Posts on ‘September 11th, 2009’

The movement to incorporate practical skills into legal education isn’t new, but legal educators and researchers report that the floundering economy is increasing incentives for law schools to revamp their curricula to prepare students for the realities of the legal profession. One of the boldest moves? Washington and Lee University School of Law has thrown out its traditional third-year curriculum and replaced it with a series of legal simulations meant to prepare students to practice law in the real world.

Three years ago, after being worn down by a caseload of contentious divorce cases, Lisa Wexler began looking for a job that better fit her personality. She was in the car one day listening to talk radio, when the idea sparked in her head. “I decided I could do better than what I heard,” said Wexler, who is a solo practitioner in Connecticut. Today, Wexler is the host of the “Live With Lisa” talk show, which she describes as “a bridge between [National Public Radio] and commercial radio.”

Lawyers for “Survivor” show winner and “naked guy” Richard Hatch say he’s being unconstitutionally held in prison because federal rules limiting prisoners’ media contact do not apply to prisoners in home confinement. The lawyers say the U.S. Bureau of Prisons threw Hatch into solitary confinement last month because he criticized the government in television interviews conducted during his home confinement for a tax-evasion conviction.

Why did Bank of America Corp. fire its general counsel last December in the middle of a controversial merger? According to sources, GC Tim Mayopoulos was called out of a meeting and into the office of then-chief risk officer Amy Brinkley, who fired Mayopoulos on the spot and had him escorted from the building without giving a reason. It wasn’t performance-related, says corporate spokesman Robert Stickler, and it wasn’t related “to any advice he was giving on the Merrill Lynch merger.” Then why?

White & Case has shaken up its executive committee as a New York
intellectual property partner stepped down to be replaced by the head of
the firm’s London office. The firm said Dimitrios Drivas would “devote
himself full time to serving clients and further developing” the firm’s
IP practice, which he heads globally. Drivas will be replaced by Oliver
Brettle, the London managing partner. Until now, London has lacked
representation on the executive committee, which is principally in
charge of decision making at the firm.

The years-long court proceedings involving alleged accounting fraud and the ultimate liquidation of beverage maker Le-Nature’s Inc. now includes K&L Gates. Le-Nature’s trustee has sued the firm, partner Sanford Ferguson and accounting firm Pascarella & Wiker for their alleged “stunning failure” to detect fraud in the company during an internal investigation they were hired to undertake three years before Le-Nature’s collapsed. The liquidation trustee claims the firms’ actions resulted in $500 million in damages.

When his girlfriend said no to sex, Brandon Hampson flew into a rage and beat her, a New York prosecutor told a jury on Thursday. But the attack was caused by Hampson’s withdrawal from the antidepressant Zoloft, his attorney told jurors. Hampson is on trial for assaulting his girlfriend and then preventing her from leaving, prosecutors charge. The case has drawn nationwide attention because of the unusual defense put forth by Hampson — that Zoloft side effects caused the attack.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in San Francisco’s favor over an ordinance that blocks sales of cigarettes at the city’s drug stores. Counsel for Philip Morris had argued that the city law violates the company’s First Amendment right to advertise its product. The 9th Circuit upheld a district court ruling that the ordinance doesn’t infringe on the company’s freedom of expression since it limits where cigarettes can be sold and doesn’t prevent Philip Morris from advertising.

Missy Chase Lapine, author of “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals,” has come up empty in her claims against Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica. Lapine had sued Jessica, author of “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food,” for copyright and trademark infringement. But federal district court Judge Laura Swain threw those claims out in a decision released Thursday, finding sufficient differences between the books.

Two former Luzerne County judges are expected to be arraigned on racketeering and related charges next week, according to a federal magistrate judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The arraignment, scheduled for 10 a.m. Sept. 15, will be the first time Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. formally stand before a judge in a court of record since they entered conditional guilty pleas in February.