David Lat - He's Not a Woman and He Doesn't Have Genital Herpes
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published February 16, 2011
Donna McGill
<<''wishes he were a woman so he could swing his hair around in music videos''
and
''has been blogging 'professionally' (i.e., for a living) for 5 years as of today, and he isn't homeless - yay!'' (David Lat tweets)
Who wouldn't want to follow someone whose tweets are uninhibited and certainly unapologetic? Those tweets, courtesy of Above the Law founder David Lat, reveals a certain confidence most of us will never know in our online revelations. It's sad, really, considering most writers are actually interesting folks, though a bit inhibited at times. Not David Lat; the former assistant U.S. attorney made a bold move when he left got off the legal fast track and decided to walk away from the courtroom in lieu of many hours spent in front of a computer monitor. And make no mistake, he's not afraid of controversy. Most recently, he's been under fire for publishing several nude, though edited, photographs of a Canadian judge. Still, he stands by his decisions and allows the naysayers' comments to roll off his back.
Just two years after founding Above the Law, Lat was named the managing editor of the network that hosts his site, Breaking Media. In late 2009, Lat once again announced big changes in his career as he said he'd be giving over the editing reins of BM so that he could devote all of his time to his writing career. Few were surprised; Lat is known for moving forward in one of those rare though fearless ways some folks possess.
On his personal blog, he announced big personal changes and as anyone who knows him expects, he's not inclined to withhold anything, either. After dieting for a few weeks, he learned he had a ''mild case of shingles'' to which his physician prescribed a drug usually reserved for treating genital herpes. Lat, in his trademark sense of humor, told his followers he'd considered hiding the prescription for fear visitors in his home would assume he'd contracted a venereal disease. He quickly announced he indeed does not have any such infection.
From a professional stance, Lat graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and Yale. He served on the Yale Law Journal and was also named vice president of the Federal Society. Following his graduation from law school, he accepted a position with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he clerked for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain before moving into private practice and eventually, the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of New Jersey.
While there are many who live for Lat's daily posts, he's not without career-ending controversy. His poll on a former website, ''Superhotties of the Federal Judiciary'' included more than a few federal judges and interviews with the movers and shakers in the American Judicial System.
Love him or hate him, David Lat is here to stay if for no other reason to provide a bit of a distraction and twisted humor into an otherwise consistent profession.
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