Gender

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.27.15

* It's summer associate season in Biglaw, so here are some tips to help you not completely screw up your futures. (But if you do catch someone misbehaving, make sure to send your friends here at ATL a tip.) [MoneyBeat / Wall Street Journal] * Break out the vuvuzelas, because Loretta Lynch just scored herself a gigantic GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! Several of FIFA's top officials were arrested in Switzerland for extradition to America to face federal corruption charges over years of alleged racketeering and wire fraud. [New York Times] * “Not all the evidence that you hear and see will be riveting." The Dewey & LeBoeuf financial crimes trial may be sexy for Biglaw aficianados, but at least one of the prosecutors on the case had the courtesy to warn jurors they'd be bored. [Am Law Daily] * Which Biglaw firms are the best places for new fathers to work? According to a recent report from Fatherly, a digital parenting resource for men, Arnold & Porter, Alston & Bird, and Baker Donelson all have pretty nice paternity leave policies. [Nooga.com; Fatherly] * At some law firms, working part-time or on a flexible schedule isn't necessarily a career killer for women, but that doesn't change the fact that at other firms, doing so means that "they're no longer on that partnership/management track.”[Crain's Chicago Business] * Daniel Meltzer, Story Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, former Principal Deputy Counsel to President Obama, and federal courts scholar, RIP. [Legal Theory Blog]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.14.15

* Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl, the husband-and-wife lawyer duo accused of treating a law firm managing partner and his wife to a "torture session," had a hearing this week where it was revealed that Andrew allegedly slit the managing partner's throat. [Washington Post] * 'We’re asking you to choose life. Yes, even for the Boston Marathon bomber." Jurors began deliberating in the death penalty phase of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial late yesterday afternoon. It's worth noting that the last time someone was executed in Massachusetts was 70 years ago. [Boston Globe] * “Explaining these persistent gender disparities in income ... has proven to be much more difficult than simply identifying them.” Per a study conducted by Harvard Law, the wage gap for women in the law has been growing since 1975. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * The deadly Amtrak derailment hit too close to home for attorneys in the Northeast who travel frequently on the Acela line. In fact, some of our best tips have come from Acela trips. Our thoughts are with those who were affected by the crash. [National Law Journal] * A sexy little spat: Dov Charney, the ex-CEO of American Apparel, filed a $20M defamation suit against the company, claiming that despite what employees were told, he never agreed that he'd stay away from American Apparel for good. [Los Angeles Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.23.15

* This would-be POTUS can't jump? Ted Ruger, Penn Law's new dean, used to hang out with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz during law school, and he'd "like to think that [their] legal skills far exceeded [their] mediocre basketball skills." [Philadelphia Inquirer] * Why do we still need law schools considering the crisis in the legal academy? Please allow Noah Feldman of Harvard Law -- an unbiased law professor -- to explain why "law school is absolutely essential -- not for lawyers with clients, but for our society as a whole." [Bloomberg View] * Apparently there's some major drama going down with regard to which attorneys will argue the same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court. It seems that no one wants to give up their 15 minutes of fame before the high court. Sigh. [National Law Journal] * These days, law schools are looking at more than their applicants' GPAs and LSAT scores. Prospective law students now need to be "well-rounded and involved." For what it's worth, not minding going into debt is a helpful trait, too. [Omaha World-Herald] * Another day, another gender bias lawsuit in Silicon Valley: This time around, Tina Huang, a female software engineer who used to work for Twitter, is alleging that the company's secret promotion process bypasses women and favors men. [CNET]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.17.15

* A ballsy decision dripping with prestige? It seems that a few too many students at Yale Law School requested access to their student admissions evaluation records under FERPA, so instead of handing them over, Yale deleted them. [New Republic] * Here's some good news for women attorneys visiting clients in Massachusetts jails: you'll no longer be forced to lift up your shirt and shake out your bra if your underwire makes the metal detector go off. Instead, you'll get felt up a pat down. [Boston Globe] * According to early data culled for the Am Law 100 rankings, from revenue to profits per partner to revenue per lawyer, Winston & Strawn posted record financial results in 2014. Perhaps the days of no-offers and layoffs are long gone for this firm. [Am Law Daily] * Just because more people took the LSAT in February, it doesn't mean that the law school crisis is over. It does, however, mean that law school administrators may soon be wishcasting the year-over-year growth of their first-year classes. [National Law Journal] * Rahul Gupta, the graduate student who used the tried and true "my girlfriend did it" defense during his trial for the fatal stabbing of a Georgetown Law student, was convicted on first-degree murder charges yesterday. He'll be sentenced on April 16. [WJLA]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.11.15

* Today's inspirational human being: An ordained minister in Alabama was arrested after offering to perform a same-sex marriage inside a probate judge's office. She says she'll do it again, even though she knows she'll likely be rearrested for doing so. [USA Today] * Meanwhile, Judge Callie V.S. Granade will hear arguments on whether she must order Alabama judges to issue marriage license to gay couples. Granade is the one who ruled the state's ban was unconstitutional in the first place. [New York Times] * Per Major Lindsey & Africa's 2014 Partner Compensation Survey, women partners have finally beaten men when it comes to law firm compensation. Wait, no, that's not true, it's just an "anomaly," and "[t]hese women might be outliers." [The Careerist] * Blank Rome's ex-chairman donated $5M to Villanova Law to establish an ethics and compliance center. You're a few years too late, pal. The school could've used an ethics and compliance center to avert its admissions scandal. [Philadelphia Inquirer] * "The legal profession can benefit from more diversity. Should those students only attend low-ranked law schools? Absolutely not." As we mentioned previously, law school diversity has improved, but only at the bottom. [National Law Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.09.15

* People keep asking Justice Ginsburg how many women she thinks will be "enough" for the SCOTUS bench, and she keeps giving us the same amazing answer. Flip the page to find out what the Notorious R.B.G. thinks. [Mother Jones] * Law school deans gone wild! From sex scandals to rankings rumpuses, here's a look at the crazy and sometimes criminal activities that law school administrators and faculty members have been accused of over the years. [National Law Journal] * "That’s it. Case dismissed. Your behavior is contemptuous." Adriana Ferreyr, the on-again, off-again girlfriend of George Soros who filed a $50 million lawsuit over a $2 million apartment, allegedly went "berserk" in court... yet again. [Dealbreaker] * The job market would like to wish the legal profession a very unhappy New Year. According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector lost 1,400 jobs in January, with overall jobs down by 4,500 since last year. [Am Law Daily] * "I felt like my head was just mush inside, and I thought, 'I’m dying.'" Mary Margaret Farren, the former Skadden attorney who survived her ex-husband's brutal attack on her life, recounts the flashlight bludgeoning that nearly killed her. [ABC News] * Is there no relief in sight for law schools? Moody's says: "This continued decrease in student demand is consistent with our belief that the legal industry is experiencing a fundamental shift rather than a cyclical trend." [Indianapolis Business Journal] (Flip to the next page to see how many women Justice Ginsburg thinks SCOTUS needs.) http://youtu.be/vJs1H5tQlDc

By Staci Zaretsky