Recent Headlines from Above the Law
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.20.21
* Former Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. now bills at $2,295 an hour in private practice. Quite a step up from the government grind… [ABA Journal]
* A disbarred lawyer has been sentenced to prison for stealing nearly $1 million from a first responder who suffered 9/11-related illnesses. [New York Daily News]
* A Texas attorney has been charged in a $225 million tax fraud. [Houston Chronicle]
* Attorney General Merrick Garland led a commemoration for the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings, a case with which Garland was involved as a federal prosecutor. [New York Times]
* The lawyer for “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli is having his retirement accounts garnished as part of a restitution order related to purported wire and securities fraud. [ABA Journal]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.12.21
* A lawsuit about the use of the “Corona” brand name with hard seltzers is heating up. It’s an interesting name to be associated with these days… [Yahoo News]
* Ramsey Clark, the former United States Attorney General and a civil rights lawyer, has passed away at 93. [New York Times]
* An Oklahoma City attorney, who allegedly fell in love with a client, has been charged in the triple murder of the client’s girlfriend and parents. [Oklahoman]
* Congressman Matt Gaetz has hired a lawyer who is also representing the Trump Organization in a criminal probe. [NBC News]
* President Biden has established a commission to consider reforms to the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. [Politico]
* The State of Florida has filed a lawsuit aimed at reopening the cruise industry. This would make a great plot of a sequel for Speed 2: Cruise Control… [CBS News]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.09.20
* A federal judge has upheld an Ocean City, Maryland, rule banning women from being topless on beaches. It would be amazing if this case ends up at the Supreme Court… [Baltimore Sun]
* Some attorneys in Minnesota need to be sworn into the bar curbside because of social distancing guidelines. Check out the pictures in the article, it looks like an interesting process. [Fox News]
* An Egyptian lawyer is filing a multi-trillion-dollar lawsuit against China over damages allegedly incurred because of COVID-19. Hey, stop taking ideas from American lawyers! [Daily Sabah]
* The Massachusetts Attorney General has launched an investigation of a retirement home over a COVID-19 outbreak that led to dozens of deaths. [Boston Herald]
* Costa Cruises is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company allowed a ship to sail knowing that it was a “ticking coronavirus time bomb.” [Fox News]
* An Oklahoma City attorney and her boyfriend have been linked to a triple homicide. Hopefully, she’ll put her law degree to good use. [Oklahoman]
-
In-House Counsel, Tax Law
House Rules: The Deepest Cut...
In-house lawyers face budget cuts, and some entrenched political interests might be to blame. -
Copyright, Intellectual Property, Jed Rakoff, Legal Research, Lexis-Nexis, LexisNexis / Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw
Lawyers Sue Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis for Copyright Infringement
Where would lawyers be without open (and absurdly expensive) access to Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis for legal research? They’d have to trudge down to the closest law library and read real books made of paper. They’d have to head over to the courthouse and pull actual files with non-electronic documents inside of them. In a time where legal texts are used solely for decorative bookshelf purposes, that is just too much to ask. But that is the behavior that two lawyers would expect of their professional colleagues. Do they have any chance of winning their class action copyright suit? -
Clerkships, Federal Judges, In-House Counsel, Job Searches, Litigators
House Rules: In Defense of Clerkships in Flyover Land
Last week there appeared a column on this site that denigrated clerkships in the middle of the country. I could not decide if the author was attempting satire, but it seemed to be a straight piece. I would like to offer a counterpoint. I began my career at Biglaw in New York City. The firm […] -
Attorney Misconduct, Crime, Drugs
Time to Lay Off the Meth: Attorney Gets Kicked Out of Court During Her Own Arraignment
Small-firm attorney Amy McTeer is back in the news with yet another arrest. This time, McTeer was charged with methamphetamine possession, public intoxication, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia after allegedly telling the police that a trucker had poisoned her pipe. If you think this trainwreck of a story can't get any worse, you're wrong. Let's take a look at what happened during McTeer's arraignment, and view a compilation of McTeer's photos in our Faces of Meth: Lawyer's Edition....