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JOBS AT NEW JERSEY'S TOP LAW FIRMS STATIC FOR WOMEN, DOWN FOR MINORITIES
"In a year marked by troubled economic times, progress has been elusive for the numbers of minority and women lawyers at the state's 20 largest law firms. The proportion of lawyers who are black, Hispanic or Asian declined slightly over last year, while that of women lawyers remained about the same. Law firm managing partners acknowledge that smaller first-year classes, necessitated by the recession, have the potential for continuing those trends. But they say a commitment to recruiting women and minorities can dent that outcome. Among associates and other nonpartners, 40.7 percent were women, up from 40.5 percent a year ago and down a bit from 41.9 percent in 2004. The proportion of minority associates and other nonpartners fell to 12.7 percent in 2009, from 13 percent a year ago."

LAWYERS' SANCTIONS LIFTED, BUT THIRD CIRCUIT DELIVERS LECTURE
"Be careful what you ask for, the old saying goes, because you just might get it. That aphorism was perhaps ringing all too true recently for a group of Philadelphia lawyers who had been hoping an appeals court would overturn a federal judge's 2007 decision that sanctioned and sharply chastised them for using litigation tactics that, in the judge's view, were designed to 'frustrate' and 'impede' the discovery process. And as it turned out, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to lift the sanctions, but the lawyers were made to endure a lecture on ethics and civility. In a reported decision, Grider v. Keystone Health Plan, Justice Delores Sloviter said that 'the spirit of the discovery disputes was hostile. At the very least, it lacked the civility and professionalism one expects from such experienced attorneys.' "

SPECIAL COUNSEL OFFICE LOSES SUPPORT IN WAKE OF SCANDAL
"The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has faced questions about its relevancy since its founding three decades ago, but the agency charged with protecting federal whistleblowers received the ultimate insult in 2008 when federal agents raided its Washington headquarters and the home of its leader, Scott Bloch. By October of last year, after a stormy tenure, Bloch had submitted his resignation amid accusations that he violated the law by, ironically, retaliating against his own employees. Almost a year later, the office is still trying to recover. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor to Bloch, delaying any wholesale internal changes. The office faces more uncertainty in Congress, where legislation threatens to turn the office into a mere weigh station by allowing most whistleblowers to request jury trials in federal district court."

JUSTICE STEVENS AND THE NRA: UNLIKELY ALLIES IN CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASE?
"During last week's extraordinary Supreme Court oral argument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, some of the more remarkable moments came when Justice John Paul Stevens repeatedly referred, with approval, to a brief filed in the case by the National Rifle Association. Not a pairing you might expect, but Stevens saw in the brief a possible way to rule on the case narrowly, without totally upending major Court precedents on corporate and union spending in election campaigns. The NRA brief, authored by Charles Cooper of Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C., suggested a more limited remedy that caught Stevens' eye: reversing those precedents only to the extent that they permit the government to restrict campaign spending by non-profit advocacy groups that use individual donations to fund political speech".

EMPLOYER MAY BE HELD LIABLE FOR CONTRACTOR AGE BIAS, CIRCUIT SAYS
"An employer may be held liable for discrimination by third parties, including independent contractors authorized by the employer to make hiring decisions on its behalf, a federal appeals court held last week. Clarifying its case law, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court judge who had granted summary judgment to an employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in Halpert v. Manhattan Apartments Inc. Michael Halpert applied to Manhattan Apartments to be a 'shower,' someone who takes prospective buyers through apartments. He claimed Robert Brooks, an independent contractor retained by Manhattan Apartments, told him he was 'too old' for the job. U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones said summary judgment was warranted because Brooks was not an employee of Manhattan Apartments."

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