You may be back on the job this Monday, but at least 1,000 legal types lost their jobs in May. So much for all that optimism in April. With that, let’s check out some law links, shall we?

• Prince George’s County lawyer and power broker Peter O’Malley III died last week. O’Malley, who was not a relative of the governor, paved the way for sports complexes built by the late Abe Pollin and was heavily involved in Democratic politics.
• Are Baltimore City’s towing companies too aggressive?
• David Ball, the “dean of damages” says there’s only one surefire tool to use when cross-examining experts.
• New male partners outnumbered new female partners 2-to-1 this year.
• Make sure you get your fair say in court.
• A former assistant football coach at USC says the NCAA defamed him and destroyed his career in its investigation into Reggie Bush.

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.

As one of our website commenters noted this week, who hasn’t wanted to stick it to the man? Many people equate beating a traffic ticket with just that, and James Liskow’s story of finding a typo in a 5-year-old statute struck a chord with Daily Record readers, making it the most-read story this week by the paper’s legal affairs reporting team.

1. Speed camera ticket tossed over typo in Md. law – by Danny Jacobs
James Liskow beat his speed camera ticket literally by a letter in the law.

2. Md. disbars estate-planning lawyer over forgeries – by Danielle Ulman
The state’s top court has disbarred a Virginia lawyer also admitted to practice in Maryland after he allowed a woman to forge her terminally ill mother’s signature on estate documents.

3. Jolivet’s son convicted of theft, plans appeal – by Brendan Kearney
The son of Maryland Minority Contractors Association President Arnold M. Jolivet has been convicted of theft for charging more than $4,000 in car rental bills over several months to his state-issued credit card.

4. Top court sides with trial lawyer in separate cases decided on same day – by Danielle Ulman
Workdays don’t get much better than the one criminal lawyer Andrew V. Jezic had last Tuesday.

5. Judge acquits 3rd Baltimore officer of misconduct – Brendan Kearney
In his first trial as Baltimore City state’s attorney, Gregg L. Bernstein convinced the jury but not the judge.

New Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein made his courtroom debut during a week packed with high-profile legal news. Here are the five most-read stories by The Daily Record’s legal affairs reporting team.

1. Nordstrom found negligent in 2005 knife attack – by Danny Jacobs
A Montgomery County jury has awarded nearly $1.6 million to two women who were stabbed while shopping at a Nordstrom almost six years ago.

2. Bernstein opens trial of Baltimore officers accused of kidnapping – by Danny Jacobs
Gregg Bernstein introduced himself to jurors Wednesday as the Baltimore City state’s attorney. Then he introduced the three police officers accused of kidnapping and abandoning two Baltimore teenagers, pointing to each one for emphasis.

3. Divorce, punishment and protest bills pass – by Steve Lash
The General Assembly ended its 2011 session last week having passed legislation pertaining to parting, punishment and protest.

4. U.S. ordered to reveal identities of Currie’s unindicted co-conspirators – by Steve Lash
Federal prosecutors must hand over the names of state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie’s unindicted co-conspirators to the defense team in his bribery case, a judge said Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

5. Opponents file new lawsuit against Superblock plan – by Danny Jacobs
Opponents of the proposed Superblock redevelopment have filed another lawsuit to stop the project, this time alleging approved demolition plans would violate a historic preservation agreement.

A few notes from day two of Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein’s first trial as top prosecutor.

-My story today alluded to two, 55-inch flat screen TVs that were unused during the first day of the trial. Today, they briefly were used by defense lawyer Ken Ravenell to show a still of surveillance video of the West Baltimore corner where the three police officers are accused of kidnapping two teenagers.

-Ravenell finished up his cross-examination of one of the teens, Shawnquin Woodland, which lasted approximately three hours over two days. Most of the interactions followed the same pattern: Ravenell would restate something Woodland told the jury under direct examination; Ravenell would show Woodland the transcript of a statement the teenager gave during previous interviews with police or prosecutors that contradicted what he told jurors; Woodland would deny ever saying what was in the transcript.

Bernstein, when it was his turn to re-direct the witness, re-read portions of the transcript aloud with Woodland and concluded by getting Woodland to confirm, over defense attorney objections, he was telling jurors the truth.

Woodland seemed to give a lot of contradictory answers depending on who was asking the questions, but he always sounded certain in whatever answer he gave. In other words, he sounded like the 17-year-old kid he is. I can imagine the following exchange would resonate with the parents of any teenager:

Ravenell: Did he ask you about the transcript?

Woodland: Yes.

Ravenell: What did he ask you?

Woodland: Nothing.

-What I was most interested to see today were the actions of defense lawyer Dave Irwin, whose client is the only one who opted for a bench trial. Both Ravenell and Michael Belsky, who represented the third officer, hammered Woodland about his seemingly contradictory statements. But Irwin declined to cross-examine Woodland when given the chance and also turned down Judge Timothy J. Doory’s offer to ask questions following Bernstein’s re-direct.

While Ravenell and Belsky loudly and repeatedly objected during Bernstein’s re-direct, Irwin remained silent, occasionally jotting down notes. We’ll keep tabs on the bench trial/jury trial dynamic as the trial moves forward.

The prosecution will continue with its case Thursday afternoon.

On a day Baltimore (and beyond) remembers William Donald Schaefer, perhaps it’s fitting a comprehensive, statistical report about the city he loved was released.

The verdict of the Baltimore Neighborhood Alliance-Jacobs France Institute at the University of Baltimore? The city is “right-sizing.” I’ll let Matthew Kachura, the author of “Vital Signs 9,” explain:

“Right-sizing” means that the city’s expectations are in line with what can and should be expected of it. Baltimore’s population is not going to bounce back to its post-war highs, and the kind of industry boom we saw here in the 1940s and ’50s is not going to return. Instead, we’re showing resiliency by strengthening our neighborhoods in ways that improve the quality of life, whether it’s a program to rehab vacant houses or an effort to encourage high school students to graduate on time. In an era of limited resources, the city has managed to stay viable by these and dozens of other strategic investments. Based on what we’re seeing in the data, Baltimore has been experiencing some improvements during these tough times.

Not sure how the former mayor would feel about that assessment. Nevertheless, here are some of the numbers from the report:

• The city’s population was more than 635,000 in 2009, down 2.4 percent from 2000.
• The number of homes in foreclosure jumped 60 percent between 2008 and 2009, and the total is double the number from 2005.
• The teen birthrate fell from 83.3 teens out of 1,000 in 2000 to 60.1 teens per 1,000 in 2009.
• Median household income increased nearly 30 percent between 2000 and 2009, although it fell between 2008 and 2009 to just under $39,000.
• The violent crime rate fell, from 26.2 violent offenses per 1,000 people in 2000 to 15.3 in 2009.
• Juvenile arrests on drug charges declined between 2000 and 2009, as did the number of high school students who dropped out of high school.

Good morning. Here are some law links for you on this balmy Monday:

• The Washington Post goes over the same-sex marriage vote in Maryland’s House through the eyes of Speaker Michael E. Busch.
• NPR takes us back to 1980, when then-attorney general Ben Civiletti (at left) wrote the legal opinion that Congress must say yes to the federal budget to avoid a government shutdown.
• Local-ish lawyers in love.
• For ef’s sake sounds about right.
• The moral of the story? Don’t put suggestive screen savers on your coworker’s computer, and, whatever you do, don’t put feminine products on her keyring.
• Another name emerges in the legal insider-trading scheme that has rocked D.C. and New York firms.

“If this were play’d upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
- Twelfth Night

Alas, Fabian, it’s true: the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival is folding after 17 seasons. When I heard the news, I thought of Tom Schetelich, the BSF’s business manager I profiled last year.  Schetelich saw his first BSF show in 2004 and joked that he became such a regular presence at the nonprofit that it either had to give him a job or a restraining order.

Schetelich told me Thursday afternoon he’s helping the organization wind down. He declined to go into detail about the financial problems that reportedly led to the BSF’s folding but said theater companies like the Shakespeare Festival “need everything to go right to survive.”

“I enjoyed the process of making this work so much,” he said. “It was just a good thing for the city.”

Among Schetelich’s favorite things was getting to know the actors, directors and technical staff behind the productions and attending the popular outdoor stagings every summer in the Meadow at the Evergreen Museum & Library.

He also believes a new organization could step in to fill the cultural void left by the BSF and has even had some preliminary discussions about doing just that.

Until then, Schetelich has a new goal. Thanks in part to the BSF, he estimates he’s seen live performances of about half of the Bard’s plays. But he wants to see all of them, which could prove challenging.

“You can always go see a production of ‘Hamlet’ somewhere,” Schetelich said. “But if you want to see The Two Noble Kinsmen, you’ve got to look for it.”

I can see the classified ad now:

Change the world one criminal defendant at a time! Young lawyers wanted for fast-paced, high-energy job making the city safe. Hours are long, pay is not as much as in private practice – but we’re trying to get more funding. Plus you’ll get valuable trial experience!

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein didn’t quite say that Monday night at the University of Maryland School of Law. But he told the two dozen or so students that now -  as in right after graduation from law school – might be the best time to become an assistant state’s attorney.

“As you get older and more wrapped up in your professional career, it’s harder to do public service,” he said.

The pay, incidentally, is $54,000 a year for an entry-level prosecutor. But Bernstein added his office is hiring a full-time training director and that he views one of his personal responsibilities is to train young lawyers to become good trial lawyers.

“I know it’s not a lot of money, but the rewards are great,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

When Baltimore attorneys Thomas J.S. Waxter III and Brian S. Brown called for Fran Meek on Thursday evening, the city circuit court’s longtime civil assignment supervisor asked, perhaps understandably, “I’m in trouble again?”

After 40 years of fielding calls from litigators and matching their cases with judges, Fran might have expected an 11th-hour postponement request or news that a settlement had fallen through.

But not on this night.

Waxter, Brown and dozens of other local attorneys, judges and courthouse staff had gathered in the second-floor lobby of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse to celebrate Fran’s retirement. They were calling for the modest 62-year-old, described as a “pillar of this courthouse” and a “study in grace,” to stand before her fans and accept their praise (and a gift in a white envelope, courtesy of several local law firms).

Brown, a lead-paint plaintiff attorney whose cases are a staple of the court’s civil docket, thanked Fran for “dealing with stressed-out lawyers like me.” W. Michel Pierson, the judge-in-charge of the civil division, presented her with a plaque that recognized her four decades of service on North Calvert Street. Then it was Fran’s turn to speak.

Surprising no one, she insisted her job hadn’t been as difficult as people made it sound.

“It really isn’t,” she said, “because we all work together, and you make it easy.”

“C’mon, Fran!” a naysayer shouted jokingly from the back of the crowd.

Indeed, several attendees said it was Fran who made it easy for them, even as she juggled all the demands and personalities at the downtown courthouse.

“I could always call 410-333-3750 and know Fran would help me,” said Towson attorney Gerard P. Uehlinger.

“She was never flustered,” Retired Baltimore City Circuit Judge Clifton J. Gordy said. “In this chaos, sometimes that’s hard to imagine.”

Baltimore City Circuit Administrative Judge Marcella Holland remembered how Fran, whose last day was about a month ago, understood the busy judge didn’t have much time to hear cases between all of her meetings.

“So she dubbed the phrase, ‘Judge, can you take a shorty?’” Holland said with a laugh.

Well, Fran, after years of guiding many, including this reporter, through the wilds of the circuit court, it seems you’ve earned the right to some time for yourself (and your family). May it be a longy!