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: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

LAW.COM Newswire Highlights October 24, 2008

By David Badertscher, PLL

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If you are already an online subscriber to the LAW.COM service you should be able to click on any of the links below, sign in, and access the full text of all articles listed. A subscription to LAW.COM is needed for online access to this service. Reed Smith May Take On Thelen Group The Recorder Thelen energy partner Ellen Bastier and some of her colleagues may be headed to Reed Smith. Equity partners are voting this week on whether to bring Bastier, a San Francisco partner, on board, a Reed Smith partner confirmed Thursday. A handful of other Thelen lawyers would come with her, that partner said. Bastier, one of Thelen's rainmakers, is known for clients such as Vestas Wind Co. Recruiters and people formerly with Thelen recently estimated her book at various levels above $5 million. Justice Thomas Extols the Need to Listen Fulton County Daily Report The U.S. Supreme Court justice least likely to speak up during oral arguments told a crowd of 200 lawyers gathered in Atlanta on Thursday that judges should spend more time listening and less time talking. "I believe quite strongly we, as judges, need to take the approach we're here to solve difficult problems, not debate with lawyers," said Justice Clarence Thomas, speaking on the 17th anniversary of the day he took his seat on the Court. Federal Circuit Kills Conflict Claim in IP Case The Recorder Thanks to the "thrust upon" exception to the so-called "hot potato gambit," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Thursday that Townsend and Townsend and Crew could not be disqualified from a patent case. The hot potato gambit, explains the Federal Circuit, is when a law firm creates a conflict so it can drop a smaller client for a bigger one. The exception is when the conflict could not have been foreseen by the law firm. How Green Is the High Court? The National Law Journal The Supreme Court justices this term have taken five environmental cases for decision thus far, some raising issues with potentially huge implications for the ability of environmentalists and the government to enforce the nation's major environmental laws and for the wherewithal of business and industry to survive and prosper under those laws. The cases are likely to be especially revealing of the still-emerging Roberts Court in an area of increasing national and international concern. N.Y. High Court Skeptical of $40 Million Payoff From Contingency Fee Deal New York Law Journal New York's high court appeared skeptical Thursday about a 40 percent contingency fee agreement that allowed law firm Graubard Miller to get a $40 million payoff in just five months. Attorneys for Graubard Miller's late client, Alice Lawrence, argued that the law firm is seeking to collect an unconscionable amount for little work and after assuming little or no risk under the arrangement. Several members of the court questioned the propriety of Graubard Miller seeking to collect the entire fee amount. McDermott Leads Coach's Effort to Get Prayer Case Before Supreme Court The American Lawyer Lawyers from McDermott, Will & Emery, Sidley Austin and Drinker Biddle & Reath have joined the team trying to bring New Jersey high school football coach Marcus Borden's school prayer case to the U.S. Supreme Court. All three are working pro bono on the appeal from the 3rd Circuit, which, citing the Establishment Clause, sided with the school district that barred Borden from kneeling and bowing his head with his players for a moment of silence before games. Jury Renders Defense Verdict in Diet Drug Case The Legal Intelligencer A Philadelphia jury has rendered a defense verdict in one of the last diet drug mass tort cases pending in the Court of Common Pleas. The plaintiff alleged that his wife's ingestion of the drug Pondimin led to her death from primary pulmonary hypertension. According to the court, the Complex Litigation Center still has pending 56 cases, with plaintiffs claiming that diet drugs caused PPH. Most such cases were disposed of following a multibillion-dollar global settlement with drug manufacturers. Bianca Jagger Fails to Prove New York City Apartment Is Primary Home New York Law Journal Bianca Jagger and other foreign nationals who are in the United States on tourist visas cannot meet New York City's "primary residence" requirement entitling them to rent-stabilized apartments, the New York Court of Appeals has ruled. Jagger, a Nicaraguan native and U.K. citizen who was married to the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, has been fighting ejection from her $4,600-a-month Manhattan apartment for more than three years. She moved out temporarily, saying the apartment had mold and was uninhabitable. N.Y. Judge Grants Divorce to Lesbians Wed in Massachusetts New York Law Journal A Manhattan judge has ruled that two women who were New York residents at the time of their 2005 wedding in Massachusetts can obtain a divorce in New York. The lawyer for the couple said the decision marks the first time a New York judge has afforded full faith and credit to a same-sex marriage that took place in the United States. Judge Drastically Cuts Expert Testimony in Body-Parts Suit New Jersey Law Journal A federal judge in New Jersey dealt a setback to the plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation over human tissue stolen from corpses for use in transplants. The judge on Wednesday granted a defense motion under Daubert to exclude expert testimony on whether the tissue could have transmitted HIV, syphilis, cancer and other diseases. The judge also granted summary judgment for the defense on some causation issues, but held off on ruling on the plaintiffs' Daubert challenge of some defense experts. Judge Indicted for Misconduct The Associated Press A Tennessee judge has been indicted on two counts of official misconduct for having probationers perform labor on his private property while they were participating in a drug court under his supervision. In a statement, Ronald E. Darby's lawyer said the judge denies any wrongdoing or violation of criminal law. Fla. Supreme Court Rejects False Light as a Legal Cause of Action Daily Business Review The Florida Supreme Court has rejected false light as a legal cause of action, killing an $18.3 million award against a Florida newspaper in one case and limiting a lawsuit by Jews for Jesus over an online story in another case. The decisions in the two closely watched cases mean people in Florida who believe they were cast in a bad light in otherwise accurate reports have lost an avenue to challenge publishers. The court found that recognizing false light as a tort could chill free speech rights. Judicial Pay Raise Reargument Focuses on Plaintiffs' Standing The Legal Intelligencer Plaintiffs' standing was a central issue Wednesday in the reargument in the 3rd Circuit of a suit challenging the process by which the controversial 2005 pay raise for Pennsylvania judges and lawmakers was passed. A visiting three-judge federal appeals panel prodded plaintiffs' counsel to identify the "particularized injury" sustained as a result of the passage of Act 44, which the plaintiffs allege was passed as part of secret negotiations between the Legislature and the judiciary. Bailout Package's Legal Riddles Abound The National Law Journal Regulatory, banking and capital market attorneys have a new calling: interpreting for worried clients how the $700 billion financial industry rescue package will help or harm them. Client questions are focusing on the terms of participating in the new capital, short-term debt and asset-relief programs spawned by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. There are potential conflicts of interest, executive-compensation restrictions and oversight issues that are giving companies pause, attorneys said. Visit In-House Counsel Oracle and De-Duplication Suffer a Blow Pennsylvania Law Weekly Attorney Leonard Deutchman finds fault in the e-mail spoliation claim against Oracle. Since discovery sanctions are reserved for what cannot be undone, Deutchman argues, the de-duplication of e-mails was routine: it could be "remedied" by the production of de-duplication logs. Visit Legal Technology In Search of a Legal Moore's Law The American Lawyer In 1965, Gordon Moore, then the chairman of Intel, observed that every 18 months or so Intel and other semiconductor companies had managed to put roughly twice as many transistors on a chip. Moore's observation ultimately became Moore's Law. So how about applying the lessons learned from Moore's Law -- measurement and comparison, future thinking, and change and opportunity -- to the legal world? Legal OnRamp CEO Paul Lippe says that a legal Moore's Law would drastically improve lawyers' productivity. 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Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).