Reports have circulated that two gay students at Washington and Lee University's School of Law in Lexington, Va., were attacked in separate incidents late last month.
Brian Dunkel, 27, was attacked by another law school student on his way home on the morning of March 25, according to Lexington police reports....
Dunkel, who filed the report, was walking to his home on Main Street and was jumped from behind by Todd Harper Lindsey, 26, who put him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground, police said. Dunkel was able to get away unharmed.
A separate student claimed that she was subjected to anti-gay slurs at the same party Dunkel attended before he was jumped. The students alleged that Washington & Lee administrators were "unresponsive" to the problems of gay students.
Such problems may persist to the present. Today, Washington & Lee law school dean Rodney A. Smolla sent an email to the entire law school community about complaints of "verbal misconduct," allegedly directed against minorities, that were raised this past semester.
When you're hanging out at Chic-A-Boom Room in Dunedin, Florida, late on a Monday night, you need to be prepared for trouble. So discovered Florida patent attorney Louis Brunoforte this week. But only after taking a punch to the face from a feisty 45-year-old woman from Indiana.
As he headed to the restroom early Tuesday at the Chic-A-Boom Room, Louis Brunoforte left behind a Budweiser to mark his spot at the bar.
He returned to find someone sitting in his seat. A verbal dispute ensued and quickly escalated.
Words were exchanged, expletives were hurled and, finally, a punch was thrown, hitting the 6-foot, 240-pound Brunoforte right in the kisser.
Getting punched in the face, however, is not enough to warrant the honor of Lawyer of the Day. No, Brunoforte earned that honor by announcing to the Times that he plans to sue:
Brunoforte, 46, of Dunedin, is a lawyer and may proceed with a civil suit against Adams. He said he had back surgery in March and walks with the help of a cane and back brace. He wasn't injured by the shot from the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Adams, but said that fact isn't relevant.
"I was a boxer in high school so I guess I know how to take a punch," Brunoforte said. "But I could have fallen down, and with the serious back surgery I had that could have been problematic."
Oh, Bruno, for the sake of your self-respect, you should have stopped talking after "take a punch."
Brunoforte claims the Hoosier woman "threw a punch like a man would throw a punch." But rather than hit her back, his cool head prevailed. He started planning his civil suit against her and asked the bartender to call authorities.
Most of the time, when law students flip out, they flip out about their law school. But in this era of law student meltdowns, it was only a matter of time before law students started brawling with each other.
On April 30, New York Law School (not to be confused with NYU School of Law) had a cocktail party for 3Ls to celebrate the end of classes. A tipster explains:
There was supposed to be hors d'oeuvres served with the free alcohol, but there was little food in sight, so the scene was set for overconsumption of alcohol on empty stomachs.
This sounds promising.
You might think that this story devolves into New York Law School students rioting in TriBeCa over the school's inability to break out of the third tier. But instead, we've got a classic green-eyed monster lurking about:
Apparently, one 3L brought a 1L as his date, and this was upsetting to his ex-girlfriend, another 3L. Earlier in the night, the [female] 3L allegedly spilled wine on this 1L. The 1L later on then threw a wine glass at the 3L.
I think we all know where this is heading. Details after the jump.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 11:30 AM - By Kashmir Hill
In yesterday's open thread on #17 though #28 schools in the U.S. News rankings, we neglected to include a riff on the crime statistics in various schools' cities. We did start thinking about it today, though, as it seems that bullets occasionally fly in the City of Lakes, home to the #20-ranked law school. And Dennis Jansen, a University of Minnesota 1L, was unlucky enough to catch one in the back this weekend.
Jansen keeps a blog called No. 634 tracking his law school adventures. Usually the posts are about fairly mundane topics, like his new dog Harley (a mastiff) and classes ("CrimLaw is a waste of time"). But yesterday, he posted something rather out of the ordinary. One of his fellow students sent it along to us, saying, "So I read this blog by a kid in my 1L crim law class... and THIS was definitely the most interesting post: Jansen gets shot."
According to the post, Jansen was out on the wild streets of Minneapolis Sunday after going to a club when...
I'm walking across Hennepin with what felt like the entire hiphop room of the Gay 90's, when I hear popping sounds.
People scream and start running.
I feel something hit my back.
I stop on the curb and call over to T.
Me: "I think I got hit."
T: "Shut up, where?"
(I lift up the back of my shirt and point.)
T: "OH MY GOD, they got you! They shot you!"
Me: "It's a gunshot?"
T: "YES! THEY GOT YOU! (then to the street) HE GOT SHOT!"
His first thoughts were not of his mortality but of class the next morning:
So it's around 2:30 am on a Monday morning and I'm sitting downtown bleeding on the side of the street. Random people coming from clubs stopped as they saw the blood coming from my back. I had a pretty good idea that I was going to miss this morning's civil procedure class...
And you thought you were having a rough finals week.
Jansen may give former honoree Alex Botsios (the Arizona 1L who wrestled his laptop away from an armed robber) a good running for ATL Law Student of all time. More after the jump, including a gratuitous, but not graphic, photo of the wound.
Monday, December 29, 2008 1:05 PM - By Kashmir Hill
On Above The Law, we love writing about colorful lawyers and judges, but we harbor special affection for the womb from which these characters emerge: law school. We'll end this year by looking back over some of our favorite stories of 2008 about the antics and adventures of law school students and their professors and deans.
The first post in this series will focus on the two most celebrated law school students of the year. One hails from Harvard Law School, and the other one from the University of Arizona, and one from Arizona State University. [Ed. note: On Dec. 30, we added a third law school student, per popular demand.] Their names should be familiar to regular ATL readers. And non-regular ATL readers should learn the names and get up to speed.
Of the over 140,000 law students out there, find out which two stood out in ATL's review of 2008, after the jump.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:13 PM - By Kashmir Hill
The Saturday night antics of two Florida lawyers have the makings of a great episode of the Jerry Springer show. Alleged sex in a bathroom, a girl-on-girl fighting match, and legal misrepresentation.
Lawyer-lobbyist Lawyer Aimee Marie Dias, 35, was at a swanky restaurant in Tampa on Saturday night. When she went to use the bathroom, she discovered a man and woman allegedly doing the Tampa tango. We don't understand the sequence of events from this point, but apparently Dias threw a punch at the copulating duo. This led to a brawl between the women that spilled out into the restaurant with the ladies on "the floor rolling around exchanging punches, pushes," according to the ABA Journal.
Labor and employment law attorney Brent Warren Yessin, 44, was waiting for the valet when police arrived. He decided to enter the fray, telling police he represented the parties involved. Though Dias and the rest denied this, Yessin was insistent. Apparently, very insistent:
[Yessin] was wrestled to the ground by four officers after he kept insisting that he represented one of the suspects and refused repeated requests to leave the restaurant, the Times reports.
Yessin was charged with obstructing an officer without violence, and apparently jailed for four hours until he posted $1,000 bail. Both Dias and Jacolow were initially arrested for battery, but agreed to drop the charges against each other.
A few lessons here: if you're going to have sex in a public restroom, do it in a stall. If you walk in on public sex, don't throw punches. If you're waiting for valet, don't try to pick up clients mid-brawl. If you live in Tampa, move away. Far, far away.
[Ed. note: Aimee Marie Dias has no relation to Aimee Marie Diaz whose profile we linked to originally.]
Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:29 PM - By Kashmir Hill
In July, we wrote a post on How Not To Spend the Week Before the Bar Exam. A University of Minnesota law grad, Nick "The Goat" Thompson, had been featured in a Sports Illustrated article on an ultimate fighting EliteXC tournament broadcast on CBS. Thompson had lost his match, but had a good excuse: studying for the bar exam had likely cut into his training time. He took the Minnesota bar two days after the match.
We forgot about this article until last month, when his wife e-mailed us to share the good news that Thompson had passed the bar (as did 89% of test takers.)
We talked to Nick last weekend about what's it like to be a professional mixed martial arts fighter, esquire. Find out how he's combining ultimate fighting with a law degree, after the jump.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 1:26 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Alex Botsios is a 1L at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Last week, he left a window open overnight, and someone snuck into his Tempe apartment to steal his stuff.
ASU student Alex Botsios said he had no problem giving a nighttime intruder his wallet and guitars.
When the man asked for Botsios' laptop, however, the first-year law student drew the line.
"I was like, 'Dude, no -- please, no!" Botsios said. "I have all my case notes... that's four months of work!"
That's when Botsios showed him exactly how important case notes are to a law school student. He wrestled away the intruder's baseball bat, punched the guy repeatedly, and called the police.
Botsios just had a bruised knuckle and a few scratches, while the intruder looked like this. He had to be taken for stitches before being booked for armed robbery and kidnapping.
Alex Botsios, congratulations. You are now an official ATL Law Student of the Day.
Monday, November 10, 2008 10:18 AM - By Elie Mystal
Today marks the start of two weeks of "Assassins" at Columbia Law School. The game will start internally, undoubtedly as a training exercise for CLS students before they start hunting the deadliest prey: NYU students.
The game, if you've never played it, is awesome. The rules are simple:
* You will be given a target. Find them and "assassinate" them by hitting them in the back with a sock.
* Get your next assignment from your "assassinated" target; his/her former target becomes yours.
* If you "swing & miss" your target, you must wait one hour before attempting another assassination.
* Once you are "assassinated," you are out of the game.
* The last player standing is the winner.
As we understand it, over 200 students have signed up. An organizer tells us why:
If stereotypes are to believed, CLS students are familiar with watching their backs, eyeing their rivals with suspicion, viciously taking any means necessary to eliminate their competition, and gloating with vituperation at victories over colleagues.
In this job market, "Assassins" is much better training than M&A.
Read the full rules and regulations, after the jump.
Authorities are investigating whether men threatened to kill Senator Barack Obama, or if they were just trying to get a date with Jodie Foster. Either way, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid is certain that the potentially meth-addled gunmen posed no credible threat to Obama or the Democratic National Convention.
We have explored the colossal idiocy of making threats against the President before. However, in a news flash to, you know, Germans, Obama is not the president yet. He is not even the nominee of a major party.
What he is, is a "major candidate" and 18 U.S.C. ยง 3056, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to grant him Secret Service protection and all the other trappings of "dude, not to be messed with."
Obama has received protection for well over a year, earlier than any other presidential candidate in history.
So, here's an important safety tip: don't threaten to harm Obama or McCain or Bob Barr or whomever. Register your displeasure in the traditional way, anonymous comments on various blogs that showcase your cutting wit and deep respect for democracy. The Secret Service doesn't have a sense of humor.
[Ed. note: This post is by MARIN, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Marin's avatar (at right).]
Does this sound like your supervising partner?
[He] aggressively and rapidly advanced...with clenched fists, piercing eyes, beet-red face, popping veins, and screaming and swearing. Raess v. Doescher, 883 N.E.2d 790, 794 (Ind. 2008).
A recent ABA article, "Beyond Traditional Tort Law, 'Desk Rage' is Now a Potential Claim," suggests that in a few "avant-garde" jurisdictions you can sue your boss for being a world-class a**hole. Er, the ABA might want to sign itself up for one of its CLE refresher courses, because the jurisdictions that recognize the new tort are so avant-garde that they do not yet exist.
The article cites Raess as evidence of a "desk rage" cause of action. But in Raess, the court granted judgment for the plaintiff on a traditional assault claim, and merely noted that a jury instruction about workplace bullying was appropriate. Deduct 3 skills credits.
Of course, you can still sue office tyrants under existing legal theories like Title VII (for racist and sexist jerks), intentional infliction of emotional distress (vindictive jerks) and assault (scary jerks).Unfortunately, there's no tort for run-of-the-mill partner jerks who ignore emails or scream at associates.
On that note, stop reading this post and get back to work, you worthless sacks of sh*t.
[Ed. note: This post is by ALEX, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Alex's avatar (at right).]
I heard once that people don't like lawyers. Upon honest reflection, I'm inclined to agree with them. Hell, some people might not like me, even though I'm pathologically nice, fun at parties, and a member of the ABA.
Of course, hating lawyers is never justification for killing lawyers. Shakespeare be damned.
Earlier this month, the wife of a Tennessee lawyer became the avatar of lawyer-hate, strangling her husband and hiding his body in the bedroom closet with, presumably, all of the other unmentionables.
Nashville police arrested the estranged wife of an attorney in his strangulation killing. A housekeeper found the body of 44-year-old James Cannon in a bedroom closet on June 23. Police said Cannon had custody of the couple's children, who are 9 years old, 7 years old and 18 months old. Cannon had filed for divorce from Kelly Cannon in February and obtained an order of protection to keep her away from him and the children.
Mrs. Cannon's story seems, um, airtight:
Police said Kelly Cannon told them she went to her husband's home the night of June 22, but said she couldn't find him.
You know, I would have never seen this coming from Mrs. Cannon. I've always trusted women with arty glasses. Never again.
It's a shame, though; there are much more entertaining and lawful ways to seek revenge on a lawyer, like deleting the serial commas throughout the final draft of a brief or replacing all of his two-button suits with three-button suits.
In any event, this woman is clearly a threat to our people and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Ultimate fighting isn't exactly a sport that's on our radar. Also known as mixed martial arts, it involves a cage and a lot of grappling, kicking, and punching. Apparently, it has a rapidly growing fan base; a recent Rolling Stone article called it "the next Nascar" and "boxing's replacement."
Last year, the Minnesota City Pages wrote a profile of mixed martial arts fighting champ and University of Minnesota law school student, Nick Thompson. A tipster sent us a link to one of Thompson's recent bouts. Based on this Sports Illustrated article, it sounds like it was more of a rout than a bout:
If nothing else, Shields' 63-second destruction of Nick Thompson, a quality welterweight with 12 consecutive wins under his belt coming into Saturday, should give Shields enough gravitas that he's brought into the discussion of top 170-pound fighters in the game...
Included in the 29-year-old San Franciscan's tally is Saturday's domination of Thompson (36-10-1), which saw Shields land an early takedown, move to mount and lock in a one-armed guillotine from the top...
"I think I'm one of the best in the world, and Jake treated me like a little kid out there," said Thompson, a law school graduate who faces the bar exam next week. "That's the best mount I've ever felt."
Even though Thompson lost, we're still impressed that he's fighting in cage matches the week before the bar exam -- guess he's not very anxious about the test. On the other hand, who wouldn't take a break from studying for "the best mount" ever?
The New York Times has a fascinating piece today about businessman William F. Browder; his Russia-based investment firm, Hermitage Capital; and doing business in Russia. It reads more like an advisory on why you shouldn't do business in Russia. Once you've got a good thing going, the Kremlin may investigate you, take all your money, and kick you out of the country.
The moral of the story is:
The rule of law is subject to [the Kremlin's] wishes, and those out of favor are easy prey.
Given our obsession with all things "lawyer," we were particularly interested in the legal folks in the story. One thing we noted: new Russian president Dmitri A. Medvedev is a former law professor. He has pledged to "wage war on corruption, often saying that Russia is plagued by "legal nihilism." Yeah, yeah -- that's what they all say. Though only a former law professor would use the term "legal nihilism."
If we were to do a spin-off of the Asia Chronicles, for lawyers based in Russia, our prediction is that it would be less cushy, and more violent:
Dozens of police officers swooped down on the Moscow offices of Hermitage and its law firm, confiscating documents and computers. When a member of the firm protested that the search was illegal, he was beaten by officers and hospitalized for two weeks, said the firm's head, Jamison R. Firestone.
Hospitalized for two weeks!? That's taking workplace hazard to a whole new level.
We have not yet seen the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It's too bad we're not summering at Simpson Thacher in New York. Have you seen the film? Does it live up to the hype?
Meanwhile, Batman star Christian Bale was arrested in London, before being released on bail. From the Daily Mail:
Batman star Christian Bale was released on police bail today after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting two family members.
The Hollywood actor was questioned for four hours at Belgravia police station in central London and later bailed to a date in September pending further inquiries.
Bale, 34, is alleged to have lashed out at his mother Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, in his suite at Park Lane's Dorchester Hotel on Sunday night.
If true -- Bale denies the allegations -- such conduct is most unbecoming of Bruce Wayne.
Remember that infamous incident involving spinning class violence? If not, here's a recap, from Bess Levin of our sister site, Dealbreaker:
Part 937,529 of the greatest story ever told: In June, broker Christopher Carter was acquitted of assault charges for manhandling his fellow spinning class rider, hedge fund manager Stuart Sugarman, who, to Carter's annoyance, had been shouting affirmations at himself throughout class, like "Yeah!" and "You go girl!". Though Carter admitted to throwing Sugarman, still seated on his bike, into a wall, the jury decided that they could not say beyond a reasonable doubt that the thrower was the cause of the back and neck pains that hospitalized the throwee for two weeks.
Now Carter is asking Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau to prosecute the audible worker-outer for supposedly perjuring himself on the witness stand, an allegation seemingly supported by the fact that one juror called Big S "a huge liar." Sugarman's lawyer Samuel Davis claims Carter's "perjury pitch" is a "publicity stunt" timed to coincide with Sugarman filing civil suit against him, and what we pray to god will be a reality show on VH1 starring the pair.
In the Dealbreaker comments, there's a request for legal insight:
Here's the part I never understood: Carter, who I am soliciting funds to build a memorial to, *admitted* that he threw Sugarman and his bicycle into a wall.
What difference does it make to a criminal complaint whether Carter caused Sugarman any *specific* injury? The minute he touched Sugarman, the deed was done and the crime was committed, under any set of criminal laws I ever studied. Everything else is just aggravating factors. Y'all got some weird laws in NY.
Here's a report on the disposition of an odd case we wrote about back in February. From David Oscar Markus:
Remember this case from Ft. Lauderdale? Well, the assault charges against Kathy Brewer Rentas for her "handshake" of AUSA Jennifer Keene have been dropped. Vanessa Blum covers the case here:
The case of an over-enthusiastic courtroom handshake that escalated into an assault charge against a local attorney was dropped Thursday by federal prosecutors who deemed it the "prudent" thing to do. Kathy Brewer Rentas, with the Hollywood firm of Becker & Poliakoff, spent the night in jail after her Feb. 7 arrest for assaulting a federal prosecutor by handshake in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom.
Brewer Rentas was charged with assaulting a federal officer, a misdemeanor that carried a maximum penalty of a year in prison. To avoid any conflict of interest, the case was transferred to the Orlando U.S. Attorney's Office, where Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Adams filed notice Thursday that she was dropping the charge.
"We conducted numerous interviews with witnesses, we reviewed the evidence and we just felt after taking a look at everything that the prudent thing to do was just drop the charges," said Steve Cole, spokesman for the Orlando U.S. Attorney's Office. "We don't have any comment beyond that."
So Kathy Rentas is in the clear. But we still wouldn't shake her hand in congratulations.
After the Boston Celtics emerged victorious in their match-up with the L.A. Lakers, Bostonites were thrilled. They had that kind of mad happiness that can veer off into loss of reason, then violence. Unfortunately, when the madness took over, a crowd of Celtic fans was in front of the offices of Greater Boston Legal Services.
From the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's news blog, The Docket:
Two days after the Boston Celtics grabbed the NBA championship for the first time in decades, and as jubilant fans were toasting the team at a victory parade, Robert A. Sable was walking on broken glass in the ruined offices of Greater Boston Legal Services.
GBLS' offices, which are off Causeway Street near the TD Banknorth Garden, bore the brunt of one fan's exuberance after the championship win. Now its newly renovated lobby is destroyed.
"We probably spent at least $300,000 [on the lobby]," says Sable, who is GBLS' executive director. "We had brand-new windows, brand-new furniture and a really nice kids' area."
Ironically, the fans were trying to make their way to bars on "Friend Street." Because the police had blocked off "Friend," the crowd got angry. Here's the video from YouTube:
Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:58 AM - By Marc Edelman
Baseball is America's national pastime. So is litigation. In recent years, the two have converged in the most obnoxious way, with fans suing each other for ownership of home run balls.
On Monday, the Florida Marlins received a subpoena for video footage from Justin Kimball, a 25-year-old fan who attended the team's June 9th game. According to Justin, on that day he caught Ken Griffey Jr.'s monumental 600th career home run in his wool cap, but the ball was ripped away from him by a fan identified only as "Joe." Joe, however, contends that he caught the ball in his glove.
Last Wednesday, Justin filed a motion in Miami-Dade court, seeking a temporary restraining order prohibiting Joe from selling the disputed baseball. Although Justin's motion was denied, he plans to continue litigating.
This is not the first time that grown men have fought over a baseball. In December 2002, a California judge in Popov v. Hayashi (PDF) ordered two men, each of whom claimed to own Barry Bonds's historic 73rd home run ball, to equally split the proceeds. In that case, Alex Popov, owner of a Berkeley, CA health food restaurant, brought suit against Patrick Hayashi, a software engineer from Sacramento. Popov alleged that he owned Bonds's baseball because he was the first to get his glove on the ball, and that Hayashi tore the ball from his glove during the ensuing melee. Hayashi argued that he was the first to have actual possession.
Read more about the law of history-making baseballs, after the jump.
Some people just can't stay out of trouble. As soon as they get out of one scrape, they find themselves in another.
Take Gary Zerola, the dashing ex-prosecutor who was once named a "Most Eligible Bachelor" by People magazine. We named him Lawyer of the Day back in October 2007, after he was arrested in Miami for allegedly drugging and raping a college student.
As we previously reported, Zerola went to trial on rape charges in a different case and prevailed. In a second rape case, he was acquitted again. Charges in a third case, the Miami matter we originally wrote about, were dropped.
Now Gary Zerola is back in the news. From the Boston Globe:
Gary Zerola, a former prosecutor who was acquitted of rape charges, pleaded not guilty today in Boston Municipal Court to assault and battery on a police officer and other charges, after an incident downtown during Celtics victory celebrations last night.
Police apprehended Zerola at 1:45 a.m. after he was allegedly spotted urinating in public near State and Congress streets, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney's office. When asked what he was doing, Zerola allegedly used an open hand to strike a police officer in the upper right shoulder, Wark said.
Weak sauce, Gary. If you're going to hit a cop, make a closed fist.
Zerola, 36, ran but was quickly arrested on charges that also included disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. Judge Tom Horgan released Zerola on personal recognizance and scheduled a pretrial conference for Aug. 7.
Sounds undignified. Did he try to flee with his pants around his ankles? Was a big wet spot visible when he was arrested?
Yesterday, we brought you the story of Marcus Epstein -- the karate-chopping congressional staffer who was heading to UVA Law until yesterday.
Continue reading "Does Intolerance Abound at Virginia Law Schools?"
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Most of the time, when law students flip out, they flip out 
On Above The Law, we love writing about colorful lawyers and judges, but we harbor special affection for the womb from which these characters emerge: law school. We'll end this year by looking back over some of our favorite stories of 2008 about the antics and adventures of law school students and their professors and deans.
Here's a report on the disposition of an 
Some people just can't stay out of trouble. As soon as they get out of one scrape, they find themselves in another.
