Move over, Eliot Spitzer and the Emperor’s Club. The St. Petersburg Times has a story on a Florida judge accused of stealing money from a New York stripper:
Christy Yamanaka says she had sex with 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Thomas E. Stringer Sr. three times during their 15-year friendship.
She paid him rent in a home he once owned in Hawaii, and now lives in a New York City apartment leased under his name.
She says the married father of five owes her hundreds of thousands of dollars that he helped hide from creditors.
I’m not sure why the number of times the judge and the stripper had sex is the lead on this story. But hey, it is interesting!
The details on the juicier financial dealings follow. Sometimes it’s best not to keep it in the family:
Yamanaka said she contacted Stringer during the spring of 2004. She had declared bankruptcy in Las Vegas, and creditors won $315,000 in judgments against her. She hoped Stringer would help her sort out the legal mess.
The judge acknowledges that he referred Yamanaka to his son, Tampa attorney Daryl Stringer.
So, is it better to be “an Emperor” or “Your Majesty?”
Out of respect, she called Stringer “Your Majesty.”
Yamanaka had lived in Japan for seven years and says the country revered judges almost like gods.
We’re glad ATL is not based in Japan. We don’t treat our Judges of the Day like gods — unless we’re in their courtrooms.
New York stripper says Hillsborough judge owes her money [St. Petersburg Times via How Appealing]
* Status of the Roger Clemens steroid investigation. Just in case you didn’t already know he’s guilty. [ESPN]
* Forget about lead-tainted toys and pet food. Charges were filed yesterday in LA against four American executives who imported toothpaste that contained antifreeze. [WSJ Law Blog]
* “The weirdest legal pleading ever” included a “children’s book for adults” so that the Court could “comprehend” the plaintiff’s arguments. Take THAT, Florida Supreme Court Justices. [Slate]
* Your daily dose of profanity in a legal proceeding: “”Mr. Sadler, we all felt, was a lying sack of sh*t.” [Law.com]
* Managing Intellectual Property releases its list of top North American Firms for 2008. [Managing Intellectual Property]
Your Frivolous Friday guest-blogger is signing off. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Is it SUBstantive or subSTANtive? Our dictionary tells us to emphasize the first syllable.
A lovely Canadian professor at our law school emphasizes the second syllable, and although our affection for him is great, every time he says “subSTANtive” we take away ten points on our completely subjective professor-grading scale. How about THAT, professor? Students grade YOU TOO. (Just kidding. Kinda.)
Apple wants to put its iPhones in the workplace, which may mean that your firm Crackberry could be replaced by an equally addictive (but much more hip) iPhone.
We think, however, that there should be a screening process for determining who gets the iPhones. There’s a certain degree of unaffected coolness, a hipster air, that one needs to have to use an iPhone and not create the impression of an over-eager gadget-grabber. Also, Apple would have to tone down its image to fit with the lawyerly crowd if it wants law firms to trade their Blackberrys for iPhones. Flashy and too-cool is unrefined. We think the only solution is to wait until next year, when the iPhone isn’t so flashy-new, to hand them out to lawyers.
Let’s take a vote. Crackberry v. iPhone: Smackdown Part I.
Apple Aims to Put iPhone Into the Workplace [NYT]
We updated our original post from this morning about Samantha Power calling Hillary Clinton a “monster,” but it’s a big enough development to cover in a separate post. So here we go.
Professor Power, rumored love interest of Cass Sunstein, resigned from the Obama campaign because of her tawdry remarks about Hillary Clinton in an interview earlier this week. She also apologized publicly:
“With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an adviser the Obama campaign effective today,” Ms. Power said in a statement released by the campaign. “Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months.”
Obama Aide Resigns for Calling Clinton a ‘Monster’ [New York Times]
Here’s the most comprehensive bit we’ve heard from a tipster:
[N]o longer at CWT anymore (thankfully), but I did hear that Chris White (the Partner who deposed Link) is attempting a major realignment of practice groups. Apparently he wants to move the Corporate department into the Real Estate and somehow make it a sub group. As expected, this is not going over well with the Corporate partners (imagine Dennis Block being told he needs to move?) and there’s all kinds of infighting and threats from the Corporate partners in regards to this.
Is this the source of the rumblings we’ve been hearing? We’ll update you as we find out more information.
UPDATE #2: This tip just came in the comments from someone in the office at Cadwalader today:
I’m in the office today and something is definitely going on. There is absolutely no work going around. I asked a partner if everything was OK and he told me to mind my own business. This is not a joke. I also have some friends at other firms (Milbank) who say that they are also extremely slow.
So, we have confirmation that “something” is going down. Could this be just another slow Friday, or are we on the verge of a serious scandal?
That statement was made by Samantha Power, a top foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama and new-ish love interest of Professor Cass Sunstein. Sunstein recently accepted a position at Harvard Law, leaving behind in Chicago his ex, philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Bossman David Lat posted all the gossip about the academic love triangle here.
Power, pictured, let her words slip during an interview in London with The Scotsman yesterday. Other tasty bits from that interview:
“We f**ked up in Ohio,” she admitted.
“You just look at her [Clinton] and think, ‘Ergh’.
Apparently Power was under the impression that her remarks were “off the record,” and therefore couldn’t be attributed to her. The interview was actually totally on the record, and The Scotsman gives an explanation at the bottom of the link.
UPDATE: Power has resigned from the Obama campaign, effective immediately. See here.
‘Hillary Clinton’s a monster’: Obama Aid Blurts out Attack in Scotsman Interview [The Scotsman]
* UNC student body President Eve Carson (pictured) was shot and killed yesterday in Chapel Hill. [CNN]
* NYC Assemblyman popped for DUI with a passed out woman in the backseat, and that’s not all. His sullied past includes allegations (plural) of rape and corruption. But, of course, he’s innocent until proven guilty. [CNN]
* Greece proposes new restrictions on blogs. Who blogs in Greece, anyway? About 40,000 people, apparently. [Spero News via This is Not my Country]
* If you use BitTorrent, you might want to hurry up and download all those Seinfeld episodes before it’s too late. NBC Universal has filed with the FCC arguing that efforts to impede BitTorrent use are justified. [WebTVWire.com]
That’s right, people. Kentucky Law’s lockers are unsafe. A tipster forwarded us the email that Associate Dean Bakert sent out today warning students not to keep books in their lockers until the security threat is addressed. There was a lock on the locker in question, but the crafty thug apparently broke it.
We know those law school books can be expensive, but they are not the things that a proper gangster steals. You can’t even brag about that, player.
We can think of some creative things the students could keep in their lockers instead of books. Like, you know, snacks and stuff. To our resourceful commenters: what helpful items would you suggest Kentucky’s law students keep in their lockers instead of books?
The text of the original email is posted after the jump.
Continue reading “Book-Stealing Hoodlum on the Loose at U of Kentucky Law”
