I was in a conversation with some other litigators when this question came up: What’s the most polite way to ask judges whether they’re familiar with the briefs or would they prefer if I summarize the facts and issues for them at oral arguments?

Well, I wasn’t going to pretend…

There are certain things that matter more to me than I care to admit. Chief among them have been my accomplishments when compared to my peer group and how I am perceived by others. Along these lines, I used to place a lot of value in being described as smart.

Earlier this month, New York-based Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy announced it will increase its associate salaries across the board by $10,000 to $15,000—a starting salary of $190,000 for those fresh out of law school. What followed was an outcry in the legal media and reports that unhappy clients…

When I started my law blog in June 2016, I did so without too much trepidation. I was essentially briefing cases and writing about my practice in ways I was pretty comfortable with. But then I wanted to branch out. I started to have ideas about things other than recent…

Since 1980, I have been consistently reviewing law school applications. Even then, as a first-generation black American college work-study student in the admissions office at Columbia Law School, it was pretty clear to me that admission to elite law schools was preordained by one’s academic pedigree. Some of the faculty…