Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines June 12, 2008

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, June 12, 2008.

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FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  Corporate bankruptcy filings lag, for now
"Law firms have been preparing for the next wave of corporate bankruptcies for the past two years, and while there's been a 40% increase in filings over the past year, restructuring attorneys are starting to think that the surge may be more of a swell than a tsunami. Loan terms favorable to borrowers, more secured corporate debt, 2005 bankruptcy law changes and other factors have contributed to a decline in the number of companies seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection."

FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  Stanford Law drops letter-grade system
"Stanford Law School plans to drop letter grades as early as this fall, joining Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. Students will get one of four grades: honors, pass, restricted credit or no credit, instead of the traditional A+ to F grades. Dean Larry Kramer said the school hopes to shift students away from the focus on grades and prevent course selections that have started to include calculation of instructors' grading habits."

WEB-ONLY  |  Experts mixed in reaction to Kozinski's X-rated Web posts
"Legal ethics experts disagree about whether Alex Kozinski, presiding judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, should recuse himself from a federal obscenity trial in Los Angeles after acknowledging that he maintained a personal Web site with sexually explicit photos. Kozinski, an ardent defender of free speech and First Amendment rights, admitted posting sexually explicit photos on a Web site and maintained that the site was for private use and not intended for the public."

WEB-ONLY  |  Sources say Milberg to pay $75 million to resolve criminal charges
"Milberg could agree to pay $75 million as soon as this week as part of an agreement to resolve criminal charges against the New York firm in the government's kickback case, according to a source familiar with the situation. "

WEB-ONLY  |  1st Circuit upholds dismissal of challenge to military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy
"A 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision this week upheld a lower court's dismissal of a constitutional challenge to the U.S. military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law concerning discharge rules for homosexuals. Although the decision noted that the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas recognized 'a protected liberty interest for adults to engage in consensual sexual intimacy in the home,' the 1st Circuit denied the plaintiffs' appeal challenging the government's policy".

WEB-ONLY  |  Lawyer-rating service presses for names in Illinois
"Avvo Inc., a company that provides an online ratings directory of U.S. lawyers, has petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court to obtain an electronic list of licensed attorneys licensed from the state's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission after the commission in April rejected a request. Avvo argued in a June 10 petition that the commission had erroneously denied its request because the court's rules allow for the "master roll" of lawyers to be made public, and that in fact the information is available on the commission's own Web site, just not in a form that's usable by Avvo".

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 12, 2008 (boomark / email).