A Chinese immigrant jailed in Indiana for over a year on charges that she killed her viable fetus by eating rat poison in a suicide attempt while pregnant has lost her bid to have the controversial criminal case dismissed by the state supreme court. However, in letting stand a prior Indiana Court of Appeals order requiring a Marion County judge to set bond for Bei Bei Shuai, the court also effectuated her potential release, according to the Associated Press and the Indianapolis Star. Bail was set at $50,000 on Friday for the 35-year-old, who apparently remains incarcerated at this point.…

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Citing unidentified sources, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) is reporting that Dewey & LeBoeuf is working with a restructuring specialist hopes to be ready to make a potential bankruptcy filing by the end of next week. However, an actual filing could come some time later or conceivably not at all, according to the newspaper, since no final decisions have been made. While the law firm is clearly on the verge of winding up its operations, its representatives have been saying publicly that a bankruptcy filing is not planned. Meanwhile, a steady stream of partners continues to head to other…

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In the first day of a contempt hearing concerning evidence that wasn't produced in a federal civil case that resulted in a $67 million judgment against Toronto-Dominion Bank, the institution's new counsel, McGuireWoods, pointed the finger at its former counsel. Greenberg Traurig, the bank contended Thursday, had access to all documents related to a claim by investors in a venture promoted by now-convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein that TD Bank had aided and abetted fraud by the ex-attorney. Rothstein, who at the time was operating a prominent Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law firm as its managing partner, is now serving a…

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Developing: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has relieved Justice Joan Orie Melvin of all judicial and administrative responsibilities, ordered her records secured and directed the court administrator to “ensure that the premises are vacated.” The action, announced in a press advisory, follows news today that Orie has been charged with nine counts, including four felonies, based on accusations she used state-paid staff for campaign work, report the Pittsburgh Tribune. An earlier story in the the Pittsburgh Post Gazette had news of the impending charges. Before the court action, Melvin had announced she was voluntarily recusing herself from judicial duties, but she…

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Policies buried in college student handbooks are being cited by universities asserting that they are due a cut of the profits from inventions conceived on campus. Harvard wasn’t one of them, Stanford law fellow Brian Love writes in the Boston Globe. Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends working in a Harvard dorm on a Harvard computer network, says Love, who is moving to Santa Clara law school as an assistant professor this fall. Harvard “could have asserted a stronger claim to the company than the Winklevoss twins and Paul Ceglia combined,” he writes. Love suggests Harvard made…

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The Other Big IPO Today, Facebook makes its historic market debut. But many lawyer-bloggers are talking about a different initial public offering: Last Friday, Web-based legal services provider LegalZoom filed for an IPO of up to $120 million to expand its services in the United States and around the world. Can LegalZoom documents truly compete on quality with a lawyer-for-hire? The answer to that question doesn't matter as much as what clients perceive. Lawyers "will assert that consumers and small business are exposing themselves to liability by using LegalZoom's limited services which will bring regret later," DirectLaw Inc. founder Richard…

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A robbery prank known as “Urban Skittles” could result in felony charges, according to a Kansas district attorney. According to a press release cited by KWCH.com, the prank originated in England and works this way: “The ‘game’ is played by an individual or group of youths that run into a random business and yell for everyone to get down on the floor as if they are going to perpetrate an armed robbery. The ‘players’ then count the number of individuals who ‘hit the deck,’ hence the name, Urban Skittles.” The release by the Sedgwick County District Attorney warns that pranksters…

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The fathers of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman gave Sanford, Fla., police their opinions about the person who was crying for help in 911 tapes of the Feb. 26 confrontation that ended with the shooting death of 17-year-old Martin, according to documents released by the special prosecutor in the case. Neither said the voice was that of 17-year-old Martin, the New York Times reports. Zimmerman’s father said he thought the voice belonged to his son. Martin’s mother, however, has said it was her son who was screaming on the tapes. An analysis by an FBI lab was not able to…

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Justice Stephen G. Breyer has been victimized by criminals for two months in a row. In the latest incident, Breyer’s Washington, D.C., home was burglarized, according to the Washington Post blog the Reliable Source. The burglar made off with a pair of $500 silver candlesticks and a silver set valued at $2,500, the story says. A housekeeper reported the crime when she arrived at the house on May 4. In February, a machete-wielding robber interrupted a bridge game at Breyer’s home on the Caribbean island of Nevis, stealing about $1,000 from the justice, his wife and two others. A suspect…

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Two documentaries on people who fought for justice are among four Silver Gavel award winners announced this week by the American Bar Association. The Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, according to a press release. The Standing Committee on Gavel Awards named four winners and seven honorable mentions from among nearly 200 entries. The four winners are: • For documentaries, THIRTEEN and Fork Films in association with WNET and ITVS: Women, War & Peace: I Came to Testify The documentary chronicles a group…

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In a scenario that is increasingly in the news as the subject of internal investigations and legal claims, two police officers in Connecticut are set to go to trial in federal court in Hartford on Monday for killing a family pet in the course of attempting to enter a home. The guardian of a 12-year-old girl who, a lawsuit says, saw her dog slain by the defendant officers after they entered the yard without a warrant is seeking compensatory and punitive damages on her behalf over the Dec. 2006 incident, as well as attorney's fees, reports the Hartford Courant. The…

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Add another lawsuit to the list of ongoing legal action against Dewey & LeBoeuf. In an eviction action filed this week in Washington, D.C., the firm's landlord says it owes $550,000 in rent that wasn't paid from Feb. 1 to May 12, according to the Washington Post's Capital Business Blog. Including $26,000 in late fees and utility charges, taxes and legal costs, the total amount the landlord is seeking tops $927,000. In recent weeks, the struggling firm has also been sued by employees, including associates who say their reported mass layoffs after one week of notice or less didn't comply…

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Some issues remain unresolved in the criminal case against George Zimmerman because of missteps by the Sanford Police Department. The New York Times says its examination of the case found missteps and sloppy work. “The killing of Trayvon Martin here two and a half months ago has been cast as the latest test of race relations and equal justice in America,” the story says. “But it was also a test of a small city police department that does not even have a homicide unit and typically deals with three or four murder cases a year.” Zimmerman has been charged with…

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A motion for sanctions accuses a former Cozen O’Connor partner in Dallas of calling opposing counsel an “ignorant slut” and “pansy” in a string of emails over the scheduling of depositions. Above the Law published the alleged emails. “We’ve seen some heated deposition transcripts in the past,” the blog says, “but we didn’t know that simply scheduling a deposition could get so nasty. Clearly, we’ve never practiced in Texas.” The ex-partner is Martin Sweeney. His emails complained that opposing lawyer Chad Arnette of Kelly Hart & Hallman demanded artificial deposition deadlines and “whined about traveling on a Sunday.” At one…

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Judge Gustin Reichbach of Brooklyn has survived three and a half years after his diagnosis of Stage 3 pancreatic cancer, and he credits medical marijuana for aiding him in the battle. Though the substance is banned for medical use in New York, Reichbach says in a New York Times op-ed that he used it anyway. “Nausea and pain are constant companions,” he wrote. “One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small…

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Greenberg Traurig and its former bank client are fighting a request for sanctions alleging discovery misconduct in a suit filed by investors who lost money in convicted ex-lawyer Scott Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme. The client, Toronto-Dominion Bank, was found liable for $67 million in January based on a finding that bank officials were aware of Rothstein’s false representations and “provided substantial assistance.” The contempt hearing today in Miami federal court focuses on whether the bank and Greenberg Traurig failed to turn over key documents, the Miami Herald reports. A lawyer for the investors, David Mandel, also claims the bank “doctored” a…

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The California Supreme Court is considering whether to grant a law license to an illegal immigrant, a paralegal who came to the United States as a young child. The immigrant, Sergio Garcia, came to the United States from Mexico with his parents when he was 17 months old, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing information from the Daily Journal (sub. req.). He has applied for legal status. The supreme court asked the State Bar of California to show cause why Garcia should be admitted to practice after the bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners revealed his immigration status in a routine…

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A cert petition filed by Harvard University law professor Charles Nesson claims the recording industry had an ulterior motive when it engaged in a “litigation assault” against illegal music downloaders—its purpose was to frighten the Internet-savvy children of America. Nesson represents Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University doctoral graduate originally ordered to pay $675,000 for downloading copyrighted music, Ars Technica's Law & Disorder blog reports. The industry's ulterior purpose, Nesson wrote in the Supreme Court petition (PDF), was to create "an urban legend so frightening to children using the Internet, and so frightening for parents and teachers of students using the…

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Everyone knows the meeting killers. There is “the dominator,” the Wall Street Journal notes in an interactive graphic. This person greatly overestimates the value of his or her personal views, disrupts discussion and “induces information overkill.” Then there is the “naysayer,” who waits to make major objections until after consensus is almost reached. Or the “rambler” who “inflicts death by boredom” with off-topic discussions. “When it comes time for a meeting, co-workers can be deadly,” the Wall Street Journal says. “Discussions get hijacked. Bad ideas fall like blunt objects. Long-winded colleagues consume all available oxygen, killing good ideas by asphyxiation.”…

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Perhaps 50 of the 300 partners at Dewey & LeBoeuf at the end of 2011 are still with the law firm right now. Associates and staff have been laid off. And a group of retired pension partners are pondering a possible effort to force the firm into involuntary bankruptcy. The final remaining member of what was, until recently, a five-partner law firm management committee exited Dewey Wednesday for Arnold & Porter. However, the struggling firm "is not formally closed," a spokesman tells Reuters. "In my view, this company has to be put into a bankruptcy," said attorney Annette Jarvis of…

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