Friday, August 27, 2004
Premature Labor No Excuse for Missed Court Deadline
from the article:
"As the deadline approached, Cote's small law practice was beset with unforeseen distractions.
First, he was notified that an adoption application he and his wife submitted had been accepted and that he needed to go to China promptly to adopt the child. He left in September and stayed until late November.
Also that fall, Cote's partner, Theodore Limpert, was activated for reserve duty in Iraq. He did not get home until late December.
Finally, Cote's secretary, Jennifer Daily, went into premature labor in December and did not return until February."
from the article:
"As the deadline approached, Cote's small law practice was beset with unforeseen distractions.
First, he was notified that an adoption application he and his wife submitted had been accepted and that he needed to go to China promptly to adopt the child. He left in September and stayed until late November.
Also that fall, Cote's partner, Theodore Limpert, was activated for reserve duty in Iraq. He did not get home until late December.
Finally, Cote's secretary, Jennifer Daily, went into premature labor in December and did not return until February."
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Thursday, August 12, 2004
you would think that in this age where digitalization and electronic-everything supposedly streamlines our lives and improves the way we do things, that something called "e-discovery" would be a boone to lawfirms in terms of saving economic resources ... but apparently not ...
From The Surging Evolution of E-Discovery
"Electronic discovery -- or e-discovery -- has become much more complicated than simply pulling deleted e-mail messages off a hard drive. With the retrieval of electronic information sometimes exceeding six figures in large-scale litigation costs, motions, subpoenas and orders for e-discovery can push clients into settling to avoid the crippling cost of compliance, defense attorneys say."
but never fear ... where there are "six figures" involved inevitably some enterprising law firms will swoop into the niche to gobble up the excess ... behold, the E-DISCOVERY FIRM!!!
you figure there's got to be way to make it more cost-efficient with the introduction of e-discovery ... and I, as a survivor of the dreaded hard-copy 'document review', applaud any such efforts
From The Surging Evolution of E-Discovery
"Electronic discovery -- or e-discovery -- has become much more complicated than simply pulling deleted e-mail messages off a hard drive. With the retrieval of electronic information sometimes exceeding six figures in large-scale litigation costs, motions, subpoenas and orders for e-discovery can push clients into settling to avoid the crippling cost of compliance, defense attorneys say."
but never fear ... where there are "six figures" involved inevitably some enterprising law firms will swoop into the niche to gobble up the excess ... behold, the E-DISCOVERY FIRM!!!
you figure there's got to be way to make it more cost-efficient with the introduction of e-discovery ... and I, as a survivor of the dreaded hard-copy 'document review', applaud any such efforts
Friday, July 30, 2004
as a follow-up to the article about blogging lawsuits, see GROKLAW, which is a blog covering the SCO v. IBM lawsuit over open source rights to UNIX in excruciating detail
Thursday, July 29, 2004
came across this article today:
Blogs Dot the Litigation Landscape
seems like blogs are branching out and making themselves useful ...
one of the case blogs referred to is run by a lawyer named Reback for PeopleSoft, the target of a hostile takeover by Oracle; "At his client's request, Reback is 'blogging' the proceeding, sitting in the trial all day, taking notes, and filing an account on PeopleSoft's corporate Web site." How would that be - to be paid by your client to just sit in trial all day and take notes? sounds like the lawyer is acting as a specialized personal reporter for the client, but probably commanding a much higher salary than the average reporter.
another case blog involves the martha stewart trial; the defense team was able to take advantage of web capabilities in unexpedted ways: "One aspect that Morvillo said his team hadn't anticipated was the usefulness of the Web site in dealing with the media and outside lawyers. When motion papers were publically filed, they were posted on the site, and when others wanted a copy, 'it took the strain off our office to be able to just refer the interested parties to the site,' he said." Sounds like a really good idea, one that firms representing high-profile clients in other cases may emulate.
Finally, there's the personal touch:
"Between the expensive professionalism of Stewart's site and the ragtag Blake sites lies the site maintained by family members, such as www.myjaysonwilliams.com. Former National Basketball Association star Jayson Williams could surely afford the P.R. route in fighting charges of negligent homicide for firing a shotgun at his chauffeur.
But the strategy of his defense team was to downplay his wealth and to portray him as a loving and religious family man, a strategy bolstered by the Web site of his wife, Tanya Young Williams, a lawyer, who regularly posts gauzy photos and diary entries. The effect resembles a greeting card, but allows for occasional outbursts -- such as when she scored the prosecution for kicking black males off the jury -- without affecting the sentimental tone. Williams' first trial ended with a hung jury, and the site can be expected to continue into the retrial next January, if the judge doesn't intervene."
Blogs Dot the Litigation Landscape
seems like blogs are branching out and making themselves useful ...
one of the case blogs referred to is run by a lawyer named Reback for PeopleSoft, the target of a hostile takeover by Oracle; "At his client's request, Reback is 'blogging' the proceeding, sitting in the trial all day, taking notes, and filing an account on PeopleSoft's corporate Web site." How would that be - to be paid by your client to just sit in trial all day and take notes? sounds like the lawyer is acting as a specialized personal reporter for the client, but probably commanding a much higher salary than the average reporter.
another case blog involves the martha stewart trial; the defense team was able to take advantage of web capabilities in unexpedted ways: "One aspect that Morvillo said his team hadn't anticipated was the usefulness of the Web site in dealing with the media and outside lawyers. When motion papers were publically filed, they were posted on the site, and when others wanted a copy, 'it took the strain off our office to be able to just refer the interested parties to the site,' he said." Sounds like a really good idea, one that firms representing high-profile clients in other cases may emulate.
Finally, there's the personal touch:
"Between the expensive professionalism of Stewart's site and the ragtag Blake sites lies the site maintained by family members, such as www.myjaysonwilliams.com. Former National Basketball Association star Jayson Williams could surely afford the P.R. route in fighting charges of negligent homicide for firing a shotgun at his chauffeur.
But the strategy of his defense team was to downplay his wealth and to portray him as a loving and religious family man, a strategy bolstered by the Web site of his wife, Tanya Young Williams, a lawyer, who regularly posts gauzy photos and diary entries. The effect resembles a greeting card, but allows for occasional outbursts -- such as when she scored the prosecution for kicking black males off the jury -- without affecting the sentimental tone. Williams' first trial ended with a hung jury, and the site can be expected to continue into the retrial next January, if the judge doesn't intervene."
Monday, June 21, 2004
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Summertime ... and the living is easy ... now that school is out
The semester finished off with a bang - got all my final exams out of the way, finished writing my opinion (Locke v. Davey - I was in the minority in class but in reality the majority went with me) for the Supreme Court seminar, and then spent the next week writing a paper for my ERISA class (almost literally starting from scratch) while starting my new job (along with the 2+ hours of commuting a day). Whew.
But now we're in the flow of things for the summer. Working for the summer at Parr Waddoups in Salt Lake City. Things are going well - they treat us very well - lunches every day and fun social activities most weeks ... we're going to see Phantom of the Opera next week, and we have a river run, a Park City weekend, some mountain biking in Deer Valley, and a firm golf tournament lined up for the rest of the summer.
In other news - yesterday we had online registration for the Fall Semester ... I'm looking at 4 substantive classes - 1st Amdt, Business Associations, Secured Transactions, and Debtors and Creditors - to go with some easier credits (advanced legal research and a judicial seminar), plus law review (which will be interesting).
The semester finished off with a bang - got all my final exams out of the way, finished writing my opinion (Locke v. Davey - I was in the minority in class but in reality the majority went with me) for the Supreme Court seminar, and then spent the next week writing a paper for my ERISA class (almost literally starting from scratch) while starting my new job (along with the 2+ hours of commuting a day). Whew.
But now we're in the flow of things for the summer. Working for the summer at Parr Waddoups in Salt Lake City. Things are going well - they treat us very well - lunches every day and fun social activities most weeks ... we're going to see Phantom of the Opera next week, and we have a river run, a Park City weekend, some mountain biking in Deer Valley, and a firm golf tournament lined up for the rest of the summer.
In other news - yesterday we had online registration for the Fall Semester ... I'm looking at 4 substantive classes - 1st Amdt, Business Associations, Secured Transactions, and Debtors and Creditors - to go with some easier credits (advanced legal research and a judicial seminar), plus law review (which will be interesting).
