A former senior federal judge who pleaded guilty to helping a stripper buy drugs is blaming his bad choices on a long battle with depression and brain injuries suffered in a bicycle accident. Former Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Camp of Atlanta is seeking a sentence of probation, a fine and community service, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press report. According to court documents, Camp sought treatment in 1999 for "a mood cycling or bipolar disorder," but he was prescribed medications for depression. The next year, he suffered a serious head injury in a bicycle accident. The accident damaged…

Justice Clarence Thomas defended his wife’s political work and criticized critics on Saturday at a Federalist Society symposium for law students. Thomas’ speech at the event’s final banquet was closed to the media, but Politico obtained a partial recording of the speech. Thomas asserted that critics “seem bent on undermining” the Supreme Court as an institution and warned law students of the possible consequences, according to the Politico account. “You all are going to be, unfortunately, the recipients of the fallout from that—that there’s going to be a day when you need these institutions to be credible and to be…

The University of Chicago Law School sent nearly 59 percent of its graduates last year to the nation’s top law firms, putting it in first place on a list of feeder law schools. Overall, the hiring picture for graduates of the nation’s 50 “Go-To Law Schools” worsened in 2010, the National Law Journal reports. The percentage of grads getting BigLaw jobs was 27.3 percent, compared with 30.3 percent the prior year. The NLJ ranked the 50 law schools based on the percentage of their 2010 grads getting jobs with the nation’s top 250 law firms. The top five feeder law…

A critical mass of Howrey lawyers has reportedly indicated an interest in joining Winston & Strawn, bringing the deal to acquire many of Howrey’s remaining lawyers closer to completion. This past weekend was crucial, according to the Recorder’s blog Legal Pad. Citing confidential sources, the blog says Winston partners were set for a vote on the deal after a sufficient number of Howrey partners indicated they would make the move. The Lawyer, however, reported on Saturday that a Winston vote could be delayed by two weeks as the firm discusses whether to acquire the Howrey name. The news comes just…

Seven BigLaw refugees urge potential clients to "reject convention" and utilize the services of their new intellectual property boutique on Feinberg Day Alberti & Thompson's website. Their Palo Alto, Calif., firm is unusual because it staffs every case with experienced patent litigation partners—Feinberg Day has no associates—and yet charges clients less than what they would have paid for the same work at the megafirm for which the partners formerly worked, according to attorney Marc Belloli. Flexible billing arrangements are also part of the mix, along with the efficiencies that come from putting a small team of seasoned colleagues on a…

It's no secret that the business of practicing law has changed—and continues to change—in ways that are both subtle and dramatic. We've covered that transformation over the years in these pages: technology-driven efficiencies, niche practices developed around social change, new challenges to the profession dictated by both gut-wrenching recession and fundamental industrial change. But while our reporting on this metamorphosis has been solid, even at times prophetic, it's been based in great part on the tools of journalism: anecdote, instinct and the oft-competing wisdom of any experts we can find. Read all the articles in our special report: What America's…

Since 2009, Julian Heicklen has been handing out material urging prospective jurors to vote their conscience at various courthouses. He says he often holds a "Jury Info" sign to help connect him to the right people, but has never sought to influence any specific case. Now the retired chemistry professor has been federally indicted in Manhattan for tampering, amidst a growing controversy, there and elsewhere, about the extent to which jurors should be informed of the right they have traditionally held to ignore the law and decide a case as they see fit, reports the New York Times. While such…

Two new mug shots of Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of the Arizona shootings that left six dead and injured 13 others in January, were released Tuesday. In a hearing on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns refused to seal Loughner’s photographs, prompting the U.S. Marshals Service to release them, reports the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Loughner is smiling in the photos, reported CNN, which also published the mug shots. Loughner's lawyers attempted to block their release last week, arguing that making the photos public would violate their client’s privacy and jeopardize his right to…

In another step toward a world in which parties, potentially, will routinely be allowed to testify in court despite the fact that they are not physically present, the New Hampshire Supreme Court today held that a trial court judge abused his discretion by refusing to consider allowing a party in a domestic violence matter to testify over the telephone. While the judge apparently could have refused to admit the testimony had he had good reason to nix it, refusing even to consider admitting the testimony was "untenable and unreasonable," the court explains in its written opinion (PDF). "I’m not going…