Recent Headlines from Above the Law

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.05.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.05.16

    Puppies USE* Students at Villanova Law School got the day off to recover after Kris Jenkins’s epic buzzer beater and the school’s first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 30 years. [NBC Philadelphia]

    * University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law has a great plan to help students deal with stress: puppies! [Daily Utah Chronicle]

    * Tracing Mahatma Gandhi’s peace disobedience protests, which began 86 years ago this week, back to his roots as a lawyer. [Guile is Good]

    * If you send a text, and the person you send it to reads it while driving, could you be found liable for an injuries they cause while driving distracted? This scenario, seemingly taken from a law school fact pattern, just might be true. [Personal Injury Attorney Blog]

    * An in-depth look at how Zubik v. Burwell relates to other First Amendment free exercise cases. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Are there actually practice pointers you can pick up from watching Better Call Saul? [Reboot Your Law Practice]

  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 09.04.15

    Ed. note: Due to the Labor Day holiday we will be on a reduced publication schedule today, and observing the holiday on Monday. Hope everyone has an enjoyable, restful and long weekend.

    * Oh yay! An attorney hits something with his car, doesn’t stop, and uses the “I’m an attorney!” line, complete with F-bombs. And he was drinking, because of course he was. [Legal Profession Blog]

    * You shoot for the stars Utah! Utah Law announced a new initiative to have 100 percent bar passage and 100 percent professional employment. [Tax Prof Blog]

    * Burn! Not only did the Ninth Circuit overturn Judge Robert Jones’s decision, they reassigned the case. [Election Law Blog]

    * A war between Harvard Law professors! Okay, it’s just a war of words, but Cass Sunstein really takes it to former Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren and law prof turned presidential candidate Larry Lessig. [American Thinker]

    * Lessons on being a lawyer you can get from watching Peggy Olson. [Careerist]

    * Here’s a horrifying fact: “Defendants who can’t make bail, regardless of their crime, are four times more likely to be sentenced to time in prison.” [Pacific Standard]

    * This is fun! A 1947 anti-union propaganda comic put out by General Electric. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * Food in exchange for legal advice. Seems like a good deal. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

    * Moving ever closer to the day when a marriage license for a same sex couple is just a matter of paperwork — even in Kentucky. [Huffington Post]

  • 6th Circuit, Christopher Christie, Non-Sequiturs, Prisons, Student Loans, Technology

    Non-Sequiturs: 01.21.14

    * GEEZER FIGHT!!! (Still not as good as the all-time classic embedded after the jump) [Lowering the Bar] * Judge Boyce Martin apparently racked up nearly $140,000 in improper expenses. Now he's gone from the Sixth Circuit. At least he finally has some time to travel. [Talking Points Memo] * The University of Wisconsin got smacked with a lawsuit over its decision to get rid of student government because student governments are useless application padding for tools for no reason. I want this to go to trial just to hear everyone “Badger” the witness. [The Chronicle of Higher Education] * Thompson Reuters Concourse is getting serious. They just added Drafting Assistant, Westlaw Doc & Form Builder, and WestlawNext Practitioner Insights to the platform and promise more on the way. At this rate, I’m expecting a big “WestPhone” & “WestPad” unveiling in a few weeks. [Legal Current] * The story of the late Duke law student whose family was hounded by Sallie Mae for repayment may have come to a conclusion. [Think Progress] * “You Don’t Have to be Jewish to Love a Kosher Prison Meal.” [New York Times] * Some law students at the University of Utah Law School have created a humor journal. Here’s the latest issue. I wonder what current events issue law students in Utah are going to write about… [The ScoffLaw] * Ed Kilgore of the Progressive Policy Institute weighed in on how Chris Christie’s BridgeGate stemmed, in part, from his experiences as a prosecutor and cited our article on the subject in the process. [Washington Monthly] As we await the Super Bowl, let’s talk about the 1963 Grey Cup! Here are two Canadian Football legends meeting up 48 years after that nasty championship game. It gets testy.
  • Biglaw, Canada, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Federal Judges, Gay, Gay Marriage, Guns / Firearms, Judicial Nominations, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Morning Docket, Politics, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Utah, White People

    Morning Docket: 11.29.13

    Ed. note: We’ll return to our normal publication schedule on Monday, December 2. We hope to see you at our holiday happy hour on Thursday, December 5 — for details and to RSVP (to this free event with an open bar), click here.

    * Even in a post-nuclear world, Republicans can still block certain judicial nominees. [New York Times]

    * A prominent Toronto lawyer has gone missing — and so, allegedly, has $3 million in client trust funds. [Toronto Star]

    * Dewey see legal fees in the future for Stephen DiCarmine and Joel Sanders? Well, a $37 million lawsuit won’t dismiss itself. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

    * Congratulations to Matthew Layton, the new managing partner of Clifford Chance. [The Lawyer]

    * And congratulations to Ralph Pellecchio and Jim Wernz, who were married by none other than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — who even helped them write their vows. [Talking Points Memo]

    * Sure, let’s have the whole “is now a good time to go to law school?” debate again. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Especially if you’re a minority, since white people are losing interest in law school. [Am Law Daily]

    * Congress can’t even get its act together about real guns, so perhaps it’s no surprise that limits on fake guns are set to expire soon. [New York Times]

    * Harry Potter was convicted of obstruction of justice. Just because you’re a wizard doesn’t mean you’re above the law. [Daily Utah Chronicle]

  • Biglaw, Career Alternatives, Death Penalty, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Divorce Train Wrecks, Family Law, Federal Judges, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Murder, Secretaries / Administrative Assistants, Small Law Firms

    Morning Docket: 02.20.13

    * Should the mentally disabled receive the death penalty? Neither SCOTUS nor Georgia’s Supreme Court stayed Warren Lee Hill’s execution, but the Eleventh Circuit saved the day. [Washington Post]

    * If you’re looking for a mishmosh of Biglaw news, from new offices to new hires to new firm leaders, then look no further. If only this list were in alphabetical order! [Law Firm Insider / U.S. News & World Report]

    * Dewey know why this partner who was sued by Barclays in the U.K. over his capital loan is suing the bank in the U.S.? It involves an alleged fraud and Joel Sanders. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

    * So much for that “silly sideshow”: Judge Richard Sullivan of the S.D.N.Y. hasn’t made a ruling in the Greenlight case yet, but he says David Einhorn may have a “likelihood of success on the merits” if the matter proceeds further. [Bloomberg]

    * One of the partners at this small law firm apparently watched Secretary a few too many times, and he’s now accused of threatening to “whip” his ex-assistant into shape because she was a “bad girl.” [New York Post]

    * The University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law named an interim successor to former dean Hiram Chodosh, but we can’t say he’s a law dean hottie. He looks like Van Pelt from Jumanji. [Salt Lake Tribune]

    * The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law will house the first clinic in the nation devoted to pardons and the law. It figures that a religious school would focus on legal Hail Marys. [Blog of Legal Times]

    * Career alternatives for law school dropouts: mining magnate and financier of the Titanic II. Much like the value proposition of going to law school for today’s generation, this idea is unsinkable. [New York Times]

    * Prosecutors have upgraded the charge against Oscar Pistorius to premeditated murder, and one could now say the track star doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to being released on bail pending trial. [CNN]

    * D is for… divorce? Sesame Street is talking about divorce in a way that children can understand, but alas, the series neglects important topics like “why mommy is a whore” and “why daddy drinks.” [Law Firm Newswire]

  • Bankruptcy, Biglaw, California, Crime, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Dorsey & Whitney, Immigration, John Edwards, Law Schools, Layoffs, Money, Morning Docket, Religion, Staff Layoffs, Trials, Utah

    Morning Docket: 05.17.12

    * What information Dewey know about the ongoing criminal investigation that’s being conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office? From the sound of it, ex-chairman Steven Davis’s LeBoeuf may be cooked. [Am Law Daily (reg. req.)]

    * Dewey know when to admit defeat? A spokesman for the failing firm has insisted that it’s “not formally closed.” Great, because that’ll certainly make it easier to prepare for the involuntary bankruptcy filing that’s in the works. [Reuters]

    * Meanwhile, D&L amended its WARN notice with the New York State Department of Labor to raise its total employee count by 100, for a grand total of 533 — 433 of whom have been laid off thus far. [Bloomberg]

    * “The defense wasn’t sexy, but the defense doesn’t want sexy. It wants an acquittal.” John Edwards’s legal team rested its case yesterday without calling any of the major players involved to testify. [Associated Press]

    * Show me your papers: the California Supreme Court will be deciding whether a law license should be granted to an illegal immigrant who’s already been certified by the State Bar of California. [Los Angeles Times]

    * Thank you, Jesus! Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law now has an additional $4M in its collection plate to put toward a new building thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [National Law Journal]