Republican National Convention

Paging President Trump. One of your kids just announced on national TV that she apparently needs a job.

Whose speech was dumber: Clint Eastwood's or Chris Christie's?

Maybe this will make you laugh.

Chris Christie's prosecutorial career...

Chris Christie doing Fireball shots is not to be missed.

He wants to model a speech aimed at white middle-class voters. No kidding.

* Some Biglaw firms, like Orrick, are now going to help young associates by making monthly contributions to their student loan payments. At $100 a month for 18 months, it’s not a very large contribution, but it’s something. We’ll have more on this debt repayment plan later. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Uh-oh… If you thought law firms were going to be alright in Brexit’s wake, you may want to think again. Berwin Leighton Palmer — a firm that almost merged with Greenberg Traurig — has frozen raises and bonuses until November, citing “political and financial uncertainty in the UK.” [Reuters]

* As part of Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s study-abroad program, Justice Clarence Thomas (who was filling in for the late Justice Antonin Scalia) was in Nice, France, last week teaching students about constitutional law. He left the city before the deadly terror attack during the Bastille Day parade. No law students were hurt. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Prior to accepting his position as Donald Trump’s running mate on the Republican ticket, and even prior to becoming the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence had a very short-lived career as a lawyer at a small firm. He worked there for only two years before deciding to pursue a career in politics and radio programming. [Big Law Business]

* “Our clients have been under siege the last eight years by the federal government in terms of policies toward corporate America.” Cleveland firms like Jones Day and Squire Patton are pulling out all the stops to host ritzy, invitation-only, business-oriented panel discussions during the Republican National Convention. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]

Clint Eastwood gave an interesting speech at the Republican National Convention last night...

* Threatening a judge, even in song, is still threatening. [WSJ Law Blog] * Obama’s White House microbrew is now the subject of a FOIA request. Instead of a bus tour, I think Obama should just travel around the country holding beer summits. [Legal Blog Watch] * I’m pretty sure the social contract will be unenforceable in a Romney administration. It’s unenforceable in an Obama administration too, but Obama tries to seem sad about that. [Salon] * I do hope that the GOP has some kind of “Rape: Accepted Definitions” seminar at their convention this week. They clearly don’t seem to understand what the term means, legally, as evidence by the Pennsylvania Republican who seems to think that a consensual out-of-wedlock pregnancy is kind of like rape. [TPM] * Here are the top eight reasons people are stressed at work. I wonder if anybody wants to see the top eight reasons people are who are unemployed are stressed out. [Huffington Post] * Yeah, I think we need to make it easier for people to get guns. Sure. Why not. It’s not easy enough to get a gun to carry out a mass shooting/turn a mass shooting into a mass shootout. [Forbes] * We drafted one of the Above the Law fantasy football leagues last night (I hate my team). Professor Marc Edelman has a fun paper on the regulation of fantasy sports. I’m still pissed at him for causing me to have to spend $2 on my freaking kicker. [SSRN]

* Unhappy with eleventy billion dollars in damages due to Apple, Samsung will begin its appeals, perhaps even to the Supreme Court (because you know that SCOTUS wants a bite at the proverbial literal patent apple). [Wall Street Journal]

* And speaking of that jury award, jury foreman Velvin Hogan had this to say about it: “We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable.” Yeah, because a billion dollars in damages isn’t unreasonable at all. [Reuters]

* Do judges with lawyerly license plates avoid traffic infractions instead of getting tickets? The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct is investigating this issue of epic importance. [New York Law Journal]

* If bill collectors are threatening to sue you over your credit-card debts, you better pray that your case lands on Judge Noach Dear’s docket, because in his courtroom, “it’s dismiss, dismiss, dismiss.” [New York Post]

* Hippies can file lawsuits, too: Burning Man starts today, but the event’s organizers claim that its Nevada venue is pursuing a new theme in view of a “drastic increase in fees” — burning money. [All Things Digital]

* Protestors should be allowed to act however they want when carrying prohibited machetes in Republican National Convention event zones. This was the first, and definitely the coolest, RNC arrest made. [ABC News]