Breaking Media

* Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, has officially been charged with involuntary manslaughter. How did the alleged crime go down? Well: He came into MJ’s Apartment, he left the bloodstains on the carpet. MJ ran underneath the table, he could see MJ was unable. So MJ ran into the bedroom MJ was struck down, it was MJ’s doom. Too soon? [Popsquire]

* If there was an Alabama version of the Jersey Shore, this guy would be on it. [BL1Y]

* People in D.C. are really freaked out by all the snow. I’m trying to think of a naturally occurring event that would have New Yorkers similarly discombobulated. [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]

* I hate having interviews or meetings at coffee places. But in general I hate the concept of a coffee house where people relax, pull out a laptop, and have conversations. That’s what hookah bars are for. [Law.com]

* If the Bushidō code were still around today, wouldn’t Akio Toyoda have to commit hara-kiri?
[Trial Warrior Blog via Blawg Review]

$$$ The history man and fatwa girl: Niall Ferguson has deserted wife Sue Douglas for Somali feminist [Daily Mail via Daily Intel]

$$$ German pensioners ‘kidnapped financial adviser’ [BBC]

$$$ Cash Money Records Founders Start An Oil Company [BI]

$$$ Should Individuals Be Regulated Like Wall St. Banks? [The Atlantic]

$$$ Toy Mogul Said To Buy Madoff Penthouse [Dealbook]

We don’t have to tell you bitching about bonuses is getting boring. Thankfully, the good people of Greenwich have nothing bad to say about them, and are actually just happy things are getting back to normal. They are spending like it’s 2005 all over again, although they admit that they’ll have to go about their business in a more demure manner this time around. Decency, and whatnot. “Last year was a big downer,” said Michelle Brunwasser, a partner in the chic Weber art gallery. “Things are definitely better now, and a lot of it has to do with the bonuses.”

The following post is by a hedge fund manager friend of DB who shall remain nameless. He runs the emerging markets desk at his firm.

It’s the financial version of Montezuma’s revenge! The meltdown in Western European sovereign credit has led to a Great Colonial Spread Reversal. Until now, only select Anglosphere colonies had posted tighter spreads than the old metropolis. Sovereign spreads embodied the tradition order when it came to Latin America. When Latam hit turbulence, investors looked at European bank and corporate exposures to the old colonies, or figured on expensive support packages and pushed the colonizers a tad wider. But the shades of some conquistadors this week are weeping in Hades, for their world has been turned upside down. Cortez and Cabral, call your office! Pizarro, take a peek at your portfolio! Mexico and Peru now trade tight to Spain. Brazil is sitting well inside Portugal. For the moment, the sacred memory of the Raj is safe - State Bank of India still trades 50bps wide to UKT - but Gandhi’s ghost may be rubbing his hands with anticipation while Clive sweats, as the spread is narrowing. France maintains a safe lead over francophone Africa as does Belgium with respect to Democratic Republic of Congo - for now!

“I used to be a bank robber.”

That’s an attention-grabbing lede for a personal essay for a law school application. Or:

“The Supreme Court granted my very first petition for cert. And then ruled in my favor unanimously.”

Shon Hopwood, 34, could start his application with either one of those statements. Convicted of five robberies in Nebraska in the late ’90s, he was sentenced to prison for 13 years, writes Adam Liptak in the New York Times:

Mr. Hopwood spent much of that time in the prison law library, and it turned out he was better at understanding the law than breaking it. He transformed himself into something rare at the top levels of the American bar, and unheard of behind bars — an accomplished Supreme Court practitioner.

Hopwood wrote a petition for cert for a fellow inmate, John Fellers, in 2002. Not only was it granted, veteran Supreme Court advocate Seth Waxman says, “It was probably one of the best cert. petitions I have ever read.”

High praise for a dude who doesn’t even have a law degree…

I lived in Indiana for 13 months and 9 days (not that I was counting), so last night’s Super Bowl was a little bit disappointing. The night featured the return of the Manning Face, the ads were pretty boring (I did like the Auto-Tune one, Kash liked Google). A game between the two best offenses in the league came down to a defensive touchdown and (arguably) the best special teams play of all time.

Oh yeah, and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. That warm fuzzy goodness you feel about the Saints winning for their city totally redeems every slightly annoying thing that happened last night.

The Saints get back to town tomorrow, and it should be obvious that the city will shut down to celebrate. And chances are, they’ll not really be getting back to work until Ash Wednesday.

Tulane Law School knows that its students like to party. And the administration won’t stand in the way. Tulane is shutting down tomorrow.

I just hope the Tulane Law students don’t try to make off with the Lombardi Trophy.

Check out the beautiful message from Tulane’s president after the jump. And Geaux Saints!

IT GETS BETTER.

The guys at Citi are smarter than anyone else on the Street, which is why they are about to launch the first derivatives EVER that will pay out in the event of a financial crisis.

As Chris Whalen, at Institutional Risk Analytics, told us about the news: “It’s cute. Though a bit ironic coming from them.”Yes, it’s ironic and the mere concept could be funny if it weren’t that scary.

We’ve said a lot about the atrocious ABC television show, The Deep End. One particularly annoying aspect of the show is that of the four — purportedly “best in the country” — first-year associates, one of them graduated from the Case Western Reserve School of Law.

With all due respect to the good people at Case Western, Biglaw types have a hard time suspending their disbelief that even a fictional top law firm would grab an associate from the #55 ranked law school in the country.

But maybe, just maybe, the prestige-obsessed are wrong. Obviously, Clarence Thomas is happy to hire clerks without regard to their schools’ positions on the U.S. News list. And it appears that the kids at Case Western play just as rough and dirty as anybody in the H-Y-S crowd. Check out this email to all Case Western Law faculty and students:

I am very sorry to report that someone has cut some class-related sections out of several copies of a library book. I am sure that the overwhelming majority of you don’t need to be told that this behavior is unprofessional and unacceptable. It is also a serious violation of the law school code of conduct. This is a very unusual occurrence at our school, for which we should all be grateful. Nevertheless, even one such incident is too many.

Somebody at Case Western has read One L a few too many times.

But hey, if the school is being criticized on prestige grounds, maybe it’s time for its students to take academic competition to the next level. Let’s hear from some Case law students about this.

When we last checked in with beauty queen and Raj Rajaratnam gal-pal Danielle Chiesi, she didn’t have much to say re: whether or not she and her boy were guilty of insider trading, as has been alleged, preferring instead to let her new makeover do the talking. Today she opened up to Reuters’ Matt Goldstein to let the world know a couplea things, namely that there’s no way in hell she and Raj-Raj will do time, that the Galleon manager didn’t hurt anybody (except for the employee whose body was temporarily disabled by an electric shock) and that he’s the most generous man she’s ever known (this we know is true, as said tasee was paid 5 g’s for her time).

“There is not even a chance we will do one day in jail,” Chiesi said in a recent telephone interview. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

She said she considers Rajaratnam a good friend and it is “an honor and a privilege” to stand next to him in court. She and Rajaratnam are due back in court on Feb. 11.

Balenciaga’s just released their first fragrance in twelve years, Balenciaga Paris.

The scent, which is powdery, light, and perfect for someone who doesn’t want to smell like they’re wearing perfume, launches at Bergdorf Goodman on the 15th.

We expect Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Steven Meisel-shot campaign to pop up everywhere this spring, but for now, you can watch Nicolas Ghesquière talk about his process. The bottle, which will remain the same when they roll out new scents, is inspired by the classic Balenciaga silhouette. Ghesquière imagines a woman setting it down amongst her things to create an Irving Penn-like still life and he chose Charlotte for her “oddity…and bizarre beauty.”

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the Vinson & Elkins bonus payouts. At the time, we noted that associates in New York were generally pleased with the payout, but associates in V&E’s Texas offices — notably, the firm’s Houston office — were not at all happy with their bonuses.

The issue appeared to be that V&E Texas associates didn’t receive a “make-whole” bonus. Some firms have followed Latham & Watkins’s lead and are using the bonus to give back the money that associates lost during last year’s salary freeze.

A couple of days after our post went up, Above the Law started to receive some interesting emails from Vinson & Elkins people in Texas. Here’s an example:

The partners realized they had screwed up and are making good by the associates, giving additional bonuses in the coming weeks. Top performers in Houston will end up making MORE than their counterparts in NY on the full Cravath scale (for the second year in a row). Pretty impressive that they are willing to admit their screw up and fix it quickly.

And it’s true. Instead of sticking to a decision many associates felt was unfair, V&E changed course and put more money on the table.

Details on this reversal of fortune after the jump.

This morning on her infamous blog, 13-year-old fashion writer Tavi addressed the often critical, sometimes nasty things people have been saying about her as of late:

She’s selective when it comes to freebies. “I realize that if every post of mine was talking about something I got in the mail, my opinion wouldn’t be valued or as pure.”

Outsiders are way too judgmental when it comes to how her parents handle her being absent from school. “My parents and I are the ones who know my school’s absences policy, how my teachers feel about my missing school, and what my grades look like — not anyone else.”

If she’s wearing a hat and it’s blocking your view at the shows, ask her to remove it and she will. “If you happen to be sitting behind me and you’d like to be able to see, just ask.”

Do you feel compelled to respond to Tavi’s defense?