Real Estate & Property Law

Documentary on legal battle over T. rex bones kicks off Sundance Film Festival

The stunning discovery in 1990 of a largely complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton near an Indian reservation in South Dakota led to an epic legal battle as multiple parties argued over ownership of the 65-million-year-old bones. The skeleton of the enormous, long-dead dinosaur, known as Sue, was confiscated by the feds…

Jan 21, 2014 9:48 PM CST

Two lawyers are charged in alleged adverse-possession scheme

Two California lawyers are among five people charged in an alleged scheme to obtain title to abandoned homes through adverse possession. Fresno lawyers Sheldon Feigel, 50, and Craig Merrill Mortensen, 60, are accused of helping four others identify abandoned properties and file for adverse possession to obtain title, according to…

Jan 16, 2014 1:48 PM CST

Crime victims could sue municipalities for forcing their eviction under proposed Penn. law

Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban municipalities from penalizing tenants or their landlords when residents make legitimate 911 calls. The bill moves to the Pennsylvania Senate after the House voted to approve it on Tuesday, according to RH Reality Check and a press release by the bill’s…

Jan 15, 2014 6:03 PM CST

Scalia calls out lawyer for a failure to extemporize

File photo of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia courtesy of ABA Media Services. A lawyer arguing on behalf of a Wyoming family fighting the government’s effort to reclaim a strip of land got off to a rough start in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Lawyer Steven Lechner was…

Jan 15, 2014 4:12 PM CST

Former lawyer for deceased stage actress Julie Harris sues to invalidate her will

Fired in 2009 by award-winning stage actress Julie Harris, her former lawyer and onetime potential executor, Herbert Nass, has filed an objection to her will in a Massachusetts probate court. He claims in the Barnstable Probate and Family Court filing that Harris, who died in August at age 87, “was…

Jan 14, 2014 11:55 PM CST

Onetime king of foreclosure firm grossing up to $260M annually is disbarred

Once the Florida attorney in charge of a so-called foreclosure mill law firm operation that at one point handled as many as 100,000 foreclosure cases and grossed $260 million in 2009, David J. Stern has now been disbarred. However, others continue to clean up the mess that his firm made…

Jan 13, 2014 7:20 PM CST

Art museum gets Renoir painting that woman said she bought for $7 at flea market, judge rules

A federal judge has ruled against a Virginia woman who claimed she purchased a small painting by a famous French impressionist for $7 at a flea market. How Marcia “Martha” Fuqua acquired the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting doesn’t matter, said U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in a Friday decision granting a…

Jan 13, 2014 5:20 PM CST

Architect gets 1 year for death of firefighter in ceiling collapse of LA home he built

An architect pleaded no contest Friday to involuntary manslaughter in an unusual case over the death of a firefighter in a luxury California home he designed and built in Hollywood Hills. Gerhard Becker was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation in the Los Angeles Superior…

Jan 3, 2014 7:50 PM CST

SCOTUS case puts focus on property-rights group

A Supreme Court case scheduled for oral argument this month is likely to raise the profile of the Colorado-based group that will argue for a property owner’s rights, the Mountain States Legal Foundation. Mountain States represents Wyoming resident Marvin Brandt, who contends the federal government did not have a right…

Jan 3, 2014 3:57 PM CST

Road to retirement: Ways to make retirement anything but resignation

Deanell Reece Tacha has the characteristic enthusiasm of a 3L: “I’m in my third year here and I love it. It’s very interesting and challenging. I think there is something to not just letting yourself sit by. There is a commonsense fact that when you challenge yourself, test yourself in…

Jan 1, 2014 11:40 AM CST

Northwestern University School of Law receives $15 million gift

Northwestern University School of Law has received a $15 million gift from university trustee and law school alumnus Neil Bluhm and his family’s charitable foundation. The gift, the biggest ever given to the law school, is part of a $25 million gift to the university, according to this press release.…

Dec 17, 2013 11:30 PM CST

NJ lawyer admits involvement in $30 million mortgage scam

A New Jersey lawyer faces up to 30 years in prison for his admitted role in an elaborate $30 million mortgage fraud. Toms River attorney Michael Rumore, 55, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Rumore and another…

Dec 17, 2013 9:45 PM CST

Search warrants served on law firm in loan-modification probe; lawyer faces marijuana charge

A California lawyer, Stephen Siringoringo, and his wife were taken into custody and face a marijuana charge after law enforcement officials say they found 445 grams of the drug, packaged for sale, in his law office during a search Wednesday. The search of the Siringoringo Law Office was for a…

Dec 12, 2013 10:40 PM CST

Former practice group chief at major firm takes plea in perjury case over deposition statement

A former chief of the real estate investment and capitalization practice at Troutman Sanders has taken a plea in a misdemeanor perjury case, admitting that he gave false deposition testimony in 2011. Leonard Grunstein, 61, who earlier gave up his New York law license, will be recommended for a conditional…

Dec 12, 2013 5:25 PM CST

Former lawyer enters not guilty plea in alleged mortgage scam

A former California lawyer has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lent his law license to others in connection with a fraudulent $12 million mortgage modification scheme. Ronald Rodis, the former operator of Rodis Law Group and America’s Law Group in Newport Beach, was arrested last week, the…

Dec 10, 2013 10:15 PM CST