Murder

Morning Docket: 12.12.12

By

* Munger Tolles & Olson recently announced a new partnership class, 75 percent of which is composed of women. Let’s hear three cheers for diversity in the practice of law! Oh, and uh… congratulations to the lone white guy, too. [The Careerist]

* Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition: in an opinion penned by Judge Richard Posner, a divided three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit struck down an Illinois law banning the concealed carrying of loaded weapons outside the home. [Bloomberg]

* Holy crap! Law students asked for change, and the Arizona Supreme court is giving them exactly what they wanted, which is impressive. 3Ls will now be able to sit for the February bar exam. [National Law Journal]

* And speaking of Arizona, the Phoenix City Council and state Board of Regents have approved ASU Law’s plans to move its campus, and the city even threw in $12M to sweeten the deal. [Phoenix Business Journal]

* Remember the defamation suit Cooley Law filed against a former student who anonymously criticized the school on his blog? His lawyer will defend his anonymity today in court. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* Nevermind the fact that he’s a “person of interest” in a homicide case, because a Guatemalan judge ordered that antivirus mogul John McAfee should be released due to his illegal detention. [Los Angeles Times]

2 Comments

Quote of the Day: Scalia Skis the Slippery Slope

By

If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?

– Justice Antonin Scalia, in an appearance yesterday at Princeton to promote Reading Law (affiliate link), responding to a gay student who asked the justice why he draws parallels between laws against sodomy and laws against bestiality and murder.

(So, is homosexuality the new killing it? Read more, after the jump.)

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Quote of the Day: Scalia Skis the Slippery Slope”

0 Comments

Law Student ‘Whacked’ In Midtown Manhattan

By

You know what they say, you never see it coming.

There is a bizarre story developing on the streets of New York. A law student walked out of a hotel in broad daylight in midtown Manhattan and was murdered by a silent assassin who then, coldly, got into a getaway car that politely stopped at a red light overlooking the body.

I’m going to go on and assume that this homicide didn’t happen because of outstanding law school debts. Or maybe that’s just what I want to believe….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Law Student ‘Whacked’ In Midtown Manhattan”

38 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 11.29.12

By

* Wait, did other people know this Casey Anthony movie was happening and not tell me? With Rob Lowe? How much would you pay to get drunk and watch it with Nancy Grace? [Lifetime]

* In America, poorly parked cars get tickets. In Soviet Russia, poorly parked cars get douches. [Legal Blog Watch]

* Sometimes you can evade consequences associated with evading taxes, and sometimes you can’t. [Going Concern]

* The George Zimmerman defense fund seems to be alive and well… unlike Trayvon Martin. [NPR]

* I feel like it would be great if the NFL took marijuana off of its banned substance list. It’s not like the drug is performance enhancing. [The Nation]

* A leading organization for in-house lawyers weighs in against the sanctions imposed on TD Bank. [Association of Corporate Counsel]

* Don’t forget to add your résumé to the flood for our open positions on Above the Law. At this point, you might want to send a picture to get our attention. Not of yourself, but you know, Twinkies, peep-toed shoes, something that we actually care about. [Above the Law]

5 Comments

Law Firm Associates and Prostitutes: A Comparative Analysis

By

Ed. note: Lat here. This post is by lawyer turned novelist Allison Leotta, whom I previously profiled. I recently read Leotta’s newest book, Discretion, which I highly recommend. Not only is it a gripping thriller, but it’s legally realistic too, reflecting Leotta’s experience as a federal prosecutor and her research into the escort business.

As a former sex-crimes prosecutor who just wrote a novel about the escort business, I keep getting the same question from my Biglaw buddies: “I already feel like a high-end prostitute. Shouldn’t I get paid like one?”

It’s an old saw that lawyers are already prostitutes. Face it, we care deeply for our clients because we’re paid to care about them. If we’re good, we start by convincing ourselves that the side of the legal dispute we more or less randomly ended up on happens to be the right side. You think a hooker’s job is that different? Forget it. The infamous D.C. Madam — an inspiration for my latest book, Discretion (affiliate link) — was a woman who dropped out of law school and opened an escort agency.

You’re good-looking, you like people, you know how to bill by the hour — you could totally do this. But is being a high-class escort really a better job than the one you’ve got now? The answer will be familiar to every memo-writing associate: It depends. Before you go trading in those Christian Louboutins for five-inch-stilettos, check out these side-to-side comparisons of the trades….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Law Firm Associates and Prostitutes: A Comparative Analysis”

15 Comments

Quote of the Day: She Also Allegedly Killed A Guy, But Whatever

By

Shayna Hubers

The only thing she did wrong was having bad taste in men.

– Wil Zevely, a lawyer representing 21-year-old Shayna Hubers, commenting on the circumstances behind his client’s murder charge. Hubers’s alleged victim, Ryan Poston, was a 2008 graduate of Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law. Hubers claims she acted in self-defense.

17 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 10.16.12

By

* Now they’re telling people NOT to go the highest-ranked law school possible? Does not compute… [The Careerist]

* If Thelma and Louise had made it to their 70′s, they might look like this. By that I mean, running men over with their car for insurance money. [FindLaw]

* “Hello, 911? Someone stole all my marijuana plants. Mm-hmm, yes, yes I do. You’ll send an officer over to help? Great, thank you!” [The Consumerist]

* Buying a judge a bottle of wine and offering to settle your dispute privately doesn’t mean what this lawyer thought it meant. What does it actually mean? Sanctions. [South Florida Lawyer]

* The overall SCOTUS docket is decreasing in size, but the number of IP cases is going up. I am smartphone, hear me roar. [SCOTUSblog]

0 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 10.11.12

By

*James Henderson, former senior counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice, is no longer with the ACLJ — and there are interesting theories as to why. [Metro Weekly]

* Part one of an epic story about a Texan’s wrongful murder conviction, written by Pamela Colloff, one of the best investigative reporters in the state, if not the country. Get a drink and a comfy chair; you won’t want to get up for a while. [Texas Monthly]

* Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is going to be in pictures — or a picture, at least. Check out Atlas Shrugged: Part II, which hits theaters tomorrow. [Atlas Shrugged]

* Our tipster provided a nifty blurb for this article: “This has everything. Bumbling Frenchmen dependent on a heroic (albeit opportunistic) American to save the day? Check. Twenty-first century application of 19th century maritime law? Check. Overblown invocation of piracy? Check.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

* San Franciscans, come see David Lat speak at U.C. Hastings on Monday. It’s free and open to the public! Heck, I’ll probably go too. [Legally Speaking]

* You gotta admit, trying to get rich off claims about the death of an imaginary cat (and/or parrot) is a pretty imaginative way to commit insurance fraud. [Seattle Weekly]

* Colorado Bar Exam results are out. Congratulations to those who passed. [Colorado Supreme Court]

1 Comment

Quote of the Day: Who Are You Again? Why Are You Here?

By

Drew Peterson

The filing should be stricken. It’s absolute insanity. It’s bizarre beyond belief. It’s so unbelievable, I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless.

– Joel Brodsky, lead attorney for convicted murderer Drew Peterson, responding to attorney John Paul Carroll’s motion for a new trial. Carroll has not been involved in the case thus far, except as a consultant to advise Peterson about his pension rights.

13 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 10.02.12

By

* A case of alleged murder by legal form. Christ, this sounds like a bad Twilight Zone episode. [Lake Expo]

* A novel reason why teenagers should still refrain from posting party pictures on Facebook, future job concerns be damned. [ABA Journal]

* Kirkland & Ellis donated $5 million to the Northwestern University Law School. I think some celebratory key jangling is in order. [Northwestern News Center]

* Con law nerds, you can now check out the audio from the Supreme Court’s announcement of its ruling in the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. the Obamacare case. [Oyez]

* What do the naked Kate Middleton pictures mean for modern privacy law? Other than the fact that all famous people should just become nevernudes, obviously. [LinkedIn]

* A judge blocked the controversial Pennsylvania Voter ID law, at least until election season ends. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Although law school application rates are falling across most of the country, application numbers have spiked at the extraordinarily prestigious Kansas University School of Law. Wait, what? [LJWorld]

* Oh lord, here we go again. Samsung sued Apple for patent infringement in the iPhone 5. Let’s begin round #72,354. Ding! [CNET]

1 Comment
Page 8 of 211...456789101112...21