‘Quite a mess’ in Manhattan US Atty’s office; Holder calls shutdown ‘unnecessary and harmful’

Federal criminal prosecutions are continuing after the government shutdown, but that doesn’t mean things are going smoothly. Prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan have been thrown into disarray, according to Lorin Reisner, the chief of the office’s criminal division. “From our perspective, it’s a mess,” Reisner said at…

Oct 2, 2013 12:00 PM CDT

Couple sues indicted judge in state and federal court

A West Virginia judge who was previously indicted on accusations that he tried to prosecute his secretary’s husband for fictitious crimes is now facing new troubles. Kim and Robert Woodruff sued Mingo Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury on Monday in state and federal court, respectively, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. Other…

Oct 1, 2013 9:20 PM CDT

Littler Mendelson combines with law firms in Colombia and Costa Rica

Littler Mendelson has combined with law firms in Colombia and Costa Rica as part of its push to expand into Latin America. Littler is combining with Colombian law firm Godoy Córdoba Abogados and Costa Rican law firm BDS Asesores under the name Littler Global, according to a press release. The…

Oct 1, 2013 2:20 PM CDT

New York Starbucks workers sue over the company tip policy

Oct 1, 2013 9:30 AM CDT

Legal ed council offers choice on law professors’ job security

Oct 1, 2013 7:00 AM CDT

Harassed for being unmanly? En banc court sees Title VII violation; dissent sees clean-talk enforcer

An iron worker subjected to gay slurs and simulated sex because he failed to conform to his boss’s male stereotypes may collect Title VII damages for sex harassment, according to an en banc appeals court. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury finding of liability…

Sep 30, 2013 2:21 PM CDT

New law extends overtime to nannies and domestic workers

California household domestic workers formerly exempt from overtime under state law will soon be entitled to it, thanks to a new wage law. Previously, California household employees who spent more than 80 percent of their time caring for others were exempt from overtime, Reuters reports. The Domestic Rights Bill, which…

Sep 27, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

City to pay owner of euthanized dog $41K, is sued by ousted animal control official

To avert a possible lawsuit by the owner of a dog that was put down by animal control this summer because its owner couldn’t come up with a $100 payment within 72 hours, a Nevada city has agreed to pay a $41,500 settlement. Key to the case was a new…

Sep 23, 2013 5:15 PM CDT

Venture capital firm can’t require attorney to arbitrate claim in high-profile discrimination case

A venture capital firm has lost its bid to require a former partner to submit to binding arbitration in a high-profile Silicon Valley sex-discrimination claim. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider an appeal by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of lower court rulings that employment agreements do…

Sep 20, 2013 6:41 PM CDT

Where do you get the best Twitter stats? | How an ‘equal opportunity jerk’ won a discrimination suit

How does one find lawyers to follow on Twitter? Robert Ambrogi’s Lawsites has always sent people to LexTweet and Legal Birds. Though Ambrogi notices that “neither of these sites is up-to-date on Twitter ‘stats’—most notably, number of followers. The number of followers someone has on Twitter does not matter much…

Sep 20, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

ABA task force report proposes scrutiny of law school funding, pricing and accreditation standards

An ABA task force is recommending wholesale changes in the financing of legal education, the elimination of some law school accreditation standards, and it is pushing for more innovation and practical skills training in law school educational programs. The task force is also calling on courts, state bar associations and…

Sep 20, 2013 6:00 AM CDT

Municipal judge resigns after top state court says he can’t moonlight as stand-up comic

Updated: Some part-time municipal judges supplement their income by maintaining a private law practice. Vincent August Sicari, 44, who sat on the city court bench in South Hackensack, N.J., for years worked as a stand-up comic under the name of Vince August. But he had to choose between working as…

Sep 19, 2013 4:30 PM CDT

Judge, fired aide charged in time entry case; another judge’s claimed sex with bailiff unproven

The plot has thickened in the case of a fired Florida court worker who claimed she had been subjected to a hostile work environment related to a judge’s alleged sexual encounter with a bailiff in chambers. Ex-employee Alisha Rupp subsequently admitted that she herself had had a relationship with the…

Sep 19, 2013 3:45 PM CDT

Ex-lawyer and publicist for Insane Clown Posse sues for sex harassment, cites sexism culture

A fired publicist who also acted as a lawyer for Insane Clown Posse’s recording company has filed a suit claiming she was sexually harassed, belittled and mocked at work. The suit by Andrea Pelligreni says she was presented with a sex toy as a present, yelled at on a regular…

Sep 18, 2013 12:30 PM CDT

Prior to conviction in Fort Hood massacre, Nidal Hasan gave nearly $300K away to charity

Corrected: Convicted last month of 13 counts of murder in the 2009 shooting massacre at Fort Hood, while serving as a major in the U.S. Army, defendant Nidal Hasan is now battling a civil suit along with the government. But his military take-home pay of some $7,000 a month, which…

Sep 17, 2013 4:14 PM CDT