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We’re already 18 years into the 21st century, and we’re still waiting on our personal jetpacks and flying cars. We don’t even have a colony on Mars, and the city that helped put a man on the moon is now telling its residents they can’t frequent robot sex brothels. What a buzzkill. Last week, the Houston City Council updated its rules on sexually oriented businesses, adding “anthropomorphic devices” to the list of banned “adult arcades,” which are prohibited from operating within 1,500 feet of churches, schools, day cares, parks, and residential neighborhoods....

They say that a man who represents himself has a fool for a client and Ryan Bundy seems to agree. Bundy was one of the leaders of the armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last January, an occupation which ending with one occupier dead and Bundy in jail. Now Bundy is leading his own legal defense. In a filing submitted last Thursday, Bundy claimed that he was “an idiot,” and “incompetent,” and demanded $100 million to stand trial....

Conviction of defendant for unlawful disposal of hazardous waste and related offenses is affirmed as there was sufficient evidence to support defendant’s convictions and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering defendant to pay the Hazardous Materials Management Division (HMMD) for the costs of investigation as a condition of probation. However, defendant’s sentence is reversed where: 1) the trial court erred in imposing restitution fines under Health and Safety Code section 25189....

If you follow BigLaw at all (3Ls, we’re looking at you), you already know of the 45 lawyers laid off by Reed Smith last week. Reed Smith cites belt-tightening and “shifting in the legal landscape” for reasoning behind the shifts. The question remains: are the Reed Smith layoffs a harbinger of things to come? Not to sound callous, but a layoff of several dozens of attorneys from one of America’s most famed BigLaw firms is hardly anything that should shock anyone – least of all, attorneys....

Sometimes we read a patent case and we just want to skip it because our eyes begin to glaze over at the sight of numbers and graphs (there’s a reason why we went to law school, no?). But, when it comes down to it, you have to cut through the thicket of mathematical equations and get to the root of the matter. Today, we did just that, so you don’t have to....

New York City has a few nicknames. “The Big Apple.” “The Big City.” “Hong Kong on the Hudson.” And then there’s “Judicial Hellhole.” That last one is courtesy of the American Tort Reform Association and businesses mired in asbestos litigation. ATRA, joining an amicus brief in a New York appellate division, has a problem with a recent order affecting asbestos cases there. Asbestos Litigation The association, along with business and policy groups, says the order will “frustrate settlements, create longer and more complex trials, spawn appeals that will further delay recoveries....

A Virginia lawyer and politician accused of having sex with his law firm’s then-17-year-old receptionist is out of jail, but his legal troubles aren’t over yet. Virginia Delegate Joseph D. Morrissey was released from jail last week – just in time to be present as his former receptionist gave birth, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Morrissey, a former high school teacher and Georgetown Law grad, served as the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Richmond and was later elected to the Virginia House of Delegates....

Choosing a part-time or full-time law program is like choosing between vanilla and chocolate. Both work, but some people hate one or the other. A part-time curriculum seems distasteful to full-timers who can’t image anything less than complete devotion to their studies. But part-time students can actually have their cake and eat it, too, as long as they don’t overdose. Here’s a guide to the best part-time programs and other considerations....

Whether you’re a geek, or a nerd, the times sure have changed, for the better. Thanks to the rapid advancements in technology, and the wild success of the geeks and nerds that created the new tech, the stigma attached to belonging to either or both groups has faded. People actually take pride now in being a nerd or geek. There’s even a show called Nerd Court. However, as the terms have lost their pejorative focus, each has begun to be understood a little bit differently....

The California Supreme Court takes attorney discipline seriously. Last week, the state’s highest court returned 24 attorney discipline cases to the State Bar Court, after determining that proposed disciplinary actions were too lenient, reports the ABA Journal. The court asked the State Bar to further consider each matter “in light of the applicable attorney discipline standards.” The court cited its In re Silverton decision in a release accompanying the request, according to Metropolitan News-Enterprise....

If you purchased some bulk shrimp from Costco last summer, it’s possible that your shrimp cocktail included seafood that was “derived from a supply chain that depends upon documented slavery, human trafficking, and other labor abuses” – at least according to a lawsuit against the company. But it turns out, Sud had never purchased Thai shrimp from Costco, slavery-sourced or otherwise. Her suit was dismissed last Friday for lack of standing....

Some couples are meant to be together, seemingly finishing each other’s sentences like soul mates. Others finish each other’s crimes and are like jail mates. William Cornelius Jr. and his girlfriend got engaged in a Walmart store in Bay City, Michigan on December 30, 2018. It was oddly romantic, as Cornelius had asked a customer service worker to read a note containing his proposal over the store’s public address system. A crowd gathered around them and applauded the momentous event....

Despite the push of modernity demanding that businesses tear down the cubicle walls in favor of open concept offices, in-house lawyers aren’t clamoring to join that club. In general, in-house attorneys do not like working in cubicles, let alone open work spaces, due to the lack of prestige that comes from not having an office. Sure, there are privacy and confidentiality issues to consider as well. However, depending on the type of work, many attorneys don’t need anything more than a computer (hopefully with a couple large monitors) to complete it, which can really put those big concerns to rest....

New Jersey partygoers Jeffrey Olson, 21, and Ryan Letchford, 22, got a little more than they bargained for early Saturday night while hanging out at a friend’s house in Radnor, Pennsylvania. In a fit of drunken revelry, the pair broke into a police van. And then they couldn’t get out. They’ve since been charged with attempt to commit theft from a motor vehicle, public drunkenness, and criminal mischief. Apparently, after coming across what can only be described as a paddy wagon, Jeffrey Olson and Ryan Letchford decided that it would be a great idea to take fake arrest photos of themselves, reports the Burlington County Times....

Want to be a superhero to your kids? Houston man Jason Medley probably seems like one to his daughter. Medley is leading the fight against his daughter’s alleged cyberbullies. Who is he? A policeman? A firefighter? A noble, kind and strong man? No, he’s an attorney. Yeah, you didn’t see that one coming did you? In the end, attorneys end up working for big law firms, small law firms, or medium law firms, billing hours and taking depositions for some case where you’re tasked with defending an employer accused of sexually harassing an employee....

Some universities will count 2018 as the year to remember, while others will want to forget it. In collegiate basketball’s “March Madness,” it was the year of stunning upsets with top teams going down early. In law school rankings, it was also an early exit for one high-level university. Pepperdine University School of Law was ranked No. 59 – just shy of the top tier – by U.S. News & World Report....

A Massachusetts man accused of biting off part of a coach’s ear after a middle-school basketball game has turned himself in to police. Timothy Lee Forbes, 34, of Springfield, Mass., was the assistant coach of a losing team of sixth graders, the Hartford Courant reports. USA Today, however, said Forbes was not a coach, but rather a father angry over the loss of his son’s basketball team. Either way, Forbes faces charges of mayhem, assault and battery, and disorderly conduct in connection with the alleged biting attack that took place at the Western Massachusetts Catholic Youth Organization finals Friday night, Springfield’s WWLP-TV reports....

The Minor Leaguers’ class action lawsuit against Major League Baseball and various ball clubs over minimum wage violations has been brought back from the dead. The class of Minor League players was decertified back in July of last year due to concerns that relief for the class could not be determined with certainty. The most recent ruling recertifies a new class, which allows the case to move forward, though it is now seeking more narrowly tailored relief....

New York City resident Othniel Polanco was recently arrested for groping his seatmate on a JetBlue flight to JFK. The unfortunate victim was asleep at the time but when the 18-year-old victim woke up and discovered the alleged groper, he punched Polanco in the face. Polanco, age 29, originally said that he was asleep and didn’t realize where his hand was. Because, you know, sometimes when you’re asleep your hand ends up in another person’s pants....

Proof that life is often stranger than fiction, an armed mugger in New York rejected a victim’s flip phone – just like a Bill Hader T-Mobile commercial! T-Mobile’s prophetic powers reveal that no one wants a dumbphone, not even armed robbers: “What the F–k Is This?” New York City resident Kevin Cook was mugged at gunpoint in Central Park on Saturday, but when the thief stole Cook’s phone, he was so upset to find that it was an old flip phone that he gave it back, according to the New York Post....