Law Roundtable

The Lede blog (New York Times) has a post on Sonia Morphew Pitt, Minnesota's Department of Transportation's director of homeland security and emergency management when the I-35 bridge collapsed. Pitt had appealed to get her job back; given her "performance"...

In an earlier post, I pointed out that the Texas authorities were being deliberately dishonest by making statements about how many girls of what age were pregnant or mothers while refusing to accept birth ceritificates as evidence of age. They have now conceded that both of ...

She was hot when she came to the colonies last year, according to salacious gossip. No stranger to the bar, Ruthie hosts Blawg Review next at Ruthie's Law.

Five-lawyer Boston law firm Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan has transformed itself from the products liability firm that housed Jan Schlichtmann's toxic tort case immortalized in the movie "A Civil Action" into a prominent plaintiffs firm in the vaccine bar. But it hasn't been an easy ride. Partner Kevin Conway and ...

Immigration and civil rights law expert Kevin R. Johnson has been named dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law, making him the first Latino to head a law school in the University of California system. Johnson, who currently serves as associate dean for academic affairs, co-manages and ...

Commercial partner Peter Valert has taken over as managing partner of DLA Piper's Prague office. Valert -- who also heads up the 12-lawyer Sofia, Bulgaria, office and leads the Central and Eastern European technology, media and commercial practice -- replaces Joerg Nuernberger in the management role. Valert, a former legal ...

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court considered last week whether a person looking at a book in a library is analogous to a person downloading files from the Internet and whether the person is in "control" of the material. The comparison came in the case of a man who is challenging his sexual ...

Dorsey & Whitney plans to open an office in Sydney this year, with London-based capital markets partner John Chrisman set to transfer to Australia to head up the new branch. The office will be staffed by a handful of U.S. capital markets lawyers and will provide an additional base for ...

A man who wrote hundreds of hateful letters to black and mixed-race men seen with white women apparently was motivated by a girlfriend who left him for a black man, the FBI said Friday. David Tuason admitted his motive when he was captured, said Frank Figliuzzi, the head of the ...

With a worldwide shortage of premium caviar due to a shrinking sturgeon population, some black market importers have turned to an American cousin: a prehistoric-looking river creature, the paddlefish. A Florida man is the latest to be accused of mislabeling the paddlefish and shipping it abroad, where it was allegedly ...

Once again, attorney and media guru Robert Ambrogi delivers the goods on where lawyers should click on the World Wide Web. You can build memory stronger than an elephant's, have the vision to search across the Internet, and develop the ability to virtually communicate from the afterlife.

A lawyer for Yahoo shareholders says Yahoo is seeking to conceal large portions of a suit alleging the company's board improperly thwarted Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover offer. In a letter sent Friday to the judge overseeing the case, the lawyer argued that Yahoo is trying "to whitewash embarrassing documents" because ...

CNN has not only lost its battle to keep from releasing unaired video footage subpoenaed by lawyers in a personal injury suit, but the news network's counsel also have been rapped for not requesting in camera review of the footage until after the judge ruled against them. U.S. District Judge ...

New York state is not entitled to a separate arbitration to determine whether it must contribute to a $1.1 billion adjustment the tobacco industry has won for payments it must make under a nationwide tobacco settlement, an appeals court has ruled, reversing a Manhattan judge. At issue is a determination ...

Peggy Noonan has a powerful essay in the Wall Street Journal on how Republican politicos in DC lost their way in the years of the Bush Presidency:...

When the U.S. Supreme Court reads the federal Constitution as barring certain kinds of laws -- especially state laws -- people often raise three related objections:...

Last week, I blogged Cindy McCain's refusal to release her separate tax returns, even if her husband is elected President. Media and blogosphere pressure is building on Mrs. McCain to release her returns: Huffington Post L.A. Times New York Observer...

* See Marley's Comment below for additional details for dinner and joining the group. We are quickly approaching the annual Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Conference this year in Montreal (May 29th - June 1st). As in previous years,...

The Hollywood Reporter had a story early this week that: A race discrimination lawsuit filed against SAG by its former director of affirmative action has been settled just days before the U.S. Supreme Court was to decide whether to review...

Do these descriptions fit your firm, or sound credible to you?

"Managing talent in global organization is more complex and demanding than it is in a national business." "The movement of employees between countries is still surprisingly limited." "Many people tempted to relocate fear that ...

Some defenders of the California Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision have argued that it's actually consistent with the democratic process, because the California legislature had twice enacted same-sex marriage, and the...

France’s public broadcaster, France 2, has sued blogger-media critic, Philippe Karsenty, for libel. The lawsuit centers on Karsenty’s allegation that the scene, which France 2 broadcast in September 2000, of twelve-year...

I previously blogged Dean Saul Levmore's decision to pull Internet access out of the University of Chicago's law school classrooms (as well as Doonesbury's great take on the issue). Ian Ayres (Yale), who launched the anti-laptops in the classroom movement...

Johann K. Brunner & Susanne Pech (both of University of Linz, Department of Economics) have posted Optimum Taxation of Inheritances on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We incorporate the fact that inheritances create a second distinguishing characteristic of individuals, in...

We were unable to give people the heads up on this conference before it happened because we were unaware of it, but thankfully Jon Forman (Oklahoma) was able to send us information about the symposium. The 2008 Symposium: The Future...

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol The College of Europe's Global Competition Law Centre will hold its 4th Annual conference on June 19-20, 2008 at the Hilton Hotel, Boulevard de Waterloo 38, 1000 Brussels. Details are available here. Speakers include: Jacques...

The Wall Street Journal today has a wonder front page story on developments in the study of financial bubbles. (Justin Lahart does a marvelous job) The problem is in the recommended solution by the new scholars: More government interference. A...

After a quick trip to Helsinki, London and Madrid, I'm off to Orlando to speak at an attorney retreat. I've also been (draft) blogging up a storm, so look for some cool stuff next week. Thanks for waiting!

Matt

Responding to an NGO Monitor Report accusing Human Rights Watch of anti-Israel bias (a topic that has been covered here before), HRW's Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson

Securities class action filings have increased. Although one would expect the subprime mess to create fertile ground for securities class action plaintiffs, a number of countervailing factors have ensured that it is ultimately the plaintiffs who have been drawing the short straw. Chadbourne & Parke partner Scott Balber describes recent ...

A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide. Lori Drew, who allegedly helped create a MySpace account to convince the girl she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy, was charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining ...

Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano was convicted Thursday on federal racketeering and other charges for digging up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and contract disputes against the rich and famous. Pellicano was convicted of all but one of the 77 counts against him. A number ...

Hong Kong is set to introduce cross-border competition laws, with the government kicking off a three-month consultation process on May 6. The consultation, the second on the subject, is set to end on Aug. 5, with the government then planning to introduce a bill during the 2008-09 legislative session. The ...

The crews are in place. White papers are being drafted. And with the presidential election less than six months away, the three presidential candidates -- or their surrogates -- are already thinking about how the Justice Department might look under a new administration. And so far, most of what the ...

Joining a number of other law firms that have shortened their names in recent years, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan is now going by the one-word name Sutherland for everyday usage, as part of a rebranding project that also includes a new logo and updated Web site. One change that didn't ...

A part-time actress and elementary school teacher has won her bid to remain anonymous in a $5 million suit against a jewelry company that she claims violated her civil rights by using her image in an Internet ad with a "decidedly pornographic look." Acting Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich ...

Good thing for Alex Kozinski the federal claims court was run in the early 1980s by a certain judge named Alex Kozinski. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chief judge reached back to his salad days this week for a precedent that would allow him to impose sanctions on ...

Most in-house counsel know the types of inquiries that should trigger evidence preservation or collection protocols. Once there is reason to believe there will be litigation or investigation, the duty to preserve kicks in immediately. But what's next? IE Discovery's Stacy Jackson and Jennifer Scrafford provide 10 questions that in-house ...

A suit filed Thursday seeks to halt the "illegal and outrageous" attempt by New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli to strip state public pension credits from lawyers who did work for school districts and other government entities. The plaintiffs -- attorneys who received pension ...

Akerman Senterfitt is close to consummating a merger with a 300-lawyer Philadelphia-based firm that would broaden its national platform, according to sources familiar with the talks. Akerman's executive committee could soon vote on the deal to combine Akerman with Wolf Block, said sources who asked not to be named. One ...

California's Supreme Court, perhaps the most influential state tribunal in the U.S., struck down California's ban on gay marriage on Thursday, setting off a torrent of comment and political action. Foes immediately promised to launch a November ballot initiative to reverse the ruling. And while the politicians jockeyed for position, ...

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Keith Hylton of BU Law School brings us The Law and Economics of Monopolization Standards. ABSTRACT: This chapter provides a survey of the law and literature on monopolization. The focus is American law, but the...

The program and participants list for the Federalist Society Consumer Credit Protection Conference has been updated. The program will be Tuesday May 20 at the National Press Club. Information and registration...

Ajay Gupta has posted Who's at Risk? Abbot and Costello Take on Section 465 on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Hello again, everybody. It's a "bee-yooo-tiful" day for baseball. The setting is the unlikely state of Wyoming. Taking the field...

A fractured Tax Court refused to reconsider its holding in Ewing v. Commissioner, 122 T.C. 32 (2004), holding that the determination of whether a taxpayer is entitled to innocent spouse relief under § 6015(f) is made in a trial de...

Bobby L. Dexter (Chapman) has published Shock, Awe, & Expropriation: The Act of State Doctrine and Loss Deductions Under Section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code, 82 Tul. L. Rev. 849 (2008). Here is the abstract: The Act of State...

Late last year, Jammie Thomas was found guilty by a Minnesota jury of pirating music and violating the record companies' copyrights in that music, and ordered to pay $220,000.  Next month, she may get a new trial.Ruling from the bench right before the October 2007 trial, U.S. District Court Judge ...

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Commissioner William Kovacic of the FTC provides a Review of Antitrust Stories (Eleanor Fox and Dan Crane, editors, Foundation Press 2007). ABSTRACT: In the eye of the historian, published judicial decisions are badly incomplete accounts...