SBM Blog

Michigan Supreme Court Order Sheds More Light on Dissension Within Court

The revelation earlier this year that Justices Corrigan, Young, and Markman had filed a Judicial Tenure Commission complaint against Justice Elizabeth Weaver is now somewhat less mysterious. In March 2009, the Court denied the recommendation of the Judicial Tenure Commission (JTC) that Rockwood district judge Steven Servaas be removed from office, instead imposing a reprimand.   The decision (PDF) was 4-3. (The case was named "Case of the Month" by the National Organization of Bar Counsel, whose explanation is here.)  In January of this year, 17 prominent Kent County lawyers, whose earlier grievance against the JTC administrator for his conduct in the Servaas case had been dismissed by the Attorney Grievance Commission, asked the Court to take superintending control.  Wednesday's order denied the request, 5-1, in the standard one-sentence fashion. But the denial was followed by 39 pages of explanation by the sole judge not participating in the order, Justice Weaver.  Here's the order. (PDF)  Michigan Lawyer has a good summary of the controversy.

See also: Grand Rapids Press, State high court declines to reopen investigation into attorney's prosecution of Judge Steven Servaas

What Michigan Firm Won An Award in the First Annual National Big Law Webbie Contest?

Dickinson Wright.  Unfortunately, their award was for Least Creative Tagline.  The tagline?  "Great Lawyers. Great law firm."  These other "winners" show the kind of trouble you can get into when you try to be creative:

Most Ambiguous Tagline: Hermes Sargent Bates' "Minds Over Matters.
Tagline Most Likely to Decrease Recruiting Efforts: Jackson Lewis -- "All We Do is Work."

Here's the full list of awards given by The Snark, Fulton County Daily Report.

U.S. Supreme Court Yesterday: "Whopping" 7 Opinions, Several "Blockbusters"

That's not our opinion, it's SCOTUSblog's.

The blockbusters were a quartet of cases that clarified and narrowed the scope of federal law concerning corporate fraud, and a case affirming that disclosure of the names on petitions for a ballot referendum is not a violation of the First Amendment. The fraud cases are Skilling v U.S., Weyhrauch v. United States, Black v. United States and Morrison v. National Australia Bank.  In the petition name case, Doe v. Reed, although the Court ruled that disclosure of the information on petitions for ballot referenda does not violate the First Amendment, it found that compelled disclosure of this information is subject to First Amendment review.

For Enron's Jeffrey Skilling, WSJ Blog says the decision means that some of the charges against him could be dismissed and his 24-year sentence reduced, but Ginsburg's majority opinion says that the ruling doesn't necessarily require his conviction to be overturned.

For Conrad Black, the opinion gives him the right to challenge faulty jury instructions on appeal, but it will be up to the lower courts to determine whether the error in the jury instructions was harmless.

Film on Mark Fidrych Marks Lawyer's Film-making Debut

If you, like many middle-aged MIchiganders, have great memories of The Bird's spectacular pitching debut, don't miss the premiere this Sunday in Three Oaks, Michigan of Mike Cramer's "Dear Mr. Fidrych."  Cramer, a Chicago lawyer, is a 1988 graduate of the University of Michigan law school who displayed his artistic side there by entertaining his fellow students with clever caricatures of favorite and colorful professors.

What a Difference a Day Makes: COA Overturns $2 Million Dollar Default Judgment

Here's the lesson:

Lawyers - make sure you appear when the judge wants you to; when in doubt, show up.

Judge: cut some slack if there's no evidence the no-show lawyer is "culpably negligient," and by all means give 7 days' notice of the default.  

So said the Court of Appeals in overturning a $2M default judgment entered when an attorney relied on a 21-day stay deadline and failed to show up for a status conference the day before.

Here's the case: RDI of Michigan v. Michigan Coin-Op Vending, et al.

HT: Michigan Lawyer

6th Circuit Decision to Keep Hutaree in Jail

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (Boyce, Kethledge, Martin) overturned district judge Victoria Roberts' decision to release 6 members of the Hutaree militia on bail pending trial. "[W]e find that each defendant poses a danger to the community and that no conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of the community."  Here's the decision.

Why You Should Go With Your Gut

Apparently, there's this supercomputer named Watson that's programmed to be the World Champion of Jeopardy contestants.  But, unlike Blue, the computer programmed to be a chess champion that actually beat the World Chess Champion, Watson sucks.  And it's not because Watson doesn't have way more trivia in its circuits than you have in yours, but because it's slow on the buzzer compared to human Jeopardy whizzes.  Watson waits until it has a high level of confidence in its answer; great "Jeopardy!" players tend to buzz in before they've figured out the clue.  They just know they know it, and that the answer will come. Jonah Lehrer has a fascinating analysis.

New Trend: De-equitizing Partners?

New York Law Journal reports that more than 33% of the law firms responding to a survey of more than 50 lawyers intend to or might de-equitize partners in 2010.  More than 25% had already de-equitized partners in 2009. The news isn't cheerier for current and prospective associates.  44% of the responding firms laid off associates last year, and 10% plan to cut associates this year; 53% reduced or discontinued hiring first-year associates; 64% reduced their summer associate programs last year and 54% intend to do so in the future. Meanwhile, the survey showed little support for outsourcing or "offshoring" legal work, but revealed a “growing enthusiasm” for contract lawyers: 39%  used contract lawyers last year; 53% intend to or might do so this year, and 52% expect that contract lawyers will become a permanent part of their staffing plans.

Here's the press release.

HT: ABA Journal

Breaking News: Discipline Report Issued for Michael Stefani, No Suspension Ordered

Citing Mr. Stefani's clean professional record and cooperative attitude, and the absence of dishonest motive, a hearing panel of the Attorney Discipline Board ordered that he not be suspended. Instead, he was reprimanded, and ordered to pay $5,115.84 in costs.

Download Stefani Order of Reprimand

Download Stefani Discipline Report

Breaking News: Kwame Kilpatrick Indicted on 19 Federal Charges

Kwame Kilpatrick has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 19 charges. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, he has been indicted on 10 counts of mail fraud, five counts of filing false tax returns, and one count of tax evasion. 

If he's convicted, he'll face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Read the full report in The Detroit News.

Read the full report in the Detroit Free Press.