European court orders Poland to pay damages to two prisoners held in secret CIA jail

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Poland to pay damages to two terrorism suspects who were interrogated at a secret CIA jail in the country. The ruling is the first public determination by a court that the CIA operated a secret “black site” in a foreign country after…

Jul 24, 2014 1:57 PM CDT

Christine Lagarde, IMF and ex-BigLaw chief, talks about women and leadership

A high-profile female attorney who has achieved unusual success in major law firm and governmental leadership roles never had a career plan. Yet this may not have been a mistake, Christine Lagarde tells the Washington Post (reg req.), because career opportunities tend to arise from circumstances rather than planning. That…

Jul 11, 2014 5:04 PM CDT

Slater & Gordon offers law firm stock-purchase plan for UK workers

Publicly held law firm Slater & Gordon has announced a plan to encourage its workers in its United Kingdom offices to purchase stock in their employer’s company. Assuming the plan is approved by shareholders at an upcoming meeting, the law firm will match share purchases by attorneys and staff at…

Jul 11, 2014 3:15 PM CDT

TSA bans uncharged cellphones and laptops on some international flights

Those planning international travel should take note of a new TSA rule. Concerned about potential terrorism, the federal agency is requiring airline passengers headed to the U.S. from the Middle East and Europe to demonstrate that their cellphones and laptop computers can turn on before boarding, according to the Associated…

Jul 7, 2014 4:35 PM CDT

Sarkozy detained on suspicion of interfering with French investigation into financial corruption

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s former president, was detained for questioning Tuesday by French anticorruption investigators. At issue was whether Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog improperly tried to get information about an ongoing investigation into Sarkozy’s campaign finances, according to the New York Times. The Times reports that law enforcement focused…

Jul 1, 2014 3:20 PM CDT

Pistorius’ psychiatric assessment finds no mental impairment at time of girlfriend’s death

Oscar Pistorius. Featureflash Shutterstock.com A psychiatric assessment has concluded that South African track star Oscar Pistorius did not suffer from a mental impairment affecting his ability to distinguish right from wrong at the time of his girlfriend’s death. The chief prosecutor in the case disclosed the results in court on…

Jun 30, 2014 12:35 PM CDT

Woman is convicted of causing 2 deaths by stopping for ducklings on highway, faces maximum of life

A jury in Montreal convicted a Canadian woman on Friday of causing two deaths when she stopped her car in a highway traffic lane in 2010 to rescue a family of half a dozen ducklings. Although Emma Czornobaj, 25, lacked criminal intent, she nonetheless faces a maximum life prison term…

Jun 23, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

Canada grants asylum to US woman sentenced to 30 years for having sex with teen

A mortgage broker who fled Florida with her family after being criminally convicted in 2008 for having sex with a 16-year-old boy on her son’s baseball team has been granted asylum in Canada. Denise Harvey, 47, won the rare permission to apply for permanent residency because her 30-year sentence was…

Jun 10, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

Guilty as charged? No problem, UK expert witnesses tell undercover reporters

Eight out of nine expert witnesses approached by undercover reporters agreed to give helpful reports for court, even though the reporter “clients” admitted their guilt. The findings were broadcast in a documentary for the program Panorama broadcast on the BBC, report BBC News and the Daily Mail. Two handwriting experts…

Jun 9, 2014 1:22 PM CDT

Too much work, too little time is a chief cause of stress for London trainee lawyers

A survey of lawyers in the United Kingdom chronicles the causes and pervasiveness of stress. The survey by Lawyer 2B, a sister publication of the Lawyer, found that a chief cause of stress for lawyer trainees was too much work and too little time. Though 78.5 of the trainees listed…

Jun 6, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Paleontologist, ‘a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils,’ gets time for $1M dinosaur sale

A paleontologist described by a federal prosecutor as “a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils” was sentenced to three months in prison on Tuesday for his role in plotting to smuggle dinosaur bones and other remains from Mongolia. Eric Prokopi, 39, pleaded guilty in 2012 to three felony counts related…

Jun 4, 2014 4:50 PM CDT

Retired Wash U law professor is elected president of Malawi

Corrected: Unknown to many of the law students he taught over the course of a 40-year career at Washington University, Peter Mutharika was the descendant of Malawian tribal leader. Sent out of the southeastern African country as a young man, he settled in St. Louis, taught at Washington University School…

Jun 2, 2014 9:30 PM CDT

How 50 children were saved from Nazi Germany by a Philadelphia lawyer and his wife (podcast)

May 29, 2014 5:00 PM CDT

Why the No. 5 law firm in France is gender-balanced at the top levels

The French law firm TAJ is led by a man who takes gender balance seriously. The law firm has a 50/50 gender balance in equity partnerships, governance committees and all other levels, according to an HBR Blog Network post by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of the gender consulting firm 20-first. TAJ…

May 29, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Top corporate lawyer suspended for comments that led to ‘Scud Stud a Dud’ election article

Updated: One of Canada’s top corporate lawyers has been suspended from practice for four months for her role in a negative 2008 news column about a former NBC war correspondent running for a seat on the Alberta legislature. Kristine Robidoux admitted Monday that she had been one of the sources…

May 28, 2014 2:02 PM CDT