A class action plaintiff who filed a legal malpractice suit contending that a California law firm improperly took some $20 million from a $134 million settlement is back in the ball game. The trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Girardi Keese, held the California Court of Appeal, Second District, even though the plaintiff didn't lose the underlying case as a result of the law firm's alleged misconduct and the statute of limitations had run on the underlying tort claim, reports Reuters. "I'm frustrated," says attorney Robert Finnerty, who represents the law firm, of the appellate panel's decision (PDF)…

The artist who created an unusual tattoo on the left side of prizefighter Mike Tyson's face has sued Warner Bros., contending that the studio pirated its work by putting the same tattoo on the face of an actor in its new movie The Hangover 2. S. Victor Whitmill says in his federal lawsuit that Tyson signed a release giving him ownership of the 2003 design and that he registered it, according to Courthouse News Service. Meanwhile, the studio allegedly never sought his permission to use the exact same design on actor Ed Helms' face. The studio declined to comment on…

New York-based Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has had an office in Hong Kong since 1993. But, until now, it only practiced United States law there. That will soon change, following the firm's raid on two top United Kingdom-based firms to poach practice leaders for a new Hong Kong practice, reports the Asian Lawyer in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.). They are: Celia Lam, who serves as co-managing partner in Greater China for Linklaters, and Christopher Wong, the former chief of China corporate practice at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. A law firm press release provides additional details. The…

Parents traditionally worry about what their children are learning in school, but it’s what those students are not learning that’s even more unsettling. Only one state deserved a rating of A when it came to teaching its students American history, according to a recent study. Most states fall in the category of “mediocre to awful.” The study ranked history standards in 49 states and the District of Columbia (Rhode Island has no mandatory history standards, only suggested guidelines) for “content and rigor” and “clarity and specificity” on a scale of A to F. Only South Carolina got straight A’s. See…

A federal appeals court has lifted a preliminary injunction that had banned federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a victory for the Obama administration and supporters of the research, report CNN and the Associated Press. At issue is a 1996 law that bars the use of taxpayer money in the creation or destruction of human embryos for research purposes. Last year, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an injunction, ruling that embryonic stem cell research funded by the National Institutes of Health likely violated…

The fallout continues over King & Spalding’s decision to take on, and then drop, the defense of the federal law banning recognition of gay marriages. The latest news: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has ended his office’s relationship with King & Spalding, citing the law firm’s “obsequious act of weakness” in its decision to drop its defense of the law, the Defense of Marriage Act. The Washington Examiner and Politico have the story. The law firm’s decision led former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to resign from the firm in protest so he could continue to represent his client, the…

Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy says it’s time for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer to move on. It’s the responsible thing to do, Kennedy writes for the New Republic. If the liberal justices remain on the court and President Obama fails to win re-election, “they will have contributed to a disaster,” he writes. “Both are, well, old: Ginsburg is now 78, the senior sitting justice. Breyer is 72.” Neither are likely to outlast a two-term Republican president if Obama loses in 2012, he says. Kennedy offers what he sees as a cautionary tale. Justice Thurgood Marshall, known…

Justice John Paul Stevens decided to retire on Jan. 21, 2010, the day he read aloud his dissent in the Citizens United case and stumbled in his delivery. In an interview with the Atlantic, Stevens, now 91, said doctors found no problem, despite a faltering presentation. Nonetheless, "that was the day I decided to resign," he told the publication. "I learned giving that talk that I had a speech problem." Stevens revealed he is writing a book about the five chief justices he has worked with over the years, as a law clerk, a lawyer, a federal appeals judge and…

Yale sends a higher percentage of its law students to federal judicial clerkships than any other law school. The Morse Code blog of U.S. News & World Report lists the top schools for judicial clerkships with Article III judges. The top five are: 1) Yale, sending 30.6% of students to all judicial clerkships, 27% to federal clerkships. 2) Stanford, sending 26% of students to all judicial clerkships, 24% to federal clerkships. 3) Harvard, sending 20.6% of students to all judicial clerkships, 18.1% to federal clerkships. 4) University of Washington, sending 22.8% of students to all judicial clerkships, 18% to federal…

Yale Law Women has released its annual list of the top 10 family friendly law firms. Debevoise & Plimpton and Steptoe & Johnson made the list last year, but they are off this year. In their place are Covington & Burling, which made the 2009 list, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Carly Zubrycki, chairman of the top 10 list committee, cautioned against overemphasizing the changes in an interview with the Careerist. It's "possible for a firm that made the list last year to have submitted similar numbers, or even improved numbers, this year but to have nonetheless been beaten by…