Texas Public Policy Foundation: A case for loser-pays

Loser-pays, long the law in Alaska, is stirring significant interest in Texas these days. Ryan Brennan of TPPF makes a case for the reform [PDF] and discusses some of the choices involved in structuring it.

P.S. Tracking for S.B. 13 and H.B. 274. And more on pending Texas omnibus liability reform legislation from Texans for Lawsuit Reform and its Balance Texas Courts project.

Trump’s litigiousness, cont’d

It’s practically a meme: last week I pointed out at Cato at Liberty that the real estate tycoon liked to use lawyers to push others around, and now Peter Stone of the Center for Public Integrity quotes me in the course of an article documenting Trump’s very frequent resort to litigation in his business and public affairs.

“If he’s taken seriously as a candidate it’s going to be appropriate to look at his record of litigation,” conservative legal scholar Walter Olson of the Cato Institute told iWatch News . He said a big question will be “how consistent is [Trump’s record] with the Republican idea that litigation should be a last resort and not a weapon for tactical advantage.”

Atlantic Wire and Ben Smith at Politico discuss.

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship

By a mostly partisan vote of 50 to 44, the U.S. Senate confirmed Rhode Island plaintiff’s lawyer and political kingmaker Jack McConnell to a federal district judgeship. McConnell made his Motley Rice law firm, based in South Carolina, into Rhode Island’s biggest political donor during the same period that state officials were hiring him to run, on contingency fee, what it was hoped would be a hugely lucrative suit against former makers of lead paint. The Motley firm, with associated law firms, is credited with having made billions from tobacco and asbestos litigation and has recycled large sums into the campaign coffers of state attorneys general and other friendly politicians. [Daily Caller, Plains Daily (North Dakota contributions), Politico, ShopFloor] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Schools for Misrule roundup: Chronicle of Higher Ed, NBN podcast

At his Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Peter Wood of the National Association of Scholars takes a look at ideologically adventurous law school clinics and has this to say along the way (another version):

The hard-left politicization of law schools is surely the larger matter. Walter Olson’s new book, Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America, covers the matter so well that I don’t see much to add.

Hudson Institute scholar Tevi Troy interviewed me NBNLogofor the New Books in Public Policy podcast series and you can listen to the results here. Also online now is my appearance on Ronn Owens’ San Francisco-based radio show last month. And this recent Nielsen roundup of Hardcover Law bestsellers had Schools for Misrule at #9, down from #8 the week before.