Just because it’s Saturday doesn’t mean you can escape document review — or at least talking about document review.
A liveblog of the Lavender Law panel on e-discovery, after the jump.
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- Conferences / Symposia, Federal Judges, Gay, Judicial Nominations, Lesbians, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, State Judges
Understanding Federal Judicial Nominations
By David LatLiveblogging of this interesting panel about judicial nominations at the National LGBT Bar Association’s Annual Lavender Law Career Fair and Conference, after the jump.
Continue reading “Understanding Federal Judicial Nominations”
We’re here at the National LGBT Bar Association’s Annual Lavender Law Career Fair and Conference, attending a great panel about relationship recognition (aka marriage equality aka same-sex marriage).
You can access the liveblog after the jump.
Continue reading “Relationship Recognition: Ends, Means, and the Path Ahead”
* Does practicing law mean living “a life on the sidelines”? Discuss. [What About Clients?]
* Does working at a “white-shoe law firm” require you to always wear white shirts? [Excellence in Teaching]
* Speaking of white, apparently you have to be one if you want to run for eighth-grade class president at this Mississippi middle school. [Gawker]
* The Wise Latina believes in her own wisdom. [Josh Blackman's Blog]
* Some environmentalist groups are accusing the Obama Administration of siding with polluters, based on a brief recently filed by the Solicitor General, but Professor Jonathan Adler is not surprised. [Volokh Conspiracy via Point of Law]
* Looks like I’m not the only Filipino who gets excited by beauty queens. [Deadspin]
We know how our readers are obsessed with toilets. Over the course of this week, a couple of stories came in about bathroom shenanigans, and we’ll deal with them both here. We’ve got a steamy bathroom (or maybe not, see correction below) and a stinky bathroom from Iowa and UCLA Law, respectively.
First up, Iowa. Land of same-sex marriage and judges getting kicked around because of same-sex marriage. With everybody hot and bothered over gay love in the corn state, you’d think there wasn’t any good, clean, traditional-values sex happening in Iowa. Well the Des Moines Register tells us that Iowa is still safe for heterosexual couples:
A Waterloo lawyer who allegedly had sex with a client in the law library of the Black Hawk County Courthouse faces a possible suspension of his license.
The Iowa Supreme Court’s Attorney Disciplinary Board alleges that Clovis M. Bowles had sexual relations with one of his female clients on several occasions in 2007 and 2008.
Clearly, if we let the “gay agenda” have its way and ruin the traditional definition of marriage, this kind of grotty, bathroom hetrosex will be a thing of the past. And that’ll make Jesus angry…
Continue reading “A Collection of Things You Can Do in a Bathroom”
The photograph for our latest caption contest is a bit odd. And we’re not going to give you the backstory until the end, so as not to stifle your creativity.
In all honesty, this pic might not make for good contest fodder, due to to its sheer strangeness. But you haven’t disappointed us in the past with your wit and inventiveness.
So let’s see what you can come up with for this photo….
Back in June, we bestowed Lawyer of the Day honors upon two of the nation’s top litigators: Ted Wells and Martin Flumenbaum, the co-chair and former chair, respectively, of the renowned litigation department at Paul Weiss. Given the sterling reputations of the two lawyers and their firm, it was a surprising development.
We recognized Messrs. Wells and Flumenbaum after a New Jersey judge sanctioned Paul Weiss and its co-counsel — Lowenstein Sandler, one of the Garden State’s leading law firms, and Wells’s former home (before he jumped across the Hudson) — for pursuing a “frivolous” and “ridiculous” legal claim on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman against his ex-father-in-law, Robert Cohen.
In June, Judge Ellen Koblitz ordered Paul Weiss and Lowenstein Sandler to pay Cohen’s fees and costs for opposing the claim; she scheduled a hearing to determine the amount. The hearing took place last month, and now we know the amount.
It’s nothing to sneeze at, even for firms as well-heeled as Paul Weiss and Lowenstein. And to add insult to (financial) injury, Judge Koblitz got super-snarky in the opinion setting forth her reasoning….
Continue reading “A Jersey Judge Benchslaps Paul Weiss and Lowenstein Sandler — Hard”
In keeping with the highly optimistic “dey terk er jerbs” story lines of the last couple of weeks, such as Elie’s on how outsourcing could be great for associates, I thought I would address how attorneys working remotely on e-discovery projects could actually be a good thing for the future of Biglaw.
A couple of years ago, I was a legal recruiter for a small staffing agency placing contract attorneys on e-discovery projects in the Washington, DC area. The attorneys constantly asked me the same questions: “Is it true this is all going away?” Or, “Is all doc review really heading to India?”
I would respond by telling them not to worry about India, because the real threat would be coming from Indiana…
Continue reading “Why India and Not Indiana? A Case for Taking e-Discovery ‘In House,’ Literally”
If you stick to the coasts, you might not have heard of Barnes & Thornburg. But it’s one of the biggest and best firms in Indiana. Unfortunately today we bring them up because of tragedy. A partner at the firm, Mary Jane Frisby, was found dead in her home. She appears to be the victim of a murder-suicide carried out by her husband. The ABA Journal reports:
The body of Mary Jane Frisby, 44, a former partner at the Indianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg, was found in her home, the apparent victim of homicide.
Police discovered her body after her estranged husband, David Frisby, shot himself at a parking garage near the firm, which she’d recently left, reports Channel 6 in Indianapolis.
Weeks before the murder, David Frisby lashed out at lawyers from Barnes & Thornburg…
Continue reading “Barnes & Thornburg Partner is Victim in Apparent Murder-Suicide”
If you’ve ever tried to write a lead paragraph for a story, you’ll know that the New York Daily News staff writers deserve drinks on the house for this impressive opening:
A cleavage-crazed criminal court judge — who fathered a son with a young Legal Aid lawyer — quit after officials found a massive porn stash on his work computer, sources said Thursday.
Bang. Erato herself couldn’t have been more titillating. So I’m assuming you’re going to want some details about Judge Jerks-A-Lot…
Continue reading “‘Cleavage-Crazed’ Judge Resigns After Porn Found on His Work Computer”
Poor Dalmatians....
It looks like Wyclef Jean can’t run for president of Haiti. But elsewhere in the Caribbean, visitors from the mainland are being welcomed with open arms. A reader at Harvard Law School reports: “A member of the Class of 2010 was just crowned Miss Jamaica World 2010. Not sure if she had an offer or is deferred or what.”
(Although she’s a freakin’ beauty queen, note how the tipster immediately turned to discussion of her law firm employment status. Welcome to HLS!)
The news is true: Chantal Raymond, who graduated from Harvard Law a few months ago, is the new Miss Jamaica World. As noted in the Jamaica Observer, Raymond will represent the island nation at the Miss World competition later this year, in Sanya, China.
Yes, we know: pics or it didn’t happen.
We have the pictures. And yes, of course the pageant included a swimsuit competition….
Continue reading “Jamaican Me Crazy: Harvard Law Hottie Wins Jamaican Beauty Pageant”
Elie's a Mets fan so he never has to worry about WS tickets, free or otherwise
* New York Governor David Paterson may face criminal charges for accepting a free ticket to the World Series last year. Even if he’s convicted, I still think he got a good deal on that ticket. [WSJ Law Blog]
* The “hold-out” juror in the Blagojevich trial explains her vote. I’d like to mock her, but she appears reasonable, honest, and conscientious. It’s a shame Blagojevich didn’t sell her that Senate seat because Washington could sure use someone like that. [Chicago Tribune]
* Is the FAA’s proposed $24.2 million penalty against American Airlines excessive? Yes . . . unless you think that giant metal flying machines carrying thousands of people across the world daily should actually meet the minimum safety guidelines set by the government. [CNN]
* The Elusive and Exotic Double Benchslap: A Florida appellate court has found a plaintiff’s lawyer’s language during trial to be so prejudicial and inflammatory that the trial judge abused his discretion by finding otherwise. [Law.com]
* A Two-Step Guide to Losing a Seat on the Iowa Supreme Court: (1) Rule in favor of same-sex marriage; (2) Wait for the next retention election. [Washington Post]
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Business Is Booming in Hong Kong and China and What It Means for U.S. Associate Lateral Hiring There
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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 six years. You can reach them by email: [email protected].
Since late last year, things have been booming in Hong Kong / China in cap markets, especially Hong Kong IPOs. M&A deal flow has recently been getting a bit stronger as well. Although one can’t predict such things with any certainty, all signs are pointing to a banner entire 2014 for the top end US corporate and cap markets practices in Hong Kong / China. This is not really new news, as its been the feeling most in the market have had for a few months now and things continue to look good.
The head of our Asia practice, Evan Jowers, has been in Hong Kong for about 10 days a month (with trips every other month to both Shanghai and Bejing) for the past 7 months, and spending most of his time there meeting with senior US hiring partners at just about all the major US and UK firms there, as well as prospective candidates at all associate levels and partner levels, and when in the US, Evan works Asia hours and is regularly on the phone with such persons, as our the other members of our Asia team. Our Yuliya Vinokurova is in Hong Kong every other month and Robert is there about 5 times a year as well. While we have a solid Asia team of recruiters, Evan Jowers will spend at least some time with all of our candidates for Asia position. We have had long standing relationships, and good friendships in some cases, with hiring partners and other senior US partners in Asia for 8 years now.
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Women Legal 2014 – New York
The evolution of relationships between the genders continues. Currently, in law firms, there is an interesting conundrum; balancing the desire for a gender-blind workplace where “the best lawyer gets the work and advances” and the reality of navigating the complicated maze created by the fact that, in general, men and women do possess differences in their work styles. These variations impact who they work with, how they work, how they build professional connections and how organizations ultimately leverage, reward and recognize the talents of all.
Featuring Key Contributions and Candid Real-World Illustrations From:
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How A Fictional Story Of Henry Ford Will Help You Stop Giving Business Away
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Henry Ford sat on his workbench and sighed. A year earlier, he had personally built 13,000 Model Ts with his own hands. Fashioning lugnuts and tie rods by hand, Ford was loath to ask for help. Sure, there were things about the car that he didn’t quite understand. This explains the lack of reliable navigation systems in the Model T. But Ford persevered because he knew that unless he did everything, he could not reliably call these cars his own.“Unless my own personal toil is responsible for it, it may as well be called a Hyundai,” Ford remarked at the time.
The preceding may sound unfamiliar because it is categorically untrue. And also monumentally stupid. Henry Ford didn’t build all those cars by hand. He had help and plenty of it. Almost exactly one hundred years ago, Henry Ford opened up the most technologically advanced assembly line the world had ever seen. Built on the premise that work can be chopped up into digestible pieces and completed by many men better than one, the line ushered in an age of unparalleled productivity.
Today, an attorney refers business because he can’t do everything the client asks of him.
There are three reasons why this is way dumber than a made-up Henry Ford story…
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