On this weekend’s installment of C-SPAN’s “America and the Courts” Justice Antonin Scalia spoke to and took questions from a group of high school students from Virginia (you can view the program at this link for a limited period of time). I highly recommend that you take a look if you have any interest in the Supreme…
Judith Regan Sued By Former Lawyers
I somehow missed this when the story first came out, but Judith Regan, who recently settled her wrongful termination lawsuit against News Corp., has been sued by the lawyers who represented her in connection with that litigation, the Associated Press reports. The two law firms that represented Regan claim that she stiffed them on more…
Increased Criminalization of Business Practices No Bonus For Investors
That’s the general thesis of a very interesting article in the Winter 2008 issue of The City Journal. The criminalization of bad business decisions, previously dealt with in civil courts through claims for civil fraud or other liability theories, has been a troubling trend since the spectacular collapse of Enron. If recent reports concerning the…
Billable Hours Corrupt the Legal Profession
That is the not terribly surprising message delivered by the new President of the California Bar Association, Jeff Bleich, as reported in a piece recently published on the American Bar Association’s website. as you might recall (or more likely, do not) I wrote some time ago about my belief that the billable hour system ill…
More Legal Writing Advice (sort of) from Judge Posner
Courtesy of Howard Bashman at How Appealing, the most recent issue of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Bar Association’s journal, “Circuit Rider” is available at this link. The issue contains a very interesting piece on legal writing in which the author urges brief writers (and others) to adopt what Judges Posner and Easterbrook –…
Diller Beats Malone
Courtesy of the WSJ’s Law Blog earlier this evening came the news that Barry Diller has prevailed in his litigation with John Malone’s Liberty Media concerning Diller’s plan to split internet company IAC into 4 separate pieces. Neither guy is all that likeable, but when two new media kingpins square off in court its always…
Southern Appeal Rises Again
In a not necessarily litigation related vein, I am very pleased to pass along the news that Feddie, the publisher of the Southern Appeal blog, has decided to resume blogging, nearly a year after shutting Southern Appeal down for a hiatus. Hope everyone will check in and see what Feddie’s got on his mind these…
Bonds’ Grand Jury Testimony Unsealed
An American judge ordered Barry Bonds’ grand-jury testimony to be unsealed and asked prosecutors to re-write the perjury case against Major League Baseball’s home-run king, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. Judge Susan Illston ordered the unsealing of Bonds’ 2003 testimony during the federal court hearing at the US District Court building. She also criticized…
Prosecutors Build Case Against Pellicano
The manager of a billion-dollar hedge fund, the billionaire head of a buyout firm, and the ex-wives of a television actor and a major real estate developer all will be crucial witnesses at the racketeering trial beginning next week for Anthony Pellicano, the infamous Hollywood private eye.The four will testify that they paid Mr. Pellicano…
Supreme Court OK’s Individual Lawsuits By 401(k) Participants
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that individual participants in the most common type of retirement plan can sue under a pension protection law to recover their losses. The unanimous decision has implications for 50 million workers with $2.7 trillion invested in 401(k) retirement plans. James LaRue of Southlake, Texas, said the value of his stock…