Animal Law
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Alston & Bird, Animal Law, Benchslaps, Biglaw, Cars, Deaths, Federal Judges, Law Schools, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Musical Chairs, Non-Sequiturs, Sam Sparks, Texas
Non-Sequiturs: 09.01.11
* Remember the “kindergarten party” that Judge Sam Sparks (W.D. Tex.) was planning to hold? His Honor has canceled the festivities. [WSJ Law Blog] * John Althouse Cohen — yes, son of La Althouse — discusses one way in which Texas might be emulating… Europe? [Jaltcoh] * Professor Paul Campos opens up a can of […] -
Animal Law, Police
Police Better Off Accidentally Shooting Black People Than Family Dogs
The Chicago Police Department shot an innocent black Labrador Retriever, a family pet who posed no real threat to the officers. As such, the police have been punished and roundly excoriated, and a federal jury awarded the family a huge sum for damages. Editor Elie Mystal thinks this is fine, and he agrees with the jury's decision. He just don't like living in a world where shooting a dog is a bigger liability risk for a police officer than shooting a person.... - Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
If 2023 introduced legal professionals to generative AI, then 2024 will be when law firms start adapting to utilize it. Things are moving fast, so… -
Animal Law, Job Searches, Law Schools, Pets, Ridiculousness, Texas
The Legal Profession Is Literally Going to the Dogs
We mentioned it briefly in Morning Docket a few days ago, but now we know for sure that dogs are marking their territory in the legal profession. Dogs are appearing everywhere from law school libraries to courtroom witness boxes. Naturally, when we heard that the doggie-at-law phenomenon had made it all the way down to […]
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Animal Law, Crime, Pets
Piercing Your Cat Will Not Make You Better at Being a Goth
Something we don’t really get a chance to write about that often on Above the Law is the rise of the Goth subculture in America — and that’s probably because no one cares about it. Just like how no one cared about most Goth kids when they were growing up, which led them to believe […] -
Animal Law, Email Scandals, Law Schools, listserv, Pets, Violence, Weirdness
Sicko Mass-Emails Animal Death Fantasy To Law School Classmates
Yesterday, there was a wonderful story coming out of Kansas Law School (gavel bang: @VaultLaw). A student there is starting the first animal cruelty prosecution clinic in the country. That’s what the scholars call “awesome.” There are simply not enough lawyers who are even familiar with animal cruelty laws. If more people know how to […] -
4th Circuit, 5th Circuit, Animal Law, Barack Obama, Bernie Madoff, Crime, Free Speech, Insider Trading, Jeffrey Skilling, Morning Docket, Pets, Politics, Trials, Wall Street, White-Collar Crime
Morning Docket: 04.07.11
* Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal was denied by the Fifth Circuit. While he remains the smartest guy in the room, the room consists of him and a half-wit cellmate whose only discernible talent is making Prune-o. [WSJ Law Blog] * Bruce Fein, an attorney who worked on Clinton’s impeachment and called for Bush’s […]
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Animal Law, Law Schools, Libraries / Librarians, Pets
The Best Law Schools -- For Dog Lovers
In the past week, we’ve learned about the best law schools for getting rich and the best law schools according to law firm hiring partners. So let’s do one more ranking: the best law schools for dog lovers. This ranking, as it turns out, looks a lot like the U.S. News law school rankings: there’s […] -
Animal Law, Crime, Drinking, DUI / DWI, Pets, Texas
Drinking While Riding Your Burro Is Still Legal!
Legal Blog Watch has a perfect Friday story up on its pages. Two men were arrested for riding animals while drunk. One guy was on a mule, the other was on a horse. But when they got to the police station, the county attorney determined that the animals did not fall within the definition of […] - Sponsored
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar on April 10th, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Animal Law, Morning Docket, Outsourcing, Pets, Politics, Sonia Sotomayor, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Morning Docket: 12.28.10
* Demand for attorneys well-versed in animal law is on the rise as pet owners push for recognition of their pets as family members rather than ordinary property. Which reminds me of my dog Rascal. He ate his own crap, licked furniture, and once peed on a baby. And when he died, my parents looked […]
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Animal Law, Crime, Pets
Animal Abusers Are One Step Closer to Being Treated Like the Soon-To-Be Human Abusers They Really Are
Suffolk County, my old ‘hood, just took a huge step forward in the cause for animal rights. The WSJ Law Blog reports: New York’s Suffolk County legislature on Wednesday signed off on a measure that would publicly name anyone convicted of animal abuse by having them report to a registry for five years after their […] -
Animal Law, Law Schools, Libraries / Librarians, Pets
Who Let the Dog Out? Not the Yale Law Library
Earlier this week, we reported on the Yale Law School library apparently allowing students to “check out” a stress-relieving dog named Monty, for 30-minute periods. This precious pet perk was not offered during my time at YLS (but we barely had a library for two years, due to extensive construction). Alas, the commenter who noted […] -
Animal Law, Perverts, Pets, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
SCOTUS Scuttles Ban on Animal Cruelty Videos
Speaking of the Supreme Court, which Kash visited yesterday, the justices just struck down a 1999 law aimed at banning depictions of animal cruelty — especially so-called “crush videos,” in which women kill animals by stepping on them with fabulous footwear. The vote was 8-1. The opinion was by Chief Justice Roberts; Justice Alito dissented. […] -
10th Circuit, Animal Law, Insurance, Pets, Violence
Tiger Goes Tiger, Insurance Company Doesn't Have to Pay
There’s a Chris Rock joke about the Siegfried & Roy tiger attack: “That tiger didn’t go crazy, that tiger went tiger.” With that in mind, I bring you this latest decision from the Tenth Circuit, via the National Law Journal: An insurance company does not have to pay a Kansas family $100,000 for an accident […]
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Animal Law, Pets
The Truth About Cats and Dogs: What's the Best Pet for Lawyers?
It’s hard to find someone to love who also loves you. It’s a lot easier to find an animal with which to establish a loving relationship. Just make sure it’s not too loving. Many lawyers are proud pet owners, bringing cats, dogs, small wolves, iguanas, and/or flying squirrels into their apartments and homes. Your ATL […] -
Animal Law, Pets
A Whale of a Lawsuit?
Yesterday, a killer whale demonstrated at a SeaWorld in Orlando why it has that name. The Shamu show turned horrific when a male orca named Tilikum killed veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Brancheau was talking to the audience and petting Tilikum’s head, when he grabbed her by the arm and pulled […] -
Animal Law, Crime, Oral Sex / Blow Jobs, Sex
Judge of the Day: James Morley
Here’s an interesting question. How do we know that animals involved in bestiality don’t actually like it? This question was recently on the mind of one New Jersey jurist. From the Philadelphia Daily News: During a bizarre hearing [in Burlington County, NJ], a Superior Court judge dismissed animal-cruelty charges against a Moorestown police officer accused […] -
Animal Law
Pet Killers, Beware of Orrick
If Michael Vick can learn to love animals, “be they a dog, or a cat, or … a reptile,” then surely the American courts can’t be far behind. A couple of weeks ago, we brought you the story of a New Jersey appellate panel which declined to view the family pet as mere property in […] -
Animal Law
Pet Lovers Take A Bite Out Of Family Court
You’ve heard horror stories about messy divorces where people litigate over the family pet. Traditionally, pets are regarded as just another piece of property to be divided up among the former spouses. But that could be about to change. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: [A] second trial on the custody of the nearly six-year-old brown pooch […] -
Animal Law
Indian court going to the dog(s)
A court in the Indian state of Bihar is putting a dog on trial. It’s not the first time “Chhotu” has been in trouble with the law. He was sentenced to death in 2003, but he must have a good lawyer, as he managed to get out of the death penalty. Here’s the tale of […] -
6th Circuit, Animal Law, Pets, Sports
Legally-Themed Racehorse Names? Your Nominations, Please
Recently we’ve been thinking about law-related names for racehorses. The subject came up when we were reading about how Big Brown, the 2008 Kentucky Derby winner, might win the Triple Crown and join the company of Affirmed (pictured) — the last winner of the Triple Crown, in 1978. Hearing about a racing horse named “Affirmed” […]