Lawyer - News

Judge Charles I. Kaplan suffered a second recent appellate setback when a Florida appeals panel found he erred twice in holding a juvenile in contempt for violating a court-ordered curfew. Earlier this month, an appeals panel disqualified Kaplan from a case because he made remarks about the juvenile defendant's appearance, comparing him to the Columbine killers. Assistant Public Defender Diane Cuddihy said it was unusual for a judge to be overturned twice in such a short time through an extraordinary writ. No comments

Easing up on its propensity for imposing constitutional obligations on property owners, New Jersey's Supreme Court has ruled that private residential communities may regulate expressive activity within their borders. The justices held last week that a homeowners' association's rules regulating placement of political signs, charging rent for use of a community room and setting an editorial policy for its community newspaper were reasonable restrictions on time, place and manner of speech. No comments

Dwight "Malachi" York was a false prophet, a psychotic thug, a con man and a sexual predator who headquartered his religious cult in rural Georgia, then used his position as a religious leader to deflect scrutiny from his criminal activities, author Bill Osinski asserts in a newly published book. F. Maxwell Wood, U.S. Attorney for Georgia's middle district, calls his office's prosecution of York -- who is now in federal prison --"without a doubt the most significant and powerful case I ever prosecuted." No comments

With at least one notable exception, writes litigator Howard J. Bashman, almost every federal appellate court takes the position that, when two of its own rulings conflict on a point of law, the ruling that issued first controls in the absence of rehearing en banc. In this commentary, Bashman examines that exception and its pros and cons. No comments

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis is in merger negotiations with Dallas-based Hughes & Luce, with plans calling for a possible combination of the firms by the end of the year. Peter Kalis, chairman and managing partner of K&L Gates, says there is "enormous amount of enthusiasm" for the deal within his firm. The firms went public with the talks in order to stave off the rumor mill, says Edward Coultas, managing partner of Hughes & Luce: "Once you put anything out among two lawyers, it's out." No comments

New York state's inability to defend some of the most controversial new guidelines on attorney advertising from constitutional challenge reflects the weak rationale for adopting the rules in the first place, opponents of broad restrictions say. And, they add, unless the state obtains a stay on the permanent injunction imposed on enforcement of several provisions in the guidelines, advertisements from legal "heavy hitters" and firms using similar monikers will soon be back on the airwaves. No comments

Alice Martin, the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, Ala., has declined a federal judge's request to prosecute prominent Mississippi attorney Richard F. Scruggs and his law firm for criminal contempt in a Hurricane Katrina insurance dispute. In his June request, U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. said he would appoint another attorney to handle the prosecution if Martin declined the court's request. Scruggs is suing State Farm on behalf of hundreds of Mississippi residents. No comments

Five years after its merger with Rowe & Maw made it one of the largest law firms in the world, Chicago-based Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw's controlling partners are rumored to be in a turf war for control, with the future of the firm resting in the hands of the London office's managing partner, Paul Maher. Meanwhile, at least 20 partner defections in New York, sagging profits in the New York and London offices, a controversial de-equitization of partners and a looming malpractice suit have rocked the firm. No comments

Corporations hiring new staff attorneys or general counsel are finding no shortage of qualified applicants. As pressure builds in law firms to, for example, pay for recent associate salary increases, a growing number of lawyers are looking toward in-house jobs as a desirable career path. "The number one thing you hear from lawyers is they're tired of billing their time," says consultant Melba Hughes. "They see a very different picture when they look at in-house counsel." No comments

An en banc Superior Court panel has ordered a new trial in a case in which a Pennsylvania trial judge awarded $102.7 million to one of the owners of a property company identified as being at the center of a Ponzi scheme. On the losing side of the lower court's verdict was Ernst & Young, a predecessor of which had been hired to help reorganize the property company and a group of related entities for the purposes of federal bankruptcy proceedings in the late 1980s. No comments