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OBABL Links & Resources
2008 November
Nov
26
Stepmama to Whitney — I Have Nothing! TMZ
Vick continues to plea for a return to the field. EURWeb
W asks, “What would Jesus Do?” then pardons the rapper and convicted drug trafficker, John Forte, who also happens to be, like 41 & 43, an Exeter alum. TheGuardian
R. Kelly’s nephew charged with attempted murder after barbershop shootout. MTV
Can Oprah’s lawyers get headmaster’s defamation suit dismissed? MSNBC
Drunk judge pulls a Mel Gibson. ABAJournal
Bryant Gumbel’s son couldn’t explain damage to his car. Does booze? BostonHerald
Nov
25
How Do I Recover From Failing My Bar Exam?
Filed Under Counsel • 17 Comments
OBABL,
I’ll make this quick. I failed my bar exam. I have no money and no “real” job but don’t feel I can quit the gig I’ve got to study for the next exam. I want your advice, but I’m very fragile right now, so please handle me with kid gloves.
Stupefied and defeated
Dear SAD,
First, some good news, failing the bar exam puts you in the company of some very accomplished individuals. WSJ This year’s most popular public failure belongs to Elizabeth Wurtzel who was outed by everyone from Gawker to The New York Observer.
We can only feel so bad for Wurtz. The best-selling author attended Yale Law School then after shooting off an email to a partner was offered an associate position at a prestigious NY law firm. (Don’t try this at home, boys and girls.)
Anyhow, Wurtzel’s press paled in comparison to that of the deceased heartthrob, John F. Kennedy, Jr., who woke to the headline, “THE HUNK FLUNKS,” after his second attempt. While it has been suggested that these two lacked focus, this cannot be said of Hillary Clinton (she failed the D.C. bar but passed in Arkansas), former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Florida Governor Charlie Crist. The latter two failed twice.
Advice for future bar victors after the jump:
Nov
24
Obama Posse List (Cassandra Butts & Melody Barnes) (Update)
Filed Under Everything Obama, Obama Posse List • Leave a Comment
This month the American Bar Assoication’s (ABA) magazine makes some legal picks for an Obama Administration. We’re taking a look at the black lawyers featured therein and making a few predictions of our own. Full list here.
When the election was called these two ladies were probably doing fist bumps and singing, “Whoomp There It Is.” Both women went to North Carolina, worked on the Capitol Hill and before joining the Obama Campaign, were executives at The Center for American Progress. Dare we say they are a tag team?
Cassandra Butts
Cassandra Butts
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Harvard Law School
Current: Transition team General Counsel
THIS is why you go to Harvard—to bond with future presidents. Butts met Obama in HLS’s financial aid office.
Butts from a PBS interview: “We were going through the process of filling out a lot of paperwork that would make us significantly in debt to Harvard for years to come. We bonded over that experience.”
He obviously really trusts this woman because few have been allowed to do such a “let’s psychoanalyze Barack Obama” type interview.
She left her post as senior vice president for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress to join Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as domestic policy adviser. A background in government, she served as a senior adviser to Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.).
Melody Barnes. Courtesy of American Progress.
Melody Barnes
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
University of Michigan Law School
Currently: Co-Director of Agency Review
Before Obama - American Progress as Executive Vice President for Policy.
Before boarding the Obama train, Barnes held stints as Executive Vice President for Policy at American Progress and Chief Counsel to Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Butts and Barnes may have a lot in common, but in one area of, we can’t be sure. While Butts has remained mum on her shopping habits, Barnes has been labeled a fashion plate. See her bare arms and feet here.
Update (11-24-08; 8:18 p.m.): Today, President-elect Obama introduced Melody Barnes as his director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. We believe she is the first African American to hold this position. We also believe you’ll be hearing that phrase a lot. ThinkProgress
Nov
24
Louisiana company settles discrimination lawsuit. A company spokesman said Hunt Forest Products has a longstanding policy against discrimination and decided to settle to avoid the expense of a court fight and as a gesture of good faith. Rrriiiight… KSLA
A mother’s suit against her daughter (a black British barrister) over a memoir is of great interest to our founder, who in addition to penning a family memoir herself is completing another on her failed interesting legal career. CANADA.COM
You’ve heard the expression, “Don’t mess with a black woman’s hair.” Well, JCPenney took this literally. BlackVoices
Bob Jones University apologizes for breaking the law. AZCentral
Outgoing NAACP Chair, Julian Bond, says civil rights leaders won’t give President-elect Obama a free ride. We must ask: Are there any civil rights leaders left? USNews
Nov
21
Right Wing Empire Collapsing
Filed Under In Contempt • Leave a Comment
Fox News was the first place we saw this video of Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsing as he struggled to put a positive spin on the state of the conservative movement and the Republican Party in an address to the Federalist Society. (We’ve never heard so many “Oh, my Gods”!) This YouTube video may not stay up for long, so watch it while you can:
WaPo is reporting that the 67-year-old Mukasey will be fine. At least he’ll soon have plenty of time to rest:
Doctors at George Washington University Hospital have found no evidence that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey suffered a stroke or any other major neurological or cardiac impairment when he collapsed last evening while delivering a speech to a prominent legal group, the Justice Department said this morning.
Mukasey was hospitalized overnight for observation and was undergoing routine tests this morning, spokeswoman Gina Talamona said. She said he apparently suffered a fainting spell.
To paraphrase Senator John McCain, we don’t wish the old AG luck, but we do wish him well as we here at OBABL do not count the FS among our friends. We share columnist George Curry’s view that they’ve taken every opportunity to turn back Civil Rights and undermine the economic and educational advancement of African Americans, most of us at least. There are a few black attorneys who’ve gotten in bed with the FS and made a little paper, but we must ask:
Was it worth your soul?
Pictures and bios of the sellouts African American Federalist Society members after the jump.
Nov
21
It’s On: The Battle for Obama’s Senate Seat (2nd Update)
Filed Under Everything Obama, Obama Posse List • Leave a Comment
Valerie Jarrett. Courtesy of the University of Chicago.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Courtesy Jackson Office.
As previously reported here, the other half of PBO’s brain, has made it clear she is not checking for a de facto “black” post in the President-elect’s administration. Now we hear word that Valerie Jarrett has her eye on Obama’s senate seat.
This has raised a few eyebrows among the legal intelligentsia because it has long been rumored that seat would go to Jesse Jackson Jr. Goodness knows he’s earned it! While PBO may have thrown his grandmother under the bus when he shared her racist views with the world, JJJ put the bus in reverse and rolled over Daddy Jesse again and again and again. TheRoot offers an interesting take on this Nixon-Khrushchev like kitchen debate:
Jarrett may be a tough choice for Blagojevich. The governor is hugely unpopular, and his 2010 re-election chances are gravely endangered. He may choose to appoint someone who helps him with some particular voting bloc in 2010, when that appointee will be up for election to a full term in the Senate.
Or it might be that Valerie gets what Valerie wants. At a meeting in Washingtonwith black journalists over the weekend, she would not say what that was. That is up to Obama, she said: “I leave it in his hands, his very capable hands. … So we’ll see, we’ll see.”
We will.
The big question: Can “No Drama Obama” keep them from pulling out the knives?
Update (7:57 p.m.) President-elect Obama has just given Valerie Jarrett not one, or two, but three jobs in his administration. Henceforth, Jarrett will be referred to as White House Senior Advisor, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison. NYTimes
Update (11-21-08; 10:00 a.m.) We just discovered the “Appoint Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. to the United States Senate” Facebook page.
Nov
20
NBA YLD 6th Annual Retreat - Barbados
Filed Under Announcements • 1 Comment
For those of you who can’t attend, they promise pictures… General details below. Complete info on NBA YLD website.
National Bar Association
Young Lawyers Division
6th Annual Retreat
Barbados Bougainsvilleas Beach Resort
May 14 - 18, 2009
Nov
20
Notices
Filed Under Notice • Leave a Comment
Columbia Law School and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) call decline in African American and Mexican American law school enrollment “disturbing,” but we find the law school tab more so. See numbers here.
For a look at “The Whitest Law School Report” go here.
Minority law firms are standing at The Department of Treasury’s front door with buckets to “help” with the bailout. The American Lawyer
Consider the irony: MLK’s kids are fighting over King’s love letters to their mother. AJC
Nov
19
Michael Vick’s Lawyers are Getting It Done!
Filed Under Defame • Leave a Comment
From the AP:
Imprisoned NFL quarterback Michael Vick expects to return to pro football, according to his bankruptcy attorneys who laid out a plan to pay creditors based in part on his anticipated earnings.
“The Debtor has every reason to believe that upon his release, he will be reinstated into the NFL, resume his career and be able to earn a substantial living,” Vick’s attorneys wrote in a disclosure statement filed before a hearing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Norfolk.
Even his pending state charges appear to be going away:
Vick still faces two state felony counts — dogfighting and animal cruelty. They carry maximum prison terms of 10 years, but under a plea deal, Vick would serve a suspended sentence and a year of probation.
Share your thoughts on our founder’s commentary: Michael Vick finds Jesus, Loses Friends:
More of Yolanda’s videos here.
Nov
19
Obama Posse List (Clark Kent Ervin)
Filed Under Everything Obama, Obama Posse List • Leave a Comment
We know; we know. The Obama Posse List is dominating our posts, but truly, so many black attorneys getting put on all at once is making us giddy, so please indulge us a while longer.
PBO transition team on national security issues
The Kinkaid School
Harvard College
Harvard Law School
Currently: Director of the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Program
We imagine there’s a lot of pressure on you, when your name is Clark Kent. Mr. Ervin seems up to any challenge. He is a great example of what can happen when a brother STANDS UP. Back in 2003, On-his-way-out Bush, appointed Ervin the first Inspector General of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Team Bush was shocked to discover that rather than another Justice Tom, they were actually dealing with a thorough and independent attorney. Before long, Ervin was drafting critical missives regarding DHS mismanagement and security flaws. Needless to say, the White House got him up out of there as soon as they could: Wiki
The end of his term was controversial. Critics viewed the lack of White House support as retribution for Ervin’s aggressive efforts to root out waste, fraud, and incompetence. For example, “I think this was a voice that was a little too critical and made the administration a little too uncomfortable,” said the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.
Seems Superman is back, better than ever.
