Solos/Small Firms

Is Jury Deadlocked in Trial of Attorney Accused of Plotting Contract Hit on Witness?

A federal jury in Newark, N.J., has told the trial judge that it can’t reach a decision in the case of attorney Paul Bergrin, who is accused of plotting a contract hit on a witness. However, U.S. District Judge William Martini told the seven-man, five-woman panel to keep trying for…

Nov 21, 2011 5:37 PM CST

The Costs of Legal Scholarship: $575M in Tuition and Grads Who Don’t Know How to Practice

Updated: The chances of obtaining a tenure-track job at a law school begin to diminish after eight or nine years of practice. And that is partly why law schools are not producing lawyers who are trained in legal practice, the New York Times reports. The story quotes an unidentified lawyer…

Nov 21, 2011 12:53 PM CST

Jury Still Deliberating in Criminal Case Against NJ Lawyer Accused of Plotting Witness Hit

It’s going to be a long weekend for New Jersey lawyer Paul Bergrin. A federal jury in Newark has deliberated for three days without reaching a verdict in a criminal case that could put the well-known criminal defense attorney behind bars for the rest of his life, report the Record…

Nov 19, 2011 1:33 AM CST

Around the Blawgosphere: BigLaw, Small-Firm Symbiosis; Living Wills for the Living Dead?

On Rejection and BigLaw’s Rejected Cases Matt Brown, who practices criminal defense at a two-lawyer firm in Tempe, Ariz., put up a post Monday at Tempe Criminal Defense about the experience of having a client leave him “before the real battle started” for another lawyer. While he thinks his now…

Nov 18, 2011 2:49 PM CST

Chicago ‘Fathers’ Rights’ Attorney Is Representing Mom in Paternity Claim Against Justin Bieber

A Chicago lawyer well-known locally for his “fathers’ rights” advertising has taken on a celebrity case … for a mom who says teen singer Justin Bieber is the father of her baby boy. Although Mariah Yeater has dismissed without prejudice her San Diego Superior Court suit against Bieber, it could…

Nov 16, 2011 9:01 PM CST

Man Gets 8 Years for Setting Fire to Montana Law Office

A man who said he had been hired by a lawyer’s wife to kill her husband but couldn’t bring himself to do it and instead torched the attorney’s Montana law office has been sentenced. Frank Wayne Campbell, 43, was given eight years and four months by a federal court in…

Nov 10, 2011 11:39 PM CST

Is Criminal Lawyer Who Witnessed Client’s Suicide Attempt Disqualified? NJ Appeals Court to Decide

The New Jersey Supreme Court has revived a government effort to disqualify a defense lawyer who discovered a client’s failed suicide attempt. Earlier, a state appellate court had refused to hear Monmouth County’s challenge of a ruling allowing attorney Steven Nelson to continue representing accused killer Thomas Dorsett, the Star-Ledger…

Nov 10, 2011 7:02 PM CST

Former Office Manager Gets 33 Months in Club Fed for Stealing $1.1M from NJ Law Firm

A former office manager for an unidentified law firm in Lakewood, N.J., was sentenced today to 33 months in jail, reports the Brick, N.J., Patch. Kathleen Baker, 54, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal wire fraud charge. She admittedly embezzled $1.1 million from the firm between 2003 and…

Nov 9, 2011 8:38 PM CST

Shaken Defense Lawyers Decry Violent Attacks on Two Colleagues in Organized Crime Megatrial

For the second time in less than a year, a lawyer representing a defendant in a Canadian organized crime megatrial involving a number of Hell’s Angels has been violently attacked near his home in Montreal. Gilles Doré, 58, was beaten badly in the upscale Outremont area of the city on…

Nov 8, 2011 8:18 PM CST

Lawyer Gets Public Reprimand for Gifting Client with $442.32 ‘Recovery,’ Then Delaying Payment

G. Turner Perrow Jr. presumably meant well. But the South Carolina practitioner spent a year updating an unidentified client about the progress of his effort to help her collect money from a former employer for unpaid vacation time, even though he determined early on that she wasn’t entitled to any…

Nov 8, 2011 6:57 PM CST

Around the Blawgosphere: Above the Law’s ‘Contrarian’ Writer; Blogging Under the Marketing Influence

Changing of the Guard This week, Above the Law introduced The Practice, a small-firms column by Miami criminal defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum—which presumably replaces Small Firms, Big Lawyers, which was written by Boston solo-turned-consultant Jay Shepherd and ran from February through September. What Tannebaum says he’ll be writing about, in…

Nov 4, 2011 1:49 PM CDT

Hired to Help Worker Seek Commissions, Tiny Law Firm Winds Up in Monster Case Seeking $2.5B

Retained to represent a former employee of a mortgage brokerage after he unsuccessfully sued over allegedly unpaid commissions, a tiny Milwaukee, Wis., law firm wound up with a monster case. Researching Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. for Peter Belli’s appeal, the Mahany & Ertl firm discovered Allied had the highest…

Nov 4, 2011 12:21 PM CDT

Storied Tenn. Law Firm Is Struggling, Sues Ex-Managing Partner Over $225K Removed from Trust Account

Once a mighty force in high-profile government cases, a storied Tennessee law firm is struggling financially after the deaths of its founding partners and has sued a former managing partner. Willis & Knight contends Tyree B. Harris IV wrongfully removed $225,000 from a trust account as part of a scheme…

Nov 3, 2011 5:16 PM CDT

Fed’l Judge Tells US Marshals to Seize $64K from Righthaven Law Firm to Satisfy Blogger’s Judgment

A law firm that purchased rights to articles in the Denver Post and Las Vegas Review-Journal, sued bloggers for infringement and then lost a number of suits when standing and fair-use defenses were successfully asserted is now the subject of a federal court debt-collection order. Because Righthaven LLC failed to…

Nov 3, 2011 12:39 AM CDT

Real Estate Lawyer Closes Office Temporarily; Bank Asks Court to Decide Who Gets $473K Trust Account

A well-known Georgia real estate lawyer has temporarily closed his Columbus office amidst an audit, and a local bank has asked a Muscogee County court to determine who should get the nearly $473,000 in his attorney trust account, the Ledger-Enquirer reports. “Our title insurance underwriters have suspended our access and…

Nov 2, 2011 9:48 PM CDT