The NYT yesterday wrote about hard times at a Wall Street law firm. The item stressed the firm's 108 years and its fall into layoffs, a victim (it says) of the slow down in deals. The trend will likely go on for awhile.
But Blawgletter also senses that the fear of suing has started to abate. Plenty of bad
Today the Third Circuit joined eight other courts of appeals in holding that the "discovery rule" applies in cases under the Copyright Act. William A. Graham Co. v. Haughey, No. 08-2007 (3d Cir. June 5, 2009). The court also reinstated a jury's verdict that "storm warnings" hadn't put the plaintiff on notice of defendant's
CM/ECF stands for case management and electronic filing system. Federal courts use it to allow counsel for parties to file things — pleadings, motions, vacation letters, whatnot. It also permits court clerks to post notices, including of hearings and trials, as well as orders and opinions.
The ease that CM/ECF newly affords has a
Reuters reports that the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice wants to know if high tech firms colluded in their hiring practices.
None of the targets — including Google, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft, and Genentech — has posted a press release. But Reuters quotes a Genentech statement:
Our understanding is that a number of
Asbestosis inflames and scars lungs. It causes shortness of breath. And it increases the risk, and fear, of lung cancer.
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a summary decision, reversed a $5 million verdict and judgment for an asbestosis victim, Thurston Hensley. Mr. Hensley contracted the disease from breathing asbestos fibers during 33 years of work as an electrician for
Note the cuddly lower-case logo.
Microsoft came out yesterday with "a new search experience and consumer brand", according to its "Bing Virtual Presskit".
Can Bing compete with the Google — even the Google Chrome, now in beta testing?
Blawgletter ran into free speech expert Paul Watler today. He's a partner at Jackson Walker LLP in Dallas. We asked after the health of the first amendment. He said the struggle never ends.
A little later Paul sent me a link to an article he wrote about a new Texas law that protects professional journalists from
Jeffrey Toobin writes a lot about the law, lawyers, even judges. His oeuvre includes, for example, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (2007). (NYT review here.) Plus he comments on CNN, which may say something about his leanings.
Anyway, he recently published a longish profile of Chief Justice John Roberts (in The New Yorker
President Barack Obama today nominated Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. NYT article here, WSJ here, Washington Post here, FOX News here, CNN here.
Judge Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx; graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1976
A new federal statute that took effect last week, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, broadened the Civil War-era False Claims Act. (FERA did several other things, too. See White House "fact sheet" here.)
The False Claims Act in general authorizes private citizens to sue for the federal government. Suits aim to recover civil