January 2010

Law Shucks

This Week in Layoffs: 01.30.10

Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks, which has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker. We’re coming down to the wire on the Law Shucks Lateral Tracker launch promotion iPhone 3GS giveaway. Read the announcement and the rules, then get […]

David Souter

Justice Ginsburg’s Dozing During SOTU

Here’s one talk that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t fall asleep during: her own, a conversation with Nina Totenberg at the 92nd Street Y on Thursday night. We took note of the fact that RBG dozed off a bit during President Obama’s State of the Union address. As it turns out, Justice Ginsburg has an […]

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.29.10

* Robert Joffe (pictured), former presiding partner of Cravath, RIP. [WSJ Law Blog] * You have to wonder if Justice Alito and the rest of the majority from Citizens United will get back at President Obama. If they want revenge, listening to Orly Taitz would be a good start. [The BLT: Blog of the Legal […]

Gender

Lady Justice Does Not Have Enough Female Friends

The Center for Women in Government & Civil Society recently released a study [PDF] about female judges. Their main finding: there are not very many of them. (Duh.) Looking at judgeships on both the federal and state level, women account for just 26% of all seats (5,015 seats), while men occupy 74%, or 14,335 seats. […]

Celebrities

Is Vinny of ‘The Jersey Shore’ Smarter Than You Are?

Are you one of the 21 percent of law school students who, due to the changing legal job market, regret going to law school? If going to law school was a stupid decision decision for you, then congratulations — Vinny Guadagnino, the “self-confessed mama’s boy” of Jersey Shore fame, is smarter than you are. We […]

Technology

What Can You Do With a J.D.?

There is an excellent new product on the market. A tipster reports: A machine that turns your JD into something useful. Or, what to do with all those resumes “on file”. Or, the next cost cutting measure. So many possibilities… Remember when K&L Gates decided to go with cheap toilet paper in their office bathrooms? […]

Biglaw

WilmerHale’s Warm Welcome — for Conservatives

This week brought good news from WilmerHale. The firm’s profits per partner climbed by approximately 7 percent last year, from $1.08 million in 2008 to $1.16 million in 2009, according to the National Law Journal. The increase in PPP was driven, in part, by a dip in partner headcount (from about 330 in 2008 to […]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.29.10

* The Department of Justice is looking for places outside New York City to hold the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed terror circus/trial. Mayor Michael Bloomberg allowed facts to change his mind; that’s how we roll in the 2-1-2. [Newark Star Ledger] * Kelley Drye allegedly hates old people. [New York Law Journal] * Dear Toyota, you […]

Gay Marriage

The Prop 8 Trial: A Recap

Yesterday marked the end, at least for now, of the trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the high-profile case challenging Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage in California. The trial unfolded over the past two and a half weeks in the San Francisco courtroom of Chief Judge Vaughn Walker (N.D. Cal.), who is hearing the case […]