Don’t

More things it would be better to avoid doing if you’re a lawyer:

Claim to be assetless and thus unable to make restitution for the largest theft of state money in Massachusetts history even though you live in a $1.5 million Florida house with a $70K BMW and other goodies [Boston Herald, Globe, disbarred attorney Richard Arrighi]
Botch appeals and then refrain from telling clients their cases have been lost [Clifford Van Syoc, reprimanded by New Jersey high court; NJLJ; seven years ago]
Attempt to deduct “more than $300,000 in prostitutes, p0rn, sex toys and erotic massages” on your income tax returns, even if you are “thought of as a good tax lawyer” [NY Post] Nor ought you to accept nude dances from a client as partial payment for legal fees [Chicago Tribune; for an unrelated tale of a purportedly consensual lap dance given by secretary to partner, see NYLJ back in April]
Introduce a patent application purportedly signed in part by someone who in fact had been dead for a year or two [Law.com/The Recorder, Chicago’s Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, of blog-stalking fame, client’s patent declared unenforceable] Or pursue a patent-infringement case based on what a federal judge later ruled to be a “tissue of lies” [NYLJ; New York law firm Abelman, Frayne & Schwab and lawyer David Jaroslawicz, ordered to pay opponents’ legal fees; earlier mentions of Jaroslawicz at this site here, here, here, and here]
Demand ransom for a stolen Leonardo da Vinci painting [biggest U.K. art theft ever, all defendants have pleaded not guilty, LegalWeek via ABA Journal]

Filed under: don't, Massachusetts, New Jersey, patent litigation, patent quality, Patent Troll Tracker, strippers and exotic dancers, taxes

Do not propagate these grapes

Shrinkwrap contracts in the produce section (Mike Madison, Sept. 18).

Filed under: agriculture and farming, contracts of adhesion, patent litigation, shrinkwrap/EULAs

Update: court dismisses Kremen v. Morelli

We covered this legal malpractice claim last year, with particular attention to the defendant law firm’s argument that it didn’t matter whether the case was handled flawlessly since it was obviously low on merit in the first place. Now a New York appellate court has reversed the trial court and dismissed the action on other grounds. (Scott Kreppein, Sept. 17).

Filed under: legal malpractice, New York

Microblog for 2008-09-21

Seems they’re a fragile bunch: 97% of LIRR employees “disabled” on retirement [New York Times investigation] #
Lawsuit-proofing the bailout? Very sweeping immunity language in new bill [Gryphon, Point of Law] #
Superior alternatives to the bailout? [Mallaby, WaPo] #
“[L.A.] Times veterans should not be suing Zell. They should be suing themselves.” [Jeff Jarvis, earlier] #
Jones Day gets bad publicity in hometown over blog-muzzling lawsuit [Cleveland Plain Dealer; earlier here and here] #
Cool origami [MIT contest] #

Filed under: newspapers, railroads, Twitter, workplace

Missouri hospitals’ tobacco-recoupment suit

Around the country, courts have thrown out suit after suit by private hospitals, health insurers and benefit funds seeking to tag tobacco companies with the cost of smokers’ illnesses. A suit on behalf of various Missouri hospitals still hasn’t flickered out and is being litigated expensively, with Richard Daynard’s Northeastern University-based Tobacco Product Liability Project doing its customary cheerleading. (Heather Ratcliffe, “Hospitals’ suit against tobacco industry is large in every dimension”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 15).

Filed under: hospitals, Missouri, Richard Daynard, tobacco

Twitter for 2008-09-20

I editorialize against state (anti-gay) marriage amendments [Overlawyered] #
Wonderful hi-resolution historical photo site [Shorpy] #
For my inner chemgeek [U. Notts “Periodic Table of Videos”] thanks @lilyhill #
Thanks Laurie @halosecretarial for suggesting Twitterfeed for my blogs, seems to work perfectly #
Sea shanties Pandora channel thanks @gwachob [my channels] #
Japanese schoolgirl craze for virtual boyfriends thanks @TechCrunch #
Ladies Nights at bars a civil rights violation? [Overlawyered] #

Filed under: Twitter

Ladies’ Nights at bars, cont’d

Steve Chapman talks some common sense on sex-discrimination lawsuits filed by purportedly offended men, a perennial topic at this site, and many commenters @ Volokh chime in (syndicated/Reason, Sept. 18; Somin @ Volokh).

Filed under: ladies' nights

“Metrolink Train Accident Attorney Lawyer Los Angeles”

It doesn’t actually hang together as a phrase, but it does contain plenty of promising keywords for lawyers trolling for business from the fatal commuter wreck north of Los Angeles, so it rates highly on Google. (Kevin O’Keefe, Sept. 19).

Filed under: chasing clients, Los Angeles

Twitter for 2008-09-19

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator; mine is Pie Gallon Palin. #
McCain assails SEC’s Cox, but Bainbridge is going with Cox; #
Yes, racial profiling figures into use of peremptory challenges [Sommers, Psychology Today via Deliberations] #
SEC’s net capital rule waivers to blame for credit blowup? [NYSun] #
NY Observer’s Doonan cool to Palin eyeglass craze; #
Business lobbies went along with expansion of ADA litigant categories [Point of Law] #
@teafortillerman I think “trough gutted palin” is the best I’ve seen yet #
Don’t blame Gramm-Leach-Bliley for housing bubble [MargRev] #
Experimentally incorporating Twitter into Overlawyered; #
@kevinokeefe I’m using Firefox and “follow” button on Twitter fails until I refresh. #
PR firm retracts Tweet that sought to scare up class action plaintiffs [O’Keefe] #

Filed under: disabled rights, John McCain, jury selection, Sarah Palin

Lawyers and White House nominations

It seems from the numbers that in recent decades the Democrats have tended to nominate lawyers for President and Vice President, and that the Republicans have tended not to. (Volokh, Sept. 18).

Filed under: lawyers, politics