In a scenario that is increasingly in the news as the subject of internal investigations and legal claims, two police officers in Connecticut are set to go to trial in federal court in Hartford on Monday for killing a family pet after entering the perimeter of a home. The guardian of a 12-year-old girl who, a lawsuit says, saw her dog slain by the defendant officers after they came into the yard without a warrant is seeking compensatory and punitive damages on her behalf over the December 2006 incident, as well as attorney fees, the Hartford Courant reports. The suit…

Add another lawsuit to the list of ongoing legal action against Dewey & LeBoeuf. In an eviction action filed this week in Washington, D.C., the firm's landlord says it owes $550,000 in rent that wasn't paid from Feb. 1 to May 12, according to the Washington Post's Capital Business Blog. Including $26,000 in late fees and utility charges, taxes and legal costs, the total amount the landlord is seeking tops $927,000. In recent weeks, the struggling firm has also been sued by employees, including associates who say their reported mass layoffs after one week of notice or less didn't comply…

Some issues remain unresolved in the criminal case against George Zimmerman because of missteps by the Sanford Police Department. The New York Times says its examination of the case found missteps and sloppy work. “The killing of Trayvon Martin here two and a half months ago has been cast as the latest test of race relations and equal justice in America,” the story says. “But it was also a test of a small city police department that does not even have a homicide unit and typically deals with three or four murder cases a year.” Zimmerman has been charged with…

A motion for sanctions accuses a former Cozen O’Connor partner in Dallas of calling opposing counsel an “ignorant slut” and “pansy” in a string of emails over the scheduling of depositions. Above the Law published the alleged emails. “We’ve seen some heated deposition transcripts in the past,” the blog says, “but we didn’t know that simply scheduling a deposition could get so nasty. Clearly, we’ve never practiced in Texas.” The ex-partner is Martin Sweeney. His emails complained that opposing lawyer Chad Arnette of Kelly Hart & Hallman demanded artificial deposition deadlines and “whined about traveling on a Sunday.” At one…

Judge Gustin Reichbach of Brooklyn has survived three and a half years after his diagnosis of Stage 3 pancreatic cancer, and he credits medical marijuana for aiding him in the battle. Though the substance is banned for medical use in New York, Reichbach says in a New York Times op-ed that he used it anyway. “Nausea and pain are constant companions,” he wrote. “One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small…

Greenberg Traurig and its former bank client are fighting a request for sanctions alleging discovery misconduct in a suit filed by investors who lost money in convicted ex-lawyer Scott Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme. The client, Toronto-Dominion Bank, was found liable for $67 million in January based on a finding that bank officials were aware of Rothstein’s false representations and “provided substantial assistance.” The contempt hearing today in Miami federal court focuses on whether the bank and Greenberg Traurig failed to turn over key documents, the Miami Herald reports. A lawyer for the investors, David Mandel, also claims the bank “doctored” a…

The California Supreme Court is considering whether to grant a law license to an illegal immigrant, a paralegal who came to the United States as a young child. The immigrant, Sergio Garcia, came to the United States from Mexico with his parents when he was 17 months old, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing information from the Daily Journal (sub. req.). He has applied for legal status. The supreme court asked the State Bar of California to show cause why Garcia should be admitted to practice after the bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners revealed his immigration status in a routine…

A cert petition filed by Harvard University law professor Charles Nesson claims the recording industry had an ulterior motive when it engaged in a “litigation assault” against illegal music downloaders—its purpose was to frighten the Internet-savvy children of America. Nesson represents Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University doctoral graduate originally ordered to pay $675,000 for downloading copyrighted music, Ars Technica's Law & Disorder blog reports. The industry's ulterior purpose, Nesson wrote in the Supreme Court petition (PDF), was to create "an urban legend so frightening to children using the Internet, and so frightening for parents and teachers of students using the…

Everyone knows the meeting killers. There is “the dominator,” the Wall Street Journal notes in an interactive graphic. This person greatly overestimates the value of his or her personal views, disrupts discussion and “induces information overkill.” Then there is the “naysayer,” who waits to make major objections until after consensus is almost reached. Or the “rambler” who “inflicts death by boredom” with off-topic discussions. “When it comes time for a meeting, co-workers can be deadly,” the Wall Street Journal says. “Discussions get hijacked. Bad ideas fall like blunt objects. Long-winded colleagues consume all available oxygen, killing good ideas by asphyxiation.”…

Perhaps 50 of the 300 partners at Dewey & LeBoeuf at the end of 2011 are still with the law firm right now. Associates and staff have been laid off. And a group of retired pension partners are pondering a possible effort to force the firm into involuntary bankruptcy. The final remaining member of what was, until recently, a five-partner law firm management committee exited Dewey Wednesday for Arnold & Porter. However, the struggling firm "is not formally closed," a spokesman tells Reuters. "In my view, this company has to be put into a bankruptcy," said attorney Annette Jarvis of…