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Jeanne Gray, who oversaw ABA’s Professional Responsibility Center, has died

Jeanne Gray, longtime director of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, died Friday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Gray spent all of her 33 years on the ABA staff at the center. In recent years, she also served as associate executive director for the public services group. The cause…

Apr 24, 2013 10:40 AM CDT

U of Texas put ‘golden handcuffs’ on law faculty with help of $213M private foundation

As the state attorney general continues to look into the operations of a private nonprofit foundation that helped raise money for the University of Texas Law School, details are emerging about the “golden handcuffs” that discouraged faculty from going to other institutions. Although there is nothing to indicate that any…

Apr 23, 2013 9:02 PM CDT

Quicker route to JD, uniform bar exam on ABA task force agenda; session will be live-streamed

Should law school be shortened with lower credit or time requirements for a JD? Should bar admissions officials offer the bar exam before law school graduation? Or create a unified national licensing system to reduce entry costs for new lawyers? Or create a category of limited-license legal professionals? Those are…

Apr 23, 2013 6:23 PM CDT

Skadden’s longtime mass torts leader jumps to Quinn Emanuel

Sheila Birnbaum, the co-leader of Skadden’s mass torts and insurance litigation group, is leaving to develop a mass torts practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Products liability partner Mark Cheffo will be making the leap along with Birnbaum, Above the Law reported when it broke the news. Birnbaum has…

Apr 23, 2013 5:01 PM CDT

Ex-Ogletree VP said to be working at Littler, 6 other Ogletree partners to follow

Earlier this month, Reuters published an article announcing that a former vice president had resigned from Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart and planned to take a group of lawyers from the national labor and employment boutique to another law firm. Now it appears that Don Prophete is actually in…

Apr 23, 2013 4:49 PM CDT

John Sutton, lawyer who drafted ABA’s Model Code, has died

John F. Sutton, a one-time dean at the University of Texas Austin School of Law, FBI special agent and drafter of the ABA’s Model Code of Professional Conduct, has died at age 95. Sutton died Friday of complications due to old age, his family told the Austin American-Statesman. Born in…

Apr 22, 2013 1:25 PM CDT

SCOTUSblog gets press credentials; eBay defamation case is dropped after bloggers turn up the heat

Last month, SCOTUSblog won a Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media–the first blog to ever do so. On Thursday, it announced that it had at long last, the Senate Press Gallery has granted its reporter Lyle Denniston a press credential. “The Supreme Court’s general practice, which we expect to…

Apr 19, 2013 1:29 PM CDT

How companies use social media to hire law firms (video)

A new survey from public relations firm Greentarget finds that in-house counsel are frequently using LinkedIn and lawyer blogs to determine who they will hire, John Corey, founding partner at Greentarget, tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia. But you won’t find those in-house lawyers in the comment sections of blogs or…

Apr 18, 2013 1:53 PM CDT

Top 10 family friendly law firms named; part-time work is option at every surveyed firm

Five law firms have kept their spots on this year’s list of the top 10 family law firms. Yale Law Women published the list, which is based on its survey of family friendly policies and utilization among law firms in the Vault 100. The top 10, listed in alphabetical order,…

Apr 18, 2013 12:33 PM CDT

Guilty plea from lawyer who peeped on his tenants

A recently licensed Maryland lawyer has pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges based on accusations that he secretly taped tenants in his home having sex with their boyfriends. Dennis Alan Van Dusen, 64, pleaded guilty to three counts of “visual surveillance with prurient intent,” report the Washington Post and the…

Apr 17, 2013 12:17 PM CDT

‘Thought leaders’ and paradigm shifters, take note: This blogger is on to you

Ever heard that a law firm wants to hire team players? That could mean it is looking for those who are willing to keep quiet and put up with an egomaniacal partner. That’s the conclusion of the Careerist, which lists 10 annoying lawyer clichés and provides its own translation. Some…

Apr 17, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Why DLA Piper’s co-CEO ended up in San Diego (Hint: it’s a numbers thing)

DLA Piper’s global co-CEO J. Terence O’Malley is exactly where he wants to be. O’Malley grew up in Omaha, Neb., and decided he wanted to live in San Diego while attending college at Notre Dame, according to a profile by U-T San Diego. O’Malley explained why in an interview with…

Apr 16, 2013 11:00 AM CDT

5 trademark lawyers exit Finnegan Henderson to form own firm

Five lawyers are exiting Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner to form their own firm. They include David Kelly, who formerly served as a trademark practice group leader for the 350-attorney Washington, D.C., intellectual property boutique, three other partners and a counsel, Reuters reports. The split is apparently amicable–managing partner…

Apr 15, 2013 3:53 PM CDT

Free football tickets sweetened exit deal for general counsel pressured to resign in Rutgers scandal

Rutgers University’s interim senior vice president and general counsel has negotiated an exit deal that includes cash and free football tickets. John Wolf will be paid nearly $420,000, representing 18 months of his salary, and will get tickets for next season’s Scarlet Knights football games, the New Jersey Star Ledger…

Apr 15, 2013 1:59 PM CDT

Forget law practice. Half of surveyed prelaw students plan to use law degree in nontraditional jobs

Think a JD is only for law practice? If so, about 100 prelaw students disagree with you. Half of more than 200 prelaw students responding to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep said they plan to use their law degree in a non-traditional legal field, according to a press release.…

Apr 15, 2013 10:40 AM CDT