Drugs
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Drugs
Asking The Truly Important Questions: Has Legalized Marijuana Increased Junk Food Sales?
The subtle anti-pot initiative enters its dumbest stage. -
Small Law Firms
Lawyer Told Clients It Was Legal In Their State To Grow Pot... It, Um, Wasn't
You'd have to be high to give legal advice this bad. - Sponsored
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Small Law Firms
High-Flying Lawyer Used Private Plane To Smuggle Drugs Say Feds
Consider this another installment in "JD Advantage: Alternative Careers You Can Pursue With Your Degree."
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Government
The Case For Legalizing All Drugs
Ridding society of the immense harms caused by prohibition more than outweighs any negatives that could ever be attributed to legalization. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.13.19
* Legal experts seem somewhat concerned about Trump going on TV and inviting foreign intelligence agencies to intervene in the election. On behalf of the great George Bluth, I ask, “what’s wrong with a little light treason?” [Huffington Post]
* Michael Flynn has hired Sidney Powell, probably because she goes on Fox News to bash Mueller. Sounds like a perfect reason to fire Covington & Burling. Oh, and now Trump is hailing the move because his only grasp of legal talent is “appearing on TV.” [National Law Journal]
* Meanwhile, in the UK, a lawyer argues that vegans should be legally exempt from tea time. [Legal Cheek]
* “LawDude” lawyer buys Confederate statue for $1.4 million. It’s unknown if this purchase was for himself or as an agent for some unknown racist. [Dallas Morning News]
* Nevada brings marijuana laws to logical conclusion by preventing most employers from dinging people who test positive for it. [WIVB]
* Bryan Singer settles rape claim for $150K which sounds very much like a nuisance settlement. [The Wrap]
* Payday lender Scott Tucker is trying his “tribal sovereignty” defense again desperately hoping someone will join him in thinking “Kansas City” is on a reservation. [Law360]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.28.19
* Law firm diversity score cards are here, and…. African-American lawyers are still not being represented. Yikes. [Law.com]
* Judge Kozinski may be gone from the Ninth Circuit, but it is still hard work to change the culture there. [Big Law Business]
* Oakland is the second city looking to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms. Plan your vacations accordingly. [The Hill]
* In a continuing embarrassment to NYC, Rudy Giuliani wants a new role in the 2020 Trump campaign. [Politico]
* 5 firms have been cut out of the NFL concussion case. [Law360]
* Ted Wells for the defense, in New Jersey tax incentives case. [National Law Journal]
* Will New York strengthen sexual harassment laws? Well, maybe. But at least they’re having hearing on the issue. [New York Law Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.17.19
* Now Spider-Man is trying to save America from high drug prices. Big pharma, on the other hand, is rooting for the Thanos solution. [The Recorder]
* Weekend at Bernie’s meets The Verdict: Attorney kept pushing after his client died and never bothered to tell anyone. [ABA Journal]
* Thornton Law Firm gets off on campaign fraud charges. Thornton had helped out Democrats… the Republicans on the FEC let them off. Even though this transparently helps Trump’s claims vis a vis Cohen, he’ll probably complain about it anyway. [CommonWealth Magazine]
* Law firms fall prey to cybercrime… again. [American Lawyer]
* Trump’s unveiled a new immigration “plan” that reads like one of Steve King’s wet dreams. [USA Today]
* Purdue Pharma’s legal problems mount faster than the rampant addiction problem they’ve spread. [Washington Post]
* Tex McIver, the law firm partner who killed his wife because he was scared of black people, thinks he should be able to sue over his wife’s death… that he caused. [Daily Report]
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Health / Wellness
This Lawyer Used To Run A Meth Lab, But Now He Runs Sober Living Homes
The road to recovery is a long one, but it's worth it in the end. - Sponsored
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Learn how emerging tools will likely change and enhance the work of lawyers for years to come in this new report. -
White-Collar Crime
Former Insys Execs In Alleged Opioid Conspiracy Start Criminal Trial In Boston
The trial - of Insys founder John Kapoor and four other defendants - had been scheduled to start Monday morning. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 12.23.18
* Nancy Gertner and Laurence Tribe take Alan Dershowitz to task for his unorthodox analysis of the sentencing proceedings of General Michael Flynn. [Boston Globe]
* In this elegant essay, Jane Chong uses two notable new books — To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz, and the updated edition of Charles Black’s classic, Impeachment: A Handbook, with a new preface and additional chapters by by Philip Bobbitt (affiliate links) — as the jumping-off point for reflections on impeachment, law, and politics. [Los Angeles Review of Books]
* Judges often struggle when it comes to sentencing — and that’s as it should be, according to veteran defense lawyer and former prosecutor Joel Cohen. [New York Law Journal]
* Yes, more of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have been rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association compared to the nominees of his four most-recent predecessors — but as Patrick Gregory explains, there are some reasons for this (most notably, the Trump Administration’s decision to stop giving the ABA a sneak peek at nominees, which allowed past administrations to simply pull nominees the ABA deemed unqualified). [Big Law Business]
* Jonathan Adler has many problems with the recent ruling by Judge Reed O’Connor (N.D. Tex.) on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act — including the fact that Judge O’Connor ruled in the first place. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Former public defender Stephen Cooper flags an issue that many reporters probably haven’t thought much about: “When Will Journalism Grapple With the Ethics of Interviewing Mentally Ill Arrestees?” [CounterPunch]
* As 2018 draws to a close, the U.S. Chamber offers up its annual list of the year’s Top 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits.
[Faces of Lawsuit Abuse]* Looking ahead to 2019, the new year could ring in new legislation that could help lower drug prices by facilitating the timely entry of generics into the market, as Alaric DeArment reports. [MedCity News]
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Health / Wellness
What A Blackout Feels Like
With so much talk about blackouts in the news lately thanks to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Brian Cuban tells us about one of his blackout experiences. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.13.18
* Brett Kavanaugh admits he played dice, but not for money. If you believe that, I’ve got some $80K baseball tickets to sell you. [Huffington Post]
* When you hear about people ignoring authorities and remaining in the path of a hurricane, you may not think of lawyers, but some attorneys in the path of Florence are embracing the opportunity to finally get some work done. [Law.com]
* El Chapo’s lawyer may have a conflict of interest. Saul Goodman couldn’t be reached for comment. [NY Post]
* D.C. Circuit set to hear case about the IRS’s obligation to turn over Trump’s tax returns. This is another of those cases where losing is its own victory — the tax returns are almost certainly less interesting than how aggressively he’s fighting this. [National Law Journal]
* Alyssa Milano partners with the Vera Institute of Justice promoting the SAFE Families Fund to protect immigrant families targeted by the government. [San Diego Union Tribune]
* Trump’s divorce lawyer has sold a tell-all book. That’s either a marketing lie or he has some client confidentiality issues. [Page Six]
* “Strangely my most memorable case was also in some respects my least enjoyable” — the best way to make a mark is to leave a scar. [Legal Cheek]
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Biglaw
Biglaw Firms Pledge To Help Lawyers Struggling With Substance Abuse, Mental Health Issues
Far too many lawyers and legal professionals have suffered in silence for far too long. It's time to do something about it.
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Intellectual Property
Stirring The Patent Pot
There's a conspiracy theory out there about the government's intellectual property interest in marijuana. It's not nearly as sinister as people think. -
Law Schools
Think Adderall Will Make You Smarter In Law School? Think Again.
Law students are purchasing the drug on the black market because they believe it will give them a competitive advantage. -
Health / Wellness
When Drug Addiction Is A Crime, Not A Sickness
If we acknowledge that drug addiction is a brain problem and not a criminal act, is it fair to incarcerate people who relapse? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.13.18
* Roy Moore threatens to sue Showtime because he’s one of the few people left on the planet that can’t recognize Sacha Baron Cohen. [Variety]
* Apparently, the court frowns upon handjobs in their conference rooms. [Columbus Dispatch]
* The Daily Journal published some thoughts on Justice Kennedy’s retirement from Alex Kozinski, reminding everyone again about that Kozinski-Kavanaugh connection. [Slate]
* Law firm leaders are optimistic that they’re about to see some growth in demand despite years and years of evidence to the contrary. [American Lawyer]
* Opioid dealers incensed that they may have to pay some sort of penalty for all that “human misery.” [New York Law Journal]
* Washington’s AG announces agreement ending fast food non-compete policies for their workers. Yes… fast food restaurants have “non-compete” agreements. [Seattle Times]
* Hackers are selling access to law firms for $3500 which isn’t a new phenomenon. [CNBC]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.28.18
* Now begins the period of wild predictions about Kennedy’s eventual replacement. Young judge with proven record of hostility toward minorities, gays, and women would be a pretty good bet. [National Law Journal]
* A whopping 33 states employ the UBE now. [Law.com]
* No one is actually complying with GDPR. Sounds right. [Digiday]
* But back to Supreme Court news, remember Roe? Yeah that won’t be around much longer. And if you’ve deluded yourself into the Pollyannaish belief that Roberts won’t go there, you’re forgetting how courts work.
[Slate]* This op-ed by the legal luminary power family, the Amars, about Justice Kennedy’s call for a civil and balanced court in his Muslim Ban concurrence did not age well. But it’s worth revisiting to demonstrate just how deeply Kennedy grifted everyone, including some of the smartest legal minds around, with his “swing” schtick. [CNN]
* ICE lawyer decides it’s time to help kids instead of hurt them. To quote West Wing: “Let’s… I tell you what, let’s forget the fact that you’re coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that you showed up at all.” [USA Today]
* Border patrol is about to get aggressive on keeping Canadians out. [Newsweek]
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Health / Wellness
Addiction Secrets And Colon Cancer Killed My Friend
Courage is finding that one moment to tell someone who can help versus someone who wants to be part of your secret.