On the Cover:  Welcome to the first Monday in October! This morning marks the Supreme Court debut of Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and Assistant Public Defender Celia Anderson Davis, who will argue over a Hagerstown man’s child sex abuse conviction. The question is whether a request for counsel, years earlier, should have stopped police from questioning the suspect without a lawyer after they obtained additional information. Read the main story, some advice from Gansler’s predecessor, and a preview of the new term.

In the News: The Court of Appeals heard argument in a legal malpractice case that challenges the “case within a case” methodology … the ban on self-represented lawyers claiming attorneys’ fees applies even to bad faith or frivolous actions, the Court of Special Appeals holds … Maryland Legal Services Corp. renews its quest for a higher filing-fee surcharge … Sen. Ben Cardin finds a civil audience for his health-care talk at UB Law… and a former CBS Early Show personality appeals a ruling that knocked out his medical malpractice claim.

Also:

• Paul Tiburzi remembers the time he argued against the D.C. lawyer who went on to become Chief Justice of the United States;
• An Owings Mills man got a $588,000 verdict in his lawsuit against a home-improvement contracting firm, but will also seek to hold the contractor individually liable;
• Read the Week in Review and our Law Digest, this week with cases from the Court of Appeals, the 4th Circuit and the U.S. District Court for Maryland.

Happy Monday! Here are a few law links to start your week off:

•  U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein probably isn’t going anywhere, MainJustice.com says. The prediction comes in an article about how a third of the country’s U.S. Attorney’s offices are still run by Bush-appointed prosecutors.
• Page Croyder applauds The Sun for coming down hard on Pat Jessamy’s office.
• Slate reports that female judges tend to be less qualified than male judges by traditional measures (they went to lower-ranked colleges and law schools, had less prestigious clerkships and spent less time in private practice) but are just as good at actually judging.
• Happy opening day of the SCOTUS term! Sandra Day O’Connor says she’s “disappointed” at the changes in the court and feels some of her decisions “are being dismantled.”
• It’s unclear where this video, “The Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue,” comes from, and it appears to be old, but it’s new to me and very funny.