Not So Mandatory After All?

This was originally going to run in the October issue of The American Lawyer, but it got killed for reasons unknown. I liked the story, though, and thought it would have been a good one, so I figured I’d post it here:

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion in April, upholding a mandatory arbitration and class action waiver clause in a consumer agreement, plaintiff’s lawyers and commentators reacted as if they had lost a loved one. The New York Times accused the Concepcion majority of barring Americans from enforcing their rights in court while Jeremy Heisler, a founding partner of Sanford Wittels & Heisler, called the decision “extreme” and feared the decision would have a chilling effect on employees reporting abuses.

But a funny thing happened on the way to mandatory arbitration land, where the results are secret, the rules of evidence and discovery are relaxed, and the costs are usually much lower than in litigation. Judges in both employment and consumer class actions have been refusing to follow Concepcion, often distinguishing their own cases on factual differences. In some cases, they’ve even attributed a broad consumer-friendly undertone to Concepcion.

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Embattled Weiner Turns to Baker & Hostetler Partner

I got the scoop on Anthony Weiner’s lawyer.

And here’s a hat tip from the Wall Street Journal.

My original lede was rejected. It said that “Anthony Weiner has been less than frank about his online liaisons with various women.” Everyone else zigged while I zagged.

Paul Clement’s Noisy Withdrawal

Paul Clement’s had a busy couple of weeks. First, he quit his firm, King & Spalding, after the firm withdrew from defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and refused to go quietly. Then he joined a boutique firm where he could take on the cases he wanted to – like defending Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Judge Calls $75 Trillion Damage Request in Limewire Request “Absurd”

Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood Calls Record Companies’ Request for $75 Trillion in Damages ‘Absurd’ in Lime Wire Copyright Case. Not as absurd as Rebecca Black’s “Friday” – an Auto-Tuned stream-of-consciousness narrative that makes “Trapped in the Closet” seem like “A Day in the Life.” (subscription required)

UPDATE (10/26/12): I engaged in a little back-and-forth with Wikipedia over the validity of the $75 trillion figure. I managed to back up my reporting, though.

Joseph Flom – Two Very Different Obituaries

I wrote two very different obituaries for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Joseph Flom, who passed away from heart failure. This one was about speed – getting the facts out there as quickly as possible after the news broke.

This one was about talking to his peers and doing research in order to measure his impact on the legal profession.

Judge Dismisses Most Claims in Suit Against Jackson Estate Over Final Tour

This is it (mostly). The plaintiffs, Allgood Entertainment were wanna be starting something by suing Jackson’s estate and AEG. Both sides were getting ready for a thriller in court, but the judge handed down a decision that plaintiffs considered to be bad. Okay, I’ll stop since I’ve had enough.

Pro Bono 2010

I wrote these four stories in my first few weeks as an intern at The American Lawyer. I got a lot of internal praise for these and I think they may have contributed to their decision to hire me on a full-time basis.

The Other Gay Marriage Case: Prop 8 in California may get all of the attention, but a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act brought by lawyers at Foley Hoag, Sullivan & Worcester and Jenner & Block could be the case to watch. By sheer luck, my story about the case (Gill v. Office of Personnel Management) was posted a mere half hour before the decision came down.

Solitary Men: Squire Sanders fights against 23-hour-a-day lockdown for the Angola Three.

A Scene from the Manchurian Candidate: Morrison & Foerster’s Gordon Espalmer represents victims of Cold War era mind-control experiments.

Innocence Beyond All Doubt: Law firms work to reverse the convictions of the “Norfolk Four.”