When talking about instances of normal people exhibiting superhuman strength and bravery, the most common example is the mother who lifts a car when her child is trapped beneath it, thanks to an adrenaline rush. It seems that law school students are similarly inspired by threats to their laptops.
Thomas M. Cooley 3L Shady Yassin was studying at a coffee shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week. A would-be robber walked in with a hunting rifle, according to the Grand Rapid Press, and demanded that all the patrons give him their laptops and valuables.
That’s when Yassin morphed into a coffeehouse superhero. Like a former Law Student of the Day, Arizona State’s Alex Botsios, Yassin decided to fight off the laptop-stealing villain.
Guns / Firearms
Last night, George Sodini, 48, walked into an LA Fitness Center near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and opened fire on those exercising inside. Early reports say he killed three women and injured up to 15, including his ex-girlfriend. He then turned the gun on himself.
Sodini’s LinkedIn profile says he was a systems analyst at K&L Gates. We reached out to the firm this morning. A spokesperson responded to say:
K&L Gates is deeply saddened by last night’s events, and offers its condolences to the families and friends of all who were involved in this terrible tragedy.
ABC News has found Sodini’s online diary. We ran a WhoIs search and determined that the diary is not a hoax. A George Sodini of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, registered the website in August 2000.
It is incredibly disturbing.
Continue reading “LA Fitness Shooter Worked at K&L Gates
(And discussed K&L layoffs in his diary.)”
We’re not entirely sure of all the details, but there appears to be a very sad situation developing at Kilpatrick Stockton in D.C. today. Everybody in Kilpatrick’s building received this email this morning:
Good morning,
Please remain in our space until further notice. Metropolitan Police Department are currently responding to an unconscious male with a gunshot wound to the head on the 11th floor of Kilpatrick & Stockton. We are contacting building management to determine further information.
We will keep you posted. Thank you.
Kilpatrick is located at 607 14th Street, NW in D.C.
After the jump, we have another email from building management and a statement from the firm.
Update (1:54 PM): We also have reports from tipsters, after the jump.
Continue reading “Breaking: A Sad Day at Kilpatrick Stockton”
In yesterday’s open thread on #17 though #28 schools in the U.S. News rankings, we neglected to include a riff on the crime statistics in various schools’ cities. We did start thinking about it today, though, as it seems that bullets occasionally fly in the City of Lakes, home to the #20-ranked law school. And Dennis Jansen, a University of Minnesota 1L, was unlucky enough to catch one in the back this weekend.
Jansen keeps a blog called No. 634 tracking his law school adventures. Usually the posts are about fairly mundane topics, like his new dog Harley (a mastiff) and classes (“CrimLaw is a waste of time“). But yesterday, he posted something rather out of the ordinary. One of his fellow students sent it along to us, saying, “So I read this blog by a kid in my 1L crim law class… and THIS was definitely the most interesting post: Jansen gets shot.”
According to the post, Jansen was out on the wild streets of Minneapolis Sunday after going to a club when…
I’m walking across Hennepin with what felt like the entire hiphop room of the Gay 90′s, when I hear popping sounds.
People scream and start running.
I feel something hit my back.
I stop on the curb and call over to T.
Me: “I think I got hit.”
T: “Shut up, where?”
(I lift up the back of my shirt and point.)
T: “OH MY GOD, they got you! They shot you!”
Me: “It’s a gunshot?”
T: “YES! THEY GOT YOU! (then to the street) HE GOT SHOT!”
His first thoughts were not of his mortality but of class the next morning:
So it’s around 2:30 am on a Monday morning and I’m sitting downtown bleeding on the side of the street. Random people coming from clubs stopped as they saw the blood coming from my back. I had a pretty good idea that I was going to miss this morning’s civil procedure class…
And you thought you were having a rough finals week.
Jansen may give former honoree Alex Botsios (the Arizona 1L who wrestled his laptop away from an armed robber) a good running for ATL Law Student of all time. More after the jump, including a gratuitous, but not graphic, photo of the wound.
Continue reading “Law Student of the Day: Minnesota 1L Dennis Jansen”
* Paris isn’t the only Hilton getting in trouble for sex. The former manager of a restaurant in the Hilton Minneapolis is suing the Hilton for “undirected” sexual harrassment because he walked in on upper management having an orgy. [Courthouse News Service]
* GMAC LLC, the financing arm of General Motors, is not allowing holders of so-called SmartNotes to exchange thier notes for more secure bonds. The exchange, which the company is offering as a ploy to get some of the bail-out money, is “limited to institutional notes and does not include retail debt instruments.” This means that holders of SmartNotes may get nothing if the company goes bankrupt, which could lead to some serious law suits. [Bloomberg.com]
* Lawyers: 1, bankers: 0. Former bankruptcy lawyer James H.M. Sprayregen is returning to Kirkland & Ellis after a three-year stint in the restructuring group at Goldman Sachs. The decision represents a triumph for corporate lawyers in their long standing rivalry against financiers. [The New York Times]
* Protestors in Thailand have concentrated their efforts on the airports in anticipation of a court verdict Tuesday that will likely order the Somchai’s People Power Party to disband. [Reuters]
* A plea-deal has been offered to an 8-year-old boy in Arizona, who confessed to killing his father and another man. [ABC News]
* The Federal Trade Commission is stopping the merger of two software companies because of the potential loss of competition. Capitalism will prevail! [Courthouse News Service]
Today, barring some unforeseen development, the U.S. Supreme Court will hand down its decision in the D.C. gun control case, District of Columbia v. Heller. Heller is truly a blockbuster case, and the ruling — the Court’s first major pronouncement on the Second Amendment in 68 years (or arguably ever) — is one of the most eagerly anticipated of the entire Term.
When Heller was argued back in March, numerous people camped out overnight to secure seats in the courtroom for the historic proceedings. As you may recall, we took an ATL Field Trip to visit them (see here and here). We now revisit that day, in advance of the opinion hand-down later this morning, and pass along some photos we took of the Heller campers (and neglected to share before).
The mood among the crowd in front of One First Street was festive. The group included law students and recent alumni from Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, and GW law schools. The first seven people in line had camped out the night before our visit, meaning that they wound up sleeping in front of the Court for two consecutive nights to snag their coveted seats. There were also numerous members of the media present (e.g., a Swiss TV crew).
We took an informal survey of the first 20 campers, to find out their views on the case. Fifteen of the 20 supported Heller and an individual right to bear arms (although their views differed somewhat on what might constitute reasonable regulation). Four were in favor of the D.C. gun ban in its current form. One described himself as a “swing vote,” a la Justice Kennedy.
We also took some photographs. The picture appearing at the top of this post is of Richard Hohensee, previously introduced to ATL readers here. You can see the rest of the pics, which together constitute a photo essay of sorts about the Heller case, by clicking here (or on the Picasa web album link below).
Photo Album: District of Columbia v. Heller [Picasa]
- Barack Obama, Guns / Firearms, Kwame Kilpatrick, Morning Docket, Politics, SCOTUS, Sex Scandals, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 03.19.08
By David Lat* Collected coverage of yesterday’s Supreme Court oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Second Amendment case concerning D.C. gun control. [SCOTUSblog (linkwrap); How Appealing (linkwrap)]
* NJ prosecutors subpoena records from JuicyCampus.com (think AutoAdmit for college students). [AP]
* An update on former Lawyer of the Day Kwame Kilpatrick: the Detroit City Council wants him to resign as mayor, but he’s vowing not to leave. [New York Times]
* Olympic gold-medal hottie who had “close personal relationship” with New York’s latest Luv Guv, David Paterson, says he helped her land a government job. [New York Post via Drudge]
* The full transcript of yesterday’s speech by Barack Obama on race. [Washington Post]
- 10th Circuit, Bear Stearns, Celebrities, Divorce Train Wrecks, Guns / Firearms, Harvard Law School, Morning Docket, Public Interest, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, White-Collar Crime
Morning Docket: 03.18.08
By David Lat* “Are we headed for another Great Depression?” [McClatchy]
* Quelle surprise: Bear Stearns shareholder lawsuit (filed in S.D.N.Y. by Coughlin Stoia). [Bloomberg; WSJ Law Blog (PDF of complaint)]
* Speaking of Bear Stearns, here are some law firms losing out on BSC business. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Tenth Circuit reverses convictions of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. [AP]
* Harvard Law School will pay the 3L tuition of future students who agree to work for nonprofit organizations or government for five years following graduation. [New York Times via Tax Prof Blog; Harvard Law School (news release)]
* Settlement in Paul McCartney-Heather Mills divorce (more on this later). [Legal Week]
* SCOTUS to hear Second Amendment / D.C. gun control case today (more on this later too). [New York Times; Reuters]
We just got back from visiting the Supreme Court, where we hung out with the (sizable and growing) crowd of people camped out at One First Street, so they can get seats in the courtroom for tomorrow’s argument in the D.C. gun control case, District of Columbia v. Heller (previously discussed here).
We’ll have more in subsequent posts. For now, we pass along this highlight. It’s a video of Alan Korwin and Robert Blackmer — strong supporters of Second Amendment rights, and members of a group called “The Cartridge Family” — singing their own unique version of “That’ll Be the Day,” with alternative lyrics. Check it out:
That’ll Be the Day [YouTube]
There’s a national movement pushing for law students to have the right to carry guns on campus. They’ve even got an official acronym: SCCC (Students for Concealed Carry on Campus). The group formed in response to the VA Tech shootings last year, and currently claims to have more than 16,000 members.
They argue that when students know that other students may be armed, it has a preventative effect on anyone contemplating an NIU or VA Tech style shooting. The group also wants students to be able to protect themselves in case of another tragedy.
Dan Filler at The Faculty Lounge gives his response….
Continue reading “Law Students with Guns: Bad Idea, or Worst Idea Ever?”
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