Columns

Editorial: Lawyers Should Mentor New Lawyers For Free, Not For Fee

Friday, March 15, 2013 |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Charging new law school graduates a fee to shadow a more experienced attorney is a bad idea. Being available to mentor is what we owe to the future of the profession. At no cost.

Guest Commentary

State Gears Up To Hide Negligence, Corruption

Monday, March 11, 2013  |  by Chris Powell  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Not since Watergate prompted Connecticut to pass its Freedom of Information Act in 1975 has the public's right to know been in such jeopardy here. Strangely, Governor Dannel Malloy is the biggest part of the threat,

Ethics Matters

A Blizzard Of New Knowledge

Monday, March 11, 2013  |  by Mark Dubois  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Now that the aftermath of the recent snowstorm has settled down, I thought I would record the important things I learned from the news and weather folks on TV.

One Hand Clapping

An Ode To Ody; And His Sister, Penny

Monday, March 11, 2013  |  by Norm Pattis  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Little did I know when I signed onto to be a member of Ody's and Penny's pack that they'd soon enough teach me to age. These dogs are a gift from God, I say ? and I am an agnostic. They teach me gratitude, and counsel contentment in small things.

Legally Conservative

Sotomayor Plays Evita

Friday, March 8, 2013  |  by Karen Lee Torre  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn't take long to milk her "historic" rise to the U.S. Supreme Court by negotiating a million-dollar plus deal for publication of her memoir, a grandiose view of herself set out in print before she served five minutes on the Court. The attention she is getting is amazing and entirely unwarranted.

Ethics Matters

Contracting Legal Market And Overproduction of Lawyers Leads To Crisis

Monday, March 4, 2013  |  by Mark Dubois  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

There is a crisis in legal education driven by a contracting legal market and a serious overproduction of new lawyers. Some have estimated there are enough un- and underemployed lawyers to fill the needs of the profession for the next decade.

Legally Conservative

Hollywood Offers Revisionist History In 'Lincoln' Film

Monday, March 4, 2013  |  by Karen Lee Torre  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

Connecticut U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, a Democrat, slams "Lincoln" writer and the film's director, Steven Spielberg, and demands a public retraction and notice of correction to future film-watchers. In Courtney's mind, the mere suggestion that Connecticut was an anti-Lincoln, slavery-tolerant territory of indifferent Yankees is an outrage. Courtney's opportunistic grandstanding aside, he is right to complain.

One Hand Clapping

A Panther's Story Provides Inspiration

Friday, March 1, 2013  |  by Norm Pattis  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

I've spent the past week in Seattle, visiting two of my kids who live out here. We flew our third, who lives in New York City, out to meet us. It's been a laid back kind of week. If I was forced to live in a city, I'd want to live here.

Guest Commentary

A Landmark Decision For The Disabled

Friday, March 1, 2013  |  by Kathleen M. Flaherty  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

As an attorney who has also been a respondent in a civil commitment proceeding, I have the unique perspective of sitting on both sides of the attorney-client relationship in which a client's judgment and capacity is in question. And so I was disappointed in the editorial, "Impaired Clients Suing Their Lawyers," published in the February 1, 2013 edition of the Law Tribune.

Guest Commentary

Losing The Law And The Republic

Tuesday, February 26, 2013  |  by John M. Horak  |  The Connecticut Law Tribune

In a future century, historians will write books analyzing the decline and fall of the American Republic in the same way that historians analyze the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. I fully expect that the consensus of these future scholars will be to lay the blame for the fall on lawyers ? for corrupting the law and undermining the foundation on which the Republic was established.