Connecticut
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.26.22
* Making man a better friend: a recent Texas law aims to protect dogs left out in the cold. And the hot. [Fox]
* Transparency each day keeps the bankruptcy away: a new bill will prevent surprise charges on medical bills. [Kare11]
* Connecticut’s Supreme Court recently ruled that women only gyms break discrimination laws. The jury is out if it is okay for the women that would have attended the women’s only gym to yell “You lift like a girl!” at men doing deadlifts at Planet Fitness. [AP]
* Arizona makes $1.2b in revenue from its first year of legal weed sales. That’s a lot of iced tea! [NY Post]
* Soon, it may be legal to make homemade hard liquor in this state. West Virginia…Bootleg mama… [WBOY]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.14.21
* Six Flags has settled a lawsuit for $36 million involving the use of fingerprint scanners at a park . What would the old guy in its commercials think? [USA Today]
* A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by employees of a Houston hospital who protested their employer’s policy that workers need to be vaccinated against COVID-19. [NBC News]
* A Connecticut lawyer is under police investigation after a shooting occurred outside his office. [ABA Journal]
* Check out this article on an Arizona lawyer who is performing name changes for trans individuals pro bono during Pride Month. [Arizona Republic]
* A cryptocurrency company has hired new counsel. Wonder if she is getting paid in crypto… [Crypto Briefing]
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Family Law
Connecticut Catches Up On LGBTQ+ Parentage Equality -- Overdue And Just In Time
While other New England states have updated their parentage code in recent years to eliminate unequal treatment of families, Connecticut has fallen behind.
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.15.21
Ed. note: Due to the Presidents’ Day holiday, we will not be publishing today. We will be back in full force tomorrow.
* An impeachment lawyer for Donald Trump said he was “going to Disney World” following Trump’s acquittal. Did he pour Gatorade on himself too? [Business Insider
* The home of a lawyer representing Donald Trump at his impeachment trial was vandalized last week. [Forbes]
* Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the New York Attorney General over employment practices at the company. Thinking Amazon can handle service of process in-house… [Reuters]
* A Connecticut judge is suing a town after he was injured during pickleball lessons at a local senior center. [CT Insider]
* Court filings allege that the Attorney General of Texas swapped political favors for a home remodel job for his purported mistress. [Dallas Morning News]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 12.29.20
* A new lawsuit alleges that New York City restaurants should be open for indoor dining because this “saves lives.” Since I can’t cook for my life, I might agree… [New York Post]
* A Connecticut lawyer allegedly shot his wife on Christmas Day and then killed himself in an apparent murder-suicide. [Connecticut Law Tribune]
* The New York Attorney General is warning of COVID-19 vaccine scams. [Rochester Democrat & Chronicle]
* California is now allowing lawsuits for emotional distress even when events are seen virtually. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* A new lawsuit alleges that the plot of Outer Banks on Netflix was stolen from a novel written by a North Carolina teacher. Maybe the writer of The Goonies also has a case… [News & Observer]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.13.20
* A class action about Xbox controllers that allegedly “drift” has been beefed up. I used to blame controllers when I lost at GoldenEye as a kid… [Video Games Chronicle]
* Andrew Cuomo apparently has “no interest in going to Washington” to become Attorney General if Joe Biden is elected president. [Fox News]
* A Connecticut lawyer who served time in federal prison for fraud is seeking reinstatement to the Connecticut Bar. [CT Post]
* Law School Transparency is hosting an event on the future of the bar exam that you should all check out! [Law School Transparency]
* A black man who was allegedly led through Galveston, Texas, by a white police officer on horseback is suing the city for $1 million. [CNN]
* The Florida Bar says a lawyer acted so poorly, the judge had to “resort to a discipline strategy typically reserved to parents separating bickering siblings.” This sounds like so many depositions I’ve attended… [Daily Business Review]
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Lawyers
Connecticut Launches State of the Legal Profession Task Force
The Nutmeg State joins others across the country in creating a panel to explore legal regulatory reform. -
Family Law
Connecticut Supreme Court Restores Reason To Embryo Wars, Also Punts On Key Questions
To all of the Connecticut women going through IVF in their late 30s or early 40s, be mindful of the possibility that love, sometimes, doesn't last forever. - Sponsored
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Courts
Prosecutorial Data Collection Is Coming To Connecticut
It's amazing we don't do this already, but let's start now. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.05.18
* On Friday, Judge Eleanor L. Ross (N.D. Ga.) decided that Georgia’s “exact match” voting law was too restrictive, issuing a preliminary injunction against the law just days before the midterm election and ruling that the state must allow those who were flagged by the law — “individuals who are predominantly minorities” — to prove their citizenship and identity more easily. Strike one against Republican gubernatorial candidate and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. [Washington Post]
* Unwilling to accept his potential fate in the election after having been dealt a blow by Judge Ross, Kemp announced on Saturday that he was investigating the Georgia Democratic Party for allegedly trying to hack the state’s voter registration system. Of course, he had little to no evidence to prove these allegations. [New York Times]
* Speaking of the midterm election, you NEED TO VOTE tomorrow. No idea where your polling place is? Not an excuse. Find out right here. Click the link. [HeadCount]
* “[O]ut of an abundance of caution due to security concerns,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh will skip the walking down the Supreme Court’s front steps with the chief justice following his formal investiture ceremony. Every other new justice has done so since 1975 when John Paul Stevens started the tradition. [Big Law Business]
* James Polsinelli, name partner and founder of Am Law 100 firm Polsinelli, will be retiring from the firm on January 31, 2019. What will he do after he steps away from Biglaw? “I’ve got a golf game I’ve neglected for a long time, so I’ll see how much of it I can resurrect,” he said. Congratulations on wonderful career! [American Lawyer]
* “I get to be a part of history”: Denia Perez, a DACA recipient, is the first Dreamer to be admitted to the Connecticut bar. The Quinnipiac Law graduate worked hard to change bar rules so that people like her with U.S. work authorization would be able to practice law in the state. She plans to practice immigration law. [NECN]
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Law Schools
Harvard Law School Graduate Accused Of Murdering His Mother Wants To Represent Himself
Police found his mother's skeletal remains, including her crushed skull, in a fire pit in the backyard. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.02.17
* Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, which took place last night in Las Vegas, Nevada. [New York Times]
* “There’s only one prediction that’s entirely safe about the upcoming term. It will be momentous.” The Supreme Court’s October Term 2017 begins today, and it will be Justice Neil Gorsuch’s first full term. The docket features issues like voting rights, religion and discrimination, workers’ rights, and digital privacy, and Trump’s DOJ has radically flipped its position from that of prior administrations in many of the cases, which hasn’t happened in decades. [New York Times]
* Jeffrey Toobin wonders, “How badly is Neil Gorsuch annoying the other Supreme Court justices?” Based on the junior justice’s behavior thus far — from his seemingly politicized appearances to his domination of oral arguments to his dissenting jab at Justice Kennedy — the answer could very well be PRETTY BADLY. [New Yorker]
* You may have grown up, but you’re still a Toys “R” Us kid at heart, so you’ll want to know how much these Biglaw firms are charging Geoffrey the Giraffe for their representation in the toy store’s bankruptcy. Partners and of counsel are billing up to $1,745 per hour, and associates are billing up to $1,015 per hour. [Am Law Daily]
* Biglaw salary wars are heating up across the pond, with Clifford Chance having recently decided to boost pay for newly qualified associates to £87,300 (~$116,933.99) a year in total compensation. Other firms like Freshfields and Linklaters have also instituted salary hikes, while Slaughter & May has frozen associate pay. [Law.com]
* “This, all of this, allows me to prove my story is useful.” Reginald Dwayne Betts, the Yale Law School graduate whose dreams of being able to practice law after passing the bar exam were deferred thanks to a decades-old felony carjacking conviction, was finally admitted to the Connecticut bar. Congratulations! [Hartford Courant]
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Crime, Law Schools
From Jail To Yale -- And Hopefully The Bar
This young lawyer deserves a second chance.
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.17.17
* “Every single racial slur you can think of for Asian Americans is a trademark right now. And almost any kind of slur you could think of for any group is a registered trademark right now. The law’s not working.” Asian-American rock band The Slants will make their debut before the Supreme Court this week, and when all is said and done, trademark law’s prohibition on the registration of disparaging marks may be forever changed thanks to their First Amendment argument. [Washington Post]
* Zachary Warren, the low-level Dewey & LeBoeuf employee who wound up being criminally charged along with the failed firm’s head honchos, has been cleared of all charges. After completing 350 hours of community service in accordance with the requirements of a deferred prosecution agreement, Warren’s indictment has been sealed, and he’s now working as an associate at Williams & Connolly. [Big Law Business]
* For all of their talk about wanting to prevent women from leaving the practice of law, many Biglaw firms that once made big promises about onsite day-care facilities have allowed those plans to fall to the wayside after being hamstrung by significant costs and liability issues. Today, about 10 law firms have set up day-care programs for attorneys’ children, and for those that have, it’s a real “distinguisher in recruiting.” [Am Law Daily]
* According to the results of a new study performed by Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court in conjunction with students at Yale Law School, while Asian-Americans are plentiful within our country’s attorney workforce, very few of them have managed to ascend to the most prestigious leadership roles in the legal profession. What could be causing this to occur? Implicit bias may be playing a role. [Washington Post]
* “[I]t would be your word against mine and nobody will believe you.” A Republican politician in Connecticut who “love[s] this new world” because he “no longer [has] to be politically correct” currently stands accused of
grabbing a town employee by the p*ssypinching a town employee’s groin. He’s been charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, and he’s scheduled to appear in court at the end of the month. [Westport Daily Voice]* The University of Washington at Tacoma is rethinking its plans to create a law school that’s separately accredited from the one at the University’s Seattle campus. Before moving forward, UWT wants to build up its undergraduate pre-law program to make sure the demand will be there in the future. Unlike some schools, “[t]he last thing [UWT] want[s] to do is to start a law school and it not to be successful early.” [News Tribune]
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Education / Schools, Holidays and Seasons, Justice
New Haven School Bans Clowns... For Halloween... Because They're Too Terrifying?
This is the dumbest possible way of dealing with a threat. -
Crime, Drinking, State Judges
Judge Accused Of Strangling Woman He Brought Home From Bar
State judges are apparently just like us: they get arrested for violent crimes, too. -
Money
Connecticut Mercifully Doles Out $22 Million Of Financial Aid To Ray Dalio
Hey Connecticut, "The Co-Dependent State" is not a good line for a license plate. -
Death Penalty, Public Interest
Connecticut Supreme Court Reaffirms Death Penalty’s Demise
Which state court of last resort will be the first to follow the Connecticut Supreme Court’s lead on the death penalty? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 05.26.16
* Did you know Virginia allows people with only a bachelor’s degree to be magistrates? And they are the ones approving search warrants. [Katz on Justice]
* Domino’s Pizza is the latest target of Eric Schneiderman, and the pizza chain is accused of discounting the hours employees have worked. [Pacific Standard Magazine]
* One way to avoid law firm layoffs is to totally restructure the way law firms operate. [Bloomberg BNA]
* What does one do when they retire from the Supreme Court? [SCOTUSblog]
* How much do Supreme Court justices interrupt each other? An interesting analysis. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* The Baston rule and the integrity of the criminal justice system. [Slate]
* The repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty will now apply to the men currently on death row. [Huffington Post]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 12.11.15
* “[W]e refuse to be distracted by disgruntled employees or frivolous lawsuits.” Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is being accused of firing a handful of prosecutors due to their political associations in a newly filed lawsuit. [Baltimore Sun]
* Texas Wesleyan wants to dismiss a suit filed by its “disavowed” law school grads because it says its obligation “ended with their graduation,” so it doesn’t need to grant them alumni status with Texas A&M Law. Harsh. [Courthouse News Service]
* Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy will soon sign an executive order banning those on the federal no-fly list from purchasing guns in the state. Professor Eugene Volokh thinks that this policy is constitutionally controversial. Do you agree? [WSJ Law Blog]
* Vinson & Elkins is moving its Dallas headquarters to a fancy $200 million building, where it’ll fill up 80,000 sq ft of office space in 2018. How nice for you! Now be nice to your associates and announce your Cravath bonus matches. [Dallas Morning News]
* What’s the best way to get out of paying millions of dollars to lawyers who you hired to perform complex legal work? If you’re hurting for cash, then take a cue from this New Jersey firm and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to ditch your drama. [Bergen Record]