KAYE'S HEIRS APPARENT
Chief Judge Judith Kaye is not considered to be in any danger of losing her job, but the competition is already forming. Or the illusion of competition. Kaye wants to stay on for another two years in the top judicial post, until she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. Other names have been recommended to the Commission on Judicial Nomination, the New York Law Journal reports. Among them are a handful of partners from white-shoe firms, including George Carpinello of Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner Jeh Johnson; as well as Appellate Division, First Department Judge Richard Andrias.

SIDEWALK SUIT
We can’t resist this one . . . Both the New York Post and the Daily News play it huge on the front page: an antiques dealer is suing the homeless man who hangs out in front of his shop — for a cool $1 million. Karl Kemp filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court against three John Does and one Jane Doe, but the main target of the litigation is apparently one man who has taken up permanent residence over the warm grate in front of the shop at 833 Madison Avenue. Kemp says he has “nothing against the man” but complains that his clients have tripped over him.

 
PRO BONO IMBROGLIO
A few days ago Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson got on a radio show in Washington and blasted the law firms that are providing pro bono legal representation to the Guantánamo Bay detainees. He said the roster of elite firms would lose business as a result of their pro bono work. The New York Law Journal reports the story straight up: yesterday, Stimson apologized in a letter to the Washington Post. But the New York Sun seems to think that maybe he shouldn’t have. In an editorial, the Sun notes that, “one of the puzzles of the modern bar . . . is that representing convicted serial murders and rapists on appeal is considered ‘pro bono’ work, while representing corporations that actually employ people and provide needed goods in the economy is considered ‘selling out.’ ” The Sun appears on the fence about whether the detainees deserve “Red Cross visits, medical attention, white-shoe legal assistance, counseling by clergy that the American left insists on for Al Qaeda detainees.” Al Qaeda detainees? Perhaps the Sun should consider whether said detainees have been tried, and have actually been found be to members of Al Qaeda. That would be a start. 

GO AHEAD AND JUMP
Have parachute and willing judge. A man who was hauled into court for trying to take a leap off of the Empire State Building got a free pass yesterday from Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Ambrecht, the papers report (we're looking at The New York Times.) The judge threw out an indictment against Jeb Corliss, who was stopped by security guards when, with parachute in hand, he attempted to dive off of the famous building’s observation deck. As a professional BASE (Bridge, Antenna, Span, Earth) jumper, Corliss has taken more than a few dives — from the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, to name a few. Most importantly, according to Ambrecht, Corliss wasn’t putting anyone else in harms way. “To hold that defendant’s conduct rises to this level of blameworthiness is manifestly unjust and contrary to prevailing law,” Ambrecht wrote in his decision.