See the links below for more details. Also note this, from Marc Randazza of the Legal Satyricon:

For anyone who is curious, I have personally spoken to the University of Texas adjunct who happens to bear the [same name as the formerly anonymous defendant known as :D].

He IS NOT the person in question. I would appreciate it if any readers would keep that in mind, and educate anyone who might hold this mistaken belief. I can confirm with 100% certainty that the [individual identified as :D] in the complaint is not an attorney and is not a law professor.

It has been a while since our last posting about the AutoAdmit lawsuit, so feel free to discuss the latest developments in the comments. If you're not familiar with the case, peruse the postings collected here.

Another Amended Complaint in the Auto Admit Case [Legal Satyricon]
Yale Students' Lawsuit Unmasks Anonymous Trolls, Opens Pandora's Box [Wired]
Yale Students Name Austinite Who Allegedly Defamed Them [keyetv.com]
Lawyers for 2 Female Students at Yale Law School Learn Identities of Anonymous Online Attackers [Chronicle of Higher Education]

To everyone who is done with the bar exam: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Go get yourself a well-deserved drink -- or two, or three.

That's what we're going to do, and we didn't even take the bar. We're heading off now for drinks with some friends who just took -- and, hopefully, passed -- the bar.

Here's an open thread to look back upon the bar exam experience. In the comments, feel free to share funny anecdotes, horror stories, and other personal perspectives on the test.

You should probably avoid mentioning the substance of specific questions and answers from the MBE, which could get you in hot water. See here (via a commenter).

P.S. Speaking of anonymous posters on the internet getting unmasked through legal process, here's an update on the AutoAdmit lawsuit.

EarthLink Subpoenaed for Customer Records When Anonymous Web Posting Reveals Bar Questions [Fulton County Daily Report]
Yale Students' Lawsuit Unmasks Anonymous Trolls, Opens Pandora's Box [Wired]

Based on all the non-sequiturs appended to Non-Sequiturs, some of you clearly want to talk about the latest filings in the AutoAdmit case. So here's an open thread for you to go wild (but not too wild).

Most people who follow the case are already up on the recent developments. But if you need background, see The Legal Satyricon. Professor Marc Randazza writes: "Excuse me while I greedily devour this slice of humble pie.... If you want to see the dumbest thing ever done in litigation, feast your eyes on this letter [PDF] that AK47 sent to the Plaintiffs' attorneys. What a nimrod."

AK47 Pwned [The Legal Satyricon]

Earlier: Pro Se Litigant of the Day: 'AK47' of AutoAdmit

Speaking of Penn Law School... Penn grad Anthony Ciolli, the former AutoAdmit.com executive, has gone from being a defendant to a plaintiff. He's filed a civil action in Pennsylvania state court against the two Yale Law School "Jane Does" from the AutoAdmit case, their lawyers, and various other parties.

We just got our hands on his Complaint, filed earlier today in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. We're still reviewing it, but we didn't want to delay in breaking the news and sharing the pleading with you. You can access the Complaint by clicking here (PDF).

Update (2:30 PM): You've done our job for us. There are lots of interesting observations, on both sides of the debate, in the comments. The WSJ Law Blog has also put up a post, which you can access over here.

To give you the flavor of it, here's the caption and first page:

Ciolli v. Iravani [PDF]
Ciolli Sues Yale Law Students in AutoAdmit Scandal [WSJ Law Blog]

There's a new development in the well-publicized AutoAdmit lawsuit. The defendant known as "AK47" has filed a pseudonymous, pro se motion to quash the plaintiffs' subpeona. The memorandum in support of the motion appears here (PDF)

Over at the WSJ Law Blog, reporter Amir Efrati -- who first broke the news of this case's filing, and has done a great job covering it -- describes the motion as "well-composed.... which leads us to suspect that 'he' is an aspiring lawyer." He also notes that AK47 "shows he’s done some research, citing a host of Internet law precedents he says bolster his arguments."

But over at the Legal Satyricon, Professor Marc Randazza is less impressed: "My prediction — had Mr. AK47 written his motion a little more skillfully, he might have had a great chance. Unfortunately for him, the motion is so poorly drafted that it will take some charity on the Court’s part for it to fly."

We're not surprised that Professor Randazza applies a demanding standard. After all, he practices First Amendment law. He previously (and successfully) represented AutoAdmit exec Anthony Ciolli, who was dropped from the lawsuit back in November.

Feel free to share your thoughts on any of this in the comments.

AutoAdmit Case - Motion to Quash by “AK47″ [The Legal Satyricon / Marc Randazza]
AutoAdmit Suit Update: Defendant “AK47″ Responds [WSJ Law Blog]

There's news to report in the lawsuit filed by two female Yale Law School students over various allegedly defamatory and threatening comments posted about them on AutoAdmit.com. The amended complaint, which was delayed in arriving, has finally been filed. You can check it out here.

For some thoughts on the amended complaint by Professor Dave Hoffman, who has established himself as the expert on all things AutoAdmit-related, see here. As Hoffman notes, the most significant change is the dropping of Anthony Ciolli as a defendant.

In response to this news, Ciolli issued this statement:

I am pleased to see that the Plaintiffs have voluntarily dismissed me from this suit. Including me in the suit in the first place was legally unsupportable. I never posted a single defamatory or invasive statement. I told the plaintiffs that from the start, and I provided them with a sworn declaration to that effect.

Had I remained as a defendant, the only theory could have been rooted in a desire to overturn Section 230. As I was merely an employee of AutoAdmit, leaving me in the suit would have been akin to suing a Google employee for anything found on a web page hosted by that company - even if Google was not responsible for the content. The weakness of that theory was apparent to me from the beginning, as were the ramifications of its unlikely success — an explosion of liability for every internet service provider in America.

You can read the whole thing over at Professor Marc Randazza's blog, The Legal Satyricon. Congratulations to Ciolli and to Professor Randazza, who was representing him, on the good news.

Former Penn Law Student Dropped from Autoadmit Lawsuit [Concurring Opinions]
Anthony Ciolli Dropped from Auto Admit Lawsuit [The Legal Satyricon]
Doe v. pauliewalnuts et al. [Amended Complaint (PDF)]

Earlier: What the Heck Is Going on with Doe v. Ciolli?
Has AutoAdmit Been Pwn3d?

Remember the lawsuit filed by two female Yale Law School students over various allegedly defamatory and threatening comments posted about them on AutoAdmit.com? The plaintiffs are in the process of amending their complaint, and they've sought extra time in which to do so. From a tipster:

[T]he third motion for an extension of time was requested October 4, and it asked for 30 days. I can't imagine them going to a fourth motion, so the deadline should be fast approaching around this weekend.

That said... it appears from the first couple of motions they didn't have any real leads and were still investigating, and now they may have a real lead.

Doe 1 et al v. Ciolli et al [Justia]

Earlier: Has AutoAdmit Been Pwn3d?

The blogosphere is ablaze with discussion of the AutoAdmit lawsuit. We collect and summarize the commentary in this linkwrap.

(We read all the blogs, so you don't have to! You can thank us later.)

1. Students File Suit Against Ex-AutoAdmit Director, Others [WSJ Law Blog]

If you haven't done so already, read this post first. It contains the most detailed factual background about the case. You can also access the Complaint itself by clicking here (PDF).

2. Yale law students sue over "the scummiest kind of sexually offensive tripe" at AutoAdmit [Althouse]

Professor Ann Althouse has her doubts about this lawsuit:

So this is the 21st century? Where courts award punitive damages for offensive words and pictures? Isn't "the scummiest kind of sexually offensive tripe" exactly what we always used to say people had to put up with in a free country? Man, that was so 20th century!

3. Suing Autodmit [Instapundit]

Professor Glenn Reynolds -- who kindly links to our post, by the way -- largely agrees with Professor Althouse. He sarcastically observes: "Stuff that offends dumb hicks in the heartland is constitutionally protected. Stuff that offends Yale Law Students must be stamped out!"

More links, after the jump.

Anthony Ciolli, the former Chief Education Director of the AutoAdmit.com website, and various posters on that message board have been sued. A civil action has been filed against them in federal district court in Connecticut.

The claims made against defendants are as follows: copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501; appropriation of another’s name or likeness; unreasonable publicity given to another’s life; publicity that places another in a false light before the public; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligent infliction of emotional distress; and defamation.

For more details, check out this thread at AutoAdmit.com. There was some debate over at AutoAdmit concerning the authenticity of the posting. But we emailed David Rosen, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case, and he confirmed:

We did post something giving notice of a lawsuit. I'm not available for comment for the moment. You can check with Dorothy McLaughlin at Keker & Van Nest -- they are lead counsel.

We have contacted Dorothy McLaughlin Sachs and will let you know when we hear back from her.

Our speculation is that the "Doe I" and "Doe II" plaintiffs are two of the individuals interviewed in this Washington Post article about AutoAdmit. The individual attacked on AutoAdmit.com who figures most prominently in the Post article is a female Yale Law School student. Plaintiffs' counsel, David Rosen, is an alumnus of Yale Law School who also teaches at YLS.

This is a developing story. We'll bring you more information as soon as we have it. If someone might be able to send us a copy of the summons and complaint, we'd be most grateful. Thanks.

Update: The WSJ Law Blog has a detailed post, including lots of additional information, over here.

For those of you who are curious, the full text of the AutoAdmit.com posting appears after the jump.

(Gavel bang: commenters.)

Notice of lawsuit pending vs. certain AutoAdmit posters [AutoAdmit.com / Xoxohth]
Students File Suit Against AutoAdmit Director, Others [WSJ Law Blog]
Harsh Words Die Hard on the Web [Washington Post]
David N. Rosen bio [Yale Law School]
David Rosen & Associates [Best Lawyers in America]

Some very interesting news, reported by Amir Efrati over at the WSJ Law Blog:

The Law Blog has learned that law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its job offer to Anthony Ciolli, the 3L at Penn Law who resigned as “Chief Education Director” of AutoAdmit last month. H[e] resigned in the wake of a WaPo exposé on how the site in part served as a platform for attacks and defamatory remarks about female law students, among others (see our earlier post here).

Charles DeWitt (pictured, left), a managing partner at Edwards Angell’s Boston office, where Ciolli was slated to be a litigation associate, told the Law Blog: “He worked for us last summer. He’s not going to work for us in the fall.”

Ciolli took time from working on final exams to talk to the Law Blog. “Three years of legal education has been wasted because of an unmoderated message board,” he said, adding, “The timing is absolutely horrible.” The 23-year-old, who contributes to First Movers, a blog written by law students and graduates, added that “I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”

You can read the whole post, which recounts the fascinating correspondence between DeWitt and Ciolli (pictured at right), over here.

Commentary from Professor Dave Hoffman, who has written extensively about AutoAdmit / Xoxohth in the past, appears at Concurring Opinions.

What do we think? Eh, we generally steer clear of this subject. What do YOU think?

(In this poll, which we admit is vaguely worded, you can substitute "fair" or "appropriate" in the place of "justified," if you wish. We're just trying to get a general sense of how many of you agree, and how many of you disagree, with what Edwards Angell did.)

Law Firm Rescinds Offer to Ex-AutoAdmit Executive [WSJ Law Blog]
Latest Xoxohth Fallout [Concurring Opinions]

This was forwarded to us by a tipster:

April 25, 2007

To: Boalt Community

From: Dean Christopher Edley, Jr.

It has been a week since the distressing events involving a Boalt student’s threat —a hoax — against the community at Hastings College of the Law. I am writing to let you know that all our actions following the incident have been taken with the intention of securing the safety and well-being of our community and that at Hastings, while respecting the procedural rights of the student.

On Wednesday, April 25, 2007, the Law School filed a complaint with the U.C. Berkeley Judicial Affairs Office against the law student who claimed responsibility for posting the threat on a website. We, the administrative leadership of Boalt, believe that the student’s action is clearly in violation of a number of regulations detailed in the Student Code of Conduct. The case will be adjudicated by Judicial Affairs according to campus regulations. Those regulations prohibit us from disclosing the name of the student against whom we are proceeding.

Based on the facts as we understand them today, we have recommended expulsion. This is based not only on the intrinsic wrongfulness of the act itself, but also the disruption, turmoil and emotional toll on the Hastings community and, to a more limited extent, the Boalt community as well. I have received ample evidence of this through a great many emails, some of them painful to read.

This incident has once again confirmed for me the strength and qualities of the Boalt community. Even in this challenging circumstance, you have engaged in thoughtful and productive discussions. We should all take some pride in this, imperfect though we are.

Christopher Edley, Jr.
Professor of Law and Dean

Does the punishment fit the crime here? Judging by some of the comments to this thread, some readers think expulsion would be an overreaction. Pre-Virginia Tech, what kind of behavior would get you expelled from law school?

A Boalt law student could be facing criminal charges after allegedly posting online threats toward Hastings:

UC Hastings officials were alerted on Wednesday afternoon of a blog post threatening a copycat murder-suicide in reference to the events at Virginia Polytechnic Institute Monday, said UC Hastings spokesperson Lorri Ungaretti.

"The threat did not specifically reference it, but it felt clear that that was what it was," she said.

UC Hastings officials contacted the San Francisco Police Department as well as the San Francisco branch of the FBI, and cancelled classes for the rest of the day, Ungaretti said.

"The FBI investigated and found it was a student at Boalt and that it was a hoax," she said. "Classes resumed as usual (on Thursday)."

Read the text of the threat, after the jump.

Actually, make that the "Very Bad Ideas" file.

Our personal preference is to ignore such people and things (which is what we've been doing until now). But several of you have emailed us about this incident, which has been covered in the MSM; so interest in it is obviously high.

Here's what one source had to say:

As you may know, Hastings College of Law was evacuated [on Wednesday] as a result of an asinine post on autoadmit threatening Virginia Tech like violence, which, it turns out, was posted by a Boalt 1L. It turned out to be a tasteless joke, but the problems it has created seem to be never ending, including an ID checkpoint in front of the campus, the cancellation of numerous events including a journal symposium, and now, unacceptably, our bi-monthly ration of free beer and the Law Revue that was to follow it.

So read the links collected below, and discuss in the comments if you're so inclined. Thanks.

Autoadmit (aka the Ciolli/Cohen Discussion Board) "Strikes Again" [Brian Leiter's Law School Reports]
Lockdown: Virginia Tech Copycat Threat Causes Hastings Evacuation [Hastings News]
Hastings Scare: Threat on Web Shuts Law College [San Francisco Chronicle]
Copycat Threat Shuts Hastings Law School [San Francisco Chronicle]
Threats Taken Seriously at SF Law College [Bay City News Service]