Greedy Links: Professional Responsibility Edition

This week, a few notable instances of lawyers and law students forgetting the rules. Also, rankings time once again (this time for firms, not schools), the new job you really want, more anxiety for students, and Gordon Gekko returns!

Ethics Refresher Section

• Above the Law jumped all over a law student in New York who sought to make a little money handing out legal advice. ATL later reported that its readers had e-mailed the student en masse and enlightened him (no doubt with their typical sensitivity) about the unauthorized practice of law, spurring a rapid change of heart.
• The D.C. Madam's lawyer earned himself a suspension in Florida. This week the D.C. Circuit noticed and suspended him there for three years. (Legal Times)
• The '80s corporate-raider classic Wall Street is getting a sequel, says Law Shucks. And whether you learn it from the return of Gordon Gekko or this former Thacher associate, consider yourself officially reminded: insider trading is a felony. (Corporate Legal Times)
  
• So many ethics rules to remember. But does this one need saying? Apparently it does. You can't accept sex in lieu of fees.(AP via WSJ law blog)

The State of the Profession

• For those who found poring over and debating the U.S. News law school rankings frivolous and juvenile, we present the grown-up version: The Am Law 100 2009 was released this week.
• Litination reports on the critical condition of the billable hour.

The Career Advice Never Really Changes

• Still in associate-land? Keep your head down and don't ask for anything, says the National Law Journal.
• Done with law, or want to be? Move to Sonoma and get $10,000 a month to eat, drink, blog, and tweet about wine for the Murphy-Goode Winery. You know, if you can convince them that your lawyering skills are in any way relevant.

Students: Please Continue To Panic

• You Know It's Bad When: even the alternative press has begun wondering where all the new law grads will go.  (Boston Phoenix)
  
• Many Forbes readers are presumably BigLaw clients, so they will undoubtedly treat the demise of the cushy 2L summer gig as a feel-good kind of story.
• Pre-Ls: why? Why are you applying to law school in such numbers?  Do you not read ATL? (ABA Journal)