The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

Can't find a paper, but want a sneek peak at the stories inside The Legal this morning? Simply read on! Click the links below to access stories directly, or head to The Legal homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Today's paper is especially full, because it includes our Pennsylvania Law Weekly section, which appears every Tuesday and includes analysis pieces, our Verdicts & Settlements section, and contributed columns by Samuel Stretton (Ethics), Sean Connolly (State Government), Leonard Deutchman (Cyberlaw/E-discovery) and Joel Rose (Law Firm Management). But more on the PLW in a moment ...

On the top of The Legal's front page, Gina Passarella writes about a growing trend: law firms entering the municpal recovery area. "Two years post what some say was the technical end to the nation’s recession may not seem like the best time for law firms to seek out financially troubled clients, but that is just what a select few are doing. And they are finding the need is great."

Below the fold, Shannon P. Duffy writes: "Finding that a chemical company CEO offered a 'flimsy' excuse for destroying boxes of documents that had already been subpoenaed in an environmental cleanup case, a federal judge in Harrisburg has ruled that the jury must be instructed to assume that the documents would be damaging to the defense. But U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo's ruling was a significantly more lenient sanction than the plaintiffs had requested. The judge refused to enter a judgment for the plaintiffs because doing so would prejudice other defendants that played no part in the document destruction."

On Page 3, Amaris Elliott-Engel introduces the Pennsylvania Bar Association's first diversity officer, who will be responsible not only for working with law firms and other legal organizations to improve the number of diverse attorneys within their ranks, but also to improve diversity among the association's membership.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country are on our Page 4 National News page. 

Our Litigation contributed article on Page 5 by Royce W. Smith of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock & Dodig will be of interest to sports fans, as Smith explores the lessons of the NFL lockout for trial attorneys.

The Page 7 Commercial Litigation article by Jeffrey G. Weil and Stuart A. Weiss of Cozen O'Connor examines a recent 3rd Circuit decision that demonstrates how seemingly innocuous word choices can have far-reaching results in forum-selection clauses.

The pull-out section of the Pennsylvania Law Weekly features a front-page article by our newest reporter, Ben Present, on changes to be expected from the passage of the Fair Share Act. Below the fold, Zack Needles further covers a case he previously reported on, dealing with "preconception torts," this time asking med mal lawyers what they think of the issue.  Read the full article here.

The PLW has much more, so head to the main website of that section to check out even more.

Have questions or comments about today's issue? 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 [email protected].

PBA Hires First Diversity Officer

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Today is the first day of work for the Pennsylvania Bar Association's first diversity officer, the PBA announced today.

Janis M. Leftridge was hired to work with the statewide legal group's Board of Governors, diversity team and senior staff to facilitate efforts to improve diversity within the bar association as well as the overallbar in Pennsylvania, according to a news release issued today.

Leftridge's professional experience includes working as the senior director for business diversity for the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce and Capital Region Economic Development Corporation, as a human relations consultant for Bayer Corp. in Pittsburgh, as a human relations manager for McCormick & Co. in Sparks, Md., and as the assistant director of law admissions for the University of Baltimore School of Law, the release said.

"Janis Leftridge's experience, professionalism and leadership will be critical to the PBA's efforts to ensure that we are a bar association and a legal profession for everyone," said PBA President Matthew J. Creme Jr. in the release. "We are fortunate to have someone with her depth of experience and knowledge to develop and grow our diversity effort."

Look for a profile of Leftridge in an upcoming edition of The Legal.

Amaris Elliott-Engel is a reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted at 215-557-2354 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @AmarisTLI.

PBA’s Constitutional Review Commission Changes Hearings Schedule

By Leo Strupczewski
Of the Legal Staff

The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Constitutional Review Commission has made several changes to its public hearings schedule, cancelling four events and rescheduling another two.

The changes come a week after PBA officials reported they received little in the way of response for testimony before the commission’s judiciary committee at a Jan. 19 hearing in Pittsburgh.

That hearing, along with the judiciary committee’s Feb. 16 hearing at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law and March 16 hearing at the Erie County Council Chambers, was cancelled. All three may be rescheduled at a later time, said Jeff Gingerich, a PBA spokesman.

A fourth hearing, scheduled by the commission’s legislative reapportionment committee for Feb. 23 at Dickinson, was also cancelled. It will not be rescheduled.

The judiciary committee has also rescheduled its Harrisburg public hearing from June 22 to March 16. That hearing will be held at the Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg Campus, in Room A180, according to the new schedule. It is scheduled to run from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Likewise, the judiciary committee has moved its Philadelphia public hearing from May 17 to May 4. That hearing is scheduled to take place at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Conference Center, according to the schedule. It, too, is planned to run from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Gingerich said the commission will continue to update its website, www.pabarcrc.org, with any additional schedule changes.