2018 in review
Top 10 most-read legal news stories of 2018
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Lawyers busy with research, conferences and other high-concentration tasks sometimes need a break. So it’s no surprise that the most-viewed articles on our website tend toward water-cooler topics, or that readership tends to peak at midmorning and lunch hours. Check out the site’s most-read articles in 2018, with updates on the latest developments.
- Making a Murderer lawyer acquitted on stalking charge; he did 'meow randomly,' court told (Dec. 11). Len Kachinsky hopes to be reinstated as a municipal judge in Fox Crossing, Wisconsin, after his acquittal of charges in connection with his treatment of a court clerk. Kachinsky had been criticized for his representation of Brendan Dassey, whose appeal was tracked in Part 2 of the Netflix series.
- Winner-take-all electoral college system is unconstitutional, say suits led by Boies (Feb. 22). A federal judge Dec. 7 dismissed a lawsuit challenging the practice of assigning all Massachusetts electoral votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote. Lawyers behind the action, including former Bush v. Gore attorney David Boies, are appealing a similar California case to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas and South Carolina suits are pending.
- US News law school rankings are released; Pepperdine's mistake costs it a ranking (March 20). Pepperdine University School of Law expects a "substantial rankings boost" for 2020. A reporting error had left Pepperdine Law unranked.
- Millennial lawyers are forging their own paths—and it's wrong to call them lazy (January). Where some see slacker behavior, a myth-busting magazine feature found a confident embrace of productive alternatives. In the comments, readers continued the discussion of young lawyers' approaches to technology and collaboration.
- Utah bar 'horrified' over email blast sent with photo of topless woman (March 6). A not-safe-for-work convention notice was a result of “human error,” the Utah State Bar Commission said.
- Self-proclaimed workaholic billed 3,600 hours last year (May 15). One reader, commenting as Quasar, wondered why intellectual property lawyer Daniel Bliss didn't ease his workload by hiring a junior associate or two.
- Judge informs jurors that God told him accused sex trafficker isn't guilty (Jan. 22). Judge Jack Robison interrupted deliberations to argue unsuccessfully against convicting Gloria Romero Perez. Robison told the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung in March that he reported the incident to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and had not been reprimanded or admonished.
- Law review editors missed a few, so we have this usage skills quiz for you (April). In the online version of the April's magazine's Bryan Garner on Words column, readers were frequently tripped up by the choice of "is composed of," "is comprised of" and "comprises."
- Lawyers rank highest on 'loneliness scale,' study finds (April 3). The ABA's Well-Being Toolkit cites this report that lawyers rank higher than engineers or research scientists on a University of California at Los Angeles-developed "loneliness scale."
- An open letter to potential law students: Know the truth (Aug. 13). Nicole Black of MyCase and Heather Morse of Greenberg Glusker advised prospective law students to intern in a law office to see firsthand what legal practice is like.
