Plastic Surgery

* As I noted in my last nominations roundup, the Trump administration is actually ahead of the Bush and Obama administrations when it comes to judicial appointments — especially with yesterday’s confirmation of Kevin Newsom to the Eleventh Circuit. [How Appealing]

* With Republicans in charge of the presidency and Senate, could breaking up the Ninth Circuit return to the agenda? [Law360]

* And here’s an interesting argument against a split, from the Republican point of view (by Wyatt Kozinski, following in his father’s footsteps). [SSRN]

* Capital punishment: yet another issue where it’s all about Justice Kennedy. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Thoughts from Joel Cohen on the Trump/Sessions troubles. [The Hill]

* How NOT to escape from your law school loans. [Gizmodo]

* If a pizza party isn’t your thing, here are some other ideas for what to eat when working hard at the law firm. [Cater2me]

* Litigation that lawyers can love: Mel Gibson files suit over a dictionary (okay, actually a movie about a dictionary — the Oxford English Dictionary). [Deadline]

* Congratulations to Judge Lorna G. Schofield (S.D.N.Y.) on receiving the Liberty Award from the ABA! [American Bar Association]

Ageism in the workplace is unabashedly rampant, employment lawyer Richard Cohen notes -- and it's against the law.

* Hurricane Sandy is set to arrive today, so batten down the hatches, folks! Everything’s closing down for the storm, but please feel free to email us if your law school or law firm is encouraging you to work. [Washington Post]

* Thanks to the SCOTUS decision in Citizens United, companies can now recommend how their employees should vote, which is “no different from telling your children: ‘Eat your spinach. It’s good for you.’” [New York Times]

* Biglaw firms are re-negotiating their office space leases in an effort to save money. While some firms have already sealed their new real estate deals, others are still on the prowl — but which ones? [Am Law Daily]

* The University of St. Thomas School of Law has a new dean, and it certainly seems like he’s willing to make some waves to help his students. The first step for Robert Vischer? Reducing tuition. [National Law Journal]

* “I don’t think her popularity has improved since the [murder] verdict.” That’s probably why Casey Anthony’s lawyers are desperately trying to get a new venue for Zenaida Gonzalez’s defamation case. [Orlando Sentinel]

* A man divorced his formerly fugly wife (she had $100K in plastic surgery to correct her looks), sued her for luring him into marriage her under false pretenses, and won. Don’t worry, girls, this happened in China. [FOX]

A cutting-edge legal complaint in Europe over internet reputation could force Google to rethink how it handles individuals’ control over the search results for their names. Spanish plastic surgeon Hugo Guidotti Russo wanted Google to liposuction from his results a 1991 news article about a patient angry about an allegedly botched breast surgery. The article […]

Many large law firms forbid their lawyers from visiting social-media sites while at work. Some have actual software blocks, preventing sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even blogs like Above the Law from loading on the firm computers. Other firms tacitly discourage visiting these sites, since every six minutes wasted on them are six minutes that could have been billed. Small firms are less likely to have these policies or blocking programs, mainly because small firms are less likely to have any policies. Or IT departments. This is partly a generational issue. On the one hand, you've got the Millennials: twenty-somethings who are used to having IM chats, Pandora music, and Facebook walls floating in the background while they bash away at Lexis or Microsoft Word. On the other hand, you have more-senior (or just plain "senior") lawyers, for whom the Interwebs are something to either be feared or restricted to off-duty hours.

It seems the world can’t get enough of Debrahlee Lorenzana, the former Citibank employee who alleges she was fired because she was “too hot.” She’s been making the rounds of the morning talk shows, and people have been absolutely gushing about her figure, which allegedly got her fired. But could you call her body an […]