The Seventh Circuit just upheld dismissal of a securities case against PricewaterhouseCoopers. The plaintiffs alleged that they exchanged assets for stock of a PwC client, Anicom, Inc., in reliance on PwC’s false representations about Anicom’s financial condition. See the opinion here.
Blawgletter occasionally scans a website that styles itself "The Most Prestigious Law School Discussion Board in the World" and nearly always ends up fighting back a guffaw. What makes it funny?
Take a recent thread. The first post raises a "moral hypothetical question" — whether you should turn your best friend in for killing someone.
Does Chief Justice Roberts, left, not know the Gecko?
Blawgletter skimmed the transcript of the oral argument yesterday in GEICO General Ins. Co. v. Edo in search of any mention of the GEICO Gecko, who speaks with an Aussie/New Zeelander accent. None appeared. Chief Justice Roberts even asked at one point "[w]ho’s GEICO?" So much
Can inviting someone to become a law firm partner give her or him god-like qualities?
Put Blawgletter down as dubious, thinking as it does that genuine modesty never hurt any truly great lawyer. Confidence without humility doesn’t make anybody, including and maybe especially trial lawyers, more effective. And elevation to equity ownership has never yet
Vikings discover Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 — before
global warming took hold.
Norse explorer Leif Ericsson’s dad, Norse explorer Eric the Red, may have discovered Greenland for Europe, but the semi-autonomous island now belongs to Denmark. And, according to an article today in the newspaper of record, it keeps shrinking.
The cause? Rising
Did insurance company GEICO wilfully violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act by relying on "creative lawyering that provides indefensible answers" relating to the proper use of credit reports in setting premiums? The Ninth Circuit said yes, and the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case this morning. More information here.
The GEICO Gecko
On this day of remembrance, Blawgletter recommends to all a partner’s book about an epochal speech by the great American we honor — Drew D. Hansen, The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation (Ecco 2005).
Blawgletter also gets chills from another MLK speech. At the end of his
World’s largest digging machine.
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Insiders who keep shoveling after a company sinks into insolvency may find themselves defendants in a case under a deepening insolvency theory (hypothesis, really). Digger-defendants usually include officers, directors, and auditors who enable a company to keep losing money.
Courts have lately
In associate evaluations at Blawgletter’s law firm this year, any variation of attention to detail signaled promotion and a nice bonus. Inefficiency implied trouble. Efficient attention to detail thus spelled lawyerly success, at least at Blawgletter’s firm.
How does a business trial lawyer find the right balance between mastery of details and efficiency?
In Blink
Yesterday, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, Charles D. "Cully" Stimson, suggested a way to expedite legal proceedings for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Paying clients should fire the detainees’ lawyers, many of them from major U.S. law firms.
Huh?
Mr. Stimson implied that law firms’ pro bono work for detainees reflects
