A graduate student in physics who illegally—and willfully—downloaded 30 songs on the Internet must pay $675,000 in damages, a federal jury in Boston decided today. That amounts to $22,500 per song, notes Ars Technica. The maximum the jury could have awarded reportedly was $4.5 million. Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law School professor who led the defense team, describes the verdict as a "bankrupting award" for his client, Joel Tenenbaum, the law blog reports, and lamented the fact that he was not permitted by the judge overseeing the case to present a fair-use defense. However, there still may be some hope…

When former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr depicted Sonia Sotamayor injecting the U.S. Supreme Court with flair and excitement, he sounded a wee bit like a teenager with a crush. “We’ve all fallen in love with her remarkable life story,” Starr told ABA members listening to a panel on the Roberts Supreme Court. “Despite some controversy over her 'wise Latina' statement, she’s gifted and thoughtful. Unlike the other justices, except Roberts and Alito, she has experience as a litigator. She knows what the Old Bailey looks like. She’s been a prosecutor. One of the great dividing lines in this court has…

In a move that could nearly halve the six-year prison term that former Qwest Communications chief executive Joseph Nacchio got for insider trading, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered that he be re-sentenced. Both Nacchio's prison term and the amount of money he is required to forfeit must be recalculated based not on his gross profit but on what he actually gained due to insider knowledge, reports the Denver Post. "[A]n insider-trading defendant's 'gain' should not consist of the total amount that the defendant realized from his or her stock sales but should be limited, more specifically,…

In a move that could nearly halve the six-year prison term that former Qwest Communications chief executive Joseph Nacchio got for insider trading, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered that he be re-sentenced. Both Nacchio's prison term and the amount of money he is required to forfeit must be recalculated based not on his gross profit but on what he actually gained due to insider knowledge, reports the Denver Post. "[A]n insider-trading defendant's 'gain' should not consist of the total amount that the defendant realized from his or her stock sales but should be limited, more specifically,…

Saying that an attorney's representation of an 11-year-old client in a family law matter did not comply with court administrative and legal ethics rules, a New York appellate court fired the attorney and ordered that new counsel be appointed for the youth. J. Mark McQuerrey's young client "was, at the least, entitled to consult with and be counseled by his assigned attorney, to have the appellate process explained, to have his questions answered, to have the opportunity to articulate a position which, with the passage of time, may have changed, and to explore whether to seek an extension of time…

Galveston, Texas-area lawyers on Facebook may want to double-check their friends list, especially if they’re about to appear before Judge Susan Criss. That’s because Criss, a state court judge who is learning to adapt to social media as a way to connect with long-lost friends and is leveraging Facebook as a judicial campaign tool, has also learned a few things she didn’t expect. Biggest surprise: Even lawyers don’t fully grasp how public social media is, even when privacy controls are in place. “Anyone can cut and paste,” said Criss, who was part of a Friday ABA Annual Meeting program “Courts…

When you put six former U.S. attorneys general together on a panel at a convention of lawyers, it’s pretty safe to assume the meeting room won’t be big enough. That was the case Friday morning at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, when a Litigation Section program titled “Lessons from History: A Conversation with Former Attorneys General” drew a rapt audience that had people standing at the back of the room and even sitting on the floor in the aisles. What the audience heard from the six men whose combined service under four different presidents covered much of the past…

The lawyer who helped Sen. Ted Stevens win a reversal of his conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct is one of five lawyers named to a “hall of fame” list of attorneys who matter by the magazine Ethisphere. Brendan Sullivan, a senior partner at Williams & Connolly, had claimed the government withheld evidence in the political corruption case against Stevens, later dropped by the government. Rather than exposing government corruption, many lawyers on the list are white-collar defense lawyers who made a name for themselves defending those accused of corporate wrongdoing. One of them, Steptoe & Johnson partner Reid Weingarten, represented…

Earlier this month, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft announced that it was asking 34 of its lawyers to take a one-year sabbatical for "one-third of their current compensation and medical benefits." The firm had planned to place the lawyers with clients or public interest organizations. Now the law firm is offering the lawyers a chance to come back to work on a document review project, Above the Law reports. A firm spokesperson told the blog that Cadwalader has been helping the lawyers on sabbatical prepare resumés and find jobs. “We have alerted them to more than 60 job opportunities, helped to…

Some Republican lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to refile civil charges against the New Black Panther Party in a controversial voter intimidation case. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., cites an opinion from the Congressional Research Service that says the charges could be refiled without violating the ban on double jeopardy, the Washington Times reports. The original complaint filed in Philadelphia federal court alleged two members of the group wielded a nightstick and made racial threats at a Philadelphia polling place last November. Wolf has written a letter (PDF) to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for reinstatement of the case.…