Law

Law

Vehicle burglary, grand theft, theft by credit card: Between 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 and 6:50 a.m. on Jan. 20, someone broke through a window of a vehicle parked in the 13000 block of Fortuna Court and stole a backpack containing a laptop, headphones and a wallet for a loss valued at approximately $2,330. The suspect then used a credit card in the wallet to make a fraudulent purchase totaling approximately $107.

A fast-talking Minneapolis native who still lives in the Twin Cities part time, Cook is one of a handful of attorneys who have dropped everything to aid (for free) those caught up in the federal crackdown - protesters, immigrants and detained citizens - too many of whom have found themselves facing deportation, arrest or even been disappeared, at least for a time.

The conversation was not about shortcuts or hype. It was about how thoughtful use of technology, strong decision making, and having the right support system can dramatically change what is possible for lawyers who want more control over their careers. Matthew's experience moving from Biglaw environments into solo practice offers a grounded perspective on how AI, education, and community now level the playing field for small firms.

Ed. Note: A weekly roundup of just a few items from Howard Bashman's How Appealing blog, the Web's first blog devoted to appellate litigation. Check out these stories and more at How Appealing. Handling of Pretti investigation has some prosecutors on verge of quitting; Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, frustrated by the response to the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, have suggested they could resign en masse": Perry Stein of The Washington Post has this report.

Lawyers love legal reasoning. It promises a clean, clear path through sticky, tricky territory. But legal reasoning can enable grotesque real-world outcomes, like torture, or arresting journalists, or masked government agents detaining and disappearing people. On this week's Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is in conversation with Joseph Margulies, Professor of Practice of Government at Cornell University. Margulies litigated some of the biggest cases of egregious human rights violations of the post-9/11 "War on Terror", an experience that informed his recent piece in the Boston Review:

A man was sentenced four years in federal prison Friday after he admitted to lighting a Molotov cocktail and throwing it at Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies during a protest last year against immigration raids. Emiliano Garduño Gálvez, 23, pleaded guilty in October to one count each of possessing an unregistered destructive device and obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder.

On Friday, Gonzalez was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for giving Dreith counterfeit fentanyl pills called "blue M-30s." She also got an extra four years and four months for other felony convictions related to selling drugs. "This sentencing reflects the seriousness of the defendant's actions and the devastating and deadly consequences of distributing fentanyl," Fresno County Dist. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp said in a statement.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the release of 3.5 million additional files in compliance with the Epstein Transparency Act. The Trump administration has been under fire for missing the Dec. 19, 2025, deadline to release all of the files pertaining to the Jeffrey Epstein case, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. Today we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2000 videos and 180,000 images in total, Blanche said.

A New York federal judge has dismissed murder and weapons charges against Luigi M., accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, ruling that prosecutors cannot pursue those counts under federal law. The decision has stripped prosecutors of the ability to seek the death penalty in the federal case, while leaving Mangione facing separate state charges. Who has issued the ruling? US District Judge Margaret M. Garnett issued the decision on Friday in federal court in Manhattan.

"We hold that at a minimum, to constitute a violation of (the open container law), marijuana in a vehicle must be of a usable quantity, in imminently usable condition, and readily accessible to an occupant," wrote Associate Justice Goodwin Liu in a unanimous opinion. Loose marijuana found on a car's floorboards is like spilled beer, the court ruled.

On October 24, 2022, Blood entered the victim's home in Falmouth. Blood kept his hands hidden in his pockets and refused to show them or leave the home, Galibois's office said. The victim picked up a sword in an attempt to distance themselves from Blood. The victim then dropped their sword and engaged in a fist fight with Blood, prosecutors said.

"We are still in the early days of the so-called great wealth transfer," says the lawyer Pierre Valentin, the joint head of art law at Fieldfisher. "The wave started in the US with the sale of collections such as those of Sydell Miller, Mica Ertegun and more recently, Leonard Lauder. The wave is coming to Europe, for example with the auction of the collection of Pauline Karpidas [last] September. I expect that there will be many more of those 'white glove' sales in the next 10 to 15 years because younger collectors collect differently from their parents and grandparents."

A mass tort lawyer fired by a Philadelphia law firm has been suspended from practicing law for three years after misleading clients about their cases, according to a story by Legal Newsline. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court imposed the punishment Friday against lawyer Brian McCormick Jr., who represented clients who had sued over the weedkiller Roundup and the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, according to Legal Newsline. The suspension goes into effect Feb. 22.

From law firms to in-house legal teams, the rules of value are being rewritten. The question is: Who's ready to lead the change? In the first episode of 2026 for the UpLevel View podcast, Stephanie Corey and Ken Callander sit down with Rita Gunther McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and Wall Street Journal columnist, to talk about how AI is forcing professional services to price outcomes instead of hours.

Catch me up: Halligan departed nearly two months after U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled her appointment unconstitutional and after judges publicly questioned her authority in blistering orders. The ruling torpedoed indictments against ex-FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. While the government appealed the ruling, it never sought a stay. Yet Halligan kept using the title, and judges repeatedly struck "United States Attorney" from her filings and questioned her authority.

From 2021 until 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court did not decide one case involving traditional Fourth Amendment issues-such as what is a search, when is a warrant required and whether the exclusionary rule applies. I taught Criminal Procedure - Investigations in the fall semester and struggled to explain to my students why the justices seemingly had lost interest in the Fourth Amendment. But this term, there are two Fourth Amendment cases, one already decided and one to be argued this spring.

An Everett man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Boston to 15 years in prison for possessing, distributing, and receiving child sexual abuse material, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office said. Robert Sokolowski, 52, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release following his prison term, according to a statement from the office. Sokolowski committed the offenses seven months after being released from prison, where he had been serving time on a similar charge, officials said.

A Michigan federal judge is facing trial on drunk driving charges after a crashing in October and showing a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, according to press reports. Judge Thomas L. Ludington of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan faces misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.17 or more and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, according to the complaint filed by a local prosecutor.

Spiby won the money in 2010, the court was told, and was involved in flooding the region with millions of tablets disguised as diazepam. Diazepam, also known as Valium, calms the nervous system to treat anxiety, muscle spasms, seizures, and alcohol withdrawal. The court heard that he also provided the premises and helped adapt the premises and purchase machinery worth thousands of pounds to make the drugs.

A Virtuous Cycle If a legal tech solution has a high degree of adaptability, customers can start small and gradually secure buy-in and expansion. Initial wins create a virtuous cycle, where success leads to growth, and this growth leads to more success. A Cleary Gottlieb team that includes members of its Knowledge Management and Business Development groups has implemented such a cycle at that firm.

A Manhattan appellate court found that the city's speed camera program is legally sound in a decision that caps off an eight-year legal battle that sought to potentially invalidate millions of automatically issued tickets. A group of speeding ticket recipients argued that speed camera summons violate state traffic law on a technicality. Part of the citation on the tickets, called a notice of liability, fails to include a technician's certificate, which they argue, must be signed by a specialist employed by the city.

Guests check in and check out; gamblers come in the early evenings and stumble out the next morning; and hundreds of rooms are endlessly dirtied and then made clean again by hotel workers. But the phone remains silent. I like to think that the rotating check-in staff are always alert and prepared even for the call that they don't know is coming.

For years, the insurance industry warned that New York's civil justice system was broken. Now it claims the system is fraudulent. Every accident is suspicious. Every injured worker is a potential scammer. Every plaintiff's lawyer is part of a scheme. This sudden moral panic has a name, the fraudemic. And like most panics, it says far more about the people spreading it than the problem itself.

NEW YORK - If you are an immigrant in NYC, free legal clinics are available to help you. At these clinics, you can speak with a lawyer or a supervised law student at no cost. Many clinics help people regardless of immigration status and offer services in multiple languages. Clinics can help with immigration cases, housing issues, work problems, family matters, and other legal questions.