Although the term ‘slam dunk,’ when used about a legal case often refers to an easily winnable case or motion, those are just a small subset of slam dunks. Sure, some slam dunks are preceded by a clear path to the hoop, but the best dunks involve a blocker or two getting dunked on. And one attorney has set the bar for legal slam dunks rather high as he blamed a late filing on the recent Utah Jazz game 5 loss....
The president-elect announced last Friday that Donald F. McGahn would be joining his new administration as White House counsel. McGahn is a long-time D.C. insider, a partner at Jones Day, who spent five years on the Federal Election Commission and was once chief counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee. During the election, McGahn led Jones Day’s work for the Trump campaign, making his transition into a White House role natural....
Predicting the future of law schools is a bit like predicting the weather. Everybody hopes for sunny skies, but meteorology is a science not a hope. And when the clouds come, we often look for silver linings to shade us from disappointment. So in the dreary climate of declining law school applications, there is some hope if not science. Look at it this way: there is less competition to get into law school now....
Last year was a busy one for corporate insiders exposing wrongdoing. Spurred by large SEC whistleblower awards and stronger interpretations of federal laws protecting whistleblowers, 2016 saw major developments when it came to calling out corporate rule breaking. That even includes one in-house attorney turned whistleblower. So, here are our top six whistleblower stories of the year, taken from the (recent) FindLaw archives. Last summer saw the second biggest SEC whistleblower award ever, $17 million awarded to an anonymous individual who helped expose securities fraud....
For the past four or five years now, New Jersey has been trying to legalize gambling in the Garden State. A 2012 law authorizing sports betting was struck down by courts, as was a 2014 statute repealing state prohibitions on gambling at racetracks and casinos. But it’s this distinction – between official state approval and tacit repeal of a prior ban – that Jersey is betting on when it comes to the Supreme Court....
A thief in baggy pants was foiled by his own sartorial choices on Wednesday, as his not-too-tight bottoms allowed a bystander to trip him up as he was making his getaway. Anthony Jason Garcia, 31, allegedly grabbed the cash drawer from the gift shop of an Orlando-area Catholic church and tried to make a break for it – but his pants kept falling down. Seizing the opportunity, a church maintenance worker grabbed onto Garcia’s sagging pants and literally tripped him up, Reuters reports....
In the closing minutes of the Super Bowl this year, the Falcons sealed their fate when they made a critical mistake: they punted. To punt – such a well-known expression you don’t have to know football to know what it means – is to put off taking action in the face of a difficult situation. For the Falcons, it meant to delay going forward when they were winning the game. In retrospect, they lost the game because of that untimely decision....
The BCS Championship Games lived up to the hype. A tight, back-and-forth battle ended with a last-second, 19-yard field, closer than an extra point. But don’t think the drama is over. Now the question turns to whether Auburn will be allowed to keep its National Championship. Don’t think the Cam Newton controversy is over. Cecil Newton, the father of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, attended the game, despite the wishes of the Auburn Tigers....
Back in 2010, Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was arrested for supplying WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents; he claimed his actions were rooted in the public’s right to be aware of what the government was doing abroad. Manning was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Shortly thereafter, Manning came out as transgender and wanted to be known as “Chelsea Manning,” a request most news outlets have been happy to abide by....
A Connecticut man tried to steal his own dog from a pound Monday morning - and failed. Walther Scovish, 55, was arrested and charged with burglary and trespass, amongst other charges, after his unsuccessful doggy rescue attempt. Why was Scovish’s dog in the pound in the first place? It’s because Scovish was arrested last week on charges of heroin possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to The Hartford Courant....
Slates v. Gorabi, B217067, concerned an attorney’s suit against his former clients, seeking recovery of attorney fees under Code of Civil Procedure section 685.040, which permits a judgment creditor to recover attorney fees incurred in enforcing a judgment. People v. Johnson, A124362, concerned a challenge to the trial court’s admission of an audiotape of a 911 call made by defendant’s wife on the night of the incident, in a prosecution of defendant for being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition by a felon....
Net neutrality died last year, but a panel of judges could bring it back to life. The U.S. DC Circuit Court of Appeals is thinking about it. The question is whether the Federal Communications Commission illegally repealed net neutrality rules that kept internet service providers from throttling traffic and charging more for doing it. But Mozilla Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission is bigger than that. Industry insiders say it is the internet case of the century....
Every year, school officials request that family members hold their cheers and applause until after all graduating students’ names have been called. Every year, nobody listens. This year, one school Superintendent got serious. He pressed criminal charges against one student’s family members for cheering. At Senatobia High School’s graduation, families and friends were told to hold their cheering and applause until after all the graduates had finished crossing the stage, or they would be removed from the ceremony....
Ah, the Federal Circuit. It’s like the spooky basement of the federal judiciary, that place where even seasoned appellate attorneys are afraid to go. “There might be … patent litigation down there!” they exclaim. And, in truth, since the last time we covered the Federal Circuit, there has been a bit of patent litigation. So here’s a roundup of what’s been going on in the Spooky Basement Circuit Court of Appeals....
If you have recently cleared the Bar exam and are unemployed, you have likely given thought, time, and maybe even some blood, sweat, and tears to finding a job. And somewhere along the line you may have thought to yourself, wouldn’t it be so much easier if you just put out a shingle? Or, case scenario two, you have a good job practicing as an attorney but your hours are long, you don’t love the work or work environment, and you don’t feel directly connected to the cases you handle....
Termination of a mother’s parental rights over seven-year-old twins and selecting adoption as their permanent plan after a hearing under Welfare and Institutions Code, section 366.26 is affirmed where: 1) there is no record suggestions that anything would have gone more favorably for the mother had the court granted the McKenzie/Mardsen motions; and 2) any error in the ICWA notice was harmless, and this leaves no need to consider further arguments....
The life of the BigLaw associate is centered around billable hours, and get about 2,000 of them in a year. Who hates them? Associates hate to keep track of them and meet them. Clients always think they’re being cheated. And all of their spouses hate hearing about it. Seems like only partners like billable hours. Jackson Lewis, however, decided to buck the system. Starting in 2015, reports Above the Law, 293 of its associates will longer be tied to them “as an evaluative tool....
About 100 hundred years ago, California lawmakers decided shopkeepers could not display guns in their store windows. Never mind that people could carry guns on their hips in some parts, but that’s all history. A federal judge has struck down California’s 95-year-old law on First Amendment grounds. Tracy Rifle and Pistol v. Harris is a big decision for gunshops. It means they can show people what’s inside their stores, in case they didn’t know....
Trial court’s ruling that the document establishing that defendant was driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher was inadmissible hearsay is reversed as the court abused its discretion in determining that the forensic report was inadmissible hearsay. Read Lee v. Valverde, No. E046731 [PDF] Read Lee v. Valverde, No. E046731 [HTML] Filed October 29, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Miller Counsel For Appellant: Edmund G. Brown, Jr....
Chicks dig alligators. Or at least Dewayne Yarbrough thinks so. Which is why he has been illegally housing a pet alligator for the last five years. As in most localities, it’s illegal to keep a pet alligator in Cook County, which is why, when a do-gooder spotted the American alligator in the home of Dewayne Yarbrough, he called the local Sheriff. The Sheriff’s animal crimes unit found the pet alligator in Yarbrough’s kitchen, reports The Chicago Tribune....
