New oil spill panel director: plaintiffs only, please?

Georgetown law professor Richard Lazarus has been named executive director of the Obama administration’s new commission on the Gulf oil spill. In 2007 Prof. Lazarus was reported to be among participants in the rather grandly named “National Legal Scholars Law Firm“, which “provides its services solely for the benefit of plaintiffs’ lawyers,” though he is not longer named on its scholar list.

“McDonald’s faces lawsuit over Happy Meals”

The horrible Center for Science in the Public Interest says it will sue unless the fast-food giant takes toys out of its meal packages. [L.A. Times] Earlier here (Santa Clara County votes to ban). More: Cal Biz Lit (predicting that CSPI faces “darned near impossible burden” proving injury in fact/loss of money or property in its claims under California’s s. 17200 statute), When Falls the Coliseum (via Gillespie). Two views from Britain: Daily Mail (CSPI’s creepy imagery); Zoe Williams/Guardian.

June 23 roundup

  • Judge blocks sweeping Obama administration ban on new offshore drilling [Roger Pilon, Cato] Some reasons judge may have found ban irrational [Lowry, NRO, scroll to reader comment; Gus Lubin, Business Insider] More on Jones Act waivers in the Gulf [Bainbridge, earlier]
  • Connecticut AG Blumenthal launches investigation of Google Street View [Rick Green, Courant]
  • Florida judge tosses out $10 million libel verdict against St. Petersburg Times [St. P.T.]
  • Lawyer in British Columbia suspends practice after bizarre jury tampering charges [CBC]
  • “Disclosed to death”: why laws mandating disclosure are so overused and overbroad [Falkenberg, Forbes on work of Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider, via PoL]
  • Judge dismisses controversial Pennsylvania case against Johnson & Johnson over Risperdal marketing, Gov. Rendell had hired major donor to run suit on contingency [LNL, McDonald/NJLRA, earlier]
  • Rick Hills vs. Ilya Somin on federalism and constitutional enforcement of property rights [Prawfsblawg, Volokh]
  • Beware proposed expansion of Federal Trade Commission powers [Wood, ShopFloor]

“In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That”

Just like magic! Loyola Law School-Los Angeles “is retroactively inflating its grades, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. The goal is to make its students look more attractive in a competitive job market.” At least ten law schools, including Georgetown and NYU, have deliberately made their grading systems more lenient in recent years, the Times reports. [NYT]

In my forthcoming book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered Americadue out next spring from Encounter — I collect some examples of the tactics law schools use in search of a competitive edge for themselves and their graduates, which might sometimes land them in hot water were they conventional businesses.

Fake product draws real cease-and-desist letter

Lawyers for the National Pork Board, which maintains the trademark “The Other White Meat,” sent a 12-page cease-and-desist letter to a website which had promoted cans of supposed “Unicorn Meat” as the “new white meat.” It is not clear whether Faegre & Benson realized that the cans were a fake product intended for April Fool’s Day. [ThinkGeek] More: Lowering the Bar.

June 21 roundup

  • After Mohawk Industries settlement, many employers could be sitting ducks for suits claiming that hiring illegal workers is RICO violation [Helman, Forbes, earlier]
  • Teen tries to help child lost in store, winds up facing felony rap of false imprisonment [Greenfield]
  • Federal magistrate in debt collection case: letter on law firm letterhead implies threat to sue [Legal Intelligencer]
  • On “professional” class action objectors [Ted at PoL]
  • Coal company claims ventilation system ordered by government regulators might have been a cause of deadly April mine explosion [WSJ]
  • Senate committee approves judicial nomination of John (“Jack”) McConnell, impresario of Rhode Island lead-paint litigation; William Jacobson explains critics’ charges regarding couching of legal fee as purported hospital donation [Legal Insurrection]
  • Hey, stop siphoning that oil slick, we haven’t checked your life jackets and extinguishers [GatewayPundit] Gulf oil rig registered for purposes of regulation in remote Pacific island chain [Legal Blog Watch] Richard Epstein on oil spill liability [WSJ] BP will never pay full price of accident [Popehat] Check back in 2031 to see how the litigation went [Alex Beam, Boston Globe]
  • American Constitution Society holds panel discussion on Iqbal and Twombly [BLT] “Is It Too Much to Ask That a Lawsuit Be ‘Plausible’?” [Richard Samp, WLF Legal Pulse]