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Some might think he is not qualified to teach legal ethics, but former White House counsel and Watergate lawyer John Dean is doing just that. Approved to teach a series of Continuing Legal Education courses across the country, Dean is first going to teach Skadden associates what a lawyer should do when his client is engaged in criminal activity. Though informed of the entire affair only after the Watergate burglars were arrested, John Dean was convicted of obstruction of justice and spent four months in prison, reports The New York Times....

The National Association of Law Placement (NALP) released a 2015 report that outlines the current trends of minorities and women in the law. The numbers indicate growth in both segments. In fact, the numbers have shown upward trends of both minorities, women and minority women at top law firms for a number of years now. This is welcome news to those who have called vociferously for reform to the overwhelming dominance of white males in the partner segment....

1Ls, if you haven’t started outlining yet, you better get to it. Outlining is one of the best ways to learn in law school. Your outlines will likely go through multiple drafts before exam time with each draft getting shorter and shorter as you learn the content better and better. You may have been briefing cases and taking class notes, but unless you organize it all together, you’ll be regretting it come exam study time....

To find the best law school as an older student, you need to think even farther ahead. Where are you going to work when you get out? No law firm or business will admit age discrimination in its hiring practices, but they all want young up-and-comers. Older students have to know that before they head down that long road. So if you want a job when you are even older, plan on going to a law school based on its placement resources or be prepared to make your own....

It was going to happen sooner or later, and it looks like it happened sooner. California passed a law last week that, according to the NRA, would “effectively end the practice of personally manufacturing firearms in California.” How does one manufacture a gun at home without heavy machinery and tools? Easy. Go to your local Best Buy and get a 3D printer. Plastic Guns; Assembly Bill 857 The California law looks to be a nip-it-in-the-bud attempt by the state’s legislature, getting a jump on what could be contentious legal ground later on....

The California Supreme Court is considering briefs on whether to uphold a voter-approved law to speed up death penalty cases. Approved by voters in November 2016, Prop. 66 authorizes more lawyers to take death penalty cases and sets a five-year timeline for appeals. Opponents sued to invalidate the measure, which was set to take effect last month, but the high court stayed implementation and ordered briefing on the case this month....

Who hasn’t dreamt about using a public address system in their car? Whether it’s to politely chastise the guy who cut you off, kindly inform that little old lady that you’ll wait while she crosses the street, or dutifully remind another driver that it’s incredibly moronic to text or watch videos while driving, a car-based PA system sounds really handy. Sure, sure, it could also be really annoying, depending on who’s controlling it....

Chad Johnson, the NFL star formerly known as Chad Ochocinco, was arrested over the weekend after allegedly head-butting his wife. The couple apparently began arguing after Johnson’s wife, Evelyn Lozada, found a receipt for a box of condoms in his car, reports Fox News. Despite being married for less than two months, the Miami Dolphins’ wide receiver apparently did not have a good excuse for the receipt. So Johnson allegedly began yelling at screaming at Lozada before head-butting her....

Lawyers in the blogosphere have decided that Supreme Court review of the Affordable Care Act is a foregone conclusion. Odds makers are, no doubt, taking bets on when the Court will hear arguments and how it will rule. The preliminary phases of Affordable Care Act challenges, however, are not finished. Last week, while pundits held their breath waiting to see if the Obama Administration would file a notice of appeal for an en banc hearing in the Eleventh Circuit, the D....

A California Appellate Court clarified that it’s easier to steal acquire land from a religious organization than from some other private entity. That’s because an adverse possessor snagging a religious organization’s property doesn’t have to meet the standard five-year tax requirement. We’ll explain. Meher Mount is a religious group whose “primary purpose” is to “provide for the betterment of mankind by implementing the teachings of Meher Baba.” The land it owns is irrevocably dedicated to that purpose....

You can’t blame the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for what happens to the Dulles Toll Road. The Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) operates the Dulles Toll Road in Virginia. Plaintiffs John Corr and John Grisby claim the tolls are a tax and constitute an illegal exaction in violation of the Due Process Clause because they are assessed by MWAA, an unelected body. They also assert that the MWAA composition violates separation of powers by intruding on the president’s authority under Article II....

Medical marijuana is once again a burning issue in many local and state races across the country. But marijuana activists in San Jose, California, are taking a novel approach to sparking pro-pot voters to get to the polls: Some medical-pot clubs are offering free or discounted weed to patients who can prove that they voted in the upcoming primary election. Is this so-called “pot for votes” campaign legal? And are the group’s high political hopes destined to go up in smoke?...

Ex-Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward is facing a paternity and child support lawsuit. Melanie Smith claims that the former NFL star and “Dancing With the Stars” contestant fathered her 1-year-old child, reports The Urban Daily. Smith claims Ward will not take responsibility for the child and that the former football great provides no support. If Ward will not own up to being the dad, Smith is seeking a blood test to confirm the child’s paternity....

As the fight over the remaining three seats in the D.C. Circuit continues, the hyperbolic minds of the pundit machine are lurching into action, decrying the court as the last bulwark between the American people and an Obama-created regulatory juggernaut. Carrie Severino of the subtly-named Judicial Crisis Network warned on Saturday that “[t]he D.C. [C]ircuit is the only thing” able to stop the Obama Administration’s bundle of regulations (e.g., The Affordable Care Act) by challenging them on appeal, reports Fox News....

Occasionally, we get excited when perusing federal appeals because one of the litigants has a famous name. That excitement has manifested itself in posts about Joe the Plumber and David Bowie. (Not that David Bowie.) So you can imagine our delight upon discovering a Federal Circuit appellant named Jerry McGuire. Even if his surname was spelled differently than the titular movie character. Jerry McGuire leased a plot of farmland in Arizona from the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) with the approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)....

There are a couple of lessons to be learned from the ill-advised actions of Judge John Patrick Contini. Obviously, judges shouldn’t fake their dockets to take time off from work. When you are making $160,000-a-year from taxpayer dollars, you owe it to the people to do your job. But judges – and counsel – should learn another lesson on their first day in the courtroom: treat the staff with respect....

In a dispute over whether plaintiff’s insurer had a duty to defend and indemnify plaintiff in a trademark infringement action under an “advertising injury” policy, summary judgment for insurance company is affirmed as the prior publication exclusion in the policy bars coverage for trademark infringement in this case. Read Kim Seng Co. v. Great Am. Ins. Co. of New York, No. B208699 [HTML] Read Kim Seng Co. v. Great Am. Ins....

Larry Nassar, former team doctor for USA Gymnastics and at Michigan State University, is currently in police custody, charged with sexual assault of a minor in his home and possession of child pornography. And these cases are unrelated to the claims of 18 female athletes that Nassar used the cover of medical examinations to sexually assault them in incidents spanning two decades, most of them when the victims were minors....

Have dreams of being a big city lawyer, shuttling between your Park Avenue apartment and downtown firm? Want to be in the hustle and bustle of a major metropolitan center? Well, it’s not impossible, but you might have a much better life ahead of you if you went the other route and worked in America’s smaller towns. A new survey by Good Call looked at the best cities for recent law school graduates in terms of jobs, affordability, and cultural opportunities, and found a lot of lesser-known towns at the top of the list....

Nobody likes an upset stomach. For some, it may mean a sick day, less productivity, general discomfort in your abdomen area, but for others…a high-speed police chase? Apparently, that’s what a Utah man, Jeffrey Laub, alleged as his excuse for failing to stop when the police attempted to pull him over, the United Press International reports. Laub, 39, claims that he led the police on a chase because of an upset stomach, and he was actually just trying to reach a rest stop so he could unload....