92 posts tagged with lawyers.
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The alter ego he created led a more glamorous existence
Enty’s Hollywood was a dark and messy world, uglier and more menacing than the glamorous town imagined by outsiders. The authenticity of this vision — and, in turn, the authenticity of his scoops — was bolstered by how pathetic he came across in his own accounts. Enty described himself as a 300-pound heavy-drinking entertainment lawyer who had been married six times, lived in his parents’ basement in L.A., and was bullied by his famous clientele — a zhlub with the right connections and a nose for dirt. In reality, Nelson didn’t live in his parents’ basement, and he hasn’t been married six times — only three. from The Man Who Gossiped Too Much [Vulture; ungated] [CW: well, almost everything]
See also Arkell v. Pressdram
The maker of a "Fuck the LAPD" t-shirt received a takedown notice from the Los Angeles Police Foundation on the grounds that the shirt infringed its trademark on "LAPD". Their lawyer's response was nothing if not concise. [more inside]
"I’m attorney Jamie Casino, and I don’t represent villains anymore."
TEN YEARS AGO TODAY: What advertising do you recall from watching Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014 (where Seattle humiliated Denver 43-8)? If you lived in the Savannah, Georgia area, your answer probably would be a personal injury attorney who purchased an entire commercial block for 120 glorious seconds of melodrama and myth-making. [more inside]
Legal London is far too nice to be left to the lawyers
"Legal London" is beautiful and functional. Personally, I am not a lawyer, nor do I particularly like them, with their prodigious consumption of booze and cocaine (source: constantly watching my friends at it) but I once spent a lot of time in this area largely because it's rather nice - and I worked very near. I met my wife in the Cheshire Cheese pub; I bought my first suit from this Ede and Ravenscroft.
And you too could do those things!
I like to ensure that the lawyers can't claim this part of the public space all to themselves - and I'm sure you would too - so please visit, often.
Walking Out the Door
While entering associate classes have been comprised of approximately 45% women for several decades, in the typical large firm, women constitute only 30% of non-equity partners and 20% of equity partners ... [and] the number of lawyers named as new equity partners at big firms has declined by nearly 30% over the past several years ... The critical question, of course, is why? What is it about the experiences of women in BigLaw that result in such different outcomes for women than men, and why do even senior women lawyers have so many more obstacles to overcome? These core questions drove this first-of-its-kind study ... through the perspective of more than 1,200 big firm lawyers who have been in practice for at least 15 years.(direct link to the report [pdf]) [more inside]
Face-eating leopard eats own face, burps.
Revenge served ice cold. Top L.A. law firm outs former partners’ racist, sexist emails. Last month, Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith, one of the nation’s largest law firms, was rocked by the announcement that two top partners who ran their labor and employment practice, defending corporations against harassment and discrimination lawsuits, were starting their own boutique practice and taking as many as 140 colleagues with them. The shock inside the’ downtown Los Angeles headquarters soon gave way to anger as the recently departed partners embarked on a press campaign that portrayed their former employer as a profit-focused legal mill that ground down the aspirations of its lawyers. In an extraordinary move, the law firm's management team directed the release of scores of emails in which Barber and Ranen used vile terms for women, Black people, Armenians, Persians, and gay men and traded in offensive stereotypes of Jews and Asians. [more inside]
"the service, which centred on themes of growth and renewal"
Iona Datt Sharma (previously) is a lawyer and author of science and fantasy fiction that I love and frequently recommend. They often write about the legal and social infrastructure of fantastical places. "Are you here to bang on about cultural ties and the longitudinal view of history?" "Light, Like a Candle Flame" (2017) reckons with the aftermath of a generation ship, sewage treatment, and the fear of "repeating all the old mistakes". "And it is the oldest settled law of our people that where signene lies, no cause of action can." "One-Day Listing" (2014) depicts attorneys taking care of refugees and each other, and grief. [more inside]
Phwoart!
Pornhub has just launched a museum guide for classical nudes [TimeOut] but then the
Louvre Calls in Lawyers Over Pornhub’s Hardcore Re-Enactments [Daily Beast] [more inside]
The Supreme Court May Criminalize Immigrant Advocacy
How do you make art for lawyers?
Animator Rory WT was commissioned to make art for lawyers in London. But what's it all about? What kind of stuff do they like? This is his story.
Extreme tort reform - NZ’s ACC
Would you give up the right to sue for personal injury actions if all of your injury treatment costs, rehabilitation costs, lost wages/salary, and family support were paid for?
Tort Reform, Kiwi-Style (Peter H. Schuck, 2008) Yale Law School Faculty Scholarship Series. 1679. [more inside]
their day in court
In theory, there are two parts to an immigration court case. The prosecution (ICE attorneys) has to show that an immigrant is removable — that he either has no legal status in the US or that he’s done something that allows the government to strip his legal status from him — and that he doesn’t qualify for any form of “immigration relief,” which can mean formal legal status or another form of protection from deportation. But without a lawyer, good luck figuring out what any of those forms of relief even mean — much less whether you qualify for them.So New York City and eleven others are providing lawyers to immigrants facing deportation. [more inside]
The Lawyer, the Addict
The Lawyer, the Addict (New York Times). Tragic and thoughtful piece about one of the brightest stars in the Silicon Valley legal industry, drug abuse in the profession, and the mental health tolls of a professional culture of overworking.
Free legal advice *(some restrictions apply)
Free Legal Answers "is a virtual legal advice clinic. Qualifying users [in some US states who meet income guidelines] post their civil [i.e. not criminal] legal question to their state's website [up to three times per year]. Attorney volunteers, who must be authorized to provide pro bono assistance in their state, log in to the website, select questions to answer, and provide legal information and advice."
Sit'on back now kids and let me tell you the legend of Eric C. Conn
Now ole' Eric was just a mountain boy from the holler, but that mountain boy had a dream, a dream of bein' a mountain lawyer and helpin' the good ole' folk of coal country get on Social Security Disability. Maybe if he'd stick to it I reckon thatd'en done been the story, but Eric's dream kept a-growin', and more and more a'the good people kept gettin' swept up in the rise an' fall of Mr. Social Security. [more inside]
“For three-quarters of a million pounds per year, I’ll call anyone sir.”
It's a profession that dates back to medieval times and was established in its current form by the 1600s. It’s a trade that one can enter as a teenager, with no formal qualifications, only to end up earning astonishing amounts of money. Attempts at professional reform have been greeted with spittle and rat poison.
The curious world of the barrister's clerk.
The curious world of the barrister's clerk.
Trial by Pencil
Rosalie Ritz was a courtroom reporter and artist based out of San Francisco from the 1960s to 1980s. Almost two thousand of her trial sketches are online, including: Angela Davis; Patty Hearst and the Harris Trials (Symbionese Liberation Army); Huey Newton; Daniel Ellsberg; Sara Jane Moore (attempted assasin of Gerald Ford); Sirhan Sirhan; the San Quentin Six; and Dan White. [more inside]
Eliza, how do I claim asylum?
Browder says this new functionality for his robot lawyer is “long overdue”. He told the Guardian: “I’ve been trying to launch this for about six months – I initially wanted to do it in the summer. But I wanted to make sure I got it right because it’s such a complicated issue. I kept showing it to lawyers throughout the process and I’d go back and tweak it.The creator of a chatbot which overturned more than 160,000 parking fines and helped vulnerable people apply for emergency housing is now turning the bot to helping refugees claim asylum.
🎶It's a Felony, of the fi-irst de-gree, cookin' pot browniiii-eees.🎶
The law firm Hutson & Harris of Waco put together a funny and informative song about the consequence of getting busted with pot brownies in Texas. Their Youtube channel has more, including "Please Shut Up!," and "Miranda."
The Court That Rules The World
International investors have a private court of appeal even in criminal matters - "A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape punishment. [ISDS] operates unconstrained by precedent or any significant public oversight, often keeping its proceedings and sometimes even its decisions secret." (via) [more inside]
"A sexist remark is not just a professional discourtesy."
"Mr. Bertling, 56, said in an interview that he had not heard what he considered sexist remarks in his decades of practice.
But after the fine, he asked a lawyer in his office if she had. She showed him inappropriate comments in deposition transcripts, but said she did not seek penalties for them because, like many female lawyers, she thought doing so was futile." As of this Monday, after months of debate, that may no longer be the case: Goodbye to 'Honeys' in Court, by Vote of American Bar Association. [more inside]
Legal Troubles
As the rich get richer, trouble continues to brew for law schools in the United States. [more inside]
Tree Law is a Gnarly, Twisted Branch of the Legal System
“I thought, as most lawyers do when they get their first tree case: ‘How hard can it be?’” [more inside]
“The business of being Britney Spears is booming.”
Is Britney Spears Ready To Stand On Her Own? by Serge F. Kovaleski and Joe Coscarelli [The New York Times] For years, the life of one of the world’s most successful pop stars has been controlled by a court-approved conservatorship, designed for people who cannot take care of themselves. [more inside]
The joys and solitude of Alaska
While he may "struggle at poetry" Alaska trial lawyer Phillip Weidner has built an epically poetic 185 foot log cabin tower in Talkeetna Alaska. Called the Dr. Seuss House, its actual name is the Goose Creek Tower. Previously only visible by air it's now documented by Great Big Story with the short-but-lovely video We're Not In Whoville Anymore. [via]
Star Trek IP owners sue Star Trek fan production
When lawyers attack The fan-made Star Trek movie project Axanar (previously) raised over $1 million. Despite the producers vowing to never make money off of it, Paramount and CBS raised shields and launched lawyers this week.
Subject: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT (BEN CARSON)
Lawyers for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson recently sent a cease and desist letter (pdf) to CafePress. The reason? To halt sales of all unauthorized Ben Carson For President products, based on the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The Lanham Act, Federal Trademark Infringement, Federal Copyright Infringement, state misappropriation and privacy laws." [more inside]
"I am not going to be your attorney"
When Eric Wyatt told his public defender that he was mistakenly being thrown back into jail after already serving his time, his public defender cut him off with those eight words. He would spend over three months incarcerated before another public defender urged him to take a plea deal to serve 10 years in prison for a crime he already served time for. It would be another week, 110 days in total, before Wyatt would be set free. [more inside]
Korean with a side of litigiousness
"So what does this curious tale of a mediocre restaurant prove? It proves that in London’s modern restaurant business, the combination of furiously high costs, reputations and big egos can be explosive. Indeed only one thing is clear to me. Right now the people really making money out of Jinjuu are the lawyers." Guardian restaurant critic Jay Raynor reviews Jinjuu - and the ensuing legal storm he accidentally provoked.
“It’s Over!”
Amanda Knox Acquitted of 2007 Murder by Italy’s Highest Court [New York Times]
"ROME — Italy’s highest court overturned the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend on Friday, throwing out all charges and ending a long-running courtroom drama over the killing of a British student in 2007. The ruling in favor of Ms. Knox, a 27-year-old former exchange student from Seattle, and her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, 31, was a shock in Italy, where the convictions had been expected to be upheld in the stabbing death of the British student, Meredith Kercher.Previously. Previously. Previously. Previously.
MI5, MI6 and GCHQ 'spied on lawyers', breached lawyer-client privilege
British intelligence agencies have policies allowing staff to access confidential communications between lawyers and their clients, official documents have revealed. The guidance was disclosed for the first time at a tribunal which examines complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
McCarthyism is alive and well - and it's in the Immigration department.
The Department of Immigration and Border Patrol of Australia's secret blacklist of immigration lawyers and agents has been discovered. DIBP claims that the list is used for "risk assessment" for partner visas and has "no impact" on assessing cases. The Migration Alliance, the lobby group of Australian migration agents that broke the news of the list, is not convinced.
"I want to make sure that I answer your question correctly."
Verbatim: What is a Photocopier? (NYT SLV)
Jamie Casino's got murder, vengeance, and a flaming sledgehammer.
Personal injury lawyer Jamie Casino of Savannah, GA really went all out with his Metal as ___ Super Bowl ad (SLYT).
"Counsel, you are not reading this, are you?"
During oral arguments this week on the Marvin Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States case, Justice Antonin Scalia chastised attorney Steven Lechner for reading from his script. Justice Stephen Breyer broke the tension with these words: "It's all right." [more inside]
Who watches the watchers?
Mark Holman was a severely disabled teenager who had been living in an institution since his mother became ill. Upon her death, her lawyer petitioned for his guardianship before Judge Kristen Booth Glen, who asked a simple question: when did you last see Mark?
"I haven't seen him since he was eight or nine," responded the lawyer. "His mother used to bring him to our office with his brother, just to show him my face and so forth and so on, so I haven't seen him probably since 1995 or 1996."
Appalled by both the poor standard of care in Mark's case and the breathtaking lack of regulations compelling anything better, Judge Glen set about writing an opinion that would change the way trusts for people with disabilities are managed in New York State in very, very significant ways.
Quid Pro SEO
In Reluctant Defense of the Curmudgeon Malcontents. A Baltimore-area attorney explains how online marketing is hurting the legal profession: There is for the conscientious ethical attorney a balance between eremitic life in a Byzantine-era monastery and nonsense online carney barking, but none of these non-attorney folks deserve a seat at the table in that discussion. And the more you see of the online marketing nonsense that's out there, the more sympathetic you become to people with poor home training who reject that nonsense in language you wouldn't want uttered aloud in your grandmother’s house of worship.
First They Came For The Cunning Hats...
Ten years after cancellation, FOX finally starts caring about Firefly. Well, Fox's lawyers at least, who recently started going after the no doubt lucrative Jayne's Hat cottage industry.
I Am Not A Mouse
"Escape From Tomorrow" is playing at the Sundance 2013 Film Festival. The black and white movie describes one family man's mental disintegration over a day at Disney's Orlando park. Randy Moore directed the film on-site without the knowledge of Disney. Reviews are generally good, with comparisons to The Truman Show and Eraserhead, though people who have seen it wonder how this will play out legally. [more inside]
Why Coke Cost A Nickel For 70 Years
I am the Hammer, they are the nails!
Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley looks like your garden-variety local personal injury lawyer famous for some kooky commercials. Someone remixed them and the result is nothing short of amazing.
Denigrating the Olympics One Stitch at a Time
The knitosphere is in an uproar after being needled by a US Olympic Committee law clerk who thought it would be a good idea to tell Ravelry to cease using the word "Ravelympics" to describe their summer 2012 knitting marathon for trademark infringement, and because it "tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games". (Last link requires a Ravelry account, but the full text of the letter is here.)
The New York state bar is introducing a pro bono requirement for admission.
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York Court of Appeals announced that beginning next year, prospective lawyers must show that they have performed at least 50 hours of law-related pro bono service before being admitted to the New York state bar. [more inside]
My client stands willing to provide you with the verification you seek as soon as you are able to show that you are entitled to it.
Putting a law degree to good use: a Deputy Attorney General of the State of Hawaii responds to a request for Barak Obama's birth certificate from the Secretary State of Arizona. (Scroll down for the actual correspondence.)
"Mommy tracked" and loving it?
In-sourcing the legal business: America's biggest law firms are "creating a second tier of workers, stripping pay and prestige from one of the most coveted jobs in the business world." [more inside]
Pakistan SCBA's New President
Sega Will Not Be Pleased
Return to Emerald Hill Zone! Sega recently released its modernized take on the classic Sonic the Hedgehog formula with Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but for something much more authentic and in the spirit of the original Genesis games, you'll have to turn to the free fan-created Sonic Fan Remix. Now with playable PC demo! Get to it before the lawyers do! [more inside]
It's a good way to kill twenty minutes or so.
From 1979 to the end of the '80s, Sam Hurt produced a strange and wonderful little comic called Eyebeam. I'm very happy that the entire archives are up, as well as later additions. About the drab but sometimes very weird life of the eponymous character, the comic addressed a wide range of topics, including the decor of Chinese restaurants, wearing the wrong clothes to work, beach gidgets, job security, male answer syndrome, not-quite-vegetarianism and time travel. It managed to be pretty wise while still being funny. Just don't take it too literally.
Are you forgetting that you came to me for a job?
Here's Howe and Here's Hummel
New York city in the 19th century was famous for it's corruption, criminals and "Gangs of New York." All of them knew exactly who to call when they were in trouble, the law firm of Howe and Hummel. [more inside]
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