Occupy Wall Street

* You know what, screw the neighborhood. There goes the freakin’ country. Congress’s bipartisan, not-so-super committee has failed to reach an agreement for a deficit reduction deal. [CNN] * “When the government takes action . . . there are legal limits to what they can do.” And one of those limits is that they can’t […]

Last year, on November 17th, we asked where the Biglaw bonuses were. Cravath announced five days later. So if the firms are waiting for a personal invitation to announce their 2011 bonus payments, they should feel free to RSVP to this post. We're ready for the bonuses now....

* Happy American Censorship Day! Sign these petitions in celebration so you can keep your internet the way you like it — full of infringing and fabulous content. [Volokh Conspiracy] * A prospective law student got married at Zuccotti Park this weekend. Best protest wedding ever? I guess the honeymoon ended after they were evicted. […]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg can have his way with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. According to the Associated Press, Justice Michael Stallman of New York Supreme Court just shot down the Temporary Restraining Order sought by the protesters against Mayor Bloomberg. Let’s hope everybody keeps their cool. The ruling on the TRO appears below…

Elie bumped into some would-be Occupy Wall Street protesters looking to join the movement after the main group was evicted from Zuccotti Park under the cover of darkness early yesterday morning. The people on the train asked for my legal advice. He laughed -- then told them he could do them one better. Let's see if we can't crowdsource a legal recourse for the Occupy protesters now that big bad Bloomberg has put his jackboot on the movement....

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....

* Herman Cain’s got Wood over all of these sexual harassment accusers. No, seriously. He hired Bryan Cave defector L. Lin Wood to handle his possible defamation claims. [WSJ Law Blog] * Sad and depressing old man news: Joe Paterno’s legal innocence was irrelevant. Instead of letting him retire at the end of the year, […]

* Sorry, Obama, but Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is alive, well, and doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon. No more Supreme Court appointments for you, buddy boy. [The Oval / USA Today] * Judge William Adams will not face charges over the beating of his daughter, Hillary Adams, due to the statute of limitations. […]

There was more excitement in Oakland Wednesday, as several thousand people enacted a citywide "general strike" and marched across town and "took over" the Port of Oakland. At least one Oakland law firm tried to keep its motor running through the ruckus, although building management locked the building down like a private tiger collection. Let's take a look at the official memo, courtesy of an anonymous tipster....

There's an interesting post up on Constitutional Daily by The Philadelphia Lawyer. It's a repack from a 2007 article arguing that salaries for first-year associates should go up to $190,000 a year. And he's right. Yet the associate salary scale hasn't seen a raise for almost five years. And bonuses are down compared to 2007. Is it time for firms to start sharing the wealth?

I’ve said from the beginning that while the goals of the Occupy Wall Street crowd were not wrong, their tactics have been lacking. The denizens of “Wall Street” (at least not in its geographic form) didn’t cause the collapse of the American economy; they’re just trying to figure out how to profit from it. There’s […]

* Next week, people in Mississippi are going to vote on whether a clump of cells is a “person.” Are we really going to put this into the hands of people who can’t even spell the name of their own state? [New York Times] * If you’re a trial lawyer, even imaginary friends will do. […]

It’s been a bad few days for the Church of England. First, it gets slammed for siding with the bankers, rather than the protesters, after its flagship venue, St Paul’s Cathedral, finds itself at the heart of Occupy London. Second, a change to the U.K.’s ancient royal succession laws strikes a blow for its great […]

Whenever we ask law school deans to explain their BS employment statistics, they just shovel more BS our way. But maybe if students themselves asked where these figures come from, they'd get some straight answers. One student, at a law school that at this point is undisclosed, asked her dean why the school's employment statistics were clearly misleading. And it looks like the dean broke things down for her. She used the information to tell another story of the 99%....

It has been a strange couple of days. I woke up on Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. to finish some writing. It was still dark, but I heard several helicopters buzzing near my house. I checked Twitter and discovered several hundred police officers were clearing out the Occupy Oakland tent city a few miles away. I […]

Yesterday, President Obama announced "new" programs to help students in debt. At least, he wants the media to report these programs as "new." Those who have been paying attention, such as debt-saddled law students, will recognize that there is very little "new" about these programs....

* Lawyers with four to seven years of experience are apparently now in demand. You know why? BECAUSE THEY FIRED ALL OF THEM TWO YEARS AGO! [WSJ Law Blog] * Occupy Wall Street is now getting free hugs. It’s like, when you register as a liberal, somebody comes in the night and shoves your testicles […]

When producers for the Mike Huckabee show on Fox called, Elie thought they were interested in his thoughts about what the Occupy Wall Street crowd was doing wrong. But no, they had a real live Tea Party organizer to handle that side of the argument. Instead, the producers wanted him to defend the OWS protesters. How did he do?

When news emerged last week that the Wall Street protests were spreading to London, I dared to dream. Maybe I could inculcate myself among the protesters, I wondered, and persuade their leaders to target a Biglaw firm rather than a bank. Then, I fantasized, having obtained the relevant door-code from one of my disgruntled Biglaw […]

* How can you pick a side when it comes to fairness and the law? Can you straddle the fence? Don’t ask Justice Alito, because he’s still not really sure what the answers are. [New York Times] * Paul Ceglia is finding out the hard way that court orders aren’t like annoying Facebook friend requests. […]