Recently in Pop Culture Lawyers Category

Southwestern Law School of Los Angeles had its 1L orientation earlier this month, with students surprised to see a Hollywood star among them.  Actor Jerry O'Connell is enrolled as a part-time night student at the 1000-student, private, ABA-accredited law school in Southern California.

And that's not all on O'Connell's plate these days.  He and wife Rebecca Romjin recently welcomed twin daughters seven months ago and with Romjin back to work on her tv sitcom, Eastwick, Jerry will be balancing the roles of Mr. Mom and Sleepless 1L. 

It's not everyday that an attorney is called an unequivocal champion, delivers eight major wins over the course of a few years, nets nearly $3M in earnings---and struts on all fours.  Lawyer Ron was one special counselor and following the announcement of his passing last week after complications from colic surgery, we take a moment to salute him.  

You might see some old stories and recurring themes popping up in this week's links. What can we say? The great themes never change, and some discussions just have to keep on going and going...

Work Life: Everyone Is Still Unhappy

• Semantic Drift needs you to understand just how much effort is required for a 2L to land a summer gig this year.
• Above the Law expounds on Curtis Mallet's odd attempt at humor in explaining its business-casual dress code.
• The National Law Journal reports that would-be public interest lawyers are annoyed that so many deferred BigLaw associates, armed with firm-subsidized salaries, are taking their jobs. Who saw that coming?
• Generational debates never get old, and they never change: the young people today are always ruining it. Defending People has the latest entry in a Boomer/Gen Y dispute that we originally linked to two weeks ago.

Law School: Everyone Still Cheats

• Want to go to a public law school in Illinois? Get yourself a connection, as at least one would-be UI student did, according to TaxProf Blog.

Where are all the lawyer shows these days?  Despite a blizzard of criminal-law-related programming on the broadcast networks, a definite shift toward shows about cops (and forensic investigators, and medical examiners, and special FBI units) has TV approaching a legal-drama dead zone.  The Practice and its spinoff Boston Legal have both left us.  A brief trend toward star-vehicle lawyer shows -- Shark with James Woods, Rob Lowe's The Lyon's Den, and Canterbury's Law with Julianna Margulies -- fizzled out.

That leaves precious little in the way of lawyer drama on the airwaves.  (We are of course ignoring the incredibly old Law & Order and its spawn, which have become repetitive and tiresome.)  But this week the broadcast networks have announced their planned schedules for fall, and two of them are going to test the legal waters once again.  CBS will give Margulies another shot at playing a criminal lawyer in The Good Wife, while ABC has the legal "dramedy" The Deep End on tap as a midseason replacement.  What are the prospects for these two newcomers?  Are they Greedy-worthy?  Let's take a look:

Do lawyers make particularly good reality-show contestants? (Corollary question: can you make a good reality show about lawyers? Answer: do you remember David E. Kelley's The Law Firm? Didn't think so.)

Perhaps the stereotypical lawyer skill set -- analysis, negotiation, perfectionism, competitiveness -- is the right recipe for game-show success. On the other hand, like other desk drones, lawyers aren't always models of physical strength and fitness. With that to think about, consider three recent examples:

Attorney siblings Victor and Tammy Jih recently won this season's (fourteenth!) installment of The Amazing Race on CBS. Victor Jih is a partner at O'Melveny & Myers, while Tammy Jih is a Quinn Emmanuel associate. The duo outlasted ten other teams to take the big prize. (Schadenfreude bonus for associates in BigLaw hell: check out this video clip of Victor, the BigLaw partner, fighting off tears after nearly costing the team the race in the third episode.)

This week in Greedy Links: you are legally in the clear to provide legal opinions to your clients, just maybe a hint of a recovery for the legal profession, and a couple of novel places to look for a new job.

This Week's Ethics Lesson:

• The Washington Post reports that Jay Bybee and John Yoo will not face criminal sanctions for their "torture memos," and that, given state bars' lack of subpoena power, they aren't likely to face professional sanctions either.  In other words, it is in fact ethical to perform legal research and then supply your client with confidential memoranda summarizing that research.  Everyone can go back to work now.

The State of the Profession:

• Good news first: according to the Am Law Daily, big corporations may be looking to loosen the purse strings a little and spend a bit more money on outside counsel.
• But the WSJ Law Blog still sees recovery delayed until 2010.

And everywhere you look, there's a story about the slow capitulation to the need to reduce BigLaw salaries.

• The WSJ Law Blog reminds us that they urged the salary-cutting weeks ago.
• The ABA Journal believes that firms are thisclose to a critical mass on slashing salaries.
• The National Law Journal has a choice quote or two from associates who can see the writing on the wall.

Let's wind down the week in Greedy-land with some links.  Career advice, Skadden keeps finding its way into the news, law professors in the spotlight (OK, on cable), and law student news everywhere you look, just ahead.

Varied and probably useless career advice:

• The Volokh Conspiracy says get into bankruptcy practice like yesterday.  Fees spiral ever-upward.
• PhilaLawyer explains on Bitter Lawyer why personal injury is your salvation.
• Litigators need to have fun too: The Namby Pamby reminds you to get all literary and really explore the subtext when you're drafting that reply brief.

Skadden tries out its new and highly public HR strategy:

• As previously noted here on GA and elsewhere, Skadden offers sabbaticals to its associates, reminding New York Times readers that lawyers make a lot more than they do.
• MSNBC reports that for Skadden staff attorneys, on the other hand, even being in a plane crash only delays the inevitable.