By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff
Welcome to your daily round-up of stories in today's edition of The Legal Intelligencer. Click the links below to access stories directly, or head to The Legal homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)
As is the case every Tuesday, today's paper is especially full, because it includes our Pennsylvania Law Weekly section, which includes analysis pieces, our Verdicts & Settlements section, and contributed columns by Samuel Stretton (Ethics), Gilbert P. High (Municipal Law), Kevin Greenberg and Greg T. Kupniewski (Liquor Law) andJoel Rose (Law Firm Management).
Today's paper ALSO includes our "Construction Law" supplement, so be sure to check that out. But let's begin with the Legal.
U.S. Courthouse Correspondent Shannon P. Duffy writes that a law firm accused of malpractice for allegedly turning down a $25 million settlement offer has lost its bid to take the deposition of the chief mediator for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who, the firm claims, would testify that no such offer was ever made. The malpractice suit stems from McKissock & Hoffman's representation of the plaintiff in Polymer Dynamics Inc. v. Bayer Corp., a case that resulted in a $12.5 million verdict in June 2005. Both sides were unhappy with the verdict and filed appeals. Polymer Dynamics argued in its appeal that it was hampered in it efforts to secure about $500 million in damages. Bayer argued that the jury's award was excessive.
Sharing the top of the page, senior reporter Gina Passarella writes that Villanova Law School was publicly censured by the ABA for misreporting admissions data, but was not fined or placed on probation given the ABA's findings that the school acted openly, honestly and in a remedial way to correct the problems. The school is now giving some more detail as to what happened.
Below the fold, Gina also has the second article in her weekly series examining the effects e-discovery has had on the practice of law. Today she reports that sanctions and taxing costs in e-discovery are more of a fear than an actual reality.
Our Page 3 Regional News story today is by reporter Ben Present, who reports on the Pennsylvania supreme Court's decision to televise its proceedings.
As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.
The Legal's contributed columns begin on Page 5, with a "Legal Marketing" column by Richard Alonso: At a recent seminar on "Understanding How Operations Affect a Firm's Ability to Build Value," the Philadelphia chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) explored the link between a law firm's business decisions and its ability to deliver client value.
Today's second contributed article is a "Litigation" column by Charlotte E. Thomas of Duane Morris, who writes about effective mediation.
Today's Pennsylvania Law Weekly section begins with an article by reporter Zack Needles, who examines the long-term consequences of last month's orders by the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline to officially remove former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael T. Toole and former Superior Court Judge Michael T. Joyce from the bench and bar both men from ever holding judicial office in the state again.
Also on the PLW front page, Ben Present has a criminal practice case in which a Pennsylvania ex-convict who admitted to writing a letter that threatened a Beaver County judge is back in prison after the state Commonwealth Court affirmed he engaged in assaultive behavior and, therefore, violated his parole.
The PLW has much more, so head to the main website of that section to check out even more.
Have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole? E-mail me or any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal!
Jaime Bochet is the Magazines & Supplements Editor for The Legal. Follow her on Twitter at @JaimeBochetTLI or e-mail JBochet@alm.com.
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