AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – In Re The Passing Of A Skadden Associate

For the past week, a conversation has percolating around Skadden that has made its way into the ATL inbox. A Skadden associate, Lisa Johnstone, died last week. Her obituary ran earlier this week in the San Diego Union Tribune. And her memorial service was yesterday. She died of an apparent heart attack, though we understand […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – Alleged Gibson Dunn Child Porn Possessor Found Dead

The nauseating story of Moshe Gerstein has come to an abrupt end. Gerstein, who had been accused of possessing violent child pornography, has been found dead. The allegations against Gerstein — who worked at Gibson Dunn and Skadden — were particularly disturbing. Gerstein was accused of stockpiling thousands of images of brutal child porn. But […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – The Allegedly Distracting Breasts At Counsel Table: Guess Who They Belong To?

I really, really hope that somewhere out there, Thomas W. Gooch III feels like a giant tool. A few days ago, Gooch, of the law firm Gauthier & Gooch, wrote a motion objecting to a “large breasted woman” sitting at opposing counsel’s table. He questioned the woman’s qualifications and accused opposing counsel, Dmitry Feofanov, of […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – Lawsuit of the Day: Woman Allowed To Relieve Pressures Via Masturbation At Work

UPDATE (5:30 PM): Please note that the veracity of this story has been called into question. For more, see the note at the end of this post. (Or ignore the note and pretend that the story is real; life’s more fun that way.) Fair warning: I will not succeed in writing this post like an […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – Shortest Deposition Ever

If you already know what I’m talking about, I’m sorry — I don’t have very much to add. The deposition is so damn short, the transcript doesn’t contain case-identifying information, and the pdf has been stripped of its metadata. Really, I only know what you know: a hilarious deposition took place earlier this month. For […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – 2L Bitter Over Law Review Snub Illustrates Why He Wasn’t EIC Material

It so happens that we are right in the middle of election season for law review boards. At top law schools around the country, 2Ls who want to be Supreme Court clerks — or Supreme Court justices, or even presidents — are finding out if they’ll be able to include “Editor in Chief: Law Review” […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – Law Students at a Top School Protest Continued Unemployment

Too often, people act like post-graduation unemployment is a malady that affects only students at lower-ranked law schools. People act like only lazy students at third-tier institutions — or “rank not published” institutions, if you prefer — end up desperate for work after three years of legal education. But we know better. We know that […]

AbovetheLaw Story of the Week – Start Your Whining: Schools Make Excuses for Their Poor U.S. News Rankings

We’ve already noted that there was no change at the very top of the 2012 U.S. News Law School Rankings. The best schools remain the best schools. Further down the list, we start to see some volatility. Now, every year there needs to be some change in the rankings; how else is U.S. News going […]

Hey CNN, Look to Twitter to Fill Your 8 O’Clock Hole

Campbell Brown’s “honest broker” attempt at “no bias, no bull” has fallen to the ideologically booby-trapped no-spin produced by Bill O’Reilly at Fox and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. CNN will undoubtedly try to fill her spot with another old media type who has a little more star power. Or CNN president Jon Klein will have […]