Mark Herrmann, whose The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law is one of my favorites and a necessary read for anyone interested in practicing in a law firm, has written a keen for his misadventure in blogging in the ABA’s Litigation Journal, Memoirs of a Blogger (.pdf). At the time, Herrmann was still writing for the Drug and Device Law Blog. Since submitting the article Herrmann left Jones Day to go in-house at Aon Corp. and retired from the blogosphere.
As usual, it’s well-written and incisive – a good primer for anyone considering starting a blog,…
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I thought surely there was a little more to it than what the Houston Chronicle included in the headine – Judge grants motion declaring death penalty unconstitutional – nope, not really. Harris County Criminal Judge Kevin Fine, who ran on a campaign of personal experience with addiction, has apparently declared the death penalty unconstitutional, granting a motion by defense in a pretrial conference.
Click to continue reading the rest of this post.If anyone has a copy of the motion I would dearly love to see it. My friend Josh Zientek points out that the orders are available in all their glory on the recently revamped…
Photoshoped Rudy flashes
the ‘Coog’ hand sign
University of Houston Law Dean Ray Nimmer announced today that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a partner in the New York office of Houston-based Bracewell and Giuliani, will deliver the commencement address at our law school commencement.
Although a commencement speaker doesn’t substantively add to the education you just received, it’s one of the few opportunities to celebrate your accomplishments with your family and it’s nice when it’s somebody your grandma can recognize.
Update:
Commencement speakers…
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Rob Cottingham’s Noise to Signal
David Dow is a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center and Litigation Director of the Texas Defender Service. His latest book The Autobiography of an Execution (Amazon) was just published last week.
He had a very interesting interview on Fresh Air on NPR 20 Years Of Defending Death Row Inmates (embedded below) Hat tip to Nancy Rapoport
Prof. Dow also had an excellent article in the Houston Law Review: The Last Execution: Rethinking the Fundamentals of Death Penalty Law, 45 Hous. L. Rev. 963 (2008) (pdf).
In the south at least, significant football games are quickly setting precedent as grounds for automatic continuance. Just as ‘Bama courthouses emptied in anticipation of the Rose Bowl, a Lousiana court has taken judicial notice of the Saints Super Bowl appearance to grant a continuance (embedded below). As my third grade teacher used to say – let’s not abuse this privilege – but chalk one up for work-life balance.
According to the Star Tribune a Minnesota car dealer called an otherwise satisfied customer to demand an additional $7,000 or the return of the car it sold her two weeks prior.
“Walser Chrysler says it made an “administrative error” when it sold the crossover wagon to Townsend for less than what the dealership thinks it’s worth. Instead of accepting the loss, the dealership blames Townsend, saying she should have spoken up before accepting an unintentional discount on the car she’d been leasing for two years.”
I couldn’t find the claim posted anywhere so I got curious about the law…
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Jim Hoerricks of the Forensic Photoshop Blog reminded me of a great quote by former Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert H. Jackson on the art and limits of oral argument.
“I used to say that, as Solicitor General, I made three arguments in every case. First came the one I had planned — as I thought, logical, coherent, complete. Second was the one I actually presented — interrupted, incoherent, disjointed, disappointing. The third was the utterly devastating argument that I thought of after going to bed that night.”
It comes from an article by UH…
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Some are wondering if Google Dreams of Electric Lawsuits? given the uncompensated homage their new ‘Android’ and ‘Nexus’ brands to Philip K. Dick’s novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? featuring a bounty hunter after several Nexus-6 models of Android.
I’m starting to dream of Aaland Island sheep. The work on the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is well underway, with briefs due next week and oral arguments in regional national competitions in a little over a month. One of the principle cases in this year’s case concerns Aaland Islands from 1921, so I got…
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As noted in a Texas Monthly article a few months back, Mike Leach has been working on an article for the Texas Tech Law Review about ‘the relationship between practicing law and coaching football.’ He looks as prescient as ever. Who knew he would put it into practice so soon?
On Monday Texas Tech suspended Leach after allegations that earlier in the month he had made Adam James, son of ESPN analyst Craig James, stand in a dark shed for up to three hours at a time on two separate occasions during practice, apparently because…
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For all that we learn in law school about the craft of legislative construction, judicial opinions, appellate briefs, orders and even jury instructions, there is ample evidence to expect that many of us will have written our last appellate brief in 1L year. But we will spend an inordinate amount of time writing letters on behalf of our clients. We may console ourselves that it’s every bit as artful, though less impressive at cocktail parties….as if any of the other stuff is impressive at cocktail parties…
The restoration work is apparently well under way at the old 1910 Harris County Court House. The county estimated $58,300,000 for the project. According to county reports, it was a tourist destination in its day:
The fifth courthouse was constructed of pink Texas granite and brick, reaching 210 feet into the modest Houston skyline. In 1910, this was almost 100 feet above the highest point of any other Houston building. The stairwell and rotunda was lined with “the most perfectly matched marble in the United States”. Every piece was measured and fitted at the Georgia quarry and the panels
