The majority of a Fifth Circuit panel held today that a Texas ban on sale of "sexual devices" violates the fourteenth amendment. All three circuit judges agreed as to the unconstitutionality of the Texas statute to the extent it prohibited advertisements for sexual devices. The third panel member dissented as to the ban on sale
Tips on Working with Me
Supervising lawyers, whether in-house or outside, can profit from giving clear instructions to their charges. The same goes for general counsel types who oversee the work of law firm types regardless of seniority.
Blawgletter learned that from clerking for a Fifth Circuit judge — The Honorable Jerre S. Williams — going on a quarter century
Chocolate Probe Spreads to Chocolate-Making Country
The German Federal Cartel Office searched the premises of seven chocolate-makers on February 7, according to Bloomberg and Reuters today. The searchees included Mars, Nestle, Kraft, and Ritter.
Possible price-fixing among dominant chocolate-makers surfaced last November with disclosure of search warrants in Canada and then the firing up of a U.S. probe by the Antitrust
Why Do Clients Choose Contingent Fees?
A popular gaming device.
A study that Blawgletter mentioned earlier this week concluded that clients prefer contingent fee arrangements even if the deals require them to pay their lawyers more than double their hourly rates. What prompts such seemingly irrational behavior? The researchers give a simple answer: "mixed gambling".
For those who don’t regularly play
Does Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Care What You Think?
Frank Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit, revels in writing stream-of-consciousness opinions. This chronic self-indulgence comes across nicely in his rejection today of a tax shelter scheme that led to the demise of the Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm (whose name he misspells as "Jenkins & Gilchrist"). The opinion makes its readers wait until
Can You Say “F—face” in a Legal Periodical?
Force of nature.
Apparently you can. For that very sobriquet appears in the February 2008 issue of ABA Journal. The article — about Blawgletter’s senior partner, Steve Susman — has Steve saying it to a new associate.
Imagine our shock.
The youthful lawyer, by the way, is now a partner in the New York
New Study of Contingent Fees
Point of Law kindly pointed last Friday to a new academic paper on Blawgletter’s favorite subject — contingent fees. We haven’t digested the study yet. But in the next day or two we expect to give our take on the researchers’ findings, including their rejection of traditional "rational choice theory" in favor of "prospect theory"
Fifth Circuit Whacks Class Counsel’s Whacking Up of Fee
Contingent business law includes class actions involving commercial disputes. Such as the one over Shell gasoline that, because it left the refinery with too much sulfur, damaged consumers’ automobile fuel guages.
Today the Fifth Circuit considered the contingent aspect of the lawyers’ handling of the ensuing class litigation — the fee part. The district court
ABCs of Contingent Fees: What Happens If Lawyer and Client Disagree About Claim Viability?
In "Piece of the Pie", InsideCounsel reporter Melissa Maleske highlights this month how contingency fee arrangements have "become increasingly commonplace–and not just among plaintiffs in slip-and-fall cases, but in corporate America as well." She also goes on to discuss problems that may arise in contingent fee deals.
The first case involved a client
Quote of the Day: Nathan L. Hecht
The dissent charges that our decision “suggests a visceral distaste of class actions”. We disagree. We simply think that the rights of ten million vehicle owners and lessees across the United States should not be adjudicated in an action brought by three plaintiffs who cannot show more than the merest possibility of injury to themselves.