Most local law firms promoted fewer people to partner this year than they did last year, but none have publicly frozen promotions, Caryn Tamber writes in this week’s cover story.

The Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Public Defender would see modest increases, overall, in funding under the governor’s proposed budget, Steve Lash writes; the Judiciary, which submits its own budget request to the General Assembly, has asked for a 6 percent increase.
In the news:

• The Nicholas Browning case presents a case study in dealing with cases in which the victims’ loved ones are also grieving for the perpetrator;

• A man convicted of a quadruple killing in 1990 is entitled to a hearing on his motion for a new trial;

• Venable plans to move its Towson offices; and

• Prosecutor Mark Cohen will be honored posthumously by the Baltimore City Bar Association.

An office supply store won a defense verdict in a suit by a woman who claimed she was fired for telling police about what she suspected was criminal activity by two customers. The jury found that Staples had cause to fire its sale manager because she also called another retailer about the customers, a violation of the store’s privacy policies.

Deciding what to do with the detainees will make it difficult to close the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo — or will it? In “The Big Picture,” Columnist Jack L.B. Gohn says it really isn’t so complicated.

PLUS:
News in brief, On the Move, an Interrogatory and this week’s Law Digest, with cases from the state Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, the 4th Circuit and the U.S. District Court in Maryland.

BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law

Happy Monday! Only a little over a month-and-a-half to go on this winter thing. Here are a few law links for you:

• “‘Sixty-two-year-old men don’t make out with 6-year-old girls,’ [Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Wachs] said. ‘It’s a shame you don’t recognize that.’” Horrible. HT: Baltimore Crime.

• There are two sides to every story, says the Maryland Divorce Legal Crier.

• Peter Hermann at The Sun had a piece today on a police officer shot in Seton Hill, a neighborhood I wrote about last summer in a story about a lawyer doing pro bono work for homeowners there who were fed up with crime.

• What should you do if you don’t make partner?

• What should you do if you’re a 3L preparing to enter a terrible job market?

• What should you do if you’re not busy but want to fool your boss into thinking you are? (For one attorney, this involved motion detection lighting and an oscillating fan.)

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

I’ve written before about how sports are not recession-proof. But the topic was brought home by Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti at a news conference he held last week when he said he is concerned about how the recession may affect the team.

“I’ve said this before: I’m not in this business to make money, but I’m also hoping not to lose money, and we’re running on fairly small margins when it comes to cash flow,” Bisciotti said Wednesday. “So all those companies in Baltimore that buy our suites and everything, I need them to keep on going, and I need the people to keep on buying tickets. So we have to be sensitive with increases and everything else, but it is definitely a factor, and it’s the first time we’re going to go through it.

“But I’ve been through economic downturns in my other business, and so I think that we know how to prepare for those kinds of things. But you can’t prepare for loss of revenues. You just have to try and manage it the best you can and minimize the losses.”

It’s a sticky situation — suites are a big revenue generator for a team, and you don’t want to make the cost prohibitive for a company that is likely scrutinizing its discretionary expenses and may not have many clients left this year to even schmooze at the suite.

But on the plus side, Bisciotti said the team’s performance this season should earn it more primetime appearances for the 2009 season. And national television exposure is good not just for the Ravens but for their relationship with advertisers that pay for the stadium billboards seen on TV.

At what point should fans here start worrying about their team? If finances are an issue, will the Ravens be able to afford a monster contract for Ray Lewis to keep him in Baltimore? And if they can’t, how bad would that be for the city and team’s morale?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer