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For years, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has tried to legalize sports gambling in the state, in an attempt to revitalizing state casino and racetrack industry. Those efforts took a huge turn this week when the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Christie’s New Jersey legislation violated federal anti-sports betting laws. Those of you who’ve followed the checkered history of state gambling laws (or have happened to see a commercial reassuring you that what happens in a certain city stays in that certain city) may be asking yourselves why some states get to allow sports betting while others cannot....

Not all family law cases are created equal, and no two are exactly alike. While it’s nearly always emotional, some cases are charged with more than just the usual family drama that leads to divorce. When child custody and domestic violence cases crossover, the stakes are higher. If you’re not ready for it, the consequences could be all too real. Fortunately, for practitioners in California, The Rutter Group’s Effective Strategies for Litigating Child Custody in Contested Domestic Violence Cases program can teach you some of the best practices and strategies for handling these matters....

For law students, having a social life is actually important. Maintaining a good school/life balance is important to learn, as you’ll need to maintain a good work/life balance as a lawyer, or else. You need to keep up with friends and family. After all, who’s going to bring you soup and a kick in the butt when you’re sick or down in the dumps? But actually maintaining a social life during law school is much trickier than you may have anticipated....

Albert Einstein was a brilliant physicist, but not a great physics professor. He epitomized the common knowledge that researchers often do not make good teachers. That’s why you can’t really judge a law school by its faculty alone. Research institutions deserve credit for their experts who publish rather than perish. But if you want to know where to get a good legal education, you have to look at other factors as well....

Yeah, we’ve all been there: 3:00 a.m., drunk, high, and looking to vibe out with an owl on the ride home. Well, two Florida men have lived that dream, and now one of them is being charged with a federal offense. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that Stervenson Benjamin violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by capturing, possessing, and transporting a great horned owl. As you can see in the video below, the horned owl is in fact great, and very, very chill....

Los Angeles Teachers and the Los Angles Unified School District (LAUSD) appear to be at an impasse in contract negotiations, and attempts to compromise, or even coexist, seem to be failing with each turn. Now the teachers have drawn a line in the sand, setting a date of January 10, 2019, for a strike, unless LAUSD can offer up terms it is willing to accept. The battle between the teacher’s union, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and LAUSD has been brewing for years....

Juvenile court order continuing defendant as a ward of the state and imposing a probation condition prohibiting him from possessing any dangerous or deadly weapon is affirmed where: 1) there is no merit to defendant’s claim that the probation condition is unconstitutionally vague as the condition has a plain common-sense meaning and is sufficiently precise for defendant to know what is required of him; and 2) the mere possibility peace officers may attempt to enforce the probation condition as a strict liability offense does not render the condition unconstitutional....

A pregnant employee at a Christian college says that she was fired for having premarital sex. The woman, Teri James, claims that this is wrongful termination and has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Christian College, reports ABC. She’s being represented by noted woman’s rights attorney Gloria Allred. James had worked as a financial aid specialist at the college when rumors started circulating that she was pregnant. After confirming the rumor, James claimed that the school told her that she could either quit or be fired....

Becoming a New York lawyer just got a little tougher. Aspiring attorneys will now be required to do pro bono work in order to pass the NY bar, Reuters reports. This is on top of the state’s already tough two-day exam. Applicants will have to volunteer at least 50 hours of free legal services as part of admission to the bar. The initiative will take effect in 2013, so 2012 examinees can breathe a sigh of relief....

In November 2016, California voters passed Proposition 66 which sought to speed up the time between a death penalty conviction and sentence and the actual execution. Most notably, Prop. 66 imposed a mandatory five-year deadline for the California courts to finish a capital appeal. Almost immediately after passing, opponents filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the proposition, and specifically, that five-year deadline. After reviewing the challenge, the California Supreme Court issued their ruling, in Briggs v....

So the Dallas Cowboys’ Roy Williams sues his ex-girlfriend, former Miss Texas Brooke Daniels. The reason? An engagement proposal that didn’t go exactly the way he had planned. Williams sent Daniels an engagement ring worth around $76,600 through the mail. The package included a recorded marriage proposal. Apparently, an engagement proposal through mail was not exactly what Daniels had in mind for a romantic proposal, because instead of fireworks and a “happily ever after,” the engagement was never accepted, reports USA Today....

Police in Lebanon County, PA, are currently in the middle of an investigation of a possible criminal assault involving a football helmet, reports The Associated Press. Video footage allegedly showed high school football quarterback Joey Cominsky pulling the helmet off lineman Josh Hartman, and then using the helmet to hit him at least twice. Cominsky was on the opposing team. Hartman sustained a cut on the top of his head, but is otherwise fine....

So learned U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous who was convicted by the U.S. Senate on four articles of impeachment. It was the first impeachment trial since the 1999 trial of President Clinton. G. Thomas Porteous joins a dubious list of judges as only the eighth removed though the impeachment process. Porteous was the first judge removed in over 20 years. Among other things, that means no more cushy $174,000 a year pension for the disgraced former Louisiana federal judge, The Times-Picayune reports....

Steve Sarkisian was fired as USC head football coach on October 12. His termination came about two months after he appeared drunk at a football alumni banquet, one day after he apparently showed up drunk to a practice and was placed on administrative leave, and while he was on his way to a rehab center. Sarkisian admitted he has a problem with alcohol and allegedly told his boss, USC Director of Athletics Pat Haden....

Salary negotiations can be a bit more difficult for in-house attorneys than for other lawyers. Whereas BigLaw firms tend to follow strict compensation plans, pay for in-house lawyers can vary significantly across companies, industries, and experience levels. That means you’ll need to put in extra work to understand what salary is possible for you and negotiate a decent compensation plan. Here are some tips. The key to getting the salary you deserve, regardless of your position or career, is knowing your worth....

Newly released law school job-placement data is sparking renewed debate about postgraduate employment rates: Many schools report hiring their own graduates for jobs, straight out of law school. Data from the American Bar Association’s annual law-school questionnaire shows about three-fourths of ABA-accredited law schools hired their own grads, or funded their first jobs after commencement. In fact, 24 law schools bankrolled jobs for at least 10% of their graduating class in 2010, a FindLaw analysis of the data shows....

All those billable hours have you thinking about a radical change of scenery? Você fala português? How about following some of the many U.S. Law firms heading to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Think about it, you’ll be close to rain forests, tropical weather and exotic animals. What more could you ask for? Take Davis Polk, it recently announced it will open an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil once Brazilian authorities approve the move, according to Businesswire....

Kathy Myers could face charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, but that is probably the least of her concerns while being nursed back to health after shooting herself in the shoulder to get medical attention. An uninsured Michigan woman Kathy Myers, 41, put a gun to her shoulder and pulled the trigger as a cry for help and medical attention for a painful pre-existing condition, the Niles Daily Star reports....

Patent infringement suit related to a system for performing money transfers W. Union Co. v. Moneygram Payment Sys., Inc., 10-1080, concerned a challenge to the district court’s judgment finding infringement of certain claims of plaintiff’s patents, that those patents were not invalid for obviousness, and denial of defendant’s renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) on infringement and invalidity of the asserted patents, in a suit for infringement of patents related to a system for performing money transfers....

A Washington man is facing three misdemeanor charges after using a bulldozer in an attempt to alter the course of a river on his property. William Cayo Sr. was charged with three state environmental violations after authorities determined he had moved more than 5,700 square meters of river bed from the Tahuya River in western Washington, Reuters reports. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police’s incident report notes that Mr....