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Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines July 28, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, July 28, 2009.

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DOJ seeks stay on suit against new patent rules

"The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to halt all proceedings in its en banc review of controversial patent prosecution rules until after the Senate confirms a new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The department, along with the other parties in Tafas v. Doll, is seeking the delay to give the new director an opportunity to examine the rules and "determine what course the USPTO should take in the future with respect to those rules, including whether to rescind the rules," according to the motion filed with the court."

Pro bono hours rise at major U.S. law firms

"Between attorney layoffs, dipping profits and a lack of business, 2008 was a brutal year for many major law firms. But these difficult economic times have been a boon to one practice area: pro bono. Esther Lardent, president of the Pro Bono Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, said that tough economic times in the past have spurred law firms to pull back on pro bono efforts and concentrate on money-making projects. That hasn't happen this time around."

A setback for the defense before start of major music downloading trial

"A few hours before jury selection in a high-profile Boston copyright infringement case involving music downloading, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner shot down one of the defense team's key legal theories."

 

Disabled student allowed to take Calif. bar exam despite missed deadline

"The California Supreme Court has directed the State Bar of California to provisionally allow a paraplegic law student to sit for the state's bar exam despite missing an application deadline. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger intervened on behalf of the recent UC-Davis law school graduate, calling the missed deadline a bureaucratic error"

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Ye Gon case spurs litigation over lawyers

"Zhenli Ye Gon's two-year fight against a drug trafficking conspiracy charge in Washington's federal court has spun off additional litigation involving his lawyers. Ye Gon is being sued by one of his former defense lawyers, who claims he is owed more than $200,000 in legal fees. Another lawyer faces criminal charges of his own, after being accused of assaulting two deputy marshals during a hearing."

 

OPINION

Judging is both robotic and discretionary

"During the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Republican senators confidently announced that judging is the robotic act of applying known law to known facts. Democrats confidently announced that judging is the discretionary act of choosing among multiple plausible outcomes. In fact, judging is both robotic and discretionary. When precedent or text provides a judge with a genuine external command, a judge's job is to obey. That's what Sotomayor kept telling the senators."

 

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 28, 2009 (boomark / email).