Angelos employees backing Biden
August 27, 2008
USA Today has a story today about Joe Biden’s ties to lawyers who specialize in asbestos litigation and his votes on measures that would affect this area of the law. (Hat tip: WSJ Law Blog.) Here’s the lede (yes, that’s how we spell it in journalism) of the story:
Sen. Joe Biden worked to defeat a bipartisan bill designed to curb asbestos lawsuits at a time his son’s law firm was filing them in Delaware and a former aide was lobbying against the measure, according to public records and interviews.
The story notes that three of Biden’s largest contributors over his career have been firms specializing in plaintiff-side asbestos work. (The employees or PACs gave, not the firms themselves.)
You can probably see where this is going. The story doesn’t name the firms, but a quick trip to Open Secrets, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that one of them — the one that gave the most money, in fact — is the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos. Employees of Angelos’ firm have given Biden $156,250 since 1989, making the firm Biden’s fourth-largest contributor.
As you can imagine, Angelos’ lawyers were also kind to Biden during his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president this year. Employees of the firm gave him $50,750, making them his third-largest contributor.
USA Today notes that Barack Obama has touted his vote for 2005’s Class Action Fairness Act “as evidence he was willing to stand up to trial lawyers.” I wonder if that will be enough to keep Angelos’ lawyers from directing a whole mess of money Obama and Biden’s way this fall. I doubt it, especially since, as the story points out, Obama, like Biden, voted against a series of measures that would have limited asbestos litigation.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentWSJ on Closius and UB Law’s rank
August 26, 2008
For those of you who missed it, the University of Baltimore School of Law was featured prominently today in a Wall Street Journal story about the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. The magazine is thinking of revamping its ranking criteria to address the widespread practice of admitting inferior applicants as part-timers, since part-time students’ LSAT scores and undergraduate grades don’t count in the rankings.
Amir Efrati writes:
One of the top beneficiaries of the current U.S. News criteria is Phillip Closius, former dean of the University of Toledo’s law school. He led the school’s rise from the list’s fourth tier to its second tier within a few years. After he took the helm of the University of Baltimore law school last year, that school also quickly climbed the rankings, to 125 this year from 170 last year, he says. (Schools in the third and fourth tiers aren’t publicly ranked — instead they are grouped together — but deans can find out where they placed.)
Mr. Closius’s winning strategy in both places: Cut the number of full-time students accepted into the program to boost the median LSAT scores and GPAs, which together account for more than 20% of a school’s ranking. In their place, the schools add more part-time students, who can transfer to full-time the second year.
Closius says the strategy is good for weaker students because it lets them ease into law school. He also tied the improved rank to subsequent “multimillion-dollar grants and donations for a new building.”
The story also has a small chart showing how some schools’ ranks this year would have been different had part-timers been counted. According to that chart, the University of Maryland School of Law, which placed 42nd, would have been ranked a bit lower, in the mid- or high 40s.
Ron Miller over at the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog posts about this story, too.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentBreaking a contract for spite
August 26, 2008
I will see Judge Roger W. Titus’ Johnny Cash analogy and raise him Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr.’s “Seinfeld” citation.
Harrell, writing for the Court of Appeals in its Clancy v. King decision released today, references dialogue from an episode titled “The Wig Master.” In one scene, Jerry unsuccessfully attempts to return a jacket he bought at a men’s store “for spite” because he does not like the salesman who sold it to him. (“Seinfeld” fans will know the salesman as the pony-tailed Craig, who keeps promising Elaine the new shipment of Nicole Miller dresses will be arriving soon.)
Calling Jerry an “unlikely legal illustrator,” Harrell found the incident “epitomized the duty of good faith in contract.” Jerry could only return the jacket if it did not fit or he did not like it, Harrell wrote in footnote 27.
“He may not return the jacket, however, for the sole purpose of denying to the other party the value of the contract,” the judge wrote.
No word yet, however, as to whether or not a handshake can be considered a pact and what penalty is appropriate for double-dippers.
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThe case of the ‘mongrel Mercedes’
August 26, 2008
U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus is at it again.
Earlier this month, Titus seized upon the train theme in a case of alleged racial discrimination to narrate its procedural history.
Last week, the Greenbelt judge likened a Bethesda physical therapist’s allegations that she was sold a “mongrel” Mercedes Benz (PDF) — one pieced together from “leftover spare parts” — to the “Psycho-Billy Cadillac” in Johnny Cash’s ballad about a similar stitch-up job, “One Piece at a Time.”
While Cash’s character was tickled by the success of his caper, Dr. Pepi Schafler was not happy with her “abomination of a car.” In her multi-count complaint filed July 15 against the dealer and various other parties, she alleges the passenger seat’s manual controls “look to be 50 years old,” the dashboard controls are “pretend,” and the car doors are “odd and bizarre.”
After Titus dismissed the case sua sponte for lack of complete diversity two weeks later, Schafler, who claims to have earned a J.D., sought reconsideration, arguing the judge acted beyond his powers.
“However, Plaintiff’s version of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, like her car, is missing some crucial parts,” Titus wrote in a short opinion Wednesday, before pointing out recent revisions to that text.
But if Dr. Schafler’s past litigiousness is any indication, she’s no stranger to such legal wrangling, and I doubt we’ve heard the last from her. As long as the case file doesn’t end up weighing as much as the title paperwork for Cash’s car…
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThis week in Maryland Lawyer
August 25, 2008
In this economy, should you be getting rid of clients? Some lawyers say the practice, known as culling, is necessary to maintain a healthy practice.
Unionized workers can sell their right to recovery under two federal labor laws, a federal judge in Maryland has ruled. According to the decision itself, it is the first time any U.S. District Court, anywhere, has addressed the issue.
The representative of an estate can sympathize with the family suing the estate — he claims that he, too, was a victim of fraud by the decedent.
A decision written by a Court of Special Appeals judge who died before it was filed is a nullity, the Court of Appeals has ruled.
Also:
* Unbillable Hours: Kathleen Cahill’s office was the Obama campaign’s first Maryland headquarters.
* My First: Louis M. Leibowitz ignored the courthouse gossip and focused on his case — and won.
* Verdicts & Settlements: The city of Baltimore agrees to pay more than $42,000 to a man whose right arm was broken shortly after his arrest.
* Legal Briefs: The Court of Special Appeals has held that the search of vehicle was improper because the police did not have a reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe the driver was selling drugs.
* Case Digests: Read condensed versions of decisions by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court in Maryland.
CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor
Sphere: Related ContentLaw blog round-up
August 25, 2008
Welcome back! Here are a few law links for your Monday:
* Douglas Colbert, professor at University of Maryland’s law school, writes about the importance of teaching future lawyers about their professional duty to do pro bono.
* Like our own Christina Doran, Paul Mark Sandler weighs in on expert witness hot tubbing.
* Jon Katz writes that the Trial Lawyers College gave him the ability to “talk[] to the jury, witnesses and judge the same way s/he would talk to his or her best friends, without a bunch of notes intervening, and with a heart that cares not only about the lawyer’s client, but also about everyone else in the courtroom…”
* It’s OCI season! Writes the anonymous blogger behind the Hiring Partner’s Office blog: “I also consider if this is someone that I could take with me to a client’s office tomorrow. If I have to train you how to act professionally and normally, I am passing.” He or she also has some other words of advice for students interviewing on campus or elsewhere.
* Via Lawbeat, the New York Times wrote over the weekend that immigration judges selected by the Bush administration with an apparent eye toward their politics deny a disproportionate number of asylum applications.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentAttorneys with Olympian endurance
August 22, 2008
Above the Law points out that the Lithuanian silver and bronze medalists in the men’s pentathlon are both lawyers. I wonder: are there any Maryland lawyers who have won Olympic medals? What about attorneys who have accomplished some other notable athletic feat?
If you know someone who fits the bill, let me know. The athletic attorney might be featured in a future “Unbillable Hours” column, our semi-regular look at lawyers with unique outside-of-work interests.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentVolunteers help eligible apply for stimulus payments
August 21, 2008
This morning I visited the Southwest Senior Center in West Baltimore. It was the site of a free financial clinic hosted by the Baltimore CASH Campaign, an outreach group that’s comprised of nonprofits, community-based organizations and city agencies.
This past Monday, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Congressman John Sarbanes launched the CASH campaign’s effort to help underprivileged people apply for economic stimulus payments.
Altogether, 36,000 eligible residents from Baltimore city and county (many of whom are senior citizens or are disabled) have not filed a tax return and therefore have not received a stimulus payment.
Before I arrived at the senior center — which is one of three sites set up for free clinics — I envisioned the tax return process to take at least half an hour. But with a tax professional on hand, the applicants were out the door after five minutes.
About 50 people have come to the free clinics so far, according to Pam Cheney, the Director of the UMD Law School Tax Clinic.
Cheney said media exposure and word on the streets should increase awareness and draw an even bigger turnout to the clinics planned for September.
The deadline to file for a stimulus check is October 15th and the payments are worth a minimum of $300 per person.
RICHARD SIMON, Multimedia Reporter
The Big Picture
August 21, 2008
I don’t know Judge Lawrence R. Daniels personally, but I always enjoy witnessing him in action in Baltimore County Circuit Court. The bowtie-wearing Daniels always seems to speak in measured but pleasant tones. He is willing to engage in a back-and-forth with lawyers and correct them when appropriate. He’s intellectual without being a show-off; I imagine he would make a great law professor.
But what I like best about Daniels is he often reminds his courtroom of the big picture. A few months ago, for example, Daniels granted a convicted first-degree murderer the chance to appeal his sentence but warned the man he would be “playing not with fire, but with lighted explosives” because the sentence could be increased.
Tuesday, after a jury left to deliberate the first-degree murder charge against Jason Michael Hammonds, Daniels took a minute to praise the lawyers on both sides for an “exemplary job of organizing their cases” during the seven-day trial. Both sides could leave the courtroom knowing they had presented winning arguments, Daniels said.
Then the judge turned his attention to the 20 or so people observing the trial, mostly family members.
“That’s the way a real trial is to be presented to a jury,” Daniels said, criticizing the “foolishness” of TV lawyers. “My only wish is the public would see the presentation and see what our legal system is all about.”
And with that, Daniels went back to his chamber.
- DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThe $1.5M wife
August 20, 2008
Normally, a lawyer will receive a nice contingency fee in a medical malpractice suit. In this case, the lawyer got a new wife instead — but for a hefty price.
The Mississippi Supreme Court recently affirmed a $1.5 million verdict against Mississippi lawyer Ronald Henry Pierce for having an affair with his client’s wife, the ABA Law Journal reports.
Ernest Cook was not pleased, to say the least, when he learned that Pierce was having an affair with his wife, Kathleen.
The Cooks had hired Pierce to represent them and their son in a med-mal case in 1997. After Ernest Cook moved to California in 2000 — but while Pierce was still representing the Cooks and their son — Pierce and Kathleen had an affair, the Aug. 14 opinion states (PDF).
Pierce was fired, and the Cooks eventually divorced in 2002. Pierce and Kathleen later married and had a child.
Ernest Cook decided to get even the American way. He sued Pierce for intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and alienation of affection, and won a $1.5M verdict in 2006.
Something tells me Pierce might have been better off with the contingency fee….
CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor
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