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For those lawyers seeking out high profile cases, catching a case against a celebrity can potentially be more lucrative than representing one. While there are myriad ways to market to this incredibly small pool of potential clients, it’s not an impossible feat, particularly as some celebrities seem to repeatedly expose themselves to tort and contract liability. Below you can read about five such celebrities, presented in no significant order, that can be aptly called lightning rods for lawsuits....

If the company ship is foundering, what does the company lawyer do? Weather the storm? Go down with the ship? Jump ship? All of the above may apply, but general counsel is more like a first mate than a captain. The first mate watches after the ship and the crew. The Ship and the Crew The company lawyer answers to the chief executive, board or other C-suite officer. But the main duty is to represent and protect the business entity....

Following legal industry juggernaut Dewey & LeBoeuf’s fall from grace, BigLaw’s future has never looked more grim. After all, if one of the largest law firms in the world could go belly up, what does that mean for every other BigLaw office? Just last December, Dewey employed over a thousand lawyers and had 26 locations around the world. Its annual revenue was close to $800 million. Now, a little over six months later, it’s bankrupt....

If you’re a lawyer or law student that is, or is on the cusp of being, technologically savvy, then you’re probably on Twitter. After all, if there’s a place to show potential clients that you are cool, woke, with it, or that you can, at very least, dig it, you should probably be there. Social media is exactly the sort of place where you can do just that. There’s no need to solicit clients or say you’re available for business....

A Bigfoot hunting expedition went terribly awry when one Oklahoma man – a human, not a Sasquatch – got spooked by a “barking noise” and accidentally shot his friend in the back. Better than getting stabbed in the back by a friend, right? (Har har.) Omar Pineda – the 21-year-old gun wieldin’, Sasquatch huntin’, back shooter – was arrested for reckless conduct with a firearm and obstruction. Pineda’s father-in-law and wife were cuffed for interfering with the investigation....

It’s not uncommon for law firms, or any type of business for that matter, to just ignore their employees’ career development. So long as a law firm is profitable, the status quo is maintained, and employee retention is not a big problem, then businesses have very little incentive to invest in career development. If you’re in a firm that doesn’t seem to care whether or not your career develops or stagnates, you may want to heed the advice of the experts over at the Harvard Business Review and take control of your own career development....

You’ve graduated from law school. Now the real challenge begins: surviving the bar exam! For most new-J.D.s, this means hundreds of hours studying black letter law that you probably only touched on in your three years of law school. The key to doing well on the bar exam is simple: study, and study effectively. To help you out, here are our top seven bar study tips, from the FindLaw archives....

Metcalf Construction Company’s bid was chosen for a Navy contract to build military housing in Oahu, Hawaii. Initially, the contract stated that Metcalf would build 188 units by March 2005, however after many modifications, the final agreement required 212 units by October 17, 2006 for an amount just below $50 million. In the pre-request report, the Government included preliminary soil test results that could have impacted the building project, and noted that further testing was required once the project was started....

When judges make headlines, unless they’ve been selected for appointment, won an election, or have ruled on a controversial case, it’s probably for behaving rather badly. Although judges often seem to get away with their bad actions with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and/or a short suspension (sometimes even with pay), one Texas judge might be in more trouble than he bargained for. Judge Guy Williams, out of Nueces County, Texas, has been charged with two felonies in relation to a road rage incident where he is alleged to have brandished a firearm at another driver....

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t submit phony documents in court, so we’re going to say it a different way. Submitting false documents is like fudging on the definition of “is” in a deposition. It’s like testifying in a hearing you “like beer,” instead of you’re a drunk. Whatever, the point is that seemingly smart people do the stupidest things – like submit fake documents to a court. Here’s another one:...

Knock, knock, Neo. If you are reading this, maybe there’s something wrong with your world. What you know, you can’t explain, but you feel it. We’re talking about ediscovery here. It really is another world, and no one goes down that rabbit hole willingly. You are going to need a map. Data Mapping Most attorneys get lost when it comes to their clients’ computer systems, electronic data, and the technical parts of responding to ediscovery....

In keeping with the election fever which swept the nation this week, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals released an election-themed decision on Tuesday, and it seems that the Internet led to the plaintiff-appellant’s loss. In a unanimous opinion, the appellate court held that Premier Election Systems and Diebold had not infringed on 93 of Voter Verified’s automated self-verification patents. The appeals stemmed from two related patent infringement actions that Voter Verified brought in a federal court in Florida....

Standing next to a gang member could be enough to justify probation revocation. James Davis Gipson, Jr. is a member of a gang called the Grape Street Crips. Gipson ran into trouble with the law, and pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while a felon, and to possessing an assault rifle. Additionally, Gipson admitted that he committed crimes for the benefit of a gang. In 2010, Gipson was sentenced to five years in state prison....

Last December, 195 nations reached a historic agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The Paris Climate Change Agreement marked the most aggressive, concerted action the international community has taken to addressing the climate crisis, but the agreement didn’t go into effect automatically. First, it needed to be ratified by at least 55 countries, representing at least 55 percent of global emissions. That threshold was crossed in early October, as ratification by European countries, India, Canada, Bolivia, and Nepal brought more than 55 percent of global emissions under the agreement’s umbrella....

You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs; everyone knows that. Everyone also knows that this means that in order to get past some tough times in life, you have got to get a little messy. However, most attorneys would advise against trying to spread that mess around, especially onto the judge assigned to your case. Angry defendant Agim Demiri didn’t consider any of this of folk wisdom, or else he took it too literally, because he is now in jail for throwing an egg at a judge....

The average debt of a University of Iowa Law graduate is $95,574. Drake Law grads are saddled with an average of $106,368, reports the Des Moines Register. What’s Iowa’s solution to helping these graduates with their debt? Cutting the bar exam for in-state graduates, obviously! In today’s episode of people trying to fix law school but not looking at the actual problem, the Iowa Supreme Court is considering a proposal to drop the bar passage requirement for in-state graduates, and to adopt the Uniform Bar Exam for out-of-state graduates....

In a minor’s negligence action against the Children’s Institute, Inc. (CII) for referring the minor to a day care where he was sexually assaulted, trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant is affirmed where CII owed no duty to protect against an unforeseeable criminal assault, as there was no evidence showing CII had actual knowledge of the boy’s assaultive tendencies or that he posed any risk of harm, nor was it vicariously liable for any possible breach of duty by the day care provider....

A Raiders fan was seriously injured on Sunday trying to break a woman’s fall after she jumped from the deck of the Oakland’s O.co Coliseum. The 61-year-old Good Samaritan was hospitalized but is now in stable condition, reports Oakland’s KTVU-TV. The woman he saved was in “very critical” condition on Sunday, but she did survive her fall from the third-level deck. Both parties have yet to be identified. A sheriff’s spokesman identified the Good Samaritan as a Stockton resident and Raiders season ticket holder, an ex-Marine who happened to be walking underneath the woman on the second-floor concourse when he heard she was going to jump....

Rehabilitation Act Discrimination Action In Solomon v. Vilsack, No. 09-5319, an action alleging that the Secretary of Agriculture violated plaintiff’s rights under the Rehabilitation Act by refusing to provide reasonable accommodations for her disability, the court vacated summary judgment for defendants where 1) claims for federal disability retirement benefits and disability-discrimination claims under the Rehabilitation Act did not so inherently conflict as to justify presumptively barring recipients of such benefits from asserting Rehabilitation Act claims, and 2) a reasonable jury could find that the statements plaintiff and her doctor made in support of her application for disability benefits were consistent with her current claim that she could have performed the essential functions of her position with reasonable accommodation....

U.S. judo competitor Nicholas Delpopolo has been expelled from the Olympics after he tested positive for marijuana. The American admitted he had unwittingly eaten marijuana-laced food and has waived his right to a hearing, reports BBC. Delpopolo, 23, finished seventh in the competition, so there were no medals at stake in his expulsion. While the Olympics and team U.S.A. may not be someone’s typical employer, and judo throwing may not be someone’s typical job, Delpopolo’s expulsion should serve as a reminder to workers everywhere what happens if you fail a drug test at work....