Above the Law - Thinking Like a Lawyer

Sidley is offering associates firm branded AirPods and jackets as a token of appreciation after bringing lawyers back to the office. Putting aside whether or not that's a fair deal for associates, what exactly makes for a good branded gift? Not all swag is created equal. We also chat about a town in California that has declared itself an independent Constitutional Republic (that's not a thing), the moral authority of Big Bird, and Lin Wood's emails.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

The Supreme Court heard from the braintrust behind SB8 in Texas and unleashed some withering contempt for the novel effort to craft a statute that avoids over 100 years of precedent. Meanwhile, Trump's new social media endeavor runs afoul of copyright law and Biglaw is going big when it comes to paying for key talent... but will it translate to the rest of the associates?Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

Yale just can't keep out of the legal news. Over the last several months we've had high-profile fights with professors, a student club behaving badly, and now this. This time it's the school's commitment to outside counsel Day Pitney, a firm making quite a name for itself pulling discovery shenanigans in the Sandy Hook mass shooting trial. Meanwhile, we have new rankings out featuring the best law school deals and the coolest Biglaw firms. Finally, conservatives have a plan to fix the Supreme Court and it's... renaming the building.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

A lot of folks would plead the First Amendment last week, and it was all nonsense. Yale Law School's Federalist Society advertised an event by throwing a whole mess of racist stereotyping at the wall just to see what would stick and when other students asked how this fit within the private school's standards for student organizations... First Amendment! Conspiracy theorists are convinced that Merrick Garland is using the Justice Department to enrich himself by silencing parents just because they threatened school officials... First Amendment! And Virginia public school teachers want the right to refuse to use a student's personal pronouns... First Amendment! Nope. Nope to all of it.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

This week's top stories were all about the judges. Should judges be held to a higher standard when it comes to vaccines? Should they at least endeavor to hire clerks that don't have resumes drenched in red flags? How much should clerkships matter anyway? And we got judges making some tough talking threats. All that and a couple of sound effects -- what more could you ask for?Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

What's the next Supreme Court Term going to look like? Not great! We've got full-on assaults aimed at abortion, gun regulations, and affirmative action and that's just in the first handful of cases. Which you know if you've taken our Supreme Court quiz. Joe and Kathryn welcome ATL's newest editor Christopher Williams to break down these and other cases primed for this Term.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

Did you know you could sue for $100 million for breaching an NDA that says breaches cannot be monetized? Neither did we. But Donald Trump has found a new lawyer willing to help him file that claim. He's arguing that his niece stole the documents that suggested a history of tax fraud, thereby unintentionally confirming the documents which is... a choice. Meanwhile, the Biden administration proposes a massive increase in bank monitoring for tax purposes even though the numbers seem a bit screwy. Finally, there's a law firm facing some very salacious allegations.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

Joe and Kathryn break down the long-awaited John Durham indictment that tagged former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann and find it... less than persuasive. Emory Law School has yet another racial slur in class incident, forcing the gang to ask if there's something in the water down there. But given that the most recent incident involves the brother of another repeat offender on this score, maybe it's just a family thing. And finally, Above the Law looks back at the day that launched an internet trend and renamed a law school forever.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

We talk about misbehaving lawyers a lot, but there must be a full moon (per statute a moon "at least 95 percent wholly spherical when measured by appropriate telescopic instruments") or something for lawyers right now because they're wild this week! We've got Biglaw attorneys injecting food with blood, lawyers waving loaded guns around over COVID protocols, a deeply scandalous and tragic situation out of South Carolina, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett running her mouth off with the lack of self-awareness you'd expect from someone who spread a deadly infection to the White House.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

In light of the Supreme Court's abortion ruling, we talk about the nature of the mysterious shadow docket and how it's been transformed over the last few years. The dismantling of Roe is in full swing, reigniting Court expansion talk, which we think is a bad move. Joe and Kathryn also check in on the annual law school scholarly impact ratings to see which law school rules the Ivory Tower.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.