Pregnancy / Paternity

If you're a lawyer, should you have (or not have) kids? It's no one's business but your own.

A law clerk enlists a star athlete to break important news to her husband.

* Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are getting divorced — even she couldn’t stand the thought of him being Batman. Celebrity divorces don’t come cheap, and you know what that must mean: high-powered lawyers and even higher rates for their billable hours! [CNN]

* “[H]ow young would you go…I’d do 5[,] [b]ut 0-12 is hot.” Well, that’s absolutely disgusting. Matthew Gigot, an attorney who does doc review in the D.C. area, was charged in a child pornography case for sexual performance using a minor. [FOX 5 DC]

* The main line of defense as of late in the Dewey trial for the former head honchos of this failed firm is that everyone sends out embarrassing — and potentially incriminating — emails from time to time. We know all abput that here at Above the Law. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “Put down the bong, throw out the vaporizer and lose the rolling papers.” If you’re hoping to land a job at any federal agency any time in the near future, then you better quit your toking as soon as possible, even if it’s legal in your state. [New York Times]

* Here’s some sad news for women who are interested in taking home their apparently delicious and nutritious placentas to feast upon after their children are born in hospitals: it’s only completely legal in three states — Hawaii, Oregon, and Texas. [The Stir]

No one ever talks about wishing they could give up the career in favor of the family. It’s just not something that us professional women are supposed to want.

Why is it so difficult for working mothers to lose baby weight? Some thoughts from Mommy Dear, Esq.

Maternity leave isn't a joke. Please ask your law firm colleagues to stop treating it like one.

Being a working mom can be a very isolating experience, particularly if you work in an office without a lot of other working mothers.

* 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]

If you want to be a mom in Biglaw, you’ll just have to accept this new reality. You have to learn to resist feeling like a failure, accept your new constraints, cut yourself some slack, and adjust your expectations.

It may be difficult at times, but it is possible to be an attorney with a family while working at a large law firm.

We're updating the only comprehensive summary of Biglaw maternity and paternity leave policies.

Is it possible for a woman to start a career as a junior associate in Biglaw when she just had a baby and still achieve some semblance of balance?

Which firms had the best options available to both women and men? Let’s take a look at the latest rankings.

* Law school graduates may not be able to find jobs immediately, but not to worry, because according to this law professor, at least they won’t be homeless — and sadly, for some people, a thought like that may be comforting. [Washington Post]

* Sofia Vergara is locked in a battle with her ex-fiancé over their frozen embryos. Her lawyer says now that she’s engaged to the studly Joe Manganiello, she has “no desire to have children with her ex,” but that certainly isn’t going to stop him from suing her to become a dad. [New York Daily News]

* Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may regret flipping the bird at a security camera in his federal holding cell now that it’s being shown to the jury in the punishment phase of his trial to prove that he’s “unrepentant, uncaring, and untouched” by his crimes. [Boston.com]

* If you’ve been waitlisted at a law school you’re desperate to get into, perhaps you ought to try sending a letter of continued interest. Hey, you never know, bringing attention back to your application might just might work! [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* Black lives matter, but apparently not to the police. The DOJ has opened an investigation into the death of black Baltimore resident Freddie Gray following his arrest. He died from a “severe spinal cord injury,” but the police claim to have no idea how it happened. [CNN]

Lawyer moms are the real deal -- and they're scary.

* An Arkansas judge was mauled by his father’s pet zebra. We hope the judge recovers, but what we’d really, really like to know is how the hell one comes to own a pet zebra in Arkansas. [KARK]

* Pregnant women on poles may officially be sexy under color of law. [EPLI Risk]

* If your law firm is trying to make you complete a marketing project in order to get your year-end bonuses — like Quinn Emanuel — here are some ideas for you to try. [Hellerman Baretz Communications]

* According to Robert Durst’s lawyer, Chip Lewis, people mutter triple murder admissions under their breath on hot mics all the time, and it’s usually not that big of deal. [Gawker]

* You’re invited to an event hosted by Judge Kozinski at the Ninth Circuit courthouse, featuring discussion of Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). [Supreme Ambitions]

Meet a lawyer who spends her entire day assisting couples who are having difficulty navigating the complex world of assisted reproduction.

Real fire drills will always be there, and Mommy Dear always standing ready to put out those real fires. But she's getting burned out real quick chasing after smoke, and she have a baby to take care of, too.

Mommy Dear, Esq. is currently trying to “have it all,” “lean in,” and sometimes even cook dinner. She is very, very tired.

* Amanda Knox, everyone’s favorite convicted/acquitted/convicted murderess, just got engaged to a musician she’s known since middle school. Aww, that’s cute and nice, but what we’d really like to know is where she’s registered for cutlery. [People]

* Loretta Lynch’s confirmation vote was postponed because per Chairman Chuck Grassley, she apparently submitted dissatisfying answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s post-hearing questions. Some says that she’s being held to a double standard… likely because she is being held to a double standard. [National Law Journal]

* Yesterday afternoon, Judge Callie V.S. Granade ordered that probate judges in Alabama issue same-sex marriage licenses. Sorry Chief Justice Roy Moore, but you better get ready, because the tide of gay marriage is gonna roll. ROLL TIDE ROLL! [National Law Journal]

* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she’s not going to give up on women’s rights cases at the Supreme Court, despite the fact that she’s got male colleagues who “don’t fully appreciate the arbitrary barriers that have been put in women’s way.” [Bloomberg]

* According to the latest report from Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group, Biglaw firms, “across the board,” are doing better than they were last year, but the biggest Biglaw firms are doing the best, of course. We’ll have more on this later today. [WSJ Law Blog]

* A Texas lawmaker has proposed a bill that would appoint legal representation to a fetus if its mother is brain dead. “You’ll hear what the family wants, and you’ll also give the pre-born child a chance to have a voice in court at that same time.” [Dallas Morning News]

* New York Law School is launching a two-year law degree program, and students will only have to pay two-thirds of the $147,720 that they normally would have had to. For the record, not all two-year degree programs are cheaper. [Crain’s New York Business]