Appellate Practice

11th Circuit OKs 28-Year Term for Phil Hill in $110M Mortgage Fraud; 2 Lawyers Also Convicted

Saying that lies upon lies underpinning a massive mortgage fraud had devastated Atlanta’s housing market, a federal appeals court yesterday upheld the conviction and 28-year prison term imposed upon its ringleader. Phillip Hill, 54, appropriately got more time than other defendants involved in the scheme, because he orchestrated it, the…

Jun 15, 2011 8:52 PM CDT

7th Circuit Judge Blisters Lawyer for ‘Grotesque’ Damages Argument

Renowned federal appeals court judge Judge Richard Posner clearly wasn’t favorably impressed by a damages case brought by an alleged serial spammer seeking compensation for being put on an anti-spam organization’s blacklist. Calling the arguments advanced by attorney Joseph Kish and his client, e360, in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court…

Jun 15, 2011 2:13 AM CDT

Chief District Judge Nixes Motion to Vacate Prop 8 Ruling Due to Judge Walker’s Sexual Orientation

The chief federal district judge in San Francisco has refused to vacate a controversial same-sex marriage ruling last year by a now-retired colleague, based on his sexual orientation and involvement in a same-sex relationship. A judge is not required to step down from hearing a case simply because of his…

Jun 15, 2011 1:49 AM CDT

Some Lexicographers Question Justices’ Increasing Reliance on Dictionaries

U.S. Supreme Court justices are increasingly relying on dictionaries to define words in legislation, perplexing some lexicographers. Justices have consulted 120 different dictionaries to define words ranging from “of” and “if” to “attorney” and “common law,” the New York Times reports. Justices have been looking to dictionaries more often in…

Jun 14, 2011 12:24 PM CDT

Disbarred Ex-BigLaw Associate Wins Pro Se Appeal of $600K Fine in Insider-Trading Case

After pleading guilty in 2007 to an insider-trading conspiracy, a former associate at Thacher Proffitt & Wood lost a parallel civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on summary judgment. However, Amir Rosenthal apparently spent at least some of his 33-month sentence to good purpose in the…

Jun 13, 2011 8:07 PM CDT

Real Estate Closing Attorney Wins Reversal of ‘Honest Services’ Mortgage Fraud Conviction

A former North Carolina real estate closing attorney who had faced up to 25 years in prison after being convicted in a $15 million mortgage fraud case two years ago has won a reprieve. A federal judge on Friday reversed the guilty verdict against Victoria Sprouse, 40, holding that the…

Jun 13, 2011 5:01 PM CDT

It’s June, the Month of Long Supreme Court Opinions

The U.S. Supreme Court has 23 more opinions to issue before the end of the term, and they’re likely to be long ones. According to USA Today, the Supreme Court “has entered the season of the long opinion.” When the court takes longer to resolve an issue, the story says,…

Jun 13, 2011 11:49 AM CDT

Decision to Hire Paul Clement to Defend Immigration Law Is Surprise to Arizona’s Attorney General

Former Solicitor General Paul Clement, who made news in April when he resigned in protest from King & Spalding over his representation of the House’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act, has been tapped by the state of Arizona to defend its controversial immigration law. Clement, now at Washington,…

Jun 10, 2011 3:00 PM CDT

Judge Gets Reprimand, $100 Fine for Jailing Lawyer Who Refused to Recite the Pledge

A Mississippi judge who held a lawyer in contempt and jailed him after he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in court will be disciplined. Finding that Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn abused his contempt powers, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld, in a ruling released yesterday, a Misissippi Commission on…

Jun 10, 2011 10:10 AM CDT

Amanda Knox was Denied a Lawyer, says Wash. Judge, Seeking Obama’s Help in Italian Murder Case

Arguing that the rights of a young woman from Washington state were fundamentally violated when she was interrogated, tried and convicted in the sexual assault and murder of a foreign-student roommate with whom she was then living in Italy, a Washington state judge, in his capacity as a private citizen,…

Jun 10, 2011 12:47 AM CDT

9th Circuit: By Telling Cops of Dad’s Advice to Get a Lawyer, Suspect Didn’t Actually Ask for Lawyer

Tio Dinero Sessoms was recorded on video when, after being arrested in 1999, he told Sacramento homicide detectives that his dad “asked me to ask you guys–uh, get me a lawyer.” But a California court had an adequate basis for deciding that Sessoms’ relaying to police of his father’s advice…

Jun 10, 2011 12:16 AM CDT

Facing Ethics Case re $50M ‘Taj Mahal’ Court Building Project, Judge Points Finger at 14 Colleagues

Corrected: An appeals court judge in Tallahassee, Fla., who is facing a legal ethics case over his role in a controversial $50 million courthouse construction project, among other claimed misconduct, says he’s not the only one who approved it. The other judges in the 1st District Court of Appeal also…

Jun 9, 2011 10:51 PM CDT

Del. Gov Nominates Leo Strine as New Chief Judge for State Chancery Court

The governor of Delaware has nominated a sitting Court of Chancery judge to replace retiring Chancellor William B. Chandler III as the top judge on what many consider the top business court in the country. Leo Strine Jr. was tapped for the judicial leadership job by Gov. Jack Markell, but…

Jun 8, 2011 6:53 PM CDT

DA Blasts Overturned Rape Verdict, Says Panel Used ‘Stone Age Standard of Proof of Resistance’

A district attorney in Pennsylvania is blasting a court that overturned a jury’s rape conviction for concluding that “a sexual-assault victim is not to be believed unless her injuries are severe enough to meet some Stone Age standard of proof of resistance.” Calling the decision last month by a state…

Jun 8, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

Appeals Court: Associate Can’t Seek Punitives from Law Firm That Allegedly Misled Him re Partnership

A former associate can’t seek punitive damages from a law firm that allegedly misstated his partnership potential for years to keep him working on an important case and then terminated him once it successfully concluded. Upholding today the trial court’s ruling on punitives, the New York Appellate Division for the…

Jun 7, 2011 11:40 PM CDT