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Commingling in IOLTA?
From a disciplinary petition filed today by the Commission for Lawyer Discipline against a criminal-defense lawyer (no, not me):
1. In or around November 2009, [Client] hired Respondent for representation in a federal criminal matter. [Client] paid Respondent $250,000.00 for the representation. In or around February 2010, [Client] terminated the representation and requested an accounting of the funds and a refund of any unused portion of the funds.2. Respondent failed to provide an accounting or refund the portion of the fee that had not yet been earned by him. Respondent claims that the $250,000.00 fee was a nonrefundable retainer not subject to refund. To support this contention, Respondent provides a "Agreement for Employment," ostensibly signed by both [Client] and Respondent, which states that the $250,000.00 paid was not a prepayment for services, but rather a nonrefundable retainer. [Client], however, denies that the contract provided by Respondent is the contract he actually signed. [Client] denies that he agreed that the $250,000.00 paid would be a nonrefundable retainer.3. It is undisputed, however, that Respondent deposited the funds into his IOLTA attorney trust account. This action contradicts Respondent's claim that the money was a nonrefundable retainer, as nonrefundable retainers are earned by the attorney upon receipt. However, if it can be shown that the $250,000.00 paid was in fact a nonrefundable retainer, he impermissibly comingled his own funds with those belonging in whole or in part to his clients or to other third persons when he deposited the funds into his IOLTA account.4. Respondent further contradicts his position that the fee was a true nonrefundable retainer when he attempts to show, in his response to the instant grievance, that he earned the money that was paid to him by [Client]. Petitioner denies that Respondent has shown that he performed enough work in the approximately three months he was employed by [Client] to earn all $250,000.00 paid to him.
Judge Ruben Guerrero Fails to Bully Me
I got the letter (PDF) from Judge Ruben Guerrero's lawyer, Bruse Loyd, a couple of weeks ago:
It is our understanding that you own the domain name "judgerubenguerrero.com." This website constitutes an unauthorized use of Judge Guerrero's identity and is both unlawful and harmful to his reputation. As such, we respectfully request that you take down the website.
...and I had to decide what direction I was going to take.
I could respond to Mr. Loyd's threats (" If the website is not removed within ten (10) days, we will take the necessary legal action") with an explanation, either privately or here, of the law (noncommercial use of Judge Guerrero's name, as in judgerubenguerrero.com, is protected by the First Amendment; attempts to stifle my speech would be met with a defense that would prove very expensive to Judge Guerrero both financially (because of Texas's new anti-SLAPP statute) and reputationally (because of the Streisand Effect). The effect, if Mr. Loyd were just a little more competent than his client (an unknown, since a competent lawyer would not have sent the threatening letter in the first place), would likely have been to head off a lawsuit.
Algebra?
Listening to Diane Rehm today, I heard two people discussing whether algebra should be a mandatory course for all American students (stream it).
At the time I was preparing for the installation of an auto lift in my garage. To plan for this blue-collar mechanical task I needed a little bit of trigonometry (?=arccos(90.25-x)/2/24.5, where x is the width of the car between lift points); without algebra I would never have gotten to trigonometry.
Engineers need algebra, mechanics need algebra, architects and cabinetmakers need algebra. Lawyers don't need algebra much, but we don't need more lawyers.
I wonder what the algebra doubters think today's students will be doing twenty years from now. Participating in some vaporware "knowledge economy" that has nothing to do with manipulating numbers or physical things?
America is already doing a lousy job of training people to make and fix things. Dropping the algebra requirement would be just another step down the path toward profound national mediocrity.
A Ridgeback-Shaped Hole
Monday morning before I went to court, as the vet injected him with a massive dose of sedative, Indy drifted off to sleep with his massive head in my hands, and then to oblivion.
About a year ago we had a lymphoma scare. Indy had already had various tumors-mostly lipomas (benign fatty tumors), but also a malignant tumor in his armpit and a parathyroid tumor (both of which required surgery). When he seemed to have lymphoma the vet thought he might have a few months to live; I made the decision not to subject Indy to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but rather to focus on his quality of life. At the time Indy was almost thirteen years old-past the average lifespan for a Ridgeback-and I thought I had prepared myself to lose him. I thought I had cried myself out.
But he held on for another year with quiet dignity and grace, and when he died I wasn't prepared at all. I hadn't yet cried a tenth of the tears that I had for him.
It wasn't lymphoma that did Indy in. It was something we'd been expecting for a decade.
Good News
One of my lawprof correspondents writes:
Unfortunately, this year's dismal law school enrollments (affecting us and all schools nationwide) present a major budgetary challenge for us...
Law schools aren't filling classes.The reasons for this are many, but can be summed up as "college graduates aren't that stupid."
This is unlucky for law schools; it is fortunate for lawyers, for the profession, and for society.
Scott Greenfield wrote yesterday about the unpleasant truth of criminal-defense practice:
The irony is that most criminal defense lawyers aren't making enough money to live as well as the middle class clients they're expected to subsidize. It's unfair that people should have to pay for lawyers? Perhaps, but it's unfair that lawyers aren't doing any better than the clients who can't afford them. The fact is that the vast majority of criminal defense lawyers are starving. Because of this, lawyers are cannibalizing themselves, stealing cases in the hallway and undercutting each other at every turn. Websites create the expectation that people can get $1000 of legal representation for $12,97. They teach that lawyers desperately want to give away their advice for free. The message is lawyers are fungible, or that no one wins anyway, so why bother paying money when you can lose just as well for free.
Untitled
At the US Department of Justice...
Those with "targeted disabilities" may be hired through a "non-competitive" appointment. That means they don't have to endure the regular civil service competition among applicants, but can be plucked from the stack of resumes and hired immediately instead.According to the documents, those with these "targeted disabilities" may be hired "before the position is advertised" and even "before the position's closing date." Moreover, lawyers with psychiatric disabilities and "severe intellectual" disabilities receive a waiver from the requirement that a new DOJ employee have practiced law for one year before being hired.
I'm more pleased that the DOJ is hiring people with "severe intellectual" disabilities than that the DOJ is hiring people with psychiatric disabilities; also more surprised.
“The Other Threat”
And it's probably true, but how are we to remove the credulity of the American voter?
“I Want More Cops Because I'm Afraid of Tyranny”
Lubbock County Judge (not a judicial officer, but an elected county manager) Tom Head wants more money for Lubbock County law enforcement. His justification is that a) Obama will hand over US Sovereignty to the UN; b) the people will rise; c) Obama will send UN troops in to Lubbock County; d) Head will stand in front of their armored personnel carrier; d) the sheriff will back him up; and e) Head wants the officers backing him to be "trained, equipped, seasoned officers."
This is only the second stupidest thing I heard yesterday, but it's world-class stupid nonetheless. It plays on the pseudolibertarian idea that our freedom is threatened by the federal government (and the world government) but not by local and state governments.
Head is proposing spending 2.8 million dollars to prepare for the UN's invasion of Lubbock County, population 270,000.
Harris County Democratic Party to Voters: Screw You.
The Harris County Democratic Party Wednesday took district attorney candidate Lloyd Oliver's name off the ballot, deciding to go forward without a candidate in November's general election.
The pretext for removing Oliver from the ballot?
[Former HCDP Chairman Gerry] Birnberg said in his complaint that Oliver told the Houston Chronicle in May that Lykos was such a good candidate that she "would have gotten my vote."
Birnberg is a reasonably well-informed guy, and fairly intelligent. He knows that Pat Lykos is not the Republican candidate for DA. He knows that there are voters who would have voted for Lykos, but won't vote for Anderson. He knows that a Democratic candidate who would have voted for Lykos might pull some of those votes without giving up the Democratic base (or whatever passes for a Democratic base in Harris County).
Don't Say I Haven't Warned You.
Fortunately for the government, procedures are being put into place for dealing "civilly" with those deemed antisocial: once a conviction for which the sentence is allowed to trigger civil commitment, a principle is in place allowing other government-condemned behavior to do so as well.
–Me, a couple years ago.
First they came for the sex offenders.
Then they came for the veterans, the gun collectors, and the preppers.
Whom will they come for next?
Certainly not you...right?
How sure are you?
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