* Happy Birthday, Mrs. President! Scott Shrake conducts an astrological analysis of Hillary Clinton. [Huffington Post]

* Speaking of witch, is Stephen Colbert "the best-scripted candidate this side of Hillary Clinton"? [Radar Online]

* "'Terrorism,' Censored Legal Briefs & The Blogosphere: Awesome Together." [Fishbowl NY]

* Lawsuit of the Day: Mom of "Let's Go Crazy" Baby fights back. [ABC News]

* Benchslap of the Day: federal judge tells SEC lawyer, to "sit down" and "shut up." [WSJ Law Blog]

* Ann Althouse on the Chelsea Clinton restaurant photo controversy from earlier this week: "'We reserve the right to exercise any and all options available to us.' What kind of crap is that?" [Althouse]

* Our apologies to Brian Dalton of Vault for the snark from earlier today. How were we to know that a New York Times reporter would screw up a quote so badly? [Void for Vagueness]

* During a little over a year at Patterson Belknap, Michael Mukasey apparently earned about $1.9 million. And he wants to be AG to a lame-duck president, for a little over a year, because... [Bloomberg News via WSJ Law Blog]

* Congratulations to Hofstra on its #1 status! (Among tier 3 and tier 4 faculties.) [TaxProf Blog]

* John Carney argues that SEC chairman Chris Cox should reject the new proposed proxy access rule, which would actually harm ordinary investors. That Carney, he's so contrarian. [DealBreaker]

* Are you a young lawyer looking for financial advice? Check this out. [WSJ Law Blog]

* If you’re not spreading your music like herpes, then you’re just paying an extra 30 cents for the same product you’ve always been buying; as a side note, doesn’t Damon Alburn look dreamy these days? [New York Times]

* The SEC wants to be more like a friend than a parent, but watch out if you try to sneak out of the house after curfew on a school night. [FT.com via MSN]

* She may fight it until she regains her dignity writes another best seller, but chances are that I’ll get my groove back before she does. [New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer]

* Remember how Andrea from Beverly Hills, 90210 used her grandma’s address, and Vivian Abromowitz lived in the Slums of Beverly Hills to attend the prestigious public high school? Well, this is different. [Los Angeles Times]

Via our financially-minded big sibling, Dealbreaker, we just learned about an interesting (and bizarre) insider trading case. It's about a family that set up its own hedge fund in order to trade on insider information.

And as it turns out, a friend of ours appears to be involved. From today's CCH Wall Street:

The SEC has charged an entire family and two associates with conducting an insider trading scheme that illegally created more than $3.7 million in profits.

The Commission has charged Zvi Rosenthal of Tenafly, New Jersey, and former Vice President of Israeli-based Taro Pharmaceuticals with providing nonpublic information regarding pending FDA drug approvals and earnings statements to his sons.

The SEC has also charged the sons, Amir Rosenthal, 29, and Ayal Rosenthal, 26, both of New York, New York, and Oren Rosenthal, 31, of Los Angeles, California. It has also charged Amir Rosenthal with providing the nonpublic information to his father-in-law, Bahram Delshad, his work supervisor, Young Kim, and his best friend, David Heyman.

All of the defendants allegedly used the tip-offs to illegally trade ahead of eight Taro earnings announcements and five FDA drug approval announcements from at least 2001 through 2005, the SEC charged.

As noted by Best In Class, several of the defendants are Biglaw lawyers. Amir Rosenthal was an associate at Thacher Proffitt & Wood, where he worked in the Structured Finance Group under co-defendant Young Kim.

We don't know Young Kim or Amir Rosenthal. But we do know Oren Rosenthal, who we can say from personal knowledge is a very nice, smart, and attractive fellow. He struck us as a truly decent person. We were shocked to see his name in the SEC press release.

(We met Oren when he was an associate in the New York office of O'Melveny & Myers; he subsequently relocated to the firm's Los Angeles office. Oren's bio has disappeared from the OMM website, but you can see it here via Google Cache. One irony is that Oren specialized in white collar criminal defense.)

In addition to the SEC proceedings, criminal cases have been brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Four of the seven SEC defendants were charged criminally, and those defendants -- Zvi Rosenthal, his sons Ayal and Amir (the former TPW associate), and David Heyman -- have pleaded guilty.

Random factoid: Amir Rosenthal is represented in the criminal proceedings by Paul Shechtman. Schechtman is a name partner at Stillman, Friedman & Shechtman -- Charles Stillman's firm, now representing Sullivan & Cromwell in the Brokeback Lawfirm matter.

Insider Trading: It's A Family Affair! [DealBreaker]
The "Family Business" Built on Insider Trading [Best in Class / Garden City Group]
The Family That Trades on Inside Information Together Goes to Jail Together [White Collar Crime Prof Blog]
SEC Charges Family with Insider Trading Scheme [CCH Wall Street]
Former Thacher Proffitt Associate Admits Role in Insider Trading Scheme [New York Law Journal]
SEC Charges Family-Run Hedge Fund With a $3.7 Million Insider Trading Scheme [SEC.gov]

* "Surfing champion Sunny Garcia... looked gloomy as the sentence was handed down." Nice. [CNN]

* Justice O'Connor sat by designation on the Ninth Circuit this week. She must have had so much fun the last time she flipped a coin in California , she's back for more. [San Jose Mercury-News]

* Another swing justice in NoCal. Justice Kennedy: "[T]he verdict on democracy is still out." Didn't he give this speech somewhere before? [San Francisco Chronicle]

* "The only thing missing from [Wednesday's] three-judge Third Circuit oral argument panel was any judge from the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit." [How Appealing]

* Busy bees at the SEC: Civil securities-fraud suits against former execs of Delphi Corp. are expected soon. [Wall Street Journal via WSJ Law Blog]

* Poor Dick Grasso. The former New York Stock Exchange chairman must return about $100 million of his $139.5 million payout. [New York Times]

* A federal judge has ordered that Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor logs be opened. There's at least one name that won't be on there. [Associated Press]

* ATL Stock Tip of the Day: Start shorting Pottery Barn. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]**

* A hot new trend among federal judges out west (even more popular than Bikram yoga): Benchslapping the Bush Administration over its environmental policies. [Washington Post]

* Joan Biskupic is a distinguished Supreme Court reporter; but this article is très USA Today. In tomorrow's paper: "Justices Explain Their Views By Issuing Opinions." [USA Today]

* Judge Jeremy Fogel (N.D. Cal.) thinks about tinkering with the machinery of death. [Los Angeles Times]

* Heh. Harvard Law School revises its first-year curriculum, in what sounds like a Yale-ish direction: less emphasis on all that boring "One L" crap -- contracts, torts, property, procedure -- and more emphasis on sexy stuff like "policy" and "international law." Not far behind: Law and Basket-Weaving. [Harvard Crimson via How Appealing]

* If Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has his way, the SEC's corporate disclosure rules would be amended to allow him to disseminate company news via his personal blog. Who says blogs are nothing but political grandstanding or snarky commentary? Sometimes you can actually learn stuff from 'em. [WSJ Law Blog]

** Pottery Barn is actually a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma (NYSE ticker: WSM).

Oodles of juicy moves today, especially out of and into the federal government. As the leaves change, so do the lawyers.

Government to Private Sector:

* Federal prosecutor John Hueston, a leader of the team that prosecuted Enron execs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, is heading for the greener pastures of Irell & Manella.

All around the country, AUSAs with white-collar criminal experience are leaving U.S. Attorney's Offices -- including our former workplace -- for the more lucrative precincts of private practice. The trend is especially pronounced in the legendary Southern District of New York, as noted by Anna Schneider-Mayerson.

Private Sector to Government:

* Corporate and securities lawyer Michael Halloran, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop, has been appointed to serve as deputy chief of staff and counselor to Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lateral Moves:

* Broker-dealer compliance specialist Steven Lofchie, to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, from Davis Polk & Wardwell. (In this day and age, compliance is a hot area. We're guessing Lofchie got offered a nice deal.)

* Tax lawyer John Narducci, to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, from White & Case.

* IP lawyer Robert Wasnofski Jr., to Dorsey & Whitney, from Baker Botts.

* M&A lawyer Sandy Feldman, to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, from Torys.

Retirements:

* Plaintiffs' lawyer Alan Schulman, of Bernstein, Litowitz -- and formerly of the indicted Milberg Weiss -- is retiring at the end of the year.

Not Going Anywhere -- Yet:

* Apple CEO Steve Jobs and HP CEO Mark Hurd are sticking around -- despite the problems that their companies face.

NY Practice Leader Leaves One Elite NY Firm for Another [NYLawyer.com]
More NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Milberg Weiss: Merger Talks Break Down; An Alum Retires [WSJ Law Blog]
Enron Prosecutor John Hueston to Join Irell & Manella [WSJ Law Blog]
The Gang That Shot Straight Is Disbanding, For a Profit [New York Observer]

"No," Daddy tried to explain, "it's not THAT kind of blackberry…"

Photograph provided courtesy of a former Wachtell Lipton colleague of ours, Scott L. Black (whom we identify here with his permission; our default rule is anonymity for tipsters). Meet the absolutely adorable Shoshana Black, daughter of Scott and Marnie Black, a high-powered exec at MTV.

You may recall Scott Black from this recent Fortune magazine piece on the David Pajcin / Gene Plotkin insider trading scandal, which we highlighted in a previous post. Black, senior trial counsel at the SEC, nailed Pajcin in deposition questioning. Pajcin pleaded guilty to criminal charges and is now assisting the government with its investigation.

Partners in Crime: I-bankers, Insider Trades, Moles, Strippers... [Fortune]

Earlier: Non-Sequiturs: 09.22.06

Lateral Moves:

* Litigator Robert Knuts, to Allen & Overy, from Day, Berry & Howard. Knuts was with the New York office of the SEC from 1994 to 2003.

As you may recall, London-based Allen & Overy is trying to build up its New York litigation practice -- most recently through the addition of former plaintiffs'-side princess Pat Hynes.

* Private equity lawyer James Kelly, to Nixon Peabody, from O'Melveny & Myers.

New Partners:

* Goodwin Procter: corporate and private equity lawyer Edward Braum.

NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
NY Lawyers On the Move [NYLawyer.com]