Published By: Maxwell S. Kennerly, Esquire

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[Update: The Hamilton County Democratic Party executive committee wisely voted against censuring Ben Lindy. Apparently Lindy was asked, “Why did the story end up in the Washington Post?” That’s easy: the best way to ‘go viral’ is to do something really stupid.]

Ben Lindy is the kind of person we all hope goes into politics: he grew up in Cincinnati, went straight from Cincinnati public school to Yale, then taught through Teach for America, then worked in the DC Public Schools system, then went to Yale Law, and then returned to Ohio to establish Teach for America’s office in Cincinnati. Now he’s running for state representative back in his hometown.

I met Ben Lindy during our first week at Yale. He’s the nicest and most trustworthy person I know. If you meet him, he’ll be the nicest and most trustworthy person you know. It doesn’t surprise me that, though an “upstart” candidate who wasn’t backed by the party, he’s now surging into the lead for the 31st District of Ohio. He’s a great guy who has committed himself to education, which I shouldn’t have to tell you is the first step in building a better world for our children. If our state capitols were filled with people like Ben, we’d have balanced budgets, flying cars, and kindergartners doing calculus (or as close to these things as we can get).

But now there’s a “controversy” surrounding him. It seems the Hamilton County Democratic Party establishment favors someone else — why would they do that is a good question that needs to be asked — and so they dug deep into Ben’s past to find the absolute worst thing about him they could find, a skeleton in his closet to knock him out of the race. 
Continue Reading The Lawyer Who Was Too Smart And Honest For Politics

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If you live near the Philadelphia area, and you’re into fitness or running, come out to the 5th Annual Runny Nose 5k Run and 1 Mile Walk on the morning of Sunday, June 26th, 2016, at Lorimer Park in Abington. All proceeds go to fund fitness, sign language, and music programs at…

Soon after the Super Bowl concluded, I received an email from a college classmate, addressed to me and another attorney from our class: “Did you guys see this Super Bowl ad that ran only in Georgia last night? As attorneys, perhaps it speaks to your own professional pride.” The link was to personal injury attorney Jamie Casino’s two-minute tale of sin and redemption (with a prominent flaming sledgehammer), described variously as “the Most Insanely Epic Super Bowl Ad Last Night” (Slate) and “Ridiculously Badass” (Adweek) and “Batshit Amazing” (Deadspin).

Four points come to mind.

First, the ad was only possible because of Georgia’s sensible rules on attorney marketing. In many states, like Florida, Casino’s ad would have been prohibited by absurd Bar Association rules that go so far as to “prohibit images of an American flag, the Statue of Liberty, and a cactus,” as I discussed back in December. You can see in the comments to my post about Florida’s rules former Georgia Bar President Ken Shigley describing the sensible approach they took, which simply prohibits “false, fraudulent, deceptive or misleading” advertisements, and then requires certain disclaimers.

Second, to all the traditionalists who believe that flashy ads like Casino’s inherently demean the legal profession, I say, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, is there anything more American than advertising? Whatever the ad’s positives and negatives, the ad tells potential clients a lot about Jamie Casino — and that’s a good thing. Lawyers are not wholly interchangeable. The reason that superlatives like “best” and the like are sometimes prohibited in attorney advertising is because they’re meaningless, and Jamie Casino’s ad is anything but meaningless.

However, just because Jamie Casino should be able to make such an ad doesn’t mean that he should actually do it.
Continue Reading Jamie Casino and The Super Bowl Ad: Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Three years ago, Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago was peddling falsehoods and misconceptions about malpractice law that wouldn’t pass a 1L Torts class. Via Walter Olson, I see he’s back with a piece titled, “The Myth of a Pro-Business SCOTUS,” claiming “Commentators inaccurately condemn the five conservative justices as corporate shills.” He specifically mentions articles by Erwin Chemerinsky, Adam Liptak, Arthur Miller (whose article I discussed previously) and the recent analysis by Lee Epstein, William Landes, and Richard Posner.

Epstein raises three complaints about attacks on the Roberts Court: “selection bias; misplaced significance; and failure to account for the importance of consistently taking the ex ante perspective.”

Before we go on, be sure to read my summary of the Supreme Court’s 2012–2013 Term as it affected consumers, employees, and patients. “Business” — at least big business — won over Middle America at every turn. It’s not just a matter of individuals losing the only tools they have to keep the dangers of corporate greed and recklessness in check. Small businesses, for example, were told in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant that they can’t use antitrust laws anymore, because the Supreme Court thinks its better for big banks to reap unjust and illegal profits than it is for small businesses to have their day in court.

Unsurprisingly, when Epstein reviews several recent Supreme Court cases, he leaves AmEx out. Kind of says it all, doesn’t it? 
Continue Reading The Undeniable Fact Of A Pro-Big-Business Supreme Court

Sometimes, it feels like there is too much to do. You are no longer juggling balls — there are too many balls for that. You have multiple cases, each of which is "hot," moving quickly and independent of one another.

Now what?

First, decide if it really is too much. Look at each case in…