Recent Headlines from Above the Law
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Law Schools
Who Says You Have To Graduate Law School Before You Make A Difference?
Talk about having a conversation starter on your resume! -
Technology
OK, We Get Technology Competence, But How Do We Get Technologically Competent?
The past week brought news of two more initiatives that should further promote technology competence among legal professionals. -
Deaths, Law Schools
Law Student Found Dead In Car After Being Missing For Almost A Week
He was a 'beloved' member of the law school community. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.23.17
* “You have been very much able to avoid any specificity like no one I have seen before. And maybe that’s a virtue, I don’t know. But for us on this side, knowing where you stand on major questions of the day is really important to a vote.” Despite hours of questioning, Senate Democrats were unable to get Judge Neil Gorsuch to commit to any response beyond researched generalities. At this point, his confirmation seems inevitable. [New York Times]
* Sure, Biglaw associates want their firms to be more progressive when it comes to flexible working arrangements, but that doesn’t mean they feel comfortable taking advantage of the programs being offered. Per a survey conducted by the Diversity and Flexibility Alliance, only 8.8 percent of lawyers at firms with reduced hours policies actually work reduced hours. We’ll have more on this later today. [Big Law Business]
* Is this the end of the Swiss verein? While the legal structure has been adopted in almost every major cross-border law firm merger in recent memory, both of the last two transatlantic Biglaw tie-ups opted to use an entity called the company limited by guarantee (CLG). Apparently this legal structure is being favored for new law firm combinations because there are still questions about vereins’ proper use. [Am Law Daily]
* Dean Alex Acosta of Florida International University School of Law, a man who is better known these days as Trump’s nominee to be the Secretary of Labor, not only says the fiduciary rule requiring retirement investment advisers to put their clients’ interest first goes too far, but indicated that he may decline to defend a rule doubling the salary ceiling under which employees would be eligible for overtime pay. Ouch. [Reuters]
* Now that Harvard Law has decided to accept applicants’ GRE scores in lieu of their LSAT scores for admissions purposes, other law schools have decided to try the alternative exam on for size. Suffolk Law, for example, launched a study last week and offered students $100 to take the GRE. Suffolk’s dean says that “the mad dash for the GRE is not being driven by declines in applications.” Bless your heart. [Boston Globe]
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Crime, Law Schools
Would-Be Law Grad Convicted Of Stealing From School Allegedly Altered Court Records To Make It Look Like He Was Acquitted
How can you quickly make a situation go from bad to worse? Easy! Involve a former law student. -
Document Review, Law Schools, Libraries / Librarians
Law School Turns Library Back Office Into Doc-Review Dungeon
Which law school is turning part of its library into a "legal delivery center"? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.18.15
* Jose Baez of Casey Anthony trial fame gave the commencement address at Valparaiso Law this weekend and let graduates know that they, too, can be attorneys, even if they’ve been financially irresponsible. They’re letting this man teach at Harvard Law now. [The Times]
* Suffolk Law and Cardozo Law will have new deans this summer, and both are planning for smaller classes. Considering Suffolk’s plummeting LSAT scores (and standards?), its new dean may have bigger problems to deal with than filling seats. [National Law Journal]
* He “Pressure Drop[ped]” the ball: If you could take the LSAT or open for the Rolling Stones with Toots and the Maytals, which would you pick? This Paul Hastings partner took the test, and says it’s his only regret about choosing law over music. [Am Law Daily]
* Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have been sentenced to death last week, but it’s highly unlikely that his punishment will be carried out any time soon, if at all. Instead, he’ll be putting his lawyers to work for time ad infinitum. [WSJ Law Blog]
* “[D]on’t let anyone say that Charleston School of Law was already in trouble.” A local attorney says that this soon-to-fail law school only started circling the drain after its proposed sale to InfiLaw was announced. That’s quite the indictment. [Post and Courier]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.13.15
* With fewer and fewer students applying to law school, acceptance rates have skyrocketed. Some, like GW Law, have even been accused of “laundering [their] credentials” by padding their enrollment numbers with transfers. [GW Hatchet]
* “People don’t graduate from law school understanding the business of law.” That’s just one of the reasons recent grads are having such a tough time getting jobs as associates. Suffolk Law thinks it can help change that. [Boston Business Journal]
* “This is an example of the system working as intended”: Hundreds of thousands of dollars are due to successful plaintiffs in same-sex marriage cases, and millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees for that work is racking up interest. [National Law Journal]
* James Risen, the New York Times reporter who refused to out his source as part of a CIA investigation, has won the right to keep his journalistic integrity intact after a long legal battle. Prosecutors have officially dropped him as a witness. [Bloomberg]
* After much talk about partners heading for the exits before, during, and after the Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders merger, and Bob Luskin has finally left the building for Paul Hastings. We hope his parting wasn’t “painful” for him. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Law Professors, Law Schools
Suffolk Law Offers More Buyouts Than Harvard, Yale, And Columbia Combined
It turns out that subway ads cannot turn around a law school. -
Benchslaps, Drugs, Football, Law Schools, Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.29.14
In honor of the Simpsons marathon let’s introduce each of these with a Simpsons quote.
* Dr. Hibbert: And hillbillies want to be called “Sons of the Soil,” but it ain’t gonna happen. — BofA wants that $1.3 billion verdict tossed as “unreasonable.” [Law360]
* Superintendent Chalmers: Oh, I have had it, I have had it with this school, Skinner! The low test scores, class after class of ugly, ugly children! — Suffolk University fired its president just days before school began. I’d like to think it was over their subway ads. In any event, the interim president seems to get the problem: “‘I don’t think there’s growth there,’ he said, referring to [law school] enrollment.” [Boston Globe]
* Homer: Barney’s movie had heart, but “Football in the Groin” had a football in the groin — College football kicked off last night (or Wednesday if we cared about Georgia State), so check in with the lawyer for the USC player who pretended he injured himself saving his nephew’s life. [Deadspin]
* Lionel Hutz: There’s the truth and… the truth! — Bracewell & Giuliani partner, Glenn A. Ballard Jr., got benchslapped in Texas for “an affront to this court, to the other parties and to judicial integrity.” Everything’s bigger in Texas. [Houston Chronicle]
* Chief Wiggum: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say blah blah blah blah blah blah. — After Philip Seymour Hoffman’s overdose, the police actually arrested a jazz musician. He got no jail time after he hired a new lawyer, Alex Spiro, who went after the cops for taking advantage of his client. [NY Daily News]
* Jimbo: You let me down, man. Now I don’t believe in nothing no more. I’m going to law school. — Professor Campos wonders if American University law school will sue students who drop out or transfer? [Lawyers, Guns & Money]
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Law Schools, Lawyer Advertising
That Time The Boston Bar Association Denounced Me
The Boston Bar Association is cross that I made fun of Suffolk Law's new ads comparing them to Yale, Harvard, and Columbia. -
Bankruptcy, Basketball, Biglaw, Cars, Death Penalty, Partner Issues, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas
Morning Docket: 07.24.14
* The day after the Supreme Court lifted a stay on Joseph Wood’s execution, it took nearly two hours for Arizona authorities to kill him using the very drug cocktail he contested on appeal. [New York Times] * So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu: Spencer Barasch, the lawyer at the center of some blowback due to his dealings with Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford, is now leaving Andrews Kurth. [Am Law Daily] * A dead body was found inside of this West Texas law firm, and the man who was pegged as a suspect claimed he lived at the firm, along with his recently deceased friend. This seems sketchy. [KCBD 11] * Suffolk Law is hosting a contest where students, coders, and entrepreneurs will try to figure out a way to hack the justice gap. Start by creating an app to help new lawyers earn a living wage. [BostInno] * Donald Sterling isn’t going to let the fact that he’s already involved in one contentious lawsuit about the L.A. Clippers stop him from filing another contentious lawsuit about the L.A. Clippers. [Bloomberg] * Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild infamy is in some trouble with the law. He just got hit with a $5,000 per day fine until he returns two luxury cars to the pornography company’s bankruptcy estate. [WSJ Law Blog] -
Law Schools, Lawyer Advertising
This Law School Is Looking For The Dumbest Possible Students
This new ad requires the prospective student to suffer a severe lack of reading comprehension and critical thinking. -
Contests, Law Schools, March Madness
ATL March Madness: The Worst Law School In America -- Sweet Sixteen
The action intensifies in the ATL Worst Law School bracket. -
Contests, Law Schools, March Madness
ATL March Madness: The Worst Law School In America -- First Round
Voting begins for the Worst Law School In America! Polls close Sunday night. -
Contests, Law Schools, March Madness
ATL March Madness: The Worst Law School In America -- Bracket Released
Time to while away your Monday filling out a bracket. -
Animal Law, Lawyer of the Day
Callously Mowing Down Ducks With Your Beamer Is Probably Not A Crime
Five little ducks went out one day... and they died. -
Biglaw, Law Schools
Which Law Schools' Grads Run Biglaw? An ATL Infographic
An aquatic look at which law firms' alumni have the top spots at the largest U.S. law firms. -
BU Law, Career Center, Career Files, Law Schools, Law Students, Pre-Law
Which Is the Most Wicked Awesome Law School in Boston?
How do law students in the Boston area rate their schools in terms of academics, career counseling, social life, and other important areas? -
Commencement, Law Schools
Night Students Already Ruin Your Class Rank, Do They Have To Ruin Your Graduation Too?
Commencement: emphasis on the "meh."