Careers

Study: Lack of Opportunity & Access Keeps Women from Serving as Judges

A lack of opportunity and access is restricting the number of women judges on the state and federal bench nationwide despite plenty of qualified candidates, a new study has found. And the situation is worse in some jurisdictions than others: Even as the number of female law school graduates and…

Jan 28, 2010 9:01 PM CST

Lawyer Indicted & Cleared in Case Linked to Serial Murders of 3 Clients Has Died

A criminal defense and personal injury lawyer who said his life became a living hell after his name was linked to the still-unsolved serial killings of nine Massachusetts women has been found dead at his home. Kenneth Ponte was in his early 60s. Authorities say his death does not appear…

Jan 28, 2010 6:24 PM CST

Headed to Skadden, Ex-White House Counsel Denies Force-Out Rumors

Former White House counsel Gregory Craig, on his way to a new law firm, is denying rumors that he was forced out of the job because of his role in efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Craig is joining Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom after spending 30…

Jan 28, 2010 2:01 PM CST

Appellate Law Clerk Is Out of a Job After Ghostwriting Claim

A senior staff attorney with the Massachusetts Appeals Court is out of a job after a magazine article accused him of offering to sell a term paper. The lawyer, Damian Bonazzoli, “no longer works at the court” after an investigation of the matter, according to a statement issued by court…

Jan 28, 2010 1:41 PM CST

Lawyer and New York Society Novelist Louis Auchincloss Dies at 92

Within 10 years of earning a law degree from the University of Virginia and starting practice at Sullivan & Cromwell, attorney Louis Auchincloss was successful enough as an author to resign from the white-shoe New York legal partnership and make writing his full-time career. But Auchincloss soon found that he…

Jan 28, 2010 1:26 AM CST

Vinny of ‘Jersey Shore’ Says Law School Is Fallback Plan

You may have watched him on MTV. Some day, you may meet him in court. On of the reality TV stars of Jersey Shore, Vinny Guadagnino, says his grades and LSAT score are high enough to get into law school, Us Magazine reports. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog says…

Jan 27, 2010 1:46 PM CST

Another Law School Offers to Wipe Out Entire Loans of Public Sector Grads

Northwestern University Law School is offering a “dovetail” loan forgiveness program that could wipe out all of the student loans for graduates who work in the public sector. Under a new federal program, public interest graduates pay only 10 percent of their income toward student loans. After 10 years in…

Jan 26, 2010 7:27 PM CST

Law Firms Are Guilty of E-Snubs, Too, NYT Reader Says

Law firms are just as guilty of “e-snubs” as other employers, a reader tells the New York Times. Writing on Sunday in the newspaper’s City Room blog, journalist Neal Hirschfeld told of the e-snub he received when he was left hanging for three months by a New York magazine after…

Jan 26, 2010 5:34 PM CST

Are Flat-Fee Contracts Good for Law Firms? Lawyer Learns Tweaking Needed

A lawyer overseeing a fixed-fee contract with boating and sporting equipment maker Brunswick Corp. jumped to K&L Gates and tweaked the contract to make the arrangement more profitable. The flat-fee contract, now in its second year, covers national litigation, including product-liability and breach-of-warranty cases, the Chicago Tribune reports. Brunswick general…

Jan 26, 2010 1:13 PM CST

Cornell Law School Officials Expected More Applications, But Not a 52% Spike

Applications are up at many law schools, but Cornell stands out. As of Wednesday, Cornell Law School had an unprecedented 52 percent spike in applications, the Cornell Daily Sun reports. Officials attribute the spike to the bad economy and high unemployment, but they are at a loss to explain the…

Jan 26, 2010 12:41 PM CST

Sign of the Times: Clorox Seeks Lawyer for Social Media Issues

Clorox is hiring an in-house lawyer to focus on legal issues surrounding social media. The company’s ad for a social media legal expert is “rather surprising,” but it’s a sign of the times, Advertising Age reports. Many companies already use social media to promote their products, and Clorox is no…

Jan 25, 2010 3:14 PM CST

New Law School LLM Programs Teach Attorneys to Be Entrepreneurial

After a year of unprecedented BigLaw layoffs and pay cuts, Duke University is offering a new law school program that could help point some attorneys in a different direction. Apparently starting this fall, the new Law and Entrepreneurship LLM Program will offer a two-semester post-Juris Doctor master’s degree to teach…

Jan 23, 2010 2:14 AM CST

Election ‘Vendetta’ Launched Against Top State-Court Judge Over Abortion Rulings

An anti-abortion group launched a campaign today to oust at least one judge on the Kansas Supreme Court, based on her authorship, on behalf of a majority of the court’s justices, of abortion rulings. The executive director of Kansans for Life tells the Associated Press that the group will campaign…

Jan 23, 2010 1:42 AM CST

Young Lawyer’s Soaring Career Is Interrupted by Federal Indictment

After he graduated from a North Carolina law school in 1998, Charles Ruffin Poole’s legal career clearly was on an upward trajectory for which the sky seemed to be the limit. Hired to work in the state attorney general’s office, he quickly gained a much higher political profile when former…

Jan 22, 2010 7:45 PM CST

Managing Partners More Confident, Expect Increased Legal Work

Managing partners are becoming more confident about the economic outlook for their law firms. A “confidence index” developed by Citi Private Bank Law Watch shows that managing partners haven’t been this confident since 2007, according to the Legal Intelligencer and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The index stands at…

Jan 22, 2010 4:57 PM CST