Bullying

Partner's problematic behavior gets the attention of firm leaders.

* Laws matter: life lost after school neglects to follow anti-bullying protocol. [WBEZ]

* The EU’s laws will be impacting American free speech, eh? Talk about long-arm statutes. [The Hill]

* Oklahoma just passed their version of Texas’s Roe sidestep. Over/under for them banning condoms too in two weeks? [CNN]

* Marjorie Taylor Greene is maintaining the Shaggy defense for her Section 3 trial. [NBC News]

* People are upset that the Texas bill disincentivizing the use of clean energy isn’t enough to keep them using fossil fuels. Sorry, not sorry. [NPR]

More fallout.

Troubling allegations at the Biglaw firm.

When zealous advocacy goes off the rails.

What is your school doing to stop this problematic behavior?

Are we to assume that Santa is 'authentic' and, therefore, a woman cannot be Santa?

I was bullied without mercy in my tweens and teenage years. The bullying ranged from fat shaming and other appearance- and intellect-based taunts, to an actual physical assault. It came from both school- peers and adults. I remember my baseball coach telling to run faster to first base by pretending I was chasing a refrigerator. […]

What can we learn from the experience of other countries?

A major common theme: powerlessness or a big workplace power differential.

Workplace bullying can affect morale, increase turnover, and give rise to lawsuits.

It's more about the bully than the star, as columnist Richard Cohen explains.

Despite the need for anti-bullying laws, columnist Richard Cohen predicts that they will wither on the vine – for now.

I guess it doesn't get better.

A bully affects an entire school, not just the victim of the bullying.

* So, you’ve found a new job. Yay! You give your boss your two-week notice and your current job comes back with a counter offer. Should you take it? [Manila Recruitment]

* Evaluating the impact of the ghosts of decisions past on this term’s Supreme Court. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Law school applications are down, but medical school applications are up. A look at the trends that have created this phenomenon. [Law School Cafe]

* Are Justices Alito and Thomas in denial? [Slate]

* If a student commits suicide after being bullied, is the school liable? [Litigation Daily]

* Interesting podcast about what it is really like to be a criminal defense attorney. [LST Radio]

* “[H]e’s just a litigious person. Unless he has something going on in the public eye, he can’t exist.” Former Clippers owner Donald Sterling filed a suit against V. Stiviano and TMZ, accusing them of invading his privacy by sharing a recording of his racism. [New York Post]

* A jury found that an ex-municipal court judge who was convicted of insurance fraud was lying when he claimed that he’d been attacked outside the courthouse by thugs wielding a toilet tank lid. We guess you could say that the jurors were able to flush out all of this guy’s crap. [ABA Journal]

* Talk about a Hail Mary suit: Ted Wells of Paul Weiss and NFL locker-room bullying report fame is being sued for defamation by the former Miami Dolphins offensive-line coach who happened to be one of the casualties of his investigation. [Washington Post]

* Deutsche Bank’s general counsel will step down from his position at the end of the year. Deutsche Bank joins JPMorgan and Bank of America as the third big bank to have announced a change in GC within the past month. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* If you’re considering applying to law school, here are five steps you can take to write a “great” personal statement. Surprisingly, one step isn’t mentioning your guaranteed employment at a family firm after graduation. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* Congratulations to Tony West on his new gig as General Counsel of PepsiCo. It sounds like an exciting and challenging opportunity. Plus, you know, free Mountain Dew. [Politico] * What the hell? The feds stole a woman’s identity and made it into a Facebook page. Well, now she’s found out and she’s suing. Identity theft was one thing, but the way the DEA Agent kept spamming the woman’s friends to play Candy Crush Saga was just unacceptable. [Buzzfeed] * Time for some court news: Ninth Circuit joined the chorus in striking down gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. [Ninth Circuit] * It’s Nobel Prize time, and one of the winners for Physics has a personal story about how important it is to hire a good lawyer. In fact, it was about $180 million important. [Slate] * We constantly beat the drum of how law schools need to adjust to reality and stop duping students into terrible financial decisions. But here’s the PR secret that’s kept law schools from, by and large, collapsing: they sell the experience. [Law and More] * An open letter begging Amal Alamuddin not to quit her day job now that she’s married to some acting guy. [The Careerist] * New York City paid $50K to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a child who killed herself after school officials allegedly did nothing despite several warnings that the girl was being brutally bullied. There’s a lot of “in my day…” types who read this site who may not care about bullying, but this is more a question of irresponsibility. If your job is to provide a safe learning environment and you fail, you pay. [DNA Info] * At oral argument, the Court seemed generally supportive of the Muslim inmate hoping to grow a beard. If this intuition is right, soon individual people may have the same religious rights as corporations! [Supreme Court Brief] * Finally, thanks to the Rutgers-Newark Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society for hosting a great event today where Elie and I previewed the upcoming SCOTUS Term. My personal highlight was watching Elie’s head explode while talking about Young v. UPS.

The amount of people whining about being bullied reaches epidemic proportions.

* Judge Brian Cogan has ruled that a group of New York Catholic institutions doesn’t have to provide health insurance plans that include birth control coverage to its employees because… insurance policies with provisions that other people may or may not ever invoke is a religious thing. Too bad no one told the Catholic Church in New York, which already pays for insurance that provides birth control coverage and has for years. [Jezebel] * Judge Richard Leon’s decision ruling the NSA metadata gathering program unconstitutional makes a lot of good points, but perhaps the best is that even if you think there’s a compelling counter-terrorism concern that trumps constitutional safeguards, the NSA just can’t point to it. Of course we’ll all be singing another tune when the Moldovans take over. [Lawyers, Guns & Money] * Here’s a tale of dealing with a Biglaw bully. I don’t get the concept — being locked in a locker is way better than spending the whole night conforming edits. [Big Law Rebel] * Elie appeared on the Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast to discuss drones. [Lawyer 2 Lawyer] * Eyewitness testimony is often disastrously wrong. Suddenly that “Eyewitness News” title your awful local news channel uses seems really appropriate. [Slate] * A guide for tech startups and software developers dealing with contracts. I’m looking in your direction, Winklevoss twins. [Alleywatch] * An IP lawyer makes a rap video. His record may affirm that he knows IP, but I don’t think Death Row is going to be calling any time soon. Video embedded below…