Above the Law: Humor Is Cruel Weapon

Fear of the Legal Tabloid Returns

For several years after its founding in 2006, legal tabloid Above the Law stuck as much fear throughout large law firms as The Wall Street Journal did in the Fortune 500. No lawyer wanted to be featured in a negative light on ATL. I know.

ATL SHAKES UP OLD-LINE BIG LAW

Those I coached in those day who had exited Kirkland & Ellis recounted how ATL had captured the attention of lawyers at every level of the firm. That was also true at other firms. It was so new and different in the staid world of Big Law.

Because of all the tipsters - mostly junior lawyers - there was access to both what was really going on at those firms and those corporatese-sounding memos produced by the brass. Snark was the tone in which that coverage was done.

That was then.

COMPETITION, OTHER CHANGES

As to be expected, competition arrived. Primarily, it was in the form of professional anonymous networks such as Reddit Big Law and Fishbowl Big Law. Along the way ATL eliminated comments. The PANs welcomed them. That meant that the PANs incorporated broad-based feedback on the postings. Also the PANs operated 24/7. Posters could break stories before ATL caught up in the next morning. In addition, those postings/comments wound up on Google, which gave them a long shelf life.

Overall, ATL became a mature medium. Also snark went out of date. Two of its stars - David Lat and Elie Mystal - exited. Lat’s next act, which was establishing a presence on Substack, in a sense set up competition with ATL. Mystal circles in his own iconoclastic orbit as a best-selling legal author which could distract attention from progressive ATL.

That was then.

NINE DEALMAKERS

Now, as The New York Times reports:

“Above the Law has become a rage read for lawyers incensed at the firms that accommodated him [Donald Trump].”

It’s so back.

Those firms which “accommodated him” did so by dealmaking about providing up to $125 million of pro bono work. They number nine, ranging from Paul Weiss to Skadden.

A GOOD TIME IS HAD BY ALL

The rage incorporates the old ATL snark and willingness to cross the line in mockery. An example is the sustained going-after Skadden. A good time was had by all - ATL journalists, readers and those linking on PANS - in the coverage that Skadden shut down the email mass distribution systems to block associates from expressing opinions about the deal.

Another source of merriment was, which The Times points out:

“ … tipster offered news of Skadden’s search for a public relations specialist, which Above the Law posted under the Onion-esque headline ‘Skadden Posts Dream Job for Anyone Who Hates Themselves.’”

Eventually there could harden a meme “Getting Londoned.” Jeremy London is the top dog at Skadden.

I join in the glee. The current Skadden CMO Luke Ferrandino, who used to have that role at Paul Weiss, and I have history. When I was on retainer at the latter I perceived I wasn’t being taken seriously. I quit. That was my own version of a resistance. Viva the dignity of the worker.

Not that Paul Weiss, which was the first to cut a deal, gets off easy on ATL. But somehow the deciders at Paul Weiss manage to establish restraint (with a few exceptions such as a long-winded corporatese internal memo justifying that transaction).

MACHIAVELLIAN FUNDAMENTAL

Humor is a cruel weapon. So fear of ATL probably has circled back to the legal sector. Recall the Machiavellian fundamental in The Prince: Better to be feared than loved, since rarely can the two co-exist.