Blog of law articles

Hi everybody -- take a deep breath, it's Monday!

Those of you looking for work, take note: R. Allen Stanford needs a good civil litigator. Not sure how you'll get paid, though.

(Bowman Brown, you need not apply.)

Did you all catch this story on Julio Robaina, who tried to inject some flexibility into a bill before the Florida Legislature that would prohibit contingency fees paid to outside lawyers retained by the AG's office?

BTW, a similar amendment to the federal omnibus spending bill proposed by John Cornyn was roundly defeated.

Still, I thought Republicans didn't want to tie the hands of our best and brightest:

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) blamed the "tone deaf" bankers for creating the political environment that allows Obama to call for a cap.

"Because of their excesses, very bad things begin to happen, like the United States government telling a company what it can pay its employees. That's not a good thing in America," Kyl told the Huffington Post.

"What executives have done is troubling, but it's equally troubling to have government telling shareholders how much they can pay the executives," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).

I happen to agree with this. Banks (and insurers like AIG) should be allowed to pay their execs whatever the market will reasonably bear. So should AGs. Why single out lawyers?

This heartwarming story about attorney Lorna Owens is a must-read:

They met four years ago in a classroom at the Women's Detention Center in Miami-Dade, the girl silent and suspicious of the lawyer in fancy shoes who was taking over her case.

Bianca Matthews was 16, facing 15 years for attempted murder.

Lorna Owens believed Bianca could be saved. She might be right.

Owens is hosting a fund raising brunch at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove on Saturday; one of the beneficiaries will be Bianca, now out of jail with her sights set on nursing school.

See, you can make a difference. Thank you Lorna (you're a pretty decent author, too)!

Finally, I don't know about you, but I did an old-fashioned triple-oy spit-take yesterday reading this NYT article. I can't even properly describe it, delicate readers, however this excerpt should give you a small taste:

Another member, Racheli Cherwitz, 28, had spent years grappling with anorexia and alcoholism, she said. In search of identity, she moved to Israel and became an Orthodox Jew.

Discovering One Taste, she said, has improved her self-image and given her “deep physical access to the woman I am and the woman I want to be.”

Ms. Cherwitz commutes to New York and offers private sensuality coaching at a satellite outpost operated by One Taste on Grand Street. Many of her clients, she said, are married Orthodox Jewish couples from Brooklyn.

Boy oh boy we're a long way from Yentl.