Law Firm’s Office Hours: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Clients seeking to meet with their counsel at one downtown Boston law firm are encouraged to try to do so during its regular office hours—between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., Monday to Friday—although special arrangements can be made to meet at other times. But for many individual and small business…

Apr 8, 2008 5:47 PM CDT

Scalia: ‘I Am Not a Nut’

If he was nominated to the high court today, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he may not win confirmation because the public expects judges to rewrite the Constitution rather than interpret it narrowly based on original intent. Scalia, who was confirmed 98-0 in 1986, made the remarks while…

Apr 8, 2008 2:09 PM CDT

Law Firm Bankruptcy Bill for Coudert Bros.: Partners Asked to Pay $11.8M

A bankruptcy examiner has proposed in a report issued late last month that the former partners of Coudert Brothers pay $11.8 million to liquidate the failed New York City-based law firm. The former international law leader is facing some $14 million in actual claims, but the examiner, Harrison Goldin, discounted…

Apr 7, 2008 7:42 PM CDT

N.Y. Law Firm Bans BlackBerrys at Major Meetings

A law firm in suburban New York City has banned electronic devices from major meetings to prevent distractions caused by cell phones and BlackBerrys. The six-month-old “no-device policy” at the Long Island law firm of Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone is intended to prevent even vibrations from incoming calls and…

Apr 7, 2008 3:56 PM CDT

Have Any Stories of Pranks with Legal Consequences?

April Fool’s Day put pranksters in the news this week—and lawyers were in on the action. One blogger spun a yarn about a U.S. Supreme Court fantasy baseball league. Another had to pay for a Washington Post retraction after the newspaper ran a prank obituary ad he later regretted submitting.…

Apr 3, 2008 5:31 PM CDT

DOJ Probe Considers Whether Lawyer Was Ousted Due to Sexual Orientation Rumor

A Justice Department probe is considering whether a career lawyer there was ousted from her job because of rumors that she is a lesbian. Investigators with the Justice Department’s inspector general have raised questions about a decision to dismiss Leslie Hagen, a liaison between DOJ and the U.S. attorneys’ committee…

Apr 3, 2008 11:26 AM CDT

Biff! Bam! Wallop! 2 Lawyers Duke it Out in Oregon Courthouse

Lawyers are used to being adversarial, but two lawyers in the Portland, Ore., area apparently elevated their conflict to an actual fistfight in front of a crowd of courthouse spectators last week. Attorneys David Lawrence and Aaron Matusick had just left a Multnomah County landlord-tenant court hearing Thursday when they…

Apr 2, 2008 4:36 PM CDT

Reports of Supreme Court Fantasy Baseball Case Are Wildly Exaggerated

Updated: A blogger created quite a stir yesterday when he reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to decide whether fantasy sports players had a First Amendment right to use statistics provided by Major League Baseball. Eric Turkewitz of the <a “href=”http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/2008/04/supreme-court-grants-cert-in-fantasy.html” title=”New York Personal Injury Law Blog”>New York…

Apr 2, 2008 12:38 PM CDT

So. Fla. Judge Barred From Courthouse Calls it Quits

Updated: A Broward County, Fla., judge abruptly resigned Monday after the chief judge inexplicably barred him from the courthouse. The Miami Herald reports that Chief Judge Victor Tobin had reassigned Judge Jay Spechler last week. Spechler, a former administrative chief of the county court, was handling traffic and parking matters…

Apr 1, 2008 9:52 PM CDT

Making the Case for Change

Recent developments are affecting how commercial cases are litigated in the federal courts

Apr 1, 2008 9:05 PM CDT

Making Waves, Seeking Balance

Apr 1, 2008 8:18 PM CDT

A Quarter of the Nation’s Top Law Firms Have Blogs

More than 25 percent of the top 200 law firms have blogs, and the numbers are increasing. A study reported by Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs says 53 of the top firms have blogs, and 10 percent have more than one blog. In all, the top firms publish 110…

Apr 1, 2008 4:04 PM CDT

Women Lawyers Have Higher Divorce Rates, Need Loving Husbands, Researcher Says

A researcher has found that young female lawyers and other women professionals have slightly higher divorce rates than their male counterparts. Law professor Robin Fretwell Wilson of Washington & Lee University is the author of the study. She says her study indicates that “women can’t have it all because there…

Apr 1, 2008 11:17 AM CDT

Global Dealmaking Drops More Than Two-Thirds for Big Law Firms

Mergers and acquisitions work has plummeted by more than two-thirds for large law firms, according to new figures on the number of clients represented. The top 10 law firms represented 180 clients in global mergers-and-acquisitions deals for the year’s first quarter, down from 662 representations last year, according to preliminary…

Apr 1, 2008 10:56 AM CDT

Failed Corporate Deals Fuel Malpractice Suits Against Firms

Failed corporate deals are fueling malpractice and other deal-related claims that large law firms are finding increasingly difficult to fend off. The National Law Journal reports that during the past few years, law firms including Mayer Brown, Clifford Chance and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld have faced some of…

Mar 31, 2008 9:04 PM CDT