Maryland

You know how people make jokes about DLA Piper having offices in all sorts of random places and Third World countries -- er, developing nations? Well, if you like those jokes, you are going to love this story. At one DLA Piper office, they ran out of running water. No water to wash your hands, no water to flush the toilets. But the associates still had to show up for work. Can you guess which office?

* Obama took a break from his vacation to sign the NDAA. But don’t worry, as long as he’s president, he’ll never indefinitely detain American citizens. Oh boy, we get a one-year guarantee. [New York Times] * “By your powers combined, I am Captain Primary!” Four Republican presidential candidates are joining forces to assist Rick […]

The former military intelligence analyst accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks has spent the last four days in a Maryland military court, undergoing a hearing to determine whether or not his case will proceed to court-martial. For those new to the party, 24-year-old Bradley Manning is accused of committing the biggest […]

Parents wield an unbelievable amount of power in the naming of their children. And as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. Bizarre names can ensure that your child sits alone and friendless in the cafeteria for the better part of his formative years. Great names can spur children on to greatness. Naming […]

One brave law school dean has been asked to tender his resignation by his university president. On his way out of the door, the dean decided to shine a light on the whole ugly mess of law school economics....

We always appreciate when our readers send us tips about the seemingly endless supply of crazy lawyer websites and advertisements that are floating around in cyberspace. Just when we thought we’d seen it all, someone out there goes and raises the bar of craziness. When we received a tip pointing us to the website of […]

When I was a little kid, my cousin and I set up a produce stand in front of my grandparents’ house. Splayed out on an uneven card table, we offered a variety of bruised, battered, and misshapen produce. From an oblong cantaloupe to a nicked-up watermelon, our “stand” carried the bounty of my grandfather’s patch […]

Would you like a MAN-icure? A Maryland man is suing his nail salon for $200,000 for a $1 overcharge on his manicure. His lawyer (who, in the past, sued the same nail salon as a plaintiff, for the same cause of action) is comparing his client to Rosa Parks. Seriously?

The practice of “oversharing” on social networks has been a boon for law enforcement. Investigations regularly involve checking out people’s Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn profiles. Thus, it’s probably unwise to post about your involvement in a crime. Or about threatening a witness set to testify against your boyfriend. While investigating Antoine Griffin, a murder suspect […]

If your law school sells its naming rights but keeps tuition flat, would you protest? That’s the question facing students at the University of Maryland School of Law. They woke up on Monday morning to find out that instead of going to an easily identifiably state law school, they’ll soon be going to something called […]

When I first got this job, I thought that it might be a good idea for me to hook up a Breathalyzer to my laptop to prevent me from posting drunk. Then I realized people enjoy this site more when at least one of us is drunk, and so I sacrifice my liver for you […]

When Washington, D.C., was buried in snow last week, one suburban Maryland school alerted parents via robocall that they would be opening two hours late. The call, hypothetically letting parents know that they could sleep in that day, went out at 4:30 a.m. That angered privacy lawyer Aaron Titus. His well-told tale of revenge reverberated […]

Next month I’ll be appearing on a panel at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. The subject of the panel: how to get good press for your law school. One obvious answer: do good things for your students. Just like the University of Maryland School of Law. Our coverage of UMB […]

Potential clients keep contacting me, almost daily. I’m going to have to take my number off our Web site. — Maryland lawyer Daniel Whitney of Whitney & Bogris, aka “the bedbug attorney,” in an interview with the Washington Post.

Over the past few weeks we’ve lightly touched on the fight between Maryland State Legislators and Maryland Law School. To bring you up to speed: the Perdue Chicken corporation was annoyed by a lawsuit filed with the aid of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic. So, like all good corporations, the bigwigs at Perdue reached into their […]