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Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines June 26, 2008

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, June 26, 2008

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FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  Civil litigators find new ways to sharpen trial skills
"In an era with fewer courtroom battles, civil litigation attorneys are turning to everything from teaming with criminal defense lawyers to engaging in more mock trials to improvising depositions to keep their trial skills sharp. Stephanie Scharf, a litigator for Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman in Chicago who has focused her practice on contract disputes, product liability and toxic torts, started teaming with her criminal defense lawyer husband Jeffry Mandell in state court to keep getting trial time. 'I wanted to keep my trial skills fresh,' said Scharf."

FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  Cuts drive public defenders in Minnesota to turn away cases
"Budget cuts are hitting the justice system hard in Minnesota. The state's public defenders will soon stop representing parents in child welfare cases, withdraw from some drug courts and postpone other cases. State Bar president Mike Ford anticipates that reduced staffing levels for public defender offices throughout the state will lead to delays in the handling of all criminal cases, and could adversely affect family and civil cases as well."

WEB-ONLY  |  Calif. AG sues Countrywide, alleging unfair, deceptive practices
"Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. misled borrowers with unfair and deceptive practices that led them to take out risky home loans, according to a lawsuit filed on June 25 by California Attorney General Jerry Brown. The suit came one day after the Illinois attorney general's office indicated that it intended to file a similar civil suit against the mortgage lender and its chief executive."

WEB-ONLY  |  7th Circuit upholds conviction of media baron Conrad Black
"The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of media baron Conrad Black and three other Hollinger International executives who were found guilty last year on federal fraud charges. Black, who was chief executive of the international newspaper company, was found guilty of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, and has started his six-and-a-half year prison sentence."

WEB-ONLY  |  WilmerHale scores three high court victories in past 12 days
"WilmerHale has secured three victories from U.S. Supreme Court in the past 12 days, two of them by relatively new partners. Danielle Spinelli, who became a partner in January, recently argued and won her first Supreme Court case. On Monday, the justices ruled in favor of her pro bono client by saying that a criminal defendant's right to counsel begins at his first appearance before a magistrate. A week earlier, New York-based partner Christopher Meade secured a favorable ruling in another pro bono case, involving the immigration status of Nigerian citizen."

WEB-ONLY  |  Assistant U.S. Attorney for cyber crimes joins L.A.-based Weston Rochefort
"Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Zweiback, the former chief of the cyber and intellectual property crimes section at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, has joined Weston Benshoof Rochefort Rubalcava and MacCuish as a partner. Zweiback will lead the Los Angeles-based firm's white-collar criminal defense/investigations practice."

WEB-ONLY  |  Criminal justice groups file amicus supporting right to cross forensic examiner
"The Innocence Network association of legal and criminal justice organizations filed an amicus brief in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case supporting a criminal defendant's right to cross-examine a forensic examiner who prepared a crime lab report. The court will consider whether crime lab reports used for criminal prosecution are testimonial evidence from a witness, subject to the confrontation clause of the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives accused parties the right to confront their accusers. "

OPINION:

GAY MARRIAGE  |  Voting is not final say
The next round in the culture wars is scheduled for this fall in California. Voters will decide on a measure to ban ? actually reban ? same-sex marriage. Yet the actual 'decider' may be the U.S. Supreme Court. Should the ballot measure pass, it will immediately be under a federal constitutional cloud. As Justice Robert Jackson wrote, 'Fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote, they depend on no elections.' If the measure passes, it should be struck down. But Californians should vote it down instead."

 

 

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).