David Lat

{{infobox person

| name = David Lat

| image = DBL headshot square 2023.png

| caption = Lat in 2022

| birth_name = David Benjamin Lat

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1975|6|19}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| education = Harvard University (BA)
Yale University (JD)

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Lawyer
author
legal commentator

}}

| website = [https://davidlat.substack.com/ Original Jurisdiction]

| spouse = Zachary Baron Shemtob

| children = 2

}}

David Benjamin Lat (born June 19, 1975) is an American lawyer, author, and legal commentator. Lat is the founder of Above the Law, a website about law firms and the legal profession.

Lat attended Harvard University and Yale Law School. After law school, he worked as a law clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, became an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and later was an assistant U.S. attorney for the appeals division in the District of New Jersey.

Lat first began blogging anonymously for the judicial gossip blog "Underneath Their Robes," until he revealed his identity in a November 2005 interview with Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker. Shortly thereafter, Lat launched Above the Law, a website featuring news about law firms and the legal profession and legal gossip. In December 2014, Lat's debut novel, Supreme Ambitions was published.

Early life and education

David Lat is the son of Filipino doctors. He was born in Queens, New York.{{cite web |url=https://davidlat.substack.com/p/affirmative-action-is-going-down#footnote-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102130504/https://davidlat.substack.com/p/affirmative-action-is-going-down |archive-date=2022-11-02 |url-status=live |date=2022-11-01 |title=Affirmative Action Is Going Down—And It's A Good Thing Too |website=Original Jurisdiction |first=David |last=Lat |quote=By the way, I was born in Queens, New York—contrary to my Wikipedia entry, which claims I was born in Bergenfield, New Jersey, which is just a town I grew up in. }} He grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and Saddle River, New Jersey. While living in Saddle River, his neighbors included former President Richard M. Nixon. On Halloween, he would get a Halloween card and a handshake from the former president. Lat attended Regis High School in Manhattan, New York. Lat won the Villiger Tournament for extemporaneous speaking in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,{{cite web| access-date = March 22, 2020 | url=http://speechgeek.com/extemp/champions/national-circuit-tournament-champions/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130111000942/http://speechgeek.com/extemp/champions/national-circuit-tournament-champions/| url-status=usurped| archive-date=January 11, 2013|title=National Circuit Tournament Champions|work=Extemp Central}} as well as the 1992 NCFL Grand National Championship.

After high school, Lat attended Harvard University, where he studied English literature, wrote dozens of columns for The Harvard Crimson,{{cite web|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/writer/1947/David_B._Lat/page/1/|title=David B. Lat|work=Harvard Crimson}} and was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society.{{cite web|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/2/21/high-school-students-flock-to-annual/|title=High School Students Flock to Annual Debate Tournament|work=Harvard Crimson}} He graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.{{cite web|url=http://events.uchastings.edu/EventList.aspx?fromdate=9/1/2012&todate=6/28/2013&display=Month&type=public&eventidn=77&view=EventDetails&information_id=484|title=Legally Speaking Interview with David Lat|work=uchastings.edu}} He then attended Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and vice president of its Federalist Society chapter.{{cite web|url=http://www.yalelawjournal.org/masthead/volume-108|title=The Yale Law Journal – Masthead: Volume 108|work=yalelawjournal.org}} He graduated in 1999 with a Juris Doctor.

Legal career

After law school, Lat was a law clerk for judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1999 to 2000.{{Cite web |title=Interview with David Lat |url=https://www.maxraskin.com/interviews/david-lat |access-date=2022-04-25 |website=Interviews with Max Raskin |language=en-US}} He interviewed for a Supreme Court clerkship with justice Antonin Scalia, but was not offered a clerkship.{{cite magazine |first=Jeffrey |last=Toobin |author-link=Jeffrey Toobin |access-date=March 22, 2020 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/21/051121ta_talk_toobin |title=Scotus Watch |magazine=The New Yorker |date=November 21, 2005}}{{cite web |last1=Lat |first1=David |title=Justice Scalia And Me: A Love Story |url=https://abovethelaw.com/2016/02/justice-scalia-and-me-a-love-story/ |work=Above the Law |access-date=June 14, 2024 |date=February 14, 2016}} He then entered private practice at the Manhattan law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. While at Wachtell, he worked on a fight over insurance payments for the World Trade Center on behalf of Wachtell's client Larry Silverstein. One Wachtell partner noted that he seemed very unhappy in the drudgery of litigation.

After leaving Wachtell, Lat took a job in the appeals division of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and twice argued before Justice Samuel Alito in the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. When his blogging became public, he met with then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who praised his blog. At the end of 2005, Lat left his job at the U.S. Attorney's office.{{cite news | first=Jonathan |last=Miller | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/technology/22njCOVER.html | title= He Fought the Law. They Both Won | work = The New York Times | date = January 22, 2006 | access-date = March 22, 2020}} He reported that the resignation was his own choice, though his supervisor encouraged him to take any blogging opportunities afforded by his new celebrity.

Blogging

= Underneath Their Robes =

In June 2004, Lat anonymously started the website Underneath Their Robes (UTR), a gossip blog about the federal judiciary, under the pseudonym Article III Groupie, also known as A3G.{{efn|The pseudonym references Article Three of the United States Constitution, which establishes the federal judiciary.}} While Lat mentioned his background as a former federal judicial clerk from a top law school, he gave the readers the impression that the author was a female lawyer at a large law firm. The blog became widely popular when it conducted a poll on the "Superhotties of the Federal Judiciary",{{cite news | first=David A.|last= Kaplan | url = http://www.newsweek.com/id/54431 |title= Judges: Who's Fairest? | work= Newsweek|date= July 19, 2004 | access-date = March 22, 2020}} and several federal judges, including Alex Kozinski and Richard Posner, corresponded with Article III Groupie. The blog interviewed several judges and gained national media coverage in the wake of the 2005 United States Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts, Harriet Miers, and Samuel Alito. The blog also served as a clearinghouse for news and gossip about clerks for the Supreme Court, whom A3G called "the Elect."{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

In November 2005, Lat revealed A3G's identity in an interview with Jeffrey Toobin for the magazine The New Yorker. Lat said that "[t]he blog really reflects two aspects of my personality, I am very interested in serious legal issues as well as in fun and frivolous and gossipy issues. I can go from the Harvard Law Review to Us Weekly very quickly." After leaving the U.S. Attorney's office in January 2006, Lat became an editor of Washington, D.C., blog Wonkette (at the time, part of the Gawker Media network), formerly run by Ana Marie Cox.{{cite web | url = http://www.wonkette.com/politics/wonkette/letter-from-the-editors-politics-makes-strange-blogfellows-151416.php | title=Letter From the Editors: Politics Makes Strange Blogfellows | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060412222405/http://www.wonkette.com/politics/wonkette/letter-from-the-editors-politics-makes-strange-blogfellows-151416.php |archive-date=April 12, 2006 | publisher =Wonkette | date= January 30, 2006}}{{efn|Lat no longer actively posts on UTR, but the archives are available online.}}

= Above the Law =

In June 2006, Lat announced his decision to leave Wonkette in order to form a legal gossip blog with Dealbreaker's Elizabeth Spiers.[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/2006/07/02/shakeup-at-gawker-media-_e_24258.html Shakeup At Gawker Media: Jesse Oxfeld Out; Shuffle Across Blogs; Two Properties Up For Sale], The Huffington Post, July 2, 2006. In August 2006, this blog was founded as 'Above the Law'. In July 2008, he became the managing editor of Breaking Media, overseeing its stable of blogs out of its New York office.{{cite web|url=http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/07/david-lat-heads.html|title=David Lat Heads to New York – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times|work=typepad.com}} In December 2009, Lat announced that he would be returning to full-time writing and editing of Above the Law, after a new CEO and executive editor joined Breaking Media.{{cite web|url=http://abovethelaw.com/2009/12/above-the-law-and-breaking-media-continue-pursuit-of-world-domination/|title=Above the Law|date=December 10, 2009 }}

In 2012 Lat "broke the news that one of most prestigious law firms in the world, Dewey & LeBoeuf, which employed more than 1,300 attorneys in 12 countries in 2007, was on the verge of imploding."{{cite news|last=French|first=Alex|title=How Gossip Transformed the Legal Industry|url=http://www.details.com/culture-trends/career-and-money/201212/david-lat-above-the-law-legal|accessdate=March 25, 2014|newspaper=Details|date=December 12, 2012}} Business Insider named Lat one of the 20 biggest legal stars on Twitter, calling his Twitter feed a "treasure trove of law firm gossip, employment trends, stupid law student antics, and pretty much anything else concerning the legal industry."{{cite news|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/best-legal-twitter-accounts-2012-10?op=1|accessdate=March 25, 2014|newspaper=Business Insider|title=The 20 Biggest Legal Stars On Twitter|first=Abby|last=Rogers|date=October 17, 2012}}

In May 2019, Lat left Above the Law to become a managing director of the legal recruiting firm Lateral Link, although he continues to write biweekly columns for the website.{{Cite web|url=https://abovethelaw.com/2019/05/a-departure-memo-from-david-lat-leaving-abovethelaw-joining-lateral-link/|title=A Departure Memo, From David Lat|last=Lat|first=David|website=Above the Law|date=May 6, 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=December 12, 2019}}

= Original Jurisdiction =

In December 2020, Lat launched Original Jurisdiction, an online newsletter about law and the legal profession, with an interview of prominent litigator David Boies as his first story.{{Cite web|url=https://davidlat.substack.com/p/whats-going-on-at-boies-schiller|title=What's Going On At Boies Schiller Flexner?|last=Lat|first=David|website=Original Jurisdiction|date=December 3, 2020 |language=en-US|access-date=December 27, 2021}} In May 2021, Lat left Lateral Link and legal recruiting and returned to full-time writing, with Original Jurisdiction as his primary outlet.{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.com/2021/06/07/life-is-short-take-chances-david-lat-has-a-new-career-and-a-new-perspective-after-surviving-covid-19/|title='Life Is Short. Take Chances.': David Lat Has a New Career and a New Perspective After Surviving COVID-19|last=Grant|first=Jason|website=American Lawyer|language=en-US|access-date=December 27, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/pulse/articles/1387777|title='David Lat On Looking Through The Lens Of Legal Recruiting|last=Coe|first=Aebra|website=Law360|language=en-US|access-date=December 27, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/asked-and-answered-podcast-monthly-episode-141|title='A year after his COVID-19 recovery, Above the Law founder David Lat makes some big changes|last=Ward|first=Stephanie Francis|website=ABA Journal|language=en-US|access-date=December 27, 2021}} Paid subscriptions to Original Jurisdiction now represent his primary source of income.{{Cite web|url=https://davidlat.substack.com/p/all-rise-an-announcement-about-original|title='All Rise! An Announcement About Original Jurisdiction|last=Lat|first=David|website=Original Jurisdiction|date=May 5, 2021 |language=en-US|access-date=December 27, 2021}} As of May 2021, Lat's main writing outlet is Original Jurisdiction, which he describes as his "primary source of income."

Author and writing

Lat's writing has also appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times,{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/business/03fees.html | work=The New York Times | access-date = March 22, 2020 | title = When $1,000 an Hour Is Not Enough | date= October 3, 2020 | first= David | last = Lat }}{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/opinion/18lat.html | first= David | last = Lat |work =The New York Times | title = The Supreme Court's Bonus Babies | date= June 18, 2007 |access-date = March 22, 2020 }} The Wall Street Journal,{{cite web|access-date = March 22, 2020 | url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304410204579139582216434054|title=Book Review: 'The Partner Track' by Helen Wan|first=David |last=Lat|date=October 25, 2013|work=Wall Street Journal }} The Washington Post,{{cite news|access-date = December 27, 2021 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/09/my-near-death-experience-ventilator/|first=David |last=Lat|date=April 9, 2020|newspaper=Washington Post |title=Opinion - I spent six days on a ventilator with covid-19. It saved me, but my life is not the same. }} The Los Angeles Times,{{cite web|access-date = December 27, 2021 | url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-09/op-ed-people-ask-me-if-ive-recovered-from-covid-19-thats-not-an-easy-question-to-answer|first=David |last=Lat| title=Op-Ed: People ask me if I've recovered from COVID-19. That's not an easy question to answer|date=July 9, 2020|work=Los Angeles Times }}{{cite web|access-date = December 27, 2021 | url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-12-22/bidens-judicial-nominations-diversity-federal-courts|first=David |last=Lat| title=Op-Ed: Biden's flurry of nominations will bring generations of diversity to federal courts|date=December 22, 2021|work=Los Angeles Times }} Slate,{{cite web|access-date = December 27, 2021 | url=https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/covid-hospital-bill-insurance.html|title=I Didn't Have to Pay a Penny of My $320,000 COVID-19 Hospital Bill. Is That a Good Thing?|first=David |last=Lat|date=June 8, 2020|work=Slate }} New York Magazine, The New York Observer, and Washingtonian.

In 2014, Lat's debut novel, Supreme Ambitions, was favorably reviewed on release. It was the first work of fiction published by Ankerwycke, then a newly launched trade imprint of the American Bar Association.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/books/david-lats-supreme-ambitions-is-a-thriller-for-lawyers.html | work=The New York Times |accessdate = September 23, 2015| date= December 7, 2014| title= Pleasing the Court with Intrigue | first= Alexandra | last= Alter}} The novel details the rise of Audrey Coyne, a recent Yale Law School graduate who dreams of clerking for the U.S. Supreme Court, mirroring Lat's own former ambitions. After graduating from YLS, Audrey moves to the West Coast to clerk for a highly regarded appeals-court judge. According to a reviewer in The New York Times, "for an elite niche — consisting largely of federal judges and their clerks — Supreme Ambitions has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year."{{Cite news|last=Alter|first=Alexandra| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/books/david-lats-supreme-ambitions-is-a-thriller-for-lawyers.html|title=Pleasing the Court With Intrigue|date=December 7, 2014 |work=The New York Times|access-date=March 18, 2020}}

Personal life

Lat is gay. He is married to fellow lawyer Zachary Baron Shemtob. They were married by Judge J. Paul Oetken. Their son was born in October 2017 through a gestational surrogate.{{cite podcast| url= https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-loco-parent-i-s/id1544196195#episodeGuid=Buzzsprout-8381329| title=Episode 18: You Guys Are Such Dads!| website=In Loco Parent(i)s| host=Steve Vladeck and Karen Vladeck| date=April 22, 2021| access-date=April 22, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=http://registry.thebump.com/zachary-baron-shemtob-david-lat-october-2017/21833490?lt=BabyRegistryProfile&a=1090&st=SocialProfile&ss=Facebook&sp=TextLink|title=Zach Shemtob & David Lat's Baby Registry on The Bump|website=registry.thebump.com|access-date=2020-03-18}} He is named after Justice Harlan.

On March 17, 2020, Lat announced he was infected with COVID-19.{{cite tweet | user = DavidLat | first= David | last= Lat | number = 1239765732088479744 | date = March 17, 2020 | title= FYI - I have a confirmed case of #covid19 aka #coronavirus. If you interacted with me in person after 2/23, you can cite that fact and get automatically tested. Otherwise you might have to go to the ridiculous efforts I had to in order | access-date = March 22, 2020}} He was listed in critical condition, intubated in a hospital in New York City as of March 20,{{cite news | url = https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2020/03/21/david-lat-is-put-on-ventilator-as-his-covid-19-condition-worsens/ |first= Jason | last = Grant| title= David Lat Put on Ventilator, in Critical Condition With COVID-19 Infection |work= New York Law Journal | access-date = March 22, 2020 | date= March 21, 2020}} but his condition improved substantially by March 28.{{cite news | url = https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/03/29/david-lat-transferred-out-of-icu-taken-off-ventilator-in-coronavirus-fight/ |title= David Lat Transferred Out of ICU, Taken Off Ventilator in Coronavirus Fight | work= National Law Journal | first=Jason |last= Grant |date= March 29, 2020 | access-date = March 30, 2020}} He was discharged from NYU Langone on April 1.{{cite news|url=https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/above-the-law-founder-david-lat-being-discharged-from-the-hospital-COVID-19|title=Above the Law founder David Lat is being discharged after COVID-19 battle|last=Weiss|first=Debra Cassens|work=ABA Journal|date=April 2, 2020|accessdate=April 4, 2020}} On April 6, 2020, he was interviewed on the Today show and The Rachel Maddow Show about his experience.{{cite web |title=Man who survived a week on a ventilator tells his coronavirus story |url=https://www.today.com/video/man-who-survived-a-week-on-a-ventilator-tells-his-coronavirus-story-81679941823 |publisher=Today.com |accessdate=April 7, 2020 |date=April 6, 2020}}{{cite web |title=COVID-19 TRANSCRIPT: 4/6/20, The Rachel Maddow Show |url=https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/rachel-maddow-show/2020-04-06-msna1346201 |publisher=msnbc.com |accessdate=April 7, 2020 |date=April 6, 2020}}

Lat lives in Summit, New Jersey.