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Petition for Review of FERC Orders Denied In Transmission Agency of N. Cal. v. FERC, No. 09-1213, petitions for review of two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders conditionally approving the California Independent System Operator (CAISO)’s proposal to create an Integrated Balancing Authority Area (IBAA) by combining the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the Turlock Irrigation District for the purpose of pricing transactions, the court denied the petitions where 1) neither the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Bonneville nor the D....

Much respect to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the first-term Congresswoman who beat incumbent Republican Scott Brown for one of Massachusetts’ seats in the Senate. According to the Los Angeles Times, a big reason for her victory was her embrace of the Occupy Wall Street movement and criticism of big banks. The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, which has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing, would set student loan interest rates (for one year only) at the same rate that banks get when they borrow money from the federal government: 0....

Court of Federal Claims judgment holding that the United States Army Corps of Engineers was authorized to use Indefinite Deliver/Indefinite Quantity Contracts for the design and construction of military buildings is affirmed where: 1) there is no statutory or regulatory provision that precludes such use of IDIQ contracts for a procurement of construction; 2) the Corps did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the use of IDIQ contracts to obtain a large military construction was the most appropriate method of proceeding and therefore best served the interests of the United States; and 3) the Corps’ conduct of this procurement did not violate statutory and regulatory provisions designed to aid and protect small businesses....

Today’s California appeal includes stalking, dead animals, broken golf clubs and windows, and the definition of a victim. Nancy Clayburg was convicted of two counts of stalking, and sentenced to prison for two years, eight months. The named victim of one of the stalking counts was “B.,” Clayburg’s former husband and the father of her daughter. The statute provides: Clayburg appealed, arguing the order was unauthorized because her daughter was not a named victim of the stalking....

You did the right thing; you looked at all the reasons to hire a lawyer, and you did. The only problem? You might’ve hired the wrong one. Maybe you had your suspicions early on. Maybe you disagree with your lawyer’s strategy. Or, maybe you’re just angry about the outcome of your case. Either way, you want to get a new lawyer. But when is it too late? There can be several reasons to fire a lawyer, and many of them can come up before your case is even filed or before trial begins....

Daniel King and Tamara Brady just finished what should be one of the hardest trials of their lives – and they still don’t have time to take a break. The duo’s main client, James Holmes, was found guilty last Thursday of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others after he opened fire on crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012. Having been unable to convince a jury that Holmes was not guilty due to insanity, King and Brady’s main job is now to keep Holmes off death row....

In 2017, the last time Kanter was overseas with the Knicks, Kanter’s Turkish passport was seized during a layover in Romania, and he was nearly arrested and extradited to Turkey. Since then he has refrained from leaving the United States, for fear that he will be arrested, and worse. Therefore, while the New York Knicks were in London playing against the Washington Wizards, Enes Kanter, the Knicks’ starting center, was in Washington D....

Now that Supreme Court clerk hiring has officially been completed for the October 2011 term, it’s time to sit down and figure out why you weren’t even remotely considered for a position. And why graduates from the University of Georgia and Louisiana State University were. That’s right–this year you can’t blame your failure on the uh, lackluster, status of your law school. This isn’t to say that the court’s elitism wasn’t a prevalent factor in this year’s hiring, with all but three of the clerks graduating from a venerable “T-14” institution....

Silicon Valley lawyers have their eyes on Grubhub, one of the hottest, publicly traded tech companies on Wall Street. It’s not because the company can get them lunch faster than an elevator on a San Francisco high rise. It’s because Grubhub’s business model is on trial in a California courtroom. And the legal question – whether its drivers are employees or independent contractors – could redefine the “gig economy.” Trial Delivery Grubhub filed and lost a summary judgment motion recently in a case that is pending in a San Francisco federal court....

What’s the path to fame in the legal world? YouTube. It worked for a Virginia attorney who has become an internet sensation thanks to his hilarious “So You Want to Go to Law School,” videos. The videos have gone viral, with the original coming up on 1,000,000 views on YouTube. The videos are the work of aspiring novelist and Virginia attorney David Kazzie. Kazzie’s practice involves disciplinary cases for health care professionals....

You might want to double-check the label on your next chocolate bar. You don’t need to check for the calorie count; we already know that’s bad. But there could be more bad news, under the terms of a chocolate industry settlement. Chocolate producers have agreed to study and report on lead and cadmium in their products. It’s a result of California’s Proposition 65, which warns consumers about cancer-causing chemicals, and a lawsuit by an advocacy group....

The California Supreme Court is set to decide whether medical marijuana dispensaries are a categorical nuisance, reports The Orange County Register. In March, a California appellate court struck down a local injunction against a medical marijuana dispensary, holding that a city cannot shut down dispensaries as a wholesale nuisance. The city in question is Lake Forest, California, which used zoning ordinances to force the Evergreen Holistic medical marijuana dispensary out of business....

For most law school students, reading cases and black letter law and treatises can lead to falling asleep. It’s not that cases and statutes are inherently boring, it’s just that, well, after reading the millionth case, they’re boring. Fortunately, if you have a good study group, you may be able to liven up your study sessions by introducing some fun study group games. Doing so can help make your own studying a bit more entertaining as you think about your next study group’s meeting....

A rough season for the Los Angeles Clippers (18-59) may be getting rougher, particularly so for Clips forward Zach Randolph. The Clippers suffered a tough loss in a tight game to their hometown rival Lakers yesterday, and then early Monday morning Randolph got pulled over when he was observed driving his Rolls Royce in a less-than-straight manner. According to the AP, during the traffic stop officers could smell alcohol inside the vehicle and had Randolph perform field sobriety tests....

District Judge Richard Leon has twice ordered the NSA to halt its massive, once-secret collection of telephone metadata. Twice his rulings have been overturned by the D.C. Circuit. Now, in the most recent blow to NSA lawsuits, the D.C. Circuit has refused to rehear a challenge en banc. The D.C. Circuit’s rulings have largely been procedural – touching on standing or the appropriateness of a preliminary injunction, for example. The most recent denial was just a sentence long....

So that’s why they called this blog Greedy Associates. It’s all clear now. We never imagined that law firms would inflate bills, or stick unnecessary associates on cases for training or bill “churning” purposes. Every lawyer that has ever practiced has had the unfortunate experience of an unsatisfied customer who thinks that their bill is too high. It’s a fact of life. What these lawyers usually do not have, however, are smoking-gun emails floating around in e-discovery land, ready to nail them in court....

The suspect in connection with the stabbing death of a Dodgers fan last Wednesday has been released without charges. The death of Jonathan Denver, 24, was linked to two suspects – Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, California, being one of them. Montgomery was released from jail on Friday, Reuters reports. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement that there wasn’t enough evidence to bring a charge against Montgomery, according to Reuters....

A New York federal judge just slapped a vexatious litigant who brought a civil rights lawsuit against the New York City Police based on ‘highly unreliable’ facts. The price for making this baseless claim against the city? $19,000. He should consider himself lucky. The costs associated with litigation were upwards of $95,000 and he could have been slapped harder if it weren’t for his inability to pay. False Arrest Claim According to Courthouse News, the plaintiff, Patricio Jimenez, was arrested for domestic abuse charges in late December 2012....

This is not a typical “he said, she said” case. In a multi-faceted sexual harassment claim, this story has more cross-overs than a bar exam fact-pattern. First, Matthew Bailey sued the University of Iowa to keep the law school from suspending him. Then he sued a fellow student who allegedly harassed him. Now he is suing the law school for failing to investigate his harassment claim. Oh, and then there’s the disorderly conduct matter against Bailey....

This holiday season, consider giving your loved ones the gift of an Xbox. Not only does it provide endless hours of entertainment, but the Xbox can also help alert police if you’re ever getting robbed. This feature isn’t exactly advertised with the console, mind you. It’s just a fortunate side effect of the system’s online gaming feature. One Pittsburgh man was on his Xbox when he heard his back door getting kicked in....