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My original reporting on legal events and trends:

Reporting

November 28th, 2013
While the American economy has been officially out of recession for four years, social service providers told me for a piece I did for the Stamford Advocate that the need for assistance for the least well-off has not slackened. On this day of Thanksgiving, the need for social services is a reminder to give if you have the means to do so and to be grateful for the means that you do have... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
I wrote a piece for The Stamford Advocate on how the gala season has exploded on the "Gold Coast" of Lower Fairfield County, Connecticut. One source told that me that 50 years ago there would only be one or two galas in the autumn and only one or two galas in the spring. Now there are two or three galas per week: Fairfield County charities turn to galas to raise funds Flowers flown from abroad. Live animals. Goody bags... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
The Crime Report, a news service about criminal justice published by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, ran my piece about the case of a false confession in a double murder in West Philadelphia: When Nafis Pinkey was taken into a Philadelphia Police Department homicide interrogation room in the 24 hours after his childhood friend was murdered, he had no idea that he would become... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2013
This week is sort of the high holidays for media-law attorneys: Media Law Resource Center’s annual meetings, a communications law program at Practising Law Institute and several other events. There was a fascinating discussion Thursday at PLI on reporters’ privilege with several general counsels of major medial companies. New York Times reporter James Risen, who the Fourth Circuit has ruled must identify a confidential source in... Continue Reading
November 13th, 2013
(Cross-posted from Philadelphia City Paper: http://citypaper.net/article.php?City-Councilman-pushes-back-on-proposed-Office-of-Conflict-Counsel-16885) A City Councilman is pushing back on a plan by Mayor Nutter's administration to change how court-appointed lawyers are provided to poor Philadelphians through a new Office of Conflict Counsel. Councilman Dennis O'Brien said in an interview today that he was planning to... Continue Reading
November 11th, 2013
I wrote a story for ALM's Connecticut Law Tribune about a lawsuit challenging Connecticut's alimony laws as unconstitutional: "Four plaintiffs have filed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of Connecticut's alimony laws on the grounds that they affect a "fundamental liberty interest in ending a marriage and in remarrying." The plaintiffs, who filed their complaint anonymously and who were ordered to... Continue Reading
November 5th, 2013
All the poll results aren't in, but it looks like New York voters have rejected by two-thirds a ballot measure to let Court of Appeals judges and trial-level state Supreme Court justices serve until they are 80. Now, Court of Appeals judges must retire at 70 and Supreme Court justices must retire at age 76. As of 10:28 p.m., 35.5% of the ballots counted so far favored increasing the retirement age and 64.5% disfavored... Continue Reading
October 16th, 2013
Every time I see Internet television streaming service FilmOn X CEO Alki David quoted, he comes across as crazy. But speaking at a New York Law School forum on the future of television over Skype from Greece at 4 a.m. in the morning, he seemed no crazier than any other intelligent eccentric unafraid to speak his mind. David said he would strongly prefer the U.S. Supreme Court or an intermediate appellate court to settle the copyright-law... Continue Reading
October 14th, 2013
This weekend, I covered a Columbus Day celebration for Hearst's Stamford Advocate. I very much had the history of colonization and the destruction of the indigenous peoples' cultures that followed Christopher Columbus' voyages to North and South America on my mind before I went to the event. But even before I had to ask one question on this point, the folks I interviewed at the event brought it up that they'd like to separate... Continue Reading
October 11th, 2013
President Barack Obama’s “war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive” since President Richard Nixon’s administration, according to the author of a report commissioned by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The report, “The Obama Administration and the Press: Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America,” was released Thursday. The report was written by... Continue Reading
October 11th, 2013
A Philadelphia judge was wrong to enter a compulsory nonsuit in the first of over 30 cases involving allegations that brain cancers were caused by a carcinogen leaking from a chemical plant, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled this week. A two-judge panel of the Superior Court reversed Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Allan L. Tereshko in a non-precedential decision. Judge Kate Ford Elliott authored the opinion in which Judge... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
Marathon swimmer Diana Nyad made her record-breaking swim from Cuba to Florida just recently. This morning, she started a 48-hour charitable swim to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy survivors. But, as her coach said, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose everything — everything you’ve worked for and strived for in your life, gone. It’s not easy. These are the people who become heroes. These are the people... Continue Reading
October 7th, 2013
Several witnesses during a Philadelphia City Council hearing Monday morning questioned how a for-profit law firm could provide adequate representation to poor Philadelphians whose constitutional rights are at stake in criminal and family cases. The city of Philadelphia is preparing to contract with one law firm to handle the cases in which the Defender Association of Philadelphia has a conflict. Attorney Jeffrey Lindy, who is involved... Continue Reading
October 3rd, 2013
My piece for Philadelphia City Paper on a proposal to change how poor family-court litigants and criminal defendants get their lawyers: http://citypaper.net/article.php?Privatizing-legal-representation-for-po... Since last year, Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration has quietly sought to revolutionize how court-appointed lawyers are provided to poor Philadelphians, through a new office of conflict counsel. But on Monday, Oct. 7,... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld a jury's decision to award punitive damages over the death of a nursing-home and hospital patient whose bed sores led to an infection that went septic in his body, the failure of one of his kidneys and his eventual death. According to the opinion, the jury found nursing home Hillcrest Center and Jeanes Hospital each 50 percent liable for the April 18, 2008, death of Joe Blango. The jury awarded... Continue Reading

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