Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/law-technology-now/2012/06/remote-working-options-for-lawyers/
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Remote Working Options for Lawyers
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Cop vs. Cop
The bad news? Markee Cooper is also a cop.On Friday, a federal jury awarded [Markee] Cooper and his family $565,000 in damages after finding one officer at fault for a falsified warrant and two others responsible for the illegal 2007 search.
The city of Chicago will have to pay $450,000 in compensatory damages awarded by the seven-woman, three-man jury, said Cooper's attorney, Brendan Shiller. The jury also assessed punitive damages against three of five officers — money they will be responsible for paying, Shiller said.
Why is this bad news? Because most of the time, when a warrant goes south, the victims aren't as pure as driven snow, or aren't as sympathetic, or cannot argue to the jury that there is no way, no possibility, that the basis for the warrant was a complete sham. Cooper could. After all, he was a cop.Cooper, a nine-year police veteran, is assigned to the department's elite Organized Crime Division, working undercover investigations that often involve getting warrants.
The claim was that the warrant was obtained based on a lie.
Officer Sean Dailey, who testified that he secured the warrant based on information from an informant named "Lamar" who told him crack was being sold out of the second-floor apartment in the Cooper's buildingOmitted from this description, because it served no purpose in the suit, was that a judge signed this warrant.
Cooper's legal team argued that Dailey either made up the informant or was reckless by making no effort to try to verify the tip. They pointed to the sketchy information Dailey initially had about Lamar's background — no last name, phone number or address.
And indeed, in the vast majority of cases, that would have been more than sufficient for a verdict in favor of the cops. Three prior tips that led to arrests? Daily said so, and that's all it takes. The tipster's reliability is established, and his tip was sufficiently detailed to justify the warrant. Unless, of course, he just lied.The officers' attorneys argued that Dailey played by the rules, informing the Cook County state's attorney's office before going to a judge for the warrant. Dailey testified that the same informant had given him three previous tips that led to criminal charges. That the information turned out to be bad was not intentional, the defense argued.
The "lie" argument is a hard one to sustain, since it fails to explain why Daily would select Cooper's apartment to lie about. There is no claim that the two cops had a problem, and that Daily had a reason to pick Cooper's apartment out of all the other possible apartments in Chicago. So one would believe that somebody had to feed Daily the information. It seems highly unlikely that he made it up out of whole cloth.
Nor is it particularly surprising that Daily lacked basic information about his tipster. It's hardly unusual for a cop to have snitches on the street, often known only by a nickname, who feed them information. In exchange, they expect to be left alone to do whatever it is they do. Street sources don't always live ordinary middleclass lives, and police and judges have become inured to the huge credibility holes they present due to their lack of normal background information because of the information they feed. It's like a cop's version of heroin, street snitches, and the criminal justice system is addicted.
What's also notable is that the warrant execution wasn't particularly violent or harsh. No dogs or humans were shot in the process. No one was tased, beaten, forced to lie naked with a boot against their throat.
No doubt the boys were traumatized. But aren't the children always traumatized?The officer and his wife testified at the trial that their two young sons, Markee Jr., 13, and Zion, 8, were traumatized at seeing their father confront a roomful of cops with guns before kneeling to the living room floor and handing over his badge and weapon.
"It's a horrible experience for a child to see or even think about," Cooper's wife, Sherita, said after the verdict was announced. "I'm just glad that justice was served."
Adding further to oddity of this case is that Cooper handed over his badge and weapon. Having a badge and weapon is usually considered a pretty good indication that they person you're pointing a gun at is one of your own. The natural reaction is to wonder, have I a mistake?
Once Daily realized that he executed a warrant for a crack house on a cop, and assuming that the information upon which the warrant was issued was slightly lacking in credibility, it would seem a fine time to back down, apologize profusely and hand Cooper back his shield. If that didn't happen, it's a pretty good indication that Daily's belief that he had raided a crack house exceeded his concern that the apartment was occupied by a brother narc.
So do we applaud this result or wonder how this fits into the world where the victim doesn't happen to be a cop? Unless you happen to be a cop too, it likely doesn't matter. Whatever happened here isn't going to happen to you, because you don't have a badge to show the jury when you sue over the wrongful execution of a warrant.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/12/17/cop-vs-cop.aspx?ref=rss
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The Government We Deserve
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/suffolk-law/2012/06/the-government-we-deserve/
Inside the Trayvon Martin Tragedy
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/03/inside-the-trayvon-martin-tragedy/
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2011 Intellectual Property Year in Review and Outlook for 2012 – Part I: Patents
Defending a Serial Killer
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/10/defending-a-serial-killer/
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DIVERSITY: A SPECIAL REPORT: Race's Role
Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202578616156&rss=rss_nlj
ICC: UN Security Council must do more in Darfur
Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/12/icc-un-security-council-must-do-more-in-darfur.php
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Monday, December 17, 2012
The LinkedIn Lawyer
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/un-billable-hour/2012/06/the-linkedin-lawyer/
The Huffington Post Facing $3M Libel Lawsuit from Panama Lawyer
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Gone Clio with Attorney Bruce Godfrey
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/gone-clio/2012/06/gone-clio-with-attorney-bruce-godfrey/
You Busted The Store Window For That?
The Juice is not supporting burglary. But if you're going to destroy property to steal property, shouldn't you at least steal stuff that is worth more than the cost of the damage you did to break in? This gent abides by no such rule.
You'll find the source, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, here.
Source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/LegalJuiceCom/~3/_x9iQXiLBP8/you_busted_the_store_window_fo.html
Douglas Cawley of McKool Smith
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Accelerate Your Use of Metrics
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/tech-experts/2012/08/accelerate-your-use-of-metrics/
Sprint, Dish Make Plays to Shake Up the Wireless Industry
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Sunday, December 16, 2012
Paralegal Career 101: Dealing with Work-Related Stress
Absolute Novelty Worldwide - Not Always So Absolute
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Federal Court Throws Out Ill. Concealed Weapons Ban
A federal appeals court has thrown out Illinois' ban on carrying concealed weapons. Now, political leaders — particular those in Chicago — are trying to figure out what comes next. Audie Cornish talks to David Schaper.
So You Say The Car Is Where?
Hey, younger drivers are going to make mistakes, especially after they've had something to drink. Here's the latest installment of "Yikes" as reported by The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario):
A Burlington teen faces careless driving charges after crashing into a home. Halton police say ‘miraculously’ no one was injured when the 19-year-old left the roadway at 10 p.m. Wednesday night.You've got to see the pictures. (Click here.)
The novice driver in a Ford Taurus and a male passenger left the west side of the roadway before crossing the front lawns of two homes. The car struck the front of a house with such impact police say the vehicle’s entire front end was lodged inside.Think the homeowner was pissed?
“I ran right to the guy (driver) and started yelling at him,” homeowner Kathy Thring told the Burlington Post. “He kept telling me he was sorry. I told him he could have hurt someone.” Thring, her husband Darrin, and two daughters, Taylor, 13, and Sutherlin, 10, were home at the time.
The car remained in the house Thursday morning. Police say main support systems of the home looked to be significantly compromised.The charges?
Mitchell Bolduc, 19 is charged with careless driving and having a blood alcohol concentration above zero. The accused is a novice driver which under the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, restricts drivers from having any alcohol at all.Here's the source.
Source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/LegalJuiceCom/~3/_CKrqCN7My4/post_545.html
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NSSTA’s Take the Hill
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/ringler-radio/2012/07/nsstas-take-the-hill/
Secure Your Legal Data in the Cloud
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/tech-experts/2012/07/secure-your-legal-data-in-the-cloud/
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Goodlatte names two to Judiciary staff
Two members of the staff of Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th – both lawyers – have been selected for his senior staff for the House Judiciary Committee where Goodlatte will take office as chairman.
Shelley Husband will serve as chief of staff and Branden Ritchie will become deputy chief of staff and chief counsel, according to Goodlatte’s office.
Husband has been Goodlatte’s chief of staff in his personal office. Ritche has been legislative director and counsel.
“While they will be missed in my personal office, I know that their vast knowledge and expertise make them perfectly suited to lead the Judiciary Committee in the new Congress,” Goodlatte said in a news release.
Source: http://valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2012/12/07/goodlatte-names-two-to-judiciary-staff/
Dayton appoints 2 to Hennepin County Bench
Gov. Mark Dayton announced the appointments of James Moore and Kristin Siegesmund as District Court Judges in Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District. Moore and Siegesmund will be replacing the Honorable David M. Duffy and the Honorable Lucy A. Wieland, who retired earlier this year. Both seats will be chambered at Minneapolis in Hennepin County.
Moore currently serves as the litigation manager of the civil division for the City of Minneapolis, where he is responsible for assigning and supervising all litigation for the city. He previously worked as an assistant city Attorney for the civil divisions of both Minneapolis and Bloomington. Mr. Moore received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981, and his J.D. with honors from Hamline University School of Law in 1985.
Additionally, Mr. Moore is actively involved with the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Civic Education Committee.
Siegesmund works with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, where she serves as a managing attorney for multiple divisions; most recently with the Consumer and Tax Units and previously the Housing and Housing Discrimination units. She previously worked as a staff attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center and was a commercial litigator at Faegre Baker Daniels. Siegesmund received her B.A. with honors from Brown University in 1977 and her J.D. with honors from the University of Michigan Law School in 1980.
Siegesmund has taught numerous courses at William Mitchell College of Law.
Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District consists of Hennepin County
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2012/11/30/dayton-appoints-2-to-hennepin-county-bench/
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Saturday, December 15, 2012
Medicare Set Aside Arrangements and Mass Torts
Video Conferencing for Lawyers
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/law-technology-now/2012/05/video-conferencing-for-lawyers/
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Global E-Discovery & Da Silva Moore Technology Assisted Review Case Overview
SEC Adopts Dodd-Frank Rules Regarding Conflict Minerals and Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers and Defers Rules for Implementation of JOBS Act Elimination of Ban on General Solicitation until August 29
On August 22, 2012, the SEC adopted disclosure rules required by Sections 1502 and 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act related to conflict minerals and payments by issuers engaged in resource extraction.
The new rules on conflicts minerals disclosures will apply to all SEC reporting companies for which the identified conflict minerals are “necessary to the functionality or production” of a product manufactured or contracted to be manufactured by the issuer. We will be providing more detailed summaries of these rules in future posts.
Only issuers engaged in the commercial development of oil, natural gas or minerals are affected by the new rules adopted under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
The SEC previously announced that rules pursuant to Title II of the JOBS would be discussed at the August 22 open meeting of the Commissioners. Title II provides for the elimination of the prohibition against general solicitation and general advertising in securities offerings conducted pursuant to Rule 506 of Regulation D provided that all purchasers are accredited investors. Title II has similar provisions relating to Rule 144A solicitations. In both cases, Title II is effective only upon the SEC implementing rules. The Commissioners announced that discussion of these rules would be deferred until August 29, 2012. For more information on Title II and other provisions of the JOBS Act, please see this post.
What if you have questions?
For any questions or more information on these or any related matters, please contact any attorney in the firm’s corporate practice group. A list of such attorneys can be found by clicking Lawyers on this page.
John Tishler (858-720-8943, jtishler@sheppardmullin.com), Louis Lehot (650-815-2640, llehot@sheppardmullin.com), Edwin Astudillo (858-720-7468, eastudillo@sheppardmullin.com), and Lauren Lewis (650-815-2672, lalewis@sheppardmullin.com) participated in drafting this posting.
Disclaimer
This update has been prepared by Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP for informational purposes only and does not constitute advertising, a solicitation, or legal advice, is not promised or guaranteed to be correct or complete and may or may not reflect the most current legal developments. Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this update.
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American Bar Association Updates Technology Ethics Rules
Shooting Superman
As recently noted, the new diagnosis whenever someone dies following a tazing is "excited delirium," which Steve Tuttle from Taser International advised me was not their invention, even if they seized upon it as an awfully facile excuse. But there is another word in the lexicon of force to note: superhuman.
Who doesn't think it sounds pretty darned cool to be described as a "man of steel"? Except the word gets trotted out not as a compliment, but a rationalization. From Work Without Dread:
Bartholomew Williams, the unarmed African-American graduate student shot dead on Sunday night by Cal State San Bernardino campus police, showed "superhuman strength" as he struggled with them, according to police. If that sounds familiar, that's because superhumanity is a lot more common than has been thought. Roberto Laudisio-Curdi, an unarmed student killed by police in Sydney in October, also had "superhuman strength." A man on a stolen motorcycle who resisted arrest in South Carolina last September had "superhuman strength" too, although it seems to me that it was more to his advantage that he had a gun, which the deputy through superhuman strength of his own got control of. Last summer in Maryland, a guy in a shootout with police "held on to his gun" after being hit by a bullet, which led a police spokesperson to remark, "The PCP just provokes superhuman strength." And at about the same time, police in Georgia said that a delirious man that they arrested "had superhuman strength and admitted being high on bath salts." (See also State of North Carolina v. Jonathan Howard Norton, No. COA10–1544, June 2011.)
The post goes on to argue that the use of the characterization "superhuman" is the new means of dehumanizing the target of police violence.
You don't have to be Foucault to see that superhumanity functions as subhumanity; it allows the nonhuman to be eliminated while releasing the perceiver from having to answer for seeing someone as nonhuman. Like last spring's "bath salts" hysteria itself, the phrase "superhuman strength" reflects police discomfort with mental illness--or even just "irrationality"--on the one hand, and with the unaccountable phenomenon of resisting arrest on the other.
While this explanation delves deeply into the police psychology of viewing non-cops, the us-and-them mentality, as lesser humans unworthy of concern or compassion, my sense is that the description isn't so much a tacit reflection of their dehumanization as it is another in the long list of convenient words that can provide a ready excuse for the use of force. It's easy, quick and immediately explains why they had to shoot, taze, beat a person whose conduct otherwise compelled no need for force.
As is often the case, the word is used in conjunction with the underlying criminal accusation, such as the use of PCP or bath salts, playing upon public hysteria and ignorance. After all, how many people are going to rush to the aid of the dead man claiming they use PCP all the time and never had superhuman strength? On the other side, the mythology surrounding crazy, wild things that happen to people who do demon drugs plays right into a claim like this. As Judy Tenuta liked to say, "it can happen."
While police are frequently uncomfortable with mental illness or irrationality, though the latter usually reflects the peculiar police perspective that failure to immediately comply with their commands constitutes irrationality per se, the use of force isn't limited by any stretch to those who suffer from some mental impairment. With increasing frequency, it's just a matter of time and convenience, where they have the means to end an incident now, and use it, or don't feel much like chasing down a perp and just shoot instead. It's quick and easy, the only thing needed is an excuse.
The beauty of characterizing a person as having "superhuman" strength is that it not only provides a justification for the use of force that would otherwise be inexcusable, but it can't be tested later for veracity. Much like the beloved "furtive gesture," it happened only because the police officer said so, and then it's gone. In the case of furtive gesture, the result is a search. In the case of superhuman strength, there's usually a dead body.
Does anybody actually have this "superhuman" strength? No and yes. No, there is no such thing as Superman, and no one suddenly manifests abilities beyond those of mere mortals, regardless of whether they're wearing a cape. But drugs do cause disinhibition, where a person will exert his very human strength to its fullest, without any reluctance, despite doing so in the face of police force. The fact is that a person on PCP may well beat a cop in fight; cops don't necessarily have secret cop-fu that allows them to come out on top in hand-to-hand combat. They can be beaten. They can be hurt. They are not inclined to let that happen.
At the same time, use of such shorthands as "superhuman" strength build a mythology that's hard to resist. It becomes a mantra, where just saying the magic words makes whatever comes afterward perfectly understandable. What could the cop do in the face of this drugged up guy with superhuman strength? He had no choice but to shoot. And another unarmed person lies dead on the street, and there is no way to dispute it. Except it isn't real.
H/T FritzMuffKnuckle
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/12/14/shooting-superman.aspx?ref=rss
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The Surefire Way to End Online Piracy: End Copyright
The Last Word
The lone “no” vote was cast by Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, who said in a statement that “not only should we not eliminate the word ‘lunatic’ from federal law when the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington.”
Yes, the word "lunatic" has been stricken from the laws of the United States of America, the Senate having approved the measure last May. No longer is anyone in America a federal lunatic. Your state may vary.
This comes on the heels of the eradication of the phrase "mental retardation," eliminated two years ago because of its hurtful connotation, where school boys called each other "retard" and neo-conservative media personalities figured out the if you replaced "re" with "lib," they could get a belly laugh out of their followers. At the same time, 58% of Republicans believe that man was created by God less than 10,000 years ago, when they walked the earth alongside dinosaurs.
Given the meaning and derivation of the word "lunatic," that people would suffer transitory insanity based on movement of the moon, it's just as well that it's gone. But the meaning of mental retardation, that a person's intelligence, based upon IQ, was below a score of 70, is more of a problem. A medical phrase was eliminated because it was abused by jerks and turned into an epithet. When this happened, there were two options. The first was to speak out and return it to its original meaning. The second was to make it disappear. The first required people to think. The second did not. The second prevailed.
A while back, there was a huge dispute, a very angry dispute, about the word "niggardly." On the one hand, reasonably well-educated folks understood its meaning to be "cheap" or "miserly." On the other, it was just too damn close to a hated word to ignore. David Howard, D.C.'s head of the Office of Public Advocate, was forced to resign for using this "racist" word, not because it was racist but because people felt it was. It had no connection whatsoever with the racial slur, but so what? It's gone.
As lawyer and blawger, I use a lot of words. They are useful to convey the correct meaning whenever possible, in the hope that readers or listeners will get the message that I am trying to send. Each day, it gets more difficult to accomplish.
Political correctness has caused us to eliminate words from our lexicon that hurt people's feelings or have taken on disparaging meanings or connotations. In the process of eradicating "hate speech" from the language, we ignore definitions in favor of how words make us feel. But it hasn't stopped at the edge of hurtfulness. It's dribbled over to positive characterizations, empowering people to ascribe attributes and credibility to themselves at will.
In a recent exchange, a marketer argued his "belief" about why he was a professional. His argument was that he felt entitled to do so, and at no time did a definition of the word come into play.
There have been similar arguments about one of our favorite words, "justice," a word of such vague meaning that we can all embrace it, own it, define it to support whatever we believe.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."
—Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carrol (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
We cannot communicate with each other if each of us is a Humpty Dumpty to ourselves. The problem is not solved by the elimination of words because they cause some people to feel badly, especially when the feeling bears no actual connection to the word. As we eliminate hurtful words, a new word will be adapted to its use, as we still need words to denigrate each other. Then that word will be eradicated from the lexicon as well.
Some people think that we can achieve an Orwellian Utopia by only having happy, supportive words, and thereby end that branch of language that can be used to hurt people's feelings or express ideas that some believe should never be expressed. My guess is that will never happen, even if you think it's a good idea.
What may well happen in the process, however, is that the sharp edges of definition will be dulled and rounded, so that the precision of words gives way to an amorphous mass of nice-sounding utterances that are interpreted by each of us in whatever way suits our desires and beliefs. We will be able to talk among ourselves and agree or disagree without every having the slightest clue if we are talking about the same thing or making any headway in explaining our position.
There doesn't appear to be any harm in the elimination of the word "lunatic" from the United States Code. It was probably a poor choice of words in the first place, reflective of common usage rather than definition. If it were up to me, however, the word "justice" would also be on the chopping block, as it's one of the most hurtful words around to the wrongly convicted.
Yes, you know exactly what justice means. You and Humpty Dumpty. You lunatic.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/12/09/the-last-word.aspx?ref=rss
Friday, December 14, 2012
EEOC can use Teamsters-style pattern-or-practice theory under Title VII § 706
Serrano sued in a class action claiming sex discrimination and the EEOC intervened. The trial court ruled for the employer on a number of issues; the 6th Circuit reversed. Serrano and EEOC v. Cintas Corp (6th Cir 11/09/2012).
The main issue was whether EEOC could pursue a pattern-or-practice style claim pursuant to § 706 of Title VII.
The employer argued that under § 706 the EEOC is limited to proving its allegations of discrimination pursuant to the McDonnell Douglas Corp v. Green, 411 US 792 (1973), burden-shifting framework, and cannot use the pattern-or-practice framework announced by the Supreme Court in Teamsters v. United States, 431 US 324 (1977). The court rejected that argument. Even though the Teamsters case arose under § 707, the theory of that case can be used under § 706.
The trial court erred in holding that the employer was entitled to judgment on the pleadings in light of the EEOC's failure to plead its intent to rely on the Teamsters framework. Although the EEOC's complaint "is not a model of good lawyering," a plaintiff need not indicate at the pleading stage which circumstantial evidentiary framework it plans to use.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/11/eeoc_can_use_te.html
The USLAW Network: Benefitting Clients
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/ringler-radio/2012/01/the-uslaw-network-benefitting-clients/
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Are American Law Schools Failing Students?
The LinkedIn Lawyer
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/un-billable-hour/2012/06/the-linkedin-lawyer/
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Key changes to Patent Law
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/09/key-changes-to-patent-law/
The Impact of Voter ID Laws and Voter Purges
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Tax Court Judge Perez charged with misconduct by BJS
The Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards charged George Perez, the chief Judge of the Minnesota Tax Court, with lying to investigators, falsifying documents and missing court deadlines.
The complaint was filed yesterday. The Board further alleges that Perez conspired to refuse new case assignments that further burdened an overworked court.
Perez’s lawyer calls the charges an “honest difference of opinion” and “an embellishment.”
The complaint says Perez routinely missed the three month deadline to decide cases; several times it took Perez up to 18 months to issue an order. When confronted by his colleagues about the delay he accused them of singling him out because of his ethnicity. He told the Board that the delays were due to the state government shutdown in 2011 and a medical issue. He said he did not refuse to accept cases, but rather asked for less to balance his workload.
The board will try the case against Perez in front of a three member panel. That panel will recommend findings to the Minnesota Supreme Court for a final decision.
Turning TECHSHOW Topics into a Technology Agenda
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Thursday, December 13, 2012
Don't Ignore Governmental Mechanisms for Protecting Intellectual Property Rights
Legal Talk Network Live at LegalTechNY 2012-Burke & Company’s Christy Burke Talks About What’s New in Legal Industry
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Life After Law
Life After Law, What Will You Do For the Next 6000 Days? My soon- to-be-released book is a guide to why aging baby boomer lawyers should be planning for their next career. The ABA has concluded that 400,000 lawyers will retire in the next 10 years. That is equivalent to the entire membership of the ABA, the largest volunteer organization in the world!
According to a different report, without reference to law, 10,000 people retire daily!
Look for a dramatic change in our culture as we seek to learn how to live longer, productive lives in different careers. Of course, the economy will also change as older folks become the dominant consumers in this country.
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/mS-cnXJ0eL0/
Colombia puts security forces under martial jurisdiction
Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/12/colombia-puts-security-forces-under-martial-jurisdiction.php
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War of the Worlds
What was I thinking?
From the New York Times:
Senior White House and Justice Department officials are considering plans for legal action against Colorado and Washington that could undermine voter-approved initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in those states, according to several people familiar with the deliberations.
Even as marijuana legalization supporters are celebrating their victories in the two states, the Obama administration has been holding high-level meetings since the election to debate the response of federal law enforcement agencies to the decriminalization efforts.
To put it a bit more clearly, the Obama Department of Justice has no intention of either honoring the laws of the states of Washington or Colorado, and plans to grasp the old Schedule 1 crime until it's pried from its cold, dead fingers. The feds are not going to stop the War on Demon Marijuana. No way. No how.
Why? Why would such an enlightened president, who neo-cons place just to the left of Trotsky, reject the will of the people?
“In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance,” {Seattle United States Attorney Jenny A. Durkan] said. “Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 6 in Washington State, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.”
Well, yeah. We know that the feds have yet to come to grips with the fact that the citizens of some states think that laws passed after a showing of Reefer Madness on the big screen in the house chamber, but what about the fact that Schedule I, meaning that a drug is highly abused and has no medicinal benefit, is total nonsense? The only people in Congress who still believe that also believe that women's vaginas can magically reject the sperm of rapists.
The Times runs through the various responses available to the feds, to sue the states to prevent the law from going into effect, to take up the slack of arrest and prosecution in state courts by overloading federal courts, or, the most painful and effective tool in the federal arsenal, to cut off federal funding.
While supporters of President Obama may not have switched their votes to Mitt Romney in light of this reaction, I bet they wish they could vote for Ronald Reagan. His script writers would have understood.
That the federal government isn't going to accept that fact that the citizens of two of these United States have decided that they want to control their own lives, to exercise those rights that were supposed to be assured by the Constitution under basic notions of federalism, not to mention the 10th Amendment, really comes as no surprise.
As Congress, with the acquiescence of the courts, have usurped control over criminal laws far beyond Jefferson's wildest imagination, it was all fine and dandy as long as everybody was on the same page. Who cared whether the Drug War was fought in state courts or federal, by local cops or DEA agents? They were all on the same team, and that's what really mattered.
But now that a split has arisen, where suddenly citizens have chosen to hop off the drug war train and want to run their states their own way, we have a crisis abrewing.
That marijuana remains a schedule I drug isn't likely to change a lot of minds about where the law should be, and the feds reliance on this archaic law to tell citizens that their votes don't matter nearly as much as Congress, isn't likely to change any minds. President Obama probably hates the fact that he's been thrust into the middle of this, even though I suspect he's got no greater beef with marijuana than he did with gay marriage. He was against it until he caught a whiff of public opinion being overwhelmingly for it, and being a man of integrity, he flip-flopped. Marijuana is likely no different.
But two states don't make a tidal wave, and he isn't prepared to suffer the wrath of the people for being the liberal president who turned America into a druggie state with a side of munchies. So instead, he's prepared to be the president who refused to accept the will of the voters of Colorado and Washington, just as he was when it came to medicinal marijuana in California, and openly admitted that the federal government will use any method it can to dictate to the states what will be a crime.
It will be interesting to see which legacy the president picks. And it will be equally interesting to see what the States of Colorado and Washington, and their respective federal district courts, have to say about it. This may well be the start of a constitutional crisis on unwarranted federal expansion on crime, and if so, it's about time.
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Act Two: Legal Tech Pioneers Return to Compete in Legal Tech Market
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Lawyer2Lawyer: A Retrospective
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/10/lawyer2lawyer-a-retrospective/
Prop 34, The Death Penalty Initiative Statute
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Are American Law Schools Failing Students?
Defending a Serial Killer
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/10/defending-a-serial-killer/
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BP Settlement and the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee
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Transvaginal Mesh Complications and Litigation
Compensation, Yes; Compliance, Maybe
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/12/10/compensation-yes-compliance-maybe/?mod=WSJBlog
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The Controversial War on Drugs
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/07/the-controversial-war-on-drugs/