A few items of interest to the CodeX crowd:

From The American Lawyer
Bad and good news from the New York City Bar Association: “Minorities and women continue to leave law firms in New York at a higher rate than white males, but the percentage of women partners hit a new peak in 2014, and representation of both groups on management committees and as heads of practice groups improved,” according to the NYCBA’s latest diversity report.  —Hat Tip, Bloomberg Big Law Business.

From The New York Times
• “Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive,” Vindu Goel & Mike Isaac.
• “Business Technology Starts to Get Personal,” Quentin Hardy.

From Above the Law
• “4 Ways Law Firms Can ‘Lean In’,”  Renwei Chung (ATL columnist).

From Bloomberg Big Law Business
• “Combating the Insider Threat,” by Judy Selby (partner, Baker & Hostetler) and Austin Berglass (senior managing director at K2 Intelligence).
• The latest episode of the series about Blockchains from Holland & Knight’s  Joe Dewey (partner) and Shawn Amuial (associate).

From The Recorder
• “NetApp’s IP Chief Jumps to Software Company,” David Ruiz.
• “Conti to Step Down After Four Decades on NDCAL Bench,” Ross Todd.

A personal note: Congratulations to U.S. District Senior Judge Samuel Conti on his retirement. In my one and only experience participating in a trial, he was the judge in “Brocklesby v. U.S.,” about a World Airways crash in Cold Bay, Alaska. I was a paralegal for Abramson & Smith and we were in the middle of the trial when I was admitted to the California bar.

Conti has a great sense of humor, as evidenced in Todd’s report: “As for the timing of his decision, Conti said, ‘I’m 93 years old. What do you expect me to do? Do it another 15 years? I could do it another 15. But why?’”That morning, my boss, Albert Abramson, notified Conti that I as not in court due to the ceremony. When I returned to the courtroom, Conti took the time to congratulate me—on the record—and the entire courtroom warmly applauded me. I will never forget that day—and Conti’s and Abramson’s tremendous kindness.

I wish Judge Conti a very long and very happy retirement!