* Judge Richard Posner (one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals) has co-authored a paper concluding that “politics is a particularly good predictor of judicial voting.” Download it while it’s hot, recommends Professor David Zaring. [Conglomerate; SSRN]
* Keker & Van Nest want out of “teledildonics” litigation. Wonder why? [The Prior Art]
* In another Keker case, L’Affaire AutoAdmit, Anthony Ciolli has filed a pro se motion to quash. [Legal Satyricon]
* Now on Broadway: Laurence Fishburne as Thurgood Marshall. Seriously. And according to the reviews, the show’s not bad. [WSJ Law Blog]
* It’s not your imagination; the news / gossip cycle has been a little slow lately. But have no fear, Judge Halverson is here. [Wild Wild Law]
* Speaking of strong women in the law, Alice Fisher — the diva-licious leader of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division — is departing from the DOJ later this month. [BLT]
* Have briefcase, will travel. Just don’t bill the client $875 an hour for it. [TaxProf Blog]
* Congress may hold hearings on the Milberg scandal. We hope they happen, ’cause they’d be great fun to watch (and liveblog). [Reuters]
Since 2005, four states have finally recognized that fraudulent inducement of sex is rape. Not just immoral, not just “boys being boys” behavior, but misappropriation of a woman’s personal right to choose who invades her body. Perhaps surprisingly, the first state to recognize fraudulent inducement of sex as a basis for rape was Alabama in 2005.
Well, it’s not that surprising — Alabama’s not really that big on sex. Remember their sex toys ban?
California, Michigan, and Tennessee followed suit the following two years, and Peter Koutoujian of Massachusetts filed a similar bill in February, 2008, which, when passed, will make Massachusetts the fifth state to recognize the crime of “stealing” another’s sexual prerogative.
As Britney Spears famously sang, covering the Bobby Brown hit: “That’s my prerogative. They say I’m nasty. But I don’t give a damn. Getting boys is how I live.”
Oh, sorry, we got distracted. Back to Professor Sacks:
…. In a world filled with dangerous sexual diseases, it is particularly important to protect women’s rights to protect their own bodies, not just against physical violence, but against fraudulent inducement of sexual decisions and all of the dangerous consequences that can result from a lack of truly informed consent to sexual relations. For more background about the need for tort law to respond to the reality of sexual misappropriation, see my new article, Intentional Sex Torts, to be published in the Fordham Law Review in the fall of 2008.
Marc Randazza — whose Legal Satyricon blog is excellent, even if more sex-obsessed than ATL — is skeptical:
Expanding tort law to cover dishonest sexual encounters is a horrifying proposition. We have to be left to be human — even if that means that some immoral, abhorrent, and even disgusting behavior will leak through the sieve of our legal system. There simply does not need to be a law to cover every bit of sketchy behavior. For as long as we live and love, someone will lie about their feelings to someone else. Hearts will break. Men and women will lie to each other. Men and women will sleep with each other for the wrong reasons. I’m not simply arguing that “boys will be boys.” I am arguing that this is the yin to the yang of love, passion, and ecstasy.
Every time you meet someone or f*** someone, you are taking a risk. That’s part of the thrill!
True. But if it burns when you pee a few weeks later, the “thrill” is pretty much gone.
I wonder how the legal academy would respond if I published a law review article, Cock-blocking as tortious interference with sexual relationships.
Sounds like a tough sell. Try the Journal of Law & Chauvinism. But if they don’t accept it, nobody will.
We have enough problems with the religious right trying to squeeze government under our bedroom doors. Don’t let bored law professors push tort lawyers under our sheets too.
These are just snippets from two interesting, longer posts. Read them in full over here (Sacks) and here (Randazza).
In the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine, you’ll find their list of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals. The list appears here (and you can vote for your top five). Bios of the honorees — and we must confess, some of these names didn’t ring a bell — appear here.
The public intellectuals explicitly identified on the list as lawyers, judges, or legal scholars are (in alphabetical order):
– Aitzaz Ahsan, president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, and a leader in the Pakistan People’s Party;
– Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate;
Professor Nussbaum is a former flame of Professor Sunstein, while Professor Power is his current main squeeze. Rumor has it that his move to Harvard Law School from his longtime academic home, the University of Chicago Law School, was prompted by a desire to be closer to the center of power — Samantha Power, that is.
In their paper Six Degrees of Cass Sunstein: Collaboration Networks in Legal Scholarship, Professors Paul Edelman and Tracey George declared Cass Sunstein to be the “Kevin Bacon” of the law. But it looks like his influence extends beyond the narrow world of legal academia, into the World of Ideas, writ large.
In sum, two percent of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals are former or current lovers of Cass Sunstein. This should provide consolation for Cass, who didn’t make the list himself.
Monica Conyers is a University of District of Columbia School of Law grad, the wife of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, and the pro-tem president of the Detroit City Council. Maybe tem stands for temper, because she’s got a nasty one. She went ballistic on the council’s president earlier this year. From the Detroit Free-Press:
Conyers interrupted Council President Ken Cockrel as he was questioning Carl Edwards, the Detroit attorney. Cockrel reminded Conyers that he had the floor and banged his gavel repeatedly.
Conyers railed: “You’re not my Daddy. You’re not going to disrespect me. Grow up! Control your house and learn how to treat women.”
Cockrel told Conyers that she was “one to talk.”
Conyers also made repeated mocking reference to Cockrel as Shrek, the green, grumpy and rotund ogre from the animated film.
Well, a tipster sends us the video of the confrontation, along with a subsequent roundtable with a bunch of middle schoolers. Our tipster says:
[The UDC] advocacy program must be the WORST in the nation, because she clearly lost this argument with an 8th grader.
Here’s the video. Go to 00:35 for the confrontation with the council president and to 2:40 for the confrontation with the 8th grader:
Conyers got schooled by Kierra Bell, 8th grader at Courtis Elementary Middle School.
This week we’re focusing on a particular practice area for Job of the Week. Here are four in-house opportunities for patent attorneys, all in locations starting with “S”: Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Diego and St. Joseph, MO. They’re brought to you by Lateral Link:
* A Fortune 100 company that provides enterprise storage and data management solutions is seeking a qualified corporate patent attorney with two to three years experience in patent procurement to join its small, dynamic patent group. Responsibilities include preparation and prosecution of patent applications with potential involvement in a full spectrum of other Intellectual Property matters, including licensing and litigation. Located in Silicon Valley. Position #8661.
* One of the world’s best-known software and technology companies is seeking patent attorneys with five or more years of experience to join a new practice group the company is building. Successful applicants will enjoy a stimulating, fast-paced environment and make an impact on the Company’s future as one of the earlier in-house attorneys in this new practice. Located near Seattle, Washington. Position # 8058.
* A Fortune 500 company that manufactures CDMA cell phones, base stations, and chips is seeking a patent counsel with at least five years of patent preparation and prosecution experience. The successful applicant will develop and maintain U.S. and foreign patent applications, trademarks, and copyrights, among other duties. Located in San Diego, California. Position # 8159.
* A major pharmaceutical company which concentrates on the development of human pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, chemicals, and animal health products, is seeking a Sr. Associate Director & Senior Counsel Intellectual Property. Located in St. Joseph, Missouri. Position #8375.
Lateral Link members are interviewing and being hired for dozens of in-house positions, and employers are finding Lateral Link’s process to be extremely effective. According to Michael Ray, Vice President at Western Digital: “Lateral Link has hit on an approach that is ideal for companies like ours that want to locate and recruit top-notch talent as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I highly recommend Lateral Link.”
Catholic law schools uphold two legal regimes: the laws of the U.S. legal system, and the laws from the big guy upstairs. Some students are just there for the former, and discomforted by the influence of the latter.
A tipster writes to us about a debate at Minnesota’s St. Thomas School of Law. We notice that in their motto — “Faith, Reason, Community” — faith comes first. So students probably should have expected something like this:
At Minnesota’s new law school, St. Thomas, the students have a 50-hour pro bono requirement. The school just announced that students can’t get credit if they do pro bono work for an organization that supports birth control or abortion. It seems kind of goofy.
The Minnesota Post (via Minnesota Lawyer Blog) has an article about a St. Thomas student who tried to fulfill her pro bono requirement at Planned Parenthood. Though she got approval from the student board, Dean Thomas Mengler shot it down:
Mengler announced in a campuswide letter that students would not receive credit for volunteering at Planned Parenthood or any other organization “whose mission is fundamentally in conflict with a core value of a Catholic university.”
“As a Catholic university, we have a right and a responsibility to be Catholic,” Mengler said in an interview on Tuesday. “Certainly, one of (the church’s) core values is sanctity of life.”
See also today’s Minnesota Star-Tribune (via Mirror of Justice, a leading Catholic legal theory blog).
St. Thomas isn’t the only law school struggling to balance secular influences and religious traditions. We recently received an e-mail from a Georgetown alum who tried to direct his donation to the school’s pro-choice campus group. They turned him down — see the e-mail exchange after the jump.
* Uma Thurman gives dramatic testimony at the trial of her alleged stalker. [City Room / NYT]
* The latest on delays in judicial confirmations. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* Wilson Sonsini accused of malpractice in new shareholder derivative lawsuit filed against Brocade directors and officers. [The Recorder]
* More information about the apparent suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called “D.C. madam.” [CNN]
* DOJ inspector general investigating whether U.S. Marshals were used to ferry around Fox Sports broadcasters during last year’s World Series. [Boston Globe via WSJ Law Blog]
* Lots of lawyers are frequent travelers, so here’s some advice for dealing with jet lag: caffeine + naps. [New York Times]
Two venerable institutions are working on re-branding.
In this new promo video, Venable wants to clarify that its name starts with a “V.”
From their marketing firm’s website comes this insight into the new image:
Working with Greenfield/Belser, we sought to create a visual identity for our firm that best represented our firm’s personality:
* proud but not boastful
* self-assured but not cocky
* confident and competent but not arrogant
* decisive and resolute but flexible and adaptable
* enduring, built for the long haul but evolving with changing needs
We also sought to reinforce to existing clients and convey to prospective clients, the attributes that we are known for (in the view of our clients):
* a firm that gets what’s really important to me
* the best of both worlds, quality and excellence at a fair price
* real human beings, not robots
* genuine interest in me, my business and my concerns
* they tackle our problems like they’re their own
* they’re confident, determined, authentic, resolute, innovative and respected
Our New Brand
V is the first letter in the word “Venerable,” and “Victory,”and “Vision,” and…Venable. We have made very minor modifications to our logo. But we will now also incorporate a strong visual element throughout our materials – The Venable “V.” “V” is a powerful letter and we want to own it. It is strong and unique.
Very vinteresting. The second re-branding campaign has been discussed before in these pages. Berkeley has issued a press release clarifying their name. An excerpt:
Names
* Our official name is the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. With external audiences, we will use our official name in full or in one of two abbreviated forms: UC Berkeley School of Law or Berkeley Law.
* We will continue to use the name Boalt Hall with alumni and with the internal law school community. Approved
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Berkeley Law
Boalt Hall (within the “family”) Discouraged
Berkeley School of Law
Berkeley Law School
Boalt Hall School of Law (or other permutations)
Please notice the Boalt logo at the top of the press release page. Mixed messages… we’re confused…
Berkeley paid a public relations firm $25,000 to come up with the brilliant new moniker, UC Berkeley School of Law. We wonder why they didn’t take ATL readers’ (free) advice and call it the White Guys With Asian Girls School of Law.
When it comes to law school graduation speakers, it’s hard to please everyone. Earlier this year, controversy erupted at Boston College Law School when U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was announced as the commencement speaker. Some students, faculty and alumni voiced opposition to AG Mukasey, based on his involvement in the waterboarding / torture controversy (extensive coverage collected here; resolution of the situation described here).
Now we report on commencement controversy news of a rather different (and somewhat less highbrow) sort. It arises out of the decision by Northwestern University School of Law to invite Jerry Springer to serve as this year’s commencement speaker. Springer got his law degree there in ’68, worked as a campaign aide to Robert F. Kennedy, and served as mayor of Cincinnati. But he’s perhaps best known as the ringmaster of scandal and vulgarity on the Jerry Springer Show (and an unsuccessful contestant on Dancing With the Stars).
Some Northwestern students are not happy about Springer’s selection. From a tipster:
There is a current uproar in the graduating class at Northwestern Law. The graduation committee thought Jerry Springer would be an appropriate speaker for this year’s convocation. Most of the student body is opposed to this, but this administration is sticking by the committee’s decision.
Maybe he’ll bring Northwestern students with secrets and unresolved conflicts up on stage, then have them confess and brawl. That might be more fun than the usual staid graduation ceremony.
We contacted the school for comment, which issued the following statement, from Dean David E. Van Zandt:
In keeping with the spirit of our community, our commencement speaker annually is selected by a student committee, approved by the administration, and invited by both.
Mr. Springer is an alumnus who has held public office as a city council member and mayor of Cincinnati. He has had a very successful career in the news and entertainment industries.
We look forward to Mr. Springer’s participation at commencement.
At least one LLM candidate is trying to prevent Springer’s speaking. See the protest letter circulating at Northwestern, and vote in our reader poll, after the jump. Update: Also after the jump, a defense of Jerry Springer’s selection as commencement speaker, which went out over the NU law school listerv.
Marc Dann has had a rough tenure as Ohio’s attorney general. When the media start crafting timelines of your troubles, the end may well be nigh. One of Dann’s biggest problems seems to be judgment calls. Such as when choosing staff members. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a write-up on this stellar Dann staffer:
One of Attorney General Marc Dann’s top managers, who is accused of sexual harassment, has a history of problems with cars and alcohol, including a drunken driving arrest months before he was hired and a smashed state car after.
Dann knew about the arrest because, according to State Highway Patrol records, he was the one who picked Anthony Gutierrez up at 2:30 in the morning at the Canfield post after Gutierrez blew a .149 on a blood-alcohol test nearly twice the legal limit.
Aren’t staffers supposed to be the ones picking their drunk bosses up, and not the other way around?
Reflecting another poor hiring decision, Dann had to discipline his communications director for sending a "profane, abusive e-mail to a co-worker." His COMMUNICATIONS director.
The list of poor staffing choices goes on.
Dann's staff is not entirely to blame for his troubles. From the timeline:
June 2007: Dann, standing on a street in an upper-middle class neighborhood, spots a reporter who had written a story he didn’t like. Dann says, “Hey Steve, write this down: Go (expletive) yourself!”
Maybe Dann’s communications director suggested that.
Some of you have already noticed this on Above the Law’s snazzy new site credits page. But for those of you haven’t, we bring you news of a promotion. Say hello to ATL’s terrifically talented new associate editor, Kashmir Hill!
Kash has been a frequent guest contributor to these pages for several weeks now. Her witty and well-written work has been praised by many of you (and you’re a tough crowd). So we are delighted to bring her on as a permanent addition to the crew.
(Also, she promised us a photo with more skin in exchange for a promotion — and delivered. See photo at right.)
Please join me in welcoming Kashmir Hill as ATL’s new associate editor. Kash, we’re thrilled to have you! Kash In On ATL Above the Law: About Us
The war over secondhand smoke at the Ansonia has ended. A couple at the Ansonia, a historic Upper West Side apartment building, who had sued a neighbor over her wafting cigarette smoke have agreed to settle their lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs said on Monday.
The plaintiffs — Jonathan Selbin and his wife, Jenny, both lawyers — had sued their fourth-floor neighbor, Galila Huff, claiming that smoke seeping from her condo into the common hallway was jeopardizing the health of the Selbins’ young son.
Mr. Selbin confirmed the settlement and said Ms. Huff had agreed to take steps to minimize the spread of her smoke. After news of the suit was reported in February, the manufacturer of an air-cleaning system came forward to offer free equipment to Ms. Huff and the Selbins.
(We’ve had secondhand smoke problems with neighbors ourselves, so we’re siding with the Selbins on this. We hope these smoke-containment measures succeed.)
And Hartocollis covers mass transit meltdowns of lawyers, too:
[Train passenger John Clifford] asked the passengers to keep it down, but the chatter continued. In March 2007, Mr. Clifford had had enough. He shouted an obscenity at a passenger talking on his cellphone and slapped the hand of another, and was arrested. On Tuesday, he found himself in Manhattan Criminal Court, telling his tale.
“I stand up for my right to be let alone,” Mr. Clifford, a retired New York City police sergeant, declared from the witness stand at his nonjury trial on charges including harassment and assault….
Although he seemed like a perfect client for a civil rights lawyer, he chose to represent himself. He has a law degree….
Outside court, he compared himself to Rosa Parks, fighting for his right to sit where he wanted in peace.
Um, yeah.
So city living can be frustrating for some lawyers (as ATL commenters in non-urban areas love pointing out, in the geographical pissing matches that periodically erupt here). But hey, things could be worse — at least these lawyers haven’t mysteriously disappeared.
Is New York City becoming the Bermuda Triangle of Biglaw? That’s the subject of our latest column for the New York Observer. The Case of the Disappearing Lawyers [New York Observer] A Noisy Train, a Fed-Up Rider and a Day in Court [New York Times] Upper West Side Couple Settles Suit Over a Neighbor’s Smoke [New York Times]
If you are considering a virtual law practice, you know that many of today’s solo firms started that way. But why are established, multi-attorney law firms going virtual?
Many small firms are successfully moving part—or even all—of their practice to a virtual setting. This even includes multi-jurisdictional practice spanning several states and practice areas, although solo and small partnerships are still the largest adopters of virtual law.
Can you do the same? The new article Mobile in Practice, Virtual by Design from author Jared Correia, Esq., explores how mobile technology bring real-life benefits to a small law firm. Read this new article—the next in Thomson Reuters’ Independent Thinking series for small firms—to explore how a mobile practice:
Reduces malpractice risk
Enables you to gather the best attorneys to fit the firm, regardless of each person’s geographic location
Leverages mobile devices and cloud technology to enable on-the-spot client and prospect communication
Download your free PDF copy of Mobile in Practice, Virtual by Design to learn more about best practices for operating a partial or fully virtual practice.
Transitioning in-house is something many (if not most) firm lawyers find themselves considering at some point. For many, it’s the first step in their career that isn’t simply a function of picking the best option available based on a ranking system.
Unknown territory feels high-risk, and can have the effect of steering many of us towards the well-greased channels into large, established companies.
For those who may be open to something more entrepreneurial, there is far less information available. No recruiter is calling every week with offers and details.
In sponsorship with Betterment, ATL and David Lat will moderate a panel about life in-house and we’ll hear from GCs at Birchbox, Gawker Media, Squarespace, Bonobos, and Betterment. Drinks, snacks, networking, and a great time guaranteed. Invite your colleagues, but RSVP fast, as space is limited.
Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past seven years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
It’s that time of year again when JDs are starting to apply for 2L summer jobs and 2L summers are deciding which practice area to focus on.
For those JDs with an interest in potentially lateraling to or transferring to Asia in the future, please feel free to reach out to Kinney for advice on firm choices, interviewing and practice choices, relating to future marketability in Asia, or for a general discussion on your particular Asia markets of interest. This is of course a free of cost service for those who some years in the future may be our future industry contacts or perhaps even clients.
For some years now Kinney’s Asia head, Evan Jowers, has been formally advising Harvard Law students with such questions, as the Asia expert in Harvard Law’s “Ask The Experts Market Program” each summer and fall, with podcasts and scheduled phone calls. This has been an enjoyable and productive experience for all involved.
The choices a JD makes during their IL and 2L summers and 2L falls can have an enormous affect on their future marketability in Asia, should they be interested in such a move.
* Judge Richard Posner (one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals) has co-authored a paper concluding that “politics is a particularly good predictor of judicial voting.” Download it while it’s hot, recommends Professor David Zaring. [Conglomerate; SSRN]
