Opening Statements

A More Approachable Bench

Many judges believe that half the people who appear before them will leave disgruntled, says Kevin Burke, a Minneapolis jurist. But it could be worse. They could leave thinking the judge was a jerk. That’s the message Burke delivers to state court judges in the seminars he leads on how…

Oct 1, 2007 5:29 PM CDT

Green Is Good

During construction of Nixon Peabody’s new office space in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center, corner office placement was the least of the firm’s concerns.

Aug 1, 2007 12:49 PM CDT

Supreme Close-Up

As SCOTUS prepares to entertain a new fall audience, one thing is certain: Events will not be televised.

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM CDT

IP, Going Once ... Twice

It was standing room only for business-suit types at Ocean Tomo’s Spring 2007 Live Intellectual Property Auction.

Aug 1, 2007 11:50 AM CDT

“So, this lawyer walks into a bar ...”

Days before Cassandra E. Hooks was to sit for the California bar exam, her 4-year-old son was hospitalized with a bacterial infection.

Aug 1, 2007 8:30 AM CDT

Attorney Pay Slays Inflation

The last decade has been a very good one for the average U.S. lawyer’s wallet. Median attorney pay has outpaced inflation by 17 percent, compared to just a 5 percent rise in the prior decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Aug 1, 2007 7:39 AM CDT

Money Loves Power

Ask most people about nuclear energy, and they’ll mention disasters like Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

Jul 2, 2007 12:47 AM CDT

An Uncommon Blend

It’s a common conundrum for many small, minority-owned law firms looking to crack the big leagues: Fortune 500 corporations want to send them work, but sometimes the work requires more resources than the firm can offer.

Jul 1, 2007 7:50 PM CDT

Undue Diligence

#### 70% The percentage of corporate and financial industry executives surveyed who said their companies had canceled a foreign business transaction as a result of a background/integrity investigation. Yet only #### 49% said their companies always conducted background and integrity checks before entering into a new business relationship outside the…

Jul 1, 2007 7:50 PM CDT

Funding Innocence

Get-out-of-jail-free cards come easily in the game of Monopoly, though by chance.

Jul 1, 2007 7:27 PM CDT

At this Prosecutor’s Office, a Furry Soft Spot for Kids

Unconditional love, sad to say, isn’t what brings children to the offices of the King County Special Assault Unit.

Jul 1, 2007 7:25 PM CDT

Last Resorts of Court

One date that’s on almost every federal judge’s calendar this summer is the meeting of his or her circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, at which trial and appellate judges review the work of the court and socialize at some of the nicest resorts and hotels in the nation. So as not to provide a roadmap for disgruntled litigants, we’re taking a look back at where the circuit courts summered in 2006.

Jul 1, 2007 7:04 PM CDT

Alaskan Judge Joins Immunization Effort in India

If you happen to see children in the northern Indian state of Haryana with a touch of dye on their pinkie fingers and smiley face stickers on their shirts, chances are Michael I. Jeffery was involved.

Jun 5, 2007 8:10 PM CDT

Breyer Flunks School of Rock

It had all the makings of a Cinderella story for the legal profession: a second year law student, his favorite radio quiz show and a U.S. Supreme Court justice playing on the aspiring young lawyer’s behalf. But this fairy tale proved fleeting for University of Missouri Kansas City law student James Hayes after Justice Stephen G. Breyer proved that, while he may be a constitutional scholar, he’s no rock ’n’ roll historian.

Jun 5, 2007 7:27 AM CDT

The EZ J.D.

With the price of a law school education pushing into the six figures, aspiring lawyers may think twice before taking the plunge.

Jun 2, 2007 12:32 AM CDT