Trial run
1/18/13
By Caitlin Tremblay
CBS has narrowly avoided a trial in a case involving the TV
show "NCIS: Los Angeles" and, possibly, millions of dollars.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS has settled with
Donald Bellisario, creator of TV shows like the military legal
drama "JAG" and the naval law enforcement show, "NCIS."
Bellisario had sued the network in 2011 saying he was owed
millions from "NCIS: Los Angeles," because the series was a
spin-off and he wasn't allowed to participate.
In a suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Bellisario
claimed that his 1992 "JAG" and 2002 "NCIS" contracts gave him
"first opportunity" to work on a spin-off or payments. CBS, with
the help of lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, got the claims
under the 2002 contract thrown out based on statute of
limitations. This meant that at trial Bellisario, who has been
in declining health, was going to have to prove that "NCIS: Los
Angeles" was a spin-off of "JAG" under the 1992 contract, which
had a longer time limit attached. According to court records,
Bellisario has been compensated over the years by CBS with $116
million.
CBS hoped a trial wouldn't happen, and it got its wish. The
details of the agreement with Bellisario haven't been released,
but no trial means CBS TV secrets stay safe and the details of
Bellisario's health won't get revealed publicly. A win-win.
The joke's on us
1/18/13
By Dan Brillman
For the gridiron-ignorant public, Manti Te'o is the Notre
Dame football star who lost his grandmother and girlfriend
around the same time last fall. The ordeal made endless ESPN
telecasts and, lore has it, was a massive inspiration for both
Te'o and the team.
But, as Deadspin scooped, the girlfriend who tragically
"died" from leukemia never existed and was just an elaborate
hoax allegedly perpetrated by Te'o family friend Ronaiah
Tuisosopo. It's still unclear whether Te'o knew that girlfriend
Lennay Kekua was fake from the outset. As the media combs
through the confusion over who knew what when, The Wall Street
Journal interviews criminal defense star Ben Brafman about
whether criminal charges could be brought.
It depends if the hoax was meant as a practical joke, says
Brafman, or if there was an intent to steal a person's identity
(criminal offense) or indirect financial or emotional harm
(civil offenses). "If we started to prosecute practical jokes,
you would run into First Amendment issues," Brafman said, "and
we would overwhelm the scarce prosecutorial resources that could
be put to better use." Though, to be sure, defining a practical
joke in a legal sense would not be the most cut-and-dried task.
Notre Dame conducted an investigation and decided against
calling the police because it did not find evidence of theft or
intended profit. The story has still to fully unfurl, however,
so don't count out the lawyers, courtrooms and judges just yet.
Two little
1/18/13
By Eileen Daspin
Two New York University law profs penned a joint op-ed in
The New York Times on Thursday, arguing that law schools should
adopt a two-year model to reduce the debt burden on grads, make
law school more accessible to low-income students and improve
legal education in the United States. Schools could continue to
offer a third year, but students could opt out, save the high
cost of tuition and ideally find a job right away that puts
their training to work, argued Dean Daniel B. Rodriguez and
Professor Samuel Estreicher. The setup "would allow many newly
minted lawyers to pursue careers in the public interest or to
work at smaller firms that serve lower- or average-income
Americans, thereby fulfilling a largely unmet need," said
Rodriguez and Estreicher.
Not so fast, writes law prof Scott Fruehwald on
lawprofessors.typepad.com, who takes issue with pretty much each
premise. To start with, under the current system, "most
attorneys are not ready to practice even after three years in
law school." What's more, lawyers who have only two years of law
school will have to compete with lawyers who have three years.
"Who do you think firms will hire and who will get the best
assignments?" asks Fruehwald. Finally, in a scary conclusion, he
predicts that "the two-year proposal will not stop the glut of
attorneys on the market today. In fact, it might make it worse
because more people might go to law school if they only have to
go for two years."
Come together
1/18/13
By Casey Sullivan
The trustee overseeing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Howrey
is trying to clawback about a third of the money paid to its
former lawyers when Howrey was likely insolvent, according to
the American Lawyer. Allan Diamond said he's sent settlement
offers to between 20 and 25 of the 71 law firms that have become
new homes for the Howrey lawyers. The offers, according to the
Wall Street Journal, seek more than $50 million, in return for
which the partners and their firms would avoid years of costly
litigation with the Howrey's estate.
When advisers of the bankrupt law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf
reached a settlement with partners late last year, they went
about it in a different way. They settled claims by convincing
the former partnership to pitch in about $70 million in exchange
for a general release of claims. The deal, which is awaiting
final approval by a federal bankruptcy judge, left unresolved an
estimated $60 million in so-called unfinished business claims,
which target profits made on legal business partners brought
with them to their new firms.
In handling the Howrey case, Diamond decided not to deal
with partners and law firms separately. Instead, he is bundling
the individual and unfinished business claims together and
trying to claw back a lump sum from the individual partners and
the firms that hired them. How exactly the firms and the
partners decide to divvy up the lump sum payment is for them to
decide.
Son of SOPA?
1/18/13
By Suhrith Parthasarathy
Internet activists are dubbing today "Internet Freedom Day,"
to commemorate the Web slowdown of Jan. 18, 2012, reports The Hill. On that day more than 100,000 sites, including Google,
Wikipedia, Reddit and Craiglist, participated in a blackout to
protest legislation that would have made it easier to prosecute
foreign websites that stole American-owned copyright such as
movies and television shows. The outcry helped derail the
passing of SOPA (short for the House bill, Stop Online Privacy
Act) and PIPA (short for Protect IP Act, a sister bill in the
Senate), which critics argued could have shut down legitimate
websites.
Now Declan McCullagh of CNet wonders what the state of the
bills is. CNet spoke to a number of politicians and advocacy
organizations to find out what's next. The music and movie
industry, among others, still seem keen on the legislation, but
neither bill has been reintroduced in 2013. Anti-SOPA groups are
talking about counterattacking with a bill of their own, one
that would expand fair use and curb what they see as abuse of
copyright.
Legal defense
1/17/13
By Ted Botha
When France sent its military to Mali last week to drive
back al Qaeda-linked militants, the government in the capital of
Bamako also asked the United States for help, according to The Washington Post. But before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta can
say yes, he has to consult lawyers.
"One thing I've learned is every time I turn around, I face
a group of lawyers," Panetta told reporters in Rome this week,
the Post says. "It's no different now. Lawyers basically have to
review these issues to make sure they feel comfortable that we
have the legal basis for what we're being requested to do. And I
understand the need for that."
U.S. law forbids direct military intervention in Mali
because the current government took power in an illegal coup
last year, says the Post. Making things even murkier: It was the
illicit government that asked Washington for help. Already the
United States is providing surveillance and other intelligence
help to France, says the Post.
The Malian insurgency is said to be spearheaded by several
groups, some of them with links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, or AQIM. France deployed thousands of ground troops to
support aerial strikes that started Friday, says U.S. News.
After Sept. 11, Congress approved the open-ended use of
military force against al-Qaeda and its allies, and while the
Bush and Obama administration launched attacks against al-Qaeda
affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, West Africa is different, says
the Post. "(S)ome U.S. officials (argue) that the network is
isolated in remote parts of Africa and does not represent a
direct or imminent threat to American interests."
Summary Judgments for January 17
Summary Judgments for January 16
Summary Judgments for January 15
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