WikiLeaks

Bradley Manning, the American traitor or human rights champion depending on your perspective, was back in court yesterday. His court-martial officially began, and he now faces 22 serious charges that could carry a life sentence, if he is convicted. The 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst allegedly gave more than 700,000 classified documents to Julian Assange, the […]

* If you ever encounter a one-eyed, dart-throwing lawyer, for the love of God, don’t misspell his name. [LA Weekly] * WikiLeaks and Anonymous are still doing their thing. Right now, that thing is hacking into law firm websites and exposing sensitive personal information. CHECK YOU DATA SECURITY. [Gizmodo] * Our own Staci Zaretsky will […]

* How many friend requests did these firms just get? Fenwick & West and Simpson Thacher are the Biglaw stars of Facebook’s S-1 filing for its $5B initial public offering. Like. [Am Law Daily] * The prosecution is expected to make its arguments today in Julian Assange’s appeal of his extradition from the U.K. to […]

The former military intelligence analyst accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks has spent the last four days in a Maryland military court, undergoing a hearing to determine whether or not his case will proceed to court-martial. For those new to the party, 24-year-old Bradley Manning is accused of committing the biggest […]

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 […]

We've been talking a lot recently about the secretly authorized stuff our government does to us -- like killing us, or molesting us at airports. Here's another one for the list: digging through our emails or Twitter feeds or cell phone data, without probable cause, our permission, or our knowledge. How does the U.S. government circumvent basic probable cause and search warrant requirements when it wants electronic information? Let's see....

It’s been an unusually exciting month in the legal tech world. Several lawyers have been charged with (and cleared of) upsetting electronic crimes. An Am Law 100 firm got sued for allegedly screwing up e-discovery. I haven’t even had the time or need to write the same vague jibber-jabber about Google+ that everyone else on […]

Although I’m no longer an editor here at Above the Law (*tear*), you know my byline occasionally still pops up to bring you news of lonely lawyers and goings-on in the world of privacy. This week, I asked Elie and Lat if they were interested in a lawsuit against a computer rental store accused of […]

* The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a lawsuit asking courts to force major companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sotomayor spent the entire oral argument asking attorneys how she could fit more Miami Sound Machine on her Zune. [New York Times] * Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who can be seen every Thursday night […]

The cutting-edge information and security practice of Hunton & Williams is getting the firm lots of media attention these days — but not of the positive variety. The firm’s lawyers are getting coverage due to their information becoming insecure after a hacktivist group leaked emails they exchanged with security firm HBGary. Last night, the firm’s […]

* A British court ruled that Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden. [Reuters] * Governor Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions. Men, barbecue, I like you, I like you too dawg, let’s get… civil unioned? [Honolulu Star-Advertiser] * Seems like Betty Boop was passed around like a […]

Hunton & Williams is having an uncomfortable week, and will get its very own page in the WikiLeaks saga. Thanks to a feud between hacktivist group Anonymous and a security firm, emails that Hunton lawyers exchanged with that security firm were leaked in a major document dump last week. Journalist (and lawyer) Glenn Greenwald of […]

* The anatomy of Courtship Connections. Kash explains why it’s so difficult to set lawyers up with each other. [Forbes] * Alan Dershowitz and Julian Assange make a love connection. [Politico] * Does compassion really have any place in the law? [Underdog] * Many of the lonely among you will be drinking heavily tonight. That’s […]

* UVA Law grad Corwin Levi used his law school notes as his artistic canvas. I bet he has a really snazzy collar. [Ex-Lawyers Club] * Not all professors are lazy. Professor Ilya Somin hops on the “make new exam questions” bandwagon. [Volokh Conspiracy] * Professor Stephen Bainbridge has another theory on how “Tiger Mother” […]

* Republicans won’t have Michael Steele to kick around anymore. [Huffington Post] * Akin Gump apologizes for a controversial post on Powerline by partner Paul Mirengoff. [Indianz.com] * Is WikiLeaks responsible for the Tunisian revolution? [Business Insider] * Speaking of Tunisia, MLK Day is important and everything — but maybe, just maybe, U.S. officials in […]

* Judy Clarke, counsel to Jared Lee Loughner, is known as the “One-Woman Dream Team.” Here’s to hoping the prosecution doesn’t get played like Frédéric Weis. [USA Today] * There is a time when the operation of the merger becomes so odious… plaintiff’s attorneys have got to put their bodies upon the gears and upon […]

* Lawrence Taylor’s lawyers accuse cops of false start in their arrest of Taylor for statutory rape. [New York Daily News] * Listen, we know Julian Assange did something illegal. We just need to do a helluva lot of research to figure out what it is! And your constant, y’know, questions and stuff aren’t going […]

* Julian Assange was arrested at a London police station last night. What a dumb place for Julian Assange to be hanging out. What a stupid, stupid place. [CNN] * I can’t tell whether this story is real or not, but the Supreme Court heard the case yesterday of a deceased Korean War veteran diagnosed […]

Last week, we reported that Boston University School of Law was warning job seekers not to read (or link to) WikiLeaks if they want to get a government job. The government still regards the documents as classified, and so somehow if you link to them (say on Facebook), you might fail a to get the […]

As if law students did have enough to worry about when trying to get jobs, career services at Boston University School of Law has pointed out another potential pitfall that may terrify its students. According to BU, merely reading the WikiLeaks documents could prevent you from getting the security clearances necessary to get certain government […]