Law Roundtable
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March 12, 2010, 9:44 am, 665431
Neil H. Buchanan (George Washington), Is the IRS the Most Trustworthy Agency in the Country? Even Republicans Seem to Think So: [M]y claim here is that, if one looks carefully at the role that the IRS is repeatedly asked to play in our society, it is evident that politicians across...
March 12, 2010, 9:44 am, 665430
The International Legal Technology Association’s Knowledge Management Peer Group is conducting its biennial knowledge management survey to probe the trends, hot topics and development of KM in the legal industry.�
Survey results will be published in the KM White Paper, scheduled for June. ILTA encourages all legal organizations to submit ...
March 12, 2010, 9:43 am, 665429
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Douglas D. Davis (Department of Economics, VCU School of Business) has a paper on Advance Production, Inventories and Market Power: An Experimental Investigation. ABSTRACT: This paper reports an experiment conducted to assess the effects of...
March 12, 2010, 7:44 am, 665376
Wall Street Journal editorial, Maryland's Mobile Millionaires: Income Tax Rates Go Up, Rich Taxpayers Vanish: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is the latest Democrat to demand a tax increase, this week proposing to raise the state's top marginal individual income tax rate to 4% from 3%. He'd better hope this works...
March 12, 2010, 7:44 am, 665375
Two more handfuls of embedded metaposts and their back references (See my post of Feb. 22, 2010: Part XLIII), conjointly with the number of their back references. 1. 3M (See my post of March 2, 2010: 3M Corporation with 7...
March 12, 2010, 5:44 am, 665332
This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked left-leaning political bloggers “If Congress enacts something close to President Obama’s latest health care reform plan, how would that affect the Democratic Party in the midterm elections?” The right-leaning bloggers were asked the same question about the effect on Republicans. On ...
March 12, 2010, 5:44 am, 665330
Allen D. Madison (University of Navarra, School of Law) has posted The Tension between Textualism and Substance-Over-Form Doctrines in Tax Law, 43 Santa Clara L. Rev. 699 (2003), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article discusses the tension that exists between the recent textualist approach taken in the U.S....
March 12, 2010, 5:44 am, 665331
Charles R.T. O'Kelley (Seattle) has posted several of his tax papers on SSRN: The Parenting Tax Penalty: A Framework for Income Tax Reform, 64 Or. L. Rev. 375 (1986) Tax Policy for Post Liberal Society: A Flat Tax Inspired Redefinition of the Purpose and Ideal Structure of a Progressive Income...
March 12, 2010, 5:43 am, 665329
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Today I am in New York to present at a conference at Fordham Law School on New Ideas for Limiting Bank Size - the Murphy Conference on Corporate Law. Most papers are by non-antitrust people...
March 12, 2010, 3:44 am, 665305
From Judge Reinhardt’s 133-page dissent in the pledge-of-allegiance case, Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District, the first dissent I have ever read that comes with a table of contents:
For many Americans, the current version of the Pledge is the only version they have ever known. Some individuals ...
March 12, 2010, 3:43 am, 665304
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Philippe Aghion, Richard Blundell, Rachel Griffith, Peter Howitt, and Susanne Prantl address The effects of entry on incumbent innovation and productivity. ABSTRACT: How does firm entry affect innovation incentives in incumbent firms? Microdata suggest that...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665267
While welcomed by the Haitian-American community, the temporary protected status granted by the Obama administration to Haitians living in the United States is turning out to have its pitfalls, say attorneys and paralegals. Among the problems: The status is good for only 18 months. After that, they say, what are ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665265
Chefs and restaurant owners have been opening new eateries in Oakland, Calif., right through the recession, and lawyers have been eager for a seat at the table. Local firms like Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean are stepping up their marketing efforts and plumbing their personal networks to raise their profiles. ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665266
Within the big pyramid that is the law firm are many little pyramids, each topped by a rainmaker, notes the Rodent. And it's vital that an associate cultivate one of these "pharaohs" who will advocate for him or her. An orphan associate is an eternal associate, says the Rodent.
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665263
A law firm that engaged a retiring judge in employment talks while he presided over one of its cases is not liable for damages to the other party, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Wednesday. The appeals court affirmed the dismissal of legal malpractice and deprivation of due process counts ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665264
A New York jury this week convicted the business partner of a Long Island lawyer who was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Korean restaurant in October 2008 for arranging the hit. Ronald Thornton was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the death of James ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665260
Montgomery Blair Sibley, best known for his representation of the late
"D.C. Madam," had his law license suspended for three years by the D.C.
Court of Appeals on Thursday. The court's decision is a reciprocal
disciplinary sanction that stems from a 2008 decision by Florida's
Supreme Court to pull Sibley's license in that state ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665261
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday appointed former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye to take over his office's investigations of Gov. David Paterson for possibly misusing police personnel to intervene in an aide's domestic violence case and for improperly accepting Yankees tickets. Having concluded that an immediate resolution ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665262
The D.C. Circuit on Thursday declined to rehear a major case on the rights of street demonstrators, sparking a worried dissent from one judge that the decision could have a chilling effect on political expression. The circuit let stand a ruling from November, in which a three-judge panel found that ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665257
The Federal Circuit has offered more guidance on willful patent infringement in a revised ruling in i4i Limited Partnership v. Microsoft Corp. The ruling upheld a lower court's $290 million patent judgment against Microsoft and found that Microsoft must stop selling an infringing version of Microsoft Word 2007. The holding ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665259
The independent examiner's report investigating the collapse of Lehman Brothers is out, and the snippets making early headlines suggest that the examiner, Jenner & Block Chairman Anton Valukas, spreads the blame around in a thorough 2,200-page report. The report, which cost $38 million to produce, points a finger at JPMorgan ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665256
Both appointed to the 9th Circuit in 1979 as part of a historic reshaping of the court, Stephen Reinhardt and Dorothy Nelson parted ways Thursday as Nelson handed Reinhardt a bitter defeat by siding with conservative Judge Carlos Bea in an opinion upholding the words "under God" in the Pledge ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665258
A settlement has been reached by New York City and its contractors with plaintiffs in the more than 9,000 cases involving respiratory and other illnesses suffered by police, firefighters and workers who responded to the World Trade Center terror attacks and cleaned up the site. A federal judge is set ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665255
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to adopt four articles of impeachment against Eastern District of Louisiana Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr., wrapping up a wide-ranging investigation into allegations that Porteous took cash and gifts from lawyers and lied in his own bankruptcy case. The stage is set for ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665254
When Kathleen Sullivan began practicing law about 30 years ago, there were no female litigation partners practicing at big firms. On Thursday, capping a career that has also included stints as a Harvard Law School professor and the dean of Stanford Law School, Sullivan became a name partner at Quinn ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665253
The Justice Department unlawfully recorded privileged phone calls between former Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., and his lawyers during an insurance fraud probe, a federal magistrate judge in Arizona ruled Thursday in recommending the recordings be suppressed. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco found that prosecutors made false statements to the supervising judge, ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665252
The regulatory and legal landscape for data privacy is changing rapidly. Although these changes have not garnered much attention, say attorneys Satish M. Kini and Thomas S. Wyler, they deserve careful consideration by in-house counsel, privacy compliance staff and IT departments.
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665251
Cutting-edge questions in the First Amendment arena have recently stemmed from clashes between students and school districts over limits put on speech posted on social networking sites. Now lawyers on both sides of the issue are urging the 3rd Circuit to vacate two seemingly conflicting decisions by two different three-judge ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665249
Robert Ruyak, Howrey's managing partner, confirmed Thursday that the firm plans to cut between 20 and 30 partners. The firm's profits per partner dropped 35 percent in 2009, and the acquisition of high-profile laterals created internal client conflicts that hurt some partners, sources say. Ruyak says that the hope is ...
March 12, 2010, 1:44 am, 665250
What may have been a case of oversharing on the part of a DLA Piper associate has dragged the firm into court to defend a legal malpractice lawsuit. Former client George Sutton & Associates, a San Diego software company, claimed in a complaint filed on Tuesday that DLA Piper unlawfully ...
March 11, 2010, 11:44 pm, 665226
Above the Law comments, apropos the prostitution advertising case, “If you need advertisements to help point you in the direction of prostitutes in a state where prostitution is legal, then something is wrong with your wang.”
And this reminds me of one of my favorite jokes. A man ...
March 11, 2010, 11:44 pm, 665225
in a 60-page opinion (Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School Dist.) by Judge Bea, joined by Judge D.W. Nelson; Judge Reinhardt dissents, in a 133-page opinion.
Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer.
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March 11, 2010, 11:44 pm, 665224
From a speech on health care by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (caught by The Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web). Here’s the context:
You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you ...
March 11, 2010, 11:43 pm, 665223
Crooked Christoper Dodd, who is leaving the Senate in shame after taking bribes from subprime pimp Angelo Mozilo, tried sneaking longtime friend and political ally Robert Chatigny into the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. �That nomination is now on hold, given�Chatigny's�ethically-questionable handling of a death penalty case.
David Ingram of the ...
March 11, 2010, 11:43 pm, 665222
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Skadden hosts The State of European Competition Law and Enforcement in a Transatlantic Context Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:00 a.m. | Registration 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Panel Discussions Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Skadden's...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 pm, 665203
From LaRue v. Matheney (S.D. W. Va. Mar. 4, 2010):
Plaintiff’s original 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint in this matter sought reinstatement of certain privileges revoked by MOCC as a result of plaintiff’s refusal to comply with the requirements of the prison’s sex offender treatment program. Plaintiff had previously ...
March 11, 2010, 9:43 pm, 665202
When you see this kind of headline,
I Spy With My Little Eye... Hotel Baker Gets $3 Million from Starwood you know that it is no doubt a complicated story. That it came at the end of a more than three week jury trial in federal court in NYC, ...
March 11, 2010, 7:44 pm, 665190
In today’s Coyote Publishing, Inc. v. Miller, the Ninth Circuit upheld Nevada’s restrictions on advertising legal prostitution; the opinion is long and has much interesting material, but here’s the heart of the analysis:
Increased advertising of commercial sex throughout the state of Nevada would increase the extent to which ...
March 11, 2010, 7:43 pm, 665189
Do any professional writers answer e-mails in the middle of sentence composition? �Certainly no good ones. �Compare a blog posting by a decent writer like Megan McArdle with a magazine article in Esquire. �The quality of writing in Esquire is superior, because it's the product of sustained focus. �Magical things ...
March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665128
From a job posting at the City College of San Francisco:
RE: INSTRUCTOR – ASTRONOMY (GENERAL) ...
EMPLOYMENT QUALIFICATIONS: (State Minimum Requirements) ...
2. Earned Master’s Degree in Physics, Astronomy, or Astrophysics from an accredited institution; OR THE EQUIVALENT; OR ... Hold a fully-satisfied LIFE California Community College Instructor Credential in ...
March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665127
Earlier today the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the first of four articles of impeachment against federal district court Judge Thomas Porteous of Louisiana, the Times-Picayune reports.
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March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665126
reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. I take it from the story that the articles of impeachment were approved without amendment; I quote them below.
RESOLUTION
Impeaching G. Thomas Porteous, Jr., judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
...
March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665124
An interesting, but unsurprising, decision in Todd v. Copeland (Va. Ct. App. Mar. 9, 2010):
Before 1995, Virginia’s adoption statutes, as interpreted by Virginia’s appellate courts, passed constitutional muster despite the absence of an explicit standard because the courts read into the statute the requirement that “[a]n adoption over ...
March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665125
Many children today are greatly to be pitied because too much is done for them and dictated to them and they are deprived of the learning processes. We seem to have dropped into an age of entertaining, a breathless going from one sensation to another, whether it be mechanical ...
March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665123
Looks like a delicious recipe, blogged by my friend Kristina Johnson (a former chef).
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March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm, 665122
The IRS today released the 2009 IRS Data Book, which contains a wealth of statistical information for the IRS's Oct. 1, 2008 - Sept. 30, 2009 fiscal year. Here are the statistical tables: Returns Filed, Taxes Collected, and Refunds Issued Table A. First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for Homes Purchased in...
March 11, 2010, 5:43 pm, 665121
20TH ANNUAL RCS: The 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey—the 20th annual wave of this survey—finds that the record-low confidence levels measured during the past two years of economic decline appear to have bottomed out. The percentage of workers very confident about...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 pm, 665039
David A. Weisbach (Chicago) presents Trade and Carbon Taxes at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance. The co-convenors of the colloquium are Daniel Shaviro (NYU) & Mihir Desai (Harvard Business School). Here is the abstract: We examine the impact of carbon leakage...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 pm, 665038
As state court systems nationwide struggle with budget shortfalls, a Boston Bar Association task force is trying to head off a proposed $10 million Massachusetts court system cut in the upcoming fiscal year. They're not alone. Court systems in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Texas ...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 pm, 665037
In a challenge to a San Francisco law that bans tobacco sales at drug stores, three California appeal court justices on Wednesday looked like they wanted to avoid ruling on Walgreens' constitutional argument that the city is violating equal protection rights. Instead, the panel appeared more interested in whether a ...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 pm, 665036
Former Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman partner Jeremy Pitcock is back in the news -- and this time it's for his role as a litigator, not a litigant. Pitcock filed a patent infringement lawsuit Monday in Manhattan federal court on behalf of his client Wireless Ink against Google and Facebook, ...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 pm, 665035
In 2005, U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny warned a defense lawyer of dire consequences if the lawyer did not do more to try to delay the execution of his client. "I'll have your law license," Chatigny warned at one point. The incident sparked a judicial ethics investigation of Chatigny, who ...
March 11, 2010, 3:43 pm, 665034
Although my usual standard for jury verdict reports is a million dollars (MDV's), this headline caught my attention,
Court awards bullied student $800,000.
It has long been my view that the most likely path for a bullying cause of action recognized in the workplace (other than the continuous ...
March 11, 2010, 3:43 pm, 665033
Related to the issues we have been discussing on this Blog: what are the most important gaps in the rules with respect to trade in these sectors?
March 11, 2010, 3:43 pm, 665032
March 11, 2010, 3:43 pm, 665031
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Bob Lande (Baltimore - Law) has penned FTC v. Intel: Applying the 'Consumer Choice' Framework to 'Pure' Section 5 Allegations. ABSTRACT: This short article analyzes the "pure" Section 5 allegations in the recent FTC complaint...
March 11, 2010, 1:44 pm, 664936
March 11, 2010, 1:44 pm, 664934
Kyle D. Logue (Michigan) & Gustavo Vettori (LL.M. 2009, Michigan) have posted Narrowing the Tax Gap Through Presumptive Taxation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article highlights the primary tax enforcement problem in the United States, that of noncompliant small and medium-sized businesses (“SMBs”), and it explores the possibility...
March 11, 2010, 1:44 pm, 664935
Commentary on H.R. 4529, Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010: The Atlantic, Paul Ryan's Plan is a Trojan Horse for Conservatism Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities Provides Largest Tax Cuts in History for Wealthy, Raises Middle Class Taxes, Ends Guaranteed Medicare, Privatizes Social...
March 11, 2010, 1:43 pm, 664933
Item 1: "How to Get Attorneys to Read Something: E-Mail Them Telling Them Not to" Item 2: "Securities and Banking Industries Urge Senate to Retain Fed Regulatory Powers" SJP
March 11, 2010, 11:43 am, 664848
Nancy Leong (starting at William & Mary Law this Fall) has just posted on SSRN her forthcoming piece in the American University Law Review: Judicial Erasure of Mixed-Race Discrimination. Here is the abstract: Jurisprudential remedies for racial discrimination presume the...
March 11, 2010, 11:43 am, 664847
Dear Readers, It turns out a number of you have been commenting on our posts. I was completely unaware of this till yesterday. (The secret is out, I actually don't read every word of every email / attachment / instruction...
March 11, 2010, 11:43 am, 664846
Dear Readers, It turns out a number of you have been commenting on our posts. I was completely unaware of this till yesterday. (The secret is out, I actually don't read every word of every email / attachment / instruction...
March 11, 2010, 11:43 am, 664845
Josh Fershee has kindly accepted our offer to join us as one of our co-editors. The list of Blog Editors should be amended shortly. Onwards and upwards! SJP
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664768
The Tax Foundation has published Record Numbers of People Paying No Income Tax; Over 50 Million "Nonpayers" Include Families Making over $50,000: A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no tax payment, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of IRS data. That means...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664766
An interesting tool for legal departments came to my attention on Charles Christian’s online American Legal Technology Insider, March 2010. “Baseline Solutions has launched a new legal document review tool called Baseline. Through a series of customizable ‘Playbooks,’ the system...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664767
Why does the sentiment prevail that lawyers in small law departments face noticeably more burdensome workloads than do lawyers in larger departments? Small and stretched vs. large and lazy? To the contrary, size probably creates more legal problems; smaller but...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664765
They hyper-active Paul Lippe of Legal OnRamp continues to embrace new collaborations. Recently, GC Roundtable linked up with his online network and now a major vendor to legal departments has joined. I learned about this from Charles Christian’s American Legal...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664764
It is no easy matter to create in the minds of departmental lawyers a collective sense that they are pulling the oars together, especially when they are all over the world and come from many different legal backgrounds. Bits and...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664762
I am a lawyer but I do not claim that lawyers are more moral than non-lawyers. That view would likely irritate and offend many people. What says lawyers are any holier than thou? Yet general counsel, or some of them...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664763
It is an honor for me to host a Legal Marketing Association webinar on May 11th. I will share my hard-won learnings from five years of blogging. Beyond that I will discuss how to propagate a successful blog such as...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664761
Lawyers in-house who manage law firms may want to consider a network of firms in some circumstances. Here are two more of them. “Law Europe EEIG is a group of 25 law firms, principally located in Europe but with members...
March 11, 2010, 9:44 am, 664760
Eric Tucker (York - Osgoode Hall) and Judy Fudge (Victoria) have just posted on SSRN their article (forthcoming Canadian Labour and Employment L.J.) The Freedom to Strike in Canada: A Brief Legal History. Here's the abstract: In the B.C. Health...
March 11, 2010, 9:43 am, 664759
Best of luck to all competing in New York Law School's 34th Annual Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition. The competition begins today. rb
March 11, 2010, 9:43 am, 664758
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol John Kirkwood (Seattle - Law) contemplates Rethinking Antitrust Policy Toward RPM. ABSTRACT: Resale price maintenance is a particularly dangerous vertical intrabrand restraint. Because of its direct impact on price competition, it is likely to harm...
March 11, 2010, 7:44 am, 664683
Back in October, the Obama Administration Justice Department issued a memorandum that seemed to constrain federal enforcement of laws against marijuana possession in states where medical marijuana is permitted under state law. I welcomed the memo as a small sign of progress, but pointed out that it doesn’t ...
March 11, 2010, 7:44 am, 664682
Tax Profs I. Richard Gershon (Former Dean, Charleston) (left) and Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz (Vice Chancellor for Business and Financial Affairs and J.Y. Sanders Professor of Law, LSU) (right) are two of the six finalists for the Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University deanship.
March 11, 2010, 7:44 am, 664681
Victor Fleischer (Colorado) has posted Regulatory Arbitrage on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Most of us share a vague intuition that the rich, sophisticated, well-advised, and politically connected somehow game the system to avoid regulatory burdens the rest of us comply with. The intuition is correct; this Article explains how...
March 11, 2010, 7:44 am, 664680
Congratulations to two Tax Profs at the University of Washington School of Law (who also are authors of books (International Tax, Tax Crimes) in our LexisNexis Graduate Tax Series): Samuel A. Donaldson (left), Professor of Law and Director of the Graduate Tax Program, has been named Associate Dean, effective July...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 am, 664597
Not a combination of words that I had expected to see together — yet, as I learned today, it’s apparently something of a movement. (As one might gather from the second word, the first word isn’t exactly being used in a scientific way.)
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March 11, 2010, 3:44 am, 664596
In the National Law Journal, Tony Mauro has an article on the possible impact of the petitioner’s tactical decision to focus on the Privileges or Immunities Clause in McDonald v. City of Chicago. I think it’s just too early to know, as the decisions haven’t been written yet. ...
March 11, 2010, 3:44 am, 664595
Jefferson P. VanderWolk (Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong) has posted several of his tax papers on SSRN: Recent Hong Kong Tax Cases: Cause for Alarm, 57 Tax Notes Int'l 37 (Feb. 1, 2010) Green Tax Measures for Hong Kong: A Policy Proposal, in Green Taxation in East...
March 11, 2010, 3:43 am, 664594
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Nicolas Petit & Norman Neyrinck (University of Liege) provide A Review of the Implications of Competition Law Implications of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. ABSTRACT: Most competition lawyers tend to view...
March 11, 2010, 1:44 am, 664560
with thanks to Language Log for the pointer:
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