* David Lat, Tony Mauro, and Matt Welch discuss how the new media covers the law. [Legal Blog Watch]
* The 25 “most dangerous” colleges in America. Yes, of course Yale is on this list! [Tax Prof Blog]
* Muammar Gaddafi has some thoughts on international law. [Miss Trials]
* Ladies, “flaunting your curves” does get you noticed. I’m not sure if that is a good thing. [Adjunct Law Prof Blog]
* Complicated laws v. Simple laws. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
* A Red Sox fan was allowed to temporarily leave jail to see a Red Sox game. This bears repeating: post the second, 2007 championship, there is no difference between Sox fans and Yankee fans. None. You’ve become what you beheld and your children will never know the joy of rooting for an underdog. [Yahoo]
Latest Stories
Dorsey & Whitney’s managing partner, Marianne D. Short, was making the rounds in the Minneapolis office yesterday, talking to associates there about the future of the firm.
That future might be one without lockstep compensation. A source reports:
[T]he firm [suggested] it was restructuring our compensation. They did not give us any specific details. But, it seems likely that this will result in another large pay cut for associates. While hazy on the details, Dorsey management indicated that the restructuring will be something like this: we will be given a base pay rate which will be below market (whatever that means these days, but regardless, likely well below what we are currently making after our 10% pay cut), which will be supplemented by a ‘bonus’ if we make our hours to bring compensation up to market.
Alright, slow down. While it does appear that Short broached the subject with associates in Dorsey’s Minneapolis office, it appears that there are still a lot of evaluations and reviews that will have to take place at Dorsey before any final decision is made. It is premature to speculate about what kind of new base salary the firm might offer.
But it does look like the firm is considering a new system. We have statements from the firm and more from our tipsters, after the jump.
Continue reading “Dorsey & Whitney: Do We Have Another Firm Looking to Abandon Lockstep?”
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is fighting back thanks to Maryland’s “Linda Tripp Law.”
For those of you that have been living under a rock, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles posed as a pimp and prostitute to dupe ACORN employees. The two shot hidden camera footage that showed two (former) ACORN employees giving tax advice on how to run a brothel to the unsavory couple.
ACORN and their former workers are suing O’Keefe, Giles, and conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart – who posted the video on his website — under Maryland’s wiretapping laws. The law states that both parties must consent to an audio recording, and was used to indict Linda Tripp during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal.
ACORN is seeking a lot of money in this lawsuit. Hey, now that Congress has cut off their funding the money has to come from somewhere. The AP reports:
The lawsuit claims the video damaged ACORN’s reputation and asks for injunctions barring its further broadcast or distribution. It seeks $2 million in compensatory damages — $1 million for ACORN and $500,000 for each of the two former employees — as well as $1 million in punitive damages from each of the three defendants.
As one tipster put it:
I read the basis for the law suit and vomited a little in my mouth.
It’s not that O’Keefe and Giles have clean hands here, but the “optics” of this lawsuit are pretty bad for ACORN. Let’s look at this in more detail after the jump.
Continue reading “Lawsuit of the Day: This ACORN Stuff is Nuts”
We have done a lot of reporting on firms that have deferred their incoming class, and then extended the deferral period. At some firms, it has been an indefinite deferral extension.
So give Arent Fox a little bit of credit. Instead of continuing to string the class of 2009 along, the firm has cried “no más” and just revoked offers to several of its incoming associates.
Arent Fox has confirmed to Above the Law that it has decided to revoke offers to some 2009 graduates who have not yet started at the firm. The firm is giving them $20,000 for the inconvenience of believing they had already successfully secured post-graduate employment.
Maybe Arent Fox read Morning Docket today. We linked to a story in the Atlantic that asked why firms were doing deferrals instead of revoking offers outright.
There has been much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments by would-be Arent Fox first years on Facebook this morning. But we think this comment on a status update captures the general feeling:
I just sent them an envelope with powder in it. Don’t worry, I wore a ski mask when I walked to the mailbox so they can’t trace me.
Please, Arent Fox friends, do not blow your $20K on terrorist activities. Instead stock up on Ramen and a buy a good sleeping bag. It’s going to be a long winter.
UPDATE: We assume the Facebook commenter was joking. Clearly. The wearing a ski mask to the mailbox line is clear parody.
FURTHER UPDATE: Arent Fox Chairman Marc Fleischaker shared some numbers with the BLT:
In all, Fleischaker said, about 12 incoming associates were affected. Washington, which has the firm’s largest office, had “about eight,” New York had “between two and three,” and Los Angeles had one, Fleischaker said. The news was first reported on Above the Law.
Read Arent Fox’s full statement after the jump.
Continue reading “Incoming Associates, Some of You Aren’t Going to Be Working at Arent Fox”
If you’re looking for options beyond Biglaw, we’re here to help. We continue our series of open threads covering small law firms focused on different practice areas. To see the fields we’ve covered so far, click here and scroll down.
We’ve received encouraging feedback from readers — and suggestions. Like this one:
I really like the small firm series you’re running, and I’m hoping you can make the next post about real estate law. I know there are lots of high-end boutiques specializing in commercial real estate out there, and I’m curious about what kind of hours they work and what kind of money the junior to midlevel associates make.
My current practice area involves long and very unpredictable hours, but I’m pretty junior, so I can still switch into another area. Real estate is at the top of my “escape options” list because I’ve heard that, even at larger firms, real estate involves less stress and fewer hours than litigation or corporate.
Is this true? Is real estate really free of “fire drills”?
Readers, can you provide information for our correspondent? If you can, please contribute to this open thread about REAL ESTATE LAW.
Some half-baked musings to start the conversation, after the jump.
We received over 1300 responses to last week’s Career Center survey on how lawyers feel about their careers in light of the recession. Despite economists’ encouraging words about the light at the end of the tunnel, respondents across the country remain deeply concerned for themselves and the legal industry as a whole. Although the economy has pulled out of its tailspin, recovering financial institutions and businesses are no longer generating the same level of legal work they once did, making it extremely difficult for major corporate law firms to stage their own comebacks. With business stagnating, several major law firms have gone out of business , and waves of layoffs have left thousands of big firm attorneys without jobs and countless others thinking they could be cut next. Check out the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, for more on which firms are starting to recover from the downturn and which firms continue to struggle.
Check out the survey results, after the jump.
Continue reading “Career Center: Attorneys Aren’t Seeing Green Shoots”
Did you apply to DePaul College of Law? Ever? If you ever thought you wanted to attend DePaul — regardless of whether you decided to go somewhere else or are now a practicing attorney — the school has received your application!
Yesterday, hundreds of former DePaul applicants, many of whom are now out of school, received the following email:
We have received the electronic submission of your application for admission to DePaul University College of Law. We have requested your Law School Credential Assembly Service (LSDAS) report from the Law School Admission Council. Please note that we will not begin to review applications until mid-November. At that time, we will notify you if we have any questions or require any additional information to complete your application. At that time, we also will notify you by email when your application is complete and ready for review by our Admission Committee. Once your application is complete, you can expect to receive a decision from the Admission Committee within 2-3 weeks of the completion date.
Thank you for your application to DePaul University College of Law.
Some of the people who received this email were five years removed from sending out law school applications.
Obviously, a major glitch occurred at DePaul. But how did DePaul even have accurate email addresses for so many students that never went to the school? Seriously, just how long does DePaul keep your personal information?
The school responds after the jump.
Continue reading “DePaul College of Law Has Received Your Application”
* Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit has turned Keynesian. [New Republic via Blackbook Legal]
* ‘Law & Order’ will tie ‘Gunsmoke’ this year for longest-running prime-time drama on television, but Dick Wolf is annoyed to have to move aside for Jay Leno. [Los Angeles Times]
* What’s the point of law firm deferrals? Written with lots of “expert sources” in the form of Daniel Indiviglio’s lawyer and law student friends. [Atlantic]
* Did you hear? The worst of the recession is over for law firms! [Law Society Gazette via ABA Journal]
* ACORN has filed a $2 million lawsuit against two conservative activists who secretly filmed its employees giving a pimp tax advice. ACORN says the video violates Maryland’s Wiretap Law. That’s nuts! [Courthouse News Service]
* There’s a deep bench at Harvard Law to fill Kennedy’s Senate seat. [ABA Journal]
Last week, we gave you this photo of a bunch of legal types and asked you to submit possible captions:

You did not disappoint. We have chosen our ten favorite captions. Check them out and vote for the best one, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Caption Contest Finalists: We Dig This”
* Will the web make “brick and mortar” law schools irrelevant? [Law and More]
* Can lawyers use Twitter for business development? Prove it. [Legal Blog Watch]
* Australia is using Interpol tactics to screen hotel guests.I hope this comes to America so I will have an air tight excuse for never leaving NYC again. [Transracial]
* I wonder if Bill Clinton could get a legal job in this market. [What About Clients?]
* One thousand posts about drugs (and devices) and the law is pretty awesome. Congratulations. [Drug and Device Law]
* Amicus briefs from the Solicitor General. [SCOTUSblog]
* Milk goes green. [Halogen Life]
Yesterday, we mentioned that attorneys in the great city of Pittsburgh are worried about being confused with corporate elites during the G-20 summit. I was skeptical whether the dress code advice given to K&L Gates attorneys would actually help people avoid the scorn of protesters.
So we kicked the question to our friends at Fashionista. Here are some suggestions on what female attorneys should be wearing in the ‘Burgh this week:
My first thought for the ladies was to definitely keep it simple: a dark fitted jean (I’m currently obsessed with my “Curvy” style from the 1969 collection at the Gap), maybe a cool not suit-y black blazer, with a striped tee underneath and a simple black boot. Subtle, professional, but not too corporate lackey.
Or throw in a little retro vibe plus color, like this look from Chris Benz. Maybe I’m wrong, but brights don’t scream Big Law to me. The other option I came up with was to go luxe boho, like you’re part of the professional counterculture, if you will. Maybe something along the lines of this Anna Sui print with some black tights and a slouchy bag.
Click over to Fashionista for advice for the fellas. Or check out what their couture conscious commenters have to say about the conundrum.
Okay, I’m out of alliterative examples. Hop on the hyperlink below.
A Sartorial Conundrum [Fashionista]
Earlier: K&L Gates Tells Lawyers to Go Incognito During G20 Summit



