Legal Pad

Seyfarth off Hook for $30 Million Award -- for Now

Give Seyfarth Shaw’s lawyers a moment to relish the fact they’re off the hook for $25.5 million in damages, not to mention more than $5.6 million in fees and interest.

Then let them start realizing that today’s Second District Court of Appeal ruling that gave them that dancing-with-joy moment wasn’t very kind to their law firm: It almost scoffed at their defenses to a celebrity’s claim of legal malpractice.

When an appellate court says a firm “unpersuasively seeks” to do something or a partner “knew” he should have taken action that he didn’t take or that an argument was “simply wrong,” that’s not something to write home about. Especially when the court remanded the matter for another trial.

Skanky Blogfights Up, Verdicts Down

Most of our visitors to Legal Pad are professionals in the field of law. Except those of you who arrived at this post by googling the word “skanky.” But the rest of you, totally.

And so we strive to bring you (and to scour the Internet ourselves in search of) fine-quality legal news that worthy professionals in this august profession can benefit from. Professionally.

And yet … Of the many life lessons to be gleaned from Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” perhaps the one that resonates most is “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

[Edited to remove preceding sentence typed out 8,000 times]

So, to satisfy our better angels (personified by Scatman Cruthers) and our inner demons (that kid with the redrum voice), we present you two interesting links, and leave it to you to decide which to click:

After the jump, the so-not-skanky-model behind door number one, or the jury verdicts numbers I’m holding in this envelope …

Lawmaker Reboots E-Discovery Bill

Convinced that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in a better bill-signing mood these days, Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D–Santa Rosa, has reintroduced legislation that would enact long-sought electronic discovery rules in California’s courts.

Assembly Bill 5 –- “I tried to get AB 1 but I guess I wasn’t fast enough,” Evans said -– is nearly identical to AB 926, which Schwarzenegger vetoed in September along with hundreds of other bills. His explanation for many of the vetoes was the same: “The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 state budget has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to my desk at the end of the year's legislative session," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Given the delay, I am only signing bills that are the highest priority for California. This bill does not meet that standard.”

Evans accused the governor of nixing the bill in a “temper tantrum” of anger against lawmakers. The relationship has apparently calmed down a bit.

Why Evans is optimistic, after the jump.