This week in Maryland Lawyer

July 21, 2008

* Foreign-born lawyers may have an advantage in landing clients in their own ethnic communities, but there’s a downside, too. Miss a phone call or lose a case, and, as one lawyer says, “It’s not just one person who’s unhappy. It’s potentially 50 people who are not going to go to me.” Read more in “An Ethnic Niche.”

* The Objections. The Mighty, Mighty Barristers. The Contemptations. The Appealables. Who knew that so many folks who owe their living to conflict could be so big on harmony? Read “Keeping their day jobs,” see a video of the Objections, hear a clip from Badabing Blues, and by all means, blog about these or other lawyer bands.

* In the news, a lawyer for Annapolis-based Core Communications talks about its seven-year battle against the FCC and the most recent blistering opinion by the D.C. Circuit; the Court of Special Appeals gives neighbors a partial win in their ongoing fight against a “quad” housing complex near the Johns Hopkins University; and the 4th Circuit’s Hatfill decision gets mixed reviews.

* In Verdicts & Settlements, Brendan Kearney reports on a homeowner who won $13,000 in a subprime mortgage case, along with $17,000 in attorneys’ fees.

* In “My First…,” prosecutor Adam Lippe remembers a domestic violence client who came back years later and apologized for not implicating her boyfriend in his trial for abuse.

PLUS: An Interrogatory on the most important SCOTUS decision of the term…Andy Baida wraps up his brief-writing checklist… Briefs and Week in Review…Our weekly Law Digest and 14 case summaries from the Court of Special Appeals and 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.