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joat mon posted:e.g., http://www.emptywheel.net/2012/03/15/a-primer-on-why-schuelke-report-of-doj-misconduct-is-important/ This pyramid, in my experience, sits atop a wide, flat plain of "its not prosecutorial misconduct even though the appellant makes it sound like the prosecutor wiped his rear end with the Constitution then burned it, then you read the transcript." Not that I blame people for trying, but I'm sick of going to the transcript and reading bland closing arguments vainly searching for "improper invitation for the jury to sympathize with the victim" and "arguing facts not in evidence."
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Apr 25, 2012 11:42
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AgentSythe posted:I looked into the USPTO; there appears to be pretty good demand for patent examiners in my field. Does anyone have experience or have a friend with experience of starting at the USPTO then making the jump to either a private firm>law school or to law school? Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I get the impression that this was more common back in the day than it is now. Quite a few of the more senior partners at IP boutiques I've spoken with got their start as an examiner before they began work at a firm. However, based on the continuing saga of Baruch Obamawitz, this is not as easy as it used to be. At my firm (midsizish IP boutique), we made an offer to an examiner with a JD a few months back (presumably he didn't accept, though the firm may have rescinded the offer due to uncertainty regarding the client for which we were hiring). The examiner had a U.S. district court clerkship and about a year at the USPTO, but the offer was to bring him on as a first year associate. In other words, no credit for time served at the USPTO or district court. Still, even though USPTO experience may not translate to more money coming out of law school, it's a good idea to see if you like the type of work you'll be doing - at least you'll get some exposure to the type of work that patent prosecutors do all day. I would say the best course of action is to get your USPTO experience before or during law school (Georgetown has a decent evening JD program), and then jump ship to a firm immediately after getting your JD if you decide the USPTO is not for you in the long term. This way you get a couple of years of relevant experience in patent law (valuable both for your resume and because patent prosecution is not for everyone), and you won't have to answer any questions about why you didn't join a firm right after graduation. In the worst case, you stay on at the USPTO and enjoy your 6 figure salary and sweet sweet government benefits forever (Note, you don't even need a JD for this!). Just make sure you have an active social life outside of work because you will mostly be working with autists.
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Apr 25, 2012 12:01
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PTO experience pre-law school still seems like a desirable credential - I think it's just the post law school PTO aspect that's made Baruch's experience weird. Also, the refusal to give time credit for a district court clerkship is *weird* - I'm getting time credit for a fellowship, ffs. But the "go to the PTO and decide if you want to do law school based on that" advice is pretty solid.
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Apr 25, 2012 12:41
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It's a great idea to see whether you're actually interested in patent law without dropping six figures on law school, plus the pay is good; I made $126k last year, my fourth year.
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Apr 25, 2012 12:47
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Please Blood God, accept my meager offering so I may book Secured Transactions. I promise future sacrifices as well. Blood God, you are the one true God, and along with your son -- the Billable Hour -- I will do your bidding. An old attorney came up and cursed my secured transactions book as unholy. I hope is not a bad omen.
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Apr 25, 2012 13:11
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entris posted:Last night marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. My wife complained, for the first time, that "all you care about is billing your hours." When you need a divorce attorney (I give you 2 yrs max) just hit me up bro, 20% goon discount p.s. start hiding assets now, if you wait to do it until after she files it's super obvious edit: entris posted:we just moved in with my mother-in-law Soothing Vapors fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 13:54
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Soothing Vapors posted:p.s. start hiding assets now, if you wait to do it until after she files it's super obvious Someone in here must know the answer to this: What's the best way to hide assets?
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Apr 25, 2012 14:10
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Soothing Vapors posted:When you need a divorce attorney (I give you 2 yrs max) just hit me up bro, 20% goon discount Ha ha ha ha. (Don't forget to properly capitalize! Our parents are watching.) I'm not worried, my wife and I have been married 4.5 years, and together for 10. We've been through a lot worse than me working a lot. I should have been more specific about "end of an era" - in our ten years together, I had a few bouts of unemployment that were pretty rough for us, so her complaining that I'm working too much is kind of amazing. HiddenReplaced posted:Someone in here must know the answer to this: First off, don't buy assets that have to be publicly recorded - real estate, for example, or interests in business entities that are recorded with your state's corporation commission. Second, buy assets with cash where possible - that way your banking records don't show checks written out or wire transfers out. Third, title hidden assets in the name of a trust, with the name of the trust preferably being "The Totally-Unrelated-to-Hidden-Replaced Trust". Have a friend be the trustee but you remain the grantor and beneficiary and you retain power to revoke/amend as necessary. I think that this prevents financial accounts from showing up on your credit report. Fourth, have financial statements or other reports for your hidden assets go to a P.O. box held by a friend, or just to the friend's house. Hmm but you still have to worry about your tax return. I don't have an easy answer for that. A forensic accountant looking at your available financial info and cross-checking it with your income tax return will notice additional income on the return and will want to know where it came from. I suppose that the trust you set up could only make distributions of principal to you, rather than distributions of income, and that would avoid income tax on the distributions. That could work but there are still wrinkles there. entris fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 14:19
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entris posted:First off, don't buy assets that have to be publicly recorded - real estate, for example, or interests in business entities that are recorded with your state's corporation commission. What if I just took a trip to Vegas once a year and "lost" a lot of money?
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Apr 25, 2012 15:16
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entris posted:Ha ha ha ha. (Don't forget to properly capitalize! Our parents are watching.) HiddenReplaced posted:Someone in here must know the answer to this:
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Apr 25, 2012 15:20
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HiddenReplaced posted:What if I just took a trip to Vegas once a year and "lost" a lot of money? Wouldn't you report your losses on your tax return for the AGI deduction? Technically you could have forgotten to because it isn't required, but it's hard to say you were sophisticated enough to do all that other poo poo and then forgot to claim your gambling losses. edit: actually looked it up and you have to win money before you can write off any losses in the same year, so ya go for it.
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Apr 25, 2012 15:44
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HiddenReplaced posted:What if I just took a trip to Vegas once a year and "lost" a lot of money? And here I thought the mob owned casinos to entertain pensioners. Edit: speaking of gambling, I have a client who won $7500 after I filed bankruptcy for him but before he received his discharge. The vast majority of that money will go to his creditors. 
Roger_Mudd fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 16:10
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Roger_Mudd posted:And here I thought the mob owned casinos to entertain pensioners. Tell him to buy 7.5k of lottery ticks or keep trucking til he gets out of debt. That's like the definition of asymmetric risk preference.
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Apr 25, 2012 18:34
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Omerta posted:Tell him to buy 7.5k of lottery ticks or keep trucking til he gets out of debt. That's like the definition of asymmetric risk preference. Sadly the trustee might have something to say about that.
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Apr 25, 2012 18:40
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Penguins Like Pies posted:Man. DoJ loves to recycle questions, don't they? Cost-cutting initiatives!
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Apr 25, 2012 19:56
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Applied to the USPTO opening. Thanks for saving me 100 grand, Something Awful Forum Posters
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Apr 25, 2012 21:06
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AgentSythe posted:Applied to the USPTO opening. Thanks for saving me 100 grand, Something Awful Forum Posters Remember to toss a quarter in our cup next time you pass us on the street and we're begging for money.
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Apr 25, 2012 21:14
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With so many goons at the USPTO, is there a secret code word or phrase that we can put in our applications or responses to get an allowance from a goon examiner?
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Apr 25, 2012 22:31
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I had to turn down an offer from the PTO last week because of some issues with relocation in a very short time frame and then some family stuff that I couldn't resolve in the 2 days they gave me to accept, but it's mostly taken care of now. What are the odds I can get them to give me another look, or at least run me through the process again if they're accepting applications until May 5?
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Apr 25, 2012 23:24
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AgentSythe posted:Applied to the USPTO opening. Thanks for saving me 100 grand, Something Awful Forum Posters Good luck. I accepted an offer and got my final confirmation in an e-mail today. It's a long process (I was in the system for over two months), but considering you've applied much closer to the deadline than I did, your employment process may go faster. Mons Hubris, I'm not quite sure what to tell you. I'd try calling them if I were you. And I kind of agree. The quick relocation is a pain in the rear end. I'm in South Bend, IN right now, but I'm moving down to see my folks in Mississsippi for a few weeks. I was hoping to get an extension on my start date so I could attend my brother's graduation before moving to DC, but that seems to be a no go. Even though I'm excited about the position, this month is hella stressful for me.
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Apr 25, 2012 23:39
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Mons Hubris posted:What are the odds I can get them to give me another look, or at least run me through the process again if they're accepting applications until May 5?
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Apr 25, 2012 23:50
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Penguins Like Pies posted:Man. DoJ loves to recycle questions, don't they? Did they tell you that you weren't being held against your will and could leave at any time?
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Apr 25, 2012 23:54
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crankdatbatman posted:Good luck. I accepted an offer and got my final confirmation in an e-mail today. It's a long process (I was in the system for over two months), but considering you've applied much closer to the deadline than I did, your employment process may go faster. My wife started at the PTO two days after our wedding.
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Apr 26, 2012 00:01
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gret posted:With so many goons at the USPTO, is there a secret code word or phrase that we can put in our applications or responses to get an allowance from a goon examiner? Relevant experience: Prepared a provisional utility patent application for a unique composition of stairs in a house.
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Apr 26, 2012 00:53
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J Miracle posted:I'm sick of going to the transcript and reading bland closing arguments vainly searching for "improper invitation for the jury to sympathize with the victim" and "arguing facts not in evidence." This x1000. There are plenty of terrible lawyers and arguments out there, but criminal defence appellate briefs are a special sort of terrible. I'm not sure what my favourite horrible appellate brief is, but I do recall a really bad brief that was written entirely in the fashion of a Spot the Dog book.
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Apr 26, 2012 02:34
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Volunteering as a guardian ad litem. Hoping it will open some doors by convincing people at interviews that I actually do know what the gently caress is going on in a court room and behind the scenes, though my degree (MSLA) should more than effectively communicate that. Still, it's going to be a really rewarding experience, even if it finishes off what little faith in humanity I have left.
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Apr 26, 2012 08:06
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Random practice tip for Canadian lawyers: if you get suckered into acting as an executor for your client(s), make sure your will expressly delegates that authority to someone in your firm in the event that you are an executor at the time of your death. Otherwise the power goes to your regular executor, and all of a sudden your wife is administering a bunch of random estates. That is a bad thing. Edit: Or make sure there are at least two executors so that the power vests in the other executor when you die. Schitzo fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Apr 26, 2012 |
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Apr 26, 2012 08:28
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Agesilaus posted:This x1000. There are plenty of terrible lawyers and arguments out there, but criminal defence appellate briefs are a special sort of terrible. I'm not sure what my favourite horrible appellate brief is, but I do recall a really bad brief that was written entirely in the fashion of a Spot the Dog book. The see no error, hear no error, speak of no error monkey that is an appellate court is not capable of understanding anything beyond 'Spot the Dog.' If you've got anything more complex, you will lose. [seriouspost] Because of the expansion of harmless error analysis, you're simply not going to get relief if you 'only' have the law on your side. You've got to convince the court, from a subjective/emotional point of view, why your client should win. At least this part needs to be in a 'Spot the Dog' format [/seriouspost] And the State's answer brief: 1. waived 2. if not waived, not error 3. a. within the court's discretion, or b. not error (if de novo) 4. if error, harmless Ain't exactly Umberto Eco.
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Apr 26, 2012 17:35
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PLC's reps are much hotter than Westlaw/Lexis' reps.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:01
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Schitzo posted:Random practice tip for Canadian lawyers: if you get suckered into acting as an executor for your client(s), make sure your will expressly delegates that authority to someone in your firm in the event that you are an executor at the time of your death. Otherwise the power goes to your regular executor, and all of a sudden your wife is administering a bunch of random estates. That is a bad thing. Wow. I don't know for certain, but in the majority of the US we did away with this issue.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:26
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Schitzo posted:Random practice tip for Canadian lawyers: What can you tell me about private practice in Vancouver? Worth a look? I fuckin love that city. Would be an American with BigLaw experience trying to lateral to a similar firm with a shop there.
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Apr 26, 2012 20:15
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Budding tax law goons: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/04/20-tax-editors.html quote:Thomson Reuters is seeking to hire 20 tax editors based in New York City who would be paid $50 per hour under a four month contract. At the end of the four-month period, the contract could be extended, terminated, or result in an offer for a full time salaried position. Although the potential to work remotely may soon be an option, in the short term the managing editors are asking for candidates who can work out of their Manhattan office. quote:Critical requirements: J.D. (LL.M. in taxation is a plus) and/or CPA, plus at least 3 years of significant recent tax research, transaction, and/or planning experience. Strong writing ability in English; able to add sophisticated editorial insight; work quickly and accurately under pressure.
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Apr 26, 2012 21:06
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Apparently a lot of the major trial lawyers in town get together once a month to play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 in a giant lan party. Is the proper etiquette to crush them or not to crush them?
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Apr 26, 2012 23:47
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CaptainScraps posted:Apparently a lot of the major trial lawyers in town get together once a month to play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 in a giant lan party. It's like your first day in prison. You gotta shank someone.
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Apr 26, 2012 23:51
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Roger_Mudd posted:And here I thought the mob owned casinos to entertain pensioners. Roger_Mudd posted:Sadly the trustee might have something to say about that. Isn't that post-petition earnings? Total bankruptcy noob, but my Bankruptcy professor told me specifically if you go out and buy lottery tickets or gamble after you file the petition, it's considered un-reachable post-petition earnings?
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Apr 27, 2012 00:15
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A guy in a lobster costume barged into my wills and estates class and proposed to his girlfriend. Don't go, no jobs, die in the arms of a lobsterman Note: the person next to me in class was on FB at the time
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Apr 27, 2012 01:00
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If you have a financial windfall within 180 days of filing, it's part of the bankruptcy. If grandma dies or you win megamillions on day 181, it's all free and clear. But if that happens on day 179, the creditors get the first shot at it. Work bonuses, raises, and that sort of thing don't count. It's typically winning prizes, inheritance, or divorce settlements that counts as a financial windfall. That's how it works now, it may have been different before 2005.
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Apr 27, 2012 01:02
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HolySwissCheese posted:A guy in a lobster costume barged into my wills and estates class and proposed to his girlfriend. Don't go, no jobs, die in the arms of a lobsterman Had you researched Thermic Lances before you encountered the Lobster Man? Or did you at least have a Thermal Tazer? Nothing worse than having to abort an early mission because of an unexpected lobster man you can't kill.
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Apr 27, 2012 01:04
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HolySwissCheese posted:A guy in a lobster costume barged into my wills and estates class and proposed to his girlfriend. Don't go, no jobs, die in the arms of a lobsterman Thinkpad T series, the only good thing about law school is they tend to give you those.
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Apr 27, 2012 01:55
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Do you know what the significance of the lobster costume was?
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Apr 27, 2012 04:54
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