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Summer means reclining at the movies.
Longtime readers know I like movies. They’re fun as a stand-alone proposition. But movie-going is almost essential when Arizona’s solar-intensifying sprummer has come, gone, and Satan’s excessive heat...
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Nevada Bar may be first to impose unconstitutional speech code on members.
Last month, an Arizona psychic was at a restaurant having lunch when a car crashed through the window, threw him up in the air, and pinned him against a wall. “I didn’t foresee it happening,” joked...
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Matal v. Tam, a free speech win for all.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that government, in this instance, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) may not refuse to register potentially offensive names under a law...
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Wish I’d skipped “Dinner” and gone for “The Big Sick.”
William Wordsworth Wordsworth decried “getting and spending,” calling it “a sordid boon” that lays waste to our self and clouds our wonder of the physical world. “We have given our hearts away” he...
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Resignation and reform – notes from The Irreverent Notebook
High temperatures, sweaty cheeks, thunderstorms, flash floods and fungus-dispersing dust storms are our annual devil’s brew during monsoon season. This time of year is the flip side of what locals...
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Overwrought and over exaggerated but no matter. Over prescribed CLE is always...
There was an apocryphal story — meaning it was likely bullshit — told by a law school professor about a 1-L engineer. As the story goes, the engineer turned wanna-be lawyer quit law school his first...
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Guess which bar associations ignore the lawyer financial crisis and which do...
Recent news out of Ohio concerning debt-ridden new lawyers underscores the difference between a mandatory membership bar association and a voluntary one. Ohio is one of 18 states where lawyers can...
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Reflections on the eclipse and ‘known unknowns.’
Anticipating Arizona’s 66% solar eclipse tomorrow — sans ISO-approved glasses — I was thinking about Yogi Berra’s, “You can observe a lot by watching.” Unfortunately, I won’t be outside watching. In...
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Size matters — but not how you think.
If you’re like me, at least once in your life you’ve received a mailed “Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement.” In many instances, you aren’t required to do anything to get the so-called...
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Washington Bar considers more infringements on member rights with mandatory...
44 years after apparently being the first state to consider implementing a mandatory malpractice insurance program, the nannies at the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) are at it again. In an...
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Janus may herald changes for lawyers.
Free speech and free association relief for lawyers may be on the way. The nation’s highest court agreed this week to hear Janus v American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),...
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California Governor Signs Historic State Bar Reform Bill.
History was made today in California. Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 36, unprecedented legislation that required painstaking effort the past two years to realize. Bar reform failed in 2016 but...
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Winner, winner — no chicken dinner. . . but at least there’s FREE CLE.
Who knew President Trump was on to something? Forget ‘finger lickin’ goodness. Taking the President’s lead, fried chicken may be safest eaten with a knife — not just a spork. Well at least that was...
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Proposal paints “NMA”‘Scarlet Letter’ on lawyers refusing to fund AZ Bar’s...
A “membership requirements” survey emailed to the state’s lawyers last week by the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court features an unprecedented argument. Acknowledging that “some lawyers argue...
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Shocked in court.
I have to confess. I had no idea that for at least 20 years judges in some U.S. criminal courts have quite literally been shocking defendants with 50,000 volts of electricity when the judge deems the...
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You don’t have to pay for the privilege.
I wasn’t going to weigh in. But attorney-client confidentiality confusion is back in the news. This time it’s over President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen and Fox News Talk Show Host Sean...
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The legal establishment can be harsh.
After reading about the death of 42-year old prominent, “outspoken” Las Vegas lawyer Jacob Hafter this past week, I thought again of how tough and even unforgiving the legal establishment can be....
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Oregon Bar steps in it.
The Oregonian reported last week about the latest mandatory bar kerfuffle. This time, it involves a signed statement published in the Oregon State Bar’s April 2018 house organ, The Oregon State Bar...
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No se habla español — anymore.
First there was Aaron Schlossberg that New York City lawyer whose rant against restaurant Spanish-speakers went viral. In the video taken of Schlossberg’s exchange, he said he’d be calling Immigration...
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A Nevada lawyer’s perspective: “The New CLE Fee Structure Stinks and Should...
Note: The following is re-blogged with the express permission of author, noted family law specialist, and Nevada attorney, Marshal S. Willick. It was originally posted May 25, 2018 as Volume 66 of the...
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