Former Kansas Attorney General and current Liberty University law professor Phill Kline is now indefinitely suspended from the practice of law due to his investigation of abortion clinics run by the late George Tiller and by Planned Parenthood. Tiller was murdered in 2009 while attending church in Wichita with his wife. While opting not to disbar Kline, the Kansas Supreme Court found “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct (including the violation of 11 rules) to warrant indefinite suspension.
Category: Lawyering
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
Back in July of this year, we discussed a successful request by oil giant Chevron to subpoena 9 years of metadata from countless defendants and non-defendants. This was arguably an attempt to attack a $19 Billion dollar judgment handed down by an Ecuadorian court against Chevron by going after the parties involved in the lawsuit.
Chevron was not deterred when the United States Supreme Court refused to review the judgment. It merely went on the attack and found an allegedly friendly judge in New York to assist in refusing to pay the judgment owed to various indigenous communities that were devastated by Chevron’s predecessor’s actions in the rainforests where it was drilling for oil. We need to revisit this issue now that the RICO action filed by Chevron started this week in New York. Continue reading “Chevron Owes $19 Billion and Doesn’t Want to Pay!”
My opposition to the ever-expanding trademark and copyright laws is well known. (For a prior column, click here). Common phrases and symbols are being snatched up as Congress and the Obama Administration continue to yield to every demand for higher levels of penalties and prosecutions. Now we have a personal injury firm — Geoff McDonald & Associates — that has knuckled under to a threat from GEICO insurance because it used an obvious (and stated) parody in a commercial. This is an office filled with attorneys and yet they pulled the commercial because of an obvious joke. If they cannot stand up to the copyright and trademark hawks, consider the position of average citizens faced with threatening letters. Even other insurance companies have folded under pressure from GEICO in parody commercials. It is not clear if GEICO will now move against zoos and elementary schools who try to feature geckos. Before I am sued by the lawyers at GEICO, the picture to the left is a body part of a common gecko found in the wild. He has no connection to the insurance company and is not meant to mock it in any way.
There is an interesting decision out of the King County Bar Association after the bar grappled with questions from lawyers as to whether they can smoke marijuana after the state legalized pot despite that the fact that it is still deemed a crime under federal law. The bar associate said that the ethical lawyer could smoke pot so long as it did not interfere with their ability to represent clients. While some would question that standard, the same personal responsibility on consumption applies to alcohol use by lawyers.
Continue reading “Seattle Bar: Lawyers Can Ethically Smoke Pot”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
We have discussed the thousands who have been killed by guns in this country on several occasions on Professor Turley’s blog and we have seen some of the same responses from both sides of the discussions about reasonable restrictions on gun ownership and use. Some say that any restriction on gun ownership, no matter how small, is a violation of their Second Amendment rights.
Some of those who are in favor of reasonable gun control measures, point to the sheer numbers of women and children and men who die each day due to senseless murders and sorrowful accidents. Emotional arguments and reasons have been offered by both sides of the discussion, but yet not a single worthwhile National gun control measure has become law and the killings and deaths continue unabated.
To my dismay and shock, not even the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, where 20 small school children and 6 staff members lost their lives to an arguably mentally ill shooter, produced any resulting legislation that could be argued offers some relief in the ever larger numbers of gun deaths.
While researching this article I had trouble finding articles written on this subject after April of 2013. There were many articles, including articles on this blog from December of 2012 through April of 2013, but very little since. In light of the dearth of media interest since April of this year, I am curious about what it will take for the United States of America to decide it is time to stop killing itself? Continue reading “When Will We Decide to Stop the Killings by Guns?”
I am in New Mexico today to speak at the first conference of the New Mexico Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. The establishment of the chapter is a significant milestone for the New Mexico bar, which only recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of New Mexico’s statehood. The chapter will finally integrate the New Mexico bar into the national association of lawyers practicing in the federal system.
Continue reading “Federal Bar Association Opens Chapter In New Mexico”
Forbes has a story on the ranking of law school on employment placement and salaries. I am happy to report that George Washington has placed within top ten schools. The dip in the legal market has affected applications at top schools but overall the impact is felt more severely at the lower ranked law schools. While legal education remains expensive, it remains a good investment for many students. The problem occurs at law schools with low bar passage rates and employment placement. We previously discussed how some of the lowest ranked schools report the highest levels of debt for students. There are some law schools which have dubious academic programs and even more dubious claims of placement. Frankly, some paring of law schools would be a benefit in this economic downturn as would more demanding certification standards by the American Bar Association.
Continue reading “GW Makes Top Ten Law Schools on Job Placement”
Former Democratic congressman and Auditor General Don Bailey, 68, had his law license suspended for five years by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for allegations and criticism directed at judges in the state. Bailey denounced the ruling and said that he would challenge it in federal court while denouncing the state justices as corrupt and malicious. While some would agree with the case, there is a worrisome line of cases targeting lawyers who criticize judges.
We have been following the highly dubious litigation of cross claims between Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Kurzon Strauss and some bloggers. The law school filed a defamation claims against the firm and bloggers who criticized the institution’s portrayal of its graduates’ employment statistics. United States District Judge Robert J. Jonker has now dismissed the case. However, in a rather curious lesson for its students, Cooley is pledging to continue the litigation with an appeal.
Destiny Desbrow certainly had a marriage ceremony that would be hard to forget. It has the usual features of most weddings: a cake, a ring, and an audience. However, the location and time was a bit odd. She married Danne Desbrow just minutes after he was sentenced to 53 years to life for murder by Judge Patricia Cookson who not only had sentenced him but baked the cake for the wedding.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
I saw this story during this past week and I have to admit, that it made my stomach turn. Despite the increased interest some in Congress and in the Pentagon have shown in how accusations of rape by female members of the military are treated, women can still jeopardize their careers and their mental well-being if they bring charges against their alleged attackers.
‘”For roughly 30 hours over several days, defense lawyers for three former United States Naval Academy football players grilled a female midshipman about her sexual habits. In a public hearing, they asked the woman, who has accused the three athletes of raping her, whether she wore a bra, how wide she opened her mouth during oral sex and whether she had apologized to another midshipman with whom she had intercourse “for being a ho.”’ New York Times Continue reading “The Military’s War on Women Continues”
Attorney Andrea Pelligreni has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her former client for a culture of sexism and improper behavior. A lawyer suing a client for such misconduct can be a challenge in itself, but when your client is named the “Insane Clown Posse” it is especially difficult. While many would view working with the Insane Clown Posse to be something of an assumption of risk, Pelligreni insists that she was shocked and moved to tears in working with the recording group and particularly two members of Insane Clown Posse, Joseph “Shaggy 2 Dope” Bruce and Joseph “Violent J” Utsler. Other defendants include Psychopathic Records; its president, William Dail; and some of its employees. It makes for a curious cite as an attorney sues defendants named “Shaggy 2 Dope” and “Violent J” and Psychopathic Records for being shockingly immature and demeaning and . . . well . . . insane.
We previously discussed the scandal involving federal prosecutors in New Orleans posting public comments attacking defendants and targets on various websites. That earlier scandal led to the discovery of even more widespread misconduct and yesterday to the overturning of a major prosecution of police officers. Describing the conduct of the Justice Department lawyers as “grotesque,” U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ordered a new trial for officers accused of deadly shootings at the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent cover-up.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
I know it may not surprise you that banks may be screwing homeowners in light of their past bad and illegal tactics in foreclosing home loans. However, in light of the fact that five of the largest banks agreed in a settlement in 2012 to end their deceptive and illegal foreclosure actions, their refusal or inability to control the contractors they hire in the foreclosure process may end them back in front of regulators.
Recently, the State of Illinois filed suit against the largest property management company that some of these very same banks use, and alleged that the company, Safeguard Properties, LLC, illegally broke into homes of people who were involved in a foreclosure or about to be foreclosed on and removed possessions and in some cases stole or damaged borrower’s personal property. Continue reading “Bad Banks Continue to Screw Homeowners”
While it was not long ago that President Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other officials insisted that there was no illegal surveillance in the massive warrantless programs disclosed by Snowdon and others, new documents show that the National Security Agency not only violated the law for years but actively misled judges on the use of such illegal surveillance. The programs covered millions of call records and was only acknowledged by the Administration after a lawsuit by civil libertarians — a lawsuit that it has tried to dismiss (like dozens of others tossed out at the demand of the Obama Administration).