Careers

Child actor parlays his connections into an entertainment law practice

As a kid, Jeff Cohen was always a ham. That personality trait helped launch his television acting career as a child and then propelled him to his most famous role: Chunk in the movie The Goonies. Then puberty hit and forced Cohen into early retirement. No one willingly gives up…

Feb 1, 2014 10:10 AM CST

Law prof teaches meditation techniques for lawyers

In the 1980s, when Charles Halpern was serving as founding dean of the City University of New York School of Law, he had trouble harmonizing conflicting obligations, he recalls. A friend recommended meditation, advising: “Just watch your breath and your thoughts come and go.” Halpern gave it a try and…

Feb 1, 2014 10:00 AM CST

It’s time to look at regulation of ‘quasi-legal’ work done by lawyers

Lawyers occupy just about any job setting these days: They work as trust officers, compliance officers, investment bankers, consultants or accountants. Others take jobs managing hedge funds and major corporations. As more licensed attorneys practice in nontraditional settings, their ambiguous roles in “broadening and blurring the boundary between law and…

Feb 1, 2014 9:10 AM CST

A comfortable retirement requires savvy financial housekeeping

For a comfortable retirement: Budget, manage debt and save. “It’s really a triage approach,” says Linda Leitz, chair of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. “Otherwise you’re going to have to work to the day you die. Dying at your desk may sound like a good financial plan if…

Feb 1, 2014 8:30 AM CST

Reciprocity fight returns as lawsuits press the ABA-advocated issue

For the better part of a decade, the American Bar Association has been working to ensure that experienced lawyers looking to practice in another state can do so without having to dust off their old bar exam notes or sign up for a prep course. Despite the ABA’s efforts, many…

Feb 1, 2014 7:50 AM CST

Quinn Emanuel announces work-from-anywhere program

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan associates will have the option of working from any location in the world as a result of a new initiative announced by the firm. On Friday, Above the Law reported that firm chairman John Quinn had circulated a memo informing associates that they could choose…

Jan 31, 2014 7:30 PM CST

The agile lawyer will rise as permanent, full-time, salaried employment vanishes

Lawyer jobs are disappearing. Every day, law firms across the country reduce their ranks of associates and partners, removing more and more table settings as their revenue pie keeps shrinking. Over the past few years, only about 55 percent of law school graduates have been finding full-time, law-related work nine…

Jan 30, 2014 2:45 PM CST

Do you think character and fitness standards for the bar are too lenient or too harsh?

This week, the California Supreme Court denied disgraced fabulist Stephen Glass admission to the state bar on character and fitness grounds, noting the duration of his journalistic dishonesty in the 1990s and his subsequent efforts to avoid detection. Was the court too harsh? Above the Law assistant editor Joe Patrice…

Jan 29, 2014 6:50 PM CST

Federal judge retires and heads to Taiwan

Turning his back on a lifetime appointment, U.S. district judge Sam Wilson of the Western District of Virginia has decided to take his talents to Taiwan. On Sunday, the Roanoke Times reported that Wilson had resigned from the federal bench. Wilson’s retirement will be effective as of Aug. 1, one…

Jan 28, 2014 8:30 PM CST

BigLaw ‘partner’ files for personal bankruptcy, lists $800 cash, clothes worth $900 and broken watch

With a BigLaw job in New York that pays him around $375,000 a year, attorney Gregory M. Owens obviously is doing better than many in the legal profession. But career success is relative, and a recent Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition shows the 55-year-old White & Case partner hasn’t been doing…

Jan 28, 2014 12:10 AM CST

Top Calif. court nixes Stephen Glass bar application over the ex-journalist’s deceit years ago

Presenting fiction as fact in long-ago magazine articles cost former journalist Stephen Glass a California law license on Monday, as the state’s top court held that his bar application should be rejected on character and fitness grounds. “Glass’s journalistic dishonesty was not a single lapse of judgment, which we have…

Jan 27, 2014 11:45 PM CST

Former Va. governor rejected plea bargain that would have spared his wife, WaPo reports

Former Va. Gov. Robert F. “Bob” McDonnell reportedly rejected a plea offer by federal prosecutors that would have spared his wife, Maureen, from prosecution. McDonnell was offered an opportunity to plead guilty to one felony fraud charge that had nothing to do with the corruption charges he and his wife…

Jan 27, 2014 10:14 PM CST

Child porn possession convictions mean automatic disbarment, state supreme court rules

A conviction for possession of child pornography is automatic grounds for disbarment, the California Supreme Court has held. The court, in a unanimous ruling (PDF) Thursday, said that keeping sexual images of children constitutes an act of moral turpitude that makes a lawyer unfit for practice, the Associated Press reports.…

Jan 27, 2014 7:28 PM CST

‘Lawyer’ ranks 51st in US News list of best jobs in America, down from 35th

Being a lawyer isn’t the best job in America. It’s not one of the 10 top jobs, or even among the top 50 jobs. According to U.S. News, being a lawyer is the 51st best job in America. Above the Law notes some of the jobs that outranked lawyer, including…

Jan 27, 2014 12:30 PM CST

Meet attorney Adam Karp, ‘St. Francis with a briefcase’ who gets five-figure awards in pet slayings

Traditionally, animals were considered property whose only value is what it costs to purchase them or the amount of money they could produce through breeding, sale of their meat or similar business operations. But that view has been changing, and Washington state attorney Adam Karp has been in the forefront…

Jan 24, 2014 11:00 PM CST