* We took Eve Harrington’s Jan Crawford Greenburg’s quip that Justice Stevens told her when he was planning to retire as a joke. But not everyone did. [Volokh Conspiracy; Althouse]
* A juicy rumor. But who on earth could it be? [Concurring Opinions]
(Btw, congrats to Concurring Opinions on its one millionth visitor.)
* Former fashion designer Ilene Moses is on trial for allegedly defrauding banks of $26 million. But her design of fur-trimmed capes may be the more serious offense. [Associated Press]
* Fred Fielding will be taking a pay cut as White House counsel. But that’s okay, ’cause he can afford it. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Drape an invisibility cloak over the Federal Register, and call it a day. [Wonkette]
* We recommend to you any blog post that contains the words “palpably fresh.” [Crescat Sententia]
* Here’s Blawg Review #90. [Minor Wisdom]
* We weren’t the only ones who had a blast at last week’s crazy law-blogger party! So did Miriam Cherry, whom we had the pleasure of meeting at the festivities. [PrawfsBlawg]
Latest Stories
- Blogging, Fashion, Food, Fred Fielding, Jan Crawford Greenburg, John Paul Stevens, Non-Sequiturs, White House Counsel
Non-Sequiturs: 01.08.07
By David LatIn our report earlier today about Supreme Courtships, a forthcoming television show about “the personal and professional lives of six Supreme Court clerks and their supervisors,” we looked back on two failed TV shows about the Supreme Court: “First Monday” and “The Court.”
We wrote:
Judicial groupies were thrilled to see two shows about the Court on national television (despite the many inaccuracies and ridiculous plot lines). But their joy was fleeting.
Now, this correction. Not everyone who follows the Supreme Court was so pleased by the attention from Hollywood.
From a January 2002 article by Tony Mauro:
Complete with James Garner as a chief justice who smokes (like the real one), Joe Mantegna as an Italian-American associate justice who attends Mass (like the real one), and a Court with two women and one black justice (like the real one), ["First Monday"], if it succeeds, will probably impart more information about the nation’s highest court to the general public than a decade’s worth of routine activity by the real Supreme Court.
And that is what worries people like Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, a veteran Supreme Court advocate who is among a small number of Washington lawyers who have seen rough cut tapes of the first two episodes.
“Unbelievably smarmy,” says Phillips, who is not usually given to outbursts of hyperbole. “Vomitous.”
Look, it could have been worse. At least Phillips didn’t use profanity, as he has done before (in open court). He could have called the “First Monday” producers “motherf*****s” and told them to “eat s***.” Instead, he temperately dismissed their show as “vomitous.”
Why was Phillips so upset? Per Mauro:
Phillips confesses that he is a stickler for accuracy, and as such could not abide the slew of details that come out wrong in the show.
For one, the first episode was based erroneously on the premise that it takes five justices to grant review in a case, not four.
Relax, Carter! Look at the glass as half-full. You should have been pleased that the word “certiorari” was even uttered on national television, on a channel other than C-SPAN.
Another issue with “First Monday”:
Garner’s chief justice, an inveterate Oklahoma football fan, precedes the first Court session with a football-huddle-style handshake among the nine robed justices and the rallying cry “Let’s go out there and make history!”
Yes, this sounds ridiculous. But is it really so impossible to imagine? If Harriet Miers, with her cheerleader-ish tendencies, had been confirmed to the Court, group hugs might have become de rigeur at One First Street.
Will New Supreme Court TV Show Make It Past Its ‘First Monday’? [Law.com]
C-SPAN’s Potty-Mouth Broadcast [Washington Wire]
Carter G. Phillips bio [Sidley Austin]
Earlier: “Supreme Courtships”: A Show About SCOTUS Clerks, Take Three
From the Daily Mail of the U.K. (where newspapers are more fun to read):
Angelina Jolie has attacked Madonna for adopting a child ‘illegally’. She said the singer should never have visited an impoverished African country with the sole intention of choosing an infant.
Her comments follow accusations that Madonna used her fame and money to speed the adoption of one-year- old David Banda late last year.
‘Madonna knew the situation in Malawi, where he was born,’ said Miss Jolie, who has adopted two Third World youngsters of her own
But Ms. Jolie was diplomatic in her criticism:
“Personally, I prefer to stay on the right side of the law. I would never take a child away from a place where adoption is illegal.’”
Because, you know, following the law is such a personal decision.
This struck us as a little silly:
“‘Brad and I want to continue to adopt, but keeping a big family uses up a lot of money.”
Because it’s just so hard to make ends meet when you earn $10 million per picture, and your partner earns $17 million per picture.
Angelina Jolie attacks Madonna for ‘illegal adoption’ of baby David [Daily Mail]
This just in, from Time:
In a signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling, President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME.
Fielding, who held the same position under President Ronald Reagan, will succeed the President’s friend Harriet Miers, who last week announced her resignation, effective Jan. 31. An official who has been briefed on the impending announcement, which could come as soon as Tuesday, called Fielding “the ultimate Washington lawyer-insider — he’s the man to see.”
Some interesting comments from some of you in support of Fred Fielding:
“Fred Fielding. Bush needs an adult to deal with the children who are now running the Hill.”
“[P]lenty of SCOTUS clerks are far too academic-minded to be successful litigators. What the President needs right now is a litigator, and I can’t think of anyone better than Tim Flanigan, Fred Fielding, or Dick Wiley. One of those three would be my choice…”
Fielding is not among the Elect; in fact, it appears from his Wiley Rein & Fielding bio that he never clerked. But he’s obviously a great pick for the job of White House counsel. He has a wealth of experience, both in litigation and in government, and he’s one of the most well-connected lawyers in town. He previously served as White House counsel, from 1981 to 1986, under President Ronald Reagan.
Congratulations to Mr. Fielding on his new post — and to President Bush for making such an excellent selection.
Exclusive: Bush Picks a Replacement for Harriet Miers [Time via Drudge Report]
Fred F. Fielding bio [Wiley Rein & Fielding]
Fred F. Fielding [Wikipedia]
Earlier: Harriet Miers: Farewell My Concubine Counsel
Breaking: Harriet Miers Has Resigned As White House Counsel!
- Biglaw, Elena Kagan, Eliot Spitzer, Harvard, Harvard Law School, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Musical Chairs, Sidley Austin, Willkie Farr
Musical Chairs: 01.08.06
By David LatLots of interesting moves, both actual and rumored, to report upon today.
Possible promotion:
* Elena Kagan, the popular (and hot) dean of Harvard Law School, is being considered for the presidency of Harvard University.
In government:
* New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is on a hiring spree (just like his successor as AG, Andrew Cuomo). Lloyd Constantine, who currently heads a 40-lawyer firm, will serve as a senior advisor to Spitzer. Debra Bachrach, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, will direct the state’s Medicaid program. Joseph Baker, bureau chief for health care under AG Spitzer, will take over as deputy secretary for health and human services.
“You’re Fired”:
* Former Apple in-house lawyer Wendy Howell was discreetly discharged, late last year, for her role in the options backdating fiasco.
Reunited and it feels so good:
* Structured finance lawyers William Cullen, Janet Barbiere and Bola Oloko, to Thacher Proffitt & Wood, from Sidley & Austin. The trio left Thacher Proffitt together in 1997 (back when Barbiere and Oloko were still associates; they were recently promoted to partnership at Sidley).
Other lateral moves:
* Bankruptcy lawyer Steven Wilamowsky, to Bingham McCutchen, from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Headhunters at Harvard May Pick a Woman [New York Times]
NY Bankruptcy Partner Switches Firms [NYLawyer.com]
NY Trio Returns to Firm They Left in the ’90s [NYLawyer.com]
Spitzer Taps Three NY Lawyers to Fill Key Positions [NYLawyer.com]
Apple Quietly Canned Lawyer Who Backdated [The Recorder via Law.com]
We apologize for the recent technical difficulties we’ve been experiencing around here. We believe they are now resolved (knock on wood).
We regret any inconvenience we have caused you in your efforts to procrastinate and avoid doing real work. If you continue to notice any bugs or odd behavior, please email us.
(At least this happened on a Monday, when people are usually playing catch-up in the office and dealing with fairly pressing matters. Web surfing tends to peak later in the week.)
We’re WAY behind in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, wherein we review and rate couples involving lawyers appearing in the New York Times wedding pages. But we’re working hard to catch up. And yes, of course we’ll be scoring the recent wedding of Judge Jon Newman and Ann Leventhal.
But first things first. In this post, we reach back all the way to the weekend of December 16-17 (last year’s news, literally). Here are the three couples for your consideration:
Scores and commentary for the newlywed couples, after the jump.
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: December 17, 2006″
Do any of you remember The Court or First Monday? If not, we don’t blame you.
These shows were two very short-lived television dramas about the U.S. Supreme Court. They focused on the weighty issues presented to the Court, as well as the interpersonal relationships between the justices and the law clerks.
Judicial groupies were thrilled to see two shows about the Court on national television (despite the many inaccuracies and ridiculous plot lines). But their joy was fleeting.
“The Court” and “First Monday” crashed and burned, and both were canceled before finishing a single season. While they were popular with Supreme Court clerks that Term, who would get together for weekly viewings in each other’s apartments, a viewership of 36 isn’t enough to sustain a TV show.
Undeterred by the failure of these ventures, Hollywood is placing another bet on One First Street. From the Hollywood Reporter:
A headstrong female defense attorney, Supreme Court clerks and hospital nurses are at the center of three one-hour pilots that have been given the green light by Fox….
Supreme Courtships, from 20th Century Fox TV and Adelstein Prods., is a comedic drama about the personal and professional lives of six Supreme Court clerks and their supervisors.
Gary Tieche (ABC’s “MDs”) wrote the script and is executive producing with Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
We hope that “Supreme Courtships” takes off; we really do. We adore Supreme Court clerks and everything about them. We worship the ground they walk upon, and we follow their triumphs as closely as Page Six follows Lindsay Lohan’s misadventures.
But we don’t think we are the typical television viewer. And we have serious doubts as to whether this show will connect with an audience.
A book project focused on the courts and on law clerks, a la the forthcoming Chambermaid by Saira Rao, is something that can succeed. Readers of books are more high-minded and culturally sophisticated than viewers of television; TV is called “the boob tube” for a reason. Also, it’s much easier to employ a niche marketing strategy when selling books.
But television is much more mass-market than book publishing. The demographics are different, and the appeal needs to be broad. And we fear that the fabulosity of Supreme Court law clerks will be lost upon the typical TV viewer. To the contrary, the typical TV viewer may be more like the party guest in this anecdote (a true story):
A law clerk to Justice Kennedy attends a party in New York. He starts chatting with another guest, and the inevitable “So what do you do?” question surfaces. The law clerk identifies himself as a clerk to Justice Kennedy.
Almost immediately, the other party guest
tries to escapeexcuses himself, saying he needs to “refill his drink.” As he leaves, he tells the AMK clerk: “Good luck with your clerical work!”
Fox Gives a Go to Three Dramas [Variety via How Appealing]
Fox rules for trio of hour pilots [Hollywood Reporter via How Appealing]
The Court [IMDb]
First Monday [IMDb]
Like the mystery smell that took over the NYU law school library last month, the cause is unknown.
This sounds worrisome. Con Edison is investigating.
This natural-gas odor is being detected in midtown and downtown Manhattan, home to countless law firms. If you’re noticing this smell in your workplace, feel free to share your firsthand account of it (after securing your own gas mask).
Gas Smelled Over Large Area Of Manhattan [NBC via Drudge Report]
Gas-Like Odor Permeates Parts of New York City [Associated Press]
- Death Penalty, Deaths, Drinking, Morning Docket, Plaintiffs Firms, Saddam Hussein, Traffic Accidents, War on Terror, White-Collar Crime
Morning Docket: 01.08.06
By Billy Merck* Sucks to be a plaintiff’s lawyer. [Business Week via How Appealing]
* Classy. [CNN]
* The whole lynch-mob-style execution thing was not our idea. [Jurist]
* Westar convictions overturned. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Detention of three legal immigrants at Port of Miami evidently amounts to nothing; the whole thing was a “misunderstanding”. [AP via Yahoo!]
- 1st Circuit, Biglaw, Blogging, Book Deals, Books, D.C. Circuit, David Levi, Dewey Ballantine, Dewy Orifice, Drugs, Duke Law School, Federal Judges, Harriet Miers, Jan Crawford Greenburg, John Beerbower, John Paul Stevens, Law Firm Mergers, Law Professors, Linda Greenhouse, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Parties, Pictures, Real Estate, Saira Rao, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Week in Review, White House Counsel, William Rehnquist
ATL Week in Review: January 1-5
By David LatLast week was short, thanks to the New Year’s holiday; but it sure was busy. Here are some highlights from a very momentous week:
* No more jokes about Harriet Miers: the ill-fated ex-SCOTUS nominee has resigned as White House counsel. Speculation about her successor abounds.
* No more jokes about the Dewy Orifice: the ill-fated merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has been called off.
* Turns out that Chief Justice Rehnquist was a painkiller junkie. Once, while suffering withdrawal symptoms, he tried to bust out of a hospital in his PJs.
* Chief Judge David Levi, of the Eastern District of California, will be the new Dean of Duke Law School.
* All About Jan? Just as the aging Margo Channing’s reign over Broadway was threatened by the comely Eve Harrington, the aging Linda Greenhouse’s reign over One First Street is being threatened by the comely Jan Crawford Greenburg.
* Who knew? Law professors and legal bloggers sure know how to party! Photos of drunken legal academics available here and here.
* Cravath partner John Beerbower has enjoyed some amazing apartments over the years. Cravath partnership + Wealthy wife = $20 million, Park Avenue pad.
* Who’s your favorite First Circuit judge? Cast your vote here.
* If you’re a right-winger hoping that Justice Stevens will step down soon, don’t hold your breath.
* Today’s D.C. Circuit: Despite the occasional catfight, it’s not as bitchy as it used to be. Sigh.
* Oppressed law clerks, your Devil Wears Prada is on its way. Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Chambermaid, by former Third Circuit clerk Saira Rao.
* Chickens help us cope with “chronic anxiety” too. After they’re ground up and turned into McNuggets. [Nasty, Brutish & Short]
* “DO NOT put any person in this washing machine.” Unless they’re really smelly — and small. [Overlawyered; Associated Press]
* Eliot Spitzer has a man-date. In more ways than one. [New York Daily News]
* Joan Biskupic gets a book deal. For a bio that writes itself. [How Appealing]
* Judges should too. ‘Cause most of them couldn’t do their own Westlaw research if their lives depended on it. [TaxProf Blog]
-
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