SBM Blog

In Memoriam: Chokwe Lumumba

Chokwe Lumumba, of Jackson, Mississippi, died Feb. 25, at the age of 66. He was mayor of Jackson, Mississippi at the time of his death. Born Edwin Finley Taliaferro in Detroit, Mr. Lumumba was a graduate of Kalamazoo College and a 1975 graduate of Wayne State Law School.  His extensive history as a civil rights lawyer is described in this obituary in yesterday's New York Times.

A Rare Decorum Violation At U.S. Supreme Court, Prompted By Citizens United

The federal law against "harangues or orations" and using “loud or threatening or abusive language in the Supreme Court Building,”is seldom (if ever?) violated, but it happened this week when a California man interrupted oral arguments to express his displeasure with the Court's decision in Citizens United, declaring “Corporations are not people,” and “Overturn Citizens United.” According to CNN, the justices ignored the outburst and the official transcript makes no reference to it.

A Kente Cloth Graph Of Changes In Law Grad Employment

John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum warns that we don't know who created it or whether the graph is accurate but he's sure right that the graphing is spectacular. Check it out. For the latest on law grad hiring, see this ABA data and ABA Journal's "Barely half of all 2012 law grads have long-term, full-time legal jobs, data shows."

What, No Courthouse Drive-Through Window To Pay Tickets In California?

The story in Courthouse News says a new walk-up window on the outside of one the nation's busiest courthouses (Pasadena) has cut wait times by as much as two hours.  Query how long it takes to find a parking place.

Court of Claims: Get The Inside Story

Michigan lawyers who want to know the latest on the work-in-progress that is the new Court of Claims will want to set aside time on Friday to attend a Court of Claims forum at UD Mercy School of Law.    Judge Michael Talbot, chief judge of the court, will make a presentation on the nuts and bolts of practice in the new Court, and UDM Law Dean Harris will moderate panels to address the impact on tax and negligence cases and appellate practice. Panelists are Graham Crabtree, Chad Engelhardt, Lynn Gandhi, Richard Kraus, Raymond Morganti, and Gradley Morton.  The forum will begin at 2:00 p.m. and conclude by 5:15 p.m. for a complimentary networking reception. Register here.

Clarence Thomas's Week In The Blogosphere

Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker well-hyped blog post "Clarence Thomas’s Disgraceful Silence" is not kind to Justice Thomas:

His behavior on the bench has gone from curious to bizarre to downright embarrassing, for himself and for the institution he represents.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress tells his left-wing readers in "Beware: Clarence Thomas Is One Of America’s Top Legal Minds" to be careful, comparing Justice Thomas's influence on the development of the law to the influence of the late Justice Hugo Black:

The genius of Black’s appeal to constitutional text and the original purposes of the framers, is that it allowed him to root his own decisions in something even more authoritative than the precedents he despised. In the era when justices routinely struck down child labor laws and similar regulations, according to Black, “the power of legislatures became what this Court would declare it to be at a particular time” regardless of whether the text of the Constitution justified these limits on legislative power. Black, by contrast, promised to restore the true Constitution that his predecessors had abandoned.

And Damon Root at Reason says that the Toobin piece is embarrassing--to the New Yorker--for suggesting that Justice Thomas's silence signifies inattention:

This is nonsense. I’ve attended a number of oral arguments in the past two years and I’ve routinely seen Thomas leaning forward, watching the lawyers (and his colleagues), and even conferring quite enthusiastically with both Justice Stephen Breyer (to his right) and Justice Antonin Scalia (to his left). In fact, during the first day of the March 2012 Obamacare oral arguments, which centered on whether an 1867 tax law barred the legal challenge to the health care law from going forward, I watched Thomas and Breyer together poring over a massive book that appeared to be a volume of the U.S. tax code. What were they up to? It’s possible Thomas was suggesting a line of questioning for Breyer to use. After all, as Thomas told an audience at Harvard law school, he sometimes helps generate Breyer’s material. “I’ll say, ‘What about this, Steve,’ and he’ll pop up and ask a question,” Thomas said. “So you can blame some of those [Breyer questions] on me.”

Toobin is either himself guilty of not paying attention, or he is perhaps too eager to bend the facts in order to paint his opponents in an unflattering light.

Apps That Threaten BigLaw?

This story from the Los Angeles Times says the time has come:

Technology is creeping ever faster into the $200-billion U.S. legal field, shaking up an industry that has long been defined by tradition and dominated by white-shoe firms.

Why We Need Effective Lawyer Regulation

In case you were in doubt, from the New York Times, "Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: An Industry of Lies":

A Chinese woman walked into a law office in New York’s Chinatown and asked to see her lawyer. She had applied for asylum, claiming that she had been forced to get an abortion in China to comply with the country’s family-planning laws, and she was anxious about her coming interview with immigration officials.

She had good reason to be worried: Her claim, invented by her lawyer’s associates, was false.

But the lawyer, John Wang, told her to relax. The process, he said, was straightforward, and as long as she memorized a few details, everything would be fine. “You are making yourself nervous,” he said in Mandarin. “All you would be asked is the same few rubbish questions.”

Read the whole story.

 

Fraternities and Lawsuits

A noose placed around the neck of a statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi on February 16 has led to the suspension of the university's chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon and the expulsion of three of the chapters members. The noose probably also prompted The Atlantic blog to run "The Dark Side of Fraternities"  which talks about why "the fraternity lawsuit is a lucrative mini-segment of the personal-injury business."  In it, Douglas Fierberg (Michigan '80), labelled as "the best plaintiff’s attorney in the country," says of fraternities:

Until proven otherwise, they all are very risky organizations for young people to be involved in.  [They] are part of an industry that has tremendous risk and a tremendous history of rape, serious injury, and death, and the vast majority share common risk-management policies that are fundamentally flawed. Most of them are awash in alcohol. And most if not all of them are bereft of any meaningful adult supervision.

 

The Indiana Supreme Court may not agree with that assessment, but on February 13 the court did agree that a former student could sue a fraternity at Wabash College for serious injuries he said he suffered as a result of hazing at one of the college's fraternities, Phi Kappa Psi. At the same time, the court dismissed claims against Wabash College and the national fraternity. Here's the opinion, and a story in the Indianapolis Star.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Openings in Michigan

Openings in the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Michigan have been posted, with applications accepted through March 7.  From the posting: 

Responsibilities and Opportunity Offered: An appointment with the U.S. Attorney's Office offers unique and challenging experiences for the highly motivated attorney. Serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) and assigned to the Criminal Division, Civil Division, Appellate Division, or Branch Office location, you will be part of a dedicated team helping to enforce federal criminal and civil laws that protect life, liberty and property of citizens. Criminal Division assignments include, but are not limited to, the investigation and prosecution of violent offenses, including drug trafficking, public corruption, white collar, and organized crime. Civil Division cases encompass affirmative litigation where the United States is seeking some type of monetary recovery or injunctive relief (e.g., civil rights, judgment enforcement, bankruptcy, asset forfeiture) and defensive cases involving a variety of lawsuits brought against the Federal government.

Qualification Requirements: Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least two years of post-J.D. experience. United States citizenship is required.

Type of Position: All initial attorney appointments in the Department of Justice are made on a time-limited (temporary) basis. Temporary appointments may, or may not, be made permanent without further competition.

Salary Information: Assistant U.S. Attorneys' pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number of years of professional attorney experience. The range of starting pay (including locality differential applicable to the USAO, Eastern District of Michigan's duty stations) is $51,403 to $157,000.

Location: Currently, we anticipate openings for two AUSAs in the Civil Division at the Detroit office. Additional opportunities are also likely in the near future at the Detroit, Michigan duty station, with occasional vacancies in the Flint and Bay City branch offices.

Application Process and Deadline Date: Applications for this vacancy will be accepted through March 7, 2014. Applicants are evaluated by the Hiring Committee on the basis of such factors as academic performance, trial experience, research and writing ability, oral communication skills, and other legal and community service and experience. Interested persons should send a detailed resume with a cover letter, writing sample(s), and completed questionnaire (see attached) to Jennifer Gorland First Assistant U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Michigan 211 W. Fort Street, Suite 2001 Detroit, MI 48226. For additional information regarding application procedures for AUSA positions, please direct e-mail inquiries to Alicia.Collier@usdoj.gov. Applications must be received and/or postmarked by March 7, 2014.

Department Policies: Assistant United States Attorneys generally must reside in the district to which he or she is appointed. See 28 U.S.C. § 545 for district-specific information.

All initial attorney appointments to the Department of Justice are made on a time-limited (temporary) basis. Temporary appointments may, or may not, be extended or made permanent without further competition.