Category: News Feeds

Rarely do you see a piece of legislation that does all the things. But a bill proposed by South Carolina State Senator Mia McLeaod is such a law. SB 928 looks at the pro-life movement, last seen righteously treating women as little more than incubators with mouthparts, and challenges them to put some money behind their repeated attempts to burden women with unwanted pregnancies.

Imani Gandy on Rewire has the details:

The bill, SB 928, demands that anti-choice lawmakers in South Carolina who have proposed banning abortion at six weeks into pregnancy put their money where their mouth is: If lawmakers are going to force people to carry their pregnancies to term, and if they are going to deem the development of an unborn embryo as more important than the life and rights of pregnant people, then South Carolina should compensate them for acting as a gestational surrogate for the state of South Carolina.

The law points out that given the surrogacy market, a pregnant person’s uterus is not unlike a rental property: People who commission surrogates pay that surrogate to carry a fetus to term and to give birth to a child. So why should South Carolina be permitted to force its citizens to act as surrogates for the state without compensating them?

I LOVE the legal argument here: IF Republicans are determined to treat a live woman like she’s merely a halfway house for Jesus, THEN we should pay the damn rent. We have a well established legal and market structure around surrogacy, and applying those rules to a situation where the state is forcing a woman to carry a baby against her will seems like the perfectly “market-based solution” to the economic problem of literal forced labor, while we still debate the moral problem of the pro-life position.

Of course, since this bill is proposed by a Democrat, it does not stop — as Republicans often do — with being “pro-life” right up until the point that the baby is alive.

If the pregnant person becomes disabled as the result of carrying the fetus to term, then the state must cover all medical expenses associated with the disability. Similarly, if the child is born with a congenital abnormality or disability, the state must cover all medical expenses associated with that disability for the rest of the child’s life.

Also, South Carolina would be required to cover all costs associated with health, dental, and vision insurance until the child turns 18. And if the biological father of the child is unknown or unable to provide support, then the state must provide child support in the biological father’s stead.

I don’t believe that the state should force a woman to carry a baby against her will. But if it does, the state has to pay for it. It has to pay for ALL of it. This bill is the most intellectually consistent “pro-life” proposal I’ve ever seen.

I’m sure that this bill will pass the South Carolina legislature with near unanimous support… unless of course it turns out that the people pushing anti-abortion laws are drooling hypocrites who don’t give one damn about the life and health of the baby, but instead only care about sexual domination of women and the denial of equal human rights. This bill right here is the ultimate hypocrisy check on the entire pro-life movement.

Groundbreaking South Carolina Bill: Compensate People for Forcing Them to Give Birth [Rewire]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Two years ago, JPMorgan Chase’s money-laundering operations received the most fulsome compliment imaginable, a slap on the wrist from the Swiss authorities. Now, however, that proud and august banking legacy has been reined in.

The Federal Reserve on Thursday lifted consent orders against JPMorgan Chase & Co. and U.S Bancorp stemming from what the central bank identified as weak anti-money laundering controls…. JPMorgan had a similar order in place with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. That order was lifted in May.

Federal Reserve Lifts Consent Orders Against JPMorgan, U.S. Bancorp [WSJ]

Milbank set off the bonus season a little early this year and firms have taken their sweet time in matching. But now that we’re less than two weeks from Christmas, firms are finally comfortable letting the bonuses fly and they are flying today.

Morgan Lewis joins the ranks of the Biglaw bonus crowd with a full Milbank match for all U.S. associates in good standing and sitting at over 1900 hours (billable plus pro bono). Well, maybe not a full match because the Morgan Lewis fiscal year starts on October 1, meaning there are no pro-rated bonuses for the folks that just showed up. So that means we’re looking at something like this:

Class of 2018 – $15,000
Class of 2017 – $25,000
Class of 2016 – $50,000
Class of 2015 – $65,000
Class of 2014 – $80,000
Class of 2013 – $90,000
Class of 2012 – $100,000
Class of 2011 – $100,000

Bonuses will be paid on January 31. All associates have to do is correctly spell “Bockius” without looking.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

It’s sometimes hard to remember that Paul Cravath and George B. Case and Leo Gottlieb were all real people. Their names have hung on the doors of their respective firms for so long that they seem almost mythic. But every one of those lawyers faced a moment where they had to plan for their firm to go on after they finally hung up their practice.

Boies Schiller and Flexner isn’t as old as those firms, having only been founded in 1997, but the firm finds itself at the crossroads that those other firms did in more sepia-toned eras planning the transition of the firm from one helmed by the names on the door. It’s a process that has already shifted a lot of the day-to-day management to a committee, but just yesterday the firm took another big step on this journey by announcing that the firm will vote to name two new managing partners, suggesting the firm has keyed in on the pair that will take on full firm leadership when Boies and Schiller decide to retire.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Boies Schiller this week named for the first time managing partners who don’t have their names on the door. The two new leaders, New York-based Nicholas Gravante Jr. and London-based Natasha Harrison, have been tapped to guide the firm into its second generation.

When asked about the announcement, Boies explained, “I think where we are with two new managing partners who have the support of the entire firm, and who are both able to drive the firm’s commercial success and committed to the firm’s culture, validates the way we have approached the transition.”

Gravante told the Journal that his priority will be reorienting partner compensation to encourage more hustling for new business. It’s a natural shift now that the firm is less dependent on servicing cases brought in by the named partners and more dependent on the next generation.

Not that either Boies or Schiller seem in a hurry to leave the practice. The Wall Street Journal coverage hinted that some might chafe against a transition process with no clear endpoint:

The slow-moving transition, spearheaded by Messrs. Boies and Schiller, has frustrated some partners internally, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Um… this seems like the sort of thing you don’t want to rush. For his part, Boies said “because we started early, we have had the luxury of moving slowly and getting it right.” That sounds like the right idea, especially with a firm going through its first major transition. The third or fourth generation can afford to swing seamlessly to a new regime, but the first move requires some real care.

But with a new regime coming into place, the firm is prepared for the day that will probably come sometime in the next decade.

David Boies’s Law Firm Names Likely Successors [Wall Street Journal]

Earlier: David Boies Dishes On Firm’s Transition Strategy

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

I find it noteworthy that a swath of people I consider, for the most part, to be highly intelligent need be reminded of something as elementary as the importance of balance in one’s life. But sure enough, my colleagues and I apparently need self-help gurus to let us know that we need to unplug from our devices in order to be our best professionally and personally. This is likely because one of the most important attributes to success in our field is a strong work ethic.

While our profession may not be one suited for some of the more experimental concepts in work-life balance, it still could heed lessons from other fields: less but better is a description of billable hours that would be universally embraced by our clients. “Sure, that sounds great,” you may be saying, “but it’s easier said than done.”

These may well be redundant suggestions, but a gentle reminder never hurts, especially when you’re juggling more cases than you have appendages: be sure to get outside for at least part of the day whenever possible, even if it’s just a ten-minute walk around the block to stretch your legs, unplug from your devices at the end of the day to decompress and make some time for yourself, and perhaps consider getting a pair of blue light glasses to reduce the strain on your eyes for those days spent extensively researching and drafting on screens.

I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Mordecai “Mordie” Rochlin, but I would love to know his secrets to longevity. I note that he does wear glasses, and they very likely could be blue light glasses. I would also note that even Mr. Rochlin’s retirement was an act of balance, deciding that he would spend four days a week at his weekend house and spend the other three days practicing law.

I myself am often guilty of lacking balance from time-to-time either having lunch delivered to squeak a few more minutes into my day, working through weekends, and keeping up hours some weeks to keep pace with juggernauts. But as a partner at my firm recently told me over coffee, “I don’t think anyone saw Monet painting on a Sunday and said, “why are you painting on a Sunday?”

The partner, who had invited me out just to touch base generally as he’s known to do, went on to reference the Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers: The Story of Success, a book which I am thankfully familiar with. He reminded me of the chapter on The Beatles in which Gladwell says:

The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, five or more hours a night. Their second trip they played 92 times. Their third trip they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated 1,200 times, which is extraordinary. Most bands today don’t perform 1,200 times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is what set the Beatles apart.

While unplugging, decompressing, and carving time out for one’s self are all important, they are only important to the extent that they make us better individuals and professionals. They are all great supplements to compliment the underlying reality of our profession: that hard work wins the day and hard work takes time.

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Timothy M. Lupinek is an attorney at Balestriere Fariello who represents companies and individuals in state, appellate, and administrative courts of Maryland. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation with thousands of hours of civil, criminal, and regulatory trial experience. You can reach Timothy at timothy.m.lupinek @balestrierefariello.com.

One of the most difficult things about the explosion of legal technology is that it is a full-time job just to know what’s out there and how to find solutions that work for you and your firm or legal department. Although there are many solutions for document review, conducting thorough vendor evaluations continues to be a challenge.

What if there were something out there to help you navigate the ever-expanding field of eDiscovery vendors? Everlaw is proud to present the 2019 eDiscovery Buyer Guide, a blueprint that will help guide you through the sometimes complicated process.

Click here to download the white paper to learn the most thorough approach to ensuring that an eDiscovery solution will meet the overall needs of your organization.

You know what associates like? Money. You know what else they like? When the powers that be at a Biglaw firm actually notice and appreciate all of the hard work they’re putting in. That’s why we are seeing a new trend emerge in year end bonuses, where firms give extra money — on top of the market scale bonuses — for big billers.

Today Winston & Strawn announced year end bonuses matching the market scale set last month by Milbank, and detailed below. But what is extra exciting is that associates who “substantially exceed” the firm’s 2,000 hour productivity benchmark will get extra money in recognition of all the hours they logged this year.

The bonus scale at Winston is:

Class of 2019 – $15,000 (pro-rated)
Class of 2018 – $15,000
Class of 2017 – $25,000
Class of 2016 – $50,000
Class of 2015 – $65,000
Class of 2014 – $80,000
Class of 2013 – $90,000
Class of 2012 – $100,000
Class of 2011+ – case by case

Read the full memo on the next page.

Remember — we can’t do this without you, dear readers! We depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for all salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for your help!

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Lateral Link is pleased to recognize two of our Principals on their 10-year anniversary with the company. We appreciate you both, Gloria Cannon and Scott Hodes, for making Lateral Link a better place over the past decade.

“Not only have you both played a big role in our continued success, you both have also served as invaluable resources for our clients and candidates. You both have led our collective efforts and overseen our team in making thousands of successful placements. Please join me in recognizing both Gloria and Scott.  And here is to another 10 years together,” said Mike Allen, CEO and founder of Lateral Link.

“Ten years ago, after several years of law practice, I made the exciting career change to legal recruiting and was fortunate enough to join a team that is the best in the business. I have learned a tremendous amount during that time from some of the smartest people I know, and I haven’t looked back. Most importantly, I have done my part in satisfying our clients’ needs, while at the same time making our candidates’ lives better. I consider myself blessed to have spent the last ten years with Lateral Link.”

“After recruiting for several years for another national search firm, I remember first meeting Lateral Link’s founder, while we were both participating on a panel for LAALRA. I was initially hesitant about joining Lateral Link since so many other search firms have come and gone over the years.  Luckily, I found myself eventually joining Lateral Link, and I have never regretted that decision. In looking back over my past ten years at Lateral Link, I am extremely proud to be part of this amazing company. Every day I am impressed with the high caliber and professional quality of the work that Lateral Link handles. I work with an amazing group of individuals who take great pride in what they do, and I believe it shows in the deals and placements that Lateral Link handles. I truly believe that Lateral Link is the best recruiting firm in the business, and I feel very fortunate to be part of the Lateral Link team!”

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.

To do a thorough job with grading takes time. Professors who see all exams as formative assessment will include a lot of comments, which take time to write. Conscientious professors also want to make sure they are grading everyone consistently. This is especially challenging in a big class of over 100 students. So, faculty will often go back and re-grade exams that they did first, to make sure that the grading is fair.

— Allie Robbins, assistant dean for academic affairs at the City University of New York School of Law, told Law.com some of the details as to why grading law school exams takes so long. She also went on to note the impact this can have on students who are stuck waiting on exam grades, “I do think it is a big stressor for students not to have their grades for so long, particularly after the first semester, since everything in the beginning of law school is so new and overwhelming.”

You may have noticed something of a steady stream of posts from us on the topic of a “Taco Tuesday” trademark held by the chain Taco John’s. Taco John’s has used this descriptive trademark to bully all kinds of other restaurants into not advertising their own taco Tuesday offerings, while also leaving alone the vast majority of small purveyors of tacos on Tuesdays. The ubiquity of Taco Tuesdays is mostly what has everyone confused as to why Taco John’s is acting like Taco Jerks: the term is descriptive and, even if it weren’t, fully generic at this point.

It was enough to, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, get LeBron James involved. You see, just like dragons, LeBron loves tacos. And he likes promoting his own consumption of tacos on Tuesdays and he very much thinks that everyone should be able to use the phrase as they please. To that end, LeBron took to the Trademark office pretending to want to trademark “Taco Tuesday” for himself when he was actually hoping to get denied due to the generic and descriptive nature of the mark… which is exactly what happened. We said then that it was now only a matter of time before someone decided to go on the offensive to take Taco Tuesday back by inviting Taco John’s to issue a threat so that this hero group could point to the Trademark Office’s denial of LeBron’s trademark, with the ultimate goal being invalidating the Taco John’s trademark.

Well, that has now happened. The Orange County Restaurant Association has gone all in, going so far as to by the tacotuesday.com domain.

Now joining the effort is California’s Orange County Restaurant Association, which recently bought the domain TacoTuesday.com. Why OCRA? Well, its members know a thing or two about a good taco—and the domain presents a great marketing opportunity for them, founder and president Pamela Waitt told the Orange County Business Journal.

“That’s part of our agenda here, is to really illuminate the Orange County restaurant industry, which can be challenging when you’re sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego,” Waitt said.

But she notes that there’s also a bigger goal at play: OCRA hopes to open the phrase up to everyone else, creating a resource for taco culture in general. In a news release, Waitt characterized the group’s role as “peacemaker.”

OCRA can characterize itself however they like, but this is pretty clearly a shot across the bow at Taco John’s, practically begging the chain to issue a threat or file suit. If that occurs, OCRA would likely seek declaratory judgement that its use does not infringe due to the generic nature of the trademark, which would get the ball rolling on invalidating the trademark.

The association plans to relaunch the website next spring with 500 listings of taco shops in five states, providing the listings for free to restaurants. OCRA says it will make the domain “an umbrella brand for taco events, social media activations, media tours, guest chef interviews, and an opportunity to foster strategic partnerships, corporate citizenship, philanthropic giving, and beyond.”

None of which really requires having a domain name of tacotuesday.com, except if the organization wants to promote itself through the news, poke Taco John’s in the eye, or both.

So maybe, just maybe, our long national taco nightmare will come to an end soon.

Restaurant Association Looks To Take Back Taco Tuesday For The People

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