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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Hello from Washington, D.C., where the license plates make legal arguments (&amp;#8220;Taxation Without Representation.&amp;#8221;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;I&amp;#8217;m with the Vault contingent at the annual NALP conference&amp;#8212;essentially a convention of law firm recruiters, law school career services people and legal headhunters, as well as the sundry folks who want to sell things to them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;NALP&amp;#8217;s opening plenary session, a panel discussion entitled &amp;#8220;Don&amp;#8217;t Fight the Web: Surviving and Thriving in a 2.0 World,&amp;#8221; was a standing-room-only event. The answer to the question on everyone&amp;#8217;s mind&amp;#8212;&amp;#8220;Will someone throw a rotten tomato at David Lat?&amp;#8221;&amp;#8212;was no.* Every time a pointed question came his way, Lat managed to defuse the tension through self-deprecating humor and by speaking really, really fast.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Besides Lat, the panel comprised Vault&amp;#8217;s own Samer Hamadeh, Lateral Link&amp;#8217;s Michael Allen and Harvard Law School&amp;#8217;s assistant dean of career services, Mark Weber. Each of the panelist is, in the words of moderator Jenner partner Charlotte Wager, &amp;#8220;experienced in the legal employment revolution.&amp;#8221;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Some highlights:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;Every memo is a press release&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Mark Weber, in his opening remarks, bemoaned the &amp;#8220;clutter, gossip and frenetic pace&amp;#8221; of the information marketplace. Weber also seemed to deride ATL&amp;#8217;s focus on trivia: &amp;#8220;Who knew that Skadden serves lemonade when it is over 84 degrees out?&amp;#8221; He also recounted his befuddlement when the reservation of Sidley&amp;#8217;s conference rooms was a subject of speculation. &amp;#8220;Well, you know how that story ended,&amp;#8221; interjected Lat. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Weber noted that one ironic consequence of the information &amp;#8220;revolution&amp;#8221; was that it has a limiting effect on dialogue. Firms and schools are forced to be less candid and more impersonal in their communications. These days, every &amp;#8220;internal&amp;#8221; memo must be treated like a press release. Weber urged students not to forget that &amp;#8220;picking up the phone and talking to people who are living and breathing&amp;#8221; is actually still a pretty good way to get information.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The other panelists were less troubled by the now-routine leaking of top-down communications. Allen contended there&amp;#8217;s simply been a &amp;#8221;paradigm shift&amp;#8221; in what is considered newsworthy or publishable. And Lat noted there are now &amp;#8220;clusters at the extremes,&amp;#8221; because the fact that mass memos are highly impersonal actually serves to increase the number of personal, individualized communications. Or at least it should. In any event, Skadden&amp;#8212;and probably many firms&amp;#8212;now solicits associate feedback on mass memos before they are published.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;The Charney story won&amp;#8217;t die&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Without anyone saying the words &amp;#8220;Sullivan &amp;amp; Cromwell&amp;#8221; or &amp;#8220;Aaron Charney,&amp;#8221; Weber offered the Charney suit as an example of &amp;#8220;salaciousness&amp;#8221; without a purpose or redeeming point. This argument received a smattering of applause, presumably from BigLaw PR people in attendance. Weber seemed to go too far, however, in suggesting that, since the charges in Charney&amp;#8217;s complaint were never proven in court, the story should not have received so much attention. Lat asserted that, salacious or not, these episodes are a window into firm culture. (Nobody addressed the proposed, unattainable standard of only reporting adjudicated &amp;#8220;facts.&amp;#8221;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;On the internet, nobody knows you&amp;#8217;re a dog&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Q: What about the fact that you impersonated a woman as &amp;#8220;Article III Groupie&amp;#8221;? What about your nasty anonymous comments sections? What about the all lies and fakery on the internet? Isn&amp;#8217;t it all so horrible and scary? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;A: Not really. Caveat lector. Kids these days, they have a different sensibility regarding identity and anonymity on the Web. Also: everyone needs thicker skin.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;The influence of anxiety&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Some law school career center people object to blogs on the grounds that they heighten student anxiety. That concern is misplaced because there is a lot of cause to be anxious. The relentless, daily doses of bad news actually reflect the fact that there is a lot of bad news. Every day. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Also, in the event of societal collapse, Lat has a one-way ticket to the Philippines, where he will live in his uncle&amp;#8217;s basement.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;- posted by brian&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

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