This little exchange occurred during oral arguments. The court was so appalled that they transcribed the conversation into a footnote so that it would be forever recorded in American legal history (footnote 4 on page 14).
Phipps: . . . so that’s about all I have to say, Your Honor. I don’t have anything other than that. You know, my client lives in Chicago. We communicate occasionally on the phone, she sent me the documents. And um, she’s a doctor. She continues to earn a living, and she’s generally unavailable if you call her because she, she’s sort of a traveling doctor.
Judge: That’s not much of thing you come in here and tell us, I guess.
Phipps: Well, my attitude is, the [district court] judge got it right . . . . And as far as whether even Ricks should apply, I don’t think it should.
Judge: What do you do about Morgan?
Phipps: I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know Morgan, Your Honor.
Judge: You don’t know Morgan?
Phipps: Nope.
Judge: You haven’t read it?
Phipps: I try not to read that many cases, your Honor. Ricks is the only one I read. Oh, Ledbetter, I read Ledbetter, and I read that one that they brought up last night. I don’t know if that’s not Ledbetter, I can’t remember the name of it. Ricks is the one that I go by; it’s my North star. Either it applies or it doesn’t apply. I don’t think it applies.
Judge: I must say, Morgan is a case that is directly relevant to this case. And for you representing the Plaintiff to get up here—it’s a Supreme Court case—and say you haven’t read it. Where did they teach you that?
Phipps: They didn’t teach me much, Your Honor.
Judge: At Tulane, is it?
Phipps: Loyola.
Judge: Okay. Well, I must say, that may be an all time first.
Phipps: That’s why I wore a suit today, Your Honor.
Judge: Alright. We’ve got your attitude, anyway.
Here is the link to the decision: 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
11 comments:
My goodness, bench-slapped by the 5th Circuit!!! Whew, I wonder if my fave judge, Judge Reavley, was the judge who made the judicial call-out. I love him.
Sadly, I lost my place in New Orleans to several folks from that stellar law school. Darn that grading curve...
The Dean of Loyola in NOLA sent out an email today to ensure that everyone knows it was Loyola of Chicago. But, some alumni of NOLA are disagreeing, commenting that they went to school with him in New Orleans. Personally, I'm more apt to believe the Dean, but it is a bit of a controversy and I don't know the definitive answer. The lawyer's bio on the ABA website says Chicago.
Yeah, I saw that, too. But an update to the lawyer's Martindale profile shows no law school at all now. I personally am inclined to believe that it was LoyNO.
And I say that because I have a general mistrust of law school deans. ;o)
I made a mistake: the email saying that the lawyer was from Chicago was from the Career Services Office, not from the Dean - so you can trust it now.
Frankly, the conversation makes little sense if the guy went to Chicago. The court they are standing in is in New Orleans. The judge asks if he went to Tulane (a New Orleans law school). The lawyer responds, "No, Loyola." The context of the conversation strongly indicates that it is the New Orleans school.
However, that argument premise is based on the assumption that the lawyer was having a logical conversation with the judge- which really may not have been the case.
I just had a little chat with my very good friend who is currently at LoyNO. She says that the student body did receive e-mails stating that he was not one of theirs, but that the professors are admitting that he IS one of theirs and using him as a cautionary tale. She is also deeply concerned about the Bar right now, as their last class' bar passage rate was in the 60's. Ouch.
And I didn't get an offer. Boy, do I feel small.
That's really sad that a school would lie to disassociate itself from a graduate.
Case solved: Phipps DID go to Loyola in New Orleans.
The author of the "Legal Profession Blog" has this to say:
"This morning, I received an email from the registrar at Loyola-Chicago confirming that Mr. Phipps did not attend their law school. The email added that the registrar had further contacted Loy.-N.O., which emailed her to 'confirm that a Roger D. Phipps is a 1990 graduate of Loyola University New Orleans' after all."
And I keep feeling smaller.
See, that was a blatant attempt to get you to tell me again how awesome I am and how badly they screwed up. Remember that game?
I had lunch with a mutual friend of ours today, and we came to the conclusion that I am the Rachel Ray of the legal world. Entertaining for about three episodes, and then the sound of my voice makes people feel oddly hostile...
Sorry, I dropped the ball. LindaJ, you've got brains and personality. You have the most incredible resume of anyone I know. Any firm that does not roll out the red carpet for you is making a serious mistake.
Yeah, yeah.
See, the way this used to work was me convincing you that the sky was not falling, and you convincing me that I'm a halfway decent attorney. But you don't seem to think the sky is falling anymore...
Don't you have exams coming up here soon???
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