Lawyer - News

The Houston Lawyers Association, a minority bar group that represents 1,500 African-American attorneys, has called on embattled Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal to resign. Rosenthal's troubles began when e-mails on his office computer were found to contain text or photos considered demeaning to women or African-Americans. The e-mails have angered lawyers who are concerned about Rosenthal's ability to lead an unbiased district attorney's office. No comments

Two judicial pioneers -- one from the U.S. and one from the U.K. -- compared notes at Georgetown University Law Center and found they both had stories to tell about the lack of women's restrooms at court. Lady Brenda Hale, the first female Law Lord in the British House of Lords, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also contrasted their judicial systems, with a spotlight on the U.K., which will separate its highest judges from the House of Lords and create a more independent Supreme Court in 2009. No comments

Powell Goldstein's Washington office has lost a team of seven commercial real estate lawyers and a paralegal to Seyfarth Shaw. This follows other departures from the firm's Washington office over the past two weeks. Ronald Gart, who heads the real estate team, says the group is moving to Seyfarth for a larger platform. "We expect many, if not all, [clients] to follow. We've got clients in Los Angeles and Chicago who are thrilled to have lawyers in those offices," Gart says. No comments

San Francisco-based Littler Mendelson has opened an office in St. Louis, Mo., bringing aboard seven local attorneys to jump-start the new location. The office is the 44th nationwide for Littler Mendelson, which has nearly 700 attorneys and is dedicated to representing management in employment, employee benefits and labor law matters. No comments

Although appellate courts affirm trial court rulings far more frequently than they reverse them, savvy litigators know that it's far from a risk-free proposition to represent on appeal the party that won below. The challenge is made all the more daunting by the possibility of an appellee committing waiver on appeal. Commentator Howard J. Bashman examines some possible scenarios. No comments

Most of the time we're worried about hackers getting into our computer system from the outside.  Here's an  interesting but scary story about a disgruntled  employee who wiped out ALL of her company's data files because she thought her boss was trying to replace her.  This spiteful act should make every HR manager and employment lawyer pause for a moment and think about data security.  Maybe it's time to review your practices?

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High rates and the increasing bulk of e-discovery have pushed Scott Rickman, the associate general counsel at Del Monte Foods, to seriously consider using sources other than his outside law firm for the grunt work of litigation. "It doesn't make sense to pay 150 or 250 dollars an hour at some of the larger firms to do the document review -- it just seems like overkill," said Rickman. Other in-house departments have already reached that conclusion. No comments

Medical marijuana users in California may have to choose between smoking their pot and keeping their jobs. In a 5-2 decision Thursday, the California Supreme Court backed RagingWire Telecommunications in its firing of plaintiff Gary Ross, with the court majority concluding that the state's Compassionate Use Act of 1996 created a "narrow exception" that gives medical marijuana users a defense against criminal prosecution in state court -- but no additional rights under employment law. No comments

A senior litigation partner in Skadden's London office joined one of the U.K. legal market's most exclusive clubs on Tuesday when he was appointed Queen's Counsel. Paul Mitchard, a Skadden partner since 2001, was one of 98 successful applicants from England and Wales. The only solicitor named QC this year, Mitchard joins the small handful of QCs at American firms, including Dewey & LeBoeuf's Arthur Marriott QC and former attorney general Lord Goldsmith QC at Debevoise & Plimpton. No comments

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker told its Atlanta associates Wednesday that it will raise compensation considerably above current market rates. As of Feb. 1, first-year associates will be paid $160,000, a $15,000 increase over the figure most big Atlanta firms began paying their first-years on Jan. 1. The firm's decision comes as local in-house counsel are expressing concern over higher rates for junior associates. Says the firm's Atlanta managing partner, "Our rates are set independently of pay raises." No comments