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TITLE CO. MUST TELL INSURED THAT RISK OF ATTORNEY'S MISFEASANCE ISN'T COVERED
"A title insurer can be liable for attorney theft of a homebuyer's funds if it fails to directly tell the client it is not responsible for any misdeeds, a state appeals court held on Tuesday. Simply sending notice to the buyer's attorney is not enough, the Appellate Division said, rejecting the carrier's argument that a disclaimer notice, included as part of the commitment packet sent to the closing attorney, can be imputed to clients who are victims of his theft. The court, in New Jersey Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co., A-2622-07, reinstated a complaint by two homebuyers against Stewart Title Guaranty Co. after their attorney Richard Pizzi stole money that had supposedly been put into his attorney trust account."

FIRST-YEAR SALARIES EXPECTED TO DROP AT FIRMS, THOUGH N.J. FIRMS BUCK TREND
"First-year associate compensation at large firms nationwide, which climbed to a pinnacle last year, are about to take slide, according to NALP's annual salary survey. The national law-placement organization reported on July 30 that the overall median salary for first-years this fall will be $122,500, down $7,500 from the $130,000 now being paid. While New York firms are holding at $160,000, Philadelphia firms are following the national trend, with a projected $130,000 median base salary this fall that is $10,000 less than the current $140,000. The northern New Jersey market seems to be aligned with New York, with a median fall salary of $136,000, which is $4,000 higher than last year."

AT PUBLIC LAW SCHOOLS, TUITION JUMPS SHARPLY
"Double-digit tuition increases loom for students at some of the country's top public law schools. School administrators say that the unusually large tuition hikes for the coming academic year ? some as high as 20 percent ? are largely spurred by cuts in public funding, with endowment losses, initiatives to improve their schools and pressure to keep up with competing institutions also playing a part. The increases are bound to heighten the financial burdens of public law school students, who already graduate with an average of $71,436 in law school debt, according to the latest available statistics from the American Bar Association.."

LAWYER FACING PRISON EXPLAINS 'KILL' PHRASING
After three decades as a defense attorney, Robert Simels took the stand himself for the first time Tuesday, in order to defend against charges that he plotted with his client, the since-convicted Guyanese drug kingpin Shaheed Khan, to threaten and bribe potential witnesses. Simels, appearing calm and deliberate and looking directly at the jurors throughout his testimony, said that when he talked of the need to 'neutralize' or 'kill' a witness, as repeatedly heard on tapes of secretly recorded conversations played by the prosecution, he was not suggesting an intent to do harm, but rather to discredit the witnesses' testimony. "I use [those terms] all the time, and lawyers use them all the time,' Simels said. "It's part of the vernacular of being a lawyer.' "

BATTLE LINES SET, SENATE DEBATES SOTOMAYOR
"The Senate held a history-making debate Tuesday on confirming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice, with Republican opponents asserting she would bring bias to the bench and Democratic supporters saying she was a mainstream moderate. There was little doubt that President Barack Obama's first high court nominee would be confirmed with bipartisan support as early as Thursday, but senators lined up to weigh in on her fitness for the bench anyway, with an eye toward the history books, the nation's burgeoning Hispanic electorate and perhaps the next Supreme Court battle".

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