Careers

Law grad who inflated resume and failed to mention speeding tickets wins conditional bar admission

A University of Wisconsin law graduate who boosted his grades and falsely claimed he was on law review when applying for a job has won conditional admission to the state bar. In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court admitted Joshua Jarrett to the bar provided that a licensed lawyer…

May 19, 2016 12:11 PM CDT

Winston & Strawn expands parental leave, eliminates ‘primary’ caregiver distinction

Expanding a parental leave program for associates and senior attorneys that was already generous, compared to other Chicago-based BigLaw firms, Winston & Strawn will now provide up to 20 weeks of paid leave, effective immediately. The firm is also eliminating a “primary” versus “secondary” caregiver distinction that generally split along…

May 19, 2016 11:30 AM CDT

Federal magistrate gets LLM at Duke after law school rejection 40 years ago

A federal magistrate has received a master’s in judicial studies from Duke University School of Law 40 years after his rejection by the law school. U.S. Magistrate Joe Webster of Durham, North Carolina, graduated on Saturday, the Durham Herald-Sun (sub. req.) reports in a story reprinted in the Greensboro News…

May 19, 2016 11:18 AM CDT

Man accused of killing longtime public defender is privately arraigned on psych ward

Former colleagues of a retired longtime San Francisco public defender filled a local courtroom on Tuesday, where her 20-year-old grandnephew was scheduled to be arraigned in a murder case over her Friday slaying. Many were there to be sure that defendant Angelo Zamora got a good lawyer, because that is…

May 12, 2016 1:00 PM CDT

DLA Piper says UK staff cuts won’t be repeated in US

DLA Piper is laying off up to 200 support staffers in the United Kingdom and is moving most of the positions to a Warsaw back-office operations center. The layoffs will be concentrated in the firm’s finance, human resources, technology, marketing and secretarial ranks, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports.…

May 12, 2016 6:51 AM CDT

Law partner who had lifeguard job sees age-discrimination suit over Speedo rule revived on appeal

A Long Island bankruptcy attorney who moonlights as a lifeguard is back in the swim of things, as far as his age-discrimination suit against the state of New York over a required bathing suit is concerned. In a decision last week, the Appellate Division, Second Department, said a trial court…

May 10, 2016 11:00 AM CDT

Lanny Davis opens a new law firm at an age when many practitioners retire

At age 70, many lawyers are thinking about retirement, if they haven’t already closed down their law practices. Lanny Davis is opening a new law firm, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports. Davis, awell-known Washington, D.C., practitioner and friend of Hillary Clinton whose expertise includes not only the law…

May 9, 2016 4:26 PM CDT

Lawyer who fired gun in police standoff wants to switch to criminal law

A one-time government lawyer who defeated charges related to a police standoff wants to switch to criminal defense work. Mark Bramble, accused of firing nearly 50 rounds from his Charleston, West Virginia, home in August 2013, regained his law license earlier this year, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. He will have…

May 9, 2016 8:46 AM CDT

Labor report finds decline in legal industry jobs

The legal industry lost 1,500 jobs in April, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The employment level is at its lowest since August 2015, the Bloomberg BNA’ Big Law Business blog reports. Additionally, the 1,200 jobs that the bureau said were added in March…

May 6, 2016 1:20 PM CDT

Kirkland & Ellis to offer ‘emotional fitness’ training at all law firm offices

One of the nation’s top corporate law firms is embracing its softer side. Following a trial program involving 60 lawyers in its Chicago office, Kirkland & Ellis is expanding Life XT to all offices, reports Crain’s Chicago Business (sub. req.). It is based on the newly published book Start Here:…

May 4, 2016 7:15 AM CDT

Judge who wrote NYC’s stop-and-frisk rulings says opposition by city leaders was ‘all about fear’

New York City’s former mayor and police commissioner “didn’t seem to get” community fears about brutality from law enforcement, says Shira A. Scheindlin, the federal judge who issued the city’s controversial stop-and-frisk ruling. Sheindlin, whose 2013 ruling found that the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy violated the rights of…

May 3, 2016 4:00 PM CDT

‘Uncle Sam, Esq.’ employs more than 25,000 lawyers

The federal government employs 25,060 people under the job classification “general attorney,” costing the government $3.3 billion last year. In 12 states, the total number of people on the public payroll was smaller, according to a Forbes op-ed that refers to the federal lawyers as “Uncle Sam, Esq.” Alaska, for…

May 2, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Burned out BigLaw lawyer vents about glass ceiling on Reddit

An associate who quit her $400,000 a year job at Squire Patton Boggs felt the need to vent. Kristen Jarvis Johnson believed her career stalled after becoming pregnant with her second child, and she confessed on Reddit that she was “feeling a bit surreal and possibly insane” for giving up…

May 2, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Loyola Chicago morphs its evening JD program into a weekend one

For the time-pressed aspiring JDs of the world, Loyola University Chicago's School of Law has an attractive offering: Starting this fall, it is turning its part-time, evening JD program into a weekend offering.

May 1, 2016 3:10 AM CDT

10 Questions: Groundbreaking transgender judge happily passes the torch in post-Caitlyn age

Phyllis Randolph Frye is the first openly transgender judge in the nation. There’s an award named after her at her alma mater, Texas A&M University; she’s a life member of the National Eagle Scout Association; and the New York Times has called her the grandmother of the transgender movement. This…

May 1, 2016 3:00 AM CDT