Friday, September 25, 2009 2:02 PM - By Elie Mystal
It’s too early to take nominations for this year’s law revue contest. But an early contender will surely be a video we received from students at Boston College Law School. It’s a spoof of BC law professor Scott Fitzgibbon’s anti-gay marriage commercial. Here’s the set-up, from the BC Student Bar Review (that’s a social organization, for 1Ls still wondering what happens outside of the library):
Dear all,
The next bar review will begin at 8pm this Thursday, October 1 at The Kells…. We can hear some of you already: “but guyssssss, The Kells is full of meatheads in Red Sox hats.” Well, we’ve got a news flash for you, Little Lord Fauntleroy: every bar in Boston is full of meatheads in Red Sox hats, and very few of them have dance floors as spirited or drinks as reasonably priced as The Kells. We find it to be a great place to blow off some steam, get weird on the dance floor, and accost your TA from LLRW and force him to do shots of Jameson with you.
However, as Dean Garvey reminded us in his memo, we must be respectful of those who disagree with us, no matter their beliefs. In the spirit of providing equal time, we have included a brief video message from the opposition:
The Kells is the kind of place that makes you want to bathe yourself in lye when you wake up the next morning afternoon. Here’s what the loyal opposition has to say:
After the jump, would the real Professor Fitzgibbon please stand up?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:44 PM - By David Lat
As previously mentioned in these pages, your above-signed scribe has been named a Legal Rebel — one of “50 leading innovators” in the legal profession, as selected by the ABA Journal.
The profile, written by Rachel Zahorsky, appears here. For more background on the Legal Rebels project, see our prior post, or the Legal Rebels website.
Through the Legal Rebels team, we were given the opportunity to meet and interview a longtime idol of ours: Steven Brill, founder of the American Lawyer and Court TV (and a fellow Yale Law School graduate). Brill’s latest project is Journalism Online, which “is pioneering the effort to make the transition to a paid online model successful for publishers and easy for readers.”
You can check out the video of our interview with Steve Brill here, or read about it at the ABA Journal.
P.S. Elsewhere in shameless plugs: if you’re in D.C. and don’t have anything more exciting to do tonight, head over to Georgetown Law for a discussion of new media and the law. The panel will feature yours truly, Tony Mauro from the National Law Journal, and Matt Welch from Reason Magazine. Eileen O’Connor, former reporter and bureau chief at CNN, will moderate.
Mainly we’re posting this because it’s a Friday afternoon and rainy (at least here in New York). We figure you need some entertainment to launch you into the weekend.
But there is a legal angle to this music video. It might have spawned intellectual property litigation, if Disney — and Miley Cyrus — didn’t have such a good sense of humor. Enjoy!
(If you like, feel free to discuss “fair use” issues in the music video context in the comments.)
I don’t speak Russian, so I have no idea what this commercial is about.
But it seems like it should be about what associates should do when the “firing partner” is making the rounds:
If a Russian speaker wants to translate for us in the comments, that would be great. But I’ll definitely be implementing some of these design ideas in the ATL office. (Gavel Bang: Justin Bernold)
Many of you are probably asking yourselves that very question. Especially if you are deeply in debt and/or without legal employment.
We decided to go to law school because, well, we didn’t have anything better to do. Law school has been described, quite accurately, as “the great American default option.”
If you’re in the same boat, or if you went to law school for some other less-than-inspiring reason (e.g., a desire for a six-figure salary), you may have a hard time relating to the clip below. It’s a promo for the “My Inspiration” video contest sponsored by Access Group, the non-profit student loan company, asking contestants to make videos explaining what inspired them to go to law school:
As was the case with last year’s video contest, the prize is a $10,000 scholarship to law school for the maker of the best video. In addition, five $1,500 honorable mention scholarships will be awarded.
Alas, if you were hoping to enter the contest yourself, sorry; the ten finalists have been chosen. Feel free to check out the finalists here, then cast your vote here. Enjoy.
Happy Sunday. Thanks for visiting Above The Law this weekend.
We just wanted to remind you that voting in the (first) Annual Law Revue Video Contest ends tonight at the stroke of midnight. Or actually at 11:59 p.m. So if you haven’t yet watched the best in Law Revue humor and found what makes you laugh hardest, we advise you do so soon.
To see Northeastern’s gunner Lion, UVA’s adderal-fueled serenade and Backstreet Boys take on constitutional law, NYU’s Barbri Girl and South Park-inspired Arthur Miller animation, and Boston University’s version of My New Haircut, check out our post on The Finalists.
As of 7:54 a.m. on Sunday morning, BU’s Outline and UVA’s Hot Bodies are leading in the polls. BU has the tiniest of leads:
The stars that appear in the winning video will receive fame & glory (of course), as well as ATL t-shirts, ATL gavel-shaped stress balls, and a round of drinks with the ATL editorial team (but the Law Revue stars have to come to New York to claim the drinks prize).
It’s the moment (some of) you have been waiting for. We’re ready to announce the six finalists in ATL’s First Ever Law Revue Video Contest.
We received many (many, many) submissions. We ordered sushi delivered to our SoHo office and pulled Biglaw hours to watch them all. As you may imagine, after many (many, many) hours of videos, our eyes were starting to glaze over, our ears were beginning to bleed, and our appreciation for the delicate intersection of legalese and funnies was beginning to fade.
But these six videos managed to shine through all that and make us laugh. Earlier this week, we gave you the (Dis)Honorable Mentions. (Excuse our harsh judging of those — we enjoyed channeling the acerbity of ATL commenters.) Now, we give you the finalists, hailing from NYU (2), UVA (2), Boston University, and Northeastern School of Law. We dare you to try to watch them without wetting your pants with laughter. Or at least emitting a little chuckle.
We’re also asking you to choose your favorite. Find the videos after the jump, and take our reader poll to help crown the first winner of the ATL’s Inaugural Law Revue Contest. Polls close Sunday at midnight.
Despite the depressed mood here at the NALP conference in Washington, some folks are still up for fun. We’re about to head off to karaoke night, sponsored by Major, Lindsey & Africa, which we’ve heard is not to be missed.
Last night, SJL Attorney Search hosted a swanky reception at the National Portrait Gallery. Attendees availed themselves of the open bar to dull the pain. At the emcee’s instigation, a dozen brave female volunteers took the stage to “do the twist”:
One spectator was unamused: “Fiddling while Rome burns.”
But hey, a little dancing can’t hurt. When the emcee exclaimed “Now turn it around! Turn it around!”, surely he was referring to the economy.
A few pictures — don’t get your hopes up, it’s not as extensive as this morning’s slideshow — after the jump.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 12:03 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Back in rosier economic times, we started a series of open threads on career alternatives for attorneys, i.e., things you can do with a law degree that don’t involve Biglaw or contract work. These days, we’re starting to think of the series as things you might do if you can’t find Biglaw or contract work.
The latest installment in the series is inspired by a profile in last weekend’s Washington Post Magazine of “Saphira,” a lawyer who traded in regulatory analysis for shimmying in sequins and spangly scarves.
Rachael Galoob-Ortega has been a “professional oriental dance artist,” a.k.a. bellydancer, since 1996. She used to just moonlight as a bellydancer while working full-time as a partner at a small firm, The Salem Law Group. That led to at least one embarrassing incident, recounts the Washington Post. A potential career downside is having to perform for judges inside and outside of the courtroom:
After passing the bar on her first try, she started practicing at a Sarasota law firm representing building contractors. She also joined a belly-dance troupe that performed at high-end soirees. Her two worlds comically collided one night, after she’d spent part of the day discussing the motion docket with a county judge. At a party that evening, she was in the midst of a solo dance, dressed in full belly-dance garb and a long wig, when she shimmied up to a table and recognized the judge. “He said: ‘Oh my God. That’s Rachael Galoob — she was in my courtroom today!’ ” Saphira recalls. “And of course, the room erupted in laughter.”
She winked at the table and moved on.
We hope that after winking, Saphira told the judge, “These hips don’t lie.”
The Oklahoma City University Law grad also has an LLM from Georgetown. She gave up her full-time law job to open Saffron Dance studio in Arlington. The tipster who sent us this story says:
There are lots of belly-dancing lawyers. No fooling. We sometimes call ourselves founding members of Raqs Judicata (Raqs Sharki is the Arabic name for the dance). It’s a great exercise for people who have to sit in front of computers all day long drafting briefs and memos.
Indeed, Saphira has even recruited a Covington & Burling partner teach at her studio. More on that, as well as video of Saphira in action, after the jump.
(Warning: It’s not just shaking the belly. There’s also copious licking of lips and tossing of hair.)
It happens every year. After first semester some 1Ls belatedly realize they need to “step it up” for second semester. Law school isn’t like college: there’s a curve, there are jobs to be wrested from the clutching hands of fellow students, and just because a professor starts babbling about Floridian Burger Kings doesn’t mean you can zone out.
Some people look inward for strength and resolve. Some people blame others. Those outward looking folks are the ones liable to send out emails like this one, which popped up on the University of Chicago Law listserve yesterday:
A friendly warning to fellow 1L’s: if you intend to play video games in class — especially graphics-intensive video games — please remember to sit in the back row so the rest of us don’t have to watch. Super Penguin Mario or Donkey Kong Country may, from your perspective, be a good way to while away a long class; to those sitting behind you, it is a distraction we’d rather not have to deal with.
Sorry to be That Jerk; for what it’s worth I know I’m not alone in strongly preferring this.
Yours from behind an absolutely mirthless smile,
[Redacted]
[Ed. note: This is the farewell post of MARIN, who was recently eliminated from ATL Idol, the “reality blogging” competition that will determine ATL’s next editor. It is marked with Marin’s avatar (at right).]
Marinheads:
Bad news. Our plot to take over ATL and transform it into a site about celebrities and my Jewish dog has failed. Mission aborted. Repeat, mission aborted. Return to the mother ship.
- Original Marinhead, a/k/a Mongoloid Marin, d.b.a Clay Aiken
That’s the subject of this video contest, with a $10,000 scholarship for the winner.
Alas, it’s too late to enter for this year; the ten finalists have already been picked. From a tipster:
If you’re looking for something a little lighter, there’s a contest right now run by Access Group Inc. among law students for the best short YouTube movie about what they worry about in law school. The contest is here, and my friend’s video is one of the finalists.
I think his is easily the best, but some of the others are okay too. The winner is determined by popular vote, so if you guys linked to the movie, he (and I’m sure the other contestants) would appreciate it!
We’re happy to do so (especially since Monday mornings can be slow around here). Good luck to the ten finalists!
If so, then you might enjoy this short video, in which a Houston Chronicle reporter hangs out with a few folks who just took the test.
In response to the “what are you going to do now / I’m going to Disney World” question, interviewee Masoud Darvishi says he wants to “kiss…. girls.” One gets the sense, however, that that’s not all he’d like to do.
The first interviewee, Adam Curley, is super-cute. But why no women in the video?
In the months since then, we’ve heard all sorts of other rumors about Cadwalader. There have been whispers that the number of attorneys laid off last time may have been closer to 50 rather than 35. We’ve heard about possible staff layoffs. There has also been talk of quieter, smaller-scale reductions in attorney ranks at CWT — “strategic firings,” as one tipster put it. This source guessed that the firm has already shed around 100 attorneys since its peak.
But losing 100 lawyers, if true, may not have been enough. Word on the street is that Cadwalader is now bracing for another round of large-scale layoffs, which could be announced as early as today or tomorrow. In the words of one source, “Surprised you haven’t posted anything on Cadwalader. Major s**t going down…”
Here’s the most detailed account of several that we’ve received (after the jump):
The title of this post reflects the majority view of the BAR/BRI bar review course. We actually enjoyed studying for the bar. Our overall reaction: “Wow. We’re learning so much…. LAW!”
But most of you don’t seem to be fans of Bar/Bri. You find it rather unpleasant — or maybe weird. Here’s one email we received:
Longtime fan, first-time writer. I was wondering if you could do a discussion thread on the Barbri course we are taking?
Would especially like to start with a mention of the Property I lecture today by Seton Hall law professor Paula Franzese. While pretty excellent, it certainly had its totally surreal moments — especially her long divergence about a fundraiser involving N-Sync and her (then) five-year-old daughter.
Also, the singing. She sings a lot — it’s totally something to behold!
Indeed. We recall Professor Franzese’s property coverage as one of the highlights of bar review. She managed to make a potentially dry subject at least somewhat entertaining.
Here is the requested open thread. While we’re on the subject of BarBri blonde beauties with musical talents, here is “Bar/Bri Girl,” a music video parody set to the tune of “Barbie Girl.” It was our favorite number from this year’s NYU Law Review Revue, which we had the pleasure of attending this spring:
A teenage girl has filed a lawsuit against Harrison, N.Y. police officers for violating her civil rights. According to the complaint, the police came to arrest the girl’s boyfriend for marijuana possession. While conducting a search of the house, they got overly friendly with the girl during her patdown, seized her sex tape, and played with her anal beads.
The Smoking Gun has the filed complaint along with the story. We’ve added some line breaks for your reading pleasure:
The girl claims that police watched the video in her presence “while laughing,” and that they put a camcorder in her face and “mockingly” asked her questions about the explicit video as it played. She also alleges that a Harrison detective told her, “I should beat your ass for this. I hope your parents beat your ass.”
The teenager claims that the investigator also retrieved anal beads from a bedroom, put them in her face, and asked, “What do you do with these — put them in your mouth?”
The girl charges that cops subsequently played the video “sufficiently close to the cell in which the boyfriend was incarcerated so that he could hear the audio component of the video,” and that they laughed about the video and made “repeated references by name to his girlfriend as she was depicted on the video.”
She also contends that the Harrison officers “thereafter played the video for other members of the department to watch for their amusement, sexual gratification, and to further degrade Plaintiff.”
Yet another reason not to make a sex tape.
We might have left the little anecdote about the anal beads out of the complaint. That’s just plain embarrassing.
Last year, Viacom filed a $1 billion suit against Google-owned YouTube, asserting widespread copyright infringement. We predicted a smackdown, and that day has come.
Viacom filed an amended complaint [PDF] last month, saying it had found over 150,000 unauthorized clips of copyrighted material on YouTube. In its answer [PDF], Google says YouTube responds properly when made aware of copyrighted content, and said Viacom’s suit threatens our way of life… pretty much. From the Associated Press:
A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit challenging YouTube’s ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, YouTube owner Google Inc. said.
Google’s lawyers made the claim in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan as the company responded to Viacom Inc.’s latest lawsuit alleging that the Internet has led to “an explosion of copyright infringement” by YouTube and others.
The back-and-forth between the companies has intensified since Viacom brought its lawsuit last year, saying it was owed damages for the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, including such hits as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
It’s sad that MTV no longer has the spirit of rock-and-roll rebellion and has officially become The Man.
Judge Carlton Vines presides over traffic violations and DUIs in Chattooga County, Georgia. It’s a tiny county with a population of just over 25,000. The local newspaper, The Summerville News, has an ongoing investigative series examining the county’s drunk-driving phenomenon and growing number of DUI arrests.
Unfortunately, Judge Vines has become a part of the phenomenon. He was arrested in November of last year for driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident after swerving into another car. The coppers just released the dash-cam video from the arrest. The man was trashed, slurring, and stumbling… though still cogent enough to refuse the breathalyzer.
Vines pleaded guilty to DUI charges in April. He has since spent three nights in jail, paid fines, done community service and was on house arrest.
On the tape, Vines can be heard admitting he has had “over the limit.” At one point on the tape, an officer asks, “Do you remember the wreck you were involved in?” Vines can be heard responding, “I’m not going to admit or deny it but I will take responsibility.”
A nolo plea — or just good drunken logic? Vines is under voluntary suspension, and the Georgia State Judicial Commission gets to decide whether he returns to the bench.
Judge Vines makes some bizarre comment about sharecropping at the end of the YouTube video. Can someone from rural Georgia please explain?
Word about Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe’s rather odd commencement address at New York University is spreading rapidly throughout the blogosphere. It’s already been picked up by Gawker and Instapundit. Here’s an eyewitness account from an NYU alum:
Larry Tribe just gave a seriously weird commencement address at NYU — especially the end, where he turns an amalgam of cosmologist / 60s love child, and tells all the grads to thank their mom and dad for screwing instead of watching TV, and thereby conceiving them….
Not to be too tough on Tribe, but I think the basic theme of the speech was that he’s really, really smart and well read, and knows how to turn creative, even strange, phrases. (I thought we already knew that.)
How did Tribe get picked? Some speculation from our source:
I really think the only reason Tribe was honored, and got to speak, is that he was a key mentor to John Sexton, the president of NYU. Tribe probably recommended Sexton to be the NYU law dean, and then the NYU president, so this looks like payback.
Tribe has accomplished enough to have gotten the degree on his own merits, and I don’t begrudge him it, but I’m sure the audience would have loved to have his co-recipient, Michael J. Fox, speak instead of Tribe — Fox is vastly better known, and liked. On this point, see here.
Posted below is the “thank mom and dad for bonking” clip. A more detailed write-up from our tipster, after the jump.
It’s too early to take nominations for this year’s law revue contest. But an early contender will surely be a video we received from students at Boston College Law School. It’s a spoof of BC law professor Scott Fitzgibbon’s anti-gay marriage commercial. Here’s the set-up, from the BC Student Bar Review (that’s a social organization, for 1Ls still wondering what happens outside of the library): 
Continue reading "BC Law Prof. Fitzgibbon Speaks via Email; BC Law Students Spoof via YouTube"
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Through the Legal Rebels team, we were given the opportunity to meet and interview a longtime idol of ours: 
The title of this post reflects the majority view of the 
Word about Harvard law professor 
