly's story: if you're a hot, conservative attorney with a strong voice, Fox may have a place for you.

    For more on Megyn Kelly, check out this incredibly random interview on Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC. Apparently, her favorite letter is "x" and her favorite American Idol candidate is Taylor Hicks.

    Update: We have updated this post with Megyn Kelly's law school facebook photo.

    Megyn Kelly, Fox News's Fast-Rising Anchor [Washington Post]
    Megyn Kendall: The Fishbowl DC Interview [Mediabistro]

    Unhappy About the Law School Rankings of U.S. News? Let 'Em Know!

    US News World Report small cover 2009 law school rankings ratings Above the Law blog.jpgJust a quick reminder about an interesting event, previously mentioned in these pages, which is taking place in a few hours. The ABA Journal, which just profiled U.S. News "rankings czar" Bob Morse, is hosting a live chat with him this afternoon. From Edward Adams of the ABA Journal:

    Morse will be taking questions from the public on ABAJournal.com on Friday, April 11, from 3 to 4 p.m. ET. We hope you and your readers will participate.

    More from the Journal:

    Robert Morse, the man who created the law school rankings for U.S. News, offers an olive branch to law school deans who have long complained about the effect of the rankings on legal education. “Deans are welcome to call me or come by my office in Washington,” Morse says. “I want to work with them to improve the rankings.”

    Some deans and former deans think they should engage the magazine, rather than just complain about it. “I think rankings need to be changed, and the only way that will happen is if law school deans sit down with Bob Morse for honest discussion,” says Nancy Rapoport, who resigned as dean of the University of Houston Law Center after her school dropped almost 20 points in the rankings. “I would attend a meeting like that without hesitation.”

    So unhappy law school deans, here's your chance. You can already submit "questions" -- defined in academia as rambling screeds, concluded with "and what do you think of all this?" -- by clicking here. Or just visit the ABA Journal's home page at 3 PM Eastern time.

    Additional links about the U.S. News rankings not mentioned in our earlier coverage, after the jump.

    Continue reading "Unhappy About the Law School Rankings of U.S. News? Let 'Em Know!"

    The U.S. News Rankings: Law Schools Lose Their S**t React

    US News World Report small cover 2009 law school rankings ratings Above the Law blog.jpgAs we reported earlier this week, the latest U.S. News & World Report law school rankings are out. And some schools are flipping out over their falling rankings. A tipster at the University of Iowa College of Law writes:

    [B]elow is an email the Iowa law students received yesterday from Dean Jones about the new US News & World Report rankings. Apparently our dean is setting up small group meetings with the students. No faculty. No other administration. Methinks this may be somewhat of a divide and conquer strategy. These meetings may be in part a result of the newly formed Facebook group "Stop the Bleeding at Iowa Law."

    My favorite part, though, is that the "faculty" have dubbed their concern about the rankings "Project Apollo." Well, if they're not going to do anything about it, at least they can come up with a secret, clever code name, so it looks in hindsight like they've been planning D-Day part 2. Bravo profs and administration, you've really impressed me this time.

    Dean Jones's email appears after the jump. Meanwhile, a source at University at Buffalo Law School reports:

    For the return on investment -- a Biglaw job for $13k a year in tuition (for the top of the class) -- many students were OK with the shortcomings of this law school. [But] with T3 looking over our shoulder, some fellow students are contemplating jumping ship....

    It's hard to justify leaving for debt-ridden T25 greener pastures when L. Rev. and a market-paying job in the City are likely. No one likes to be on the Titanic, though.

    The message sent to the Buffalo student body by interim dean Makau Mutua, after the jump.

    Update (10:50 AM): Add the University of Minnesota Law School to the list of institutions whose deans are sending out school-wide emails about their declining rankings:

    Students at the University of Minnesota Law School received this email today from the two interim co-deans. It's pretty hilarious that they try to claim we are still a top 20 school even though we are now ranked #22. It's particularly amusing that they have decided to "address the particular factors that caused a decline this year."

    The email from the school's two interim co-deans, after the jump.

    Update (11:10 AM): From a source at UNC School of Law:

    Since you're posting panicked USN&WR reactions, add this one to your list. You know it's bad when you have to respond in Latin.

    Dean Boger's email, after the jump.

    Continue reading "The U.S. News Rankings: Law Schools Lose Their S**t React"

    Please Do Not Wet Yourself With Excitement: The 2009 U.S. News Law School Rankings

    US News World Report cover 2009 law school rankings ratings Above the Law blog.jpgRelax, 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).

    Continue reading "Please Do Not Wet Yourself With Excitement: The 2009 U.S. News Law School Rankings"

    Oh, So That's How Those Law School Rankings Work

    US News World Report law school rankings ratings Above the Law blog.jpgCourtesy of Professor Dan Solove, "a sneak peak at this year's rankings, as well as some amazing secrets about how US News ranks law schools."

    The Official Leaked US News Law School Rankings, Plus Ranking Secrets Revealed! [Concurring Opinions]

    Linda Greenhouse's Departure, Confirmed

    Linda Greenhouse 6 New York Times Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe already discussed this news yesterday. But in our earlier post, we promised to let you know if and when Linda Greenhouse got back to us -- and she kindly did, sending the following message to ATL about her rumored departure as the New York Times's Supreme Court correspondent:

    As you may know - the Times put a newsroom-wide buyout package on the table last week, in an effort to shrink the staff by 100. For someone of my seniority (40 years) the terms are very attractive, and I've told my bureau chief that I plan to take it. I was planning to retire in a few years, and giving up this package would have basically meant working for free - which seemed foolish, much as I love my job. I plan to keep writing about the court in various forums.

    (I should note that this is not official, because the buyout window is open until March 5, after which the Times will respond to the individual volunteers - so my response to you is based on the assumption that my acceptance of their offer will in turn be accepted.)

    Greenhouse also confirmed her move to the Associated Press (via WSJ Law Blog).

    During her 30 years covering the Court for the Times, Linda Greenhouse has sometimes been controversial. See here, here, and here, for perhaps the most recent controversy.

    It cannot be denied, however, that Greenhouse has tremendous knowledge of the Supreme Court's history and inner workings, as well as unparalleled access to the justices themselves. Few journalists are such superstars that their comings and goings are covered by the AP.

    Greenhouse leaves big shoes to fill, and it will be interesting to see how her successor fares. How much of her clout was the institutional clout of the New York Times, and how much of it was Greenhouse qua Greenhouse? We'll find out soon enough.

    Feel free to speculate about replacements for the legendary Linda Greenhouse, in the comments.

    NYT's Greenhouse Takes Buyout Offer [Associated Press via WSJ Law Blog]
    Public and Private Lives, Intersecting [New York Times]
    Lay Off Linda [Slate]
    Far From Sober [National Review Online]

    Earlier: Is the Margo Channing of One First Street Taking Her Final Bow?

    Is the Margo Channing of One First Street Taking Her Final Bow?
    (Or: Is Linda Greenhouse leaving the New York Times?)

    All About Eve 2 Linda Greenhouse Jan Crawford Greenburg Jan Greenburg Jan Greenberg Jan Crawford Greenberg Above the Law.JPGWe have previously compared Linda Greenhouse, the veteran Supreme Court correspondent of the New York Times, to Margo Channing, the great but aging diva of All About Eve. The comparison continues to hold.

    Just as Margo Channing eventually leaves the thea-tuh, so too does Linda Greenhouse leave the SCOTUS. Ed Whelan, the former Scalia clerk with lots of Court connections, has this report over at Bench Memos:

    According to a well-placed Supreme Court source, New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse is telling folks at the Court that she has accepted a Times buyout package and will be ending her coverage of the Court at the end of the current term.

    So that's the word on One First Street. We have reached out to Linda Greenhouse for comment and will let you know if and when we hear back from her.

    If this is true -- and we have no reason to doubt it, since it comes from the well-connected Whelan -- then Jan Crawford Greenburg is one step closer to being Queen Bee of the Supreme Court press corps. Nina Totenberg, watch your back!

    Update: More from Ed Whelan at NRO Online: "On the same day that we learn of Linda Greenhouse’s imminent departure from the New York Times, Greenhouse provides further evidence of her bias...."

    Greenhouse's Departure [Bench Memos / National Review Online]
    Re: Breyer’s and Souter’s Drift to the Right? [Bench Memos / National Review Online]

    Earlier: All About... Jan?

    Morning Docket: 02.01.08

    * NFL Union president prepared for strike. [ESPN]

    * Microsoft offers to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion to compete with Google. [MSNBC]

    * Times reporter subpoenaed over "State of War" source. [New York Times]

    * French President and supermodel girlfriend sue over pictures. [Washington Post via WSJ Law Blog]

    * HLS grad Obama and YLS grad Clinton make nice, sort of, during debate. [MSNBC]

    * SCOTUS stays Alabama execution, maintaining de facto moratorium on death penalty. [CNN]

    * Roy Tolles and Arthur Kramer, of Munger Tolles and Kramer Levin, respectively, RIP. [WSJ Law Blog]

    Judge of the Day: Hilton Fuller

    Hilton Fuller Judge Hilton Fuller Brian Nichols Above the Law blog.jpgThis has been all over the news. We like the ABA Journal's version, 'cause it's the crispest:

    The Atlanta judge overseeing the prosecution of alleged courthouse shooter Brian Nichols has stepped aside from the case after he was quoted [in a New Yorker article] as saying, “Everyone in the world knows he did it.”

    The New Yorker piece was by one of our idols, prosecutor-turned-writer Jeffrey Toobin (who launched our blogging career, with this Talk of the Town piece). Judge Fuller and Jeff Toobin were interviewed by the Fulton County Daily Report about the controversy:

    "I had a specific agreement with Toobin," said Fuller on Tuesday, before announcing his recusal. "Our conversation was to be on background only, and there would be no direct quotations or attributions, unless they were floated by me first."

    Not so, said Toobin, reached in New York. "I don't know what to say," he said. "I mean, it was clearly for attribution; we even had a New Yorker fact-checker call and confirm it. ... I have great respect for Judge Fuller, but that was not at all my understanding."

    We're with the meticulous Toobin on this one. In fact, we share the suspicion of one of the correspondents who wrote us about this story: Was Judge Fuller's indiscretion intentional? Was it his way of getting out from under a long and complex nightmare of a case?

    Judge Recuses From Courthouse Shooting Case Due to New Yorker Quotes [ABA Journal]
    Judge Fuller recuses from Nichols case [Fulton County Daily Report]
    Judge in Courthouse Shooting Case Steps Down [New York Times]
    Death in Georgia [The New Yorker]
    New Yorker Quote Leads to Atlanta Judge Recusal [WSJ Law Blog]

    Open Thread: Do Associates Get 'Pigeonholed'?
    (And If So, What To Do About It?)

    Our friends at the ABA Journal are working on an interesting piece about associates getting "pigeonholed" at their law firms. They're looking for some sources, opinions, and ideas. We're hoping that you can help.

    Some background, from Richard Acello, the reporter on the story:

    By pigeonholing, we mean the tendency of an associate to get locked into a practice area -- depending on what the firm does -- because he/she was assigned to a lawyer or group upon joining the firm. So let's say it was an intellectual property firm, and the associate does all patent prosecutions. (We can probably think of similar specialty/subspecialty examples in other practices.)

    How does the associate branch out? After all, they probably don't want to rock the boat or have partners think they're unhappy, especially when compared to other associates who, say, have happily accepted being pigeonholed.

    Who should be responsible for this? Should the firm have a built in way to make sure associates get a variety of work, or should it be the associate's responsibility to speak up?

    These are all excellent questions. If you have some thoughts, please opine in the comments (and provide some descriptive information in your signature if possible -- e.g., "IP associate at East Coast law firm"). You can also contact reporter Rich Acello directly, via email, by clicking here. Thanks.

    Non-Sequiturs: 01.29.08

    Mary Kate Olsen Above the Law blog.jpg* A PSA for Blackberry Pearl users on the T-Mobile network. Also, Theresa sounds deliciously evil. [PrawfsBlawg]

    * "Senator Obama, we knew Jack Kennedy, and you, Senator, are--well, dude, you were two-years-old...." [What About Clients?]

    * "Lessons from Mary-Kategate: Why Lawyers Should Not Engage in Media Relations." And we agree wholeheartedly with this statement: "the ability to get under powerful people’s skin. If ever there was a talent valued among tabloid journalists, that’s got to be it." [Starkman & Associates]

    * DLA Piper to launch an in-house version of Facebook. But can you play Scrabulous on it? [Legal Blog Watch]

    * It's hard out here in a courtroom for a pimp, proceeding pro se. [11Alive.com]

    * Oregon Supreme Court puts kibosh on unkindest cut. [Blogonaut]

    * Blawg Review #144, with a Lord of the Rings theme. [Cyberlaw Central via Blawg Review]

    Don't Know If Law Firms Are 'Cuddly,' But Whatever

    Skadden Arps teddy bear Above the Law blog.jpgYes, we did see Lisa Belkin's "Life's Work" column in yesterday's New York Times, entitled "Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms." Truth be told, we didn't find it terribly exciting, since most of the law-firm lifestyle improvements she mentions are ones that are familiar to ATL readers. We also shared the reaction of the WSJ Law Blog, which found it sort of random for Thursday Styles: "Since when did the NYT Styles section become a legal trade?"

    But since the article has zoomed to the top of the NYT Most Emailed Articles list, with which we are obsessed, we're compelled to write about it. Excerpts and discussion, after the jump.

    Continue reading "Don't Know If Law Firms Are 'Cuddly,' But Whatever"

    Lawyer Layoffs: A Report from the Front Lines

    New York Observer logo small Above the Law blog.jpgAssociate layoffs have been the big news in 2008 thus far. Appropriately enough, they're the subject of our latest column for the New York Observer. Here's an excerpt:

    “It's tough. People are scared,” [one] jettisoned Cadwalader associate said. “It’s so rare that this happens. The first-years are freaked out. People are wondering: Is this continuing on a rolling basis, or did they take one big hit? People worry about [the impact on] recruiting efforts, both on a lateral basis and for incoming law students.”

    The associate, like the others laid off that day, was given barely more than a week’s notice: His last day of work would be the following Friday, Jan. 18.

    He’s getting three months of severance, paid out every two weeks, just as when he was employed. But he’s no longer able to tell prospective employers he’s still at the firm, which he predicts will make his job search harder.

    “It’s like dating,” he said. “When you’re with someone, everyone wants you; when you’re on your own, it’s that much harder.”

    You can read the complete column by clicking here.

    P.S. We've been writing this column for a few months now. The archives are accessible here.

    Will Work for Dinner at Nobu [New York Observer]
    Lawyers Column archives [New York Observer]

    Nationwide Layoff Watch: More Cadwalader Coverage
    (Because You Just Can't Get Enough, It Seems)

    Cadwalader Wickersham Taft CWT Abovethelaw Above the Law legal tabloid blog.JPGWe resume our wall-to-wall coverage of the recent associate layoffs at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Here are the latest news articles and tidbits:

    1. Highlights from an article by Anthony Lin, in the New York Law Journal:

    [M]ost of the laid-off lawyers worked in Cadwalader's New York headquarters though the firm's Charlotte, N.C., office was also affected. All were in the firm's global finance and capital markets practices. Almost all of the affected lawyers were associates, said [management committee member Gregory] Markel, though he said one or two counsel may also have been let go.

    [Per Markel:] "We concluded that this was not a three-month phenomenon or even a six-month phenomenon."

    Mr. Markel also said the firm was confident there would be no more layoffs in the future. After yesterday's action, the firm will still have around 260 lawyers in the two affected practices.

    A number of law firms active in the area have already announced cutbacks. Clifford Chance terminated a six-lawyer group in November. Thacher Proffitt & Wood and McKee Nelson both have offered buyouts to large numbers of associates working in the area.

    2. Highlights from an article by Nathan Koppel, in the Wall Street Journal (via the Law Blog):

    "We were very careful about this, and we waited to see if there were any signs of the economy turning around" before letting lawyers go, says Cadwalader partner Gregory Markel, chairman of the firm's litigation department. "We didn't see any evidence of this turning around."

    Cadwalader is one of the most prominent law firms to recently announce layoffs, which could trigger a chain reaction among other firms; capital markets and real-estate practices are down at many firms.

    It is still relatively rare for large law firms to engage in mass staff reductions. For one, many large law firms boast specialties, such as litigation and bankruptcy, that typically pick up during down economies.

    3. From an observant tipster not at CWT (and presumably happy about it):

    "CWT apparently doesn’t update its lateral recruiting page very often, as it currently claims to be looking for structured finance and capital markets attorneys in several offices. See here."

    4. From a source at the firm, an interesting theory about how the news was disseminated, including a possible explanation for why it wasn't announced announced internally first:

    [A] partner in Corporate leaked all this information about the Capital Markets situation to a bunch of associates. Some of it was false, some true. [Management was] really upset with him because they wanted this information to come in an official announcement or meeting, not in rumors flying around.

    I'm thinking they accelerated the press announcement because the information started leaking to outside sources, rather than staying inside. I still definitely think that they could have released it internally first, but there may have been other circumstances that I don't know about. I am not sure if the press release and the corporate partner things are related, but it seems like they would not have released it so abruptly if it didn't happen. Whenever something major happens, it is usually disclosed internally first.

    5. Finally, in case you missed it -- we posted it fairly late yesterday, as a mere update to a previously published post -- here is CWT's reassuring email to 2007 summer associates who accepted their offers to return full-time.

    Cadwalader Laying Off 35 In Wake of Slumping Markets [New York Law Journal]
    Law Firm Cadwalader To Lay Off 35 Attorneys [Wall Street Journal]
    More on the Sackings at Cadwalader [WSJ Law Blog]

    Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

    New York Observer logo small Above the Law blog.jpgIn our column for this week's New York Observer, we help you plan an imaginary dinner party. A dinner party, of course, is only as good as the guest list. So we review which colorful characters of the legal world, who made headlines in 2007, should be invited to your festivities.

    Think of it as a "year in review" piece, aimed primarily at people who don't read ATL (since most of the names mentioned in the article will be familiar to regular visitors to this site). The potential guests under consideration: Charlene Morisseau, the sassy ex-associate who sued DLA Piper; Aaron Charney, who made S&C "bend over"; and internet celebrity Loyola 2L.

    ATL bonus content: Due to space considerations, our write-up of Elana Glatt (née Elana Elbogen) wound up on the cutting room floor. But if you'd like to read it, we've reprinted it after the jump.

    Culture of Complaint Spreads Through Law Firms [New York Observer]

    Continue reading "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?"

    Congratulations to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and... Loyola 2L!

    Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Chief Justice Loyola 2L Lawyer of the Year Above the Law blog.jpgLast week, the ABA Journal named former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales its 2007 Lawyer Legal Newsmaker of the Year. Now we bring you news of two more Lawyers of the Year.

    The National Law Journal went highbrow and international. The NLJ selected Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, as its Lawyer of the Year:

    Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is not exactly a household name to the legal profession in the United States. We think he should be.

    Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan who was dismissed from office by President Pervez Musharraf after the imposition of emergency rule, has been a strong voice for the preservation of the rule of law in Pakistan — one of the United States' key allies in the war on terror.

    Meanwhile, the WSJ Law Blog stayed domestic. Their honoree may be, for better or worse, more well-known that former Chief Justice Chaudhry (at least to readers of ATL). Their pick: celebrity commenter Loyola 2L!

    [W]hen the nominees were put to an unscientific vote, Loyola 2L won in a landslide.... And before you start whining, “But he’s not even a lawyer!,” we never said we were strict constructionists!

    So who — or what — is Loyola 2L? For the non-cognoscenti, he, or she, is purportedly a second-year student, or “2L,” at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. And his claim to fame? For over a year, Loyola 2L has beaten a loud and consistent drum of discontent around the Web by posting in online forums about the job prospects for graduates of nonelite law schools.

    If you're hoping that this honor will bring Loyola 2L to unmask himself (or herself), don't hold your breath:

    [W]hile he’s presumably a “3L” by now, he still clings to the moniker. And anonymity. In responding to a call to identify himself he said, “Outing myself . . . would only add to the current difficulties in my life.”

    For today, L2L, put the complaining on hold, and bask in the limelight. You've earned it!

    P.S. Thanks for all of your nominations for ATL's own Lawyer of the Year contest. We'll put up the poll shortly.

    The Lawyer of the Year: Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [National Law Journal]
    The Law Blog Lawyer Of the Year: Loyola 2L [WSJ Law Blog]

    Earlier: ATL Lawyer of the Year: Nominations, Please

    ATL Lawyer of the Year: Nominations, Please

    Alberto Gonzales 5 Alberto R Gonzales Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgPart of a blogger’s job description is to shamelessly rip off stuff from the mainstream media. So we’re going to follow in the footsteps of the ABA Journal and the WSJ Law Blog, and name ATL’s first annual Lawyer of the Year. (Of course, it's not that original an idea to begin with, insofar as it's inspired by Time magazine's Person of the Year.)

    The WSJ crew is still accepting nominations, so we don’t know the identity of their pick. But the ABA Journal’s honoree for 2007, Alberto Gonzales, has generated some controversy. The Journal's editor and publisher, Edward A. Adams, explained the pick to the Washington Post: "It's about who has had the most effect in the world of lawyers this year. We're not saying Gonzales is good or bad. We're just saying this is the leading newsmaker in our part of the world."

    Additional discussion, plus how to submit your nomination for ATL's Lawyer of the Year, after the jump.

    Continue reading "ATL Lawyer of the Year: Nominations, Please"