Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Top Headlines April 7, 2008 Issue

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, April 7, 2008.

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The 2008 Appellate Hot List
"Our first annual Appellate Hot List is our unscientific survey of firms that scored at least one significant appellate win since January 2007, plus an impressive track record overall. A "significant win" meant prevailing before the U.S. Supreme Court, a U.S. circuit court of appeals or a state court of last resort when the financial stakes were high or an important legal principle was at stake."

Justices listen to a key voice
"An excellent term for a U.S. Supreme Court advocate is victory in one of the most important cases on the docket. An extraordinary term is that victory plus an opportunity to argue ? win or lose ? in a second high-profile case. The excellent R. Ted Cruz, Texas solicitor general, is about to have an extraordinary term."

Judicial merit selection gauged
"Judicial elections rife with private interest groups and expensive campaigns are forcing proponents and critics in more than a half-dozen states to take a closer look at the merit selection system of choosing judges. The moves comes as this year's election season begins, most notably in Wisconsin, where a record number of negative campaign ads inundated last week's race for a state Supreme Court seat."

Arbitration and firms: a very delicate dance
"A recent wave of lawsuits against law firms brought by their attorneys has some firms looking to mandatory arbitration as a way to gain control over such disputes. But even as the use of mandatory arbitration has grown among employers in general that want to better manage employment feuds, many law firms apparently have yet to embrace the strategy commonly used by their own clients."

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on April 07, 2008 (boomark / email).