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Denial of defendant’s motion to withdraw his pleas of no contest is affirmed where, when sentencing discretion is expressly constrained by the terms of a plea agreement and the judge who accepted the plea becomes unavailable for reasons beyond the court’s or the prosecutor’s control, the defendant is not automatically entitled to withdraw his plea under People v. Arbuckle (1978) 22 Cal.3d 749 in the absence of evidence that exercise of individualized judicial discretion was material element of the consideration for the plea agreement....

As a school administrator, a good rule of thumb is to avoid so-called “scared straight” programs intended to intimidate students. Also, you don’t want to invite police impersonators onto campus to carry out said intimidation. And, most importantly, you don’t want to allow ersatz law enforcement to assault your students. This may seem like common sense to you and I, but it was apparently news to the Leggett Community Learning Center, which is now being sued after a fake cop packing a real gun handcuffed and threatened to tase a child suffering from attention deficit disorder....

Shaun Fawster, a homeless man from Bangor, Maine, was arrested last weekend after falling prey to his basic electrical needs. Local police scouring the downtown area reportedly located him just after midnight last Saturday, hovering over a hidden outdoor electrical plug that belonged to a local business. Like a typical technology-obsessed American, he was allegedly charging his two cell phones. And now he’s been charged with theft of services, as well as with carrying a concealed weapon, as police found a knife tucked into his shirt....

In a prosecution for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, a denial of petitioner’s habeas petition is affirmed where: 1) a “reverse sting” downward departure was inapplicable because petitioner was sentenced not based on drug quantity but rather as a career offender; and 2) petitioner failed to show a reasonable probability that the district court, having effectively rejected the predicate of petitioner’s lesser harms argument, would have departed downward had counsel formally invoked U....

Popular Washington Post sports writer Mike Wise has been suspended for a Ben Roethlisberger tweet gone awry. The tweet was supposed to be an experiment in how quickly a phony story would be picked up. Now Wise will have an experiment in a one-month suspension from the newspaper. The Washington Post quotes its newly suspended employee, “As part of a bit on my show today, I tried to test the accuracy of social media reporting....

There are plenty of perks that come with living in California. Gorgeous landscapes. Fantastic weather. Generally progressive work environments. But when it comes to the highest concentration of the best law firms for women, Illinois has California beat. This week, Flex-Time Lawyers and Working Mother released their latest list of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women. Nine Illinois firms made the cut. Eight firms in Washington D.C. were recognized. Six New York firms were honored....

Nicole Lynn Denzer was pulled over by police for erratic driving on Tuesday but officers soon realized she had hidden meth and a pipe on her person. Officer’s initially searched her vehicle and arrested her for possession of a controlled substance. When they got to the local jail, police realized the Minnesota woman had drugs on her person as well, they just couldn’t see it. A drug-sniffing dog investigated Denzer and was very interested in her … err, crotch....

James O’Keefe, citizen journalist and stander-up to power, was sentenced in a federal courtroom on May 26 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Federal magistrate Daniel Knowles III accepted guilty pleas on misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses from O’Keefe and his cronies, Stan Dai, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan. The AP reports Magistrate Knowles did not let the erstwhile investigative reporters entirely off the hook. In addition to sentencing James O’Keefe to three years probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine, he had a few words of guidance for the “ringleader....

After unsettling reports that William “The Refrigerator” Perry had been hospitalized in serious condition last night, ESPN has good news that Perry is expected to fully recover from what is being described as a flare up of his Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The disease is a rare disorder in which “the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Apparently, it can develop very quickly and its cause is unknown....

Most often people only start looking for lawyers when disaster has already struck, stress levels are highest, and they are in neither the emotional state nor the right frame of mind to choose a lawyer that will be the best fit for them and their legal needs. When people are panicked they make rash choices, or foolishly follow the advice of well-meaning family or friends who have no business giving this kind of advice....

In an election widely expected to have an “embarrassingly low” turnout, the news isn’t all yawn. We’ve covered record spending and a District Attorney candidate that has been recently arrested multiple times for alcohol-related offenses (not to mention that time he dislocated a man’s hip with his shoe). But this election isn’t all fun and games – there are actual issues to decide. Just kidding. Now that state-wide citizens’ initiatives have moved to the fall, the state’s “top two” primaries are an “incumbent + [most popular opponent from other party]” snoozefest, otherwise littered with local dog catcher races....

Students strumming acoustic ballads on BYU-Idaho’s campus are going to have to get a haircut – the school’s paper is reporting that the Honor Office has banned the man bun. The popular male hairstyle featuring a top knot of long hair is apparently too reminiscent of early ’90s glam metal rockers. Student Services & Activities Vice President Kevin Miyasaki told the paper, “As part of the dress and grooming code, we commit to avoid extreme hairstyles....

We try really hard not to fly during peak travel periods. Airports are never fun – other than San Francisco’s Terminal 2, which has both Pinkberry and a yoga room – but airports are particularly miserable during the winters. Sometimes, tempers flare and people lose it during holiday travel. For example… On Christmas Eve in 2010, former Los Angeles deputy city attorney Angela West went on a violent rampage with janitorial supplies at San Francisco International Airport, wielding a three-foot metal pole to smash merchandise, milk containers and food items at a Peet’s Coffee & Tea kiosk....

Students at Charlotte School of Law may want to think about taking an extra-long Christmas break. The U.S Department of Education has announced that Charlotte School of Law can no longer receive federal student loans and grants because it “substantially” misrepresented its program and failed to comply with educational standards. The department cited numerous problems at the school, and directly criticized its president for misrepresenting the school’s bar pass rates....

You’ve submitted your resume and cover letter, and you’ve got an interview. Do that well and everything will be great – right? Not so fast, Jack. For many law jobs, your first interview is just a stepping stone to a second interview where you’ll be evaluated by a hiring committee. That first interview? It was just to make sure you were a real person. Getting a second interview means you’re a serious candidate for the position....

Despite making hefty salaries, including a reported $300,000 annually during his final pre-prison BigLaw stop as an associate at Wilson Sonsini, Matthew Kluger admits that he was simply greedy. Now, thanks to that greed, his broken oaths as a lawyer, and the longest running insider trading scheme in United States history, he’ll spend the next 12 years in prison. The Third Circuit affirmed his record-breaking sentence yesterday, leaving little hope of reversal absent a rehearing or a SCOTUS miracle....

In an action involving the removal of a trustee of a life insurance trust established to provide for petitioner’s son and his brother, trial court’s orders denying respondent-trustee’s objections, approving a third guardianship accounting petition, and ordering trustee to pay petitioner compensatory damages in the amount of $77,573.40 is affirmed as trial court did not abuse its discretion in overruling trustee’s objections, nor in finding unreasonable and bad-faith assertion of meritless objections in awarding the compensatory damages....

Law isn’t for everyone. Heck, even a lot of attorneys can’t stand the profession. But alternative careers for lawyers can sometimes feel non-existent. After all, becoming an attorney requires some very specialized skills. Three years of law school, professors berating you with their Socratic “teaching” method, passing the bar, and years of practicing can leave you feeling pigeon-holed. But fear not fed-up attorneys, there’s a way out. Here are five fun career alternatives that have actually been done successfully by other ex-lawyers....

Law graduate Tiffany Dehen may have trouble getting a job as a lawyer, but she is ahead of her class when it comes to creating a legal buzz on social media. Dehen has sued Twitter, her law school, and an anonymous user for creating a false account in her name. She alleges the defendants defamed her with false posts about her support for Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler and with tweets such as her upcoming audition for:...

The time for studying has past; the time for test-taking has arrived. By this point, you should have crammed all the learning you can handle into your head. It’s time to breathe deeply, and go pass that test. Still, you will always feel like there’s something more to do the night before the bar exam. Here’s a last-minute checklist to help you do it: 1. Get Some Sleep If you are like most bar applicants, you have been studying to take the test for months....