From Dennis Cauchon’s great USA Today piece on the extreme degree of job security for federal employees, almost none of whom were fired or laid off even in last year’s grim economic conditions:
Only 27 of 35,000 federal attorneys were fired last year. None was laid off. Death claimed 33.
(h/t Andrew Grossman).
Ted Frank rebuts a lame Atlantic column (& follow-up).
The baseline expectations in our legal system are such that when judges cast a skeptical eye on meritless cases — going so far as to be “almost” hostile toward them — it counts as newsworthy. I discuss in my new post at Cato at Liberty. More: Bainbridge. For more on the prosperous legal niche of filing lawsuits seeking to block corporate mergers, and then collecting fees when the target agrees to settle in order to get the deal done, see Dealbreaker (“Plaintiff’s Lawyer Tax on M&A”), Fox Business and WSJ.
“… that a lawyer’s participation makes judicial proceedings more fair, not less fair.” So should we be shocked that the U.S. Supreme Court does not partake of this article of faith? [earlier on Turner v. Rogers and Civil Gideon] Related: Are we sure we want judges who are “great lawyers”? [Chiang, Prawfs, Greenfield]
The CEO of the Carl’s restaurant chain “said he’s had to fire managers who insisted on working more hours than state allows.” [David Houston and Jot Condie, San Jose Mercury-News]
Nevada has passed a law banning sex discrimination, but, perhaps wary of the litigious track record of California’s Unruh Act, has exempted “Ladies’ Nights” promotions. [Las Vegas Sun]
If you run a home office in Nashville, you mustn’t let clients visit, while in Montgomery County, Maryland, employees may not pick up paychecks at a home-based business [Radley Balko; Harvey Jacobs, WaPo]
Abnormal Use interviews Bob Dorigo Jones, founder of the ever-popular Wacky Warning Labels contest.
It appears President Obama “will nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),” according to my colleague Mark Calabria, who recounts Cordray’s mixed record on topics of business litigation (he withdrew an abusive lawsuit against lead-paint manufacturers, while also campaigning against foreclosures). Earlier coverage here.
P.S. Daniel Fisher at Forbes reports that securities class action lawyers appear to adore Cordray, to judge from his campaign finances. John Berlau finds him inclined toward heavy-handed regulation, while Neil Munro wonders about his data privacy defense record.