deposition

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.18.20

* A man has won a federal lawsuit against his parents for throwing away "a trove of pornography and an array of sex toys." Sure hope they kept his baseball card collection... [Michigan Live] * A Florida lawyer may face suspension from practice for allegedly having sex with and impregnating a client. [Daily Business Review] * A federal judge has refrained from imposing a monetary penalty on a lawyer who said they are "not dicking around with a rookie" during a deposition. [ABA Journal] * Vanessa Bryant, wife of late basketball player Kobe Bryant, is being sued by her mother for allegedly not paying her mom for her supposed work as a "longtime personal assistant and nanny." [Fox News] * A voting-machine company is demanding that a pro-Trump attorney retract claims made about voting machines made by the business. [ABC News] * Google is now facing its third antitrust lawsuit. Guess third time's a charm... [CNN]

By Jordan Rothman
Adoption

Morning Docket: 03.29.13

* The latest update on the law school litigation front represents good news for New York Law School. [National Law Journal] * Should summarizing a one-day deposition transcript really cost $90,000? Even DLA Piper might blush at such a bill. [Point of Law] * Ropes & Gray isn’t backing down in the discrimination lawsuit brought by former partner Patricia Martone. (We’ll have more on this later.) [Am Law Daily] * No, silly polo mogul, you can’t adopt your 42-year-old girlfriend to shield your fortune from litigation. [ABA Journal] * Replacing “barbers” with “beauty culturists”? This is Indiana and not California, right? [WSJ Law Blog]

By David Lat
Biglaw

Inside Straight: Is Our Lawyer Aggressive Enough?

Why do so many people think that you must be a blowhard to be an effective litigator? I’ve recently heard several tales of business folks (or in-house lawyers) worrying that outside counsel is not aggressive enough. What prompts the concern is the lawyer’s performance during a conference call or at a meeting: The lawyer is […]

By Mark Herrmann
5th Circuit

Non-Sequiturs: 01.05.12

* Pepsi lawyers offer a creative (if disturbing) defense to a lawsuit by a man who claims he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. [Madison County Record via The Atlantic Wire] * Will birther queen Orly Taitz get to depose — i.e., “rupture the jurisprudential hymen” — of President Barack Obama? That would be […]

By David Lat
Anal Sex / Butt Sex

Like a Virgin, Deposed for the Very First Time

Well, we've got somebody who should be a late entrant into our Lawyer of the Year contest. He is Houston attorney Paul Waldner. He's a partner at Vikery, Waldner & Mallia, which is an arm of Justice Seekers in Texas. He is a man who brings the funny with him to the deposition room. Paul Waldner is a man who asks questions like: "So, your jurisprudential hymen is being ruptured?" Oh, you think I'm joking? No sir, I have video! And really, the witness's answer might have been better than the question....

By Elie Mystal
Amy Schulman

Quote of the Day: Litigatrix, Toppled

A story I often tell is about the first time I took a deposition. I got there early, and I thought that the most important thing was to control the witness. I didn’t realize the first time around that the way you control somebody is not by intimidating them. But I adjusted the chair that […]

By David Lat
Biglaw

Inside Straight: Reporting On Depositions

When is a litigator thinking most keenly about a specific witness's testimony? There are two days: The day you're taking (or defending) the deposition of the witness, and the day -- months or years later, if ever -- when you're examining the witness at trial. So when should you be making notes about the witness's testimony and your reaction to it? What do you use those notes for?

By Mark Herrmann