FUTURE BUREAUCRAT

Want to know why our patent and trademark system is so screwed up? Go read about Blackboard, Inc., over at Techdirt. Blackboard holds a patent for - no kidding - “implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online.” Continue Reading »

Remember Manuel Noriega, the former leader of Panama? He is scheduled to be released on September 9 from Federal Prison in Miami. However, it’s unlikely he will become a free man. Panama has requested that he be extradited to stand trial for the crimes committed during his leadership.

Something tells me he won’t have a cushy apartment in a Panamanian jail…

It looks like there are some attorneys considering the ethical consequences of Charles Stimson’s comments. The San Francisco Chronicle had a piece on Friday discussing whether his call for a boycott of law firms representing Guantanamo detainees violated the California rules of professional responsibility.

The consensus? Close call, but there is a good argument for a violation. We’ll see if the California Bar pursues disciplinary proceedings.

Amid a torrent of political stories on Hillary’s presidential run, Obama’s exploratory committee, and the upcoming State of the Union, you may have missed something: at least 27 U.S. troops were killed this weekend in Iraq. 12 of them died in a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, and which militants are now claiming they shot down.

Given this weekend’s news, and in the spirit of all the presidential messages on the web, I thought I would draft my own timely message. This is dedicated to all the presidential hopefuls out there. If I had a fireplace, I would sit in front of it. Picture me there, petting my cat, gazing wistfully at the city on a hill, while I tell you the following: Continue Reading »

Disclosure: I’m a member of the bar, and I currently work at a large law firm. So I’m wondering what the bar should do with comments like these from Charles D. Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs.

Stimson went on a radio program Thursday and called on Corporate America to rethink their use of large law firms like Cleary Gottlieb and Shearman & Sterling, whose lawyers are representing Guantanamo detainees pro bono.

Stimson can’t have anything against the idea of pro bono work. In fact, because Stimson is a lawyer, the bar may require him to devote time to pro bono work every year, depending on what state he is barred in. Continue Reading »

Iraqi leaders were no doubt hoping to use the occasion of the execution of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother, and Awad al-Bandar, former head of the Revolutionary court, to show that they could carry out the ultimate punishment with the solemnity befitting a sovereign government.

Despite their best efforts, it emerged today that during the execution Barzan al-Tikriti was decapitated. Continue Reading »

Check out this interesting post by the Times of London’s Baghdad correspondent, Ned Parker, in which he reviews the appeal process of the Iraqi Special Tribunal following the conviction of Saddam Hussein. It was obvious to casual readers of the news that the Iraqi government rushed to impose the death penalty. However, it may not have been obvious how inadequate the appellate process was. Continue Reading »