Posts on ‘September 9th, 2009’

Leaders of several Connecticut law firms agree that proving a firm’s commitment to diversity can be challenging when hiring is slow. But firms are still reaching out to connect with minority law students and potential lateral hires, and looking inward for ways to retain the minority professionals already on staff. “If diversity doesn’t go more broadly than simply hiring, then your firm hasn’t made a real commitment to diversity,” says Lee Hoffman, Pullman & Comley’s hiring partner and diversity committee member.

While the U.S. economy shed another 216,000 jobs in August, the legal sector lost only 100 jobs during the month, according to figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The numbers are seasonally adjusted. When not seasonally adjusted, the legal sector lost 11,000 jobs — presumably because of the flow of summer associates back to law schools. Most striking to the The Am Law Daily: the increasingly fuzzy numbers law firms have been offering when asked about job cuts.

From the day former Brocade Communications CEO Gregory Reyes faced backdating charges, the Justice Department and the SEC never seemed to see the case the same way. Prosecutors focused on Reyes, offering immunity to his finance officers, while the SEC saw broader culpability. Now those agencies will have to reconcile their approaches to the case, as Reyes’ lawyers hope a tough SEC settlement will help forestall another criminal trial.

A soon-to-be-published memoir by a friend of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist offers a revealing personal glimpse of the justice’s later years, including his handling of the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999 and the Bush v. Gore case of 2000. Herman Obermayer’s book also offers the first public account of Rehnquist’s battle with thyroid cancer and suggests that, until late July 2005, the justice fervently believed he would survive and be able to remain on the Court.

An Atlanta solo practitioner may get his second trip to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend a victory he won at the Supreme Court of Kentucky that is potentially worth more than $212 million. Last year, C. Christopher Trower was a Supreme Court novice when he won the Kentucky government’s fight over the taxation of municipal bonds. Both he and his opposing counsel in the latest case say there are good reasons for the nation’s highest court to take up the latest Kentucky tax case, too.

All the atmospherics about the extraordinary oral argument on campaign finance reform at the Supreme Court this week scream “landmark!” The uniqueness of a September sitting. The first time new Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be on the bench at argument. The debut of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, matched up with other titans of the Supreme Court bar. But for the packed crowd of spectators, when will it be clear whether the case being argued, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, really is a big deal?