MetaFilter posts tagged with lawyers

Q.E.D. (quote, ellipsis, diacritic)

camcgee — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:17:03 -0800

Typography for Laywers. A basic introduction to typography in a clean, well-organized (and still growing) site. From the intro: "Even though the legal profession depends heavily on written expression, legal typography is often poor. Some blame lies with the often strict typographic constraints that legal documents must conform to (e.g. court rules regarding the format of pleadings). But the rest of the blame lies with lawyers. To be fair, I assume this is for lack of information, not lack of will. This website hopes to help fill that void. There are numerous guides on typography for generalists but I was surprised to find none that were specifically aimed at lawyers. So as the only one of the few typographer-turned-attorneys in America,* I figure that if I don’t do it, nobody will."

Anyone know any lawyer jokes?

yoyoceramic — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:41:57 -0800

Where's Lionel Hutz, Attorney at Law, when you need him? Circumcision is sexual abuse. CIA is Brainwashing. Don't wait, choose your class action today!

Who Gets The Dog?

amyms — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:15:55 -0800

"Pet custody disputes have become an increasingly common fixture in divorce cases." Related: "Animal lawyers are careful to distinguish themselves from animal rights advocates... These lawyers are concerned primarily with getting the legal system to acknowledge that animals have an intrinsic value beyond mere property."

They're not surprised, are they?

etoile — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:13:39 -0800

Lawyer rating site Avvo is getting sued by - well, lawyers. Hopefully nobody at Avvo is surprised by this! The lawsuit alleges that Avvo's rating system is unfair and results in bad ratings for some lawyers.

It Was All Just a Bad Dream

Falconetti — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:54:58 -0800

Today we learn that Enron's outside law firm, Vinson & Elkins, has escaped unscathed. The Enron debacle sucked in many people, but the lawyers have so far not been held liable. But many have asked: what about the lawyers [pdf]?

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (of Lawyers)

monju_bosatsu — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:54:08 -0800

Two recent papers examine networks among Republicans: one among lawyers and the other among judges. Lawyers of the Right: Networks and Organization concludes that conservative lawyers, and particularly the Federalist Society, occupies a structurally important core bridging the gap between the religious and business constituencies on the right, which otherwise wouldn't interact. Meanwhile, Do Republican Judges Cite Other Republican Judges More? concludes that judges tend to base outside-circuit citation decisions on the political party of the cited judge, tend to cite judges of the opposite political party significantly less, are more likely to engage in biased citation practices in certain high stakes situations, and cite disproportionately more to those judges that cite back to them frequently. [via Professor Bainbridge and Empirical Legal Studies]

Anonymous Law Firm

grumblebee — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 07:02:32 -0800

The New York office was opened by the founders of the Firm in 1908, the same year women competed in the modern Olympics for the first time. While the Firm moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1972, the New York office remains a critical branch of the Firm today, paying tribute to the firm's deeply rooted traditions by undervaluing support staff, requiring formal business attire, and excluding Jews.

When grown adults act like children.

insomnia_lj — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:51:48 -0800

Kinderstart sues Google to get a higher page ranking. Why on earth should Google be obligated to give another search engine access to their proprietary page ranking methods, unless the goal is for Kinderstart to either steal or play games with Google's ranking methods... again?

Cease & Desist this! Bill Cosby still has no sense of humor.

Mijo Bijo — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:49:29 -0800

waxy.org vows to fight Bill Cosby's lawyers and continue to provide hosting to House of Cosbys despite receiving a cease & desist letter [PDF]. Andy Baio, founder of waxy.org, discusses this in the NY Times and provides updates on his site. As previously posted, Bill Cosby's lawyers were successful in getting the creators of House of Cosbys to stop hosting and making new episodes of their parody series.

It appears that threatening letters and lawsuits will continue to be filed against internet parody sites as celebrities try to protect what they view as their copyright, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Supplemental catfight

orthogonality — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:54:59 -0800

"Thank you for the refresher course on contracts. This is not a bar exam question."
'bla bla bla."

How much does your lawyer get paid?

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:30:51 -0800

Lawyers appear to missing out on the growth of the leisure class. Despite American's growing leisure time, and despite another round of pay increases for starting associates, lawyers seem to be working more hours than ever. As long as lawyers are tied the billable hour, it seems that greater salaries for associates inevitably means longer hours for associates. Law professor Pat Schiltz argues [pdf] that the longer hours for new associates combined with the high pressures of law practice means that those lawyers often suffer from depression, anxiety, alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide at very high rates, and are often forced into unethical practices just to meet the requirements of the law firm.

Sympathy for the Lawyer ?

elpapacito — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 08:58:25 -0800

Sympathy for a Lawyer ? His father sustains he should sell screwdrivers, he takes attention deficit disorder drugs, his ex probably keyed his Toyota Corolla and he takes pleasure in tormenting prosecutors while wondering if they like him. Not a reality tv show [Via Fark]

Lawyer Blog (?)

Tlogmer — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:48:47 -0800

Phila Lawyer reads like fiction (awesome, Hunter S. Thompson -esque fiction -- Part 1, 2 ) to outsiders, but that might just be because it's so fucking good. The lawyers commiserating in the comments, at least, think it's real.
The navigation is cumbersome -- if you're not careful, you'll come into a story in the middle. For your perusal, then, I've laid a few out:
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Part 1, 2
Part 1, 2, 3, 4

Personal responsibility? What's that?

schroedinger — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:59:49 -0800

Little Timmy's fallen off the parking garage? Forget Lassie, call the lawyers! He didn't choose to jump between the eight-story buildings. The inanimate object made him.

Forget screwing in lightbulbs...

rocket_skates — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:25:57 -0800

How many lawmakers does it take to declare war? Used to be 218 of the 435. Now, in a time of crisis, it's potentially less than 12. This is something that has been looked at before. Is this the best possible solution?

Yes Virginia, There are Christian ACLU Lawyers

urlnotfound — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 14:22:55 -0800

A call for Christian lawyers who have worked for the ACLU. The ACLU tries to be balanced , but considering the amount of effort they have put forth to inhibit Christian influence from/to the government, should a Christian lawyer work for them?

A Good Start...

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 08:12:02 -0800

Let's face it: lawyers don't have a great reputation for being nice people. For example, an associate at Winston & Strawn leaves a somewhat abusive message [wav] for another associate at Latham & Watkins. Along those lines, here's a message [wav], with increasingly frustrated obscenities, purportedly left by a trademark applicant/appellant with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); resulting Final Order [pdf] concerning disclipinary action of the attorney. Most recently: the Grinch who almost stole Christmas [pdf].

Dr. Cat v. Dog, Esq.

bonehead — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 08:36:46 -0800

Doctors refuse laywers. So your last client managed to get restitution from that quack who left the clamp in her abdomen, just in time to pay for your daughter's delivery. Good luck finding an OB. Or perhaps your husband works for a law firm. Good luck with that nursing job. Maybe you're a neurosurgeon making less take-home than your insurance premiums. What are you going to say to the next ambulance chaser with migrane trouble? The war between the two solitudes could start racking up a real body-count.

gettin' lawyered up

amberglow — Sat, 05 Jun 2004 08:42:41 -0800

Hiring a private criminal defense lawyer --the legal implications and ramifications of our President's (and veep's) move--by John Dean

Bad Summer Associate

adrober — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 12:14:50 -0800

How Not To Be A Summer Law Clerk, Or: the guy who sent the incredibly stupid and self-incriminating e-mail to all the associates in his firm. (I find this especially amusing since I am writing this from the law firm where I am a summer clerk. Now I'll probably get busted too!)

Freelance ambulance-chasers in Washington D.C.

Slithy_Tove — Tue, 06 May 2003 02:27:31 -0800

Streets strewn with glass and gold. In the nation's capitol, freelance 'runners' dash from police station to police station, grabbing auto accident reports the moment they appear and phoning the victims, trying to convince them to file suit. If they succeed, "personal injury cases can be sold to a lawyer for $300 to $600, sometimes more if the victim broke some bones or died. Not bad money." Whatever you may think of the social policy wisdom of D.C. allowing this, this tiny subculture of high-energy hustlers living on the ragged fringe of law and mainstream ethics is colorful as hell, and would make a great context for a novel or film.
WaPo link. [via Overlawyered.com]

Walter Sisulu (1912-2003)

tomcosgrave — Mon, 05 May 2003 18:17:01 -0800

"You, Walter, are indeed like a miracle that God has made."
African National Congress veteran Walter Sisulu, born in 1912, the year the ANC was founded, has died, the ANC said on Monday. He's the guy who practiced law with Nelson Mandela and spent a lot of time in jail with him. I saw his cell, the prison courtyard and the quarry in which they toiled and laboured on Robben Island just a couple of weeks ago.

Attorney-client relationship taking a second place to stopping terrorism?

fvw — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:33:41 -0800

Lynne Stewart, a New York human-rights lawyer was arrested and had her files searched, on charges relating to her work as defence counsel for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman who is serving a life sentence in connection with the bombing of the WTC in 1993. A law school's graduate students seeking to honour her with an award at their graduating ceremony has been stopped from doing so by the dean afraid of bad publicity.

A

laz-e-boy — Mon, 07 Apr 2003 01:36:26 -0800

A "Disappearance" In America - Arrested without charge. Secret warrants and subpoenas. No arrest record. No accusation of a crime. Solitary confinement. No access to a lawyer. No comment from the authorities. No court appearance. In other countries, this would be a "disappearance". Here in America, it's just the Patriot Act at work. Read the story of Mike Hawash, and ponder where this country is headed.

Each according to his ability... not his guilt...

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 10 Mar 2003 03:00:12 -0800

The lawyers for the victims of the Rhode Island nightclub disaster are planning to sue a radio station that broadcast commercials for the concert. Wistow said that while he still needs to nail down the precise nature of Clear Channel's responsibility, he's all but certain to name the company [in the suit].