On the Record

Hello there, readers. Here’s hoping you’ve gotten your taxes in or plan to do it by tonight.

• The working relationship between two Lululemon shop employees was good before one allegedly killed the other.
• New York courts plan to lay off 400 to 500 people.
• D.C.’s medical marijuana regulations are now in effect.
• It’s all about who you know. Page Croyder looks at influence in the courtroom.
• What does the state’s new Padilla rule really mean?
• Barry Bonds’ appeal will probably focus on strange verdict.
• Romanced by a client.
• A federal judge has sanctioned administrators at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School for covering up sexual misconduct by a former football coach who has since died.

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Brackets, shmackets — Give me a good half-court shot with five figures on the line any day. From Georgetown Law comes this video of student Aladdin Jaloudi sinking it during Home Court 24, the annual fundraiser that pits Georgetown law professors against members of Congress. Final score: Hoya Lawyas 49, Hill’s Angels 61, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless $415,000,  and Jaloudi, $10,000.

Not bad, for a second-year.

HT: Former Daily Record-er Richard Simon, now the web editor at GULC.

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It’s Monday and we’re back at it again. Before we get to the law links, here’s a little law love for The Daily Record’s business news. Development reporter Melody Simmons and freelancer Joan Jacobson really hit it out of the park with their first piece in a five-day series on what’s going on with the massive redevelopment project in East Baltimore. Do check it out. The numbers alone are staggering.

Without further adieu…

• A local lawyer is refusing to overreact to President Obama’s new “parameters” for medical malpractice reform.
• Baltimore community tracks local court cases of defendants accused of crimes in the neighborhood.
• Recalling the life of the Baltimore County Bar Association’s most famous — and infamous — member, Spiro Agnew.
• Despite promises to cut lobbyists out of the picture in Washington, the government is becoming more entangled with special interests. Forbes blogger Avik Roy says that’s because the more government gets involved with the private sector, the more businesses need lobbyists to protect their interests.
• Page Croyder talks the de novo appeal.
• A Texas lawyer can sue her local newspaper for libelous claims that she skimmed 10 percent off the top of an Indian tribe’s casino.
• Tennessee grapples with the possibility of judicial elections.

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Welcome back! Time to catch up on some law-related tidbits:

• In a rough divorce, who gets to keep the friends?
• Even good doctors make mistakes — and doctors who do work on superstar athletes are not immune from malpractice lawsuits.
• Consumers struggling with payments really have to be on the lookout these days for scammers,  but some in Erie, Penn. have been duped beyond the norm. A debt collection company there set up a FAKE courtroom, complete with faux judges and sheriffs. This one’s a doozy.
• An insurer is suing the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority for $8 million because its water lines are so leaky that firefighters could not get enough pressure to put out a fire in the home of Peggy Cooper-Cafritz, a collector of fine art.
• Voters in Iowa ousted three judges from the state’s Supreme Court last week. The three were part of the unanimous decision to allow same-sex marriage in 2009.
• Lamebook v. Facebook
• The University of Missouri, Kansas City has launched a small firm and solo attorney incubator for recent grads.

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Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, held on the National Mall in Washington drew an estimated crowd of more than 200,000.

The event featured Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s routine shtick, as well as a several A-list musical performers (The Peace Train/Crazy Train duel between Cat Stevens, AKA Yusuf, and Ozzy Osbourne was a highlight). But what I’m seeing a the most of on news sites are photos of the signs that the ralliers held high.

Some of the sign-holders made a statement, some of them made jokes, and some of them made little sense. Legal Affairs Reporter Danielle Ulman was in attendance at the rally and took photos of some of the signs. They can be seen in the Flickr slideshow below.  More links to photos of the event can be found below the video box.

- From The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear website

- The Huffington Post: The funniest signs from the rally

- From The Washington Post

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There’s alternative billing, as my colleague Danielle Ulman wrote about in Monday’s paper, and then there just might be Glenn C. Lewis’ alleged billing practices.

Lewis had days with as many as 71 billable hours, and in a 16-month period in 2003 and 2004, he billed clients for “3,620 hours, or an average of 226 hours per month, or 7.4 hours a day, 365 days per year,” according to a story in Sunday’s Washington Post.

Lewis told the Post the 71 hours in a day billing was “block billing,” where he entered his hours for many days at once, and that he works night and weekends.

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When I lived in D.C. nearly a decade ago, Chinatown was not the hub of activity it is today. I’m sure there were bars and restaurants starting to emerge in the area after MCI (now Verizon) Center opened in December 1997, but I don’t remember ever exiting the metro at Gallery Place/Chinatown except to down a pint at Fadó before the annual Syracuse v. Georgetown basketball game at the sports arena. Go Orange!

Sadly, the streets of Chinatown are no longer lined with the quaint family-owned dim sum restaurants and noodle shops of yore. What used to be a culturally vibrant neighborhood has become hyper-commercialized and overrun with chain restaurants and garish billboards. But this isn’t about my admittedly pro-small business bias — it’s about conflicts caused by this burgeoning micro-economy recently coming to a head.

A few weeks ago, business owners in the Seventh Street corridor met with city officials to discuss what could be done about hordes of teenagers who have made Chinatown their regular weekend hangout, frightening local business patrons by contributing to crime and generally creating a nuisance. Concerns intensified in August after a Friday night confrontation began in the Gallery Place metro station and turned into a 70-person mêlée that spilled out onto the L’Enfant Plaza platform, sending four people to the hospital.

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Paul Allen

Happy Monday! While Danielle tries not to be a hurricane, finding those delicious legal tidbits is up to me. Here we go:

• Law Shucks calls it Paul Allen’s “gift to BigLaw”: the Microsoft founder is suing Google, Apple, YouTube and other Internet giants for patent violations.
• A group of Kansans is arguing the state’s selection and appointment process for Supreme Court justices violates the 14th Amendment because some commission members are only selected by lawyers. (HT: Constitutional Law Prof.)
• Thank you, Legal Marketing Blog.com!
• Meet the lawyer who will be representing Roger Clemens in the star pitcher’s federal perjury case. (HT: WSJ’s Law Blog.)
• Disturbing, potentially devastating news from the Jersey Shore. (I never thought anything could overshadow “That’s one shot!“)

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Uh oh, sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays!!! Hopefully our law links provide the antidote. (Note: Loyal readers recall Caryn Tamber writing last week that Danielle Ulman would take over the blog round-up. Danielle will, but today she is getting situated in her new business-of-law chair, so you’re stuck with me.)

“Is there a legal angle to the WikiLeaks story?” The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog asks — and answers that it’s unlikely the government can successfully prosecute anyone connected to the leak.

• Who knew pomegranate juice had so much bite? A D.C. judge prevents the National Law Journal from publishing details from documents it legally obtained in a lawsuit involving Hogan Lovells and POM Wonderful.  (HT: ABA Law Journal)
• Above the Law wishes good luck to everyone taking the Bar Exam this week. (As do we. But really, shouldn’t you be studying?)
• Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best ways to recruit clients, and here’s a study that proves it. (HT: LawMarketing Blog)
• First Mel Gibson. Now Oliver Stone? Oy!

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The lawyer has become the client.

Baltimore attorney Paul W. Gardner II, who has made headlines as counsel for alleged White House party-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi, has now himself retained a lawyer.

The lawyer, Mark R. Dycio of Fairfax, Virginia, tells me that when the Salahis told the Today show that Gardner had invited them to a Congressional Black Caucus dinner in September–another event they were accused of crashing–Gardner became a witness in their case. As such, Gardner no longer represents the Salahis, Dycio said.

Stay tuned for a full story on the Gardner angle.

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