Corporate Governance
Nancy Rapoport's Blogspot 
Governance in higher education and in law firms, bankruptcy ethics, popular culture and the law, and professional responsibility generally.
Post Frequency: 5.8/day Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 18:38:00 Recent Entries: 251
By Nancy Rapoport
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Law students, grammar, and the practice of law
Posted on November 19, 2009I'm hearing through the grapevine that some of my law students were unhappy with the grades that they received on their group papers this semester. I told them to find a movie with legal ethics issues and write about those issues. (Sneaky way to reinforce what they're learning, eh?) The good news: for the most part, they did good work analyzing the ethics issues in the movies...
Continental Airlines sees box, refuses to think in or out of it.
Posted on November 19, 2009I am sitting on a "weather-delayed" (or could it be the delay caused by the massive computer glitch, here?) flight from Austin to Houston IAH, hoping to get there in time to board my flight from Houston to New Orleans. I need to be in New Orleans TONIGHT, because I'm testifying in a court case tomorrow morning...
Well, duh....
Posted on November 17, 2009The SuperLawyers law school rankings are out (see here for a leak of the results). As I predicted (here), older and bigger schools did well; younger and smaller schools (except for Yale, which counts as "older") did poorly.I had emailed SuperLawyers to find out if its methodology was going to factor age and size of school into account...
New SuperLawyers rankings of law schools punishes smaller, newer schools
Posted on November 14, 2009In the world of rankings, more info is usually better, but only when the ranking is fair(ish). SuperLawyers is about to release its new law school rankings, which consists of counting the number of lawyers making SuperLawyers from each school and then ranking the law schools according to the headcount...
Sad news about Fred Zacharias
Posted on November 11, 2009I read on Brian Leiter's blog this morning that Fred Zacharias had passed away (see here). I had the opportunity to visit with Fred a number of times at conferences and, like a lot of folks who study professional responsibility, really enjoyed his scholarship...
Happy birthday, Marine Corps!
Posted on November 09, 200910 November 1775-10 November 2009 (so far). I'm so proud of the Marines I know, from Joe Reynolds, Racehorse Haynes, and Harold Hyman, all the way to John Ames, David Polyansky and the three Van Niels (my hubby, my bro-in-law, and my father-in-law)...
Why Sara Bryan and the Kelly Cardenas studio both ROCK!
Posted on November 08, 2009See this YouTube video (here). My hair guru can beat up anyone else's.
More on John O'Quinn
Posted on October 31, 2009His New York Times obituary (here). As I read various comments to posts about John's death, I'm struck by two things: first, how many people actually did appreciate his work, and second, how many people wrote anonymously nasty comments about him. People either liked John or hated him...
One of the many reasons I like Tim Zinnecker
Posted on October 30, 2009See his most recent post over at The Faculty Lounge (here). Good job, Tim!
John O'Quinn killed in car accident
Posted on October 29, 2009I'm still in shock after hearing that John O'Quinn was killed in a car crash today (see here). I got to know him fairly well from my time at the University of Houston Law Center, and it's fair to say that he was a complicated man. Clearly talented as a litigator, obviously generous in several ways, he was still tormented by ethics complaints and personal issues...
You've got to love this kind of contract drafting!
Posted on October 29, 2009See today's front-page story in the Wall Street Journal (here).
Don't miss Jon Macey's marvelous op-ed in today's WSJ today
Posted on October 24, 2009See here. He's right, as usual.
I don't think garden-variety caps on executive compensation are the way to go--but I don't care if there's a rush to the exits, either.
Posted on October 23, 2009Joe Nocera's column in this morning's New York Times (here) once again gets it right: it's not about the caps, it's about the boards of directors deciding about compensation packages in the first place. If shareholders are unhappy with who's getting paid what, the fix is with getting rid of the folks believing the hype about who has to get paid the gargantuan bucks...
I couldn't be happier.
Posted on October 22, 2009While enjoying my morning coffee, I read that two of the Yale Law women who were woefully abused by anonymous posts at AutoAdmit a few years ago settled their lawsuits against the posters (see the ABA Journal story here). Those anonymous posters weren't trotting out any of the usual excuses for hiding behind pseudonyms: fear of retaliation, fear of losing their jobs, etc...
See? It is possible to rethink executive compensation without having the government do it.
Posted on October 21, 2009Take a look at this article in today's New York Times (here).
5th Circuit orders acquittal of Enron's Yeager
Posted on October 21, 2009See Mary Flood's Houston Chronicle article here.
Stupid Facebook mistakes, part n
Posted on October 16, 2009Hat tip to my buddy Seymour for pointing me to this one. See here.
Some of the reasons that I love Boyd School of Law (UNLV)
Posted on October 13, 2009Check out the video on our admissions webpage (here).
Latest Enron news: USSC to hear Skilling appeal
Posted on October 13, 2009See WSJ story here and WSJ Blog post here.
Hat tip to Brad Wendel for another great post on morality
Posted on October 12, 2009Over at Legal Ethics Forum: see here.BTW, where did Prof. Wendel get his undergraduate degree? Oh, yes: RICE UNIVERSITY.Happy Rice Day, all you Owls out there....
What exactly DO law professors do all day?
Posted on October 12, 2009Well, I know what one of us is doing. I'm working on an article studying what happens on appeal when lawyers are sanctioned for bad behavior in bankruptcy courts. (If you have any particular ideas on this topic, please pass 'em along....)And, thanks to John Steele over at Legal Ethics Forum, I found this interesting case (here)...
Op-eds and columns in the WSJ and the NYT
Posted on October 10, 2009As I get older (which, darnit, I appear to do with some regularity), I find myself looking forward to reading certain columnists: among others, Gretchen Morgenson, Joe Nocera (check out today's wonderful column, here), Floyd Norris, and Thomas Sowell (yes, Tom Sowell--so much for you tagging me as a liberal)...
Best moment in PR class today
Posted on October 08, 2009I was talking about bar applications today and the fact that I waited until after I passed the California bar to bring my dog-bite case to a lawyer, so that I didn't have to amend my bar application to add that I was a plaintiff in, well, a dog-bite case...
Plug for a Boyd law student's band
Posted on October 08, 2009Am prepping for class right now, listening to Awakenings, an album by the band Cherry Hill. Seth Floyd, one of the musicians in the band, is also a student at Boyd. I'm really enjoying the album, and now I can add Seth to the list of lawyer-musicians I know, including Glenn Reynolds.
Some nice news about a new ambassador
Posted on October 08, 2009See here. Hat tip to my buddy Seymour for pointing this out to me. Now we need to figure out how to fix "don't ask, don't tell" and marriage prohibitions.
Value-maximizing during a jobs crisis, or rankings-management?
Posted on October 06, 2009As I read about George Washington Law School's decision to take fewer evening students this year (see here) in response to a drop in the USNWR rankings, I see GW's decision as one more step in the tail of rankings wagging the dog of legal education (see my prior posts here)...
If non-lawyers can push for writing in "plain language," why can't lawyers?
Posted on October 06, 2009I woke up this morning to this delightful article (here) in the Wall Street Journal. Now there's a woman after my own heart! If she can argue for forms and announcements written in plain language (and she does -- persuasively), then we should continue her crusade...
Attention, law students: another good reason to pay attention in your legal writing course
Posted on September 23, 2009See here. Hat tip to my buddy Scott Unger.
One of my favorite Brian Leiter posts about the rankings
Posted on September 13, 2009See here. Bravo, Brian!
New ballroom dress designer in town!
Posted on September 13, 2009My buddies Cindy & Kimberly have opened Fiore Ballroom Designs (here), and I really love their work--AND I'm proud of them for launching this new biz!
My new "guilty pleasure" blog.
Posted on September 08, 2009See here. It has just the right combo of useful info and snarkiness.
Please vote for this Boyd law student!
Posted on September 05, 2009See here. Etai Movshovitz and his fiancee have been chosen by Ryan Seacrest as finalists for KIIS-FM's Perfect Wedding Contest. Etai's in my PR course. If we can keep this Boyd student's wedding costs low(er) (even though winning would cause him to have imputed income on which he'll have to pay taxes, of course), that would be lovely...
A Brooklyn hero
Posted on August 31, 2009A judge who makes foreclosure plaintiffs (the mortgage holders who want to foreclose) actually prove their cases: see today's New York Times story (front page, slightly above the fold) here. Note to the lawyers drafting the complaints--shouldn't you make sure that you have the prima facie case correct before you file?Hat tip to my buddy Seymour, who also saw the story.
Seriously, you've heard it here before -- billable hours are on their way out
Posted on August 24, 2009See this morning's Wall Street Journal (front page, below the fold): here. See also here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. I know I'm becoming a broken record, but there's no way that clients are going to continue to help law firms meet their budgets (and keep associate salaries high--for those associates who still have jobs) on a piecemeal approach when they can simply shop around for equally talented lawyers who are willing to try alternative billing methods...
The future of ballroom dance
Posted on August 23, 2009Watch Martin Rivas dance quickstep (with Sergei Shapoval and Liza Smith) at this year's Nevada Star Ball): here. BRAVO, Martin!
A nice way to learn about public service: Rachel's Rave.
Posted on August 09, 2009Rachel Diehl, one of the student workers at Boyd, has started her own blog, which describes different ways to do public service in and around Las Vegas (and, ultimately, beyond). See here. Brava, Rachel!
Mazel tov to our friends Martha & Karen!
Posted on August 09, 2009Who were married yesterday! See here. (And, yes, Jeff & I think that it's way cool that Martha & Karen's announcement made it into the New York Times!)If you talk with Martha and Karen, ask them about their wedding cha-cha....
The Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, 3550 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, FL--my review
Posted on August 07, 2009Is here. Other similar reviews are here.
Why I wish I had taken pictures of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, 3550 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, FL, before I left this morning.
Posted on August 06, 2009I had a great time at SEALS, as I always do, and this time, I had tried to keep costs down, so I stayed at a place down the road from the Ritz. Here's how the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn describes itself (see here and especially here). I don't know when those photos were taken, but either Photoshop works miracles, or I'd checked into an alternate universe...
A shout-out to Jason Solomon for letting me do some op-eds with him
Posted on August 04, 2009Jason Solomon, a buddy of mine at U Ga. and one of the co-founders of the Race to the Top blog (here), has kindly let me hang out with him in a couple of op-eds talking about turning the USNWR rankings into something resembling a measure of actual quality, rather than a mere beauty contest...
Continued death watch for the billable hour
Posted on July 30, 2009And a hat-tip to Brad Sims for this Wall Street Journal op-ed (here). Thanks, Brad!
Great new blog!
Posted on July 28, 2009My colleague (and friend!) Rachel Anderson has a great blog here. Brava, Rachel!
For all of our wounded warriors
Posted on July 21, 2009See here (hat tip to my hubby for sending this to me). You can find out more about the Wounded Warriors Project here. You can donate to the project here.
Anonymous postings are the last vestiges of cowards.
Posted on July 19, 2009After reading the latest barrage of comments over at Wild Wild West's post about late grades (here), which managed to get picked up by the Wall Street Journal's law blog (here), I have to confess that I'm stunned that so many people feel compelled to post vitriol anonymously...
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relive Apollo 11.
Posted on July 18, 2009Check out Wechoosethemoon.org. You can listen to what NASA heard 40 years ago. Forty years ago, I was young enough to think that going to the moon wasn't a big deal. Now I know that it was a miracle--the science worked; the people involved worked up to their potential; and for a brief moment, everyone on Earth got to see an achievement of truly international import...
What makes it so good is that the guy has Flatley's mannerisms down pat.
Posted on July 17, 2009See here. Hat tip to my buddy Katya.
Commentary on our times.
Posted on July 14, 2009A hat tip to my buddy Marc Stern, who forwarded this pic to me.
This just in: cats outrank us.
Posted on July 13, 2009Thanks to my brother-in-law, more proof that Grace and Shadow rule our roost: here. Considering all of the stupid human tricks that these two cats have trained us to perform, we're not surprised.
A fun read, part n
Posted on July 06, 2009My buddy Andy Spalding is spending a year at the University of Mumbai, and here's what he's working on these days (here). Should be a fun read!
Political pressure, the rankings, and one law school's response
Posted on July 06, 2009This morning, I read Larry Ribstein's post about the brouhaha between the Chicago Tribune and the University of Illinois Law School (here). Seems to me that we should have been discussing the pressure brought to bear on admissions years ago: pressure not just by highly connected politicians but also by powerful donors and alumni...
A fresh take on rankings
Posted on July 03, 2009Bridget Crawford has a fascinating post at Feminist Law Professors regarding ranking law schools using SSRN downloads (here). Hat tip to Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog for this one. Thanks, Paul!Another ranking system that I'm eagerly anticipating is Green Bag's Deadwood Report (here)...
Thanks again, Faculty Lounge!
Posted on June 30, 2009My final post as this month's guest blogger is here.
Some more details on the Beyond Text conference at the University of Edinburgh.
Posted on June 26, 2009See here. My time as a guest blogger at The Faculty Lounge is almost over, and I had a blast!
My newest guilty pleasure: LawShucks.com
Posted on June 25, 2009I'm becoming addicted to LawShucks.com. Lots of great stuff about BigLaw and about big bankruptcies. Enjoy!
How I spent last week (in Edinburgh)
Posted on June 24, 2009Had a blast at the Beyond Text conference in Edinburgh. For a description, see here. More soon!
Congratulations, Michael Asimow!
Posted on June 13, 2009Michael's newest book, Lawyers in Your Living Room! Law on Television, is now out and available here. Yes, my essay on Shark is in it, as is Keith Rowley's essay on The West Wing. Congrats, Michael!
See my buddy Sara, who's a star, at a big hair show (no, not a show about big hair) in Orlando!
Posted on June 13, 2009See here. Sara's incredibly creative, loads of fun, and a joy to watch. YAY, Sara!
I fear for the next generation of lawyers.
Posted on June 10, 2009Not only are they moving into a world that's increasingly precarious (generally) and into a legal world in which the rules of survival are getting more brutal, but they're doing so after coming into law school significantly less prepared. They don't have the liberal arts (or science) background that so many of us did (which enabled us to relate what we were learning in law school to other ways of thinking and analyzing), but they're simply not prepared to communicate well...
Latest musings on problems in higher education, over at The Faculty Lounge
Posted on June 08, 2009See here. Looking forward to your comments.
Well, we're not going to be national champs in college baseball this year....
Posted on June 06, 2009We just lost to LSU, which means that I hope that LSU takes the whole smash. I am a very sad Owl tonight. On the other hand, has LSU ever done experiments with Twinkies (see here)? I didn't think so....
A compendium of funny exam (and other) turns of phrase, over at The Faculty Lounge
Posted on June 06, 2009See here, and please add your own over at that blog.
Happens everywhere, apparently.
Posted on June 03, 2009See here. Personally, I think it happens when (1) some folks don't have enough to do, and (2) senior members of the community don't tell the mean folks to back off.
I'm having fun guest-blogging over at The Faculty Lounge
Posted on June 03, 2009Dan Filler has invited me to guest-blog over at The Faculty Lounge this month. (Thanks, Dan!) Here's my first post.
Why I love the blog "Bankruptcy Bill"
Posted on June 02, 2009Where else can you get bankruptcy haiku or other fun bankruptcy thoughts? See here. For the conflicts counsel haiku, see here. For my thoughts on conflicts in bankruptcy cases, see, e.g., here.
A Memorial Day thought from our friend David Polyansky
Posted on May 25, 2009One of our best friends, David Polyansky, has written this beautiful piece about Memorial Day and what it really means (here). My husband, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and my sister-in-law (and my late mother-in-law) have all served our country proudly, and I count myself so fortunate to have married into the Van Niel family...
HELP! Calling all computer gurus!
Posted on May 25, 2009Hi, all--have a question for you: I use a MacBook at home and a Windows XP at school. I have an external hard drive, and when I copy things from my MacBook to my Windows, I see a lot of these types of files:.* (no prefix--just files that look more faint than "real" files)...
Fun reads--Richard Mendales's Collateralized Explosive Devices: Why Securities Regulation Failed to Prevent the CDO Meltdown, and How to Fix It
Posted on May 22, 2009You can download Richard's paper from SSRN (here). Richard's got strength in both the commercial (Contracts through Bankruptcy) and corporate (Agency & Partnership, Corporations, and Securities Regulation) sides of business law. One of his courses looks at the ethics issues for transactional (non-litigator) lawyers...
NYT is absolutely correct about Yucca Mountain
Posted on May 21, 2009One of today's New York Times editorials points out (here) correctly that the administration's budget for Yucca Mountain, cut almost to the bone, doesn't give anyone the ability to learn about the science of storing nuclear waste. What we need is a real, non-partisan, blue-ribbon panel of scientists to determine what the U...
Three good articles from the WSJ--all on one page....
Posted on May 20, 2009Three I-told-you-so moments (here, here, and here). Enjoy!
My nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court
Posted on May 07, 2009Personally, I'd love to see U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal (see here) nominated. She's everything I'd want in a USSC Justice: she's exceptionally intelligent & experienced; she's not an ideologue (on either side of the spectrum); she writes like a dream; and she's a thoughtful jurist.
Our latest take on Nevada's budget crisis
Posted on May 04, 2009We still love it here, but we're concerned about Nevada's future (see here for yesterday's op-ed in the Las Vegas Sun). Of course, not everyone thinks that we should wait until retirement to leave. My University email inbox had this, um, testy response from a Mr...
The death of the billable hour continues
Posted on April 28, 2009This morning's ABA Journal post on the percentage of ACC-member GCs who dislike the billable hours system (see here) continues the slow demise of the billable hour. Over time, the profession is going to have to come up with viable alternatives that compensate lawyers fairly but still encourage efficiency in representation.
Does anyone know how to fix Microsoft Word for Mac and the creation of .doc.hqx files
Posted on April 27, 2009My Microsoft Office for Mac keeps turning my .doc documents into .doc.hqx documents that are unreadable. Does anyone have any solutions? Thanks!
Reason #1,029,203,245 why I love NASA
Posted on April 24, 2009Our buddy Randy just sent us this info, tied into yesterday's Earth Day celebration:Celebrating 2009 Earth Day: NASA is Leading the GreeningPeople around the world set aside Earth Day each year to reflect on the beauty, abundance and health of our home planet...
Two of the best opinion pieces published in the last few weeks
Posted on April 08, 2009Jake DeSantis's A.I.G. resignation letter (here) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb's piece in this morning's Financial Times, listing ten ways to Black-Swan-Proof our world (here). As an aside, Taleb teaches at NYU's Polytechnic Institute, which was (before its affiliation change) one of my dad's alma maters.
It's a textbook! It's a weapon!
Posted on March 23, 2009Richard Pachter of the Miami Herald has this to say (here) about our second edition of the Enron book. Although he missed a letter of Jeff Van Niel's last name (Jeff is NOT to be confused with the Knights who say "Ni!"), my favorite part of the (very short) review was his suggestion that "[i]f they ever decide to throw the book at Madoff or any of the other financial criminals, this 1,200-page-plus tome is the one I'd heave...
A horrifying website--please take time to sign this petition
Posted on March 17, 2009My dad and my friend Seymour called my attention to this site, jewwatch.com, I was appalled. There's a petition to remove the site from Google:To: Google.comWhen performing a search for the word "Jew" on google.. the first result is a site that has been notorious for being anti-Semitic...
DePaul's upcoming Biz & Comm L J Symposium
Posted on March 10, 2009Seventh Annual DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal SymposiumInto the Sunset: Bankruptcy as Scriptwriter of the Dénouement of Financial DistressThursday, April 16, 200910:30 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m.Westin Michigan Avenue909 North Michigan AvenueChicago, Illinois For Better or Worse: Chapter 11 in the Post-BAPCPA DownturnBAPCPA, the 2005 Bankruptcy Code overhaul, brought some significant changes to corporate reorganization, leading some to dub Chapter 11 as the "National Foreclosure Act...
And another great idea for the economy
Posted on March 08, 2009In response to this post (here), one of our best friends suggested the following:Here's my plan: (1) stimulate the economy by increasing federal monies available to state universities -- I received a heck of an education and now pay back by working and paying taxes -- others will do the same - give a person fish and they eat one meal, teach them to fish and they eat for the rest of their lives; (2) stimulate the economy by investing in our infrastructure -- roads, railroads, etc...
BRAVO, Race to the Bottom Blog!
Posted on March 06, 2009The Race to the Bottom (http://www.theracetothebottom.org/home/covering-churchill-v-university-of-colorado.html) is going to cover the trial of Ward Churchill, the CU Professor who made critical comments about the US in connection with 9/11.Here's the info, straight from my colleagues at Race to the Bottom:Students from the Race to the Bottom and the Student Employment Law Association at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and faculty from the College of Law and the Daniels College of Business, will be providing daily coverage of the suit brought by Ward Churchill, a former tenured faculty member in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, against the University of Colorado...
Congrats to Rice U students Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel!
Posted on February 23, 2009Rice University students Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel won the right to represent mtvU at last night's Academy Awards. BRAVO, Faheem and Anish! For the video that won them that coveted spot, see here.
My letter to the Nevada Legislature
Posted on February 23, 2009Each of us can weigh in on Nevada's budget. Here's a text version of what I've sent.To my colleagues in the Nevada Legislature:I know that today?s economic climate is exceptionally challenging, and my thoughts are with you as you navigate toward a reasonable budget for our state...
Our second edition of the Enron book (Enron and Other Corporate Scandals: The Corporate Scandal Reader, 2d) is on Amazon now.
Posted on February 22, 2009Jeff did the cover art (see here), and the link is here.
Let's play "connect the dots"
Posted on February 22, 2009I read these three pieces in today's local paper: Gibbons'[s] budget would kill higher education (here), Drop, drop, drop . . . . (here), and Kill Yucca, then get going on the rest of our problems (here). What links them?Well, Nevada's economy is pretty awful right now, and as things stand, higher education cuts are poised to bear the brunt of Nevada's attempt to balance the budget (the first piece)...
Why I think that the housing portion of the bailout misses the boat
Posted on February 20, 2009My piece today in JURIST (here). Would love your thoughts. Better yet, weigh in at www.recovery.gov. Thanks!
Want to see my personal trainer, Jeff Monroe, and his wife, Priscila Monroe, in action?
Posted on February 20, 2009Click here and then click on "guests."
PLEASE SEND THESE TWO RICE U STUDENTS TO THE OSCARS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on February 19, 2009I just watched this video (here), where two Rice University students, Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel, are finalists to be correspondents for MTV-U at the Oscars on Sunday night. The video cracked me up, and these two Owls deserve to be chosen. Please vote!
Academics whose actions disappoint me more than I can say.
Posted on February 18, 2009See here for the list of academics who have signed on to a petition of a boycott of Israel. What's going on in the Middle East is complicated, and I'm not saying that Israel is perfect, by any means. But my guess is that a lot of these academics are paying attention only to one side of the story, which is never a good thing for an academic to do.
Today's stories on mortgages
Posted on February 18, 2009On forcing banks to prove they hold the mortgage: see here. On courts that process thousands of foreclosures a day: see here.Some of the parameters of the stimulus's changes for mortgages: see here. Some of the problems with the changes: see here.
My piece today on JURIST
Posted on February 17, 2009See here. A special thanks to Bernard Hibbitts for publishing it!
Verified by Visa = locked into infinite loop
Posted on February 12, 2009My hubby has had a problem w/Verified by Visa that started out as a good sign, not a bad one. He had just made a large purchase, followed by a smaller purchase from the same company, and the company from which he had purchased checked to make sure that his card hadn't been stolen...
My new boycott list....
Posted on February 03, 2009For all of those product manufacturers who have automatic spammers put in random comments throughout my blog, I've created a boycott list. If you post random crud on my blog, I'll add you to this list.Here are the first two:WOW GOLDCHANTIXPlease boycott these products...
Sometimes, you just need to think about cats to have a good day....
Posted on February 03, 2009Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF8LqoIC_5k. Our cat Shadow eats wheat toast. We should video that sometime, but at 5 a.m., we're too groggy.See also this, which reminds me of Grace. Enjoy!
Today's moment of validation . . . .
Posted on January 30, 2009Take a look at Jonathan Glater's article in this morning's NYT (here), which describes the changing world of law firm economics.A side note: I was a Morrison & Foerster associate when Carl Leonard (mentioned in the article) was the managing partner...
I'm still exhorbitantly priced (and worth it!), but here's a new record.
Posted on January 29, 2009See here. It's not the billing amount per se that I'm sure everyone's going to watch, but what bang for the buck folks get for those rates.
Hitting close to home
Posted on January 29, 2009Just read about Morrison & Foerster's recent layoffs (see here). I learned so much from my time at MoFo (yes, that's its nickname), and I sure feel for the folks there, as well as for folks laid off in other law firms and other business sectors. It's a scary world right now.
Why I'm so proud of Rice University, part n
Posted on January 29, 2009In an earlier post (here), I bragged about what Rice is doing to help with the global health crisis. If you'd like to see a video of what Rice, through Rebecca Richards-Kortum's program, is doing, click here for more on Rice 360.Bravo, Rice!
A cautionary tale about law firm economics
Posted on January 26, 2009Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page article on the economic pressures facing law firms (here), with a particular focus on Heller Ehrman's demise.I knew many of the folks at Heller, having been a summer clerk there in the mid-1980s. The folks whom I knew were bright, talented, and dedicated, but clearly those attributes aren't enough to manage large businesses in tricky economic times...
Finally--graphic proof!
Posted on January 24, 2009more music chartsActually, we think that the green part of the graph should be much, much smaller. Thanks, GraphJam!
Why the State of Nevada needs a strong higher education system.
Posted on January 24, 2009I'm heading home to Las Vegas this afternoon, having attended the Winter Board Meeting of the Association of Rice Alumni. This afternoon's meeting included a talk by Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering. She described the many ways in which Rice University professors' research can be used to address global health issues (water-borne diseases, the high costs of getting technology to the medical personnel in developing countries who need them, etc...
An opportunity to give Jon Ralston your thoughts about the proposed cuts to higher education
Posted on January 22, 2009See here. I've voted in this poll. You might want to do so, too. Thanks!
More on Nevada's budget crisis
Posted on January 21, 2009My colleague Sylvia Lazos (here) just reminded us of an interview that our Dean, John Valery White (here) gave to In Business Las Vegas last semester (here), in which he quite rightly pointed out how devastating more budget cuts would be for our law school...
A shout-out to Jack Ayer (and Ed Fein)!
Posted on January 21, 2009Jack Ayer's blog, Underbelly (here) is always delightful (as is Jack!), and in one recent post (here), Jack, well, deconstructs a cute joke that Ed Fein (who collects groanable but funny jokes) had sent along to me. Well, Jack, your post made me think that I "got a flucky," too.
A shout-out to my dance teacher, Sergei Shapoval
Posted on January 21, 2009Sergei's blog (here) was nice enough to give me a shout-out (here), and I wanted to return the favor. Thanks, Sergei!
Score: 13 pounds of cat, 1; two adult humans, 0
Posted on January 20, 2009Our girl Grace (on left) was supposed to be on diet cat food. After four days of a hunger strike (hers--not ours), we finally called our vet, who told us to give up on the diet food and just give her less of the regular food. We are still trying to figure out which one of us gave her the "stubborn" gene...
Thanks, Wild Wild Law!
Posted on January 17, 2009Just wanted to thank Wild Wild Law for letting me join the blog. Thanks!
I have never been "cool."
Posted on January 17, 2009And I'm still not cool. But seeing this WAS cool. Here's a pic of my buddy Arnold Peter (of Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon LLP) at the AMEC Awards, which counts as one of my top-ten evenings of all time. Thanks, 944!
A shout-out to Las Vegas's own James Patrick Shea
Posted on January 17, 2009Who's in a great article in today's Las Vegas Sun about the epidemic of bankruptcies. See here. Bravo, Jim! Check out Jim and Candace Carlyon's firm here.
And here's a partial list of the "good guys" in business ethics
Posted on January 16, 2009See here.
You heard it here (and in a lot of other places) first....
Posted on January 16, 2009But the economy, coupled with the structure of law firms and their reliance on billable hours, is creating an environment in which a lot of formerly strong firms may well collapse. See here.
Dear government of the State of Nevada: some thoughts
Posted on January 15, 2009I know that you're struggling right now with a horrifyingly bad economy, and you're trying to minimize the pain to Nevada's citizens. I don't envy you your choices, because you're at the point where you're deciding between choices that are devastating and those that are merely awful...
And today's thought on the bailout....
Posted on January 14, 2009Hat tip to my buddy Ed Fein for passing this one along (see here).
Why it's important to proofread, part 2
Posted on January 14, 2009Why one should proofread before sending a document out, part 2 (see here). (For part 1, see this post.)
Why it's important to proofread, part 1
Posted on January 14, 2009See here. Hat tip to Seymour Serebnick, my buddy who sends me all sorts of cool stuff. For a lovely take on why this mistake would count as a CLM (career-limiting move), see here.
Thanks, AMEC!
Posted on January 13, 2009I had a wonderful time at the 4th Annual Counsel of the Year awards last Friday. For information about this year's awards, see here. For pictures, see here. (Yes, that's my dance teacher, Sergei Shapoval, with me in one of the photos. I brought a real-live artist with me, as my hubby Jeff was giving firearms instruction to my cousin visiting from NYC that weekend...
Newsflash: Skilling loses appeal but will get resentenced
Posted on January 06, 2009See the story here. The Westlaw cite for the opinion is 2009 WL 22879.
A shameless plug for the Seventh Annual DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal Symposium
Posted on January 02, 2009Seventh Annual DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal Symposium--Into the Sunset: Bankruptcy as Scriptwriter of the Dénouement of Financial DistressThursday, April 16, 2009, 10:30 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m., Westin Michigan Avenue, 909 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IllinoisFor Better or Worse: Chapter 11 in the Post-BAPCPA Downturn BAPCPA, the 2005 Bankruptcy Code overhaul, brought some significant changes to corporate reorganization, leading some to dub Chapter 11 as the "National Foreclosure Act...
Can someone please help me find a link to this really funny Cinemax promo?
Posted on December 27, 2008I just saw a "happy holidays" promo on Cinemax that was a spoof of former Soviet propaganda about the West, but I can't find a link to it anywhere. If you know of the link, can you please let me know? Thanks!
Fun at the Holiday Dance Classic 2008
Posted on December 24, 2008See here, here, and here. Thanks, SuperShag!
Shameless self-promotion
Posted on December 24, 2008Our second edition of the Corporate Scandals book is coming out next month, thanks to the hard work of Foundation Press: see here.
A shout-out to the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel (AMEC)
Posted on December 08, 2008AMEC (here) is the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel, which was created to advance the professional development and to recognize the achievements of in-house legal counsel within the media and entertainment industry. It's a marvelous organization for networking and education, and I'm looking forward to attending the 2008 Counsel of the Year Awards out in LA this coming January...
OK, Chantix spammers--you asked for it.
Posted on December 04, 2008Links to some of the stories about how dangerous Chantix is alleged to be: See here and here, for example. Click here for some info on the FDA warning about Chantix.So, Chantix spammers, do you still want to keep making me remove your comments on my blog, or will you cut it out?
Dear Chantix and all other annoying spam commenters
Posted on November 21, 2008CUT IT OUT. I don't want you posting your ads on my blog. Had I wanted ads, I would've put them on my blog. I don't want advertising in general, and I don't want YOUR advertising in particular.
I like BOTH Pete Wentzes (Petes Wentz?)
Posted on November 12, 2008Here's a recent post from Pete Wentz (here), of Fall Out Boy -- and son of Pete Wentz of Apco Worldwide (here). I'm really impressed with Pete Wentz (the dad)'s abilities in terms of strategic planning, and I really love the music of Pete Wentz (the son) and Fall Out Boy...
Thomas Sowell's op-ed about the gay marriage bans
Posted on November 11, 2008After reading Thomas Sowell's op-ed about the recent election and the success of such measures as Proposition 8 in California (see here for his op-ed), I thought for a while about why I disagreed with him on this issue (see here). For one thing, marriage can't just be about protecting the ability of a man and a woman to have children...
Why I love the Financial Times, part 2:
Posted on November 11, 2008A great article about Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy (here).
Why I love the Financial Times
Posted on November 08, 2008There are two wonderful articles on the European Lehman bankruptcy (here and here).
I'll bite--what IS it about other people's marriages that so bother the "Yes on Prop. 8" people?
Posted on November 05, 2008I just found out that Prop. 8 passed in California. That's the proposition banning same-sex marriages. I don't get it. Just what is so hard about letting two people in love get the same civil rights that I've had for the past 12 years? Does a same-sex marriage threaten my marriage in any way? Is giving same-sex couples certain legal rights going to somehow threaten opposite-sex couples (including, BTW, those who have taken their marriage vows and then gotten divorced--which is, of course, legal and "doesn't" threaten the sanctity of marriage)? I hear that the SF City Attorney is going to file suit, claiming that Prop...
In memory of Deanna Redder
Posted on October 30, 2008It's always so sad when good people die, especially when they die so young. Here is the obituary of Deanna Redder, one of my former students at The Ohio State University College of Law (here). One of her friends from that time, Kathleen Lyon, let me know of this tragedy...
Top five reasons that the Disney Board could use me
Posted on October 28, 2008As I was reading John Schnatter's op-ed in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, "Where Were the Boards?" (here) -- an opinion with which I wholeheartedly agree -- and ruminating about our family's recent visit to Disney World, I couldn't help thinking that some large public companies could really use an infusion of new blood...
Twenty-five years ago in Beirut
Posted on October 23, 2008Our hearts go out to the families of those brave Marines lost in the Beirut bombing 25 years ago today. See, e.g., here and here.
We've gotten permission to post this ad for lateral candidates:
Posted on October 17, 2008UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS?WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW invites applications for at least one tenure-track Associate Professor or tenured Full Professor of Law position, with appointment to begin with the 2009-2010 academic year. We have substantial flexibility in subject matter interests, with special interest in clinical teaching...
Update on that letter to the Dallas lawyer
Posted on October 14, 2008After I wrote about the letter questioning the collegiality of a particular lawyer (here), the lawyer who received the letter wrote back to me and asked me to publish his response. Here it is: Here is my response relative to Jeff Murphrey?s letter of September 26, 2008 about hurricane related sewage in his yard in which he slams me and seems to slam the lawyers from the great city of Dallas, Texas...
Why proofreading is so very important for lawyers....
Posted on October 12, 2008Reason #1 (here). Reason #2 (here).
In memory of David Young
Posted on October 12, 2008Texas lawyers lost a talented writer and gentle person this past week, and I wanted you to know a little bit about him. Here's his obituary:David Bruce Young of Austin, Texas, passed away suddenly Sunday evening, October 5 at his home.He was born in Columbia, Missouri on November 1, 1945, to Raymond Arthur and Virginia Garton Young...
Someone should hire this soon-to-be-graduate!
Posted on October 12, 2008I've known Stephen Chen, who will be receiving a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and an M.P.H. from the University of Texas School of Public Health this coming May, for over three years. He was my research assistant while he was still an undergrad at UT, and he proved himself to be diligent, creative, and intelligent--and an extremely nice guy, to boot...
"Hello Skinnyjeans" and its particular brand of "customer service"
Posted on October 12, 2008After reading about how wonderful "Hello Skinnyjeans" were, I ordered a pair on August 3. I waited and waited -- and waited and waited -- for the jeans to be delivered. I emailed the company on August 24, and Catherine Hart told me then that the jeans would be ready "in another 1-2 weeks...
It's ok to stop sending me law school publications that describe a bunch of achievements now--I've voted already.
Posted on October 10, 2008As chair of this year's appointments committee here at Boyd, I've been getting all of those glossy publications touting various law schools' achievements. You can stop sending me the "law porn" now. I've sent in my USNWR votes.This year, of course, USNWR asked voters to pick up to 15 schools that we thought of as having "top" part-time programs...
If you're looking to place a child with loving parents, I know two people who'd be great
Posted on October 09, 2008My friends Tori & Jennifer are looking to open their loving home to a child (see here).
And a shout-out to Ann Ryan Robertson
Posted on October 09, 2008Ann's a buddy of mine who was highlighted recently in Texas Lawyer (here). Brava, Ann--I'm kvelling!
A shout-out about an intriguing idea in criminal law
Posted on October 09, 2008Geoff Mousseau pointed me to his company's website (here), which helps white collar defendants with the process of going through the criminal justice system. Geoff himself has personal experience with the criminal justice system, and he believes that he can help to translate the experiences of defendants accused of committing white-collar crimes for the lawyers representing those defendants...
Why we never learn from economic crises
Posted on October 09, 2008I've posted some thoughts over at JURIST (here), and the second edition of our Enron text (Enron and Other Corporate Fiascos: The Corporate Scandal Reader (Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel, and Bala G. Dharan, eds.) (Foundation Press 2008) is slated to come out this December...
Most interesting Civ Pro rap video I've seen
Posted on October 09, 2008OK, it's the only one I've seen (see here), but it IS interesting . . . . Can a bankruptcy law rap be far behind?Hat tip to Kathleen Lyon for letting me know about this one.
And, over at the Legal Profession Blog . . . .
Posted on October 02, 2008I've reproduced a letter that a friend sent to me (see post here) to illustrate how obstreperous some attorneys can be. I'm not so sure that the reference to Dallas is gratuitous--you might want to watch this clip (here) from the song "Dallas, Texas," on the Austin Lounge Lizards' Highway Cafe of the Damned CD...
UNLV (Boyd School of Law) is hiring....
Posted on October 01, 2008And I'm the appointments chair. Also on our committee are Chris Blakesley, Keith Rowley, Jay Mootz, and Leticia Saucedo. So far, the University has approved our search for a Director of Academic Support, and we may also be looking for visitors and for laterals (depending on funding and University approval)...
Well, THAT explains it....
Posted on September 30, 2008From one of my favorite blogs (GraphJam.com):
More on LSAT-free admissions and the rankings
Posted on September 26, 2008There are lots of good posts on this issue (see, e.g., here, here, here, and here), and I'm guest-blogging about it at Race to the Bottom (see here). Looking forward to reading your comments on all of this.
And while I'm doing videos that tickled my fancy....
Posted on September 24, 2008This clip from The Daily Show (here) is one of my favorites.
The point of corporate mergers
Posted on September 24, 2008As seen in this video from the Colbert Report (here). Have patience: the video is about halfway through the clip.
Thinking of all those who suffered damage during Hurricane Ike
Posted on September 21, 2008See here for some pictures of the disaster and here for a news report of one of the local landmarks (near where Jeff & I used to live) burning to the ground. Although our family was lucky (only a few days of no power for my dad, back in Houston), so many others are still suffering.
Suggestion for the Green Bag's proposed rankings system
Posted on September 21, 2008Al Brophy's latest article, on the correlation between the citation rankings of law reviews and the school's overall rankings, is a new must-read (see here).
Welcome to Race to the Top!
Posted on September 21, 2008I want to welcome to the rankings conversation a new blog: Race to the Top (see here). I'm on the advisory board of this group, and I'm excited about the mission:[W]ith no information on educational quality, research shows that respondents simply replicate the previous year's U...
Enron's back in the news....
Posted on September 09, 2008This morning's Wall Street Journal gives the update (here). For me, this news couldn't happen at a more apropos time: I just turned in the draft of our second edition of the Enron book for Foundation Press. It'll be called Enron and Other Corporate Fiascos: A Corporate Scandal Reader...
Roger Lowenstein got it exactly right.
Posted on September 07, 2008In today's New York Times, Roger Lowenstein discusses why we didn't learn from the Long-Term Capital bailout (here). Marvelous essay.
Ann Bartow's meme
Posted on September 07, 2008Ann Bartow has tagged me (see here) to get my five favorite non-legal blogs (thanks, Ann!), so here they are. And I'm not embarrassed to admit them. Well, not very embarrassed, anyway....GraphJam.I Can Has Cheezburger.Fail Blog.Funny or Die.FrancisStokes...
Welcome to the blogosphere, Marquette!
Posted on September 02, 2008Paul Secunda has just told me that Marquette is entering the blogosphere w/a faculty blog (here). Should be a lot of fun to read. Congrats, Marquette!
Lipshaw & Henderson's post related to this morning's WSJ article on the USNWR rankings
Posted on August 26, 2008Bill Henderson & Jeff Lipshaw have done a masterful job over at Legal Profession Blog (here) taking the implications of Amir Efrati's story (see my post here) to their logical conclusions.
Amir Efrati's WSJ article about the USNWR rankings--and a couple of points
Posted on August 26, 2008Amir Efrati's article on how USNWR might redo the rankings to prevent some of the gaming that's been going on (see here; for the WSJ blog take on the article, see here) does a great job of pointing out how the gaming has occurred and the ramifications of the change...
A short history lesson
Posted on August 25, 2008Because I think that there will be yet another article this week on the rankings and my relationship to it, here's a brief recap of what happened at my last job during my final year as dean. In September of that academic year, one of the senior faculty members who was unhappy with me sent in a colleague of his to meet with me...
Newsflash from JetBlue: JFK Airport is filled with microclimates
Posted on August 10, 2008Having stayed at this year's ABA annual meeting long enough to watch my friend Sarah Weddington win a special Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award today (BRAVA, SARAH!), I headed out to JFK to catch an early evening JetBlue flight home to Las Vegas...
Please help me give credit where credit is due!
Posted on August 01, 2008Can anyone help me with the attribution for this wonderful PowerPoint (here)? Thanks!
The most important paragraph in a very important post
Posted on August 01, 2008From this morning's post in The Race to the Bottom's discussion on the change in USNWR's methodology regarding PT students' LSATs and UGPAs (here):Whatever a law school does in the short term [about the change in methodology], it is clear that this change will result in continued homogenization of entering classes, with law schools having an incentive to ensure that the part time and full time divisions have comparable numbers...
A little bit of Enron justice
Posted on July 30, 2008According to this morning's news (see here), Lou Pai will pay $31.5 million to settle alleged insider trading charges. Considering the size of the profits that Pai made from his sale of Enron stock, $31.5 million is a drop in the bucket; nonetheless, the $25...
Another "must read" by Bill Henderson
Posted on July 29, 2008Cross-posted over at Legal Profession Blog (here) and at Empirical Legal Studies Blog (here), on how most law firms misapply the "Cravath system." It's a follow-up to Bill's first post (here) on how the "Cravath system" created the bimodal distribution in starting salaries...
In memoriam: Randy Pausch
Posted on July 29, 2008Never met him, of course, but his last lecture (here) and his book, The Last Lecture (with Jeffrey Zaslow) (here) really touched me. May his memory be as a blessing.
Fun visuals for the weekend
Posted on July 25, 2008Some fun visuals for the weekend:1. As the time for fall semester marches inexorably closer: here. 2. Proving that I'm right about Spinal Tap and the rankings: here. 3. As I finish up a summer of traveling, talks, and PowerPoints: here.
Thank you, Dean Gary Simson of Case Western!
Posted on July 23, 2008According to this morning's WSJ Law Blog (here), Dean Gary J. Simson of Case Western's law school has suggested that deans say "dayenu" to the USNWR rankings. Recognizing the insanity of tailoring an educational program to the whims of a news magazine, Dean Simson believes that law schools instead should use their own good judgment about how to allocate resources...
But wait! There's more! Bill Henderson gives us some data on the PT loophole issue
Posted on July 14, 2008See Bill's post (here) over at Empirical Legal Studies. Well done, Bill!
Just in case anyone missed TaxProf Blog recently....
Posted on July 14, 2008Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog compiled some of Jason Solomon's very thoughtful posts on PrawfsBlog (here's the compilation at TaxProf Blog) regarding the "academic program"/"academic reputation" voting portion of the USNWR rankings. Very interesting, nuanced thoughts...
Tail wags dog so furiously that dog falls off, leaving only tail
Posted on July 07, 2008I was reading today's TaxProf Blog, as I do every morning, when I came across this post (here), in which Paul Caron pointed to a NLJ article (Deans dislike rankings proposals, here) about the proposed changes in the USNWR rankings. Paul highlighted the following very, very scary quote:The proposal is strongly opposed by deans at schools with part-time programs designed for students who are years past college graduation and often well into careers outside the law...
Also in this month's ABA Journal, more on flat fees for legal work
Posted on July 06, 2008I'm telling you (again): billable hours aren't going to be the future of the legal world forever. See here.
Arnold Peter is featured in this month's ABA Journal
Posted on July 06, 2008Arnold Peter, one of my all-time favorite lawyers, is featured in this month's ABA Journal (here). Arnold's a founding partner of Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon (here) and one of the founding members of AMEC, the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel (here)...
More on how to study for the bar exam
Posted on July 05, 2008Ilya Somin's updated his post (here), and I agree with some of his points: (1) figure out your own, best way of studying and key your bar prep to that, (2) try not to overstress, (3) be disciplined in your studying, and (4) remember that failing the bar exam is not the end of the world...
Volokh Conspiracy's Post on Reducing the Pain of Taking the Bar Exam
Posted on June 30, 2008One of our own law students directed me to Ilya Somin's post (here) on the Volokh Conspiracy blog, never a boring blog. Prof. Somin's advice is to study less for the bar exam: read the review books, take some practice tests, memorize the rules, and relax...
Thomas Sowell on college rankings
Posted on June 22, 2008Loved Thomas Sowell's take on the rankings, including his reasons for disparaging USNWR's rankings (here). In his column, Dr. Sowell quotes Professor Thomas Vedder, who observes that USNWR's use of inputs to measure quality "'is roughly equivalent to evaluating a chef based on the ingredients that he or she uses...
Dave Van Zandt does it again--Northwestern Law to offer the option of an accelerated two-year law degree
Posted on June 20, 2008Dave Van Zandt, one of the true visionary law deans, has announced that Northwestern Law will offer an option for a two-year law degree (see here). The degree will be available for students with at least two years of prior work experience (which most Northwestern Law students already have--another Van Zandt trademark)...
More about the local lawyer who did the right thing
Posted on June 20, 2008When I blogged about Louis Schneider (here), I didn't know he was a graduate of the William S. Boyd School of Law. Now our law school has one more reason to brag.
I can't remember which comedian has a routine about this....
Posted on June 18, 2008It may be Patton Oswalt. But a real-life version of someone's bit happened to me over the last few days. I've been getting text messages on my cell phone from an 808 number (Hawai'i, apparently), and they've been in Spanish. I wish I could speak Spanish, but I am seriously other-language-deficient...
Update on capital case involving alleged judge/prosecutor affair
Posted on June 18, 2008Yesterday's scheduled execution was stayed (see here, with some great commentary by my friend Larry Fox), but the fight to do the right thing is far from over. Keep an eye on Legal Profession Blog for more updates--the folks there have been doing a great job watching this case...
Outrageous! In what world is it ok for a judge and a prosecutor to sleep together while working on the same case?
Posted on June 17, 2008Charles Hood is scheduled to be executed tonight at 6pm Texas time. According to the New York Times (here) and ABC-TV (here), Hood has alleged that the judge in his case was sleeping with the prosecutor in his case. Late yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Mr...
Local lawyer does the right thing
Posted on June 14, 2008After a lawyer misappropriated more than $200K from her firm's client trust account (an act for which she was later suspended from the practice of law), an associate in her firm compensated all of her clients. For the full story about this case, see here...
Brian Leiter is becoming one of my go-to bloggers for problems w/the USNWR rankings
Posted on June 05, 2008As I sit in the Phoenix airport, grateful for the free wireless, I've been browsing my favorite blogs, and I always read Brian's posts on the rankings. On June 3 (hey, I have some catching up to do....), Brian names names about the schools that take the most transfer students (see here)...
VINDICATED! Dell's marketing, warranties problems show up in court
Posted on May 28, 2008In today's New York Times about Dell's failure to follow through on its "next-day" warranties: see here. NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had accused Dell of "false and deceptive advertising": "For too long at Dell the promise of customer service was a bait and switch that left thousands of people paying for essentially no service at all...
And a great post from the Legal Profession Blog about depressed lawyers
Posted on May 06, 2008For those of us who struggle with depression, the Legal Profession Blog has a great post today (here) about depression, lawyers, and job satisfaction issues. Hat-tip to Alan Childress.
Urban myth or chilling commentary on law firm life?
Posted on May 06, 2008This post (here) from Above the Law is making the rounds today. A hat-tip to my buddy Kathleen Lyon for telling me about it.
A lovely post about dean qualifications
Posted on May 04, 2008A hat-tip to Alan Childress over at Legal Profession Blog for pointing out a well-done post (here) by Michael Froomkin.
American Bankruptcy Institute/University of Illinois College of Law's Interdisciplinary Academic Symposium on Debt
Posted on May 03, 2008I'm sitting in the session that Elizabeth Warren & Bruce Markell are doing in the Debt symposium, marveling at how well this whole interdisciplinary symposium is going. (For some play-by-play blogging of the conference, see Mechele Dickerson's posts over at Credit Slips...
Bravo to Bill Henderson & Andy Morriss (as always)
Posted on April 17, 2008For their op-ed in the National Law Journal (here) about other choices that students can make, in light of the rankings.
A post on the lighter side
Posted on April 16, 2008Over at PrawfsBlog, there's a discussion of the most screwed victims in caselaw history, along with the list of finalists. Not only does the list include one of my faves (the Peevyhouses), but it includes other classics as well. Enjoy!
Are bankruptcy judges unconstitutional?
Posted on April 09, 2008Another one of my colleagues here at UNLV, Tuan Samahon, has made some interesting arguments that they are--see here. (If you're getting the impression that there's cool work being done here at UNLV, you're right!)
A new take on article selection for law reviews
Posted on April 09, 2008One of my colleagues at UNLV, Rachel Anderson, has posted an intriguing article on SSRN about market failure in the selection of articles for law reviews. See here for the draft.
Musings on the ideal law faculty
Posted on April 08, 2008That's the topic of my second post on the mobblog, over at Madisonian.net (here).
Mobblog on legal education over at Madisonian.net
Posted on April 07, 2008Thanks to Mike Madison & Deven Desai, there's a fun mobblog going on at Madisonian.net: see here for Erwin Chemerinsky's first post, here for Mike Madison's first post, here for Deven Desai's first post, and here for my first post. Enjoy!
Wondering about the fate of the billable hour?
Posted on April 07, 2008I'm going to be at DePaul's one-day conference on Lawyers, Law Firms, and the Legal Profession: An Ethical View of the Business of Law (click here for more information). This year's conference, part of the Commercial Law League of America's Spring Meeting in Chicago (here) seems particularly timely, and the speakers are going to be quite good...
You've gotta love this--the perfect decanal letter(s) responding to USNWR rankings
Posted on April 07, 2008Thanks to the WSJ.com Law Blog, you can now read University of Tennessee law prof Gregory Stein's parodies of decanal letters responding to increases and decreases in the USNWR rankings (here). Bravo!
A must-read blog post by Jeff Lipshaw
Posted on April 05, 2008If you ever wonder what lawyers and other service providers in the corporate world are thinking when they give grey-area advice that might precipitate a corporate scandal, then you'll want to read Jeff Lipshaw's post, Realism and Idealism in Business Ethics: A Post-Bear Reflection, on Daniel Solove's Concurring Opinions blog (see here)...
Yet more suggestions about the rankings
Posted on April 05, 2008See Daniel Solove's very sensible observations (here).
More suggestions about changing the rankings
Posted on April 02, 2008See Brian Leiter's open letter to Bob Morse of USNWR (here). Although I don't agree with all of Brian's suggestions, I certainly commend his efforts to suggest ways of reducing schools' abilities to game the rankings with easily manipulable or fraudulent data...
Cognitive dissonance and the USNWR rankings
Posted on March 31, 2008As Brian Leiter correctly points out (here), the schools listed on Paul Caron's post (here) are trying to eat their cake and have it, too: objecting to USNWR's rankings, on the one hand, as being misleading, arbitrary, etc., and publicizing the heck out of their own results, on the other hand...
Putting my money where my mouth is....
Posted on March 27, 2008In keeping with my comments in the recent ABA Journal article on the rankings (here), talking about improving USNWR's rankings to make them, well, useful would be helpful. Over at Concurring Opinions, Daniel Solove has started such a project (here). Here are his suggestions:1...
Before the USNWR rankings come out....
Posted on March 25, 2008Here's the ABA Journal's spin on all of this (click here).
Some thoughts on Jeff Skilling's appeal and his allegations about the suppression of exculpatory evidence
Posted on March 17, 2008The more I see groups of people making obviously bad decisions with clearly foreseeable repercussions, the more I realize that law has very little power to regulate human behavior unless the law takes into account the fact that humans tend toward certain types of cognitive errors...
Some fun reads
Posted on March 14, 2008Paul Secunda's Tales of a Law Professor Lateral Nothing (here) and J. Robert Brown, Jr.'s Law Blogging, Law Scholarship, and Law School Rankings (here). Thanks go to Jeff Lipshaw and the Legal Profession blog for turning me on to Secunda's piece, which turned me on to Brown's piece!
Bravo to Brian Leiter for his suggestion about blogging on the upcoming USNWR rankings!
Posted on March 13, 2008Brian has posted a very sensible suggestion (here) about blogging about the upcoming USNWR rankings, which come out in a couple of weeks. As he suggests, blogging about the overall rankings is mostly a "garbage in, garbage out" exercise: the overall rankings have too many problems that specific postings on them is like shooting fish in a barrel...
More on the Deadwood Report
Posted on March 04, 2008Bob Morse of USNWR has blogged about it (see here), and he suggests that deans and faculty members may not be so sanguine about having the claims in their publications challenged by the Green Bag's Deadwood Report. I think that all of us are looking forward to seeing how the methodology works: every school's website and publications is different, and verifying claims will be no easy task...
Bravo to the Green Bag!
Posted on February 27, 2008Thanks to Inside Higher Education, Brian Leiter, my dad, and the Green Bag itself, there's a new ranking system in town: Green Bag's Deadwood Report system.Different from HBO's 2004 Deadwood TV series, Green Bag "will [focus] on the most dully objective of measures: whether the work is being done ? whether each law school faculty member is teaching courses, publishing scholarly works, and performing pro bono service...
More on Judge Sneed's passing....
Posted on February 21, 2008Over at one of my favorite blogs, TaxProf Blog (here).
Why the anonymous posts?
Posted on February 19, 2008I've been wondering why people post comments to blogs on an anonymous basis. Are they afraid of being harassed? Are they shy? Are they uncomfortable putting their names on their opinions?So far, I've allowed anonymous posting, but most of what I've seen is just nasty stuff, which leads to my conclusion that only cowards post anonymously...
Judge Joseph T. Sneed III
Posted on February 14, 2008Judge Joseph T. Sneed III died last week. I had the pleasure of clerking for him during the 1985-86 term, and here are just some of my recollections:Roughly the first week of the clerkship, he asked me to be the clerk who would drive him around Pasadena when he was sitting in Southern California...
I did it--I switched to a MacBook Pro!
Posted on January 24, 2008Having gotten a full refund from Dell (thank you, Michael McKinney), I have switched laptop formats from Dell to a MacBook Pro, although I still have a Dell desktop. Even though having an Apple computer is a tad like being a left-hander in a right-handed world, I love it: I love the design, I love the sharpness of the screen, I love the fact that I've had it for two months and have not managed to break it...
Death of the billable hour, part n+1
Posted on January 24, 2008In this morning's NYT, Lisa Belkin's article, Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms, caught my eye. As I've predicted (see here for an example), law firms are starting to move away from billable hours to more client-friendly, lawyer-friendly forms of fees. She points out that clients "reacting to spiraling legal costs, have begun insisting on flat-fee deals...
Bye, bye, lessons that we can learn from Enron
Posted on January 23, 2008What with the Stoneridge case and the denial of certiorari in the Enron shareholder lawsuit, it's pretty clear that Enron--along with any lesson that we hoped to draw from it--is drawing to a sad, useless close. The more things change, etc., etc. See, e...
It's all about the incentives....
Posted on January 22, 2008Jared Sandberg's WSJ column today, Why Learn and Grow on the Job? It's Easier to Feign Infallibility, reminds me how important the right incentives are in business. Bad behavior unpunished is no different, really, from bad behavior rewarded. Enron wasn't that long ago, you know, and with the ink from the USSC's Stoneridge decision still wet, we're going to see continued bad behavior...
For all of my friends who know my political leanings, guess what? John Yoo is right about the lawsuit against him.
Posted on January 22, 2008See his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, here. For those of you who don't subscribe to the WSJ, here's an excerpt:In a case about warrantless national security wiretaps ordered by Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, the court declared that executive branch officials should benefit from qualified immunity...
Legal Ethics Nightmare Comes True--Sort Of
Posted on January 22, 2008I'm assuming that other folks saw this article in the Saturday New York Times: Lawyer Reveals Secret, Toppling Death Sentence. It's about a lawyer who knew about alleged prosecutorial misconduct but kept it confidential until he was advised that he could speak up about it at last...
The headline meme....
Posted on January 08, 2008Jim Chen has tagged me, over at Jurisdynamics, to do my own version of the following four headlines:Headline I most fear seeing in 2008: 2008 Exactly the Same as 2007; No Changes Predicted for 2009, EitherHeadline I most want to see in 2008: Public Realizes Education Can Be Useful; Funding IncreasesHeadline I most expect to see in 2008: Corporations Decide Pillaging Can Be Expensed; Congress AgreesHeadline I least expect to see in 2008: Congress Swears Off Legislating Before Investigating Root Causes of Corporate ScandalsNow I tag Jack Ayer and John Steinberg...
Nice one, Cameron!
Posted on January 01, 2008For those of you who missed Cameron Stracher's op-ed on the rankings, see here. For those of you who don't subscribe to the WSJ, here's an excerpt:Of course there are other things that matter to law-school graduates -- like getting a job. Although the U...
A couple of op-eds that resonated....
Posted on January 01, 2008As we start out in 2008 (and here's wishing everyone a good 2008), I wanted to note a couple of op-eds that resonated with me: one from the New York Times on December 26, suggesting that creative mortgages aren't such a bad idea, as long as those lenders who are offering them can explain them clearly to the borrowers (Michael S...
Thanks for the plug, Paul!
Posted on December 10, 2007A hat tip to Paul Caron for mentioning this book on MoneyLaw and TaxProf Blog: Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment. Thanks, Paul!
Ann Bartow: tag, you're it!
Posted on November 29, 2007Jim Chen, the stalwart dean of the U of Louisville School of Law, has started a bad movie meme over at Jurisdynamics, and he's tagged me first. Nice try, Jim, nominating Caligula. I think, however, we can reach lower: I nominate a bad movie from an actress whose work I normally like...
A nice way to put things in perspective this week.
Posted on November 19, 2007Hat tip to our friend Scott Unger for sending it along--thanks, Scott!
Latest lawyer joke--except that it's not one.
Posted on November 10, 2007In yesterday's Wall Street Journal: "Except in One Career, Our Brains Seem Built for Optimism."The only career where optimism wasn't, well, optimal? Law.
Anthony Ciolli gets dismissed from lawsuit
Posted on November 10, 2007To see how disgusting some of the comments posted on AutoAdmit were, see here. The people who posted such things demonstrated their immaturity (at best) and their own venal natures (at worst). Nothing I've ever said condones the material that these people posted...
Happy birthday, Marines!
Posted on November 10, 2007I know some honorable people, although there are few enough truly honorable people that I can count the ones I know on two hands. But I know of one honorable group for sure:Follow this link (here) for more. Happy birthday, Marines!
And now, for something completely different [in the law school publications wars]
Posted on November 07, 2007I enjoyed Brian Leiter's comments about SUNY-Buffalo's latest publication (here). Having recycled my share of "law porn" this year, I'm actually looking forward to reading Buffalo's publication.BTW, for those of you who said that I seemed a tad bitter about UH's 2004-2007 faculty publications PR piece, fair 'nuff...
A history lesson: "law porn," Trotsky, and ... Rapoport?
Posted on October 30, 2007Hmmm.... Let's see:1. We know that, during the USNWR rankings season, law schools send out ludicrous amounts of PR material with an eye toward influencing the voting of four (yes, 4) people at each law school on the "academic reputation" survey. That material often goes by the catchall phrase "law porn...
Today, we saw a miracle....
Posted on October 23, 2007Yesterday and today, Jeff & I were the guests of Johnson Space Center for the launch of STS-120, better known as Discovery, which will be taking Node 2 (Harmony) up to the International Space Station. Today, we watched the spectacular launch from the bleachers at Banana River, roughly 3...
Guilty pleasures, ballroom dancing, and academic support
Posted on October 19, 2007How can I not love this post? See here.
A shout-out to Paul Caron
Posted on October 19, 2007Two of my guilty pleasures, Paul, are (1) reading blogs (including Tax Prof) and (2) my own obsessive hobby (see here). For other folks' guilty pleasures, see here and here.
What I would have posted on Brian Leiter's blog....
Posted on October 19, 2007Brian thought that my comment on his post (here's his post) was off-topic. It's Brian's blog, so it's totally his call on what to post. But because I liked my own comment enough to save a copy, here it is:Brian, I agree w/you about Northwestern and its stellar performance in the social sciences...
Breathing a sigh of relief....
Posted on October 16, 2007See here. I owe a debt of gratitude first, to my beloved, who saw me through the exam and gave me more support than anyone ever has a right to expect; then to Bar/BRI and to Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, which got me through the substantive and testing theory parts of the bar...
Does anyone happen to have a contact telephone number for Dell Computer's legal department?
Posted on October 15, 2007Dell managed to ship my new laptop somewhere into the ether, and I've been trying to get a replacement computer shipped to me in an expedited manner. I have now spent over 90 minutes today trying to get someone with authority to ship my computer to the address that I had specified (our home address), rather than the mythical one to which Dell apparently shipped the first order...
A new market--USNWR reputation votes
Posted on October 09, 2007Doug Berman posts an intriguing hypothetical over at the Law School Innovation Blog (here). He asks whether he should sell his USNWR vote on IP specialties (not his primary field) to the highest bidder. What makes Doug's post so lovely is how clearly he identifies USNWR's methodological missteps: one of the key players in criminal law & criminal justice gets a ballot to rank the top 15 intellectual property programs in the country...
JURIST -- Forum column today
Posted on October 08, 2007Here's a link to the JURIST Forum piece I wrote over the weekend (here).
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