Every now and then, a lawyer will get a call from someone in desperate need of help. They’re being stalked, spied upon, wiretapped and harassed by the government. They don’t know why, there’s no reason for it, but the fact remains that every time they turn around, they catch a...
So you were hanging out with your buddy Joe, a guy who buys weed off you every now and then. Joe tells you he knows a guy who’s looking to buy more than Joe usually gets, and offers to introduce you. One thing leads to another, and soon you’re making...
If you belong to a certain population, who cares if you get arrested for no reason? Certainly not certain parts of the NYPD, according to former detective Stephen Anderson. If there’s an arrest that needs to be made, and you don’t have a guilty person to arrest, you just “arrest...
Huh, we kept it up for another year. Three years of The Criminal Lawyer, happy birthday to us. To be sure, three years is by no means venerable in the blawgosphere, and we’ve only written about 300 posts in that time, but it’s nice to say that it’s made it...
In Patrick O’Brian’s The Reverse of the Medal, one of the novels in his brilliant Aubrey-Maturin series set during the Napoleonic wars, one of the main characters winds up being prosecuted for insider trading. Jack Aubrey, a heroic naval captain, is completely innocent — but the evidence against him looks bad,...
Or maybe not… For some reason, common wisdom would have it that crime should go up when the economy is going down. Violent crime in particular. Apparently, the thinking is that less prosperity leads to increased frustration and desperation, leading to more beatings killings muggings and rapes. As if the...
We’ve posted several times about how there are just too many federal crimes, many created by regulatory fiat or otherwise without meaningful oversight by elected officials. About how a great many of them are apparently drafted by people with no understanding of how criminal law works and why. About how,...
Wanda: What would an intellectual do? What would… Plato do? Otto: Apol- Wanda: Pardon me? Otto: Apollgzz. Wanda: What? Otto: Apologize! Well, no. He probably wouldn’t. Not Plato. And certainly not in the case of Troy Davis, whose final clemency request was denied this morning, and who now faces execution...
Anyone who has served on a jury or tried a case knows that the American jury system is pretty stupid. Don’t get us wrong — it is absolutely without a doubt a sacred institution designed to ensure justice better than any other system we know of — but it’s still...
Technology freed art to transcend itself. After photography took on the job of realistic imagery, art was free to explore new forms of expression. New ways of visualizing things. New things to visualize. Using technique or color or shape to fire the viewer’s neurons in new and unexpected ways. Art...
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” This is not something you want your lawyer to be asking you in the middle of trial. Or worse yet, in the cells after you’ve lost your trial. And yet it is a perpetual ostenato heard in every criminal courthouse. The head-shaking...
(Our last couple of posts about law school and recent graduates were a bit negative, focusing on those who are entering the profession for the wrong reasons. But what about those who are doing it for all the right reasons? They are in the majority, after all. Well, this one’s...
Last week, the prosecution and the defense filed their sentencing memoranda in the Rajaratnam case. Raj was convicted of 14 counts in all — 9 counts of securities fraud, and 5 conspiracy counts. So what do the parties think that’s worth? The feds asked Judge Holwell to sentence Raj...
If you’re trying to market your law firm online, no doubt you have a blog. You know how important a blog can be for building your brand, and maximizing your SEO. You’re doing everything right — loading up on keywords, submitting your posts to social media sites, and asking...
Courthouse News reports that “a $200 million class action claims the New York Law School misrepresents post-graduate opportunities for lawyers and subjects ‘the overwhelming majority’ of its graduates to ‘years of indentured servitude’ after ‘saddling them with tens of thousands of dollars in crushing, non-dischargeable debt that will take literally decades...
Recent Comments