Lawyer / Attorney

A judiciary committee will further look into federal appellate Judge Ralph Erickson’s suggestion to tweak current recusal disclosure procedures, stemming from his concern that those on the bench who have holdings in Berkshire Hathaway may face conflict-of-interest issues. The Committee on Civil Rules decided Tuesday to do more research on whether corporations named in lawsuits should be required to … Read more

Apparently jealous of all the attention that Yale and Stanford law students have gotten for acting like imperious children, Columbia law students, represented by BALSA, LALSA, NALSA, EWOC, OutLaws, QTPOC, IfWhenHow, APALSA, and SALSA (no, I’m not familiar with all of these acronyms), have been throwing a collective hissy fit. The act that stirred such … Read more

U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews has issued an opinion upholding the Boy Scouts of America’s reorganization plan, overriding objections from insurance companies and certain groups of claimants. The District of Delaware decision allows the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history to proceed with distribution, including $2.46 billion already available and potentially another … Read more

Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the arrest of John Roesser, a former law partner at several large firms, for making false statements in the course of his own bankruptcy proceeding and for submitting falsified records. According to contemporaneous updates published in the New York Law Journal and in press releases, Roesser was a partner … Read more

This week and next, I’ll be serializing my Large Libel Models? Liability for AI Output draft. For some earlier posts on this (including § 230, disclaimers, publication, and more), see here; in particular, the two key posts are Why ChatGPT Output Could Be Libelous and An AI Company’s Noting That Its Output “May [Be] Erroneous]” Doesn’t … Read more

Wil Wilkins, one of the plaintiffs in Wilkins v. United States (courtesy of Pacific Legal Foundation).   Today, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Wilkins v. United States, a highly technical procedural case that may turn out to be a significant victory for property owners, particularly those in Western states where the federal government … Read more

A federal judge in Virginia said it’s up to a jury to decide whether poor weather conditions may have equally negated the alleged negligence of the drivers of a Ford van and a Western Express tractor-trailer involved in a multivehicle crash on Interstate 81. In a separate order, the judge also granted the defendants’ motion for sanctions for the partial … Read more

From today’s decision by Judge Paul Maloney (W.D. Mich.) in Doe v. Calvin Univ.: In 2020, Plaintiff Jane Doe attended Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Calvin University offered a study abroad program in the Philippines with Silliman University, a private university in Dumaguete, Philippines. Silliman University selected some of its students to serve as … Read more

Several commenters asked: If AI companies don’t have a copyright in works created by their programs, how can they be held liable under defamation law? Defamation law and copyright law are two different bodies of law, aimed at serving different interests, and with different definitions. That’s why people can routinely be sued for defamation even … Read more

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit considered an appeal over the regulation of gambling licenses in Massachusetts and concluded that Wynn Resorts’ core argument—that a particular agreement is unenforceable as contrary to state law and/or as a violation of public policy—is to be certified to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí, in his written … Read more