Posts on ‘May 26th, 2009’

In an interview with The National Law Journal, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that, with a new vacancy on the Court, most people are “expecting and indeed hoping” that the next appointee will be a woman. “There was a little backsliding when I left,” she said. O’Connor also discussed her work in revitalizing civic education and drawing attention to the importance of an independent judiciary and to the increasing cost and contentiousness of state judicial elections.

The Supreme Court has overturned a long-standing ruling that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant’s lawyer is present, a move that will make it easier for prosecutors to interrogate suspects. The high court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the 1986 Michigan v. Jackson ruling, which Justice Antonin Scalia said “was poorly reasoned, has created no significant reliance interests and … is ultimately unworkable.”

The failure of nations to meet their anti-bribery commitments under the 1997 OECD Convention creates a substantial disadvantage for corporations subject to U.S. jurisdiction because the United States has the world’s strongest enforcement program, says former General Electric GC Ben W. Heineman Jr. This disadvantage is especially troubling during a world recession, but a new administration in Washington creates an opportunity to have U.S. business voices heard and acted upon.

Lawyers who have figured out how to provide less expensive services to corporations are the ones flourishing now. One such option is a “virtual law firm,” composed of former big law attorneys working remotely to offer clients the same services as before at half the rate — or less.

Coming into 2009, law firm leaders were worried, and they got more worried as the first quarter progressed, according to data from Citi Private Bank’s Managing Partner Confidence Index. Seventy-one percent of the respondents to Citi’s first-quarter MPCI believe that demand for legal services will be flat or down in the next 12 months, compared to 66 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. They were right to be concerned, says Dan DiPietro, client head of Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group.

The California state Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, but also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed. The 6-1 decision, written by Chief Justice Ron George, rejected an argument from gay rights activists that the ban revised the California Constitution’s equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature’s approval.

President Barack Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace Justice David Souter. If she is confirmed by the Senate, it will be a historic first for the Court: the first Hispanic, and the third woman on the nation’s highest court. From the moment Justice Souter announced his plan to retire, Sotomayor, 54, was viewed as a leading contender for the spot, though Judge Diane Wood of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to take the lead last week.

A Washington, D.C., judge has set a May 10, 2010, trial date for the Robert Wone murder case, but it’s unclear if that trial date will stick. Testing of forensic evidence continues in the government’s case against Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward, who are charged with obstruction, evidence tampering and conspiracy stemming from Wone’s 2006 stabbing death. Prosecutors say they believe Wone was restrained, drugged and sexually assaulted. But early tests discovered no drugs in Wone’s blood.