Lex Libris

Netflix in Losing Race With Numerous Pot-Smoking Muppets for Twitter Username

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it.�-- "American Beauty" (1999)

As I have mentioned before, sometimes I feel the same way about legal blog watching. Sometimes there's so much crazy-stupid-funny news in the legal world, I feel like I can't take it. In a good way, though.

Take Monday's news, for example, that Netflix has decided to spin off its DVD mailing business into a separate company called Qwikster. After people got finished laughing at the name Qwikster, they moved on to laughing at the fact that Netflix apparently forgot to line up the logical Twitter user name for its new business,�"@Qwikster." And unfortunately, that name already belongs to someone whose avatar is a pot-smoking Elmo, and who regularly tweets about "cute ass gurls" and whether now would be a good time to smoke a bowl of that good Elmo ganja (not surprisingly, his usual answer seems to be "yes"). Here is a representative post from @Qwikster:

via legalblogwatch.typepad.com

This is hysterical!!

Netflix in Losing Race With Numerous Pot-Smoking Muppets for Twitter Username

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it. -- "American Beauty" (1999)

via legalblogwatch.typepad.com

Long live the internet!!

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Former Divorce Lawyer Tangle Over Trial Date

Washington divorce lawyer Rita Bank is protesting an attempt to reschedule a legal malpractice trial against her. She's arguing that the plaintiff's reasons – a scheduled trip to China to be sworn in as president of an international economics group and meetings with high-level finance ministers regarding pressing global economic crises – shouldn't be considered a valid excuse for a delay. Tied to another case, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Richard Leon has been forced to reschedule Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz’s trial against Bank, his former divorce lawyer, on several occasions. Yesterday, Leon notified the parties that he would need to move the start date from June 28 to July 5. Later in the afternoon, Stiglitz asked the court for a new date, explaining that he already had plans. According to his motion (PDF), from July 4 to 8, Stiglitz is set to be sworn as president of the International Economic Association at the organization’s Sixteenth World Congress in Beijing. When the conference ends, Stiglitz says he’s then scheduled to travel to Egypt, Angola, Greece and Spain. In Greece, he’ll be meeting with the prime minister to “to discuss its current economic crisis, which is obviously a threat to global economic stability.” In Spain, he’ll “meet with senior government officials concerning Spain's current economic crisis as well.” “Plaintiff respectfully asserts that good cause exists for the requested continuance, and justice requires it,” he states. Bank, however, filed her opposition (PDF) shortly after. She notes that almost every attorney involved has been forced to cancel plans at some point in this case – in her case, a pre-paid family vacation – and that Stiglitz shouldn’t be treated any different. “Stiglitz’s schedule is no more important than that of Bank, witnesses, experts, counsel, and certainly the Court,” she argued. “After all, Stiglitz is the Plaintiff. If he wants to pursue this case, it is incumbent upon him to make himself available for trial on the date set by the Court.” The phrase “Stiglitz is the Plaintiff” is in bold, italicized letters. Bank has referred questions about the case to her attorney, Richard Simpson of Washington’s Wiley Rein, who was not immediately available for comment. Stiglitz’s Crofton, Md.-based lawyer, David Whitworth, also could not immediately be reached.

via legaltimes.typepad.com

Things You Can't Do on a Plane: Vol. 1

I seem to see a fresh "Trouble on a Plane" story every day, so I think it is time to launch a new LBW series on "Things You Can't Do on a Plane" for the benefit of all of you air travelers. Here is Volume 1:

via legalblogwatch.typepad.com

Katyal Speaks of SG 'Mistakes' in Japanese Internment Cases

In an unusual statement posted on the Justice Department's blog, Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Friday spoke of the "mistakes" made by a long-ago predecessor in defending the U.S. government's World War II Japanese-American internment program before the Supreme Court.

via legaltimes.typepad.com

King & Spalding Offers New Details on Marriage Mess

The head of King & Spalding's Washington office is accepting blame for what he calls the "misunderstanding" that led the firm last month to accept, and then drop, the U.S. House of Representatives as a client in same-sex marriage litigation. The statement by J. Sedwick "Wick" Sollers comes in a story today from The Daily Report, an Atlanta-based affiliate of The National Law Journal. The newspaper reports other new details about King & Spalding’s reversal, including that the firm’s client-vetting committee did not examine the House’s contract until after then-partner Paul Clement signed it. Sollers’ statement reads in full: “Although our chairman Robert Hays has issued a short statement saying he assumed ultimate responsibility for any mistakes that were made, I want to make sure the record is clear that I was the member of firm management in primary contact with Paul Clement regarding this matter. As I have reflected on this, despite the fact that our standard client/matter review process was not followed, it was reasonable for him to believe that the firm would accept the matter. This was an unfortunate misunderstanding with a friend whom I personally recruited to the firm and strongly supported. I am deeply disappointed by Paul’s departure and regret the breakdown in communications.” Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general who headed King & Spalding’s appellate practice, signed a contract with the Office of the House General Counsel on April 14. He was hired to intervene in several court cases to defend the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, after President Barack Obama decided the Justice Department should not do so. According to The Daily Report, the five-member King & Spalding committee that reviews new clients did not know about the contract until April 18, the same day the public found out. The committee began reviewing the representation on April 19 and rejected it the next day. As a result, Clement resigned from the firm and joined Washington boutique Bancroft, where he continues to represent the House. Sollers had not previously responded to requests for comment. The firm’s only other official comment came on April 25 from Hays, who is based in the firm’s home office of Atlanta. Citing unnamed sources, The Daily Report reports that there was adamant opposition to the DOMA litigation from within the firm. “King & Spalding is a corporate law firm — not a constitutional firm. This is not the kind of case the firm generally takes,” one source said. The Daily Report’s full story is available here.

via legaltimes.typepad.com

Now here's money well spent!

The contract hiring King & Spalding's Paul Clement to represent the U.S. House in same-sex marriage litigation allows for the firm to collect as much as $500,000 in fees, though the sides could raise that cap if the House hits it before the lawsuits end. A copy of the contract was released today by the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a day after Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to do so. The five-page contract sets out a “blended rate” of $520 per hour for the services of King & Spalding’s legal team, led by Clement (pictured above), a former U.S. solicitor general who heads the firm’s appellate practice. Others on the case include partners Daryl Joseffer and Jeffrey Bucholtz, and associate Nicholas Nelson, according to the contract and court papers filed late on Monday. Clement and the House’s general counsel, Kerry Kircher, signed the agreement on April 14, and it runs until the litigation is over or until January 2013, unless they agree to an extension. Some other contracts providing outside legal help to the House have been written on a monthly basis. In 2009, when Seyfarth Shaw’s Alan Baron agreed to assist the House Judiciary Committee on judicial impeachment matters, his contract said his pay was not to exceed $28,000 per month. In 2007, when Arnold & Porter partner Irvin Nathan signed on to help Judiciary Committee Democrats investigate the U.S. attorney firings, his pay was listed at as much as $25,000 a month. (Nathan later became the House’s general counsel.) On a monthly basis from mid-April to 2013, the $500,000 cap for King & Spalding would equal about $24,000 a month if the sides don’t agree to raise it. The contract also includes several provisions that could affect King & Spalding’s lobbying practice. One provision prohibits all firm employees and partners from lobbying on matters before the House Committee on Administration, which approves outside legal contracts. Another provision says that King & Spalding “will take appropriate steps to prevent” its lobbyists from “influencing, or participating in any way in, the litigation.”

via legaltimes.typepad.com

Introduction of Newly Nominated Tani Cantil-Sakauye All Good Vibes

[Cheryl Miller]

via legalpad.typepad.com

Show Me the Original Note and I Will Show You the Money

As mortgage delinquencies rise each month, and as the number of foreclosures increase each quarter, the “new mantra” of many pro-se and represented consumers is to demand that the mortgage servicer “prove up the original note.” Is this just some new and creative gimmick that has been sold to the desperate homeowners and to a few lawyers who have attended “progressive” seminars or is there really something to it? I submit that there is really something to it.

via www.creditslips.org

Emergency Motion: Lawyer's Wife Unwilling to Accommodate Request to Give Birth After Deposition

The South Florida Lawyers blog jokes that down in Coral Gables, Fla., "women and their narcissistic, ill-timed 'birthing' obsessions" are now starting to impact important things in life, such as deposition dates. In Plaintiff's Emergency Motion for Protective Order filed yesterday, attorney Joe Klock advised the court that today, July 14, "the deposition of Mr. Strickland was scheduled to be and is to be taken by Hugh Morgan, Joe Klock was to defend the deposition of Mr. Brakenhoff, and Juan Carlos Antorcha was scheduled to take the deposition of Mr. Pennekamp."via legalblogwatch.typepad.com

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