The deadline for committee vacancies at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is approaching fast. The Court of Appeals has announced that it will be filling vacancies on several of its committees. The vacancies are for three-year terms that start on July 1, 2012. If you’re looking for a chance to get involved with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, this could be you chance to get in on the action....
The American Bar Association has announced a new venture that aims to help journalists, the media, and general public fact check legal issues that hit the mainstream media. The website, ABALegalFactCheck.com, allows anyone to email questions for legal fact checking, but does not promise that all questions will be answered. Rather, the website appears to just be an informative website where trending legal topics that are being confused by media, journalists and pundits, might be explained....
There is a death spiral in the cosmos, when a black hole consumes a nearby star. The black hole literally sucks the light out of existence. Law school can be like that, especially after three years and your eyes have gone dim from late-night reading. But one law school is being blamed for bringing down an entire state. Charleston Law School tanked the South Carolina bar exam, pulling down the statewide pass rate to an increasingly dark place....
For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a $1 billion whistleblower case against Raytheon for allegedly overbilling the U.S. government for satellite sensors. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright said the plaintiff failed to sufficiently allege that the defense contractor submitted false payment claims or that its actions mattered when the government paid the claims. Wright previously dismissed the case in 2013. In the latest ruling, the judge said Steven Mateski’s allegations were too general and “barebones....
The NFL has faced quite a few controversies on and off the field, but Darren Sharper’s crimes are among the most deplorable the NFL has seen. The former NFL player took a plea deal last year. Since his crimes occurred in multiple jurisdictions, each state’s court has issued a different sentence, all of which will be served concurrently. Most recently, a 20 year sentence was handed down in a Los Angeles courtroom, of which Sharper may only serve half....
President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, both Harvard Law grads, are set to face off in their first debate Wednesday. But they aren’t the only lawyers looking for votes this fall. From coast to coast, dozens of J.D.s are seeking public office. While lawyers-turned-lawmakers aren’t a new phenomenon, there’s actually been a decline in lawyer-legislators in some states, as a recent article in Virginia Lawyers Weekly pointed out....
You may have missed this little tidbit in the latest deluge of daily fantasy advertisements, but the New York Attorney General’s Office has begun investigating both daily fantasy sites on the suspicion that their employees “have won lucrative payouts based on inside information not available to the public.” This after news broke that a DraftKings employee who had access to ownership and lineup data netted $350,000 in winnings at rival FanDuel....
How is this for a mantra: OMMMM, OMMMMM, OMMMM My God I Will Never Make My Billables this Month? Thoughts like this are not terribly relaxing, are they? At a recent conference at U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, about 200 lawyers, professors and judges learned a bit more about what might actually be relaxing, mindful of how it can positively affect their careers. This year’s “Mindful Lawyer Conference” at Boalt was sold out, reports The San Francisco Chronicle....
When people talk about drunk driving the vehicle they’re generally picturing is a car. But here at FindLaw we know that DUI is an equal-opportunity offense. You can get a DUI for driving pretty much anything that can cause harm to others. It doesn’t even need a motor. In honor of all the pioneers who have tested DUI laws across this great country, it’s time for a swerving and potentially hazardous trip down memory lane....
True or false? Going to the best law school is not the best choice. Like those tricky LSAT questions, the counter-intuitive choice here is the correct answer. According to Malcolm Gladwell, the famed columnist and author on relative choices, going to the best law school actually hurts your chances of success in the real world. Writing for the New Yorker, Gladwell said law school rankings do not tell students where they will get the best results....
Three high-profile athletes were stopped on pot charges within the past week, with some facing serious potential consequences. Texas Rangers’ Geovany Soto was pinched on Wednesday for misdemeanor marijuana possession, although the player has been out this season with a knee injury. Meantime, college athletes in Alabama and Georgia were also arrested on marijuana charges which may block them from playing. What do these allegedly pot-possessing athletes have to expect after their pot stops?...
Landing a job at a prestigious law firm that’s going to pay the BigLaw bucks while you’re still in law school is unattainable for most law students. At this point, there are just so many more students than there are prestigious summer associate gigs, or even law firm clerking jobs for that matter. It’s a competitive market, and setting yourself apart is getting harder and harder. But that doesn’t mean a law student can’t work somewhere else without having it hurt their resume....
I remember my first year as an associate at BigLaw. I had my own office, and I shared an admin – I hit the big time! But with admins, come responsibilities my dear young newbie associates; and one of those responsibilities are upon us – Administrative Professionals’ Day. Yes, that’s a thing. And it’s next Wednesday, April 23. Here’s how to figure out whom to gift, and what to gift on Administrative Professionals Day....
Four former Blackwater contractors are challenging a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling reinstating manslaughter charges against them. The contractors, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Donald Ball, filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court last Friday. The petition was filed under seal and is not yet available. In case you don’t remember the specifics of the case, we’ll recap what wasn’t redacted from the facts of the D....
For one blind law student, the MPRE was going to be a tough challenge. Until now. Vermont Law School student Deanna Jones, 44, will today be able to use a screenreader software that will read the text aloud while enlarging the font. Jones is legally blind and has also been diagnosed with an auditory learning disability. In order for her to fully comprehend the exam, she needs to have the exam text read out loud, according to WCAX-TV....
In an action challenging the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) decision to terminate plaintiff-school district’s Head Start funds as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where the plain terms of HHS regulations required plaintiff, after it received an initial notice, to ensure that it did not have “undesirable and hazardous materials and conditions” at any of its playgrounds, and plaintiff failed to comply with that obligation....
The California Supreme Court will soon decide whether illegal immigrants can be licensed as attorneys in the state. The court issued an order on Wednesday directing the California Committee of Bar Examiners (Committee) to show cause why the court should admit an undocumented immigrant to the California State Bar, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Sergio Garcia, the undocumented immigrant at the center of the controversy, has passed the bar and the moral examination....
Skip the commute. Work in your pajamas. Pass the day in a coffee shop. Spend more time with your kids. These are just a few of the perks of working from home, a trend that’s grown so quickly that 20 to 25 percent of the American workforce now telecommutes “at some frequency,” according to Global Workplace Analytics. But telecommuters aren’t spread out evenly. Working from home has been slow to catch on in corporate legal departments, where working in-house typically requires being in-office....
The Federal Election Commission’s campaign disclosure rule was back before the D.C. Circuit last week – and just in time for a ramped up election season. The disclosure rules in question require groups that spend more than $10,000 annually on electioneering to disclose donors who give more than $1,000 for political ads. Some critics see that as no disclosure rule at all, but a guide to avoiding disclosure. Want to finance political advertising but remain secret?...
The downside of the adversarial system is that the parties in litigation are, you know, adversaries. Generally, only one can win. Occasionally, there are cases in which both parties claim victories. That’s what happened this week in Attorney Charles Carreon’s personal lawsuit against The Oatmeal, IndieGoGo, the National Wildlife Federation, the American Cancer Society, and other defendants. The original dispute in the case involved The Oatmeal and Funnyjunk.com. Last year, The Oatmeal mastermind Matthew Inman complained that FunnyJunk was hosting his work without permission....
