Above the Law - Thinking Like a Lawyer

Starting to notice a pattern? The January 6 Committee is very interested in speaking with Ginni Thomas following revelations that she had a correspondence with John Eastman about election shenanigans. But more interesting is the revelation that Eastman was telling his buddies that he had inside information about closed door Supreme Court meetings casting an even brighter spotlight on Thomas. It's...

Also, people don't want to go back to the office. At all. The latest edition of the ATL Top 50 Law Schools ranking is out and provides some interesting insights into legal education. As the ATL system privileges "outputs" by focusing on job placement and costs rather than incoming student GPAs and LSAT scores, the ranking gives prospective students a look at the best bang for their tuition buck an...

The bar exam is a daunting obstacle, but it doesn't have to be. Joe and Elie chat with Rich Douglas, COO of Themis, about the bar exam and how to conquer it. Rich also tells us about the Themis Law School Essentials program of free review materials for law school courses and we discuss the impact the GRE is going to have on law school admissions.

"PODigal"... get it? Whatever. The original Thinking Like A Lawyer hosting team is back for a limited engagement! With the team depleted by holiday vacations, Joe is joined by Elie Mystal of The Nation to talk about the Supreme Court, touching on everything from Shinn -- deciding that "actual innocence isn't enough" when it comes to getting people off death row -- to the coming Bruen opinion that...

Yale. Again. Everything keeps coming back to New Haven. Conservatives are doxxing law students for saying they might not party with FedSoc anymore. Professors are whitewashing Alito opinions. Alums are attacking the press. Why can't this school chill out a little? Also a Biglaw firm needs some lessons in collegiality and Elon Musk is trying to make his own law firm.

Does the new Texas social media law banning platforms from moderating content really require you to listen to this episode? Well, it's on Twitter so now you're compelled! Frustratingly, this reasoning is just as stupid as the Fifth Circuit's crayon-scratched opinion rubber stamping the statute. It's an opinion so bad that Justice Alito immediately swooped in to get the appeal rolling. Meanwhile, w...

A leaked draft opinion informed the world that the far-right wing of the Supreme Court has broken from Chief Justice Roberts and intends to overrule Roe v. Wade outright based on... "we've got five votes now, so suck it." The gang discusses the opinion, the demise of stare decisis, the obsession with the leaker, and a law professor's problematic response to it all. Joe didn't even use the sound bo...

If you're tuning in today to hear our thoughts on the leaked Dobbs opinion and what that means for the future of both reproductive rights and the entire superstructure of the 14th Amendment going forward... well, you'll have to wait a week. Putting together a quality show takes time and that means we recorded this before that revelation. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot to cover! We have a...

That was an exhausting week for legal happenings! Marjorie Taylor Greene flummoxed a poor judge during a hearing into her ability to satisfy the 14th Amendment's proscription against seditionists in office. Justice Kagan had just about enough of Neil Gorsuch and let us all know. Alex Jones took his defamation woes to Bankruptcy Court -- after transferring millions among different legal entities, o...

Penn Law's Amy Wax is back at it, appearing on Tucker Carlson to talk about the problem with Black people and Asians. We cover Wax's shenanigans and the impact they have on the law school's credibility a lot, but it does make us wonder where we draw the line between informing the public and just feeding a troll. We also talk about Kim Kardashian's ongoing quest to become a lawyer reaching a new hi...

There's not an explicit rule of professional responsibility for this, but the general commandment to serve the public ought to stretch far enough to keep the Court from running a propaganda arm. Amy Coney Barrett blasted a sound byte reassuring the public that the Court isn't a corrupt, partisan institution because it issues "opinions," knowing full well that she was about to obliterate half a cen...

US News and World Report released its annual law school rankings last week and delivered chaos upon the legal world, dropping Harvard from its top three perch. As we break down some key insights from the rankings, we remind everyone not to get too hung up on these numbers. Speaking of numbers that lawyers should get hung up on, it looks like a lawyer screw up cost a bank around $600M so that's not...

Free speech is rarely pretty. But there was no shortage of hand-wringing last week over Yale Law students who -- checks notes -- protested an event and then left promptly when asked by faculty. If that doesn't sound bad, but that's because you're not vested in the ongoing effort to redefine free speech as protecting the people with microphones and punishing dissent. We also talk about a wildly ina...

Before its fight with AT&T is over, One America News will owe Vedder Price a good deal in billables. But is it worth it for Vedder Price? The gang discusses the pros and cons of taking on civil work -- especially questionably winnable work -- for unpopular clients when other clients are begging for a squeaky clean counsel reputation. Meanwhile, law enforcement routinely pushes probable cause to th...

Joe and Chris discuss the latest nonsensical efforts to derail Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination and ask the audience to guess which baseless attack comes next. They also breakdown the happenings between ABA TECHSHOW and Legalweek 2022, which marked Chris's first foray into the wild world of legal technology. And Joe has a nasty non-COVID cold that he caught at these shows so don't let that throw...

Cravath proved they’re still the Biglaw compensation leader by coming over the top of Davis Polk’s raises. Now the question is — who will follow them? Which lawyers are still working for Russia? A British politician goes ahead and NAMES NAMES. The dog whistles are getting LOUD: it sure is interesting that the only Supreme Court nominee that is fielding questions about her LSAT score is a Black wom...

As it happens, all three of your hosts competed on high school or college debate teams. So did Ketanji Brown Jackson. This is why you should just turn over your whole governance to the people making jokes about "uniqueness." We also talk about law firms disentangling themselves from Russia and the retrograde nonsense of the Virginia Bar Exam. Special thanks to our sponsor, Posh Virtual Receptionis...

After weeks of waiting, Davis Polk enters the salary increase game and re-raises, offering higher numbers for mid-level and senior associates. Is this the new normal, or could the market sustain one more shock to the system? Meanwhile, "Hobbit Law" aficionado Paul Davis gave Business Insider an interview that reads suspiciously like a rehabilitation attempt from a thoroughly embarrassed lawyer. Fi...

The Supreme Court returned to the shadowy depths to issue a 5-4 ruling allowing a racial gerrymander to continue through the next election. The Chief Justice dissented, lamenting the idea that a shadow docket ruling could effectively rubberstamp a "freebie" violation of the Voting Rights Act. You know... we used to have a mechanism to prevent this sort of thing, JOHN. We also discuss the latest Ge...

Taking its lead from Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court shenanigans, a Fifth Circuit panel told attorneys to go maskless. In Louisiana. The state that just edged past New York in COVID deaths per million. Though at least some of its judges care enough about freedom to respect the judgment of counsel. Joe Rogan is still, unfortunately, in the news and he's basically the poster child for how little people...

Stephen Breyer plans to step down at the end of the Term. But we didn't get much time to celebrate his legacy before the national conversation shifted to denigrating his hypothetical replacement. Georgetown Law found itself thrust into the center of the story when its newest hire branded Breyer's not-yet-chosen successor as a "lesser Black [woman]." Speaking of law schools dealing with racism, Pen...

Just when you thought law firm salaries had settled into a nice equilibrium, Milbank announced another round of base salary hikes and the whole cycle began again. But with some notable hold-outs, the industry is left wondering if this is the last word on the matter or if another raise is on the horizon. We also talk about Elon Musk's effort to get a law firm to fire an attorney for being mean to h...

Elie Mystal rejoins the Thinking Like A Lawyer crew to reflect on how Neil Gorsuch chose stupid over wrong and the bizarre fixation his acolytes have on doubling down in his defense. Justice Gorsuch asked the government why COVID amounted to an emergency when the flu kills a comparable number of people. The thing is, it doesn't. But rather than be wrong, Gorsuch contends he said something else......

Yale Law School's Jed Rubenfeld isn't letting his suspension following a sexual harassment investigation slow down his quest for the spotlight. And while media outlets don't need to invite the scrutiny by inviting a suspended professor to talk about run-of-the-mill legal takes, the Wall Street Journal is ready to roll out the red carpet for anyone willing to provide spicy "vaccines are socialism"...

The Chief Justice released his year-end report on the federal judiciary and informed us that everything is fine and there's nothing to see there. While multiple issues threaten the legitimacy of the courts, Roberts assured the country that he's got some webinars that can solve everything from sexual harassment to market manipulation. Alan Dershowitz also closed off 2021 with not one, but two embar...