California

Unhappy Art Buyers File Lawsuits Over Cruise Ship Art Auctions

Customers dissatisfied with their purchases in cruise ship art auctions are filing lawsuits that claim the value of the artwork was misrepresented. Class action lawsuits filed by customers who live in Florida and California name auctioneer Park West Gallery, based in Southfield, Mich., the New York Times reports. The suits…

Jul 16, 2008 5:55 PM CDT

Dying Manson Follower Denied Release from Prison

California’s parole board has refused to release a Charles Manson follower so she can die of cancer outside of prison. Supporters of inmate Susan Atkins said she was remorseful for the Manson family murders and should be released on compassionate grounds, the Los Angeles Times reports. Atkins was convicted of…

Jul 16, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Alston & Bird in Merger Talks With California Firm

Alston & Bird would have a California office if merger talks with a firm there are successful. The Am Law Daily reports that the 800-lawyer Atlanta-based law firm is in merger talks with Weston Benshoof, based in Los Angeles. Weston Benshoof has 80 lawyers who focus on litigation, real estate…

Jul 15, 2008 10:44 AM CDT

Dubious Judicial Campaign Attacks Prompt Public Forum on Fair Courts

A commission appointed by the chief justice of California’s supreme court is holding a public forum on fair courts today, in an effort to dial down the rude rhetoric and dubious tactics that has characterized some recent judicial campaigns. The forum in the state capital, Preserving Impartial Courts in California…

Jul 14, 2008 7:08 PM CDT

Final Defendant to Plead Guilty in Milberg Prosecution

The final defendant in the prosecution against the Milberg law firm has agreed to plead guilty to “an improbable tax-related felony,” in the words of the Daily Journal. California environmental lawyer Paul Selzer had been accused of being an intermediary for a kickback paid by Milberg to Seymour Lazar, a…

Jul 11, 2008 4:49 PM CDT

As Lawyer Faces Trial in Wiretap Case, Others Advised to Watch PIs

Experts see a lesson for the legal profession in the criminal case against a Los Angeles lawyer accused of paying private investigator Anthony Pellicano to wiretap a client’s ex-wife. The lawyer, Terry Christensen, is scheduled to go on trial with Pellicano on July 16 on charges of wiretapping and conspiracy…

Jul 11, 2008 1:30 PM CDT

Judge to Hear Claim of ‘Lawyer Driven’ Morgan Stanley Deal

A federal judge has agreed to hold a hearing into a contention that a proposed $16 million Morgan Stanley racial discrimination settlement was “lawyer driven.” Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson praised the lawyers’ 10 percent fee request in the case for being well below the benchmark, but granted the…

Jul 10, 2008 4:28 PM CDT

UC Irvine Profs to Include LA Times Reporter, Incoming AALS President

The fledgling University of California at Irvine has released a list of its faculty, and it includes a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the incoming president of the Association of American Law Schools. Legal affairs reporter Henry Weinstein, who recently took a buyout from the Los Angeles…

Jul 10, 2008 11:34 AM CDT

Fla. Law Firm Has Filed About 70 Fraud Suits Against Lenders

Some borrowers who say their lenders hid the true terms of their onerous loans are suing for fraud. One law firm that is eager to help is the Affirmative Defense Group in Margate, Fla. Lawyer Frank Ingrassia says the firm has filed about 70 such suits on behalf of borrowers…

Jul 10, 2008 11:08 AM CDT

Lawyer: Hepatitis C Nearing ‘Epic Proportions’ in Calif. Prisons

A class action lawsuit contends California prison officials delay testing and treatment to inmates infected with the hepatitis C virus. The complaint says as many as 40 percent of the state’s inmates are infected with hepatitis C, but the state refuses to perform liver biopsies and other medical services until…

Jul 9, 2008 4:58 PM CDT

Omar Sharif’s Winning Tort Defense Tactic: Not Fighting $455K Case

After he hit a Beverly Hills, Calif., restaurant valet in the face during a night of drinking in 2005, actor Omar Sharif initially was apologetic and ready to cover the man’s costs. But then the 76-year-old actor, who is famed for his wartime roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Dr.…

Jul 9, 2008 3:37 PM CDT

Firm Pays Associates Less and Partners Equally, Requires Fewer Hours

California intellectual property firm Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear is looking to expand without changing its unusual business model. All of the firm’s partners share equally in profits, the National Law Journal reports in an article reprinted in the New York Lawyer. Associates make below-market pay of $150,000, but the…

Jul 9, 2008 11:52 AM CDT

Slain Attorney Didn’t Back Down from Opposing Party’s Alleged Threats

Updated: When Xia Zhao graduated from the University’s of California’s Hastings College of the Law in the midst of the dot-crash, she was disappointed that she didn’t get a big-firm job offer. But that didn’t stop the Chinese immigrant, who had already surmounted many other obstacles, from founding her own…

Jul 7, 2008 9:55 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Suit Claiming Government Wiretapped Lawyers’ Conversations

A federal judge in San Francisco has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed the government illegally wiretapped conversations between lawyers and a client, a now-defunct charity suspected of terrorism. The lawsuit relied on a classified call log the government turned over by mistake to the client, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. U.S.…

Jul 3, 2008 1:49 PM CDT

Reprising ‘Green Acres’: Lawyer Gives Up Big-City Life for Goat Farm

A California lawyer who moved from the San Francisco area to run a goat cheese farm in the Adirondacks no longer takes heat and water for granted. Sheila Flanagan still works 40 to 60 hours a week for her Oakland law firm from her new home, but she also farms…

Jul 3, 2008 12:49 PM CDT