Morning News Roundup for Christmas!

Merry Federal-Holiday-the-Existence-of-Which-Violates-the-Establishment-Clause-of-the-Constitution! And a Happy New Year!

The morning’s news:

Above the Law has announced its Lawyer of the Year, based on a reader poll. And it’s exactly who you’d expect…

Thomson Reuters reports that global deal volume dropped by one-third in 2008, and is expected to fall further next year…

Steven R. Gursky and lawyers from the Gursky Group are leaving Dreier LLP for New York’s Olshan Grundman…

Hastings College of the Law is forgoing some raises and scaling back on hiring, and has asked department heads to cut 5% from their current operating budgets…

Edward Ryan, a former partner at Holland & Knight, has been charged with bill padding on a multimillion-dollar lawsuit…