Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines June 2, 2008

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, June 2, 2008.

Subscription needed for online access:                                   http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/subscribe.jsp

Gossip blogs bedevil law firms
"Many of the nation's most renowned law firms have felt the public relations wallop delivered by law gossip blogs, those online tabloids that can turn an interoffice memo into a virtual billboard of bad news for partners or associates. The immediacy ? and, at times, the brutality ? of the media form is presenting a challenge for firms that are wary of their private matters entering the public domain."

High court hasn't closed the book on retaliation
"Don't expect a significant shift away from the U.S. Supreme Court's generally pro-employer stance, despite solid victories for workers in recent job bias cases and what some consider "surprising" votes by the two newest justices in those cases. But what is significant is that all but two of the justices now accept that protection from retaliation for making a discrimination claim ? even if not mentioned in the text of a statute ? is encompassed by the express right in federal civil rights laws to be free from discrimination."

A deluge of law schools
"As many as 10 new law schools are in the works, with the majority of them proposed in the eastern part of the country. With three new law schools proposed in New York alone and others also in the early stages in Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, developing facilities to pump out juris doctor degrees is the goal du jour for institutions looking to build a bigger name for themselves. Critics, however, point to a tight job market and starting salaries that do not cover the ballooning costs of tuition for the majority of students already graduating from the nation's hundreds of law schools."

THE JUDICIARY  |  More states evaluating judicial performances
"When New Mexico voters head for the polls in November to decide whether to retain 84 state court judges and four appellate judges, they will have detailed performance evaluations of each one readily available online. That is not true in most states, but the trend is changing and evaluation of the professional performance of individual state court judges has been growing, at least in part to forestall attacks on judges for controversial rulings."

COLUMN:

ADVOCACY  |  Ad Hominem Attacks
"The coarsening of public discourse during the past decade or two is palpable. It is critical that we keep the court process free of some of the kinds of argumentation and language that prevail in other sectors of society. While the courtroom can be a cruel place, ad hominem attacks should not be tolerated. They have a corrosive effect, diminish the dignity of the proceedings and undermine the premise of the entire legal system. As members of the legal profession, we have a responsibility to ensure that this diminution in the quality of our public discourse does not seep into our court proceedings."

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).