Something is different this year. Over eight-top lunches at the Modern and partner dinners at Per Se, there’s a palpable silence between courses. (Thank goodness for BlackBerrys!) Meanwhile, the same question keeps echoing around the corridors of Big Law: Where have all the summer associate scandals gone?

Summer associates—law students who spend their summers “working” at law firms, in between being wined and dined and ferried around Manhattan—are reliable generators of laughs and, periodically, tabloid-worthy gossip.

Of course, most summers—they’re first-name only, sort of like “illegals”—behave themselves and work hard. They don’t want to jeopardize their chances of getting The Offer: an invitation to return to the firm full time, after they finish law school, at a current starting salary of $160,000.  read more »

Are the country’s top law firms going the way of the dinosaur?  read more »

KC Johnson, a Brooklyn College American History professor, is a veteran academic rabblerouser. So it was unsurprising when, last Spring, after allegation surfaced that three Duke University lacrosse players had raped and assaulted a local woman, he decided to weigh in on an open letter signed by 88 members of the Duke arts and sciences faculty.

The letter thanked protesters who had appeared at a rally to condemn the accused students before they were found guilty in a court of law.  read more »