They go to law school!

Us Weekly’s Web site reported actor Jerry O’Connell is starting law school, much like the incoming students I wrote about in Monday’s paper. And if you thought that was a shameless promotion, check out O’Connell’s fantastic quote on why he is going back to school at age 35. O’Connell is married to model-actress Rebecca Romijn and has twin daughters:

I had always planned on continuing my education at some point and because my wife is working on Eastwick, which is on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. this fall, and I’m home all day with the girls, I figured I would take a couple of classes at night. It was either that or play video games until 2 a.m.

Incidentally, O’Connell is enrolled at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. I honestly had not heard of the school until today, but I recognized its main building, the 80-year-old art deco Bullocks Wilshire, one of L.A.’s most recognizeable landmarks. The building is now featured prominately in the backdrop of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” set.

ON THE COVER: First impressions – The paper chase, with all its hopes and fears, begins for incoming University of Baltimore law students. Also, Danny Jacobs looks at the economy’s effect on admissions at UB and the University of Maryland School of Law.

Spitting is not adequate provocation for a hot-blooded response, says the Court of Special Appeals.

In Breaking News, three MBAs play online matchmaker for small businesses and small law firms; Jos. A. Bank can get the name of the anonymous shareholder who raised a yellow flag about overstocking; and Bank of America can pursue discovery in its defense of a lawsuit by former Raven Michael McCrary.

In Verdicts & Settlements, a Baltimore jury awards more than $1 million to a woman whose right leg was injured in a crash between her car and a gasoline tanker. 

Attorney Anna S. Kelly makes sure a disabled man gets the money his late mother left for him in Pro Bono.

Stay up-to-date with our Legal Briefs and Law Digest, with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court, Maryland; and the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Happy Monday!

•  To put it mildly, fathers’ rights lawyer Dawn Bowie does not like the recent changes to Maryland’s domestic violence laws.
• “But if I wrote an editorial to the Miami Herald decrying the fact that Obama’s health care plan includes feeding small children to lions, would they publish that too?” Ron Miller sounds off about an anti-health care plan opinion column.
• Former congressman Dick Armey has left DLA Piper over backlash about his work to defeat the Democrats’ health care proposals.
• All together now: correlation does not imply causation! (States with a lot of lawyers also have a lot of cocaine use.)
• Break out the champagne: we went a whole week with no big firm layoffs.
• Don’t leave an employer off your resume!