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The state of Arizona executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday night despite objections from attorneys that the state would use a non-approved drug from overseas for the lethal injection. Just hours before Jeffrey Landrigan's death, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to lift a stay issued by a federal judge to halt the execution. "There is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe," the Supreme Court said Due to a U.S. shortage, the state turned to a non-FDA approved drug. It was later revealed that the source was the U.K., although...

Bankers are facing new rules over bonus payments. Within hedge funds there has been a move away from the previously entrenched "two and 20" system; and financial advisers are moving towards a fee-based, rather than transactional, model as a result of the Retail Distribution Review. It might seem an odd statement from the chief executive of one of the world's largest law firms, but the legal profession is well behind the curve; lawyers and legal firms need to evolve and embrace the changed market conditions. While there will remain some circumstances where the billable hour is justified, my firm conviction...

Note: The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/seniors-across-america-host-local-meetings-participate-health-care-tele-town-hall-m Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 07, 2010 Seniors Across America to Host Local Meetings, Participate in Health Care Tele-Town Hall Meeting with President Obama Senior Obama Administration Officials to Attend Local Meetings WASHINGTON—On Tuesday morning, senior citizens across the country will gather at a series of local meetings to participate via phone in a national tele-town hall meeting on the Affordable Care Act with President Barack Obama. Additionally, more than a dozen senior Obama Administration officials will...

In late breaking news this evening after the historic passage of Obamacare through the House of Representatives by Democrats over bipartisan opposition, many state attorneys general held a conference call in which it was decided that they would file a multi-state suit alleging the newly-passed Obamacare is unconstitutional immediately after President Barack Obama signs the act, which is expected on early next week. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott broke the news on his Facebook page: Just got off the AG conference call. We agreed that a multi-state lawsuit would send the strongest signal. We plan to file the moment Obama...

Numerous Republican state attorneys general announced Friday that they are prepping to file a federal lawsuit protesting the so-called “deem and pass” procedural maneuver and coverage mandates in the health care bill. Democrats regard these threats as stunts designed to scare off votes as the House approaches a vote on health care. Attorneys General Henry McMaster of South Carolina – who is head of a group of 19 GOP attorneys general that started threatening lawsuits in December – and Bill McCollum of Florida said Friday that they are planning legal action over a deal struck between Senate leadership and Sen....

When the ABA gathers for its annual meeting in Chicago on July 30, the organization's board of governors will weigh a key question: How does the association get membership climbing again? The board will receive a presentation from its marketing consultant Leo Burnett Co. Inc., which was hired in March to aid in spreading the ABA's message to more lawyers. The association has never pursued a marketing effort of this magnitude, said current ABA President H. Thomas Wells Jr. **** The recession, expansion of law firms, rise in industry competition and controversy regarding the judicial review process have conspired to...

It has come to my attention that there have been allegations that conservatives hate the idea of legal aid and indignant defense. Allegations that the republican party wants to prevent the poor who can't afford a lawyer from getting one when they are accused of a crime or suffer civil injustice or whatever. Thoughts of a poor single black mother wrongfully accused in a court with rich plaintiffs with 7 digit salary attorneys all alone against a complicated legal system also come to mind. Relax. It isn't true. In fact it has been found in some cases to be the...

CAMDEN, New Jersey (Reuters) – Five Muslim men accused of planning an attack on a U.S. army base had no intention of following through even though they shared Muslim anger toward America after September 11, defense attorneys said on Tuesday. The men, all born outside the United States, plotted but did not execute an attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey and discussed attacks on other installations including Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the U.S. Coast Guard in Philadelphia, prosecutors say. They were arrested in May 2007 and face life in prison if convicted. In closing arguments after...

Sen. Ted Stevens’s legal team and federal prosecutors traded sharp barbs Friday, with the defense accusing the Justice Department of “gamesmanship” and the government arguing that the Alaska Republican was seeking special treatment in the case. In an emergency motion filed Friday morning to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, defense attorney Robert Cary complained that the more than 1,000 potential trial exhibits that the government submitted Thursday night would cost them “multiple days merely to identify the exhibits the government would use against [Stevens].” He said that the electronic format made it nearly impossible for the...

Swearing, after-hours drinking part of staff culture Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:34 AM By James Nash and Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann cultivates a casual work atmosphere, employees say.Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann cultivates a casual work atmosphere, employees say. John Estheimer remembers it as the strangest job interview of his 30-year career. Trying out for the position of Attorney General Marc Dann's personal assistant in February, Estheimer said the Dann aides who interviewed him kept coming back to the question of whether he could tolerate an atmosphere of frequent vulgarity and sharp elbows. During...

The thing is, Eliot Spitzer is a crook. I’m not referring to the current prostitution scandal. I’m not referring to the scandal last year involving his senior aides and the leaking of confidential police information to the Albany Times Union. I’m not referring to the threatening phone call he made to the august John Whitehead, retired head of Goldman Sachs, who had the temerity to question a case Spitzer was building against an old friend of Whitehead’s. I’m referring to his conduct dating back to 1994, when he designed a complex scheme involving loans and real estate and collateralized apartments to evade...

Attorney-Client Privelege Kept Them From Speaking Up Before Man Spent 26 Years In Prison Alton Logan has spent the last 26 years in jail on a murder conviction that's now being called into question. Two local attorneys kept a secret for more than a quarter of a century. They knew about a wrongful conviction, but could not say anything. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports they finally told their story on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, and went to court Monday. Alton Logan has spent 26 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. In 1983 he was wrongly convicted of...

The federal investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys could jolt the political landscape ahead of the November elections, according to several people close to the inquiry. Washington’s attention has been diverted from the scandal since the August resignation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, and has focused instead on Democrats’ efforts to hold White House officials in contempt for ignoring congressional subpoenas to testify on Capitol Hill about the firings. But recent behind-the-scenes activity in several investigations suggests that the issue that roiled Congress in 2007 could re-emerge in the heat of the election year. Two inquiries by...

PHOENIX - No penalties, but some criticism from a judge over the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's failure to let defense counsel know to how to access their jailed clients. To save money, Sheriff Joe Arpaio in November cut off all jail visits after 2:30 p.m. But defense attorneys, probation officers and interpreters complained that it denied them access to defendants, who in turn had a constitutional right to legal counsel. After three weeks of hearings, Superior Court Judge Anna Baca ordered the original hours be restored to the attorneys and staff making "privileged" visits. The order did not include the...

Have racial preferences reduced the number of black lawyers? Three years ago, UCLA law professor Richard Sander published an explosive, fact-based study of the consequences of affirmative action in American law schools in the Stanford Law Review. Most of his findings were grim, and they caused dismay among many of the champions of affirmative action--and indeed, among those who were not. Easily the most startling conclusion of his research: Mr. Sander calculated that there are fewer black attorneys today than there would have been if law schools had practiced color-blind admissions--about 7.9% fewer by his reckoning. He identified the culprit...

In another apparent effort to prepare Marylanders for looming tax increases, Gov. Martin O'Malley released a recorded statement to radio stations suggesting corporations and higher-income earners will be among those asked to pay more. "When given a choice between decline and progress, the people of Maryland always choose to make progress," O'Malley (D) says in the message, which runs more than two minutes and was sent to more than 50 radio stations, an aide said. "Together we can overcome the deficit in our path, and we can get our fiscal house in order in a way that improves our state...

RALEIGH, N.C. - In his time off between presidential bids, Democrat John Edwards courted Wall Street financial gurus and Main Street labor leaders. But when it comes to the money backing his second campaign, the wallets of wealthy attorneys who propelled the former trial lawyer's first run for the White House still open more than most. More than half of the Edwards donors who listed their occupations said they are attorneys, and they have given seven times more than any other profession, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance data. By comparison, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton...

A Jacksonville mother filed suit Monday against Orange Park Medical Center after she developed complications during pregnancy that left her permanently disabled. Natasha Meeks said her health problems started during the first trimester of her third pregnancy with frequent bouts of severe vomiting. She was hospitalized Jan. 12, 2006, after her condition showed no signs of improvement. Doctors at Orange Park Medical Center treated her for malnutrition, but it was later discovered she was suffering from far more than the aftereffects of vomiting. She said she first knew something was out of the ordinary when she went to a bathroom...

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab is a "scientific mystery" who should be spared execution so he can be further studied to prevent other pedophiles from raping and killing children, his attorney said in a motion for clemency. Schwab, 38, was sentenced to death for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez of Cocoa. Schwab, who had recently been released from prison for raping another child, targeted Junny after seeing his picture in a newspaper. "As long as he's alive he is available for psychological research, examinations and evaluations, which could in the future prevent...

Law Firms Preparing to Sue Over Global Warming Posted by Noel Sheppard on June 26, 2007 - 09:22. And now for something completely insipid… As the media and their alarmists like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore have shamefully convinced enough of the population that man can actual control the climate, law firms around the nation are gearing up to sue possible offenders. I kid you not. As reported in Monday’s Dallas Morning News (h/t NBer alamojb, emphasis added throughout): Top Dallas firm Thompson & Knight started a dedicated climate-change practice June 4 with 26 lawyers. Today, Dallas' Vinson & Elkins will unveil...