Above the Law - Thinking Like a Lawyer

You'd think after a year of this, people would be better at it. Special thanks to our sponsors, LexisNexis® InterAction®, Lexicon and Nota.

At a certain point, you have to wonder why he's willing to keep charging up this hill. Special thanks to our sponsors, LexisNexis® InterAction®, Lexicon and Nota.

Obviously, we're not advocating for spoliation of evidence or obstruction of justice, but... shouldn't Rudy Giuliani of all people known not to keep evidence of crimes around? He used to run the DOJ office that's investigating his buddies! Meanwhile, the California bar exam gets caught breaking its own rules and the Pennsylvania bar president gets caught trying to protect himself from extortion. Special thanks to our sponsors, LexisNexis® InterAction®, Lexicon and Nota.

And if you do, can we interest you in this souvenir hat? Special thanks to our sponsors, LexisNexis® InterAction®, Lexicon and Nota.

It probably depends on who we're talking about. Special thanks to our sponsors, LexisNexis® InterAction®, Lexicon and Nota.

Yale Law School seems to have a recurring issue.

US News drops Georgetown from top tier.

Keeping up with the competition matters.

The party continues.

The former federal judge resigned in disgrace... but he's still a media darling.

Each half of the former firm has a new phone number.

Seriously, we told you people you can't do that.

200th Episode Spectacular!!!

We're not live but also not cats.

Everything wrapped into one.

Adventures in impeachment linguistics!

When will all of this election fallout finally end?

The second impeachment of Trump's tenure raises easily answered questions.

Too bad it was such a slow news week...

The firm says Cleta Mitchell went rogue, but that's only the start of their issues.

Things have to get better from here, right?

You can have a second act, but you don't get a consequence-free mulligan.

It's made-for-cable holiday movie season, so we tackle the burning question.

Also, what to get for the lawyer that has no time for anything.

Biglaw, law school, and firing squads all in one show.

As it turns out, there are a lot of better ideas out there.

Could this be the beginning of a mass exodus?

Sometimes, you just need to protect your IP better.

Someone screwed up bigly.

Time flies when you're surveying the apocalypse.

Joe chats with Clio CEO Jack Newton in the midst of his virtual conference.

Courts, law firms, and bar exams, oh my!

Obviously Trump's biggest mistake with ACB involved causing a White House superspreader event, but we didn't know that when we recorded this week's show. So we spend some time talking about his other mistake -- nominating ACB before the election and giving "never Trumpers" everything they want and leaving them with zero incentive to reelect him. We also discuss the wave of Fall bonuses among Biglaw firms and more importantly, the firms that aren't joining the party and what it means for the legal landscape

A conversation with Neal Katyal about the late justice.

What was a nice trickle has turned into a tsunami. Law firms are falling over themselves to hand out big time bonuses to associates to show the world how they've weathered COVID. And yet some firms are being forced to admit that they aren't able to keep up with the Biglaw Joneses. Speaking of Joneses, we also check in on a Jones Day associate likely bound for the federal bench despite all normal rules of the profession.

Professor Rick Hasen of UCI Law and the Election Law Blog joins us to talk all things election. Following up on his new book Election Meltdown we cover dangerous media expectations, vote-by-mail rules, how ballots are processed, the "Blue Shift" and the impact COVID is having on an already strained election system.

One of America's most venerable legal institutions has fallen into rank buffoonery and it's genuinely tragic to watch. From Bill Barr declaring racism over -- except on college campuses -- to a stumbling effort to get Michael Flynn out of his own sworn testimony, Joe is joined by ATL and Wonkette columnist Liz Dye to discuss what's gone wrong over there. And we check in on Kyle Rittenhouse's legal team who've made some... let's just say "interesting" strategic decisions.

If you watched the Republican National Convention, you heard a lot of coverage about the Hatch Act and the constant stream of violations occurring on live television. But does anyone really care about this? Maybe more to the point, is the law so over broad that it's blunted its own impact? We also check in on Yale Law School where a prominent professor is suspended for two years after an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations.

Examinees across the pond give us a preview of the October exam process by urinating in bottles as proctors refuse to allow bathroom breaks. In case you were wondering if the bar exam fiasco could get any worse, there's your answer. Meanwhile Kirkland & Ellis faces a new discrimination suit, and we chat about the Supreme Court and the election a little bit.

As law schools return, one student gets a stern warning about a COVID kegger, law firms get a new ranking, and an unqualified judge issues the sort of baseless decision that landed him on the bench in the first place. A rundown of the week that was in legal news.

America's bar examination authorities have turned to threatening Character & Fitness repercussions for their critics marking a new, darker phase of the bar exam drama. How in the world did it come to this? Also, we talk about Kanye's double agent attorney and PACER gets a slap from the federal courts.

It may be too early to declare the legal profession back to normal, but we've now seen some major law firms reverse course on cost cutting and even announce some bonuses. Meanwhile, it took all of a couple hours for the in-person bar exam experiment to net its first positive COVID test.

Multiple states are going forward with the test this week. Good luck to everyone.

This week, Joe chats with Dr. Pilar Escontrias, Donna Saadati-Soto, Efrain Hudnell, and Emily Croucher, co-founders of United for Diploma Privilege. Follow them @DiplomaPriv4All.

The Supreme Court year is finally over.

It was an eventful week in legal news, but the biggest story was definitely the St. Louis personal injury attorneys who pulled guns on protesters and why lawyers have special obligations to maintain professionalism at all times. All that and more of the major stories of the week.

A new account compiles the acts of racism that compound at Harvard Law School, but they could emanate from almost any law school. We take a look at this account and the response of law schools around the country to recent events, including one law school that's taking an aggressive anti-racism stance. Also, we discuss Neomi Rao's Michael Flynn opinion which left a lot to be desired as a work of professional legal writing.

A decidedly conservative Supreme Court made discrimination against the LGBTQ community illegal and then turned around and wiped out the Trump Administration's effort to cancel DACA. What was in the water last week? Joe and Kathryn break down why the opinions weren't nearly as revolutionary as the results they brought might make them seem.

With an independent report by a federal judge branding the Department of Justice "corrupt" this seems like a good time to revisit exactly how we got here. Your elderly aunt on Facebook has a lot to say about Michael Flynn and most of it is wrong. Joe and Kathryn unpack the case and also discuss the case of a lawyer who egged a judge's car.

As law firms struggle to demonstrate to clients and their own attorneys that they take societal ills seriously, Kathryn's starting to notice some patterns in the statements getting released. Meanwhile, Joe is covering the state bar exams, where many are continuing to insist on shoving hundreds of people into small rooms in July and making applicants sign away their rights for the privilege of exposing themselves to disease.