Overlawyered » Manhattan Institute

November 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:56:20 +0000

Manhattan Institute’s “Trial Lawyers Inc.” series looks at cozy relations between state attorneys general and plaintiff’s bar [report, related featured discussion, Copland, Examiner] Report comes down hard on Ohio’s Richard Cordray, nominee to head CFPB [Copland, Gorodetski/PoL] Judge tosses Cordray suit against credit rating agencies [O'Brien/LNL, Krauss/American Thinker] Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller denounces report [IowaPolitics.com]
“The Tort of Internet Mobbing Is Perfect For Suing The Internet” [Popehat]
Canada faces challenge to hate speech law [Arthur Bright, Citizen Media Law] Do not put a frog down Her Majesty’s back at the county fair [Lowering the Bar]
“Markopolos eyes a fortune from BNY whistleblowing” [Felix Salmon] “Bounty hunters in Korea” and closer to home [Alex Tabarrok] “Developments in Whistleblower Laws: Advantage Whistleblower” [Larry Wood & Richard William Diaz, Federalist Society "Engage"]
As third party liability for crime anecdotes go, the case of Bonilla v. Motel 6 is on the lurid side [Point of Law]
Prospect of cyberwar: official U.S. response is commando lawyering [Stewart Baker, Foreign Policy]
Why it’s hard to stimulate manufacturing through product liability reform in one state [Rick Esenberg]

Tags: attorneys general, free speech in Canada, Iowa, Manhattan Institute, Ohio, product liability, third party liability for crime, whistleblowers

Manhattan Institute podcast on Schools for Misrule

Walter Olson — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:33:58 +0000

I spoke about my new book before a luncheon crowd yesterday at my former institute in New York City — several distinguished law professors were in attendance — and Jim Copland interviewed me afterward. We talked about how this book grew out of my earlier work, why international rights are such a coming area in law schools, and much more. The resulting audio podcast runs just over 10 minutes; you may need to turn the volume up higher than normal to hear it properly. You can and should buy Schools for Misrule itself here (Amazon commission as well as regular royalty benefits me).

On the radio front, I was a guest on Jason Lewis’s nationally syndicated (Minneapolis-based) show on Monday, and will be a guest today at 11 Eastern on Ron Smith’s show on WBAL Baltimore (audio).

Tags: live in person, Manhattan Institute, on TV and radio, Schools for Misrule

Schools for Misrule spring speaking tour

Walter Olson — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:27:17 +0000

[cross-posted from Cato at Liberty]

The first copies of my new book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America are here from the printer, and I’ll be touring the country to promote it in coming weeks. Some highlights:

February 21. Bloomington, Ind. Indiana University Law School, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
February 22. Urbana-Champaign, Ill. University of Illinois School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter. Commenting will be Prof. Larry Ribstein.
March 3. Washington, D.C. Cato Institute Policy Forum. Commenting on the book will be the Hon. Douglas Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals, and moderating will be Cato legal director Roger Pilon.
March 10. University of Minnesota, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter. Commenting will be Profs. Brad Clary and Oren Gross, and moderating will be Prof. Dale Carpenter.
March 16. New York, N.Y. Manhattan Institute luncheon (invitation). Commenting will be James Copland, Manhattan Institute.
March 22. Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation forum. Commenting/moderating: Todd Gaziano, Heritage Foundation.
March 28. Boulder, Colo. University of Colorado School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
March 29. Laramie, Wyo. University of Wyoming School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
March 30. Sacramento, Calif. McGeorge School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
April 6. New York, N.Y. Manhattan Institute Young Leaders evening event (private).
April 7. Washington, D.C. American University Law School, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
April 13. Washington, D.C. Book club appearance (private).
April 27-29. Dallas, Tex. Heritage Foundation Resource Bank meeting (private).

Always check in advance with the hosting group for venues and exact times; some events open to the public require advance registration. The book’s official publication date is March 1, and copies should be arriving in the bookstores soon.

Tags: Cato Institute, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, live in person, Manhattan Institute, Schools for Misrule, Wyoming

January 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:12:58 +0000

More commentary on Obama regulatory initiative [Federal News Radio with quotes from Cass Sunstein, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steven Malanga, David Harsanyi, Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Iain Murray, Lammi/WLF, earlier]
Corporate governance buffs will want to check out new Proxy Monitor website from Manhattan Institute which includes a database of shareholder resolution activity at the 100 largest public companies [Jim Copland/Point of Law (some early empirical findings), Bainbridge ("This is going to be a great resource for anyone interested in shareholder activism"), ShopFloor]
Lawyer solicits subway blizzard strandees. OK under NY rules? [Turkewitz]
California reform ideas: “A Modest Proposal For Fixing Proposition 65″ [Cal Biz Lit] “A Better Consumer Legal Remedies Act” [same]
Proposed criminal prohibition on doctors’ questioning patients about guns “would violate the First Amendment, as well as just being a lousy idea” [Volokh]
Oldest federal bench ever — and the problems that can cause [Joseph Goldstein, Slate]
Attention “payday lending” critics: “Lawsuit Loans Add New Risk for the Injured” [NY Times, Kenneth Anderson, California Civil Justice; defenses of champerty/litigation finance from Larry Ribstein and Stephen Gillers]
Wisconsin student sues unsuccessfully over summer homework requirement for pre-calculus class [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Barack Obama, California, chasing clients, First Amendment, judges, litigation finance, Manhattan Institute, New York, Prop 65, Securities and Exchange Commission

May 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:42:34 +0000

Failure to warn? “Non-Child Sues For Slide-Related Injury” [Lowering the Bar]
“AG Cuomo Sues Lawyer for Fraud, Says He Sold His Name to Debt Collector for $141K” [ABA Journal]
Ted Frank on his move to the Manhattan Institute and Point of Law [CCAF]
“Viacom is becoming a lawsuit company instead of a TV company” [Doctorow, BoingBoing]
UK: “NHS pays £10,000 to family of psychiatric patient who committed suicide” [Times Online]
American Cancer Society: federal advisory panel’s chemicals-cause-cancer alarms are overblown [NYTimes] More: Taranto, WSJ.
“Who Knew Bankruptcy Paid So Well?” [NYTimes]
Famed sleuth Bloomberg Holmes on the case: was the Pathfinder headed for a vile sodium den? [IowaHawk]

Tags: bankruptcy, debtor-creditor law, environment, failure to warn, Manhattan Institute, salt, suicide, Ted Frank, YouTube

Joining Cato, and a farewell to the Manhattan Institute

Walter Olson — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:26:37 +0000

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve joined the Cato Institute as a senior fellow, effective this week. As most readers of this site know well, Cato is the premier voice for individual liberty in our nation’s capital, and a think tank of tremendous accomplishments across the board. Its program on law, led by Roger Pilon, includes such outstanding thinkers as Tim Lynch, Ilya Shapiro and Robert Levy. Cato is particularly known as a place where free speech, civil liberties, and the Bill of Rights are given the centrality they deserve in legal thinking, and it’s also a powerhouse in studying the ill effects of government regulation. In fact, the publication where I got my real start in the policy world, the magazine Regulation (originally published by the American Enterprise Institute), has made its home at Cato for many years now. In short, it’s hard to imagine a better fit with my writing and research interests.

I’ll be saying goodbye to my colleagues and kind friends at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which has long supported my work in the most patient, good-humored and uninterfering way I could have hoped for. I’m immensely fortunate to have been part of MI for more than 25 years and I know I’ll learn much more from its formidable thinkers in years to come. While I’ll continue to contribute occasionally to MI’s blog/web magazine Point of Law, I’ve left its editorship, and I’m happy to say the Institute had the good idea of hiring as my replacement none other than Ted Frank, of Overlawyered and CCAF fame.

Jim Copland of the Manhattan Institute has some extremely kind things to say at Point of Law about our long association. The blog Think Tanked reprints the MI’s generous announcement.

I’ll still be posting as usual here at Overlawyered, and I’ll also be joining as a contributor at the excellent group blog Cato at Liberty, which you should promptly place in your RSS feed if you haven’t already. In months ahead I’ll have more to say about some new projects I’ll be pursuing at Cato, as well as existing projects many readers already know about, like my forthcoming book on bad ideas from legal academia, Schools for Misrule.

P.S. Cato’s press release and bio page for me are up, as is a welcoming post from Roger Pilon at Cato at Liberty. And thanks for the very generous words to Dan Pero at American Courthouse, Carter Wood at NAM ShopFloor, and Alan Lange at Y’AllPolitics.

Tags: about the site, Cato Institute, Manhattan Institute

On overcriminalization

Walter Olson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:01:41 +0000

My Manhattan Institute colleague Marie Gryphon has a new paper out on the subject (”It’s a Crime: Flaws in Federal Statutes That Punish Standard Business Practice”, while James Copland has some comments (”Vague law is bad law”) on the “honest services fraud” cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tags: crime and punishment, Manhattan Institute, prosecution

“Trial Lawyers Inc.: Health Hazard”

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:47:41 +0000

New from the Manhattan Institute’s Trial Lawyers Inc. project, on health care and the Litigation Lobby; a few of its highlights are summarized here, at Point of Law.

Tags: Manhattan Institute, medical malpractice

John Avlon, “Sue City”

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:38:18 +0000

Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow John Avlon, in Forbes:

New York City spends more money on lawsuits than the next five largest American cities — Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia — combined. The city’s $568 million outlay in fiscal year 2008 was more than double what it spent 15 years ago and 20 times what it paid in 1977.

And the odd and extreme cases continue:

A Brooklyn insurance investigator won $2.3 million this year after he tumbled onto the subway tracks with a 0.18 blood-alcohol level and lost his right leg. (”They’re not allowed to hit you just because you’re drunk and on the track,” his lawyer explained.) A corrections officer received $7.25 million after unsuccessfully attempting suicide, on the grounds that the city should not have permitted her to have a gun. (”Ms. Jones could just have easily turned her city-authorized firearm on anyone,” her lawyer said.)

The piece is adapted from a contribution to a City Journal symposium, “New York’s Tomorrow”, and there’s also an associated podcast (cross-posted from Point of Law). More: Eric Turkewitz talks back from a plaintiff’s point of view (”when you account for inflation, there really hasn’t been much change at all” [compared with 15 years ago)] (& welcome Above the Law, WSJ Law Blog readers)

Tags: alcohol, Manhattan Institute, NYC, personal responsibility, suicide, taxpayers

Microblog 2008-12-19

Walter Olson — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:58:17 +0000

Newest “Trial Lawyers Inc.” report is on Louisiana [Manhattan Institute, Point of Law]
Mel Weiss disbarred automatically w/strong language from judges [Matter of Weiss h/t @erwiest]
Pro se claimant: I wrote down cure for cancer and then the darn hospital stole it! [Above the Law]
“California Supreme Court Ruling May Deter Good Samaritans” [The Recorder; SF Chronicle with copious reader comments, GruntDoc, our coverage last year]
Due diligence on dodgy funds? Sometimes it seems everyone’s relying on someone else to do that [Bronte Capital] Madoff fraud may date to 1970s, maybe “recent laxity” angle has been overdone [Securities Docket] “Ponzi crawl” = pub crawl whereby new person is added at each location and has to buy a round [Re Risk]
Radley Balko on Julie Amero malware-prosecution story [Reason, earlier]
Join Paul Ehrlich in some of the world’s most famously refuted predictions, and you too may get to be Obama’s science adviser [John Tierney/NYT, John Holdren]
~~Wisconsin~~ Minnesota pig-sitter trial set for March, claim is that defendant let star porker overfeed and gain a hundred pounds [LaCrosse Tribune h/t @kevinokeefe]
More on the Patent and Trademark Office “acceptable error” employment case [Venture Chronicles, Jeff Nolan; earlier]
Procter & Gamble “Satanism” case finally settles, soap giant got $19 million verdict against four Amway distributors who spread rumor [OnPoint News]
Once filing of a suit severs the channels of communication, attorneys and clients alike begin to make up “what really happened” narratives [Settle It Now]
Sometimes lawyers need to be formal. Don’t IM “Court denied your appeal u will b executed saturday thx” [Beck & Herrmann]
Bangladesh hoping to build replica of Taj Mahal despite copyright claims [Times Online h/t @mglickman]
Midnight regulations? “OMB Watch” vigilant (and with reason) during this R-2-D transition but sang different tune in 2000’s D-2-R [Gillespie, Reason]

Tags: California, copyright, Good Samaritan, hospitals, Louisiana, Manhattan Institute, Melvyn Weiss, patent quality, pro se, Wisconsin

Overlawyered » Manhattan Institute

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