Featured Articles

Squaring Victims' Rights With the Adversary System

Scott Greenfield
November 09, 2008 09:32

As the victims' rights movement continues to press forward, making its emotional appeal to the public, lawmakers and judges about how victims have a right to participate in criminal prosecutions, few have taken the time or made the effort to consider how this highly sympathetic group could wreak...

If You Had Your Pick of Associates

Scott Greenfield
March 18, 2009 09:52

Above The Law has one of the rarest commodities around there days, a job listing for a new associate.  The ersatz employer, out of beautiful Stamford, CT, describes itself as follows: Silver Golub & Teitell is a premier boutique trial litigation firm that handles sophisticated cases,...

Why Eli Can't Write (Like a Lawyer)

Scott Greenfield
October 27, 2008 18:56

For those of you who attended the elite law schools or read Above the Law regularly, you probably already know this.  For me, this came as a shock.  Did you know that students at Yale and Penn law schools are taught legal writing by third year law students?Rick Garnett at PrawfsBlawg let...

Networking, Thought Sharing and Enough Already

Scott Greenfield
November 23, 2008 23:04

Someone out there (my bet is on Kevin O'Keefe) can tell me the actual percentage of lawyers who are actively engaged in the ever-increasing world of online activity.  If a new lawyer was to stumble into the middle of the blawgosphere, or perhaps the tweetosphere, he would be left with the...

Why the Ferrari? Why?

Scott Greenfield
September 29, 2008 08:06

In most instances, the damage done by police in the execution of a search warrant, though usually needlessly extensive and intrusive, can be repaired.  But there are times when the police are seeking an item so unique, so extraordinary, that it could be almost painful to let them lay hands...

The Bricks That Build a False Confession

Scott Greenfield
January 14, 2009 09:06

Grits for Breakfast has an incredibly useful post providing a structural framework for understanding why false confessions happen, together with some contentions about how to deal with them.  University of San Francisco academic Richard Leo expounded on his research into police...

Chazy Judge Gets Smacked, But Not Nearly Hard Enough

Scott Greenfield
November 08, 2008 09:02

Robert G. Dunlop is the local yokel town justice in Chazy, New York.  A former State Trooper, he found a seat where he could dispense justice as he saw it, and apparently with the approval of the Chazy residents.  Having never known that there was place in New York named Chazy, and...

Twitting With Grandma

Scott Greenfield
March 19, 2009 09:21

As most of you know, I am considered one of the foremost authorities on Twitter, primarily because being an authority on Twitter has such a low threshold.  Still, I can tell you that it's growth has been explosive, with 33% last month over 25% the month before, in apparent direct inverse...

The Death of AV (Update: MH Responds)

Scott Greenfield
December 24, 2008 06:51

Kevin O'Keefe reports that Martindale-Hubbell, the grande dame of lawyer raters, appeared to have given up.  Game over.  Pack your bags.  Time to mop the floor. It's done.It's unclear that MH will stop listing its AV ratings, but apparently the bunch of folks at MH that decide on...

Confusing Reports on Cellphone Searches

Scott Greenfield
October 31, 2008 09:53

When J-dog told me about this Wisconsin case the other day, I planned on posting about it.  But after reading, and think, and reading again, I thought it was just so pathetically bad on every conceivable end to be worth the time it would take to make sense of it, particularly given that it was...