Anchors away 

11/29/12

By Dan Brillman 

Anchored putting, a popular golfing technique where players rest or "anchor" putters against a part of their body, will be against USGA regulations from January 2016. The new rule will "prohibit strokes made with the club or a hand gripping the club held directly against the player's body, or with a forearm held against the body to establish an anchor point that indirectly anchors the club."

The style of many golfers, including stars Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Ernie Els, could be affected by the change. Keegan Bradley, currently ranked 15th in the world, recently told Golfweek Magazine that he would "do whatever I have to do to protect myself and the other players on tour." Did Bradley mean lawsuit? If so, he really doesn't have a putter to lean on, Vermont Law professor Michael McCann told Golf.com.

McCann said that because golfers are essentially independent contractors and not members of a union, they cannot challenge the rule change as a violation of a collectively bargained agreement.

Players' only hope for a case would be an antitrust suit. But even that's a long shot since the golfers would have to prove that the terms of employment have changed and that the market for quality golfers has been diluted -- not a very sound argument. Besides, courts generally defer to governing bodies' rules, as in 1981's Gunter v. Hartz, in which a tennis equipment manufacturer sued the sport's governing body over its ban on "spaghetti" or double-strung racquets. Bradley and his cohorts are probably going to have to learn to putt the old-fashioned way. They have three years to practice.

Time for a veto? 

11/29/12

By Suhrith Parthasarathy 

The latest version of the annual military budget might prevent the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison, says a coalition of advocacy groups that has written to President Barack Obama urging him to veto the budget, reports Politico. (Hat tip: Lawfare.)

On Nov. 27, a coalition including the ACLU, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, wrote a letter to the president expressing concern about the deadline for transferring detainees from the prison. The transfers are set to expire March 27, 2013, but if the deadline is extended -- a possibility under the proposed budget -- "the prospects for Guantanamo being closed during (Obama's) presidency will be severely diminished," says the coalition. To close Guantanamo, which the coalition labels a "hallmark" of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, a veto will be needed, it says.

Lawfare argues that a veto is the only effective move available to the president to close the prison. It is unlikely Obama will use it, though, given his "crowded field of other legislative priorities" and the fact that he has failed to veto past versions of the military budget in spite of the transfer restrictions.

Wachtell vs Harvard 

11/29/12

By Erin Geiger Smith 

Some highbrow legal battles are fought in courtrooms. Others, it seems, are waged via memo. One intellectual skirmish that keeps popping up on our radar is between the merger and acquisition department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and members of Harvard Law School's Shareholder Rights Project, a clinic that promotes what it believes are better corporate governance practices.

On Wednesday top Wachtell partners, including Martin Lipton, wrote a memo complaining about the project, calling it "misguided" and finding it "disappointing that a leading law school" would be a place for advocacy.

The M&A partners were miffed by some clinic press releases touting its success in pushing corporations to hold annual elections for board members, rather than staggering those elections. Wachtell partners and clinic leader Professor Lucian Bebchuk disagree on which is the best corporate governance practice.

For a blow-by-blow account of the legal dispute, check out the letter and Reuters' April coverage of round 1 between these two groups of brainy boxers. As for any bad blood between the parties, Bebchuk told us in the spring that he and several of the Wachtell partners have been friends for years. All's fair, it seems, in love and corporate governance.

Dean to critics: Lighten up 

11/29/12

By Erin Geiger Smith 

As Reuters reported yesterday, the number of people who took the law school entrance exam this year, and the number who enrolled as One Ls fell pretty dramatically this year. This comes after several years of questions about why so many people are still going to law school despite the tough job market and high tuition costs.

One law school dean is apparently tired of all the negativity. Case Western Reserve University law school dean Lawrence Mitchell writes an op-ed in The New York Times Thursday, and its simple headline sums up his argument: "Law School is Worth the Money."

Mitchell says the "press, bloggers and a few sensationalist law professors" have turned promising potential lawyers against the idea of law school. Though he admits the job market it bad, he argues it's been this miserable before and there's too much of a focus on a graduate's first job. Law students, he says, are educated for a full career, and that could include a variety of productive things that don't fall under the umbrella of practicing law.

Mitchell provides a variety of numbers to convince readers that lawyers do pretty well in the long run. If they just stick it out they'll be able to pay off their law school debt, which runs about $125,000. The average lawyer's annual salary exceeds that amount, says Mitchell, adding "You'd consider a home mortgage at that ratio to be pretty sweet."

Having it all 

11/29/12

By Dan Brillman 

Two British women have started a legal outsourcing business that aims to give work mostly to female lawyers who leave firm life to have families.

According to CNN (hat tip: ABA Journal), Obelisk Legal Support works with 100 lawyers who will provide legal help to firms and companies at flexible, hourly rates commensurate with what the attorneys made before ditching full-time law.

Co-founder Dana Denis-Smith tells CNN that many women she talks to "feel they have been forgotten and their skills don't matter anymore. We have built a business around a skill set that has not been tapped into." She cites stark statistics that show women in the UK make up 70 percent of starter lawyers but only 12 percent of partners.

Men who want a more flexible lifestyle can also work at Obelisk, but the enterprise is clearly geared toward the working mother. "What do we want to say to our daughters?" Obelisk co-founder Charlotte Devlin asked. "That law is a great profession until you have children?"

Summary Judgments for November 28 

Summary Judgments for November 27 

Summary Judgments for November 26 

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