JD Journal » legal

California Jury Rules Size Does Matter

jim — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:59:51 +0000

Shortly after Matthew Wall got married, he was involved in a tragic motorcycle crash that left him with major injuries. Those injuries included extensive nerve damage, a shattered pubic ramus bone, and damage to his penis. The 27-year-old man lost 1.5 inches from his penis after reconstructive surgery procedures.

A jury hearing his case in El Cajon, California awarded Wall $7,553,000. If you do the math, that equates to $5,035,000 per inch. The money is also for medical bills, nerve damage, and trauma. I guess some of the jury members were sympathetic to his problem.

The defense lawyers came up with some very traditional arguments against the plaintiff such as: it does not matter because he knows how to use it, he is still good with his tongue and hands, and it is okay because he knows how to make her laugh.

The jury did not agree with the defense team but Wall’s wife did, as the couple has since gotten divorced.

There surely will be a negative impact on men’s advice columnists across the globe now that there is a definitive legal response to the question of whether or not size matters. Now we know that answer to be a resounding yes. So men, the next time you tell a woman that size does not matter, make sure that she has not seen the ruling from this case if you wish to defend your opinion.

Associate Bonuses Announced at Kirkland & Ellis

aostler — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:46:15 +0000

Kirkland & Ellis is wildly popular with its associates most of the time but things may have changed a bit this year. Associates received their bonuses this week.

No standardized scale has been announced but some details have begun to trickle out. Some associates are reporting bonuses lower than the Cravath scale, and other reports indicate that to get to the Cravath levels associates need to have at least 2000 billable hours. Attorneys with the firm received their bonus information this week via email. If you have more specific information for us on the K&E bonuses, please send us an anonymous tip here.

Kirkland & Ellis has 9 offices total, with 6 in the United States. They are best known for their litigation, bankruptcy, and intellectual property departments. They have a track record of high revenues and profits, topping $1.3 billion in revenues in 2007.

Katten Moves Up Start Dates For Six Incoming Associates

todd — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:25:05 +0000

Half a dozen incoming associates to the Katten Muchin Rosenman law firm have reason to celebrate. On Friday, the law firm sent out a statement rescinding their March decision to hold off starting dates for six of their incoming associates. Initially, the associates were to start on February 1, 2010. However, due to what the law firm cited as “an increase in demand for [their] legal services in a number of core practice areas,” six lucky new comers will start their new positions this month.

The hires come in the areas of litigation and intellectual property, but are spread across all of the firm’s offices.

Skadden Arps To Cut Summer Program Invitations In Half

todd — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:17:45 +0000

Prominent New York based firm Skadden Arps sent out offers to potential candidates for their 2010 summer program. The firm, which boasts over 2,000 lawyers, announced in August that there would be massive cuts to their summer hiring. They hired 225 students for this summer’s program and they plan to hire less than half of that for the summer of 2010.

It is up in the air as to how the rates for summer participants will compare to previous years.

Utah To Start Mentor Program For New Lawyers

Erik Even — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:07:46 +0000

The state of Utah will become the third in the nation, after Georgia and Delaware, to require people new to the practice of law to participate in a yearlong, mandatory mentoring program intended to foster professionalism, ethics, and practical advice.

The Utah Supreme Court has already approved the program, called the New Lawyer Training Program, and now anyone who applies to the Utah State Bar must go through the program. Every new lawyer will be paired with a court-approved attorney, one who has proven experience, who will give one-on-one guidance to the new attorney.

“If you’re a young, solo practitioner just out of law school and you have an office in South Jordan, or you work out of home or Starbucks, you really need to find a relationship with someone who can work with you through that early developmental experience,” said Utah State Bar President, Nate Alder.

World’s Law Offices Head To Dubai — Canada Stays Put

todd — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:26:19 +0000

In the past few years, international law firms have been opening up offices in Dubai. Now, US firms, like Weil Gotshal Manges, and Kilpatrick Stockton, have announced plans to open up offices there.

They join other prominent firms such as Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, Linklaters, and Latham & Watkins, who all have offices in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

However, as oil prices near $30 a barrel, and Dubai’s real estate market collapses, prices on real estate have dropped by 30%. That drop has hurt those firms who have set up office in the United Arab Emirate country.

Dubai has the largest population among the UAE and is determined to become the financial center of the Middle East. Dubai set up the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in 2002 in order to benefit economic development in the region. Essentially, the DIFC is a 110-acre tax haven that encourages foreign investment. There is a zero rate tax on income and profits.

William Tuer, managing partner of Macleod Dixon, said that Dubai is a “well-saturated market, featuring the biggest firms in the world. It’s highly competitive…[and] a very expensive market.”

Tuer also called it a “very expensive market” and noted that this may keep Canadian firms from ever opening up there.

Hugh MacKinnon, chairman and CEO of Bennett Jones in Toronto, claimed that Canadian law firms tend to stick to their core markets like London or New York. He also noted that a law firm needn’t possess a foreign office to do work in a particular region. He claimed that Canadians excel at working offshore.

“We get work from the entire Arabian gulf, usually energy-related stuff,” said MacKinnon. “We do pretty well just carpet bagging.”

South Korean Blogger Jailed Without Bail

todd — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:59:38 +0000

He goes by the username “Minerva,” after the Greek goddess of wisdom. He rose from anonymity in South Korea, for accurately predicting the current economic crisis. He even predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Now, the 31 year old Park Dae-Sung, is charged with going too far in an online discussion. He stated that the government had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from purchasing U.S. dollars in an attempt to strengthen the local currency. Prosecutors are calling his information inaccurate and saying that it disrupted the foreign exchange market.

He was arrested last week, which sparked a debate about freedom of speech on the Internet and in South Korea. South Korea is considered to be one of the most technologically savvy nations in the world.

Dae-Sung had regularly denounced the method by which his government handled the economy and made regular, mostly negative, predictions about the future. He is speculated to be an economic expert and his identity was hotly debated in his home country.

He has been denied bail. Dae-Sung’s lawyer said he did not intend to harm the public.

Dae-Sung could spend up to five years in prison or be fined up to 50 million won (US$36,360).

Dorsey & Whitney Out of Danger

todd — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:27:59 +0000

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a decade old case on Thursday, relieving the Dorsey & Whitney law firm from the threat of $4 million in malpractice suits.

In 1999, an investment bank in Minneapolis, called Miller & Schroeder, which is now non-operational, packaged about $12 million in bonds, selling them to over thirty different banks. Those banks turned that money over to become direct lenders to a Mohawk Native American tribe located in New York State. The tribe used that money to invest in a casino.

The illegality comes because Miller & Schroeder hadn’t received the green light from the National Indian Gaming Commission to go ahead on the loan for the casino. It was proven that Dorsey was aware that this could endanger the investment, and ignored it.

The casino went under, and the loans went into default in 2000. The Mohawk tribe claimed they weren’t obligated to repay the loans because of the fact that the gaming commission never gave approval.

Miller & Schroeder sued the casino management as well as the Mohawk tribe in bankruptcy court. Dorsey encouraged Miller & Schroeder to release the tribe from the suit, and in 2007, a federal district court decided that Dorsey only wanted them released from the suit because they wanted to keep their own mistakes from being revealed.

Two federal courts – a bankruptcy court and a federal district court— ruled against Dorsey in judgments that accumulated up to $900,000.

However, on Thursday, a majority of the 8th Circuit decided that Dorsey did not, in fact, commit malpractice. All charges against the firm were dropped.