The Jabot
Size Matters: A Bankruptcy Associate Finds Small-Firm Nirvana
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Size Matters, one of Above the Law’s new columns for small-firm lawyers. Last month I received an email from Cameron McCord. McCord is a fifth-year associate at a boutique bankruptcy firm in Atlanta, where she’s been having “a great experience.” “I am in court all the time […]
Size Matters: Can A Wet T-Shirt Contest Form The Basis Of A Niche Practice?
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Size Matters, one of Above the Law’s new columns for small-firm lawyers. After talking to so many happy small-firm lawyers, I have begun looking for my own niche to scratch. It came to me while driving in the suburbs a few weeks ago. There was a radio […]
Inside Straight: Pitching Diversity
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Diversity matters. It matters for reasons of social justice. It matters because folks are tracking it, and it can be important to look good on those scales. It matters for reasons of trial strategy, […]
Morning Docket: 03.30.11
* A Libyan woman is being sued for slander over her rape allegations. Is this how the Libyan militiamen serve and protect their country? [Boston Globe] * Call this one a learning experience. Pictures of things we now know we can’t post on Facebook: placentas, dead girls. [CNN Justice] * Jay-Z is down to 98 […]
Dukes Proving To Be a Hazard to Wal-Mart
In 1995, Betty Dukes took a job at a Wal-Mart near San Francisco, working as a cashier and greeter for $5 an hour. A “greeter” represents the face of the company as consumers walk through the door. Little did Dukes and Wal-Mart know that Dukes would ultimately become a face of Wal-Mart nationally, under much different circumstances. Today, […]
Non-Sequiturs: 03.25.11
* Who are the top plaintiffs firms in securities class-action litigation, ranked by 2010 total settlement value? [RiskMetrics / SCAS via WSJ Law Blog] * Protip: if you go to a meeting at Deutsche Bank’s New York offices, avoid the men’s room. [Dealbreaker] * This lawyer has an assistant with an unusual name. [Abuse of […]
Ropes & Gray Sued for Age and Sex Discrimination By Former Partner
On Tuesday, Ropes & Gray was sued in Manhattan federal court by a former partner, Patricia A. Martone. Martone’s lawsuit claims age discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation, and interference with protected retirement benefits in violation of ERISA (the basis for federal jurisdiction in the S.D.N.Y.). As you might expect from an ex-Ropes partner, Martone has some […]
Inside Straight: Moving Laterally
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. I spoke on a panel with two other in-house lawyers at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law a little while ago, and I learned two interesting things about lateral mobility. I’m not one […]
Biglaw Bros: Why Slam Pieces Don’t Want You
Ed. note: The following piece was authored by The Legal Tease, of Sweet Hot Justice fame. Check out her other musings from Sweet Hot Justice here. Bros of Biglaw, I love you, but I’m worried about you. You’re confused. You’re angry. And you should be. You’ve been told, by each other, that cementing your place […]
Law School Group Urges Female Students To Get in Better Shape
Are you a female law student? Have you put on a few pounds during your time in law school? Would you like to be reminded that fit, attractive women have better employment opportunities? Then maybe you should consider transferring to Cardozo Law School. The Cardozo Health and Fitness Club is holding a networking lunch, but […]
In Defense of Tommy, Who Used to Work on the Docks
In the comments to Elie’s Sugar Mama post from yesterday, which chronicles the woes of a female Biglaw associate who is being harassed by coworkers for affiancing (KABLAM: Princeton Review Hit Parade) a Starbucks barista “peasant,” Bonobo_Bro wrote: Not bad big guy (other than the usual typo issues which must be intentional); however, I really […]
Advice for ‘Sugar-Mama’ Attorneys and Their Low-Income Male Life Partners
This is a very modern Valentine’s Day story, and one that is only possible in the prestige-obsessed world of Biglaw and a few other similar professions. A woman is an associate at a law firm. She’s probably an associate at a Biglaw firm, since she claims to earn a six-figure salary. She’s engaged to a […]
Ladies: A J.D. Will <em>NOT</em> Prevent You From Fulfilling Your Stripper Dreams
Well, I think we are officially at the point in the legal economy where servicing law school debts is just like servicing an expensive drug habit. The parallels between the two are too great to ignore: Is it something you started because everybody else was doing it? Is it something you initially thought was a […]
Biglaw Baby Making 101
There’s been so much talk of Biglaw women and baby making floating around the blogosphere this week that I think there must have been a “repopulate the species” action memo in US Weekly. Existentially, I blame the season. It’s January, and childless professional women just went through another holiday season getting bombarded with images of […]
Work/Life Whatever and Ten Missing Minutes of Tape
Ed. note: This post is by Will Meyerhofer, a former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney turned psychotherapist. He holds degrees from Harvard, NYU Law, and The Hunter College School of Social Work, and he blogs at The People’s Therapist. His new book, Life is a Brief Opportunity for Joy, is available on Amazon. I did a […]