Bar Associations

Lawyers Could Be Targeted in SEC Subprime Cases

In the 1990s, a reference to Kaye Scholer became shorthand for the power of federal regulators to punish law firms for misleading tactics in their representation of a client, in this case a failed lender. The law firm—its full name was Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler—agreed to pay the…

Aug 9, 2008 10:17 PM CDT

Honored Pakistani Lawyer Says Crisis Over Deposed Judges Isn’t Over

A single lawyer from Pakistan stood at the podium, but the standing ovation from an audience of some 600 people that washed over him today at a luncheon sponsored by the ABA clearly was also meant for thousands of his colleagues back home. Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of the Pakistan…

Aug 9, 2008 9:38 PM CDT

Scalia: Legal Writing Doesn’t Exist

Justice Antonin Scalia—the U.S. Supreme Court’s great dissenter—stayed true to form as he accepted a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Legal Writers on Saturday. “I do not believe that legal writing exists,” he told an audience of approximately 100 at the Harvard Club in Manhattan. Lest the…

Aug 9, 2008 7:31 PM CDT

Coverage Roundup: Prosecutors Drove Cost of Ga. Death Penalty Case

A retired Georgia judge who stepped down from the 2005 Atlanta courthouse killings case told an ABA panel today that prosecutors are partially to blame for high costs and delays associated with the ongoing capital trial. Retired Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller said that prosecutors could have scaled down their…

Aug 9, 2008 5:52 PM CDT

Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg Sees Parallel in Disclosure of Wiretap Program

The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971 is still eager to expose government secrets. Daniel Ellsberg told an ABA Annual Meeting panel today that he disclosed the 7,000-page study of the history of the Vietnam War in hopes that President Richard Nixon could…

Aug 9, 2008 5:40 PM CDT

Ken Starr, Drew Days Discuss Revealing Supreme Court Term

The Section of Litigation presented a high-powered U.S. Supreme Court wrap-up panel today featuring two former U.S. solictors general and a nationally known Stanford Law School professor providing commentary at its session “The Roberts Court—The Terrible Twos, or Childhood Bliss?” Panel members Kenneth W. Starr, solicitor general under George H.W.…

Aug 9, 2008 4:29 PM CDT

Ellis Island Stirs Memories at TIPS Event

With historic Ellis Island as the backdrop, outgoing Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section chair Peter Bennett kicked off the section’s meeting Friday night by reinforcing his commitment to diversity. Bennett, of the Portland, Maine-based Bennett Law Firm, told hundreds of members that it was fitting that Ellis Island served…

Aug 9, 2008 12:25 PM CDT

Second Amendment Opinion May Lack Firepower

Harvard Law School professor Mark Tushnet believes Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent majority opinion striking down a ban on handguns in the home was a compromise decision, crafted to appeal to a swing voter such as Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. As evidence of a compromise, Tushnet points to Scalia’s statement in…

Aug 8, 2008 11:18 PM CDT

A Diplomatic Breakthrough

The ABA has announced that Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, will give the keynote address Saturday evening at the opening assembly of the ABA Annual Meeting. While the annual meeting got under way Thursday, the opening assembly is the primary ceremonial event for all attendees.…

Aug 8, 2008 10:30 PM CDT

What the President Should Look for in a Judicial Nominee

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says he wants judicial nominees to have empathy. Presumptive Repubican presidential Nominee John McCain says he does not want activist judges. But what that all means and what the presidential candidates should really be saying about judicial selection was the subject of a lively…

Aug 8, 2008 10:08 PM CDT

ABA is Media Focus, as Annual Meeting Kicks Off in NYC

As an estimated 10,000 people attend more than 1,500 programs (PDF) at the American Bar Association’s 131st annual meeting starting this week, public attention is being focused on a potpourri of legal issues. Among them, a video about a Day of Equality is featured today on the ABA’s website. It…

Aug 8, 2008 9:45 PM CDT

Sequel to World Justice Forum in the Works

William H. Neukom’s last official news conference as ABA president today had the tone of a valedictory. Neukom, whose one-year term ends Tuesday at the close of the ABA Annual Meeting in New York City, focused primarily on the initial accomplishments of the World Justice Project, an ambitious and wide-ranging…

Aug 8, 2008 8:42 PM CDT

Why NBC’s Legal Reporter is Feuding With Karl Rove

From his perch as chief legal correspondent for NBC News, Dan Abrams has developed opinions on everything from the politicization of the Justice Department to news coverage of Barack Obama. At a luncheon speech at the ABA Annual Meeting on Friday, he was happy to share. Abrams began with criticism…

Aug 8, 2008 7:11 PM CDT

Panel: Regs Are Speed Bumps in Legal Services Drive

Technology has made the world a smaller place. It’s made it possible to talk to someone from around the world over a computer, to buy a product from another country, and to expedite communication with a click of mouse. But one thing it has not done thus far is help…

Aug 8, 2008 6:21 PM CDT

‘Cognitive Traps’ Ensnare Judges Taking Instant Survey

Judges and lawyers taking an instant survey with handheld devices Friday learned a disappointing lesson: Their decision-making is likely subject to errors and biases. The findings don’t square with the group’s self-confidence. Sixty-five percent of those attending the ABA Annual Meeting session said they were better than average at predicting…

Aug 8, 2008 3:29 PM CDT