Cook County
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.18.20
* A special prosecutor appointed in the Jussie Smollett case found that the prosecutor’s office abused its discretion in overseeing the matter. [Wall Street Journal]
* A Texas lawyer is being sued for allegedly leading clients to a failed real estate investment with which the attorney had an undisclosed interest. [Texas Lawyer]
* The Boston Bar Association is urging Attorney General Barr not to pursue the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber. [Boston Globe]
* Apparently it’s not libelous to tell a lawyer that he “needs to go back to law school.” Maybe this is because lawyers learn very little about how to be practicing attorneys in law school… [Volokh Conspiracy]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.24.20
* The American Bar Association has won a lawsuit establishing that ABA employees qualify for public service loan forgiveness. It would have been kind of embarrassing if a group of lawyers lost this case… [Forbes]
* Joe Biden is receiving some flak for wrongly stating that his late son was the Attorney General of the United States. [Fox News]
* A number of Republican state attorneys general are trying to block the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. [ABC News]
* A $14 million settlement has been proposed in a class action concerning inmates masturbating in front of Cook County public defenders. [Chicago Sun Times]
* Justice Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent on Friday criticizing the government for allegedly abusing the emergency application process at the Supreme Court. [Bloomberg]
* A minor league baseball team has revoked the tickets of a law firm that filed a case against the franchise on behalf of a client. This seems kind of petty. [The Athletic]
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 02.25.18
* Audacious: former Mercer Law student Stephen McDaniel, who took apart the body of Lauren Giddings after brutally murdering her, seeks habeas corpus. [WGXA]
* “Did #MeToo really bring a reckoning to the legal industry?” A discussion featuring Katherine Ku, Dahlia Lithwick, Leah Litman, Ian Samuel, and me. [Vice]
* Speaking of #MeToo and the legal profession, look for more disturbing stories like this one to emerge in the weeks ahead. [Medium]
* Best friends: which amici in the Supreme Court have the strongest track records in major cases? [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of SCOTUS, if you were a billionaire who dropped $32.5 million on beachfront property, you too would hire Paul Clement to seek certiorari in your takings case. [SFGate]
* As someone with a mild case of prosopagnosia (aka face-blindness), I totally agree with Eugene Volokh’s recommendations about nametags at conferences. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Divorce lawyer and former Playboy model Corri Fetman, no stranger to our pages, is running for Cook County Circuit Court judge — and calling out her opponents for running body-shaming attack ads. [Chicago Reader]
* Here’s what the United States can — and can’t — learn from the small, happy, and fairly homogenous nation of Denmark (by Megan McArdle via Glenn Reynolds). [Instapundit]
* If you share my confusion about blockchain, here’s a recommendation: check out the new Integra Wallet, just released by legal-blockchain pioneer Integra Ledger. [Artificial Lawyer]
* Speaking of leveraging the power of blockchain, you simply must check out Casey Flaherty’s new Magic Money Machine™. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]
* If you work a lot with expert witnesses, you might want to check out Courtroom Insight, for reasons explained by Jean O’Grady. [Dewey B Strategic]
* Congratulations to Professor Jennifer Levi, recipient of the ABA Stonewall Award for her pioneering work on transgender rights! [Western New England University]
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Technology
Blockchain: Building Trust In Transactions
Immutability is one of the unique properties about blockchain technology. How can it positively impact the practice of law? -
Bad Ideas, State Judges
'You're On A Kill List': At Least 5 Judges Receive Death Threats
We hope that whoever sent these death threats is apprehended before something terrible happens. -
Attorney Misconduct, Crime, Drinking, Quote of the Day, Violence
Alleged Adult Store Ankle-Biter Acquitted, But Was Witness Tampering Involved?
Was this prosecutrix acquitted after a case of alleged witness tampering? -
Animal Law, Boalt Hall, Copyright, Crime, Environment / Environmental Law, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Lunacy, Morning Docket, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns, Violence
Morning Docket: 12.28.12
* “I’m sorry Ms. Jackson, I am for real. Never meant to make your planet cry, I apologize a trillion times,” is likely what Barack Obama told Lisa Jackson when he found out she was stepping down as EPA administrator. [New York Times]
* Cook County, Illinois, is experiencing problems wherein the kookiest of judges get “electoral mulligans” every six years. Public humiliation and harsh ratings might be a great way to finally put an end to this practice. [Chicago Magazine]
* Another way to get revenge against the schools that screwed grads with their allegedly misleading employment stats: disciplinary action for ethical violations committed by those licensed to practice law. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, unless you’re accused of being a murderer birderer. Boalt Hall law students Justin Teixeira and Eric Cuellar have now been criminally charged for their alleged roles in the decapitation of an exotic bird. [Las Vegas Sun]
* Harvard Law is offering a free online copyright class, and anyone can enroll — even 13-year-olds. This may be your only chance to take a course at an Ivy League school, so hurry up and apply. [National Law Journal]
* George Zimmerman and his lawyer are being sued by a private detective for failure to pay $27K for security services, which included a detailed escape plan to get the murder defendant into a hidey-hole. [Boston Herald]
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Crime, Election 2012, Judge of the Day, Judicial Divas, Lunacy, Politics, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns
'Legally Insane' Judge Wins Re-Election in Chicago
Remember Judge Cynthia Brim, the two-time Judge of the Day who was declared "legally insane" by a court-appointed psychiatrist? She just won re-election -- before appearing in court hours later, not as a judge but as a defendant.... - Sponsored
Are Small Firms Going Big On Legal Tech?
Please help us benchmark your firm against your peers through this (always) brief and anonymous survey and enter for a chance to win a $250… -
Judge of the Day, Lesbians, Lunacy, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns, Weirdness
Judges of the Day: Cook County Kookiness
A state court judge claims her "life is being ruined" by secret lawsuits, while one of her colleagues is declared "legally insane" by a court-appointed psychiatrist. -
Attorney Misconduct, Legal Ethics, Rudeness, State Judges
'Oh Sh*t': Attorney Faces Discipline for Allegedly Cursing in Court
Sh*t My Lawyer Says. You know, like the word "sh*t," allegedly uttered by one Illinois lawyer in open court. -
Judge of the Day, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns, Violence
Judge of the Day: If You Can Call A Traffic Judge a 'Judge'
Earlier this month, a Chicago judge was unceremoniously removed from her courthouse and arrested for assault. My colleague Staci Zaretsky might have called her a judicial diva, but I think this jurist is more of a Mike Tyson type…