St. John’s University School of Law

St. John's professor spends holiday weekend tangling with Hertz.

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Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time.

There's no amount of 'boys will be boys'ing that changes how messed up this is.

* Thus far, five law schools — Hawaii, Iowa, St. John’s, Drake, and Buffalo — have decided to drop the LSAT for top-performing applicants, and it’s no surprise that all five law schools have watched their enrollment numbers take traumatic tumbles. [Bloomberg Business]

* “[E]veryone calls colleagues for advice, particularly when we get gnarly jury notes.” As it turns out, judges in the Southern District of New York are big proponents of the “phone a friend” lifeline for their trickier cases. FYI, those friends are never law profs. [New York Times]

* Well, that was incredibly quick! Josh Seiter, the 2013 graduate of Chicago-Kent Law who’s built a successful career stripping, working as an escort, and appearing on reality TV shows, didn’t even make it past the first rose ceremony on The Bachelorette. [Heavy]

* Without WARNing? Butler & Hosch, one of the largest foreclosure firm’s in the country, decided to abruptly close up shop, leaving hundreds of attorneys and staff members of out work. Sources have told us that the firm was unable to make payroll. [Orlando Sentinel]

* Sorry, boutiques, but according to Lexis/Nexis CounselLink’s Enterprise Legal Management Trends report, the biggest of all Biglaw firms are controlling the market when it comes to performing specialized IP litigation work. [DealBook / New York Times]

* As we mentioned previously, Sam Kamin of Denver Law is the first professor to hold a pot law professorship. Here’s an interesting Q&A with the law firm partner who came up with the idea. See Prof. Kamin at our marijuana law event in June. [National Law Journal]

* Even more law schools are doing away with their LSAT requirements. Let’s give a great big welcome to Drake Law and St. John’s Law, who are joining the likes of SUNY Buffalo Law and Iowa Law. Woohoo, welcome aboard the bandwagon, folks! [U.S. News & World Report]

* Judge James W. Haley Jr. of the Virginia Court of Appeals held a drunk intruder at gunpoint while he waited for the police to arrive. This unwanted houseguest was only wearing one shoe as he wandered through the judge’s home. Oopsie! [Free Lance-Star]

* Well, that was quick. Fried Frank has hired away James “Jamie” Wareham, DLA Piper’s $5 million man, about four years after he lateraled to the firm from Paul Hastings. April Fools’ Day was his last day at the firm… or was it? J/K, it was for real. [Am Law Daily]

* J. Michael Farren, the ex-White House lawyer who was convicted of attempting to murder his wife and sentenced to 15 years in prison, is now facing the loss of his law license. This should really be the very least of his worries. [Connecticut Law Tribune]

* The U.S. Marshals Service has increased the reward for tips related to the shooting of U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg. Now you’ll get $50,000 if you’ve got information that’ll lead to arrests and convictions of the suspects who shot a federal jurist. [Detroit News]

* We’ve seen the future and it’s drones shoving commercialism down your throats 24/7. Get ready America! [DigiDay]

* Federal judge mistaken for a maid because she’s black and everything is awful all the time. [South Florida Lawyers]

* While everyone focuses on the Supreme Court, the fight for marriage equality is still raging in the state courts. [Huffington Post]

* Yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of Attorney General Robert H. Jackson’s “The Federal Prosecutor” speech. Among many quotable admonitions against prosecutorial abuse: “While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.” Perhaps he shouldn’t have given this speech on April Fools’ Day. [John Q. Barrett]

* The New York Court of Appeals has upheld St. John’s Law’s decision to rescind the admission of a student who admitted that he’d pleaded guilty to possession because he’d been arrested for intent to distribute. But only after taking three semesters worth of his money of course. [Legal Profession Blog]

* A law professor invites colleagues to break the mold of legal scholarship to build a “more authentic ethos.” In entirely related news, congratulations on tenure. [TaxProf Blog]

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* Mary Jo White isn’t the only Debevoise partner who will face high scrutiny while being vetted for the SEC. Andrew Ceresney may be up for co-chief of enforcement. [DealBook / New York Times]

* The Crowell & Moring ethics complaint alleging the firm suggested Appalachians have family circles instead of family trees was chalked up to an “inbreeding memo mishap.” [Am Law Daily]

* A panel of the Appellate Division, Second Department will hold court at St. John’s School of Law next month. Perhaps the students will be a little less embarrassed happier with the school now. [New York Law Journal]

* Patrick Fitzgerald, ex-U.S. attorney and current Skadden partner, will teach a course in national security law at Chicago Law School. Attend his class, lest his “extraordinary brilliance” go to waste. [National Law Journal]

* Looks like somebody forgot about Dre. The rapper’s headphones company, Beats By Dr. Dre, is now going after people for trying to register anything with “beat” or “beats” as trademarks. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]

* Ross Ehlinger, a litigator who died while competing in the Alcatraz triathlon, RIP. [San Francisco Chronicle]

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* Joe Amendola has filed a motion to dismiss the child sex abuse charges against his client, Jerry Sandusky. And if he actually thinks that’s going to happen, then he definitely needs to call 1-800-REALITY. [Associated Press]

* @AllenStanford’s motion for a #newtrial has been denied. The Ponzi schemer’s “conviction by journo tweet” argument has failed. Major props to Judge David Hittner for issuing a ruling in less than 140 characters. [Bloomberg]

* Everyone’s obsessed with the U.S. News law school rankings, but here’s a ranking that people should actually be paying attention to: the law schools that lead to the most debt. [The Short List / U.S. News and World Report]

* This defunct firm’s homeless Halloween party just won’t be as fun this year. Steven J. Baum P.C. has to fork over $4M to settle a probe over its alleged foreclosure abuses. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* St. John’s Law is planning to launch two new LL.M. programs, neither of which is in tax. This is newsworthy because people will apply anyway, and then bitch about the “value” of their degree. [National Law Journal]

* John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, RIP. [NAACP LDF]

A couple of days ago, Elie offered some networking advice to the functional alcoholics in the audience. Sure, his thoughts were a little bit outside the box, but they were better than the kind of standard networking tripe most law students get from their overmatched career services administrators. Case in point, take a look as some networking advice sent around by the Dean of Students at a New York-area law school just last week. The advice was perfect if the dean was trying to ensure that the students made no impression, and left all employers wondering why they bothered to show up for a silly networking event in the first place....

Back in October, we informed our readers that law school litigators Jesse Strauss and David Anziska intended to file class action lawsuits against 15 additional schools, on top of the two they'd already filed against Cooley Law and New York Law School. In mid-December, we brought you an update on the status of those potential filings after Anziska told us that at least three named plaintiffs had been secured for 11 out of the 15 law schools on October's target list. And now, about a month and a half later, have we got some news for you....