The Shark

'douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails' bring shame to house that records built?

[julie anne]

The legal folks over at Guinness World Records recently received a FAIL Blog-style welcome to the Interwebz -- complete with an old school Rick Roll -- when they sent a strongly-worded letter to the FAIL blog folks demanding the removal of a screengrab critiquing a portion of the Guinness World Records Web site.

According to the email sent by Guinness World Records, its logo is trademarked, and the FAIL Blog must remove all trademarked material or else face the wrath of the Guinness legal department.

The FAIL Blog's response? Why, simply blurring out the logo, of course!

Here's a bit of their response to the email:

"Dear Sir/Madam, Thanks for writing us an email regarding the “Record Breaking Fail”. Unfortunately, douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house. I am also resisting the urge to write this email in ALL CAPS.

I believe it is the duty of FAIL Blog(TM) to call out organizations when they encourage the public to do such things as 'Break the record' for the 'Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act'. We firmly believe that our publication of your fail is protected under the concepts of fair use, commentary and non-trademark use. Please RTFM and we welcome you to teh interwebs.

Since we at FAIL Blog(TM) don’t have a legal defense department, we have complied with your request to remove the trademarked term and logo from the original image. We have used the “naughty bits filter” on the image to secure your naughty, naughty, trademark assertions. However, we have posted your email so that our audience can see why we had to remove the name of the failer from the image. I hope that this is the outcome you have expected as now NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED HAS FAILED."

Read FAIL Blog for the original email from Guinness World Records.

some law students say sotomayor ready to step into the big leagues.

[julie anne]

Even before Sonia Sotomayor stepped up to the plate for the beginning of the confirmation hearings yesterday, she had already hit the ball out of the park for some law students. And when it was her turn at bat during opening remarks, she even brought tears to the eyes of some.

News organizations interviewed students in Kentucky, Texas and Arkansas law schools to get their perspective on the "wise Latina" candidate, and most of the students interviewed thought Sotomayor was ready to step into the Big Leagues.

Unlike in the confirmation hearings so far, baseball analogies were strikingly absent from the student comments.

Here's a sampling of what students had to say:

• "The possibility of a Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court is a 'proud moment for Latinos' and proves that 'anything is possible.'" Mark Flores, a Mexican American who grew up in Texas who is heading into his third year as a law student at the University of Kentucky (Hispanic law students react to Sotomayor)
• "The fact that she grew up in a housing project in New York, that's not something that most justices on the supreme court have in their background. ... This is important to let people know that anybody can serve."Aimie Lockwood, a first-year student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. (UALR law students react to Sotomayor nomination)
• “On a scale from 1 to 10 I would say she scored a nine. She seemed very calm, and she had a great delivery. She's going to make a great Supreme Court justice.” Mike Zhang, Columbia University law student. (First day of hearings emotional for S.A. group)

morgan lewis, hogan & hartson: asking you to the deferral dance.

[cynthia]

Hot on the heels of Ropes & Gray and Cravath, two more biglaw firms have announced that they're going to rock the worlds of law students and young associates. In a bad way. ATL has broken the news that both Morgan Lewis and Hogan & Hartson are deferring current summer associates' offers by a year. 

The former is also cutting its summer 2010 program, eliminating lockstep (for 2010), and canceling appearances at OCI this fall. Whew. According to ATL "the firm plans to pass on some of these savings to its clients." Yeah, yeah.

In an internal memo, Hogan & Hartson honchos explain the firm's deferral of current summers:

"The specifics of the deferral program have not yet been decided -- only that the start date will be in 2011, not 2010.. The summers learned this news this morning; we hope you will make yourselves available to them to discuss the issue if, or when, they come to you for advice about their deferral year."

By "specifics," I'm assuming that they haven't yet decided if they're going to give you guys any money.

We'll have more on this news as the story progresses throughout the day. In the meantime, check out our brand new table of doom.

2010 table of doom: start date deferrals, summer program cancelations, other perks of biglaw.

[cynthia]

We'll update this table as more information comes in, according to the same procedure as our 2009 table. So please be sure to email us when you or your roommate gets deferred.

Firm	2010 Start Dates	2010 Summer Programs	More Info
Ballard Spahr		Canceled	Above the Law
Cravath	Mandatory deferment to fall 2011; $65,000 plus health care and $1,000 in loan assistance		Above the Law
DLA Piper	Mandatory deferment to January 2011; optional deferment to January 2012, $60,000 stipend	OCI pushed back to spring 2010	Above the Law
Eckert Seamans		Canceled	Above the Law
Hogan & Hartson	D.C. and Northern Virginia offices deferring to 2011, other U.S. offices considering deferments as well; no stipend announced		The Shark
Howard Rice		Canceled	Above the Law
Loeb & Loeb		Canceled, indefinitely	Above the Law
McCarter & English		Canceled	Above the Law
McGuire Woods		"Likely to reduce number of summer programs"	Above the Law
Milbank		Canceled in Los Angeles	Above the Law
Morgan Lewis	Deferment to 2011; no stipend announced	Canceled	The Shark
Orrick	Deferment to 2012	OCI pushed back to spring 2010	The Shark
Paul Hastings	75% offers to current summer class; most offers will be defferred until January, 2011		Above the Law
Pillsbury Winthrop		Summer programs canceled in California; reduced in East Coast cities	Above the Law
Proskauer Rose	Deferment to fall 2011; no stipend announced		Above the Law
Ropes & Gray	Deferment to at least January 2011, with possibility of deferment even longer; no stipend announced		The Shark
Seyfarth Shaw		Canceled	Above the Law
Squire Sanders		Canceled	Above the Law
Thompson Hine		Canceled	Above the Law
Weil Gotshal	Optional deferment to January 2012; public service stipend of $75k and benefits		AmLaw Daily
White & Case	Deferment to fall 2011		Above the Law

what's your human capital?

[julie anne]

What if your LSAT score, undergraduate grades, college and major - besides determining what schools you get into - also influence whether private loan companies give you money for law school?

While it's not at the stage to be used for law school loans just yet, People Capital's ultimate goal is to do just that for undergraduate students using its Human Capital Calculator.

You plug in your high school, high school grades, undergraduate school, undergraduate grades, major and whether you plan to go to graduate school into a calculator, and it spits out your projected earnings potential over the 10 years after graduation.

The calculator is still in beta, but the company's goal is to ultimately provide a tool that lenders can use to determine the credit risk of applicants.

According to the math of the calculator, if you went to a froufrou prep school, aced your AP classes, attended an Ivy League for undergrad and plan on going to law school, chances are you'll be raking in the cash after graduation, will be able to pay back whatever is loaned, and will consequently be a better candidate for a big loan.

If you went to public school all your life, went to a state school for college, plan on working right after graduation and don't have any plans to sell your soul in the future, you may not be so lucky.

Here's the reasoning of the company in its own words:

"When you apply for a private student loan, lenders want to assess the risk they would take by making the loan to you, so they can know what amount they should lend and at what interest rates. Lenders use a set of standardized and verifiable attributes as a means of differentiating among student borrowers.

The most common form of credit score is the 'FICO score'. FICO scores are based upon such attributes as the number of credit cards you have, outstanding balances, payment history and bankruptcy. Based on this form of methodology, students (or young adults in general) will fare poorly, as they do not have a long (or even medium) positive history of payments. As a result, they will generally receive low FICO scores and, thus, will look like very risky propositions. This is where the Human Capital Score comes in.

The starting premise for the Human Capital Score is that there is a way to assess the relative riskiness of students by looking in part at a different set of standardized and verifiable attributes. These attributes help predict their future income, and hence their ability to pay back loans. These relevant attributes are items such as school, major, GPA, and standardized test score. The Human Capital Score uses these as inputs to create a score."

Check it out here.

ATL jacking photos from minnesota law student?

[cynthia]

Jansen Dennis, a 2L at University of Minnesota, must've felt pretty thumbs up when he stumbled upon a photo he took posted on Above the Law. He might've felt less thumbs up when he realized they didn't credit him. 

Hopefully, the oversight will be rectified soon. Keep it classy, ATL.

orrick defers current summers, pushes back OCI.

[cynthia]

As if the firm got together and read the AmLaw Daily item on the subject, Orrick has announced that they will move OCI to late fall/early spring next year. Additionally, they have announced that they will defer current summers' offers to 2012. For those of you keeping track at home, that'd be firm #3. Really, I will start a chart here in a sec.

You can read the full memo at Above the Law or after the jump. Shark contributor Petra has more on this story at Cal Law (free reg. req.).

1,000+ law profs vote yes on sotomayor.

[julie anne]

Turns out that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - or "So So" as some talking heads have dubbed her - is better than just so so, at least in the eyes of some legal scholars.

Today, more than 1,000 legal brains from law schools across the country sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing their support for the confirmation of Judge Sotomayor to the highest court in the land, according to the SCOTUS Blog.

In the letter, Sotomayor is lauded for her work as a federal judge and certain soft factors she brings to the table, which are best summed up by UC Irvine School of Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky in an opinion published in the LA Times in May:

"Sotomayor has a life story unlike anyone who ever has sat on the Supreme Court. She will be a wonderful role model for girls, Latinos, those with lifelong serious illnesses and children being raised by families of modest means. She will bring all of this to the bench, and the Supreme Court will be much better off for it."

Other law deans and professors agreed. Here's a bit from the letter, which was signed by - in addition to Chemerinsky - professors and deans at the University of Berkeley School of Law, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School, among others.

"As a federal judge at both the trial and appellate levels, Judge Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a brilliant, careful, fair-minded jurist whose rulings exhibit unfailing adherence to the rule of law. Her opinions reflect careful attention to the facts of each case and a reading of the law that demonstrates fidelity to the text of statutes and the Constitution. She pays close attention to precedent and has proper respect for the role of courts and the other branches of government in our society.  She has not been reluctant to protect core constitutional values and has shown a commitment to providing equal justice for all who come before her.  

... Judge Sotomayor will bring to the Supreme Court an extraordinary personal story, academic
qualifications, remarkable professional accomplishments and much needed ethnic and gender diversity. We are confident that Judge Sotomayor’s intelligence, her character forged by her extraordinary background and experience, and her profound respect for the law and the craft of judging make her an exceptionally well-qualified nominee to the Supreme Court and we urge her speedy confirmation."

Read the letter in full at the SCOTUS Blog.

share your inspiration and get $10,000 for law school.

[julie anne]

Looking for other ways to fund your law school education, but can't make it on the Gameshow Network anytime soon?

Why not take a video camera, your sense of humor (or, if you're already a law student, what's left of it) and your story of what inspired you to go to law school and film a video for Access Group's "My Inspiration" contest.

If you win the competition, you get $10,000 to pay for law school expenses.

Here's a bit more about the competition from the press release:

"Access Group, a nonprofit graduate loan specialist, is asking law students throughout the country to think about what motivated them to pursue a legal career and create a short video showing the world the source of their enthusiasm. ... Submissions can include inspirational moments ranging from arguments won on the school playground or high school debate team to dealing with environmental challenges and more.

... Entrants can submit their videos through July 15, 2009. Then, a panel of judges will review the submissions and select ten finalists from all eligible entries received. The finalists' videos will be posted on YouTube and voted on by friends, family and the general public. The $10,000 scholarship for law school will be awarded to the entry receiving the most votes; voting begins on YouTube on August 3, 2009 with the scholarship winner announced by September 1, 2009. Up to five additional honorable mention scholarships of $1,500 each may also be awarded by a panel of judges.

The contest is open to U.S. residents 18 years of age or older who are law students (enrolled or matriculated as of August 1, 2009) and candidates for law degrees (JD or LLM) at American Bar Association provisionally approved and fully approved law schools in the United States (including the 50 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico)."

As of today, only six videos were posted to Access Group's YouTube page, so you may have a good shot.

You can find complete contest rules, an entry form and additional information are available online at Access Group.

army reserve major sworn in to michigan bar from baghdad's green zone.

[julie anne]

Hey, law students and recent grads. Think you've got it tough? Try being a husband, a father of three, a major in the Army Reserve getting ready to be deployed to Iraq, and a recent law school graduate getting ready to take the Michigan bar exam, which you almost miss because of said impending deployment.

Try being recent Thomas M. Cooley graduate Miles Gengler.

In true Army fashion, Gengler continued rolling along despite fighting a multi-front battle, and passed the two-day exam. Trouble is, he couldn't be sworn in to the state bar in a traditional ceremony.

That's because when he learned he was a eligible to practice law in May, Gengler was 6,000 miles away in Baghdad's Green Zone.

But with a little help from technology and Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, Gengler was sworn in via video, according to Associated Press reporter David Eggert.

Kelly and National Guard officials told Eggert they were unaware of such a video swearing-in happening before anywhere else in the United States.

Read the rest of the article here.