Gossip Round-up

We asked for some gossip and you guys delivered! Although none of this is as salacious as I would like, it's still very interesting, and NONE OF IT IS CONFIRMED! That's why gossip is so great!

So here's a summary of what's going on in Las Vegas:

• Apparently there will be no more Santoro at the beginning of Santoro Driggs Walch, etc. Word has it that Santoro has already left the firm with two people or will be leaving the firm with 5 people sometime this week. So no less than three but exceeding six? I mean, six is still more than three, right? (sorry, I had to throw in an Arrested Development reference in honor of it's eventual return)

• The PI powerhouse formerly known as Mainor Eglet and Cottle has gone through a transformation into... Eglet Wall!

• There is still some question as to what happened between The Defenders now that Cristalli has moved to Gordon Silver. Was it fame that broke them up? Artistic differences?

• Can anyone confirm whether there will be some high-level resignations at the DA's office now that Wolfson has been selected as the new District Attorney? Will Wolfson be doing some house cleaning of his own?

• Mary Brown has resigned. The most important question here is, who is Mary Brown?

I'm sure you guys can do better than that! Is all of this true? Can anybody clarify any of this gossip? Let us know in the comments. And as always, e-mail us if you have anything especially good!

Taking Inventory...

So last Friday I asked you what we could take from the Wild Wild Law blog to make this blog a little bit better. Here is a summary of what you said:

• The blog should be a "relief valve" where people can come to "blow off steam." So we've decided to open up an Asian Massage Parlor for all of our readers. But more seriously, I hope to provide more posts in the future where we can discuss the quirks and absurdities of working in the Las Vegas legal market. If you have any particular topics you'd like to discuss, feel free to leave them in the comments or e-mail us. Seriously, this blog is only going to be as good as our readers.

• Gossip! For the first time in a while, people actually offered up some gossip in the comments section. That's what we like! If you have any good stories about your male boss nailing his secretary (so chauvinistic!), or your female boss nailing the copy guy (progressive!), we want to hear about it. Or even just information about comings and goings, or law firms breaking up is always welcome. As always, we will protect your anonymity.

• The site needs to be easier to find on searches. I'll try to work on this, but you're just going to have to tell your friends about this site until we move up in the search results. Somebody else suggested we start a Facebook page to get the word out. I'll have to discuss that one with Law Dawg, but that will require more work. Remember, Law Dawg and I have real jobs, so just maintaining and posting regularly on this site can get difficult at times.

• Better commentary. That's your fault. You guys really need to pick up your commenting game. Apparently we need less polite and dignified commentary. That does not mean we need more Double Kickstands in our faces or long dissertations on the BK hottie's legs (or do we?).

• Less ALL CAPS conspiracy theorists in the comments. Agreed.

• More discussions on Nevada Supreme Court opinions. Now that just seems like work. But honestly, if you find any NV SC opinions that you find interesting or that divided the court, let me know and I'll do a post on it. I'm all for more intellectual stimulation.

• More polls on topics such as the legal job market and who is the hottest female judge. I'll see what I can do about that, and I might even do a poll on the hottest MALE judge for the LADIES! (WOO WOO!).

• Just more posts in general. I agree with this one. I've tried to put up at least two posts a week, but with work and other commitments I can't make any promises.

• You can now get to the blog by typing in WildWildLaw.com into your browser! That should make things easier!

I appreciate all the feedback. It's always welcome. I'll do my best to implement your suggestions in the future. Anything I missed?

- JD

Friday Open Thread: A Year After WildWildLaw

So I was just looking back at some of the posts on the now defunct Wild Wild Law blog and I realized that it's been a year (and a month) since the last post went up. That got me thinking, what was it about Wild Wild Law that made it so popular? This blog might never be what WWL was, but I'm hoping that it will be a place where people can come to participate in some intelligent discussion about what's going on in the legal world.

That being said, is there anything about WWL that you'd like to see brought back to the Las Vegas Law Blog? How can we improve on what we've got going now?

Some things that I can't promise to bring back from WWL are:

• Double kickstands in your face,
• The BK hottie, or
  
• Troy Fox (although I'd like to have him do some guest blogging for us)

And as always, if you have any tips or rumors, you can e-mail them to me or Law Dawg at jdmcnugentesq at gmail dot com or law.dawg.esq at gmail dot com.

Best Response to a Cease and Desist EVAR!

I'm a big fan of over-reaching attorneys being put in their place, which is why I loved this story so much. It appears that there is more than one brewery/pub in America that uses the term Hopasaurus Rex to describe a variety of beer (although the letter clarifies this issue a bit). One of the breweries, the Steelhead Brewing Co., is located in Eugene, Oregon and the other, Freetail Brewing Co., is in San Antonio, Texas.

Well Steelhead couldn't handle the fact that Freetail was using the "Hopasaurus Rex" phrase to describe its beer, so it did what any other red-blooded American would do: LAWYER UP! Steelhead's attorney sent a cease and desist letter to Freetail, and received the following (awesome) response:
The best part of the response is on page 2:
I wish all disputes could be resolved like this. But then again, why would anybody want to avoid paying legal fees, amirite?

-JD

(via Freetail Brewing)

And the New District Attorney is.... Steve Wolfson

As I said in my previous post regarding the search for a replacement District Attorney, I haven't been following this race too closely. But this morning it appears that the race has come to an end, with Steve Wolfson edging out fellow candidate John Hunt ("edging" probably isn't the right term, as Wolfson beat Hunt by a 6-1 margin) for the position.

The article also mentions that Hunt's supporters ARE PISSED! (in much nicer terms). They claim that the Clark County commissioners already had their mind made up and that the process was really just a "dog and pony show." Has anyone actually seen a real dog and pony show? Do the dogs get to ride the ponies? Cause I'd find that much more entertaining than this race ever was. Anyway, congrats to Steve Wolfson on his nomination. Hopefully he'll be able to capitalize on prosecutions of high-profile celebrities busted for carrying marijuana that "isn't theirs."

What do you think about the results? Are you on team Steve, or team John?

-JD

Las Vegas attorney, Christopher Raleigh, dies in car accident

One of our commenters pointed us to this story about Las Vegas attorney Christopher Raleigh, who died in a head-on car accident in Vermont on Sunday. Raleigh's ten year old son Travis died in the crash as well. His wife, Anastasia, is in the hospital in critical condition with severe head and internal injuries. Fortunately the Raleigh's 13 year old son who was also in the accident suffered only minor injuries and is in good condition. Our condolences go out to the Raleigh family and all those who knew Christopher. Please keep you comments respectful as this is a tragic time for many.

Clark County District Attorney Candidates Face the Clark County Commission

The District Attorney selection process is becoming pretty grueling, as the three candidates, Steve Wolfson, John Hunt, and Drew Christensen faced 4 1/2 hours of questioning by the County Commission (I hope they were billing by the hour!). I haven't been following this race too closely, but wasn't there originally seven candidates? What happened to Lowry, Ferguson, Langford and Chairez? Apparently they didn't get a rose at the last ceremony. Does anybody have any favorites to win this fight? Or any interesting information on any of the three remaining candidates? Let it all out in the comments.

In other legal news, the RJ is reporting that Findlay Automotive just settled a case brought against it by two former employees who claimed that they were harassed because they are black and were fired for complaining about it. The settlement is reportedly in the amount of $150,000. Nothing seems too surprising about the case, but what baffles me is that Findlay didn't insist on a confidentiality clause in the settlement agreement. If you were Findlay, wouldn't you want to do anything possible to keep this out of the news?

- JD
(Image from here)

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Sorry for the week off between posts. I've been busy catching up on all the crap that I put off during the holidays so I haven't had much time for blogging. It's also been a slow week or two for legal news, although I heard that Axl Rose performed jury duty last week.

On a different topic, I'm guessing I'm not the only one working on MLK day? (Even though I'm taking a break to put up this post). I tried to convince my boss that it would be racist if we worked today. He didn't buy it.

And on another different topic, one of our commenters asked whether there's been any moving and shaking in the legal job market now that the new year has hit.

I noticed the City of North Las Vegas is hiring for "Deputy City Attorney II" (I didn't see the first Deputy City Attorney, I heard it was a bomb at the box office. LAME JOKE!). The job requires "Five years minimum experience in general civil litigation, with an emphasis on employment law and federal civil rights exposure."

For those of you with less experience who want to move to the beautiful metropolis of Reno, Robertson and Benevento is hiring an associate with 0-2 years experience, but they only want candidates who graduated in the top 25%. (PICKY!)

And Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is looking for a real estate associate, but I'm guessing they're even more picky than Robertson and Benevento.

Does anybody have any tips on which firms are hiring and firing? For those of you with the day off today, what are you doing with your time off?

- JD

(image courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)

Friday Open Thread!

TGIF!  Whats new, other than the arson case against Nancy Quon and her boyfriend, ex-police officer William Ronald Webb being dismissed?

According to the RJ article, Judge Herndon ruled that District Court Judge Linda Bell had abused her discretion by allowing prosecutors to move forward with the arson case after a previous panel had refused to file arson and insurance fraud charges with the evidence presented.

Family Court Drama - Part II!



Image from: here



As if the recently reported alleged romantic relationship between Family Court Judge Steve Jones and former prosecutor Lisa Willardson wasn't scandalous enough, the RJ is now reporting of a second alleged inappropriate romantic relationship involving Willardson - this time involving defense attorney Louis Schneider. 

According to the article, Willardson allegedly tried to cover up a (now previous) dating relationship she had with Schneider as they handled child welfare cases directly adverse to each other.  The Nevada State Bar is now apparently investigating.  Uh oh...

While we are on this topic, does anyone want to share stories/thoughts/comments/insights about dipping one's pen in the company ink and/or pooping where you eat?

And The Results Are In...



Image from: here


I hope all y'all had a good holiday break - I know I did. 

Anyway, although I am busy trying to dig out from the mess on my desk, I thought I would take a minute to note that the RJ  posted the results from its 2011 "Judging the Judges" survey.

Also, below is a summary of (what I thought were interesting) year-end stats from the las vegas law blog:

Top posts by number of views:

1. Nov 17, 2011 - David Amesbury Found Beaten - 337
2. Nov 4, 2011 - Friday Open Thread! - 259
3. Aug 15, 2011 - November 11, 2011 = Vampire Killing Day? - 249
4. Dec 14, 2011 - My First Post and We Already Have Some Family Court Drama! - 217
5. Nov 18, 2011 - Friday Open Thread - 196

Top blog views by country:

1. United States - 26,307
2. Russia - 115
3. Taiwan - 115
4. Germany - 77
5. Canada - 56
6. Ukraine - 54
7. United Kingdom - 45
8. Netherlands - 34
9. France - 27
10. Philippines - 23

Top search queries that led to this blog:

1. lasvegaslawblog -  89
2. lisa willardson las vegas - 83
3. las vegas law blog - 69
4. david amesbury las vegas - 61
5. las vegas legal blog - 53
6. nancy quon  - 41
7. lasvegaslawblog.blogspot.com/ - 39
8. clarke walton arrested  - 34
9. david amesbury - 26
10. las vegas law blog blogspot - 26