Maxwell Kennerly › Likes

A participant at my recent seminar in Ottawa reminded me of something I’d never paid much attention to—the idea that one should draft without punctuation. It’s a hoary old notion that still lingers in Commonwealth jurisdictions. Here’s what an Australian text has to say on the subject: Traditional legal drafting uses punctuation sparingly. This has been [...]

Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood on DWI cases, from the Houston Press article (yes, it’s like crack): “Listen, most of the people we get off are intoxicated. But that’s the justice system,” he says. “I’ve always thought people would be very concerned if they knew what we were doing.” Tyler: You know that you’re talking to a [...]

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) has been a longtime advocate of televising sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court, a quest that has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears across First Street NE. But Specter noted today that the justices haven't exactly been...

Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to perform mixed-race marraiges, resigned Tuesday after weeks of calls for his ouster from civil rights groups and several public officials, including Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.

Entertainment law news this morning: Did James Cameron take his idea for "Avatar" from a 1957 novella? A number of websites have started remarking about the film's plot similarities to Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe." (1, 2, 3, etc.) One...

(Editor’s Note: This post is based on a Sullivan & Cromwell LLP client memorandum.) On October 22, 2009, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”) issued a comprehensive proposal (the “Proposal”) on incentive compensation policies that is intended to ensure that these policies do not undermine the safety and soundness of [...]

When I started this blog, I swore I would never do a post apologizing for not posting nor would I ever do a post making any sort of excuse for not posting. We are all busy and I hate excuses and unless one thinks this post violates that pledge, I am proud to say I have stuck by it. In fact, instead of not posting when I get crazy busy, I just tend to get more biting and ornery so if any apology is necessary, I apologize in advance for that. I also must dedicate this title to my Canadian international trade lawyer friend, Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, with whom I shared a podium at the just completed American Bar Association International Law Section Meeting in Miami. Cyndee commented to the crowd on how "shocking" my titles sometimes are and I thought of her when I penned this one. My ire today stems from perfectly fine domestic US lawyers who, for some unknown reason, deem themselves able to practice international law. They are not. Last week, I got an email from an unnamed company that...

As Emily Litella famously said: "Nevermind." In a post here last week, E-Mail Not Protected by 4th Amendment, Judge Says, we discussed a federal judge's ruling that the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures does not apply to e-mail. Our source was a post by Orin Kerr, professor at George Washington University Law School, at The Volokh Conspiracy. But the next day, Kerr posted the text of the opinion along with an important correction: In the course of re-reading the opinion to post it, I recognized that I was misreading a key part of the opinion. As I read it now, Judge Mosman does not conclude that e-mails are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Rather, he assumes for the sake of argument that the e-mails are protected (see bottom of page 12), but then concludes that the third party context negates an argument for Fourth Amendment notice to the subscribers. So what did the opinion say? The case involved search warrants for e-mail issued under the...

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument at 11 a.m. Monday in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates v. Allstate Insurance Co. (08-1008). Scott L. Nelson of Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, will be representing the Shady Grove, MD, clinic in the case, and Christopher Landau of Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, will be representing the insurance company. Argument Preview The [...]

Back in August, Esquire Magazine posted a series of "rules" that included this one: Esquire's Rule #1033. If your lawyer's email address ends in hotmail.com, gmail.com or yahoo.com (or aol.com), find a new lawyer. This prompted a flurry of discussion in this post on the Simple Justice blog (written by SHGLaw@aol.com, aka Scott Greenfield) and ultimately here on Legal Blog Watch as to the validity of Rule #1033. As Carolyn Elefant wrote at the time, I suppose that Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail addresses suggest that a lawyer is too cheap or lacking in tech savvy to set up an e-mail account on his own firm's server. In addition, some have raised privacy concerns about Gmail, which would presumably apply to the other services as well. Questions about the confidentiality of a firm's e-mail might be another reason for a client to avoid a lawyer using one of these services. This week, however, proponents of Gmail as a serious and professional business email service received a boost when the the...

Below, Sina Kian of Stanford Law School previews Hertz Corporation v. Friend, one of two cases to be heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, November 10. Check the Hertz Corp. v. Friend (08-1107) SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. Hertz Corp. v. Friend poses a question that has surprisingly escaped the Supreme Court’s attention until now: [...]

Reporter and LB colleague Dionne Searcey churned out a little gem of a story in the Journal today on the depths to which entertainment contracts have gone to hammer home the position that, well, we have rights and you don't.

By Amaris Elliott-Engel Of the Legal Staff If the Phillies win their second World Series title in a row, they won't just win more World Series rings. They'll also win the pro bono service of New York City Corporation Counsel...

Report here. News article here. One of the key issues is the effect of cost on minority enrollment. The GAO reports that "most" law schools don't blame the ABA's accreditation standards as having an impact on minority access.

Any law student who has taken a legal writing course has probably heard, repeatedly, that the passive voice is bad. Evil. To be avoided at all costs. In most cases I would agree this is true, and that vigorously purging the passive voice from your writing makes it clearer and easier to read. This post on the Legal Writing Prof Blog directs us to a good primer put out by the University of North Carolina Writing Center that debunks several myths about the passive voice, and also lays out at least three instances in which writers should feel free to use it. The passive voice "myths" include: Use of the passive voice constitutes a grammatical error: False, it is simply a stylistic issue related to clarity. If something is in the first person, it is in the active voice: False, e.g., "I was hit by the dodgeball." Grammar checkers will catch passive voice: False, grammar checkers typically catch only a fraction of passive voice usage. The article also presents circumstances in which the...

Since John Stossel has gone over to Fox Business News where he should be more at home, we’re happy to see 20/20 focusing on some better stories – like tonight’s piece on actress Alicia Cole (pictured). Alicia went to the...

It turns out Nigeria is taking measures to fight Internet scams—law enforcement there has shut down close to a thousand websites and made 18 arrests as part of a new initiative to save the nation's reputation and crack down on Internet scammers. The program, called "Project Eagle Claw," has only just begun, but Nigerian officials expect it to be fully operational in 2010. Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) described the initiative as "a renewed bid to clap down" (*clap clap*?) on Internet fraudsters. So far, the agency claims to have shut down 800 scam sites in addition to making the arrests, with many more apparently to come. EFCC Chairman Farida Waziri said Wednesday during a US address to the National Conference of Black Mayors that Nigeria was working with Microsoft to fully deploy Project Eagle Claw, and that it will soon be able to take down up to 5,000 fraudulent e-mails per month. She also expects the system to send up to 230,000 advisory e-mails to...

Despite Judge Rakoff's prodding of the SEC to focus on the individuals responsible for disclosure, the new complaint still just targets BofA, reports The Am Law Litigation Daily.

The Securities & Exchange Commission moved today to shine some light on dark pools. In a unanimous vote, the five SEC commissioners proposed measures to give investors a clearer view of dark pools - private trading systems that allow participants...

The Supreme Court has been deciding patent cases for almost two-hundred years. The Federal Circuit has less than thirty years experience. With that perspective, it may be no surprise that the Supreme Court rarely cites the Federal Circuit precedent when...

You might be surprised by what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authority over—protecting birds and DTV patents are on the list. Plus, it turns out that the FCC has a thumb in the system by which toll-free numbers get divvied up. Case in point: on Wednesday, the agency made an executive decision to permanently reassign the three best known suicide hotline help numbers from a financially stressed non-profit to a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The question in the title of this post is inspired by this new FindLaw commentary, which is headlined "What Kind Of Sentence Is Roman Polanski Facing?". Here is how the commentary starts and ends: Film director Roman Polanski's fate has...

I previously blogged (here and here) the tax consequences of President Obama's Nobel Prize: although the prize will cause some subtle tax headaches under various phaseouts rules (e.g., itemized deductions, AMT exemption), there will be no general tax advantages or disadvantaged to the President: he will either (1) include the...

In light of the recent disclosure that President Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize just 12 days after taking office and the initial opposition from the majority of the Committee (here), there is some interest on who was stepped over for the honor. The most striking “loser” in the competition was Dr. [...]

Below, Akin Gump’s Scott Street recaps Wednesday’s oral argument in Perdue v. Kenny A.  Check the Perdue v. Kenny A. (08-970) SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. It became clear during oral argument in Perdue v. Kenny A.—in which the Court will decide whether a court can ever enhance an attorney’s fee award under Section 1988 based [...]

Below, Akin Gump’s Scott Street recaps Wednesday’s oral argument in Perdue v. Kenny A.  Check the Perdue v. Kenny A. (08-970) SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. It became clear during oral argument in Perdue v. Kenny A.—in which the Court will decide whether a court can ever enhance an attorney’s fee award under Section 1988 based [...]

Philadelphia Inquirer, Putting a Price on Wharton’s Prestige: How much is a degree from the prestigious Wharton School worth? How about $435,678 -- the amount awarded last week by a federal court jury to a Massachusetts executive who says he was cheated out of one? ... Frank Reynolds, 45, said...

Below, Akin Gump’s Scott Street previews Perdue v. Kenny A., one of two cases to be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 14. Check the Perdue v. Kenny A. (08-970) SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. It is tempting to think of Perdue v. Kenny A., in which the Supreme Court will hear oral [...]

Below, Akin Gump’s Scott Street previews Perdue v. Kenny A., one of two cases to be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 14. Check the Perdue v. Kenny A. (08-970) SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. It is tempting to think of Perdue v. Kenny A., in which the Supreme Court will hear oral [...]

Bank of America's decision to waive attorney-client privilege in the investigations surrounding its merger with Merrill Lynch mean that the legal advice of its outside lawyers at Wachtell Lipton will likely become public.