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Morning Docket 07.27.09

crocs.jpg* Crocs have no teeth when it comes to fighting legal battles. The footwear company has settled five design defect lawsuits filed by parents whose children suffered escalator injuries. [On Point News]

* Yolanda Young’s suit against Covington & Burling is back on. [BLT]

* The ATL editors are not the only legal groupies in New York. [New York Times via Gothamist]

* Blago’s judge is prepared for theatrics in the court. [Associated Press]

* Looks like Rihanna and Chris Brown may be violating the judge’s “two-way” stay-away order. [New York Post]

* The latest abortion legislation. [Slate]

* Senators Orrin Hatch and John Cornyn will vote against Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. [Associated Press]

* Law school students interning in the Brooklyn DA’s office lack salaries and chairs. [New York Times]

* Is the ABA a club that’s not cool anymore? [National Law Journal]

Comments

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1 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:24 AM

FIRST to say that nobody should wear Crocs in public anyway.

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2 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:37 AM

you're all going to fail !

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3 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:38 AM

Anybody lame enough to wear Crocs deserves to lose a toe.

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4 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:43 AM

Yolanda, how we have missed you.

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5 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:46 AM

The day I left private practice 10 years ago, I dropped my membership in the ABA. I had been a member for 30 years. The ABA is worthless. It regularly takes on political positions that are opposed by a vast majority of members. It cost too damn much to be a member, and there are no real benefits from being a member, other than attending social functions. When you have to for social functions out of your own pocket, you find that you tend to avoid the ones that totally suck shit. To hell with the ABA.

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6 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:49 AM

So Elie, it turns out that the woman who called 911 to report Gates breaking into his own house never mentioned race. She only started speculating that one of the men may have been Hispanic after the 911 dispatchers asked her to guess. All this stuff about how racist she was to have a problem with "two black men with backpacks" is actually baseless.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072700470.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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7 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 9:55 AM

The ABA was never cool.

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8 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:01 AM

I would certainly think the story about the Gates 911 call would be relevant, considering last week.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/27/gates_caller_didnt_cite_race_police_say/

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9 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:21 AM

'09 Seton Hall Grad here. Sitting for the Bar exam and man does it stink in here.

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10 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:21 AM

Not surprised that Hill would link to the Gothamist. They defended an essay calling Polish residents of Brooklyn as infesting vermin and said calling them dumb Polaks was the last form of politically correct prejudice. In her own post, Kasmir stated that she didn't feel guilty for telling dumb Polack jokes.

Between her and Elie Mystal, I don't know who is worse. If only David Lat would come back full time to write about which judge is hot and who is not.

It's hilarious that three people who don't practice law are giving advice and thumbing their noses at others.
Yet I read on. Its like the National Enquirer at the supermarket checkout lane or a horrific accident. You don't want to look but you still take a peek. I've been told that reading ATL is like getting Herpes. You want to get rid of it, but it keeps coming back.

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11 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:23 AM

Best of luck to all the bar exam takers.

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12 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:33 AM

#10 The Polack controversy was addressed by the ATL editors with a lame disclaimer that says they do not condone racial or ethnic slurs. Basically, I can call you a fucktard. If I immediately follow the statement with another statement saying I do not condone the term fucktard, It doesn't count. Standard playground rules. I guess the editors are around 12 or 13.

The Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk blog and the Nutmeg Lawyer blog did whole posts ridiculing ATL for the Polak thing. I got a kick out of the funny quotes on the sidebar of the Nutmeg lawyer. Jackass law students turn into jackass lawyers. What the hell is a nutmeg lawyer anyway? Does this guy defend spice related injuries?

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13 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:35 AM

Polackgate Day 17. President Obama commented that the ATL editors acted stupidly.

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14 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:39 AM

Hey, how about putting this on the morning docket: Cambridge police: Race not mentioned in 911 call (AP)" Hey Elie, do you still think that the caller should be found "guilty" [sic, liable] for something? Stupid.

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15 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:43 AM

Elie the race pimp got pimped by this 911 call.

Not only did Whalen not mention race, but when the 911 operator asked her to speculate, she guessed one of them was Hispanic.

Elie, Wright, Gates, Sharpton, Jackson...what a bunch of clowns.

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16 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 10:47 AM

The ABA is a tool of the law school industry, helping to spread fake law school graduate salary and employment data so that the 3 billion dollar a year law school industry can continue to crank out a huge surplus of lawyers with 6 figure debt and no employment prospects and no way to compete for clients in a solo practice.
The ABA also helped the biglaw firms outsource low end legal jobs and import foriegn lawyers.

The ABA is the devil.

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17 Posted by Law Baron | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 11:20 AM

#12 "What the hell is a nutmeg lawyer anyway?"

Connecticut is known as the nutmeg state. I practice in CT. Which reminds me, what the heck is a fucktard? LOL

Considering I am a Polish American lawyer, I did not care for the "dumb Polack" comment. I said my piece in my own rant on my Nutmeg Lawyer blog and let it go. The editors here are just kids. They are entitled to make a mistake. I am sure that the comment meant no ill will. We all do stupid things.

PS Thanks for the plug. I think my readership just went up to 7.


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18 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 11:26 AM

I guess I am in the minority defending Elie, but I can totally understand how treatment of blacks by the cops becomes an emotional issue for black guys while it's an intellectual exercise for the rest of us.

I think the dressing-down Lat gave Elie should not have been done in public. Elie's opinion isn't the kind of thing ATL needs to apologize for or examine in public; if you don't want him expressing it in the future, change your editorial policy and talk to the guy about it behind closed doors.

Public humiliation is cruel and unusual, and, like Gates's arrest, was disproportionately punitive even if the worst allegations are assumed to be true.

I can't really tell if there's serious animosity between Lat and Elie, or if this is just friendly joshing, but that kind of undermining weakens the credibility of the publication, and I can imagine how that post and some of these threads would look to a jury in an employment discrimination lawsuit.

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19 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 11:40 AM

#18 Elie lacks complete credibility on issues regarding discrimination. The color of his skin does not change the fact that he has condoned or stated many discriminatory comments. The most recent apparently being the "dumb polack" comment. As editor he condoned the comment by leaving it up there. Bigots come in all shapes, colors, creeds and sizes. In my opinion, his writing style has trashed ATL. You can tell by the low brow quality of the comments.

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20 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 11:52 AM

Last Friday was the last day of a bunch of summer programs; where's the post about which firms, if any, made offers????

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21 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 12:01 PM

OK, here is the product warning label that needs to be attached to everything:

"If you're a dumbass, don't use this product. If you're unsure of your dumbasstic status - your question is sufficient proof that you are a dumb ass. You are NOT, repeat NOT entitled to compensation no matter what the hacks in the TV lawyer ads tell you. By the way, that you believe these commercials is corroborating proof of your dumabassitudinal status."

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22 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 12:03 PM

18 - Dumbass

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23 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 12:16 PM

BREAKING: "Obama says Covington & Burling lawyers acted 'stupidly' in dismissing Yolanda; Admits not having all the facts"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009071302787.html

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24 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 1:12 PM

lol elie

what a dumbass racialist

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25 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 1:31 PM

Elie actually believes that this is suficient for criminal and civil liability.

http://www.breitbart.tv/911-tapes-released-in-july-16-arrest-of-harvard-professor/

Amazingly, Elie is still employed.

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26 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, July 27, 2009 1:37 PM

Yolanda Young sings Elie's praises: http://www.onbeingablacklawyer.com/?p=1414

Logrolling of our time?

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