Unable to find lucrative lawyer work, several ingenious graduates of the Brooklyn Law School have simply decided to sue the law school. The Daily News reports that Jesse Strauss, a 2003 Brooklyn Law grad, is representing the four graduates in a lawsuit that accuses the school of misleading them into thinking their law degree would be a guaranteed entrée into the bourgeoisie. more ›

A Manhattan woman has wound up married to two men after hiring a fake divorce lawyer who allegedly failed to get her divorced. Jennifer LaCarriere tells the Post that in August 2010 she went to Express Bankruptcy and Divorce, a so-called "divorce mill" on West 38th Street, and paid $535 to get divorced. But believe it or not, "Express" is not the most reputable law firm in town, and the "attorney" she hired, Leomarys Alvarez, isn't actually an attorney. In fact, she's not even a notary public, even though LaCarriere claims she said she could notarize all the documents needed for a divorce. more ›

Injecting anti-semitism into a traffic stop didn't work too well for Mel Gibson, and one Queens lawyer who pulled a "reverse Gibson" on a New Jersey state trooper has been suspended from practicing law. Elliot Dear, an orthodox Jew, was pulled over for driving 84 mph in a 55 zone in 2007. The Post reports that several days later, Dear sent the traffic court a letter claiming that the trooper called him a "Jew kike," and said "this prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket." But Dear didn't expect the conversation to be recorded. more ›

A pedestrian who was sued by a cyclist that struck her in Central Park this summer has countersued. According to the lawsuit obtained by the Post, 28-year-old Meghan Rohan alleges that 46-year-old Sabine Von Sengbusch had "total disregard" when she hit Rohan and shattered her elbow. more ›

GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain is currently the subject of an awful "witch hunt." Yes, he may have been accused of sexual harassment by two different women during his tenure at The National Restaurant Association in the late 90s. But Cain has said that he's never sexually harassed anyone, and never came to a "settlement" either. Sure an "agreement," may have been reached to pay one of the women $35,000—a year of her salary—but remember the late 90s, with all its "free love" and "Macarena?" Now, the woman who accused Cain of misconduct and took the severance pay wants to speak out, but is barred from doing so by the terms of her agreement. more ›

Defense lawyers for a "group of accused drug-running gangbangers" in the Bronx are unhappy with their clients. And, no, it's not because of their clients' alleged crimes—it's because their clients love talking about their sex lives in explicit detail. more ›

Avert your gaze from the rabble on Wall Street to the real victims of the modern economy: highly successful restaurateurs. It's really difficult to manage a restaurant empire when you're getting sued for back pay and lost tips by your staff, says Joe Bastianich, who co-owns Eataly, Babbo, and Del Posto. "Money-hungry lawyers, through frivolous lawsuits, are shaking down the very foundation of Manhattan's restaurant industry," the money-hungry businessman tells the Post. "Someone in Albany needs to understand the agenda, what this is really costing the greatest restaurant city in the world." Despite this harshest of anti-business climates, restaurants in New York City grew by 42% in the last decade. more ›

Besides slowing down Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the formation of telecom monopolies, if there's one thing the Justice Department can't resist, it's $16 muffins or $7 Beef Wellington bites. A report [pdf] released by the DOJ's inspector general found that in conferences it hosted from 2007 through 2009, the department paid way too much for coffee, candybars, and a bunch of other overpriced food that the lawyers need to feel special. more ›

While a grand jury decides whether or not to indict 37-year-old attorney Brian Anscomb on felony strangulation charges after he allegedly attempted to shove his iPhone down his 23-year-old girlfriend's throat, Anscomb appeared in court yesterday to sign a protection order preventing any contact with the woman. According to the criminal complaint, Anscomb, who is an intellectual property lawyer at Norris McLaughlin and Marcus, wrested open his girlfriend's throat with his fingers "then force-fed her his iPhone so violently that she suffered cuts in her throat." more ›

Give me your tired, your poor / your huddled masses yearning to be free. Give us your $400 haircuts / your sexy videographer / your adulterous, toothy grin. more ›

An Albany lawyer with a degree from a prestigious law school pleaded guilty Tuesday to low-level felony charges for her involvement with a Capital District drug ring that allegedly trafficked hundreds of pounds of marijuana from California. Galina German, who was a cum laude graduate of St. John's University School of Law, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy, and the Times Union reports that she faces 60 days in jail, five years probation, must pay $45,000 in cash and—this is going to hurt—forfeit her 2010 Mercedes-Benz, which was bought with drug proceeds. more ›

A Brooklyn criminal defense attorney is claiming that the NYPD arrested him in a courtroom for advising a client on his constitutional rights, then slammed his head against the wall. 61-year-old Kenneth Parry tells the Daily News that after his client was found to be in violation of his girlfriend's protection order and was therefore under arrest, he stood between him and the police to keep them from questioning him. The complaint states that Parry refused and pushed the police officer, but he denies this: "I'm looking forward to vindicating myself before a jury as I didn't do anything criminal." more ›

Besides ruining the Mets and their fans' retirement funds, Bernie Madoff may cause divorces to go on forever. In a lawsuit that has reached the New York Court of Appeals, a man is seeking to revise the terms of his divorce because he lost a considerable amount of money after Madoff's pyramid scheme collapsed. more ›

While it's no surprise that old white guys like Bob Dylan, old white guys in power liking Bob Dylan is kinda ironic because you know, Dylan HATES The Man. The LA Times notes that "no musician's lyrics are more often cited than Dylan's in court opinions and briefs." This was especially true in the landmark ruling Record Buyers v. "Self Portrait" (392 US 515) in which Justice Thurgood Marshall—quoting the album in its entirety—declared that listening to Dylan's 1970 bomb was "akin to shoving glass shards into one's ear canal with a coathanger." more ›

Among the many horror stories to come out of last week's blizzard was the report that hundreds of commuters were trapped on an A train for well over six hours in the midst of the chaos. Now, a Manhattan lawyer wants to get in on the stalled-train litigation action: "No one's trying to get rich off this...This is to hold the MTA accountable for what happened. We're really trying to get the MTA's attention for the average New Yorker," lawyer Aymen Aboushi told the News. more ›

In a shocking turn of events, attorney Louis "Big Daddy Lou" Posner was automatically disbarred after he admitted earlier this year to promoting prostitution at his popular strip club, the Hot Lap Dance Club. But today, the reality of that ignoble honor was made crystal clear: his name was completely stricken from the state's roll of lawyers by a state appeals court. more ›

The Board of Law Examiners accidentally posted a possibly incomplete list of Bar Exam results from this past July's test on the BOLE website this past Friday. Though they deny that it even happened, telling Above The Law "We didn’t post any results", “We have not distributed any results" and "The results must have come from somewhere else" they are probably just trying to cover their hides, because there's a screenshot of it. And that speaks louder than any "no", "hell no" and "I don't think so!" ever will. So how did the soon to be (hopefully employed) lawyers do? more ›

Last week, Timothy West was accused of breaking into the home of a 21-year-old Applebee's waitress, raping her at knife-point, and texting her later for a second date. West was caught on tape apologizing to the waitress and asking to see her again, and the details of that awkward, incriminating conversation have been plastered in local papers. So, naturally, the most appropriate outlet for West's lawyer's frustration at handling his questionable behavior would be to lash out at the judge in the case. more ›

Should Facebook come with Miranda rights? With many recent legal cases hinging on information procured from Facebook and other social networking sites, lawyers are now debating under what circumstances that information can be gotten and used in court. Two recent opinions in NY courts agreed that lawyers can use the info as evidence, as long as lawyers draw within the proverbial lines...which are kinda complicated. more ›

Taking down Snooki is going to be harder than dismantling her hair poof. The reality star is "launching a full-scale legal offensive" over her recent arrest in Seaside Heights, according to TMZ. Her lawyer is demanding that prosecutors hand over any evidence they plan to use against her... but all they have to do is Google her and they can probably get a pretty good idea of what they're up against. Snooki was arrested for disorderly conduct, and there are plenty of videos and photos of her from that day falling off a bike and funneling on a boardwalk bench. Cameras were also rolling for Season 3 of Jersey Shore, so we may even have "A Very Special Episode..." in store next season! more ›

As if getting to do MMA fighting despite getting pension for "lung problems" wasn't sketchy enough, the Post reports on a "PENSION EXPLOSION," where some retired NYPD officers are being investigated for allegedly faking mental illness to get an extra $3,500 a month Social Security benefits. Though they were deemed sane enough to carry guns during their careers, the cops in question are being targeted by the feds, and have set off a corruption probe. One supervisor allegedly told one retired cop, "You're f- -ked! You need to get a criminal-defense attorney." more ›

A Manhattan woman admitted to arranging to have her husband killed over two decades ago...with the help of her dastardly divorce lawyer! Barbara Kogan, 67, had long been a suspect in the assassination of her husband, George Kogan, a wealthy real estate investor who had left her for a younger woman, and who was gunned down outside his mistress's apartment on Oct. 23, 1990 on East 69th Street. more ›

The lawyer who won an $18.3 million settlement with the city for his client who was paralyzed in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash has won the right to keep his $6 million attorney fees. Lawyer Evan Torgan had represented James McMillan, who was paralyzed from the chest down after flying debris from the crash slashed into his spine. When they originally won the lawsuit, Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein cut his attorney's fee from the standard 1/3 to 20 percent, because "by the time McMillan's case went to trial, the city's liability had already been proven by other lawyers repping other injured persons," the Post reports. more ›

A lawyer for two of the 9/11 sickness cases believes he has a smoking gun to prove that firefighters were improperly equipped at Ground Zero, and should have been given respirators. Lawyer Andrew Carboy, whose firm represents more than 600 firefighters, found the city documents on respirator requirements buried among nearly 3 million other FDNY documents that were only released this past summer. Carboy told the News, "They provide everyone with helmets, with bunker gear, with [air] packs. They could have done the same with respirators, and they withheld the documents saying they had a program to do it." more ›

As Natavia Lowery's trial enters another week, the suspect has requested a change in counsel! The former personal assistant of Linda Stein (who she is accused of murdering in 2007) was denied her request for a new defense team today, according to the Daily News. Lowery said she didn't like the opening statement her lawyers gave, saying, "I was not happy with it. I have a different method or theory." The judge told her, "Get over it—it's not going to help you." Meanwhile, is anyone looking into those pants? more ›

When Conan O'Brien took on hosting duties of The Tonight Show, he had a team of lawyers negotiating his terms. Unfortunately, they neglected to specify a time slot, meaning NBC could put Conan on at whatever time they wanted, as long as he was still hosting The Tonight Show. more ›

Is it Demi Moore Twitter-deathwatch time? The actress has been forced to defend her looks in 140-characters or less multiple times in the past month. First when one of her followers said she looked old, she had the applaudable response of: "I'm 47. How am I supposed to look?"; and now she's defending her W cover, swearing it wasn't Photoshopped. Not so applaudable. more ›

The NY Times article about Skadden Arps' program allowing associates to take a year off—no strings attached (just a suggestion to do good works, but no requirement) and their jobs in tact when they get back— is attracting envy from others (perhaps those who didn't put in the hours to become an associate, whose base pay is closer to $240,000, at the competitive law firm). Skadden's strategy is to save money in these tough times—here's the memo outlining the "Sidebar" program—and Above the Law gives an assessment: "In a normal economy, mid-level and senior associates who aren't likely to make partner would be leaving the firm for less intense pastures. But because of the market meltdown, those people have been desperately trying to hang onto their jobs... Instead of forced attrition, Skadden's program starts to look like a mercy killing. Skadden is giving people who want to get out an opportunity to leave in spite of the terrible economy." more ›

After spending thousands of dollars in legal fees trying to stop the NYPD from videotaping political demonstrations, the NYCLU was surprised and angered to learn recently that the police department had already changed its videotaping practices back in April 2007 without telling them. The Times reports that had lawyers known this, they would have dropped the lawsuit, because the NYCLU is okay with the more restrictive rules, which allow videotaping only where there is illegal activity or for crowd control. Now they're demanding that the city reimburse them for legal fees, and also give them a heads up when they make policy changes. The NYPD insists that they notified both the court and the NYCLU, but one of the lawyers tells the Times, "It reminds me of that cartoon where somebody is running at a wall over and over, and suddenly the door opens, and you realize nobody told you there was a door there." more ›

lawyers? According to law professor Lynn LoPucki who spoke to the Daily News about corporate bankruptcies, "The lawyers and all the other professionals who work on the case get paid first. The system deliberately makes the old creditors wait - sometimes for two or three years - while payday for the new creditors comes once a month." So while the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers is selling off assets like their corporate jet for almost $25 million, LoPucki tells the News that legal and professional fees may be as high as $1.4 billion, "with Weil Gotshal & Manges, lawyers for the debtor, snaring about $209 million, and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, counsel to the creditors, getting some $58 million." Lawyers, FTW? more ›