The NBA lockout dispute is likely headed to court, after NBA players rejected the league’s latest offer and disbanded their union. The action clears the way for a legal offensive – one that could be decided by a California judge. The dispute centers on how to split the NBA’s $4 billion in annual revenue. Team owners have offered players about a 50% cut – down from 57% in the players’ previous contract, which expired in July....
Before you find yourself in a tizzy over this headline, let’s be clear: We’re not promoting marijuana use. Frankly, we write posts and headlines about marijuana because you, dear readers, like to read them. And for that, we thank you. The latest news in California medical marijuana law is that the California Supreme Court has unanimously voted to review three medical marijuana cases involving local ordinances that limit or ban marijuana dispensaries, reports the Los Angeles Times....
No Amount of Hot Air Can Get a Bad Idea Off the Ground The Hindenburg wasn’t an unmanned, 13-foot long, remote-controlled zeppelin. And it wasn’t on its way to aiding a prison escape attempt when it crashed. You can’t get chills from an eerie absence of similarity, so let’s just call this a personal disaster for one imprisoned drug trafficker. Spanish police officials announced last week that they had foiled an elaborately unsuccessful escape attempt at a Canary Islands prison, involving an Italian prisoner they are calling “Giulio B”....
Actress Olivia de Havilland saw her name in lights again last year, but not how she had imagined. A star from Hollywood’s golden era, de Havilland won two Oscars in a career that spanned more than 50 years. But the docudrama “Feud: Bette and Joan” took away that luster. In De Havilland v. FX Networks, de Havilland sued for false light and other claims, but a state appeals court ruled against her....
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is now the official owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. National Basketball Association owners unanimously voted to approve the team’s sale to Ballmer last week. However, the sale couldn’t be completed until a California court confirmed that Shelly Sterling, wife of former owner Donald Sterling, had the authority to sell the team without her husband’s consent, reports ESPN. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued an order finalizing an earlier ruling that allowing the sale....
For those who suffer from a phobia of parking tickets, the app Fixed, which will “fix” your tickets, is something of a miracle. Considering the realities of faded curb paint, signs written in triple negatives, and ambiguous driveways, it’s no wonder that drivers could use some help fixing tickets. Not so fast, says three California cities. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland have now banned the ticket-fix app. Fixed is a mobile app that allows victims – ahem, flagrant violator’s of municipal parking ordinances – to easily petition parking tickets....
Harvard Law School botched two sexual assault complaint investigations, according to a Department of Education report released last week. In one, the school took more than a year to resolve a complaint, did not allow the complainant to participate, and ultimately reversed a decision to dismiss the accused from the law school, reports Boston.com. The DOE report follows a controversial change in Harvard University’s sexual assault policy that was enacted over the summer, despite a strongly worded open letter objecting to the changes by 28 members of the Harvard Law faculty....
If you’re pursuing a career in entertainment law, this could be your lucky week. Several major entertainment companies are looking to bring attorneys onto their team, including the people who made “Star Wars,” and the company that brought you “Supertrain” and “Peter Pan LIVE!” So, get your resumes ready. This week, as part of our affiliate relationship with Indeed, we’re bringing you the 3 coolest entertainment law jobs we could find....
Some law students dream of BigLaw riches. But another common ambition is the judicial clerkship, particularly the federal clerkship. Well, everyone is all about stats and metrics these days so we thought we’d bring your attention to those schools which seem to be particularly talented at funneling their grads into federal clerkship seats. Take a look. What business does Business Insider have in combing through the ABA’s law school data? Well, some of us are curious to see which schools have the highest percentage of their grads getting a coveted federal clerkship – and Business Insider did the work for us, putting together a ranking of schools based on federal clerkships....
In a first-time anywhere program, Washburn University School of Law will let students complete their “Third Year Anywhere.” The off-campus program is like an internship, but allows students to earn academic credit for working 20 hours a week under the supervision of a licensed attorney. They will also complete online courses during the third year that focus on practical legal skills. To many, legal apprenticeships have been a long time coming because most law graduates don’t have a practical clue until they get a law job....
Already on “high alert” over suspicions of possible match-fixing, Wimbledon officials got a scare in the form of a report from one betting company. An AP story reported on how the bookmaker, Betfair, said “the company received more than six times as many wagers as usual for Jurgen Melzer’s first-round match against Wayne Odesnik on Tuesday.” Nevertheless, it turns out that the company suspects no wrongdoing in this particular case. Instead, the company is pointing the finger at TV commentators, who may have caused the odd betting by reporting that Odesnik was injured (he lost the match in straight sets)....
Every lawyer knows there’s a point in a case when you have to let go. In the good cases, it’s when you let go at a victory party. In the bad cases, it’s when you have no place else to go. That’s what happened to attorney Michael Cohen when he pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. He must have realized he wasn’t going to get a presidential pardon, so he really let go....
While Santa Claus and underpaid workers may call the North Pole their own, there is a real question as to which country legally owns the North Pole. On Monday, Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird confirmed that America’s neighbor to the north intends to lay claim to the North Pole, in order to seize the mineral wealth that lies beneath the ice, reports Reuters. Which other powers are struggling to grab a piece of the North Pole?...
A Ninth Circuit decision interpreting Dodd-Frank to have broad whistleblower protections may have some far-reaching consequences, according to the ruling’s lone dissenter. And he’s not talking about disrupting administrative schemes for securities law enforcement. Instead, the decision could risk unleashing a jurisprudential version of the parasitic alien from John Carpenter’s horror classic “The Thing,” according to the Ninth Circuit’s Judge John B. Owens. Here’s why. The Ninth Circuit ruled last Wednesday that Dodd-Frank whistleblower protections aren’t limited to those who report potential violations to the SEC; they can encompass internal whistleblowers as well....
The Jay Harris Rule: If you’ve been accepted to college on a cushy football scholarship, a YouTube video full of weed-smoking and profanity might not be the best idea. Michigan State yanked the incoming freshman’s football scholarship because of his online rap single, “Datbull 4 Life,” reports a Yahoo! Sports blog. Clearly, another wise choice: Harris, who was one of the top football recruits in his area, is skipping on college altogether to tailgate his lifelong dream as a rapper…...
A jury found former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez guilty of first degree murder for a 2013 execution-style slaying. Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole for shooting Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player who at the time was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee. The jury took 35 hours over seven days to come to a verdict, so let’s take a look at what they decided and what comes next for Hernandez....
The Magna Carta, that “Great Charter” which first codified fundamental rights such as due process, speedy trials and trial by jury, turns 800 this Monday. The document, which helped settle a dispute between the English monarchy and rebelling nobility in 1215, gave rise to modern rule of law, constitutions and at least one royal beheading. What better way to celebrate the Magna Carta’s 800 years than with 800 American lawyers? And no, they won’t be the victims of human sacrifice on the fields of Runnymede, they’ll just be attending a conference – a very historical conference....
Want to hear something surprising? The United States once prohibited the sale of alcohol! Well, that’s probably not surprising. But, while prohibition went out the window in 1933, many states still have some pretty odd laws about alcohol on the books today. Here are nine weird state alcohol laws. Massachusetts In Massachusetts, there are no happy hours, no bottomless mimosa brunches, no drinks on the house, and no beer pong tournaments at the local bar....
Alexander Hamilton, a prominent American lawyer, Founding Father and face of the $10 bill, did not have a law degree. So Albany Law School decided it was about time to give him one. More than two centuries after Hamilton studied and practiced law in New York, the law school will confer an honorary law degree on him. Of course, the school will not exactly give it to the late nation-builder. A descendant will accept it on his behalf....
This week California is making headlines with laws – enacted and proposed – that affect gun rights, and the rights of juveniles. A Sunnyvale municipal law banning large-capacity magazines reaches the highest court of the land, while another proposed law would require juveniles to be tried as adults. Sunnyvale’s Controversial Gun Law Last November, the voters of the City of Sunnyvale passed Measure C, a law that among other things, bans large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds....
