Last week we responded to Slate’s article bashing the notion that you can do anything with a law degree. We disagreed, and noted that while it is our opinion you can do anything with a law degree, it shouldn’t be the sole, or main, reason you decide to go to law school. To prove that you can, in fact, do just about anything with a law degree, we decided to give you a list of 101 things that you could do with your J....
As attorney Leonard Suchanek found out, biting off more than you can chew may come back to bite you in your wallet. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that Suchanek must disgorge a portion of his fees paid by a client because of his violations of the ethical rule against current-client conflicts. Suchanek was alleged to have been representing three parties with conflicting interests, including Chinese businessman Kevin So, in an international Ponzi scheme lawsuit....
In May, we told you that the California Supreme Court will consider whether illegal immigrants can be licensed as attorneys in the state. The court issued an order last month directing the California Committee of Bar Examiners to show cause why the court should grant admit an undocumented immigrant to the California State Bar, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Opening briefs in the case were due Monday, and the Committee of Bar Examiners took a rather interesting approach to its argument supporting law licenses of undocumented immigrants....
Duke men’s basketball team doesn’t lose very often. But when they do, it’s become common for the opposing team’s fans to storm the court in celebration. After Thursday’s loss at Virginia, the first sellout crowd at Virginia all year stormed the court. At the time, Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his players were still on the court, and they had to battle through the surge to get to the locker room, reports ESPN....
Silicon Graphics, Inc. v. ATI Techs., Inc., No. 08-1334, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement in an infringement action concerning a patent related to a graphics system and process that mainly operates on a floating point format. In vacating part of the district court’s judgment, the court held that, because the district court erroneously construed two of the three contested limitations, summary judgment on claims with those terms is vacated....
A list of the best law schools for bargain hunters was released by the The National Jurist and it looks nothing like the U.S. News and World Report list. Instead, the National Jurist list looks more like the college football rankings with the University of Alabama topping the list of the best deals for law schools, reports The Wall Street Journal. Also placing high on the list were Georgia, LSU, Wisconsin, and Nebraska....
According to James Leipold of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), job prospects for new lawyers are improving. With law school enrollment rates falling 19 percent from the Class of 2013 to the Class of 2017, new law graduates will likely face less competition for jobs. Where are these new jobs though? How many of you went to law school thinking you’d be public service attorneys and save the world, or big firm corporate attorneys raking in the dough?...
Take it from a bunch of lawyers, somebody’s gonna get sued. Yes, the full story of the dimwitted TSA screener and the unsuspecting student who was the victim of his joke bag of white powder is likely not finished. Almost everyone has heard the tale by now. TSA airport security screener pulls 22 year-old (5 foot 3", please note) aside waiving a bag of white powder he supposedly pulled from her bag at the screening check point and blasts her with “where did you get this?...
California home builders stopped using lead paint a half century ago, but a state appeals court said they still have to clean up the mess. Lead poisoning is a health problem for residents of old houses and apartments, and litigation over the issue has been plodding through the courts for nearly two decades. Four years ago, a trial judge ordered the paint manufacturers to pay $1.15 billion to abate the problem....
Georgia State University College of Law has been ranked the best value law school in the United States. The University of Georgia School of Law has been ranked second-best. So among the “Top 20 Best Value Law Schools” ranked by The National Jurist’s, Georgia law schools dominate?! What are they feeding those students in the deep South? How to Spot a Bargain If we were talking college football, top-ranking would be a natural for Georgia....
For law reviews across the country, a recently filed lawsuit could be cause for concern … or not. No, the non-profit doesn’t encourage diversity. It’s suing because the law review considers, among the many factors, the racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as the gender and sexual orientation, of the students selected for the school’s law review, and the review’s authors. The non-profit alleges that this discriminates against its members who “are white and male....
In an appeal from a trial court’s order quashing a search warrant for the premises of medical marijuana providers, the order is reversed where the court erred in finding that defendant qualified as a primary caregiver under the Compassionate Use Act and the Medical Marijuana Program Act, and in finding that the detective who authored the search warrant affidavit was not qualified to opine as to the legality of defendant’s activities....
A New Jersey judge ordered that a pet bobcat be sent to live in the zoo after its most recent escape into the neighborhood. Rocky, a bobcat owned by Stafford Township, New Jersey, resident Ginny Fine, will be staying at the Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey Township, where he was caught after his most recent escape attempt. NJ Advance Media reports that Fine pleaded guilty to letting an exotic animal run wild, an ordinance that was passed after Rocky had escaped numerous times before....
A Minnesota college student has been convicted of a cybercrime that led to plenty of unwanted exposure for pro baseball player Grady Sizemore. Photos of Sizemore, in various degrees of undress, were made public without his permission. Leah Michelle Ayers, 20, of Apple Valley, Minn., pleaded guilty last week to a charge of unauthorized computer access, a misdemeanor. It was the final inning of a two-year ordeal for the rookie hacker....
Ever wonder what the legal world would be like if the Supreme Court was composed exclusively of drag queens? Wonder no more. RuPaul, ‘Supermodel of the World’ and perhaps the world’s most famous female illusionist, gave us some gender-bending Supreme Court insights on RuPaul’s Drag Race this week, as contestants were instructed to serve up some Supreme Court realness. Black robes have never looked like this before. Justice Is a Drag If you’re not familiar with RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Emmy-worthy (but very Emmy-less) reality competition show, here’s a quick intro....
New Orleans Saints linebacker Junior Galette was arrested early Monday morning on domestic violence charges. The 26-year-old Galette was taken into custody after police responded to a disturbance at his home in Kenner, Louisiana, ESPN reports. He is accused of pushing a woman to the ground while trying to get her to leave his house. According to police, the woman had visible injuries, including scratches on her face and bleeding from her ear where one of her earrings had been ripped out....
Salma Hayek’s dog was killed by a neighbor in the Seattle area in mid-February and the shooting was ruled justified by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, NBC News reports. Nonetheless, the county will send the case of the actress’s shot dog to prosecutors for review, said spokesman Lt. Cliff Ziesemer. Hayek’s neighbor, who is an animal lover and dog owner, has expressed deep regret over Hayek’s dog’s death. She wasn’t aware that it belonged to the actress, or even that the dog was dead....
Is a California tuition law that benefits illegal aliens against the law? We might never know what the Supreme Court has to say on this matter, as the high court denied the petition of certiorari in the case of Martinez v. Regents of University of California. The controversial California Supreme Court decision made its bid to the Supreme Court earlier this year. Unfortunately, it just didn’t have what it takes to get the Supreme Court nod....
A concerned father and self appointed school crossing guard Mike Sibrian helps children across the street. That was until the cops in San Antonio hauled off to jail. Sibrian, a proud parent volunteer helps his son along with the many other children Harlandale Middle School cross a busy intersection. KSAT 12 reports, Sibrian who said what he was doing as a public service was arrested by police for being a traffic hazard....
From the time most kids are small, small children they hear the same thing from their parents, “don’t play with that electrical cord (or wall outlet, or hairdryer) you’ll get electrocuted.” Maybe that is a small overstatement, but it gets the point across. So how did a teenager end up playing with a an electrical demonstration cord that he attached to himself and had plugged in, providing enough of a electric shock to stop his heart?...
