We noticed this in law school.  The students who did best were not necessarily the brightest, but were instead the ones who put in the time.  The ones who plugged away every day, from the beginning of the semester, making sense of the materials in whatever way worked best, routinely outperformed those who may have been quicker on the uptake but put in less productive time getting

The Sixth Rule of Criticism: All criticism is autobiographical. Criticism reveals at least as much about the critic as about his subject. Recently a candidate for election as judge, a guy whom I consider a true friend and whose back I have always had, interpreted my listing of candidates for the various Harris County judicial benches (before I added the note at the top of the post)

Texas judge bans cowboy boots from court, and criminal-defense lawyers are up at arms. (Austin American-Statesman.)

Pattis plays dumb: So rather than engage in another link-building piece of naval [sic] gazing, I will submit the issue Bennett raised to my local Grievance Committee, the body that polices lawyers. I will publish the results of the complaint here. If I am wrong, I will admit it. First, Pattis imagines that I seek revenge for some slight that he imagines that he gave me long

1. Trench Menu: 2. Too Much Information: See the difference?

Elected Republican Calumet County, Wisconsin District Attorney Kenneth R. Kratz got caught texting the complainant in a domestic-violence assault case. He was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend while trying to get into her pants. Im serious! Im the atty. I have the $350,000 house. I have the 6-figure career. You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize! (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.) Could Kratz have picked

The topic is the "Trench Menu" meme—the posting on Twitter by criminal-defense lawyers of one-line summaries of their days. Norm Pattis started the meme; others jumped in. The post itself is vintage "Get Off My Lawn" Greenfield, so I suspect that Scott was kidnapped sometime between 7:29 a.m. EDT, when the post was published, and 1:20 p.m., when this comment was posted:I've heard from a number of

Most of this year's Harris County judicial elections are worthy of little more than a shrug.I had a sorely disillusioning experience trying a case for almost two weeks before former criminal-defense lawyer Ruben Guerrero, who a) is sorely deficient in judicial temperament and knowledge; b) even the jurors could tell was biased toward the State; and c) was elected because of the Democratic near-sweep in 2008. I

NOTE TO JUDGES, JUDICIAL CANDIDATES, AND OTHER READERS WHOSE IQs MIGHT FALL ONE STANDARD DEVIATION OR MORE BENEATH THE NORM: THESE ARE NOT ENDORSEMENTS. LINKS ARE TO CANDIDATES' WEBSITES, IF I FOUND SUCH WEBSITES, OR TO WHAT I'VE WRITTEN HERE ABOUT A CANDIDATE. Because I haven't seen this information gathered together anywhere else: Court Democratic Candidate Republican Candidate 1 Beverly D. Melontree Paula Goodhart (i) 2 Mary

Before the 1991 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals case of Geesa v. State, Texas criminal juries did not have to be given a definition of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" and Texas appellate courts used the reasonable-alternative-hypothesis standard to judge the legal sufficiency of evidence in circumstantial-evidence cases: the appellate court had to find that every other reasonable hypothesis raised by the evidence was negated, save and