States

Lawyer Sues Over Partner’s Alleged Groping

A former nonequity partner at a Washington, D.C., law firm is suing for sexual harassment stemming from an incident at a party. Elisa Eisenberg claims Robert Rider Jr., also a nonequity partner, became intoxicated and groped her at a June 2006 party, Legal Times reports. Her suit says her law…

Sep 12, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

Judge’s Death Leads to Courthouse Mold Fears

A mold problem in a Miami federal courthouse has spurred studies and warnings from the chief judge, who told clerks they should use masks and gloves when handling documents that may be coated with the stuff. Concerns increased after Magistrate Judge Ted Klein died of a respiratory illness last year…

Sep 12, 2007 11:16 AM CDT

Big-Firm Alumni Have Van, Will Practice

Three former big-firm attorneys in Atlanta have made a name for themselves in a way that would have been hard to predict years ago. Jamie Hernan, Christopher Taylor and Jerome Lee have not only left King & Spalding and formed their own firm but bought a van in which they…

Sep 11, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

Chicago Coup Lures 8-Lawyer Group

In a hot-practice-area coup in Chicago, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd has lured eight bankruptcy lawyers, including a new practice group head, from rival Freeborn & Peters. The lateral group will help Bell, Boyd rev up its bankruptcy practice, which suffered a raid earlier this year by Baker & McKenzie, reports…

Sep 11, 2007 10:18 PM CDT

Sen. Craig Gets Hearing on Plea Change

An embattled Republican Senator from Idaho will get a hearing later this month on his request to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge resulting from a Minnesota restroom sting operation. Sen. Larry Craig will get his day in court on Sept. 26, a few days before the…

Sep 11, 2007 9:39 PM CDT

Shackled Fen-Phen Lawyers Seek Release, Judge Says No

Shackled and attired in faded gray-and-white-striped jail uniforms, three personal injury attorneys involved in mega-bucks fen-phen litigation attended a federal court hearing in Kentucky today to seek their release. Accused of bilking clients out of $64 million from a $200 million litigation settlement in 2001 concerning the diet drug combination,…

Sep 11, 2007 8:10 PM CDT

Releasee’s Car Crash Costs City $1.8 M

A city in Washington state has agreed to pay $1.8 million to the widow of a man killed eight years ago in a hit-and-run accident. That’s because the driver should have been incarcerated, but was released prematurely from jail in an Algona drunken driving case, reports the Seattle Times. Tracy…

Sep 11, 2007 7:29 PM CDT

Starting at $40K, FL Jobs a Stepping-Stone

Young attorneys working as assistant prosecutors and public defenders in South Florida make only about $40,000 annually when they first start work. So, within five years, most have moved on to other jobs. In Broward and Miami-Dade counties, roughly 20 percent a year depart for greener work assignments elsewhere, and…

Sep 11, 2007 7:01 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Calorie-Posting Rule

A federal judge has ruled New York City did not have the authority to require fast-food restaurants to post calorie information. The New York regulation, which applied to restaurants that had already voluntarily disclosed calorie information, required them to make it more accessible by measures such as posting it on…

Sep 11, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

Gay Marriage Blurb Brings Suit

Two men are suing American University for publishing an announcement in an alumni magazine that said they had married each other. In a suit filed Aug. 30 in Manhattan federal court, Ross Weil and Brett Royce say the blurb defamed them because the false statement “imputes homosexual behavior” between the…

Sep 11, 2007 4:32 PM CDT

NY Justices Weigh Death Penalty

New York’s highest court is considering arguments in a case that could determine the future of the death penalty in the state. In oral arguments before the Court of Appeals on Monday, lawyers were asked whether the court should revisit a 2004 decision that struck down the state’s 1995 death…

Sep 11, 2007 3:55 PM CDT

Paris Hilton Hot Over Hallmark Card

“That’s hot,” is Paris Hilton’s trademark phrase, both figuratively and literally. Those are the allegations in a lawsuit Hilton has filed over a Hallmark moment that was not a happy one for the heiress. Hilton has sued the card company for superimposing a photo of her face on a cartoon…

Sep 11, 2007 2:28 PM CDT

Guilty Plea in Tax Shelter Case

One of five remaining defendants has pleaded guilty in the government’s prosecution of advisers accused of working with KPMG to set up phony tax shelters. David Amir Makov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax fraud and agreed to repay $10 million, the Wall Street Journal reports…

Sep 11, 2007 2:07 PM CDT

Politics on Trial Along With Oil Man

The defense attorney for Texas oil man Oscar Wyatt argued yesterday that the federal prosecution of his client for paying kickbacks to buy Iraqi oil is “the United States at its hypocritical worst.” Gerald Shargel told Manhattan jurors that his 83-year-old client had long helped the United States in the…

Sep 11, 2007 11:45 AM CDT

Two Old Firms Struggle With New Paradigm

Two big law firms in the nation’s capital have dropped in Legal Times’ top-20 D.C. rankings, prompting the publication to conclude the firms “seem to be having trouble adjusting to Washington’s new paradigm.” The firms—Arnold & Porter and Covington & Burling—are slipping in the rankings at the same time that…

Sep 11, 2007 11:09 AM CDT