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WOMEN LAWYERS LEAVE LAW FIRMS PRIMARILY TO SEEK FLEXIBILITY
"Women lawyers in New Jersey are more likely to quit if their law firm does not have flexible work arrangements, and they are gravitating toward firms that do, says a new report by the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education. The report is based on a survey of more than 520 women lawyers in New Jersey, as well as interviews and focus groups involving managing partners and others, conducted by Rutgers University's Center for Women and Work. The report outlines how firms can retain women through itemized best practices: assistance with work/life balance; monitoring of advancement policies; development of resources; and removal of bias."

NO LIABILITY FOR NEGLIGENT PROSECUTION OF IDENTITY-THEFT VICTIM
"A bank has no duty, before pressing criminal charges against an apparent defrauder, to investigate the possibility that the target is a victim of identity theft, the New Jersey Supreme Court says. Tuesday's ruling, in Brunson v. Affinity Federal Credit Union, A-60-08, reinstates a trial judge's dismissal of a malicious prosecution suit by a man who spent 13 days in jail in a case of mistaken ' or rather stolen' identity. The Appellate Division had reversed the dismissal, finding the bank owed a non-customer a duty to conduct a 'reasonable investigation' into the possibility he might not be the man who kited phony checks. But the justices said the panel had created a 'negligence back door' to avoid the intentionally difficult requirements for a malicious prosecution claim. "

BILL WOULD DELAY PROSECUTORS RUNNING FOR PUBLIC OFFICE
"Legislation introduced Monday by Senate President Richard Codey would bar state and county prosecutors from running for state or local public office for two years after leaving their prosecutorial posts. They would also be barred from seeking or holding offices or positions with political parties or clubs, from allowing use of their names by anyone else's campaign and from distributing campaign literature. The measure, S-2796, applies to the 21 county prosecutors, their assistant prosecutors and their legal assistants as well as to the attorney general, first assistant attorneys general, state inspector general and members of the State Commission on Investigation."

EX-PROSECUTOR MAKES PLEA DEAL ON PROSTITUTION-RELATED CHARGES
"More than two years after being accused of operating an Manhattan-based call-girl ring, a former prosecutor was allowed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts under a deal that resulted in no jail time. Paul Bergrin, a former prosecutor for Essex County and for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, was accused of taking over the operation of an $1,000-an-hour escort service called NY Confidential after its manager, Jason Itzler, was arrested in January, 2005. Under Monday's plea agreement, Bergrin will draw three years' probation as long as be pays $50,000 in forfeiture when he is sentenced on Sept. 15."

DEPRESSION AMONG ATTORNEYS RISES AS ECONOMY SINKS
"Across the country, lawyer assistance programs are seeing demand for their services grow as the economy struggles. Administrators from a sampling of LAPs report that laid-off attorneys, struggling solo practitioners, third-year law students without jobs lined up and others have been reaching out for help more than ever before. And lawyers who already had emotional problems or addictions are being pushed over the edge by the added stress of the slow economy and its ramifications. The growing pressure on attorneys was underscored by the apparent suicide last week of prominent attorney Mark I. Levy in the Washington, D.C., office of Kilpatrick Stockton. Levy had been laid"

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