Boalt Hall

Attorney Misconduct

Morning Docket: 06.20.12

* It’s not just media groups that are urging the Supreme Court to allow live coverage of the announcement of the ACA decision. Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee have joined the club. [Blog of Legal Times] * Dewey know whether this failed firm’s former partners will be settling their claims any time soon? Team Togut hopes to reach a deal in the next six weeks, and claims that cooperation will absolve D&L’s deserters of all future liability. [Am Law Daily (sub. req.)] * From Biglaw to the big house: former Sullivan & Cromwell partner John O’Brien, who is serving time for tax evasion charges, has been suspended from practicing law in New York. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight] * A Stradling Yocca partner and his wife, a Boalt Hall graduate, stand accused of planting drugs on a school volunteer who supervised their son. Looks like the only thing they’re straddling now is jail time. [OC Register] * Dharun Ravi was released early from jail yesterday after completing a little more than half of his 30-day sentence. Funny how bad behavior got him into the slammer, but good behavior got him out of it. [CNN] * “Why would somebody so smart do something so stupid?” Kenneth Kratz, the sexting DA from Wisconsin, claims that the answer to that question is an addiction to sex and prescription drugs. [Herald Times Reporter] * Jay-Z’s got 99 problems and this bitch is one. He’s been accused by Patrick White of plagiarizing parts of his own best-selling memoir, “Decoded,” and slapped with a copyright infringement suit. [New York Daily News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Bar Exams

Best Law Schools For Helping Poor LSAT Performers Pass The Bar

National Jurist came out with a very interesting ranking of law schools. The publication looked at schools that helped people pass the bar despite their low LSAT scores. While poor performance on the LSAT doesn't necessarily mean the student is dumb, it almost certainly means the students is bad at taking standardized tests. If schools have students who go from being bad at taking a relatively easy standardized test (the LSAT) to passing one of the hardest and most stressful standardized tests out there (the bar exam), it sounds a lot like they are educating people. But, should the law school get the credit for the success?

By Elie Mystal
Bar Exams

California Bar Passage Rate Holds Steady; Shame For Underperforming Schools Deepens

California has released some macro-level results from the July 2011 administration of the bar exam. The California bar is notoriously difficult, and every year we like to take a look at which schools prepared their students well for the exam, and which schools did not. You might be surprised at which California law school had the best passage rate on the California bar. Hint: it's not Stanford, or Boalt Hall, or UCLA....

By Elie Mystal
Biglaw

Congratulations to the 2012 Skadden Fellows

It's time for celebration of a different sort -- time to celebrate, and congratulate, the latest class of Skadden Fellows. The winners of these prestigious public interest fellowships were just announced, as they are every December. Who are the Skadden fellows for 2012? Which law schools produced the most fellows? And what's different about this year's program compared to past years?

By David Lat
Boalt Hall

The Berkeley Beatings

Many of you have heard about the beatings that took place at UC Berkeley's Occupy Berkeley protests. Here's a memo for police: next time you simply must beat unarmed protesters who are not threatening you, maybe you shouldn't do it in front of a law school....

By Elie Mystal
Airplanes / Aviation

Non-Sequiturs: 10.24.11

* The TSA must be stopped. They’re now leaving creepy notes when they spy personal items in your luggage. [Not So Private Parts / Forbes] * Law students, trust me, there’s nothing on your Facebook page that three more points on the LSAT won’t fix. [WSJ Law Blog] * Berkeley Law 1Ls are playing an […]

By Elie Mystal
Asians

Congratulations to Justice Goodwin Liu!

Congratulations to Goodwin Liu — until today Professor Liu, but after today, Justice Liu. In July, California Governor Jerry Brown nominated the 40-year-old Liu, a law professor at Boalt Hall, to serve on the California Supreme Court. The nomination was subject to the approval of a three-member state commission. What did the commission have to […]

By David Lat