Garrett has more on laptops in response to a bit by Waddling Thunder (and of course, Waddling Thunder replies to Garrett's remarks). I left a lengthy comment on gTexts. But I won't write any more.* I think this topic has been beaten absolutely to death. * Okay, I might have to renege on that, but I promise it will be...

I really thought Cosmo was the last place I would find anything remotely legal. I was wrong! In the October issue, Cosmo gives advice in one of their latest educational articles, (ahem) How to Seek Pleasure in Public Places. Yes, of course you could get busted for public indecency. But the laugh of my day was Judge Posner quoted as...

Brit Mike Batt has settled a UK copyright suit against him for an undisclosed six-figure amount for "copying" John Cage's silent 4'33" in his own silent A One Minute Silence. That's right. Infringement of silence. Utterly absurd. Admittedly, Batt credited Cage for co-authorship of the song. But you just can't get around the fact that there is no other way...

It seems a tad silly that this is directed towards first-year students. Those to be selected are likely to have shown promise in another graduate field. It is axiomatic to say that nearly all law students at top schools showed promise in their undergraduate work. To differentiate students who merely profess to be interested in legal academia from those who...

A professor from GMU weighs in on the other side of the laptop debate. Professor Davies notes that when there is no keyboard chatter emanating from the lecture hall, students don't think there is anything of interest to write down. Professors get feedback automatically!...

This is about the last person I'd expect to see argue that tattooing is a form of protected First amendment speech. Even Massachusetts (headquarters of the blue laws!) allows tattooing now. You just don't know what funny is until you've seen the guests leave from an illicit tattoo party....

This has got to be a first: the winner of last night's Miss America competition is a future law student. Miss Illinois is deferring her entry to HLS in order to fulfill her duties....

The government may not be compelled to provide sexually explicit materials for sale on DoD installations, but shouldn't they examine said materials for explicitness on an equal basis? While Playboy and Celebrity Skin are allowed (appealing primarily to men), Cosmopolitan is the only publication on the list that appeals primarily to women. Cosmo is a lot of things, but it's...

I do believe CNN is hell-bent on getting me to stop visiting entirely. I've noticed in the past six months half of their news stories appear approximately 6-18 hours after an initial appearance on The Drudge Report. Of the remainder, the very few worthwhile ones are posted on Drudge. I can no longer actually read the page because it's so...

I guess I must be serving up some rankling commentary to get indexed by CyberAlert, one of those media monitoring companies that crawls for company references. Excellent!...

Bear Stearns follows Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank in telling employees to "suit up or ship out" [at this point I think we've exhausted the entire lexicon of nautically related metaphors]. Those who dare challenge the leviathan will at least get a stern dressing-down. I would definitely look for this to happen soon in at least a few firms that...

This month's JD Jungle (one of those hip & irreverent magazines, except it's for law students, so it's kind of an oxymoron) has advice from a legal secretary who's seen 30 new classes of associates buzz through the firm. Unfortunately, the article isn't online yet. I'll post it when it becomes available. [Post updated to include link.] Law students should...

This is what we call a special-purpose limitation! It seems like a waste of money. If sophisticated copy protection can be defeated with a magic marker, how is a wee bit o' glue going to stop anyone from copying?? [Via those wonderful guys at DE Law Office!]...

TPB discusses laptops in the context of classroom respect with some astute asides on the purpose of the professoriate. This year, I've witnessed a student (with a laptop, no less) read a book, a magazine, play on a handheld computer, do a crossword, and generally be disrespectful. I think anyone who is dead set against paying attention to class will...

I think the site had a wee meltdown yesterday. You didn't miss much, as I've been sick! I'll be back to normal soon enough, though....

Lawyers appear low in public status. So instead of doing something productive and substantial about it, we're advertising!...

More excellence by Waddling Thunder! My answer, of course, is to never ever become the windbag. Say whatever you've got, then stop. You'll be known as the one that dispenses pearls of wisdom. All will thrill at your speech because they will know you will share no extraneous thoughts. The birds will sing and the heavens will open and shower...

Jeff Cooper gives a professorial view of laptops in the classroom (responding, in part, to a previous post). I must protest that the comments (at least mine) on game-playing are largely facetious. I rarely play games on my computer (and 90% of the time it's solitaire -- a game that's easily interrupted). I mostly pop it open when I am...

No, not me! This is the best Cafe Press gear I've seen yet!...

Waddling Thunder has a great little post on the students who engage in psychotic post-class harrassment of professors. As one of my professors from last year mentioned this week, "Those people? We [the professors] hate those people!"...

The admonition to Make Law School Relevant is a good one. My advice on law school courses: take ones that you love (except for your first year, when [mostly] you can't help it). I love my classes this year! It's like a nice shiny lightbulb snapped on in Wonderland. I'm so damned happy, it's kind of disgusting....

I tried to stay away from the news coverage today. I caught a few things early this morning, but tuned out on the later afternoon broadcasts. The comments that broadcasters make to fill the silences can be downright bizarre. They've never quite gotten the concept that it's okay to just be silent. I did finally have a chance to see...

Nixon Peabody and Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar have signed a "memorandum of understanding to merge." Unfortunately, some lawyers will have to be canned if they occupy "duplicative positions." The new firm will be keeping Nixon's name. I guess we know who'll wear the pants in the family (and which duplicative lawyers will be disinherited). I'm crossing my fingers they'll keep...

Citigroup "wants to rid [Salomon Smith Barney] of the legal and regulatory problems confronting it." So it's moving Citi's COO (and former lead counsel) over to Salomon Smith Barney to become its new CEO. Buffett did the same thing in 1991 when one of the bank's traders was caught manipulating the market for US Treasury Securities. Somehow a former exec...

I don't think this article accurately conveys the importance of paralegals (and it completely ignores secretaries). I'm pretty sure that it's always a bad move as a first-year to assume you know more than the support staff. They know more than you do about the actual practice of law, they can do it better, and are smarter (if for the...

Morgan Lewis is following Dechert's lead and bumping first-year salaries to $125k. Apparently they did so even though they laid off 50 associates last year. Probably not the best of moves for per partner profits. I am sure the question that is weighing heavily on all our minds is, When will Howard's firm jump into the fray? They're currently at...

The Boston Business Journal was very busy this week reporting on major inter-firm defections, the difficulties NY firms face when expanding into Boston, and Testa's use of the "performance review" as a layoff device (not really anything new there!). Characteristically, Testa's managing partner denies that layoffs were done under the guise of performance based terminations. I've heard way too many...

Things aren't looking good for Mintz Levin. Partners are leaving, profits are dropping, and they've made major cuts of support staff. Now they're bribing incoming first-year associates to walk with $20k or stay with a $3k per month stipend (deferring to next fall) and a non-compete agreement. That's a pretty raw deal. At least Brobeck is including incentives to work...

Dean Schmalensee says that "management schools are not nurseries for felons" (but see my earlier comments). Other schools are being more proactive in the fight against unethical behavior among b-school graduates. Something about Sloan's attitude towards ethics really rubs me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it could be the arrogance in assuming that...

This has to be the most asinine quotation I've read in the past week: "[A] consumer attorney from Texas told me that there is not a single consumer-rights attorney in the state who feels he'd get a fair shake in her courtroom." -- Dianne Feinstein on the rejection of Priscilla Owen for a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of...

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the use of the word "seen" in headlines. Why use this ridiculous addition when it can just as easily be omitted? Add the phrase "are said" to the list, too. I can understand the need to express hesitation or doubt. That's what "might" or "may be" are for. "Is seen" just sounds...

While clicking through news stories on my feed reader, I suddenly got this error message from a feed supplied through News Is Free: You have exceeded click through limits This site collects news items from hundreds of news sources and stores them in a database for indexing purposes. This collection of links is copyrighted and our terms of service puts...

First Year Associate Salary: $125,000. New Big-City Firm Wardrobe: $5,000. Sucking on a partner's shoe: Priceless. I just might be in love. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has just revamped their recruiting website. Explore. It's funny. I promise....

Garrett reports that his international law prof banned laptops in the classroom. I've been known to play a few games of Snood on ye olde laptoppe, but I don't abuse it. In fact -- because I don't have to worry about reading my handwriting later -- I can type what I want to remember from class, freeing myself from stenographer...

Ernie ponders on the difference between ethics and professionalism. Sam Heldman adds his own perspective. Eugene Volokh has this* to add (sorry, couldn't help myself). * See the 5:46pm entry. [Which was blank. In my twisted little sleep-deprived mind, it was funny. Really.]...

Held in Contempt is ranting about the atrocious grammar in David E. Kelley's newest show girls club. But she forgot to rant about the title!! We'll forgive her this once. (Or perhaps she deferred to Kelley's artistic license) I'm just upset it's not set in Boston. Where else but on a David E. Kelley show can you hear the atrocious...

I thought I stepped into Blade Runner for a moment, but I was just really just reading about the law school classroom of the future. The description just gives me the willies. I know I'm a little obsessed with Chirelstein (really, I just can't explain it), but I must note that he never went to class. Law students aren't children...

Corporate board members are going back to school to learn how to play fair. These industry leaders were delighted to learn all manner of fun things, like the definition of retained earnings (even I could tell you that one!) and to whom they owe their fiduciary responsibility (shareholders, stakeholders, or the CEO). It shouldn't surprise you that most of them...

And the best quote of the day award goes to the episode "Big Cats" on The Ultimate Guide on the Discovery Channel: The males are freeloaders. They're...lazy.... So, what's the use of the males? Gotta love that educational television....

The Boston Business Journal reported to me: 6 lawyers, 5 partners, 3 secretaries all left Peabody!* The group, which practices real estate, is moving to Nutter. Nutter's managing partner "emphasized that Nutter didn't approach Peabody with the idea of acquiring a practice group." (emphasis added) Of course, if they hadn't bothered to emphasize it, we probably wouldn't think that's exactly...

A new law blogger is writing on the subject of leaving grad school and switching to law school. I recommend these two posts for advice and thoughts about choosing to go to law school. By the way, a hornbook is a big ugly huge fat book, sometimes with bible-thin pages to accommodate its heft. Unless you're reading Chirelstein. (I am...

Some conservative watch-dog group has called Buffy the Vampire Slayer an "an immoral, violent lust-a-thon," which is totally why I love it! What I think is really humorous is that this offended watch-dog group actually reprints the foul language that is so offensive. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming......

This page is the top-ranked page in Google for "law school gunner." How very exciting! (Via some destitute soul's misguided search in my referrer logs)...

I think I've figured out the next "perk" firms will dream up. That way you'll get to buy your own gadgets and you'll still be reachable 24/7!! Note to naive law students -- all those wireless gadgets and other perks aren't all they're cracked up to be....

I'd like to think I am important and influential enough to have inspired this opinion piece (WSJ subscribers only -- if you have Westlaw access, 2002 WL-WSJ 3403839). Of course, I know that is entirely untrue -- most judges don't really surf the web for kicks. It's even less likely that they're huge blog fans. But you never know, do...