I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Active Duty Soldier’s Home Foreclosed and His Family Evicted For $800 Fee
At Mother Jones: Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy. Michael went on ... Continue Reading
Legal Marketing The Williams & Connolly Way: Court Attention At All Costs
Even when I'm railed at, I get my quota of renown. —Pietro Arentino The ABA Journal has an excerpt from Masters of the Game, a book profiling Williams & Connolly, the go-to firm for the Washington elite. The excerpt focuses on the career of the firm's founder, Edward Bennett Williams: In 1950, Williams appeared at the office and announced to Chase that they had been hired to get deported gangster Charles “Lucky” Luciano back into the United States from his forced Sicilian exile. Chase was skeptical, but Williams figured the publicity would be terrific whether he won or not. Chase said he ... Continue Reading
More False Claims Act Smoke And Mirrors To Deny Whistleblower Awards
Via the WSJ Law Blog, Amy Kolz at The American Lawyer has a new article about the False Claims Act: "[FCA cases] are a big gamble," says Piacentile's counsel, former Boies, Schiller & Flexner partner David Stone of Stone & Magnanini, who cites cost-benefit analyses and good relationships with prosecutors as essential to his qui tam practice. "That's why you have to know what you're doing. Otherwise you can be in a case for ten years and not get anything." But there is a darker perspective on Joseph Piacentile. Unlike most qui tam relators, he doesn't blow the whistle as an ... Continue Reading
How Much Client Contact Should Should Be Expected In Litigation?
Norm Pattis is weary of questions: [UPDATE: I have removed some of the information originally quoted, since the original post by Norm has apparently been taken down.] I realize this sounds harsh, but I am simply undone by the sorrow, the rage, the anger and sometimes the sheer irrationality of folks caught within the law's vice. My firm is a small shop, but we have one paralegal whose job it is to serve as the communication point for clients. He engages in a sort of triage with the thousand and one questions that arise in a day. Still, there are needs ... Continue Reading
No Surprise: Hospital Refuses To Apologize To Pediatrician For Obstetrical Malpractice
Tricia Pil, M.D., is a pediatrician and a mother, with a terrible story to tell at Kevin, M.D.: This is the true story of a hospitalization as told from three points of view: first, the recollections of the patient (who happens to be a physician); second, events as recorded in the medical charts by doctors and nurses; and third, the version put forth by the hospital. FRIDAY Patient: It is fall 2005, and I am nine months pregnant. A healthy 33-year-old pediatrician, I am a longtime patient of Doctor A and Doctor B, who delivered my two young children at ... Continue Reading
Wall Street Law Firms Band Together To Complain About Judge Rakoff – And Are Ignored
Via the Am Law Daily, the Wall Street Journal had an article about an effort by Bank of America's lawyers — at Wachtell, Davis Polk, and Cleary Gottlieb — to keep Judge Jed Rakoff from presiding over a shareholder class action against them: Bank of America Corp. tried to keep cases pending against it from landing with U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, in the hopes of avoiding another dramatic confrontation with the judge over the bank's handling of the Merrill Lynch & Co. takeover. It got the outcome it wanted, though not necessarily thanks to its efforts. The nation's largest bank ... Continue Reading
Iron Man’s Suit Isn’t Patented, It’s A Trade Secret (Seriously)
I haven't seen Iron Man 2, but Robert Farley and Davida H. Isaacs have, and they've written a great column about the legal issues at the heart of the story, The Stark Reality of Defense Contracting: Iron Man 2 is the most expensive movie ever made about an intellectual property dispute.... In the United States, inventors are supposed to profit from their creations, as emphasized in the original comics. But Iron Man 2 takes a different tack. While trying to fend off Vanko, Stark is pressured by the U.S. government to give up the secrets of the Iron Man suit. ... Continue Reading
Why I Don’t Mind Elena Kagan’s Lack Of Practical Experience
If you're reading this blog, you already know that President Obama nominated his Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. SCOTUSBlog of course has all the details about Kagan. Eric Turkewitz raises the nagging questions that a lot of trial lawyers have: Did Kagen appear in the trenches, battling for the little guy against powerful interests? And here is what I found from Goldstein’s 9750 Words on Elena Kagan: Upon completing her clerkship, in 1988, Kagan went to work as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. That was it, out ... Continue Reading
What’s It Take To Be Lead Counsel On Multidistrict Class Action Litigation?
The Wall Street Journal (and their Law Blog) had an amusing piece recently about the jockeying underway for the position of lead counsel in the Toyota Motor Corporation Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Multidistrict Litigation, which has been consolidated in the Central District of California: Lawyer Daniel Becnel Jr. of Reserve, La., donated a kidney to his sick brother. Alexandria, La., attorney Richard Arsenault organized a symposium featuring a lawyer played by John Travolta in the movie "A Civil Action." New York lawyer Anita Jaskot's father is a doctor. She is also single and speaks Polish. These are ... Continue Reading
The Simplest Explanation Is Usually The Best: “Why Aren’t There More Terrorist Attacks?”
The almost-unbelievably amateurish nature of the recent Times Square "device" — so poorly designed and built it's hard to call it a "bomb" — has prompted a new round of speculation as why well-organized, successful terrorist attacks aren't more common. Into the fray steps Bruce Schneier, the Internet's favorite security commentator (and a distinguished cryptographer, too), who says: As the details of the Times Square car bomb attempt emerge in the wake of Faisal Shahzad's arrest Monday night, one thing has already been made clear: Terrorism is fairly easy. All you need is a gun or a bomb, and a crowded ... Continue Reading
