Massachusetts

U Mass Welcomes 1st Law School Class

Last year, there were only only 73 students in the first-year class at Southern New England School of Law. But now that it has been donated to the University of Massachusetts, applications are snowballing. The U Mass School of Law-Dartmouth has 182 students registered to start in its inaugural class…

Aug 19, 2010 9:10 PM CDT

Judge Orders Lawyer to Apologize for Courthouse Bear Hug

A Massachusetts judge has ordered a lawyer to write a letter of apology to a colleague for giving her a courthouse jail hug. Robert LeBlanc had been charged with assault and battery in the November 2008 incident in a Lawrence courthouse lobby. At a hearing on Friday, Judge Timothy Gailey…

Aug 12, 2010 11:32 AM CDT

Good News for Star Associates, Bad News for Others: Bonuses are Replacing Some Pay

As law firms look to replace a significant portion of associate pay with discretionary bonuses, star associates may profit but others will lose ground financially, predicts the Boston Globe. Among the well-known law firms that are going this route is 700-attorney Nixon Peabody, at which bonuses amount to as much…

Aug 6, 2010 5:10 PM CDT

Slate: Victim Who Committed Suicide in High School Bullying Case Had History of Mental Issues

A basic principle law students are taught in first-year torts class is that defendants who happen to injure a fragile plaintiff can’t point to the victim’s weakness to excuse their own negligence. And the same principle applies in criminal cases, a prosecutor in a high-profile Massachusetts student-bullying case tells the…

Jul 22, 2010 10:17 PM CDT

Another State Chief Justice Known for Gay-Marriage Opinion Announces Retirement

Another chief justice who wrote a ground-breaking gay marriage opinion is retiring. Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall announced today that she is retiring to spend more time with her husband, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, according to the Boston Globe and the Associated Press. Marshall, 66, is married to…

Jul 21, 2010 4:23 PM CDT

More Criminals Using Acid, Surgery and Burning to Alter Fingerprints

An increasing number of criminals are mutilating their fingerprints in an effort to avoid detection, despite the pain caused by acid or burning metal used to create scarring. Massachusetts police say the number of people trying to alter their fingerprints has increased sevenfold in the last decade, the Boston Globe…

Jul 21, 2010 2:29 PM CDT

After Madoff Scandal, More Clients Ask Law Firms to Manage Their Money

The Bernard Madoff scandal is apparently good news for several New England law firms that manage investments for their wealthy clients. Several Boston law firms are being tapped to manage investments by an increasing number of clients who are wary of placing their money with brokers or financial institutions, the…

Jul 15, 2010 12:34 PM CDT

Judge Slashes ‘Excessive’ $675K Award in Music Download Case to $67.5K

A Harvard Law School professor representing a graduate student in a high-profile music downloading case has finally won a significant victory. On Friday a federal judge slashed the $675,000 awarded last year by a Boston jury against Charles Nesson’s client, Joel Tenenbaum, to $67,500, saying that it is “unconstitutionally excessive”…

Jul 12, 2010 5:26 PM CDT

Citing 10th Amendment, Federal Judge Strikes US Defense of Marriage Act

A federal judge in Boston today struck down the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act, saying that the 1996 statute’s prohibition against same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Citing the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which recognizes state authority concerning powers not delegated to the federal government, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro…

Jul 8, 2010 9:57 PM CDT

Up to 20-Lawyer Group Is Departing Nixon Peabody for Pillsbury Winthrop

A group of up to 20 corporate lawyers from Nixon Peabody has joined the New York office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Led by Mats Carlston, the former global finance practice chief at Nixon Peabody, they are at least the second group of lawyers to leave the 800-attorney firm since…

Jun 18, 2010 7:50 PM CDT

Prof Charged in Fatal Faculty Shooting Is Indicted Today in Brother’s 1986 Death

After a biology professor at the University of Alabama was charged with shooting three colleagues to death and wounding three more at a faculty meeting in February, questions were raised about earlier incidents in her life. Today, nearly 25 years after her 18-year-old brother died at the family’s Massachusetts home,…

Jun 16, 2010 11:31 PM CDT

Sirhan May Have Plotted to Assassinate Ted Kennedy, Too, Says FBI

The man convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 may also have tried to put a contract out on his younger brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy, in 1977. An unidentified fellow inmate at the federal prison at Soledad, Calif., where Sirhan Sirhan was incarcerated told the Federal Bureau of…

Jun 14, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

Harvard English Major Criminally Charged re Claimed Lies & Cheats Also Got Into Stanford

A Delaware man who allegedly was admitted to Harvard University and won nearly $50,000 in scholarships and prizes as an English major there based on lies and plagiarism had been admitted to Stanford University this coming fall as a transfer student. However, following publicity about the Massachusetts criminal case against…

Jun 9, 2010 9:28 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Won $2M for Libeled Jurist Is Now ‘Junkyard Dog for Aggrieved Judges’

A $2.1 million libel verdict that attorney Howard Cooper won for a Massachusetts judge has made him a go-to-guy for irked jurists in a multi-state region. Judges usually can’t directly reply to inaccurate media accounts without risking a legal ethics charge. But they can ask–and have asked–Cooper to pursue defamation…

Jun 1, 2010 3:01 PM CDT

Southern New England-Turned-UMass Law School Gets 400 Applications

The number of would-be students seeking admission to the new University of Massachusetts School of Law is about double the number who applied last year before the school’s new incarnation. More than 400 students have applied at the new law school at Dartmouth, and 127 students are now enrolled, according…

May 27, 2010 12:42 PM CDT