Finding that a blanket ban on results-oriented attorney advertising violates the First Amendment, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today struck down a challenged Louisiana rule of professional conduct that prohibited testimonials and factual information about results achieved in prior representations. And a three-judge appellate panel also found excessive a complete prohibition on portraying a judge or a jury in attorney advertising, explaining in a written opinion (PDF) that such advertising is not inherently misleading. However, the panel OK'd a rule prohibiting the use of nicknames, monikers, trade names and mottos that imply an ability to obtain…

Finding that an unconstitutional provision requiring most individuals to purchase insurance is central to the entire Health Care Reform Act championed by the Obama administration, a federal judge in Florida struck down the entire statute today. “Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications,” writes U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in his opinion. He found that the insurance-purchase requirement violates the commerce clause of the U.S. constitution, Bloomberg reports. Although the case is one…

Being convicted of a felony, or even a misdemeanor, can mean the loss of a lawyer's license to practice in many states. Plus, it is standard in some states for an attorney's license to be suspended as soon as he or she is convicted of a serious crime. But in Wisconsin there are 135 attorneys who still hold active licenses despite convictions for crimes such as battery, theft, fraud and repeat drunken driving, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Some had active licenses even as they served time behind bars. Another 70 managed to avoid law license trouble by getting charges…

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has recently taken a beating before the U.S. Supreme Court. Decisions by the San Francisco-based appeals court were rejected in five cases in a row—and the Supreme Court was unanimous each time, the Washington Post reports. Some experts believe the cluster of reversals and the language of the opinions are intended to send a message. The high court has been “in scold mode,” the Post says. Three of the cases reversed criminal opinions written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, considered the country’s most liberal justice, the Post says. A San Francisco Chronicle columnist wrote…

Two lesbian teens in Minnesota will be allowed to walk together at their high school's Snow Days Pep Fest as a result of a mediation session presided over by a federal judge. Sarah Lindstrom and Desiree Shelton had been elected to the royalty court for the fest at Champlin Park High School and wanted to walk as a couple in the processional. They sued after the school district changed longstanding policy allowing students to walk as couples and decided that every student would be accompanied by an adult. The suit was resolved on Saturday, less than 24 hours after it…

Greenberg Traurig has ousted a Los Angeles partner accused of altering offering documents requested in an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The law firm terminated partner David Tamman on Friday, according to the Am Law Daily and a Reuters Legal article published by Westlaw News & Insights. A statement by Greenberg Traurig said Tamman’s alleged conduct took place at a former law firm—apparently Nixon Peabody—and it had not been aware of any wrongdoing. Nixon Peabody had hired Tamman in February 2007 and fired him in October 2009 when it learned of the SEC investigation, the firm told Reuters…

Houston-based law firm Susman Godfrey has a ritual for new partners. After the first partners meeting, the newbies are escorted to Western stores in Houston where they are fitted for a new pair of cowboy boots, report Texas Lawyer’s Tex Parte Blog and the Am Law Daily. Houston partner Neal Manne is the lawyer who supervises the shopping trips. He told Tex Parte he doesn’t remember when he first started the tradition. “I just thought it would be fun,” he said. Daniel Charest, one of five new partners at the firm, told the blog that he just received his new…

U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe has a theory about people who view child pornography. About 50 years from now, scientists will discover that child porn consumption is caused by “a gene you were born with,” Sharpe said as he sentenced a defendant to 6½ years in prison in December 2009. "And it's not a gene you can get rid of." Now a New York-based federal appeals court has ruled that Sharpe’s theories justify resentencing for the defendant, Gary Cossey, according to the New York Times and the Associated Press. “It would be impermissible for the court to base its decision…

Corrected: The mystery surrounding the death of a Yale law graduate who had served as an aide to several presidents wasn’t resolved with the release of a coroner’s report on Friday. John Wheeler III, who was found dead at a Wilmington, Del., landfill on New Year's Eve, died of blunt force trauma, the Delaware Medical Examiner’s Office announced. The News Journal of Wilmington has the story. Wheeler had been seen wandering around Wilmington in the days before his death, and had stopped at a local law firm but left before the receptionist could find someone to speak to the lawyer.…

A Virginia lawyer who practiced law with his wife was shot and killed by police Friday after he fired shots in an eight-hour standoff at his home. The lawyer, Richard Ferris II of Chesterfield, was “highly regarded” for his civil and family law practice, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports. He and his wife, Michelle, practiced law at Ferris & Ferris. Richard Ferris also operated a gun store out of his law office. Prosecutors from another county will review the incident; the Chesterfield Commonwealth's Attorney had considered Richard Ferris a friend. Officers killed Ferris Friday morning after he fired at them…