The atmosphere may be tense inside a Columbus, Ohio, auditorium filled with 1,300 law graduates taking the bar exam, but the outside parking lot looks a lot more like a carnival. There, alumni from all but one of the state’s nine law schools have pitched tents where they offer sandwiches, fruit, drinks, chips, cookies and emotional support to test takers on their lunch break, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The tradition started about five years ago when the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law set up a tent to offer coffee and Tums to nervous test takers. Now the law schools appear…

Rainmaker Ronald Schiller’s decision to leave DLA Piper for a litigation boutique was at one time considered a risky move. Schiller, the head of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia litigation practice, is one of seven lawyers leaving the big firm for Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. He told Bloomberg the new firm is “nimble” and lets lawyers “tweak rates.” He also pointed out that conflicts of interest can be an issue at large law firms. Sharon Mahn of legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa told Bloomberg that moves like Schiller’s are becoming more common. “Five years ago a lawyer with a…

A federal appeals court has ruled that a private arbitrator may not sue Stradley Ronon and one of its lawyers for allegations made in a quest to disqualify him. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Stradley Ronon and partner Andre Dennis are protected from suit because of an absolute privilege covering communications made in the course of litigation, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The decision was unpublished. Arbitrator Edwin Naythons had alleged the law firm falsely claimed he had backdated a ruling to avoid allegations he was biased by a death threat. Naythons says the ruling was already…

A lawyer who told reporters last year that he gave up his six-figure job at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott to pursue justice is facing his own bout with the criminal justice system. Keenan Dennard Holmes is accused of trying to bring cocaine into a Pittsburgh courthouse, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Police say that when Holmes was going through a court scanner, he emptied his pockets and placed a folded dollar bill containing cocaine into the bowl, the story says. He was charged with carrying contraband into the courthouse and possession of a controlled substance, according to the story. Last…

An Illinois lawyer who is under consideration for the job of U.S. attorney got an up-close taste of crime-fighting on Wednesday when he chased and tackled a suspected thief. Belleville lawyer Steve Wigginton is one of two people recommended for U.S. attorney in Illinois’ southern district, according to the Belleville News-Democrat. He told the newspaper in an article published today that the chase began when his secretary yelled that a man who had walked into their law offices had taken her wallet. Wigginton and lawyer J. Brian Menion gave chase, tracking the suspect by the sound of barking dogs. When…

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled an en banc hearing in a case that applied the Second Amendment to the states, though neither side had sought additional review. University of Pittsburgh law professor Arthur Hellman told the Recorder that gun-control supporters on the San Francisco-based appeals court may have voted for rehearing to eliminate a circuit split and provide a reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the case. A 9th Circuit panel had ruled in April that the individual right to gun ownership found in the Supreme Court decision District of Columbia v.…

Holland & Knight is cutting associate pay, but not everyone will see a pay cut. The pay cuts will average about 7 percent, but the amounts will vary, the Daily Business Review reports. As many as 50 South Florida associates will see pay cuts as high as 10 percent, the story says. Joe Ankus of legal search firm Ankus Consulting told the Miami Herald he expects other law firms to follow with similar pay cuts. “They're all playing follow the leader, and it's like dominoes,'' he said. The firm also plans to announce a change in its associate compensation system…

After years of high-profile litigation, Joel Tenenbaum came clean today in his testimony in an ongoing federal trial over illegal music downloading. “I used the computer. I uploaded and downloaded music. This is how it is. I did it,” he told a packed courtroom. It included as spectators copyright scholars Lawrence Lessig, John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School, reports Ars Technica. Another HLS professor, Charles Nesson, is overseeing Tenenbaum's defense in the Boston federal court trial. Tenenbaum testified that he lied in earlier written discovery responses in which he denied responsibility, Ars Technica reports. Counsel for the…

The Federal Trade Commission’s announcement that it would suspend implementation of a controversial regulation that would require many businesses to take steps to prevent identity theft gives the ABA more time to press its argument that the regulation should not be applied to lawyers, the association’s president said on Thursday. The FTC announced on Wednesday that it would put off implementation of the so-called “red flag rule” until Nov. 1. Originally, the rule was scheduled to go into effect on Saturday, Aug. 1. The FTC cited uncertainty among small businesses about what their compliance obligations would be under the red…

Much has been said about how the so-called securitization of mortgage loans—reselling small fractions of the loans to multiple investors, sometimes again and again—has stymied efforts to encourage lenders to renegotiate mortgage interest and other loan terms with struggling homeowners. But another factor in addition to the difficulty of obtaining approval of loan modifications from multiple, far-distant creditors is also at work, according to the New York Times. Lenders make more money by hitting those in default with additional fees for late payments, appraisals, title searches, insurance and legal filings, often referring such lucrative business to companies in which they…