Posts on ‘September 3rd, 2009’

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reports that a growing proportion of the nation’s newly qualified lawyers are failing to find work. Korea’s Judicial Research and Training Institute told the newspaper 34 of the 978 lawyers in its 2009 class remain unemployed — compared to just three unemployed at the same time last year. The problem may seem miniscule compared to the level of joblessness among U.S. lawyers, but it is causing concern in a nation where lawyers have long enjoyed exalted status.

In the current transformation of the legal industry, lawyers, law students and most legal professionals are re-evaluating their roles, writes consultant Ari Kaplan. The economy is prompting them to consider alternatives and to determine where they will truly find satisfaction. The experiences of some who’ve made that journey, like Nathan Sawaya, a lawyer-turned-Lego sculptor, and Sean Carter, a former lawyer who is now a self-described Humorist-at-Law, offer a number of lessons to help guide those who remain.

After months of economic woes, offer rates for 2Ls in some of Pennsylvania’s largest firms are somewhat anemic this year when compared to 2008. Pepper Hamilton has confirmed that of the 14 summer associates in its program nationwide this year, seven received offers, compared with 30 out of 38 receiving offers last year. According to executive partner Robert Heideck, the firm has not yet decided whether it will push 2009 summer associates’ start dates from 2010 to 2011, as some other firms have done.

Every baseball fan — or at least every attorney who follows baseball — knows that under the doctrine of assumption of the risk a team is not liable for fans injured by, say, foul balls or broken bats. Now, in a suit filed by a New York fan whose nose was fractured by a bat during a Brooklyn Cyclones pregame, a New York judge has ruled that the doctrine also extends to a bat “propelled” by a player either “warming up” or “horsing around.”

The lawyers who once made up Chicago’s Anesi Ozmon are fighting over the crown jewels of the firm: its clients. Anesi Ozmon is battling former colleagues at the newly launched O’Connor & Nakos to retake possibly hundreds of cases that left in July along with Daniel O’Connor, Telly Nakos and nine other lawyers plus paralegals and other staff. Both firms handle personal injury and workers’ compensation disputes.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked federal judges to stay their order demanding a state plan by Sept. 18 for reducing the prison population by 40,000 over two years, signaling his intent to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. The three-judge panel made clear in its Aug. 4 ruling that it would not consider a stay. Attorneys say that the promised appeal would appear to be the first Supreme Court challenge of a court-ordered population cap since the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act in 1996.

If at first you don’t succeed, try another Supreme Court justice. That’s what Mayer Brown’s Philip Lacovara did on behalf of his client, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., in seeking to delay release of thousands of pages of documents in sexual abuse cases brought against priests. After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied a stay of the release, Lacovara renewed his request to Justice Antonin Scalia. The stay application has now been referred to the full Court for consideration later this month.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal released a statement on Wednesday confirming that the firm has carried out additional layoffs, but a firm spokeswoman declined to say how many positions were eliminated, despite a report that the firm laid off fewer than two dozen associates. The move follows two previous rounds of cuts within the past 18 months, with 37 lawyers cut in May 2008 and 25 more attorneys laid off later that year.

Richard Weiner, a prominent New Jersey personal injury lawyer, paid a $5,000 federal civil penalty for sending solicitation letters to families of passengers killed in the February crash of commuter jet in Buffalo, N.Y., authorities announced Wednesday. A federal statute bars unsolicited contacts by lawyers within 45 days of an air-carrier accident. Weiner’s letters included the line, “please consider giving me the opportunity to sit down with you and discuss your rights with regard to this tragedy.”

Upset that a female employee continually missed work because of a diagnosed disability, a supervisor treated the woman with disdain, made snide comments about her absences and even showed disgust at her hygiene. The California Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday to decide whether such comments — which one justice called “mere rudeness” — constitute harassment by a manager that can subject a company to liability. The court’s decision could mean a difference of as much as $13 million in punitive damages.