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What the fuck is going on at Miami law?
2007-10-18 04:37:00
Remember, you can't spell scum without UM. Apparently Miami law students are fucked up. First, we have a 2L from Miami who apparently likes to talk back to a judge on the People's Court....except the judge is a Miami undergrad alum, Georgetown law alum, taught law at Miami, was a Circuit Court judge in Florida (that's trial level for us though) etc.... Well she flipped shit on him and tore him a new asshole. Watch the video, it's 2 minutes of comedy gold.Next we have another video of a slutty 1L from Miami (is there any other type?) acting like a total whore. Kind of entertaining to watch.Third, we have a prostitute soliciting Criminal Procedure prof at UM Law. Viewing from his bio he's really big into the "race and the law" aspect. Good job perpetuating the stereotypes.That's all for now, but I'm sure there'll be more. Thanks again Abovethelaw.com for always bringing us quality legal porn.
More About: What the fuck , Fuck , Going , Goin

A Cautionary Tale: Regent University and the Tattooed 2L.
2007-10-16 20:33:00
This is an example of multiple things. A) Why you should not go to Regent Univers ity law school. B) What you shouldn't say when you're trying to defend freedom of speech in a private institution.A Regent University law student who posted an unflattering photo of Regent President Pat Robertson on his Facebook page has been indefinitely suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation.Adam M. Key was told by a dean in an e-mail Friday that he was concerned about Key's "emotional well-being" and that several students have recently expressed concern about Key's "interpersonal behavior."The students "have reported, among other things, that you said that you brought a gun on campus, which is a violation of University policy," said the e-mail, signed by L.O. Natt Gantt, the law school's associate dean for student affairs.Key said he has never brought a gun on campus or told fellow students that he had. "I've never owned or carried a gun," he said...."This is an effort to discredit me by dr...
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Law Firms: Car chases, adultery, forgery, coverups...oh my?
2007-10-16 20:04:00
Thank law.com's Legal Times for this one.There's an interesting debacle going on at the mid-size (100 attorneys) firm of Beveridge & Diamond. Apparently it involves the divorce of a partner in the firm, who's wife is a non-practicing attorney holding senior positions in the ABA. While being served process, Beveridge, the name partner, apparently got away in his car, and was involved in a car chase, hunted by the process server. The server eventually barely got it attached to the guy's windshield after a chase across the District. The whole lurid detail goes into people dipping into the 401(k), forging signatures, and taking out loans based on forged documents. The chief suspect, Mr. Guttmann, was previously named as one of the top 45 lawyers under 45, by "The American Lawyer" and was the managing partner of the firm.I don't even have word to describe how awesome this whole thing is. Just read the news article.
More About: Forgery , Adultery , Firms , Hase

Study: Affirmative Action does NOT work in Law School
2007-10-16 19:46:00
Thanks to Fox News via AboveTheLaw.com. A recent study published by Stanford Law Review, authored by UCLA Law Professor Richard Sander says no, and demands that the California Bar release its data related to student test scores, law school admissions, and bar passage rates.According to the article: Currently only about one in three African-Americans who goes to an American law school passes the bar on the first attempt and a majority never become lawyers at all," says UCLA law professor Richard Sander.In an article published in the Stanford Law Review, Sander and his research team concluded several thousand would-be black lawyers either dropped out of law school or failed to pass the bar because of affirmative action.Sander's claim, the so-called "mismatch effect", is that students who are unprepared and whose academic credentials are below the median, under affirmative action, are admitted to law schools they are unqualified to attend. They then do poorly and do not graduate or pa...
More About: Law School , Action , Study , Work , School

Christian Clown takes kiddie porn, molests orphans
2007-10-13 19:40:00
And Jesus does not approve. Courtesy of Blogonaut:An Illinois man who worked as a "Christian clown" named Klutzo was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges for allegedly taking naked photographs of young boys at a Philippines orphanage. According to a federal criminal complaint, Amon Paul Carlock took the illicit photos during a "clowning" trip to the House of Joy orphanage earlier this year.On his web site, Carlock (who has worked with his wife, a fellow clown) describes himself as a Christian clown who performs at parties, picnics, vacation Bible school, children's church.Carlock told investigators that he previously traveled to the House of Joy in 2004 and visited a Mexican orphanage in 2002. He also reported being an ordained minister who has been involved in pastoral ministry, Christian education and camping, and evangelism since 1967.In one Internet posting on a missionary outreach site, Carlock sought to volunteer at an overseas orphanage "doing any tasks that I am ...
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Boalt name change
2007-10-13 19:38:00
Fabled UC Berkley's Boalt Hall - School of Law is ow changing its name to simply UC Berkley School of Law, or colloquially Berkley Law School, in response to complaints that the school's name was simply too confusing. UC-B hired a consulting firm, and paid them $25,000 to determine.......simply name the school after the campus.From the article, referring to the school's dean: He said he routinely has to clarify what and where "Boalt" is. When he gave a lecture recently at Howard University, the person introducing him turned to him and said, "I am sorry, but I am confused. Are there two law schools in Berkeley?"Well, congratulations to money obviously well spent.
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WCL Student Bar Association President Censured?
2007-10-09 23:32:00
On October 5, the entire WCL campus received this email from the WCL Student Bar Association President .My fellow students: One of the many academic projects my administration seeks to initiate is a study abroad trip to a pair of Universities in the Middle East; one in Israel and one in either Palestine or a moderate Arab country. It is my hope that a study abroad program that forges links between groups that have a history of non-cooperation will help plant the seeds for future peace. Recently a Senator authored a resolution that invites an academic boycott of Israeli institutions based on unsubstantiated allegations under the pretext of protecting academic freedom and . The resolution is posted on the SBA TWEN site which you can find here:http://lawschool.westlaw.com/forums/ forums.asp?task=topics&courseID=24510&for umtype=FM&forumid=103656&appflag=1&featur e=FM103656 I invite all interested students to voice their thoughts by posting a response on the TWEN site or in person at the ...
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Underwear at Guantanamo
2007-10-04 15:48:00
Apparently detainees are getting access somehow to illegal Under Armour underwear. DOD believes that it was the detainee's lawyers who brought it in. Lawyers respond with a snarky email of the kind we oh so love here.I can't believe that the JAG officer didn't consider the strong strong strong (did I say strong?) possibility that it belonged to a guard, or was from the exchange. Under Armour, especially the heatwear shirts and heatwear briefs, are extremely popular with the US military (though restricted, because they melt under IED attack from the heat, obviously not a problem in Guantanamo ).Anyway, this broke Tuesday, so we'll see more as the complaints come in.
More About: Underwear , Namo

Another intersection of law, Wikipedia, and money
2007-10-04 15:42:00
I was alerted today to this NY Times Dealbook awesome listing of the biggest names on K Street and Wall Street organized by college and graduate school.It brings up an interesting Wikipedia challenge: Go through all the names of these Washington and New York power brokers, and make sure that they all have the proper school categories (i.e. Category:Harvard alumni), meet BLP, and are properly sourced.And when you're done you can help me create new US Supreme Court case articles.
More About: Money

The intersection of Wikipedia, Law, and notability
2007-10-04 15:23:00
I love it when worlds collide. Today my favorite legal blog, where I get a good amount of my law-practice related content, linked to a non-notable English Wikipedia article, Dianna Abdala. Abdala is a favorite of that particular blog, which likes to publish snarky internal emails and press releases of associate compensation.So it was interesting to me that when I clicked on the link to see Abdala's article, and found that she's nominated for AFD. The !votes at this point are 100% delete. This is obviously the right answer; it's an attorney who is only notable for a single snarky email exchange and now works obscurely in the criminal defense world.There's not a whole lot to this, but I think it is interesting that the Abdala article was around for a year and a half before this AFD, and that a popular blog found it worth linking to. Still doesn't meet the notability requirement, but it's funny nonetheless.

Attention: Law School is NOT for you
2007-09-30 23:02:00
Law school simply isn't for some people. For instance, if you feel the need to lecture a law professor who has been teaching and litigating for 30 years, in her own subject matter area when she's already announced that what you're talking about is not important, law school isn't for you. If you feel the need to start off almost ANY sentence in class with "In my experience...." or "When I did/was/worked at....", law school is not for you.If you feel that you don't need to stop your car when you are driving down Mass. Ave for the array of law students obviously crossing the road....law school and driving are not for you, and I keyed your car you disgusting bitch.If you work at Wagshals, and continue to repeatedly attempt to charge me higher than the listed price for my bagel and lox, law school is not for you, and neither is the english language or basic math. ICE is on their way to deport you.If you're that morbidly obese 2L in the library who decides that they're going to pri...
More About: Law School , School , Attention , Tent

Most awesome lawsuit ever. EVER.
2007-09-27 16:04:00
This is the most awesome pro se, in forma pauperis lawsuit ever.Some one has filed a handwritten lawsuit against Google, asking for $5 billion in damages, because his social security number, when turned upside down and scrambled spells Google. And then it gets weirder. The war on terrorism makes an appearance, as does a Burton snowboard. If you're reading this via RSS, click on through to see the filing in all its handwritten glory. Update: As pointed out in the comments, the guy actually filed 8 other things with the court, including a rather detailed description of how the Philadelphia 76ers play a key role in the code to unscramble his social security number to spell Google.This is the link to the other motions filed on the docket. It's honestly worth viewing at least the brief in support of motion for summary judgment (#3 I think).
More About: Lawsuit , Awesome , Suit

News Alert: Gunman at St. Johns Law School
2007-09-27 15:59:00
A gunman was arrested at St. Johns Law School (Queens campus). The school was locked down and evacuated. No shots were fired, and apparently nobody was injured. Regular business hours to resume, apparently today, but likely tomorrow.Somehow I don't think "I'm sorry, I stayed home because I didn't want to be shot to death" will count against you when you're not on the "present and prepared list".
More About: News , Alert

Poetic Justice pt. 2: Jack Thompson
2007-09-27 15:33:00
Jack Thompson apparently likes getting fucked in the ass (only semi-figuratively speaking). You'll remember that Jack Thompson is the asshole who sued the game industry over school shootings from video games, and was promptly summarily dismissed for failure to state a claim. He then promised Childs Play, the Penny Arcade charity, $10,000 and then reneged on it. He's sued Take-Two, he's sued the internets, and he's a self-proclaimed crusader against all things gaming. He's also currently undergoing ethics violation investigations from the Florida Bar, and stands to lose his license. But this is old news.In current news, Thompson is facing contempt charges by a US District Judge (S.D. Fl.) for including images of hardcore gay porn in his docket filing. It was not relevant to the case (for instance, the case was not about gay porn available to minors). He simply did it to smear his nemesis, who runs National Gay News.This is a new low for Thompson. He doesn't even admit he was wr...
More About: Justice , Jack Thompson , Jack

Poetic Justice pt. 1: Michael Vick
2007-09-27 15:24:00
Michael Vick just can't get a break. After his whole dogfighting debacle, which he was recently indicted for, Vick is now being sued by the Royal Bank of Canada for defaulting on a $2.5 million loan. He's in default for over $2.3 million of that amount. This is on top of the $250,000 that he will be fined if he is convicted. Oh yeah, he may have problems paying if he's in jail for 5 years.Since he's lost almost all his endorsements, this could be an especially hard blow.
More About: Justice , Michael , Michael Vick

Fly, eagles, fly
2007-09-25 16:14:00
The Philadelphia Eagles now sport the ugliest, most outrageously vomit inducing throwback uniforms in the NFL. I spared you the baby blue socks with the yellow rings. Excuse me while I go murder my eyes.

One more Jena 6 comment
2007-09-24 03:34:00
I should have spent a little more time researching on Snopes.com before posting before; I missed some good shit. Turns out the Jena 6 include some hardened criminals in their number. Lets recap first:The "Jena 6" attack took place on 4 December 2006 at the high school. During a fight that broke out in the lunchroom between a white student and a black student, the white student was hit from behind, knocked out, then set upon by other black students who proceeded to kick and stomp his "lifeless" body as he lay unconscious on the floor. The victim, Justin Barker, spent about three hours in an emergency room being treated for injuries to his head and face.According to Snopes.com "Two of the Jena 6 defendants had been part of the threesome involved in the Gotta-Go Grocery incident, which is why their bonds were significantly higher: the bonds so assigned covered both sets of charges"The Gotta-go Grocery incident was when several black Jena students....wait for it.....robbed and beat u...
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Just awesome
2007-09-12 21:34:00
Found a pretty hilarious legal/lawschool/summer associate t-shirt store the other day. Borntobill.com. I'm pretty entertained by it. I think I'll get the "Make love, not law review" shirt if I don't make law review.
More About: Awesome , Some

Afternoon update
2007-09-11 21:52:00
I missed class today (First time I've missed contracts) to deal with a bunch of financial shit. Got a call threatening a lawsuit for a medical bill from 2 years ago. After taking care of that, I fixed Comcast's ridiculous 278 dollar bill which turned out to be actually two months of billing, plus $60 bucks of extra random charges. Le sigh.In other news: Yahoo reports a McDonalds employee arrested for making an overly salty burger for a cop. No, not overly salty in that sick kind of way. See WaPo version with more info. And why DID the cop continue to eat it after the first nasty bite?Internet cybersquatter who impersonated an IP lawyer faces 20 years. Interesting that a cybersquatter faces similar, if not longer jail time to that guy who from Boca Raton who was the king of spam that went to jail.Awesome piece of technology. The OQO Model02 has amazing potential as a modern attorney's ultimate piece of gear. It runs a full version of Windows Vista, but fits in your pocket. It has ...
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Rosenthal sues for $9 million
2007-09-07 21:52:00
Unfortunately not me. "A $9 million pay dispute between Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and a former partner may soon be scheduled for trial.Douglas Rosenthal contends Sonnenschein owes him the money for big successes in two cases, Legal Times reports in a story reprinted by New York Lawyer."This is the guy who litigated the case against Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, and one of the antitrust cases against Microsoft. Apparently though, Greenberg Traurig thinks he'll have a tough time of it. Given the recent email antics of litigation partners of their firm, I'm not sure I'd trust their opinion (petty, I know.)
More About: Million

John Roberts v. Harriet Miers v. What the Fuck?
2007-09-07 16:20:00
A hearty "What the Fuck ??" goes out to Robert Draper, who in his new book coming out, Dead Certain, claims that John Roberts suggested to President Bush that Harriet Miers be nominated for the Supreme Court.All I can say is...What the Fuck?Let's talk about the ways that does NOT make sense in the world of reality in which we (but not Draper) live. In fact, lets not even talk about them, and lets let a more respected series of authorities do it.In an interview with Rachel Sklar of the HuffPo, Jeffrey Toobin -- author of an eagerly anticipated book on the Supreme Court coming out later this month, The Nine -- explained the significance of JGR's official denial: "The Supremes rarely react to stuff in the press, one way or the other."Toobin attributes the difference between his and Draper's account as probably a case of broken telephone: "The White House tried the idea [of Miers as a SCOTUS nominee] out on a variety of people, including, no doubt, Roberts, who got to know Miers durin...
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Awesome email exchange from Wash U.
2007-09-07 16:04:00
Keep in mind the university name, because it's ironic.Courtesy of Abovethelaw.com (original post)MESSAGE #1From: ScottSent: Tue 8/28/2007 4:52 PMTo: School of LawSubject: Wash er/Dryer Set for Sale$100 for set, including dryer vent and dryer electric plug (three prong). If you help load/unload, I'll deliver in my truck to CWE, Clayton, and U-City (you provide the cheap, domestic beer).Details:Both are 6 years old and were purchased new. Washer is Roper Brand byWhirlpool Corporation, Heavy Duty Super Capacity Plus, 4-speedcombination, 8-cycle washer. Washer is in working order and has nohistory of problems. Matching dryer is electric, Heavy Duty Extra LargeCapacity, 5-cycle. Dryer is really being thrown in for free because,while most of the time it works fine, it occasionally leaves clothingmildly damp, which is solved by running a short, second timed-cycle.Just for reference, I am ditching the set because my wife refuses to washmy clothing until I purchase her one of the larger and...
More About: Email , Awesome , Exchange , Chang

Jones Day in Atlanta raises pay to $150k, other firms follow.
2007-09-07 15:50:00
This is of special interest to me, because Jones Day is pretty high on my list of firms that I want to work for on graduation. Anyway, law.com is reporting via Abovethelaw.com that several Atlanta firms have just announced pay raises this year. For first year associates:Jones Day will raise starting pay to $150,000, and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker will go to $145,000 -- an increase of $15,000 at each firm. The raises are effective Jan. 1, 2008, when pay raises go into effect at several other Atlanta firms, including Alston & Bird, King & Spalding and Troutman Sanders.There is an interesting paragraph in there where it says that Jones Day has never paid classes in lockstep or based on hours..Pay raises for more senior associate classes at Jones Day will be merit-based, said David M. Monde, the Atlanta administrative partner. The firm has never paid classes in lockstep or based on hours, he said, adding that the focus for year-end bonuses, more th...
More About: Firms , S Day

Belgian prosecutor wants to classify Scientology as criminal
2007-09-05 20:14:00
This is a very very interesting report from a Belgian federal prosecutor investigating the Church of Scientology . According to the Jurist, this prosecutor has been investigating the Church of Scientology for 10 years, and accuses them of using threats, intimidation, fraud, extortion, violations of privacy law, and unlawfully practicing medicine without a license.This comes as especially interesting to many Wikipedians who have been stalked or bothered by members of the Church of Scientology. I know David Gerard has been threatened by them, and I'm aware of other reports claiming that it's not an uncommon occurrence.Maybe this will be the first blow to strike at the Scientologists' intimidation and attack tactics. I expect to have more to report in the future.
More About: Criminal , Ology , Rimi

Biglaw firm partner hates the troops.
2007-09-05 19:57:00
Got this one from Abovethelaw.com (source).According to them, they received the following tip:A partner in one of Greenberg Traurig's international offices sent out a long and angry firmwide e-mail, criticizing the firm for raising money for a charity which provides phone cards to soldiers overseas. Apparently, he was angry about the war, President Bush... , etc.I don't have a copy of it -- a friend of mine who works in the NYC office had it -- but it is worth getting and posting, if you don't already have a copy. One of the firm's managing shareholders responded; it too is worth posting, I think.Well, Abovethelaw managed t get a copy of the email. All I can say is wow. Just wow.I am aware that GT is supposed to be politically a non partisan organisation. However, since the phone card project is not unpolitical I should like to make the follwing [sic] comments (even if it may affect my bonus):Why isn't some of the surplus used for innocent iraqi victims?It is most interesting f...
More About: Partner , Troops

Musings/Contracts
2007-08-30 00:37:00
First off, I need to rant. I really hate it when our casebook gives us a massive, complex case that has a 100+ page opinion (at the district court level, no less), and then only gives us tiny bits and pieces of rulings on individual motions, and individual snippets out of the opinion, yet keeps continually coming back to it for different things.We've read Texaco v. Pennzoil at least 3 times now, at varying levels: trial and intermediate appellate. Yet we haven't gotten an overview on the whole case. We only get to read motion judgments or special issues, or review of error in jury instructions. Now I know the background of the case (it was an optional reading), but it's not even directly related to what we're studying. It's not REALLY about whether there was a formation of a contract between Getty entities and Pennzoil; it's about whether there was intentional and willful interference on behalf of Pennzoil. Though it's ironic that Geoffrey Boisi was the investment banker that...
More About: Musings , Contracts , Sings

Observations
2007-08-23 23:59:00
1) I have made best friends with the library.2) Why does the men's bathroom smell like someone had an enema with OrangeFresh Cleaner? It smells overpoweringly orangey in random places, but tinged with the stench of ass, in others.3) Checking out a backrest from circulation is awesome.4) I could not live my life without becoming intimately familiar with the Restatement (Second) of Contracts in a way man and paper were not naturally meant to become intimate.5) Bar night tonight. Thank God/Jesus/Allah/FSM.6) Cases involving overuse of the word "Bung hole" are funny.7) Especially when they involve the phrase "Bung hole was hammered repeatedly for 9 years until it was torn and fraying"8) I do not feel juvenile in the slightest for finding the above funny.9) Creepy Colorado kid made an ass out of himself the other day, and I do find that funny.And finally:10) Kittens make everything better. Even law school. And I seem to have no desire to see them stop scratching at my Torts casebook.
More About: Observations

Elitist Pricks
2007-08-21 17:49:00
Out of the hundreds of thousands of potential law students who apply every year, not many will make it into a top ranked school. Assuming an average entering class of 300 students, that means the top 16 schools will only matriculate 4,800 students. Out of the 196 accredited ABA schools, that means 58,800 will actually be accepted. This out of hundreds of thousands that apply. For comparison there are somewhere just over 400,000 members of the American Bar Association. So when elitist pricks sit all day on LawSchoolDiscussion.com (And I fully acknowledge that 2/3rd of this blog's hits come from there), and bash anyone who doesn't attend a top 16 law school, or in some cases even a top 4 law school, that's absolutely absurd. Given the membership numbers of the law school compared to that of the website, there are about 50% of the population of all of the top 16 law schools sitting around on lawschooldiscussion.com being elitist jackasses.Somehow I don't think so.If you haven't go...
More About: Elitist , Prick

Why RFA is wrong, and how to fix it on English Wikipedia
2007-08-21 17:23:00
Kelly Martin's blog has an interesting post up on meatpuppetry and sockpuppetry in RFA's. This ties directly and applicably into the post we had a few days ago on Crockspot's RFA that was disrupted severely by canvassing and sockpuppetry. While Kelly's post does not specifically mention it by name, she does come up with some proposed solutions to the growing problem of RFA disruption and skewing.One of her suggestions is a jury format, where randomly selected editors are chosen as jury members, and their votes are kept private. Everyone may discuss, but only the jury may choose. (Inspiration credit to Greg Maxwell).My take on it is a little different. I believe that jurors may just vote without caring. I suggest a pool of jurors who are willing to commit to the RFA process. Something like, you add yourself to a category [[Category:RFA Jury Pool]], and the random selection is only picked from this pool. In addition, the jury list is kept private even from the juror's themselves....
More About: English , Wikipedia , Wrong

Legal Rhetoric nonsense
2007-08-21 05:23:00
I had all sorts of bullshit go on today in my legal rhetoric class. I was originally scheduled for class at 6pm-8pm. This worked well for me, because my other class is Torts, which is from 1-3pm. So I get to go to school late, and I have 3 hours to do Torts homework before class, then I can go home that night relatively on time, say I'm home by 9:15, and finish anything I missed in Torts, then relax. Wake up to leave at 7:30 or so for class the next morning.Well, when I get to Torts today, I hear "Apparently your name was called in class this morning, and you weren't there." My response is "Uh....what?" So I check my schedule. Lo and behold, somehow I was switched into a class at 9am for Legal rhetoric. That would have given me 4 9am classes during the week, and I would have already missed the first week of class.So I flip out at the registrar's office, and they fix it....but they put me into the 8pm-10pm class. So now, I don't get back from WCL until like 11:00 to 11:15 every n...
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