On the Record

Welcome to this rain-delayed law blog roundup. Hope you brought an umbrella!

• Michael Radcliffe, a Baltimore County attorney who suffered from ALS, has passed away. Family members paid tribute to him at a memorial service last week. We’ve written a number of stories on Michael and the efforts to raise money in support of ALS research. You can read more about him here.
• Hey, Scalia, Roberts, Ginsburg, et. al. — think you could clarify your ruling on our Second Amendment rights?
• Now in the Tenth Circuit, lawyers can strike jurors for their drug reform views in criminal cases.
• Keeping young associates in line, ethically speaking.
• Apparently, it can only be employee retaliation if the person actually works for you.
• Anything — and everything — goes when Howrey auctions off the contents of its old offices on Pennsylvania Avenue Friday. We’re talking leather Chesterfield sofas, built-in cabinets, marble-topped tables, a Blodgett commercial catering oven. You name it, they’ve got it.
• Did Rachel Maddow defame Christian rocker Bradlee Dean?

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At Thursday’s “Are you smarter than a law clerk?” session at the MSBA conference in Ocean City, Court of Appeals Judge Lynne A. Battaglia’s law clerks proved that they are pretty darn smart.

They answered all but one question correctly. Even the one they got wrong they originally got right; they just waffled in the end and answered “yes” instead of “it depends.”

Playing the role of Vanna White, Battaglia (pronounced the Italian way, with no hard “g” sound as she informed the crowd) showed off towels and mugs stamped “Smarter Than A Law Clerk.” Panelist James Archibald of Venable LLP in Baltimore provided the prizes.

Lunch was provided by panelist Paul Mark Sandler, name partner of the Baltimore firm Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler. Hilariously grouchy comments provided by the third panelist, retired Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Fader II, who said every time he attends the MSBA conference he sees people who don’t need to be there and then returns to the courtroom and sees all of the attorneys who should have gone.

The session often felt like comedy hour, with audience members yelling out to Battaglia, “What would the Court of Appeals say?” She demurred, saying, “You know I never give out advisory opinions.”

Sandler playfully tangled with Battaglia over her decision in Griffin v. State this year that left the tech-loving Sandler disappointed.

He also got into it with Fader over a British murder case from the 1800s that led to attorneys being allowed to hear confessions from their clients and then turn around and cross-examine other suspects on the stand to lead jurors to believe that the other suspect was the murderer. Fader said he didn’t like that ruling and that it shouldn’t be the law.

“Everybody’s wrong,” Fader said, “except for the people who believe the way I do.”

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Welcome to a special Tuesday edition of the law blog roundup. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend. Let’s get to the links.

• Woman finds way to reach teens in the Baltimore City Detention Center.
• Regular readers of The Daily Record will recognize this story of the doctor vs. the drinkers. (See Tiki Bar photo above).
• Reminiscing on judges and past presidents of the Baltimore County Bar Association.
• Do law schools game the job numbers? One San Diego law school grad thinks so.
• My article today looks at the job market for recent law school grads. It’s not pretty out there, but here are some tips to make job candidates stand out from the associate director for employee relations at Brooklyn Law School.
• Meanwhile, Carolyn Elefant advises lawyers on how to avoid lousy law jobs.
• The man who calls himself the toughest sheriff in America has some personnel issues — three members of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s staff have been arrested on drug and human trafficking charges, including one who is allegedly eight months pregnant with the child of a drug lord. Drama.

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Happy bright and sunny Monday morning. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

• Byron Warnken weighs in on same-sex marriage.
• In an interview a couple weeks ago, DLA Piper Chairman Frank Burch told me not to believe everything I read when I asked about the reported $5 million payday it had offered to new hire James Wareham. AM Law Daily breaks down the history of the firm’s $5 million man.
• Speaking of DLA, word has it that one Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be stopping by the firm’s Mt. Washington office to film her HBO pilot, Veep. George Clooney’s movie Syriana also filmed at DLA’s Baltimore office.
• Fighting fair could save a marriage from divorce.
• Recounting Spiro Agnew’s fall from grace.
• Dish Network will have to put Elmo before American Idol.
• As partners continue to depart from Howrey, the Washington Post offers its take on the firm’s downward spiral and its efforts to find a new balance.

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Welcome back to the roundup on this frigid Monday morning. Here are some law links to peruse while you defrost.

• Is Bernstein biased?
• Copyright and patent litigation cases fell in Maryland last year.
• In a case that circles back to Maryland courts, the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers and the Atlanta Hawks (those are hockey and basketball teams, for the uninitiated) have sued the lawyers who wrote up a “fatally flawed” contract to buy out the interest of one of the team’s owners.
• According to a federal class action lawsuit, those Power Balance bracelets Shaq is promoting are a sham.
• Looks like the FBI may be investigating Baltimore’s towing business.
• Major U.S. law firms laid off 745 people in 2010 — far, far fewer than the year before.
• Communicating with clients is essential for lawyers. So, what to do when your client has multiple disabilities? For one lawyer, the answer has been hiring a certified deaf interpreter.
• Not so fast — that work e-mail you thought was private might be accessible to your employer.
• The Baltimore County Bar Association oral history project is getting underway.

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For those of you at work on this chilly Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, enjoy the law links below:

• Are we continuing to address civil rights struggles the way Dr. King would?
• A blogger takes issue with an editorial in The Daily Record.
• The warden and seven other employees at Central Booking have been suspended.
• Paul Mark Sandler tackles the Legal Aid funding issue.
• Blackmail + child pornography + the practice of law = a bad idea
• Baltimore County Circuit Court had its own version of the Iron Man on its staff. Chief Deputy Clerk Billy Allen wasn’t a slugger, but he held his position for 56 years.
• Golden Globes publicists say they got canned because they warned the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to stop taking “payola.”

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Still upset about last night’s game? Just getting to work now because of last night’s game? Here are some links to take your mind off it.

• A former Baltimore County public defender starts a law firm in Annapolis focusing on “low bono” clients.
• Are we ripe for growth in the small-town lawyer arena? An Above the Law contributor says, “Possibly.”
• Turns out a stability ball in Sacramento might not have been all that stable.
• A primer on the “Repeal Amendment” you might be hearing more about once Congress becomes Tea Party-flavored next month. (The story has generated a spirited back-and-forth on The Volokh Conspiracy.)
• Say what you want about Eliot Spitzer, but “professional exerciser” Ron Miller gives the former New York governor high marks as a lawyer.

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As I’ve followed the Dock of the Bay saga through its many iterations, the one constant has been the neighbors’ vigilance to ensure the Millers Island restaurant does not violate court orders and zoning regulations prohibiting live music and karaoke.

I received a forwarded e-mail late last month, for example, that a neighbor noticed the speaker system was still set up at the restaurant, in violation of a court order.

I thought about those neighbors when I saw in The Sun on Thursday that restaurant owner Lawrence J. Thanner is planning to build a floating bandstand.

“I’m preparing to bring a raft over soon,” he told The Sun. “I’ve got materials for it already.”

I’m guessing there will be some permit and zoning battles before the water shows can begin, if they are even allowed at all.

(And, because I know you are wondering, it does not appear Dock of the Bay has rockfish nor Blowfish on the menu.)

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The tryptophan should be through your system by now — no excuse for napping under your desk this Monday. Take a look at these law links to ease you back into work after the extended weekend.

• Meet Maryland’s “bedbug barrister.”
• Stephen Janis’ take on Baltimore City’s criminal justice system.
• What is there to be thankful for? Here’s a rundown of one divorce lawyer’s list.
• A history of the old Baltimore County Jail. (Here’s part II of the entry and part III).
• Police won’t charge a store owner who shot a potato-chip stealing teen in the butt.
• Associate bonuses at New York firms remain on the low end (compared to the boom years).
• A surplus of collections lawsuits are keeping judges busy.
• Woman claims she owns the sun. She has staked her claim with a notary public.

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It’s fitting in a way that a building that used to house the poor and homeless will on Friday officially become the new location for Baltimore County Circuit Court’s visitation center. Because the center, run through the court’s Family Support Services office, has been an orphan of sorts since its inception 11 years ago.

Officially known as the Supervised Visitation and Monitored Exchange Program, the visitation center primarily is used to allow meetings between children and “high-risk parents,” as well as drop off and pick up children whose safety is not a concern despite an issue between the parents.

The center has never had its own space, only sharing county buildings, according to Mark Urbanik, coordinator of Family Support Services. It most recently had space on the east side and west side of the counties until funding losses made the arrangement unsustainable.

So the court went to the county and asked for a new space. The county chose a central location, Cockeysville and building, The Almshouse, which dates to 1873 but closed in 1930. It was most recently used by the Baltimore County Historical Society.

The center hosts 125, one-hour-long supervised visitation sessions a month, Urbanik said. “High-risk” parents could include those with a history of drug problems or who are considered a flight risk, he said. There are about 10 monitored exchanges each month, he added, in cases where one parent has a restraining order against the other, for example.

Its new second-floor home features a large “romper room” with toys, games and crafts for families, Urbanik said. Perhaps more importantly, the center has separate parking lots for parents to prevent any chance encounters.

Urbanik added there is also room for a possible expansion in the future.

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