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N.J. CIVIL RIGHTS CHIEF APPROVED DESPITE DOUBTS ABOUT GAY-FRIENDLINESS
"Chinh Le, a faculty member at Seton Hall Law School, won confirmation Wednesday as director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights after an outpouring of testimonials to rebut two Union County senators who complained his resume lacked evidence of commitment to gay rights. Le, 34, who was assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund for five years and an associate in a big New York firm for two, is an experienced civil rights litigator and has written extensively about school desegregation. But the day before the confirmation vote, Democratic Sens. Raymond Lesniak and Nicholas Scutari said in a letter to the commission that Milgram had disregarded the rights of gays in nominating Le."

REPORT: WOMEN, MINORITY LAWYERS SEE MORE BIAS IN COURT
"Bias against women and minority attorneys in New Jersey's courts may be in the eye of the beholder, but even if that's all it is, the state needs to remedy the matter, according to a survey released Tuesday by the judiciary. Women and minority attorneys are far more likely than their male and white colleagues to perceive race and gender bias, the study by the Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts concluded. Those results point up a need for training on bias awareness for judges, court staff and sheriff's officers, said the committee, chaired by Appellate Division Judge Francine Axelrad. The survey is the committee's third look at gender bias in 26 years, but unlike studies done in 1983 and 1996, the latest one also examines racial bias."

ALCOTEST RESULTS SCOTCHED DUE TO GAP IN PRE-TESTING OBSERVATION
"A Mercer County judge's vacating of a drunken-driving conviction due to a break in the 20-minute observation period prior to administering the Alcotest now has precedential clout. Criminal Part Judge Mitchel Ostrer ruled in State v. Filson, No. 37-2008, an opinion approved for publication on Wednesday, that the police officer's brief absence from the observation room breached a condition set by the state Supreme Court for Alcotest use. Ostrer said the observation need not be solely visual but 'one cannot observe a subject who is physically so far from the observer that the observational senses cannot detect something significant when it occurs.' "

NO SPECIAL TIMING NEEDED FOR KNOCK-AND-ANNOUNCE WARRANTS
"The state Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned an appellate ruling that, had it stood, would have drastically limited police officers' use of 'knock and announce' search warrants and of distractive devices to ease their entry into dangerous premises. The justices in State v. Robinson, A-62-08, were unanimous in finding that the 20- to 30-second delay between a detective knocking and announcing 'police department; search warrant' and the forcible entry into the defendant's apartment were reasonable ? especially since the officers were raiding a suspected drug den, and a longer delay would afford the occupants more time to destroy or hide evidence."

PARTNER FIRED FOR NOT MEETING BILLING TARGETS SUES LAW FIRM
"A former corporate partner in the New York office of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge hired in the months before the credit crisis hit is suing the firm after it fired him for failing to meet revenue expectations. Stephen Connoni, who joined the firm in September 2007 but left only one year later, sued the firm in April in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly 'unilaterally and improperly' firing him without a required vote of the partnership and without paying him all that he was owed. The dispute between Connoni and Edwards Angell highlights the growing pressure on lateral hires in bad economic times to produce, with firms getting less and less likely to tolerate new recruits who do not carry through with bringing over business"

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