Careers

Divers' bar association helps preserve marine environment

When marine biologists accompanying David Black on a shark-tagging mission told him to kiss the head of a hammerhead they’d tagged before sending it back into the ocean, he blinked in disbelief for a second but went ahead. After all, between his career as a transactional attorney and his passion…

Oct 1, 2014 4:50 AM CDT

Alabama attorney spends a year in Uganda helping to fight land grabs

Birmingham, Alabama, lawyer Scott Adams normally turns to trusts, estates and other legal devices to help clients protect their property rights. But for the year that concluded last spring, Adams helped protect property more directly: He fought thieves who stole land and livelihoods from poor families in Uganda. Adams volunteered…

Oct 1, 2014 4:40 AM CDT

Lawyer Career Spa aims to soothe and stir the legal mind

Stressing over how to get your career where you want it to go? Chill. There’s a spa for that. The Lawyer Career Spa launched in June with a three-day retreat at a Portland, Oregon, bed and breakfast. There, for less than $3,000 each, participants immerse themselves in local food, wine…

Oct 1, 2014 3:20 AM CDT

After playing his ACES, GC Jeffrey Carr sits out a round

Plenty of lawyers and law firms are on Twitter, but when it comes to making important announcements, the microblogging service has yet to catch on with the legal profession the way it has in other sectors. As such, my colleagues and I were surprised to see a tweet from Jeffrey…

Oct 1, 2014 2:50 AM CDT

These 5 firms argued half of all SCOTUS cases last term

Out of the 67 U.S. Supreme Court cases decided during the term that ended in June, 33 were argued by the same five law firms, Law.com (sub. req.) reports. Three law firms—Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; and Goldstein & Russell—each argued seven cases. Two law…

Sep 29, 2014 11:26 AM CDT

Seeking forgiveness for a bad work result? State the facts, and don’t offer a vague excuse

Frequent excuses for bad results at work can wear thin. But once in a while, an excuse, properly made, can help thwart career damage, researchers say. The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) spoke with the experts and learned that a good excuse provides a specific, detailed and truthful reason for…

Sep 29, 2014 5:45 AM CDT

Oops! Clerical error leads to mistake in Nebraska bar exam scores; three didn’t pass after all

The day before ceremonies on Thursday to swear in new lawyers in Nebraska, three would-be lawyers got some bad news. They didn’t pass the bar exam after all. But the news was good for three other test takers, the Omaha World-Herald reports. The mistake, now corrected, meant that they had…

Sep 26, 2014 7:09 AM CDT

Ex-judge likely headed to prison is expected to get pension of up to $150K annually

A Nevada judge agreed to give up his seat on the bench and his law license last week when he took a plea in a federal wire fraud conspiracy case. But Steven Jones will retain his pension, because there is no provision under Nevada state law for forfeiture, writes a…

Sep 25, 2014 1:25 PM CDT

Ronald Deibert’s ‘CSI of cyberspace’ exposes global injustice and promotes cybersecurity

Ronald Deibert likes to refer to the laboratory he directs as the CSI of cyberspace. Much like TV’s CSI, the Citizen Lab consists of specialists from several different fields of expertise. Founded by Deibert in 2001, the interdisciplinary initiative based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs…

Sep 25, 2014 8:30 AM CDT

Law firm sues ex-partner, says he billed client for $2.3M in fictional work

A New York law firm sued a former partner Tuesday, contending that he billed a corporate client $2.3 million over an eight-year period for “nonexistent work on cases that had already been terminated and/or never existed.” David Denenberg also sought reimbursement for $800,000 in nonexistent expenses, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron…

Sep 23, 2014 4:10 PM CDT

‘Psychic lawyer’ bills $250 an hour for readings

Mark Anthony is among the lawyers who found an alternate career after law school. Anthony, a Florida lawyer, graduated from Mercer University’s Walter F. George Law School and wrote a book called Never Letting Go. There’s a six-month wait for a telephone reading with Anthony, who charges $250 an hour,…

Sep 23, 2014 2:04 PM CDT

Senior bin Laden aide gets life in terror case; defense argued his only crime was offensive speech

Rejecting a defense argument that a Kuwaiti cleric who served as a senior adviser to Osama bin Laden was guilty only of offensive speech, a federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday sentenced Sulaiman Abu Ghaith to life in prison for his terrorism-support conviction earlier this year. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan…

Sep 23, 2014 1:40 PM CDT

Pick me! Lawyers tell SCOTUS why their gay-marriage cases are cert-worthy

Some of the nation’s top lawyers are jostling for the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether to grant cert in a gay-marriage case. The lawyers made out their arguments in a half-dozen briefs recently filed with the court, the New York Times reports. According to the…

Sep 23, 2014 1:26 PM CDT

Lawyer is jobless and sleeping in his car after losing suit seeking OT for document review

A contract lawyer who claimed he should have been paid overtime for document-review work has suffered another setback with a judge’s decision to toss his would-be class action. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of Manhattan ruled in a Sept. 16 opinion (PDF) that plaintiff David Lola was engaged in the…

Sep 22, 2014 5:45 AM CDT

Federal judge faces blowback from 11th Circuit and US lawmakers over domestic violence arrest

It isn’t just football players who are facing career blowback over claimed domestic violence incidents. A federal judge arrested last month after a dispute with his wife in an Atlanta hotel room is facing review by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reassigned his cases after the incident.…

Sep 18, 2014 11:35 AM CDT