February 12 2007 Legal Blog Roundup So how was your weekend? Are you stuck in the frigid Midwest? Or are you one of the lucky souls out in Miami? Regardless of where you are in the country, I'm going to bet most of you are stuck inside the office (or class). So I'll bypass the formalities and cut to the interesting stuff. (3 views)
March 5 2007 Legal Blog Roundup Life of late has seemed a bit dull, at least to me. It's still freezing outside. All the holidays (even the crappy Hallmark pseudo-holidays like Valentine's Day) are over. Now we can only look forward to...Memorial Day. That just sucks. The only light in our lives is ''Inside Legal Blogs'' (well, maybe not, but please humor me). Read on for this week's highlights... (3 views)
YouTube, BBC Reach Partnership Agreement Google, Inc.'s YouTube has reached a partnership agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and BBC Worldwide. The deal, which represents the first agreement between the video-sharing site and an international broadcaster, will allow YouTube to broadcast various clips from BBC news and entertainment outlets. (3 views)
Viacom Sues YouTube On March 13, Viacom, Inc., parent company of such cable mainstays as MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central, sued YouTube and its parent company, Google, for more than $1 billion, claiming copyright infringement. This is the latest development in a long-standing battle between the two companies as they have sparred over the use of clips shown on the popular video-sharing website. In... (3 views)
March 26 2007 Legal Blog Roundup The market has been awash in news of large increases in associate salaries for the past few months. It's been that way since Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett announced it was going to raise first-year associates' salaries to $160,000 this season. Some say it's devastating. Some think it's going to start an ugly salary war. Some believe the recruiters had no other choice and... (3 views)
The High Court Lays an Anonymous Egg The Supreme Court has a month to go before it closes up shop for the summer. More than 20 argued cases remain to be decided. Even so, it's time to close the nominations for Worst Opinion of the '06 term. Are you ready? (3 views)
Bush Pushes Immigration Bill 06/06/07On Tuesday, May 29, 2007, President Bush discussed a bipartisan immigration bill at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA. Bush hopes the bill will help stifle illegal immigration, as well as ''give temporary legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants, provided they came forward, paid a fine, and underwent criminal background checks,''... (3 views)
To Blog, or Not to Blog...Advertising is the Question With technology advancing and changing at such a rapid rate, it is nearly impossible for government regulations to keep up. A highly pertinent issue these days is Internet blogging. The terms ''blogging'' and ''writing a blog'' refer to weblogs created by individuals who post entries on various topics and encourage discussions among readers. Some users choose to take... (3 views)
Prosecutor Gets Prosecuted 06/19/07The three Duke University students that were accused of raping a girl in a bathroom are back in court. This time, however, they are testifying for someone else's case. (3 views)
The Case of teachers union of Washington Education Assoiciation vs the Teachers The cause of individual freedom won a victory in the Supreme Court last week, but it was something less than a glorious triumph. The court ruled unanimously in favor of several thousand unreconstructed schoolteachers in Washington state. The opinion merits a cheer, but it fell way short of winning a standing ovation. (3 views)
SOX Exemption Extended In recent weeks, the House of Representatives has demonstrated its desire for the Securities and Exchange Commission to further postpone internal regulations associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, most clearly by voting to prolong the exemption of small businesses through 2008. It should be noted that businesses with less than $75 million in market capitalization fall... (3 views)
The case of sick child at Sea and the Doctors line of treatment In March 1997, the Carlisle family of Ann Arbor, Mich., embarked upon a Caribbean cruise. Their vacation ended abruptly in Cozumel after daughter Elizabeth, 14, fell seriously ill. Last month the resulting lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court. We will know in October if the high court will take the case. (3 views)
Bush and Brown and the War in Iraq Since becoming Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown met today, for the first time, with President Bush at the presidential retreat at Camp David, MD. There, the two answered questions at a joint news conference about topics concerning nuclear proliferation, climate change, global poverty, and international terrorism. (3 views)
Caveat to Consumers: Supreme Court Puts Kibosh on Class Action In what many are calling a dramatic victory for corporations, on April 27th, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled ''that companies can enforce contracts that bar consumers and employees from banding together to bring class action suits'', according to the April 28th npr.org article, ''Supreme Court Imposes Limits On Class Actions''. (3 views)
2009 Opening of UC Irvine's School of Law Delayed The University of California, Irvine's school of law that was set to open in 2009 might be delayed ''now that the school has to begin a new search for a founding dean,'' says an article on www.mercurynews.com. (3 views)
NY Bar Mulls Task Force to Study Legal Job Market In a legal job market where after nine months from graduation only 55% of the class of 2011 is into jobs that require a law degree and far fewer candidates are into jobs that require an attorney, bar associations are obviously alarmed. Other bar associations have been conducting their own studies and a few have come up with findings that indicate that recession, law... (3 views)
Back to The Religion Clauses Once more, dear friends, into the First Amendment! In a petition filed three weeks ago, a small reform school in Michigan urged the Supreme Court to return to the most troublesome few words in the whole of the Constitution. These are the words that say ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'' (3 views)
How Arizona’s SB1070 Puts the Police in a Fix Arizona’s controversial 2010 immigration law, which is waiting to be upheld by the Supreme Court, has the Arizona police sweating. A section of the law, which is not at issue before any court, allows any agency with a policy to restrict the enforcement of the immigration law to be sued by anyone. While the provision was originally intended to discourage agencies with... (3 views)
Trial Date Set for Simpson: April 7 Brought to court for kidnapping and armed robbery, O.J. Simpson pleaded ''not guilty'' to the charges in a Nevada courtroom on November 28. He and two other men, Charles Ehrlich and Clarence Stewart, if found guilty, could face life in prison. (3 views)
American Bar Association Makes Headlines with Its 2007 Lawyer of the Year Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have stirred up controversy with the dismissals of several U.S. attorneys; however, it helped him snag the attention of the American Bar Association. Just how much? Enough for the ABA's magazine to name Gonzales its 2007 Lawyer of the Year. (3 views)
Edwards Legal Supporters Being Courted by Obama, Clinton Presidential candidate John Edwards has dropped out of the race for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination. He, of course, is a prominent member of the plaintiffs' bar, and as such naturally attracted numerous donations and other support from the legal community. (3 views)
Romney Drops Out - Whither His Support? In the U.S. presidential race, there were a fair number of lawyers. Now that Mitt Romney dropped out on Thursday, there is one less attorney. Most people don't know it, but Romney has a J.D. from Harvard, even though for the most part he has been a businessman. (3 views)
February 18 2008 Legal Blog Roundup You know, there are lots of things a lawyer should do. Then again, there are lots of things a lawyer should not do. Here's one: don't smuggle in a 14-inch saw to help your client escape. That doesn't tend to look good on the resume. (3 views)
Is age a consideration when it comes to interrogation On March 23, 2001 the Supreme Court struggled over the case of a seventh grade special education student who confessed to break-ins in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2005. The question at hand pertained to whether or not the student actually understood that he had the right to leave the schoolroom where he was being questioned. (3 views)
Woman Receives $7.76 mln Jury Award against Johnson & Johnson over Vaginal Mesh On Thursday, a New Jersey jury ordered Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon to pay punitive damages amounting to $7.76 million to Linda Gross, a South Dakota nurse, over harm caused by vaginal mesh. The court had earlier ordered a compensatory damage of 3.5 million earlier, and with the punitive damage award, the total sum reaches $11.5 million in cumulative... (3 views)
June 2 2008 Legal Blog Roundup Ah, blogging. It's a form of expression that is dominated by lawyers in many ways. Indeed, many of the most influential blogs are run by lawyers. Individuals such as the (3 views)
1% of Irish Defeat EU Constitution The bureaucrats of the European Union have a problem: they want a new, expanded European Union, but every time it's put before the voters, it's rejected. A few years ago, the people of France, the Netherlands, and others rejected the new EU constitution. (3 views)
Girl's Grounding Overruled by Court In a ruling that will delight the hearts of children and children's rights advocates everywhere but strike fear into the hearts of the parents of those children, a court in Quebec overturned a father's grounding of his 12-year-old daughter. (3 views)
Law Firms Look to Partners for Cash It is an unfortunate fact of our current times: tighter lending markets. Yes, the halcyon days of practically instant loans on generous terms are gone, at least until the next economic boom. (3 views)