And We're Back!

Ok, folks. I know you're mad that we disappeared for so long, and you were all convinced that CE was just another random blog that didn't make it past the 6 month mark.

Boy were you wrong.

The bar is over (for the first time, at least), and the CE editorial staff is all graduated-up and everything. Tim had his baby. Well, Tim's wife. You know what I mean. So, it's back to the business of blogging. (I know, I know, we've talked about alliteration...)

Now, as always, we're not making any promises about frequency, but if you notice a lag in between posts, just know it's for a very good reason. In fact, be prepared for your fledgling, little employment law outpost to start taking its first steps towards manhood (no offense, ladies) in the coming weeks. Besides, if you're solely relying on this blog for your daily entertainment or news, then you can't be too worried about staying on top of things in the first place.

So, things may disappear, new things may start showing up, just keep your eyes open, and look for invitations to our coming out party in the mail.

Anyway, say hi to the boys when you see them. Nobody calls me anymore...

More After the Jump...

Pulling Back the Curtain for Some Congratulations...

We try very hard around here to maintain some journalistic distance, so as to fool some of you into thinking we're a viable source of news, but January has proven to be a pretty full month, and some personal acknowledgements are in order.

First, I just wanted to thank everyone for your thoughts and very kind words these past couple of weeks as my family got one baby bigger. My wife, Katie, did give birth to a baby boy on January 23. Both Katie and our new son, Leo are doing very well. He was born on his due date, which is a good sign, we thnk. Also, because he came on time, his 37th birthday will be 1/23/45, which is pretty awesome.

Leo partied a little too hard on the way out and is spending some time in the NICU at Northwestern's Prentice Women's Hospital recovering (read: flirting with the nurses). We owe them a lot of thanks, and this is my most public outlet, so I'm using the blog to thank our doctor and everyone at NW for all their hardwork and patience with us as new parents.

Also, the CE staff has become significantly more credentialled, as all 3 of our current, active contributors graduated from John Marshall on 1/27. Aaron Janik, Chad DeGroot and I all received JDs and Chad was crazy enough to get his LL.M in Employee Benefits at the same frigging time. Congratulations to everyone - just one test and we can start living the dream...

Once again, thanks for letting me toot my horn. Regular CE operations (which, let's be honest, is almost an oxymoron) will resume soon (like tomorrow) with some even bigger changes coming down the pike, so keep a lookout. In the meantime, feel free to add your own congratulations to Chad or Aaron or myself (or Barack Obama or anyone, really) in the comments if you want to.

More After the Jump...

No New Posts? Tim is "Busy"

Hello, everyone. We just wanted to let you know there may not be a post for a while - anyone who has read Tim's profile (or talked to him for 30 seconds) knows his wife, Katie is pregnant.

Well, she was.

At 9:05AM on January 23, Leo Ryan Eavenson was born, and Katie and the baby are both doing well. Tim is, of course, using the excuse to hang out and not do any real work or studying for the bar exam, part of that laziness being that he will not be posting to Current Employment until everyone is home and well and no longer useful as a justifiable excuse.

In the meantime, here are some interesting stories on the state of law firm employment.

Enjoy, and we'll try to get Tim off his butt long enough to post some pics asap.

More After the Jump...

What Day is It? October?

So, we've all been a little busy. Ok, well maybe you haven't, but we have. Thankfully, the CE staff (who take a remarkable amount of overlapping classes) will all be done with finals by the end of the day. The bad news is, we maybe missed some things, as yesterday's post proves. So, as editor I'm making it my responsibility to clean up the clutter.

To that end, I am hereby declaring the second-to-last week of December

Current Employment Ketchup Catchup Week!

Obviously, if something big comes down the pike, we'll cover it, but for the rest of the week, we'll be devoting the majority of our blog space to some of the stories we missed the past few weeks (months, whatever).

So if you have any suggestions on stories we should have covered (or any other ways we could've legitimized ourselves and didn't) feel free to shoot me an email. Unless it's about benefits, in which case, tell Chad. Or sports or entertainment - that's Aaron.

More After the Jump...

Maintaining Radio Silence...

Sorry for the delay in posts.

The CE staff is in the throes of its final finals season ever. You know we will allways try to keep you as up-to-date as possible on all the L&E news we can, but we'd also like to do it without failing out of school a month before graduation.

Thanks for your patience.

More After the Jump...

Plea^se S!!tand## By-/...

Before you email, we know our clever Halloween logo is still up there, even though today is All Saints Day (in our defense, it's also Dia De Los Muertos, but we admit Edgar Allen Poe doesn't exactly fit with Mexican tradition), and we don't have any posts yet today.

[this is where the "technical difficulties" artwork would normally go]

CE's regular locale is experiencing some serious internet deficiencies today which have effectively eliminated our ability to post any links, change any pictures or get any real work done.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Tim will be at the Argo Cafe on Dearborn and Monroe this afternoon around 2 pm to put up some posts and change the logo, if anyone wants to stop by and say hello.

More After the Jump...

Get with the Program!

Are you an attorney, union rep, professor or anyone else with an eye on the labor market and something to say?

Current Employment will be looking for articles, blog posts, inside tipsters, informants, snitches, and anybody who can lead us to current job-related law issues, particularly in the Chicagoland area. If you've got something to say (or just something you want us to say for you) drop us a line @ lels.admin@gmail.com and tell us about you/it/whatever.

Can't wait to hear from you!

More After the Jump...

this is only a test...

UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

This blog will open up sometime late summer/early fall. We will have posts from practicioners, students and academics from every side of the political and ideological spectra on topics as wide and varied as the practice of labor and employment law itself.

We will discuss traditional labor, harassment and discrimination, benefits and compensation, and current/pending cases. So, stay tuned!

And pardon the mess - nothing on this blog will look like this when we open**. Just reserving the space until the bells and whistles can be decided on.

Thanks!

**Update-- Ok, we've edited the page. This is pretty much how it will look when we open. If you don't like it, you can let us know in the comments.

More After the Jump...

Disclaimer Explanation

Current Employment is a labor and employment blog founded by a few guys when they were students at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. It was originally conceived as an official publication of the School, via its Labor and Employment Law Society, and its "staff" consists mainly of very hard-working JMLS students.

We love John Marshall. We love its old building that used to be a department store or a men's club, depending on who you talk to. We love the school's commitment to night classes and part-time students, and its founding principle of giving every hard-luck dope who's willing to bust their ass a chance to prove they're worthy of the Bar. We love the professors. Mostly. Point is, we think our JMLS education puts us (at least) on a level playing field with any kid throwing his tassles at Columbia or Yale or Michigan. But law schools are cautious institutions, especially those with an unfortunate ladder to climb.

We think a good publication can be both smarmy and smart, and we see a great distinction between irreverence and irrelevance. But we know that schools can't always afford the luxury of risk, and it was important to us for posts and comments to be disseminated quickly and with the least amount of editing or censorship possible. More importantly, as was pointed out by a Dean that we greatly respect, student organizations have profound institutional amnesia, and we couldn't bear to leave our baby in the hands of an undeserving second generation that would run it into the ground. For these reasons, the editors and contributors, who happen to be John Marshall students and alumni, decided that it would be in their best interests to run the blog outside the academic context.

So we are on our own, adrift in the legal community for the first time, really. Go easy on us, huh? It's not like we went to Harvard.

Sincerely,

The CE Staff

More After the Jump...