Animals

A Reverse Benchslap? Chastised Lawyer Lashes Out at Judge Posner

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On Thanksgiving Day, while you were enjoying your turkey (or tofurkey), we wrote about a different bird: namely, the ostrich. In a somewhat snarky opinion, Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit compared a lawyer appearing before him to an ostrich: “The ostrich is a noble animal, but not a proper model for an appellate advocate. The ‘ostrich-like tactic of pretending that potentially dispositive authority against a litigant’s contention does not exist is as unprofessional as it is pointless.’”

Ouch. Judge Posner even included a photo (above right) of a man in a suit burying his head in the sand.

What did the lawyer in question, David “Mac” McKeand of Houston, have to say for himself? And what did McKeand have to say about Judge Posner?

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Thanksgiving Greetings from Above the Law!
(And a bonus benchslap from Judge Posner.)

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Happy Thanksgiving, from your friends at Above the Law. As always, we give thanks to our readers, our tipsters, our advertisers, and even our commenters.

We also give thanks to Judge Richard Posner. This brilliant and hilarious jurist has just given us something to chuckle over as we munch on our Thanksgiving turkey.

This opinion by Judge Posner, handed down yesterday, could be viewed as “giving the bird” to an offending attorney. And the bird in question is not a turkey. Can you guess which bird is involved?

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(And a bonus benchslap from Judge Posner.)“

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Quote of the Day: Throw the Court a Bone

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This is perhaps the dog-gonest case ever to reach a federal appellate court.

– Judge Ronald Lee Gilman, writing for Sixth Circuit in O’Neill v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, a case that involved the forcible implanting of microchips in a family’s dogs without consent.

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All Dogs Go to Law School?

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Elie's therapy dog.

Has law school gotten so bad that law students really need therapy dogs as standard issue on campus? I mean, therapy dogs are for disabled people or old people who need some company before they die.

Monty, the Yale Law School therapy dog, was a cute story we wrote about a while ago. But that was just for fun.

Is the mental beating that people take in law school really so bad that they need a furry friend to soothe them?

Perhaps so, because now schools that aren’t even ranked as highly as Yale want their own therapy dogs….

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