Whoops
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9/11, Crime, Drinking, Screw-Ups, Sentencing Law
Harvard Law Grad Turned 9/11 Chapel Arsonist Pleads Guilty
This year Sidley Austin gave out very good, but not ridiculously good, associate bonuses. Alas, Brian Schroeder was not there to enjoy them. As you may recall, Schroeder is the 27-year-old Harvard Law School graduate who set fire to a memorial housing the remains of unidentified 9/11 victims, on Halloween 2009. Schroeder then did the […] -
Bad Ideas, Biglaw, Email Scandals, Labor / Employment, Screw-Ups, Sex, Sex Scandals, Sexual Harassment
A Racy (But Fake?) Email About An Associate's One-Night Stand With A Married Female Partner
Last week, we started hearing about an amazing email making the rounds. In this email message, a male associate at a large law firm allegedly described, in excruciating detail, a supposed sexual encounter with a married female partner at the firm. Apparently the raunchy email was making like an STD and going viral within the […] - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Crime, Food, Law Schools, Screw-Ups, Violence
BU Law Student Threatens Beatings and Death to (Non-Existent) Lunch Thief
What should a law student do when somebody steals his lunch? Lunch thieves are notoriously hungry; they have no shame when it comes to satisfying their need for other people’s food. And they are sneaky little people, always ready to take your well-prepared sandwich within minutes (or, you know, hours and hours) after you leave […]
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Baseball, David Boies, Divorce Train Wrecks, Family Law, Screw-Ups, Sports, Trials
Drafting Fail: Court Rules Jamie McCourt Owns A Piece of the L.A. Dodgers
Well, this is not going to make Bingham McCutchen partners happy. A judge today ruled that the marital agreement between Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and wife Jamie McCourt is invalid — and therefore Frank might not have sole ownership of the Dodgers. We wrote about Bingham’s boo-boo back in September. Some copies of […] -
Biglaw, Email Scandals, Partner Issues, Screw-Ups
Skadden Partner Accidentally Emails Confidential Evaluations to Entire Department
Those of you who have been in the legal profession long enough remember the tale of Jonas Blank. While working as a summer associate at Skadden, he inadvertently sent an irreverent email, intended for a single friend, to the firm’s entire underwriting group (partners included). Whoops. But the firm was forgiving of young Jonas. He […] -
Bar Exams, Screw-Ups
New York Bar Examiners Admit to Accidental Release of New York Bar Results
I don’t know how the New York Law Journal managed to get through this entire story without mentioning Above the Law. But we’ll deal with that later. For now, let’s talk about the New York Board of Law Examiners (BOLE) finally admitting that the results for the July 2010 bar exam were in fact accidentally […] -
Bar Exams, Screw-Ups, Technology
NY Bar Exam Results Up Briefly on NY BOLE Website
Okay, July New York Bar Exam takers, we don’t know much — but here’s what we know. For about an hour, the results of the New York Bar Exam appeared on the official site of the New York Board of Law Examiners (NY BOLE). This was a surprise. Results aren’t expected to be released until […] -
Conspiracy Theories, Election Law, Politics, Screw-Ups, White People
Election Snafu Hurts 'Whitey'
Sometimes, typos matter — a lot. We’ve seen typos get law firms into all kinds of trouble. And now a typo might ruin the already slim gubernatorial chances of a Green Party candidate. Running on the Green Party line, Rich Whitney wasn’t likely to become the next Governor of Illinois anyway. But an error at […] - Sponsored
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar on April 10th, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Drinking, Email Scandals, listserv, Sex
Northwestern Law Student Emails Hand-Job Offer to Entire Law School
You know how cars can be equipped with an ignition interlock device that prevents the engine from being started if the driver is intoxicated? Can we get one of those thingies for the personal computer, Blackberry, or any other device people can use to send email? Because I’m pretty sure a Northwestern Law student could […] -
Baseball, David Boies, Divorce Train Wrecks, Family Law, Screw-Ups, Sports, Susman Godfrey, Trials
Will a Boo-Boo By Bingham Decide the Dodgers Divorce?
It’s actually not the divorce of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the divorce of real estate mogul Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie. Some call it the Dodger Divorce, however, since this bitter litigation could determine the fate of the storied baseball team — an asset worth hundreds of millions. The couple is fighting over […] -
Andrew Sullivan, Health Care / Medicine, Kids, Screw-Ups
Lawsuit of the Day: You Mad? Circumcised Baby Edition
Protip: Don’t look up the Wikipedia entry for foreskin. Don’t do it even if you have to write a post about a baby who was given a circumcision against his parents’ wishes. Vera Delgado, the baby’s mother, had left the hospital to shower and get a change of clothes. Just long enough for Nurse Ratched […] -
Defamation, Privacy, Sports, Women's Issues
Lawsuit of the Weekend: Rah Rah... Whoops.
This story may provide some good fodder for “dumb cheerleader” jokes. Sarah Jones, a high school English teacher and cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals, was understandably upset when a gossip website called TheDirty.com published an article entitled “The Dirty Bengals Cheerleader,” asking, “Why are high school teachers freaks in the sack?” According to Jones’s December […] -
Death Penalty, Gregory Garre, New York Times, Pro Bono, SCOTUS, Screw-Ups, Supreme Court
Sullivan & Cromwell's Mailroom of Death: A Law Firm's Error Could Cost a Man His Life
Last year, we covered a mistake made in a death penalty case by the white-shoe firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. It was a noteworthy development because of the rarity of the occurrence — S&C doesn’t often make mistakes, at least not ones as elementary as missing a deadline — and because of the stakes involved. […]
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Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar on April 10th, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use.
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How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Learn how emerging tools will likely change and enhance the work of lawyers for years to come in this new report.
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Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
If 2023 introduced legal professionals to generative AI, then 2024 will be when law firms start adapting to utilize it. Things are moving fast, so…
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Federal Government, Minority Issues, Politics, Racism, Screw-Ups
Shirley Sherrod Is Coming After Andrew Breitbart
If you thought this whole Shirley Sherrod thing was just going to blow over, well, you’re not thinking like a lawyer interested in generating fees. Burned by Andrew Breitbart’s editing skills, Sherrod says she intends to sue. The New York Daily News reports: “I will definitely do it,” Sherrod said at the National Association of […] -
Bad Ideas, Bar Exams, California
A Lasting Impression from the California Bar
Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice And she said ‘We are all just prisoners here, of our own device’ And in the master’s chambers, They gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can’t kill the beast For many takers of the bar exam, the ordeal […] -
Bar Exams, Screw-Ups, Technology
Bar Exam Open Thread: So, How Was It -- Or How's It Going?
For those of you who are done with the July 2010 bar exam, congratulations! For those of you who still have another day left, our condolences — and good luck. No administration of the bar is complete without some sort of mishap. The latest tale of woe comes from California. The state that some have […] -
Grade Reform, Law Professors, Law Schools
Grading Shenanigans at Harvard Law School? Spring Evidence Students Confronted 'Irregularities'
It’s nearly August. But at Harvard Law School, administrators are still trying to sort out what happened with Professor Bruce Hay’s spring Evidence course. Not that grades matter all that much at HLS. The most important part of an HLS student’s transcript is the part at the top that says “Harvard Law School.” Heck, the […] -
Bar Exams, Laurence Tribe, Law Professors, Lawsuit of the Day
Potential Lawsuit / Bar Exam Review Question of the Day: Laurence Tribe v. Safeway?
Last Sunday, the eminent constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Westling, got stuck in an elevator at the Safeway supermarket in Georgetown. (Professor Tribe is currently in D.C. to serve in the administration of his former student from Harvard Law School, Barack Obama.) Read the (rather humorous) write-up of Tribe’s elevator incident […] -
Reality TV, Screw-Ups, Television
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire Embarrassed?
Going on game shows offers up the possibility of great reward or eternal humiliation in the form of YouTube’s infinite archives. An Oregon lawyer by the name of Paul Galm experienced the latter, when he appeared on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” in 2006. (This is admittedly old, but sometimes we like to exhume […] -
Cars, Elena Kagan, Politics, SCOTUS, Screw-Ups, Supreme Court
Finally, an Elena Kagan Scandal: A Hit-and-Run Car Accident!
The Senate confirmation vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court has been pushed back one week, to July 20. This gives the Republicans more time to try and persuade a few Democrats to vote against Lady Kaga. As they try to win over Democrats, the Senate Republicans have some new fodder: a Kagan-related […]