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Patton Boggs says latest partner defections don’t affect merger talks

Nine partners have apparently left Patton Boggs, but the latest defections won’t affect merger talks with Squire Sanders, according to a statement issued by the law firm. Nine partners were removed from the firm’s website in recent weeks, the National Law Journal reports. Where did they go? In a story…

Mar 31, 2014 12:07 PM CDT

US has $1 trillion in student debt; indebted lawyer laments his Chevy lifestyle

About 37 million people in the United States have amassed a collective $1 trillion in student debt, contributing to an increasing economic divide. The Associated Press covered the economic burden in a story that features a lawyer’s plight. In 2009, the median net worth for a household without outstanding student…

Mar 31, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Fifth LexThink.1 stresses greater collaboration for lawyers to avoid irrelevance

Collaboration is important for lawyers if they wish to avoid becoming irrelevant. That was the main takeaway from the fifth annual LexThink.1 event. Founded by Matthew Homann, CEO of Kendeo, and held on the eve of ABA Techshow, LexThink.1 welcomed a dozen speakers to the stage at the Chicago Hilton…

Mar 27, 2014 4:37 PM CDT

‘Dirty old man’ federal judge hits ‘third rail’ with his fashion advice for women lawyers

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf acknowledges he “touched the third rail” in a blog post entitled “On being a dirty old man and how young women lawyers dress.” Some thought the comments so “strange and bawdy” that they wondered if Kopf’s Hercules and the Umpire blog had been hacked, the…

Mar 27, 2014 2:53 PM CDT

Higher-income kids were more likely to become lawyers than doctors, study finds

Lawyers and judges were more likely to have richer parents than doctors and engineers, according to a government study that tracked more than 12,000 people over decades. NPR’s Planet Money looked at the data and constructed a graph linking survey participants’ jobs as adults in 2010 to the household income…

Mar 25, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Defense attorney shares secret recording, says judge urged his client to drop police brutality suit

A Detroit-area judge was secretly taped offering to free a drunken-driving suspect from jail if the suspect agreed not to pursue a police brutality suit against arresting officers, the Detroit Free Press reports. Timothy Corr, the suspect’s lawyer, said he made the secret recording after a previous meeting with Novi…

Mar 24, 2014 11:00 PM CDT

Even at unranked Thomas Jefferson Law, some grads are glad they went

Last April, Business Insider highlighted uncomfortable superlatives for the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego: most unemployed and most indebted students among all law schools. In its look back at what it calls the “poster child of the law school crisis”, however, the publication was able to find…

Mar 21, 2014 9:10 PM CDT

Former Howard law dean and diversity leader Henry Ramsey dies at 80

Henry Ramsey Jr., a path-breaking lawyer, judge and former dean of Howard University School of Law, died March 14 after suffering a stroke at home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 80 years old. Ramsey’s son, Charles Ramsey, told Diverse Issues in Higher Education that his father became interested in a…

Mar 21, 2014 8:10 PM CDT

Are parents better off as solos, or at firms? | Why law-app developers are ignoring Android

Washington, D.C., solo Carolyn Elefant—who has one daughter in high school and another “on the cusp of college”—writes at Above the Law that her working for herself rather than for a law firm worked out for her and her family. But is being a solo always the best way to…

Mar 21, 2014 1:45 PM CDT

Iran-Contra prosecutor and former ABA president Lawrence Walsh is dead at 102

Lawrence E. Walsh, a former prosecutor, federal judge and BigLaw partner who served as president of both the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association during an achievement-filled career, has died at the age of 102. Perhaps best known for his work as a court-appointed independent counsel…

Mar 20, 2014 10:42 PM CDT

Westboro leader Fred Phelps Sr. dies; his church’s funeral protests changed federal law

Fred Phelps Sr., who tested the boundaries of free speech as the founding pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its picketing of military funerals and opposition to homosexuality, has died of natural causes. He was 84 years old. Phelps and other church members publicly blamed tolerance of homosexuals…

Mar 20, 2014 7:09 PM CDT

Who are the Dewey employees who already pleaded guilty?

The New York Times has filed motions to unseal the criminal cases of six former employees of Dewey & LeBoeuf who have already pleaded guilty in an alleged accounting scheme. Seven former Dewey employees pleaded guilty, but the Times was able to find cases of only six Jane and John…

Mar 20, 2014 12:50 PM CDT

Akin Gump co-founder Robert Strauss dies at 95

Texas lawyer Robert Strauss, a political insider who co-founded Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, has died at the age of 95. The New York Times describes Strauss as “a smooth-talking Texas lawyer and businessman who became a consummate political insider.” The Washington Post says “his quick wit and a…

Mar 20, 2014 12:12 PM CDT

New OnRamp program offers $125K fellowships to 10 lawyers returning to workforce

Four law firms will be offering one-year paid fellowships this year to lawyers who want to return to the workforce. The OnRamp fellowships are among several programs that are designed to help highly educated professionals return to jobs after time off to care for parents or children, the New York…

Mar 20, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Former IRS chief fired by Nixon dies at age 100; he won ABA’s highest award in 1993

Randolph Thrower, a partner at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan and a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has died at the age of 100. Thrower served as IRS chief from 1969 to 1971 until President Nixon fired him for resisting tax audits of the president’s political enemies, the New…

Mar 19, 2014 1:33 PM CDT