Posts

Ellen Pao, the former junior partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, lost her gender discrimination lawsuit against the firm on Friday. In a case that made headlines, Pao had claimed that she was not promoted because of her gender, was subject to harassment, and faced retaliation when she complained. Pao’s case included salacious details, what her attorneys argued was “despicable, malicious, oppressive treatment,” as well as allegations of subtle double standards faced by women: things like not being invited to outings or being subject to contradictory, irreconcilable evaluations....

You know Janice in accounting, the one John Oliver seems to obsess over (come on John, you know Janice can’t be responsible for all those yogurts), well, she might be able to get away with her antics, because she’s an accountant, and well … she’s also a fictional character. But, as a lawyer in the real world, short of nepotism, your attitude and work ethic will likely be the determining factors over whether you advance....

Howrey employees and staffers have had it rough. First, Howrey dived straight into some dire financial straits. Then, Howrey dissolved into thin air. Okay, so it didn’t dissolve literally, but firm partners voted to dissolve the firm in March. And now, Citibank is blocking some poor staffers’ Howrey bonuses. Howrey had wanted to pay some of the staffers working on winding down the business around $500,000 in bonuses, reports Thomson Reuters News & Insight....

A former substitute teacher has been sentenced to jail for showing an obscene movie to students in class. Ex-substitute Spanish teacher Sheila Kearns of Columbus, Ohio, who couldn’t speak Spanish, showed five classes of high school students a movie called “The ABCs of Death,” which portrayed bizarre deaths, full-frontal nudity, and sex acts. She was charged with five counts of felony disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, convicted of four counts, and sentenced to 90 days in jail, The Columbus Dispatch reports....

Before January comes to a close, news outlets will continue to recount the year’s top stories. But we’ve got something even better: The year’s most-clicked upon Legally Weird stories – and my goodness, do you guys have some strange predilections. If it involved sex or animals, you clicked. And if it involved bodily fluids, you went crazy. Luckily only one of the stories may have involved all three. Can you figure out which one that is?...

Eighty-hour work weeks can have more side effects than simply losing track of all of your hobbies. Such a demanding schedule leaves little to no time for a social life or relationship. Even if you had a significant other when you started the job, the long hours and stress have probably taken their toll on that relationship, leaving you sad, lonely, and without Valentine’s Day plans. Or, perhaps you are one of the many unemployed law graduates out there....

In the current of law school and legal practice it can be easy to become wound up in your world. For law students it is classes, tests, keeping up and trying not to fall behind. And for working J.D., it is doing your job and balancing in life’s demands that keep the spotlight focused on you. But the practice we are part of asks more from us than we may ask of ourselves....

A Bumble Bee Foods factory worker was cooked to death while on the job in Santa Fe Springs, California. So you might want to hold off a week or two before buying that next can of tuna. Authorities say that they found the body of Jose Malena inside a device called a “steamer machine.” The 62-year-old Malena was cooked to death and investigators are still trying to figure out how he ended up in the cooking device, reports KTLA Los Angeles....

In an action seeking to compel the Secretary of Defense to withhold federal funds from a university that allegedly denied military recruiters equal access to its campus, dismissal of the action is affirmed where plaintiff lacked standing because it failed to show that withholding funds would enable plaintiff’s members to meet with military recruiters at on-campus job fairs. Read Young America’s Found. v. Gates, No. 08-5366 Appellate Information Argued March 5, 2009...

Montgomery County Police were in for a big surprise last week when they pulled over a black Lamborghini just outside of Silver Spring, Md. The car’s license plates had been replaced with the Batman symbol and the driver was dressed in a $5,000 Batman costume. They had inadvertently pulled over Batman. They were so excited, they even took photos and posted them on the department’s Facebook page. But not before they ordered him to affix his real license plates to the car....

Vanity license plates share various sentiments, and in Georgia, “GAYPWR” is now one of them. The state settled on Wednesday with James Cyrus Gilbert of Atlanta, who sued Georgia for previously not approving his requests for a “GAYGUY,” “4GAYLIB,” or “GAYPWR” license plate, reports Reuters. This settlement was part of a larger move by Georgia to tighten down on free speech action above the tailpipe. Gilbert had initially requested “GAYGUY” for his license plate, which under the old Georgia banned-tag list was a no-go....

Congrats to all the new law school graduates! If you were one of the thousands of 3Ls to become J.D.s this weekend, you’ve got an exciting life ahead of you! Well, actually, you’ve got a lot of bar prep coming up, first. But you can worry about that in a week or two. Right now, there are plenty of non-bar related topics to focus on, from the fun stuff (like picking your hobbies back up) to the not-so-fun (like getting on top of your debt)....

Mardi Gras on St. Charles Avenue – where the parades roll – is generally a family-friendly event. Mardi Gras in the French Quarter, where the drunk people lurk, is not. You can run afoul of the law for getting too sleazy in the Big Easy, but here five things that won’t get you disbarred during Mardi Gras. 1. Open Container Most cities would frown upon you walking down the street double-fisting a hurricane and a hand grenade....

Executive Order 13771 is the infamous 2-for-1 deregulation policy aimed at reducing federal agency regulation and spending by requiring agencies to cut programs to create new ones and to cut two regulations for every one that gets implemented. The lawsuit, which was filed early last year, has finally made it past the motion to dismiss stage with the federal district court for the District of Columbia finding that the plaintiffs do have standing to at least proceed to discovery....

San Francisco’s impending vote on circumcision may be short-lived now that a group of Jews and Muslims have asked a San Francisco Superior Court judge to weigh in on the issue. Though the circumcision ban lawsuit ultimately seeks to kick the initiative off the city’s November ballot on the grounds that state law prohibits cities from interfering in such matters, there are some pretty good Constitutional arguments, too. Primarily a sacred religious rite in both Judaism and Islam, many in the medical community believe that circumcision is a beneficial procedure, reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases....

Child support battles are usually emotional, but a child support claim that devolves into negligent infliction of emotional distress claims and demurrer pleadings stands out from the child support crowd. L.K.’s son was born in 1988. The father, P.G. (Father), was obligated to pay child support until the child’s 18th birthday in 2006. In 2007, the Los Angeles Child Support Services Department (CSSD) filed a motion to determine child support arrears....

Even King Solomon would have a difficult time dividing these assets. In a case of first impression in North Dakota courts (how big an impression is not made clear in court papers), divorcing parents Erik and Traci Isaacson are battling over custody of the children and… of Traci’s breast implants. Well not really custody of the implants, that clearly remains with Mom, but the question before the North Dakota Supreme Court is: who’s portion of the marital property gets charged for those little darlings?...

Big rig diesel engines have the EPA and manufacturer Navistar frequently in front of the D.C. Circuit this October, with the court hearing arguments on Tuesday about the EPA’s regulation of below-standard engines. According to Overdrive, rival truck manufacturers Daimler, Mack, and Volvo argued before the Court that “the EPA wrongly granted Navistar permission to manufacture and sell non-compliant engines if they paid a fine.” This fine – called a non-compliance penalty (NCP) – allowed Navistar to put engines that didn’t meet nitrogen emissions standards until the clean air act....

In an appeal involving presumptive disqualification of a care custodian from receiving a donative transfer from a dependent or elder adult, trial court’s judgment against the daughter of comedian Richard Pryor and in favor of stepmother is affirmed as there is no support in the language of section 21351(a) or in the legislative history which would make the spousal exception to the presumption of invalidity unavailable to a spouse who allegedly persuaded the transferor to marry through undue influence or fraud....

When it comes to indecent exposure, does size matter? According to one Florida man, it does. Stephen Van Alphen’s (pretty sad) defense: his p-stick is “too small” to be seen by anyone. I think we all know who his BFF probably is. Poor guy. After Van Alphen, 46, was arrested for going commando in his neighborhood in a poncho – his self-proclaimed “Clint Eastwood poncho” – he offered to show his genitals to deputies saying, “[i]t is too small for anyone to see it anyway,” according to United Press International....