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Supreme Court Rules for Student Seeking Discharge of Loan Debt. In law student v. loans, one point for law students. Right to Name Minor League Stadium Will Cost Cooley Law School $1.48M. The country’s largest law school to headline the home of the Lugnuts. Is Law Student Business Card Trend Terrific or ‘Tooltastic’? Self-marketing tool or self-identifying bookmarks, take your pick. Duke law school clinic brings key education case to North Carolina Supreme Court....

The recent TV sensation Better Call Saul tracks the story of fictional attorney James McGill, whom we were all introduced to as Saul Goodman in the other hit series, Breaking Bad. Goodman, or McGill is said to be a criminal lawyer, with maybe a little too much emphasis on the criminal part. The series, while often comical, is just as often dramatic as it gets into the worst aspects of practicing law....

A convicted pimp is suing Nike from behind bars, accusing the footwear company of an alleged defect: a failure to warn that Air Jordans can be dangerous weapons. Sirgiorgio Clardy, 26, of Portland, Oregon, asesrts that Nike should’ve warned consumers that their sneakers could cause serious injury or death. The reason: Clardy was wearing Air Jordans when he repeatedly stomped the face of a john who tried to “hit it and quit it” without paying, reports The Oregonian....

There are unpleasant issues that come to mind with the phrase, “hot tub time machine.” First, there’s the epic cinematic failure, featuring John Cusack, which we unfortunately watched last year. Second, there’s the first-world problem of landlords adjusting hot tub heating times in apartment buildings to save money, without passing those savings along to the tenants through rent reduction. California’s Second Appellate District Court can only resolve one of those hot tub time machine issues, and, sadly, it is not the John Cusack one....

Michigan State University has launched an initiative to index and track (a.k.a. rank) law schools based on innovation. And if you’re thinking that MSU is just trying to find a way to rank highly among prospective law students on some meaningless list that they can use for advertising purposes, then you’re probably right. The 2017 Law School Innovation Index only indexed 38 law schools. It used specific metrics to explore whether law schools were teaching real world, practical lawyering and law business operations skills, alongside the traditional law school courses....

People typically think of lawyers as either smart or slimey. Julie Ezell falls somewhere in between. It’s hard to say when Ezell started down the wrong track, but she was definitely going that way when she sent threatening emails to herself. Apparently, she was trying to create evidence to help in her job? Not smart, but not really slimey. In any case, she was forced to resign and now faces criminal charges....

The Fish and Wildlife Service did not violate the law when it removed the dunes sagebrush lizard from consideration for endangered species protection, a unanimous D.C. panel ruled on Tuesday. The dunes sagebrush lizard had been up for protection for years, but FWS reversed course and stopped considering endangered species protections in 2012, after Texas and New Mexico adopted voluntary conservation measures. The dunes sagebrush lizard lives in a small area of southeastern New Mexico and Texas, which just happens to be prime oil land....

Hazlehurst v. Sec’y of Health & Human Serv., No. 09-5128, concerned a petition of the Court of Federal Claims’ decision affirming the special master’s denial of plaintiffs’ claim on behalf of their son, seeking compensation under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, claiming that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which was administered to their son before his first birthday, caused him to develop regressive autism. In affirming the decision of the Court of Federal Claims, the court held that compensation under the Act is limited to those individuals whose injuries or deaths can be linked causally, either by a Table Injury presumption or by a preponderance of “causation-in-fact” evidence to a listed vaccine....

Song Koo Lee owns and operates the K&D Market in San Francisco’s Mission District. He does not own the building, but has operated the market since 1985. Les Jankey, a wheelchair user, sued Lee for denying him and other similarly-situated disabled persons access to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods and services offered by K&D Market. Jankey claimed that a four-inch step located at the entry of the market was an architectural barrier that prevented him and other wheelchair-bound individuals from wheeling into the store, asserting violations of the federal ADA, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the Disabled Persons Act, and the Health and Safety Code....

It’s Blue Monday, a marketing gimmick and excuse to feel depressed, but on the bright side, at least we Californians aren’t in the other 90 percent of the country that is currently being assaulted with sub-zero temperatures. Plus, the 49’ers won on Sunday, so there is hope for a brighter tomorrow. While you’re reflecting on your good fortune as a Californian, here is the latest from our state bar, and legal challenges to anti-dispensary and anti-plastic bag ordinances....

Lenahan Law Firm of Dallas has sued an anonymous “Ben Doe” defendant over a negative review. They want the faceless reviewer to pony up $50,000 in damages. The review blasted the law firm with harsh comments. Ben Doe wrote he had a “bad experience” with the firm. The Internet is useful. Reviewers can easily hide behind usernames and pseudonyms and blast companies, restaurants, and now even law firms. But Mr. Doe may have forgotten something important....

America is becoming an ever more diverse country, with increasing minority populations and a growing percentage of women in positions of power. But when it comes to the bench, state trial and appellate courts don’t reflect the changing face of America, according to a new report by the American Constitution Society. Instead, today’s judges look a lot like the judges from a decade, if not a century, ago: white and male....

Trial court judgment denying plaintiff’s petition for writs of mandate and prohibition is affirmed where: 1) the removal clause of the committee bylaws is not invalid despite conflicting with the Elections Code; 2) plaintiff’s claims that the removal clause is unconstitutionally vague and that her removal violated her First Amendment and due process rights are rejected as plaintiff did not show that the state action requirement was satisfied; and 3) the expansion of Committee membership in the bylaws to include three classifications not specified in the Elections Code was not unlawful....

So much for ordering a private jet from your smart phone. Flytenow, a start-up aiming to be the “Uber of the skies” has shut down following an adverse ruling from the D.C. Circuit. The app allowed you to hop aboard a private pilot’s planned route, provided you pay for your share of expenses. There was one catch though. Flytenow didn’t require its pilots to have a commercial pilot licenses. The Federal Aviation Administration and the D....

Gene Wilder, the legendary comedic actor, passed away yesterday, at the age of 83. As we like to do when someone of note dies, we’ve tried to distill some wisdom from their life and work, as our way of paying respects and taking lessons from interesting lives. And few had a body of work as interesting as Wilder’s. Wilder spent decades charming his way into our lives, alongside Richard Pryor in “Stir Crazy,” as a gunslinger in “Blazing Saddles,” and as the doctor himself in “Young Frankenstein....

Lawyers come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and ages. And while often young lawyers face the stigma of their own youth, one soon-to-be 16-year-old law student is ready to take that challenge on. Sound familiar? Haley Taylor Schlitz was accepted to nine different law schools, and has announced that she will be attending Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in the fall. Her current interests include education policy and intellectual property because “it sounds cool....

People were fairly creeped out when they discovered their smart TVs were tracking viewing data and could even be hacked to record video and sound wherever the television is located. But it’s not just your TV you need to worry about. A recent lawsuit claims Bose’s wireless headphones use an app to track the music, podcasts, and other audio customers listen to, and the company then sells that information without permission....

The ABA’s Annual Conference is now underway in San Francisco, giving seasoned lawyers as well as newly minted attorneys a chance to collect some pearls of wisdom from the upper echelons of the legal profession. Role models are important, but sometimes you can learn more about being a lawyer by examining attorneys at their worst. It is in that spirit that we present three (allegedly) misbehaving advocates who can teach you the dos and don’ts of being an attorney under arrest....

In a breach of contract action, Court of Federal Claims judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) the court erred in holding that plaintiff did not release its cumulative impact claims attributable to paragraph 8 of Modification 93 in the contract as the language the modification is unambiguous; 2) the monetary award for delays on the project and award of profits on the delay and cumulative impact claims is vacated as the release language present in Mod 93 and later modifications excuses the government from liability for plaintiff’s delay claims; and 3) the trial court did not err in the other aspects of its decision....

The owner of five drive-thru coffee stands featuring bikini-clad female baristas has pleaded guilty to prostitution and money-laundering charges. As part of her deal with prosecutors, Carmela Panico, the 52-year-old owner of espresso huts in Everett, Washington, agreed to cease operations and hand ownership of her coffee stands over to the city, reports The Daily Herald. Panico also agreed to testify against a former police officer who allegedly helped Panico avoid detection in exchange for sexual favors from Panico herself....