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The Consumer Electronics Show 2010 had a twist: The most-anticipated product announcement -- Apple's iPad -- came after the show ended. Alan Cohen looks at the iPad's offerings, along with a handful of other new tech from CES to round out his picks for the best new offerings for lawyers.
The 1st Circuit last week upheld a sentence for cocaine distribution, over defense arguments that the mandatory minimum sentence for crack cocaine shouldn't apply because the jury didn't find the defendant possessed crack. In the opinion, 1st Circuit Judge Michael Boudin noted that the district court's instructions and the jury verdict were in line with 1st Circuit precedent, which interprets the term "cocaine base" in the statute to include "all forms of cocaine base, including but not limited to crack cocaine."
A fugitive who acted as the lawyer for 10 Baptist missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children has been arrested on human-trafficking charges, authorities said Friday. Jorge Puello was detained at the United States' request as he left a McDonald's in the Dominican capital Thursday, a National Drug Control Agency spokesman said. A judge has 30 days to meet with Puello, Dominican authorities and an attorney representing the U.S. before deciding whether to honor an extradition request, he said.
A federal judge has ruled that an in-house lawyer for Camden County, N.J., can't be held personally liable to the county's insurers for a $19 million judgment in a case she allegedly botched. Insurers allege that Assistant County Counsel Donna Whiteside failed to hire outside counsel and missed an expert-report deadline, leaving her unable to present expert testimony at a trial over a car crash on a county road. The final judgment of $19 million is on appeal and has not been paid.
A New York woman ordered to pay $9 million to her lover's wife in North Carolina says she plans to appeal the judgment. Anne Lundquist says she had planned to represent herself, but the court didn't give enough warning about the case going to trial. A North Carolina jury last week awarded Cynthia Shackelford money for alienation of affection and other charges stemming from Lundquist's affair with Shackelford's husband, formerly a Greensboro, N.C., attorney.
Fresh out of prison, disgraced securities plaintiffs attorney Bill Lerach has returned to the public light. On April 12, Lerach is scheduled to speak at a University of San Diego School of Law panel titled "Where is Corporate and Securities Litigation Headed Post-Crisis?" Lerach was released from a two-year prison term on March 8. Law professor Frank Partnoy, the director of the school's Center for Corporate and Securities Law, said he anticipated that Lerach's criminal past would come up in discussion at the event.
When Connecticut attorney Ira S. Mayo allegedly offered to waive a client's fees in exchange for a naked back rub, he triggered an investigation that seems to have jeopardized his law license over an encounter with a woman. It's familiar territory for Mayo: In 2005, his license was suspended for 15 months for making unwanted sexual advances toward clients referred to him by the Susan B. Anthony Project for abused women. In order to resume his practice in 2007, Mayo had agreed not to be alone with women in his office.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Anna Nicole Smith's estate
will get none of the more than $300 million the late
model claimed a Texas billionaire to whom she was briefly married meant
to leave her after he died. The ruling came in a 15-year legal battle
that started in a sleepy Houston probate court and stretched all the way
to the U.S. Supreme Court. It initially pitted Smith against the son of
J. Howard Marshall over the $1.6 billion estate the oil tycoon left
after his 1995 death.
A 5th Circuit panel has held that a court -- not insurance companies -- will determine whether two insurance companies must pay defense costs for R. Allen Stanford and three other former Stanford Financial Group executives who face criminal charges and civil litigation. The civil litigation filed by the SEC and the federal criminal charges stem from allegations that the former SFG executives conspired to defraud investors who bought about $7 million in certificates of deposit sold through Stanford International Bank.
Law school organizations are lining up behind the University of California Hastings College of the Law in the upcoming Supreme Court argument pitting the school against the Christian Legal Society. The Association of American Law Schools and the Society of American Law Teachers have filed amicus briefs in the case, scheduled for argument on April 19. The dispute stems from the school's decision to deny the group funding and status as a registered student organization on the grounds that it excludes gays and lesbians.
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