Bar Exam

* More people lining up on the “of course we need to replace Scalia soon” bandwagon, and this time it’s folks who really care about the ethical running of the Court. [Fix the Court]

* Studying for the February bar exam? Here are some tips to make it through. [Associate’s Mind]

* Stories of Justice Scalia bullying the “little people” may tarnish his legacy. [Washington Monthly]

* A purported class action has been filed against Facebook for those texts notifying you of friends’ birthdays. [Forbes]

* So what does Obama think about “originalists” who vow to prevent him from making any nominee to the Court? Bonus point if you said he’d drop the f-bomb. [C-SPAN]

* A frank look at Justice Scalia’s real legacy by Columbia Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. [Democracy Now]

* Did the Supreme Court just become the defining issue of the 2016 election? [The Nation]

* Tips for making success a habit. [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* Almost everyone has a story (or has a friend who has one) about an AirBnB gone awry — it’s the price of our new shared economy — but is this the weirdest story of all? [San Francisco Chronicle]

* The only graphic you’ll ever need to keep track of your state-by-state obligations for expert witnesses under Daubert and Frye. [The Expert Institute]

* What would Humphrey Bogart be like as an attorney? [Guile is Good]

* This sounds miserable: taking (and passing) the bar exam with an 8-week-old infant at home. [ABA for Law Students]

* Maybe a new lawyer will be able to stiff-arm the DA’s office on LeSean McCoy’s behalf. [Buffalo Rumblings]

* Dickstein Shapiro is “no longer engaged in the practice of law.” But don’t shed tears for the out-of-work attorneys just yet, the attorneys will move to Blank Rome in a wholesale lateral move. [National Law Journal]

* Remember this case as you scramble for a last minute Valentine’s Day gift: a Valentine’s Day gift — and the reaction to a terrible one — can lead to a lawsuit. [Coverage Opinions]

* Will the Bill Cosby case signal a change in the handling of sexual assault cases? [Huffington Post]

* This is how police work can contribute to reasonable doubt. [Katz Justice]

* Cheap furniture behemoth IKEA lost a trademark claim in Indonesia. Won’t somebody please think of the college students? [Jakarta Coconuts]

* Sure diversity initiative may take hard work and trust, but, you know, they’re still worth it. [Law and More]

D.C. is the 20th jurisdiction to adopt the UBE.

Finger-pointing at the bar exam taker and law school is fun, but we need a deeper understanding of where the problems lie.

* Guess what? Science says political incorrectness is an insincere sham. Sounds about right to me. [The Denver Post]

* How are Law and Order: SVU and law school exams the same? The both desperately try to wedge current events into their same old, boring fact patterns. In related news, expect both to soon feature the issue of spousal privilege when the wife of a celebrity accused of rape is forced to give testimony against him. [The Guardian]

* Can the Netflix show Making a Murderer actually lead to a pardon? Probably not, but it’ll make you feel better about the binge watching you did over the holidays. [Time]

* This is why China’s new counterterrorism law is terrifying for tech companies doing business there. [Slate]

* The ABA has released the full, school-by-school bar passage rates for 2014. Which school was the best? More interestingly, which was the worst? [Bar Exam Stats]

* Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York State Court of Appeals is retiring. He took a larger view of the law, where getting justice was not about money. [Guile Is Good]

* Delaware bucks the trend of declining bar passage rates! Not such good news for Ohio. [Bar Exam Stats]

* Yeah, you’ve got tax law to blame for the terrible Star Wars prequels. [Federal Tax Blog]

* A second juror in the Sheldon Silver case tries to get out of jury deliberations. Judge denies it, the juror will do their “best or whatever.” [Wall Street Journal]

* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court just named 5 attorneys as public advocates. Get the scoop on who they really are. [Ars Technica]

* Ayelette Robinson, a former corporate lawyer turned actress, is featured on a new podcast. [Hsu Untied]

* You wanna fix the problem of chronic overwork, stress, and dissatisfaction in Biglaw? Then LEAVE. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* There is life after a failed bar exam. Here’s how to make it through. [The Anxious Lawyer]

* Get the full breakdown of the results of the California bar exam. [Bar Exam Stats]

* “Mayor of Roanoke not racist, says Mayor of Roanoke,” and really, do you need a better source than that? [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Ugh, the discovery of employee text messages — it’s gonna get messy. [Law and More]

* Get some *free* CLE credit for an online session on legal project management. [Practical Law]

* It sucks, but being too busy really does make you better at your job. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* A true model of what political discourse should look like in this country: West Point cadets and Bard College students squared off in a debate over individuals’ right to privacy over national security concerns. [Huffington Post]

* The debate over bail reform in New York gets real, and some judges get angry. [Wise Law NY]

* Oof! Which Massachusetts law school saw a 14% drop in its bar passage rate? And other trends from the latest states to release its bar exam results. [Bar Exam Stats]

* Lawyers fighting the good fight, and standing up for your right to wear a pasta strainer over your head in your driver’s license photo. [Boston Globe]

* So it looks like the Supreme Court will be revisiting the reproductive choice rights set forth in Roe, but how did we get here? [RH Reality Check]

* Tom Hanks plays a lawyer that can predict the future. [Guile is Good]

A great way to fight this narrative is to create a distance between the minority of law schools engaged in unethical admissions and retention practices and everyone else.

To keep money flowing, many schools dramatically lowered admissions standards beyond any acceptable standard.

* An amazing look at the exact way lawyers should NOT handle cleaning up their reputation after a PR snafu. [Techdirt]

* Even more bad bar results news, with Charleston School of Law taking a particularly bad hit. [Bar Exam Stats]

* A single lawyer — a divorce lawyer no less — cannot bring the NSA to its knees. Color me surprised. [Ars Technica]

* Attention new lawyers! Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s a list of online resources to make your day easier. [Associate’s Mind]

* A detailed look into the how-tos of complying with U.S. anti-corruption laws while conducting business in India. [Forbes]

* Here’s what a real Biglaw partner does in a day — or at least what Christina Martini, Chair of DLA Piper’s Chicago Intellectual Property Practice Group does when a camera is following her around. [Big Law Business/Bloomberg]

https://youtu.be/mwbmQctfeNc

* More bar exam results! Which school saw its passage rate take a 15 point hit? [Bar Exam Stats]

* This is the right way to break up a protest at Planned Parenthood: with a smiling clit cartoon. [Slate]

* How we can rethink the history of slavery and the Constitution. [Berkeley News]

* Maybe Judge Stevens is onto something — the Supreme Court to take on the issue of racial bias in jury selection. [Gawker]

* Hillary wants to keep marijuana illegal — is this her version of she “didn’t inhale?” [Al-Jazeera]

* Kickstarter class actions. What hell hath we wrought? [Associates Mind]

* In this corner we have the Oregon Attorney General. In the other we have vitamin giant GNC. Who will win this battle royale? Not so fast — it’s a trick question since one side’s dietary supplements were laced with illegal drugs. [Vox]

* The latest in The Atlantic’s series on the Reconstruction. [The Atlantic]

Let's just pile on this sad situation with a cheapshot.

* Gun control advocates finally seem to have the monetary resources to take on the NRA. [New Yorker]

* This is how to deal with Biglaw induced rage. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* A commentator’s take on the double standard pervading the cases against misleading law school advertising [The Legal Watchdog]

* Colorado and Arizona bar results are in, still more bad news. [Bar Exam Stats]

* That’s a no-go on copyrighting yoga poses. [Overlawyered]

* Let the countdown to the unsealing of Bill Cosby’s latest deposition begin! [Gawker]

* Reforming the world of debt collection. [Pacific Standard]

* The method for securing drunk driving convictions is coming under fire. I’m not as think as you drunk I am officer. [Times Union]

* Hillary Clinton is bringing back the issue of liability for gun manufacturers. [Overlawyered]

* The bar exam-pocalypse continues. [Bar Exam Stats]

* The sad state of Alabamans’ voting rights. [Talking Points Memo]

* Lawyers have known this for a while: six-figure jobs don’t equal happiness. [Alternet]

* Remember how John Kasich seemed super-chill and liberal during the first Republican debate? Yeah, he isn’t. [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

* Do you feel like your legal career has left you behind and you’re struggling with a case of failure-to-launch disease? At least you aren’t alone. [Law and More]

* Chattels, bailment, and your car: What everyone needs to know. [Adequate Man]

* What would the tax code look like if Donald Trump were president? A lot like Donald Trump actually. [Dealbreaker]

* If it looks like a duck bribe, swims like a duck bribe, and quacks like a duck bribe, then it probably is protected speech??? [Slate]

* We know bar exam results are getting worse, but does that impact Biglaw? [Bloomberg BNA]

* What is really behind Edward Snowden’s new Twitter account? [Law and More]

* Fordham Law professor does a deep dive into the psyche of a Republican voter. Scary. [Huffington Post]

* In which reason and passion are equal partners in the law. [Guile is Good]

* Consumers seeking litigation financing are smarter than you think. [Mighty]

* That Anheuser-Busch/SABMiller deal is going to make a lot of people a lot of money in fees. [Dealbreaker]

* Thank you, John Oliver! Publicity from Last Week Tonight helped the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office meet their fundraising goals. Though why a public defenders officer has to resort to crowdfunding in the first instance just boggles the mind. [New Orleans Advocate (last story)]

* More states release the bar passage rate for the July exam — which means more bad news. [Bar Exam Stats]

* The battle over whether Kim Dotcom should be extradited to the United States to face racketeering and copyright infringement charges begins, with legal heavyweights taking sides. [Computer World]

* GOP candidates are throwing Justice Roberts under the bus faster than a contestant on Big Brother. [Jost on Justice]

* This is how to handle typos Biglaw style. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* If you’re in the Boston area, check out Lat’s latest event for his book Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link) on Thursday. [Supreme Ambitions]

* Daily lawyer tips is just killing it. The latest is on the perils of actually becoming a senior associate. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* Lawyers can’t be getting dumber if no one (hyperbole alert) is passing the bar exam. [Bloomberg BNA]

* A kickstarter our readers are sure to love: a new board game that combines Would You Rather?, Poker, and Rock, Paper, Scissors with arguing. What’s not to love? [Kickstarter]

* Pile-on-the-SEC-week (the securities kind, not the football kind) continues. This time, Judge Berman is taking a crack. [Dealbreaker]

* The civil justice system is riddled with inequities, especially if you happen to be a plaintiff. [Mighty]

* Is a new pro-worker law in the works? [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

* The NFL field that is the subject of lawsuits is getting changed… not that they’re admitting any wrongdoing, natch. [Deadspin]

* The Ninth Circuit? Not a fan of Sheriff Joe. [AZ Central]

* Southern California Institute of Law is suing the state bar over requirements schools must maintain a 40 percent bar passage rate over 5 years. [Los Angeles Times]

* Have dreams of running away from the practice of law into the welcoming embrace of academia? Not so fast. The rate of new law professor jobs has dropped 55 percent. [National Law Journal]

* FBI agents cannot be sued for monetary damages in their personal capacity for keeping people on the “No Fly List” as a coercive measure in anti-terrorism investigations, says SDNY Judge Ronnie Abrams. [New York Law Journal]

* Find out who are the scariest federal prosecutors according to Steptoe & Johnson partner Reid Weingarten. [Litigation Daily]

* You should still say “sorry” even when you’re at work. [Corporate Counsel]

* A fun way to mix college football fandom with your attorney advertising. [ABA Journal]

* Carey Gabay, a lawyer for Empire State Development Corp., and who formerly held positions as assistant counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo and at Jones Day and at Schulte Roth & Zabel, was shot in the head yesterday before the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn. He is in critical condition. [New York Post]

Which caption best proved God really is good?