Massachusetts

Cooley Continues East Coast Invasion

Continuing its aggressive expansion into the East Coast legal market, Cooley Godward Kronish, a major San Francisco-based law firm known for its technology expertise, opened a 10-partner office in Boston this week. The firm has also recently marched into New York City and Washington, D.C., establishing sizable offices in both…

Jul 18, 2007 6:59 PM CDT

Taxpayer v IRS in Sex-Change Claim

A ground-breaking tax case is scheduled to go to trial next week over an IRS denial of a taxpayer’s medical expense deduction. Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, 63, wrote off $25,000 in surgery expenses. But the Internal Revenue Service disallowed them, saying that her sex-change operation six years ago, from male to female,…

Jul 17, 2007 8:16 PM CDT

Courthouse Gleams After $147 M Rehab

Although visitors to the John Adams Courthouse in downtown Boston can hardly help but notice the sparkling new renovation of the building that houses the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and its stunning historic details, most probably give little thought to the electrical system. But some 250,000 man-hours of painstaking…

Jul 16, 2007 5:48 PM CDT

LeClair Raids Donovan for New MA Office

At least 10 lawyers, including several practice group chairs, have jumped ship from the now 60-attorney Donovan Hatem in Boston to establish an office there for LeClair Ryan. The Virginia firm has some 150 lawyers, more than twice as many as Donovan, and has a general business practice. Kevin G.…

Jul 11, 2007 9:58 PM CDT

Defendants: No Jail for Libby; Why Me?

Updated: A former top aide to the vice president of the United States didn’t have to serve time for lying to a federal grand jury. So why should I? That essentially is the argument being made by a Massachusetts woman, 41-year-old Joanne “Jody” Richardson. And she’s not the only one.…

Jul 11, 2007 9:13 PM CDT

Misconduct Charges for Libeled Judge

Misconduct charges have been filed against a Massachusetts judge who allegedly went too far in his continuing campaign against a Boston newspaper after winning a big-bucks libel case. After winning $2 million in 2005 from the Boston Herald, which had portrayed Judge Ernest Murphy as lenient to defendants and falsely…

Jul 10, 2007 9:38 PM CDT

Bar Exam Suit Cites Religion

A would-be lawyer who failed the bar exam has filed suit contending a question about gay marriage violated his First Amendment rights. Stephen Dunne says the Massachusetts bar question required him to “affirmatively accept, support and promote homosexual marriage and homosexual parenting,” the National Law Journal reports. He didn’t answer…

Jul 2, 2007 2:07 PM CDT

Judge Finds Fault in Drug-Price Suit

A federal judge has ruled three drug companies engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices by inflating the reported prices of certain drugs. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris said the drug makers inflated average wholesale prices of drugs, known as AWPs, causing injury to insurers that paid higher reimbursements…

Jun 22, 2007 6:17 PM CDT

Efforts to Protect Immigrants from Crime Elicit Praise—and Criticism

In separation investigations more than 1,000 miles apart, officials say they have found that illegal immigrants are targeted as crime victims at least in part because they are reluctant to contact police. Authorities say they have been sensitive to these concerns, focusing enforcement efforts on immigrants who have committed crimes…

Jun 22, 2007 2:19 AM CDT

Same-Sex Marriage Wins Big MA Battle; Legislature Bans Ballot Issue

In a pendulum swing from another vote taken earlier this year, legislators in Massachusetts voted today not to put a hotly contested proposed state constitutional amendment on the November ballot – whether the state should ban same-sex marriage by defining matrimony solely as a union between a man and a…

Jun 14, 2007 10:52 PM CDT

Boston Lawyer Assault Case Dropped

Charges reportedly have been dropped against a Boston lawyer who had been accused of groping a museum curator at an art gallery opening, after the alleged victim declined to go forward with the case. Contention continues, however, as lawyers for both sides offered sharply different perspectives of the case, reports…

Jun 7, 2007 2:50 AM CDT

Prof’s Law Blog Led to 11th Circuit Case

Blogging can be a legal minefield for lawyers and parties to litigation, as a Boston doctor defending a malpractice case found out recently when he outed himself as “Flea” and abruptly settled. But this minefield can also produce gold, as an Ohio State University law professor has seen. After former…

Jun 7, 2007 1:42 AM CDT

Case: E-Mail Could Mean Fatal Conflict, Absent Appropriate Disclaimer

Not having an appropriate e-mail set-up could cost a law firm dearly, according to a recent ethics opinion. If the system is open to the public and doesn’t require users to agree to a disclaimer eliminating confidentiality before hitting the send button, a law firm could be forced to withdraw…

Jun 5, 2007 8:27 PM CDT

MA: No Rape If Brother Impersonates Boyfriend

A Massachusetts man who tricked a woman into having sex with him by impersonating her boyfriend – and his brother – in the middle of the night cannot be prosecuted for rape. That’s because the state’s 200-year-old rape law does not allow a case to be based on obtaining the…

May 11, 2007 9:57 PM CDT

$2 Million Libel Award to Mass. Judge Upheld

A $2 million damages award to a state court judge who was falsely reported to have told lawyers involved in the case of a 14-year-old rape victim to “tell her to get over it” was upheld today by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy denied ever making…

May 8, 2007 1:17 AM CDT