November 20 2006 Legal Blog Roundup

This week, all the blogs are abuzz with commentary on recent articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that analyzed the dot com boom of the 90s. Law.com, Legal Profession Blog, and Adam Smith, Esq., all highlight the articles' findings: 80% of dot com businesses were successful, but their successes were overshadowed by the demises of big-name busts like Pets.com. (Seriously, people bought animals online?) The success stories belong to the smaller businesses that specialized in niche markets. MyShingle states that this is good news for future law firm start-ups and other legal entrepreneurships. At least they have something going in their favor…




I'm asking for your forgiveness in advance for posting the following information. In my opinion, this is the one place on the Internet that should be K-Fed free. In fact, if I had my way, the entire world would be K-Fed free…but it's my duty to relay what's on the legal blogs, so just remember, I didn't have a choice on this one. Discussing the most recent rash of celebrity divorces, Abovethelaw reports that K-Fed is hiring Mark Kaplan to represent him in his divorce proceedings against Britney Spears. This is the same guy who represented one of Jennifer Lopez's exes (there are so many of them I know it's hard to keep track, but it's the ex who was her backup dancer) in his divorce. How do you get a reputation for being the go-to lawyer for sub-par male backup dancers when their millionaire pop star wives kick them to the curb? More importantly, who would want to be the go-to guy for these people? Maybe they're teaching him how to pop and lock?

In other Hollywood news, Universal Studios wants to sue…itself. Overlawyered relays the news that Universal Studios attorneys are so desperate for some legal action that they sent cease and desist letters out to the viral marketers who pushed Universal's film Serenity. Sounds like normal corporate Hollywood stuff, right? One slight problem: Universal's marketing department designed the viral marketing campaign. Guess the legal department didn't get that memo. Or maybe they're just bored and want to go to court over something.

This week, the legal blogs are also filled with commentary on the election results. We all know the Democrats are in charge of Congress again, so I'll leave this one alone. However, the more interesting political event of the week for me was Donald Rumsfeld's "resignation." Bush named former CIA head Robert Gates as Rumsfeld's replacement, a move that is apparently garnering support from Democrats, Republicans, and legal bloggers alike. In fact, I think the only person who wasn't in favor of ousting Rumsfeld was Vice President Dick Cheney. He's probably worried that with Rumsfeld gone, he's going to take a lot more criticism for the part he's played in the Iraq war. Personally, I think it would be pretty easy for him to remedy this situation; he could just shoot someone else in the face during a hunting trip to direct the criticism away from his politics and toward his personal life.

Well, guys, that's all for this week. Join me again next week to dissect legal and political events and to mock the never-ending blunders and mistakes of our colleagues…hopefully more of the latter than the former because, let's face it, it's just more fun that way.