The morning’s top legal affairs news stories Former CPS lawyer found guilty of assaulting mother-in-law in row over housework [The Telegraph] More London sixth-form schools face threat of legal cases for exclusion [The Guardian] Sir Philip Green sets his lawyers against Labour MP over claims about his £363m BHS settlement [City A.M.] Police vow to continue arrests for laughing gas despite court ruling [Independent] Repugnant’ legal clerk stole hundreds of thousands from clients to fund lavish lifestyle [Daily Post] Boots sent a legal warning to a charity campaigning to lower the price of the morning-after pill [BuzzFeed] Gay men to receive ‘Turing Law’ pardon [BBC News] Gateley: Being a PLC will help protect us from Brexit uncertainty [Legal Futures] Jolyon Maugham: We’re too fixated on class. What matters is our ability to understand others [The Guardian] BPTC & LPC graduates sought for County Court Advocate roles: September start [Legal Cheek Hub] “Time and time again Law Soc and SRA hold us accountable to standards they couldn’t achieve in a month of Sundays. Never mind eh guys? I expect the increased practising cert fees increase this year will assist in driving up standards and accountability to the profession…” [Legal Cheek comments] For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Morning round-up: Friday 1 September appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/09/morning-round-up-friday-1-september/
0 Comments
‘What type of lawyer are you so I can know what type of crime to commit’ A suave lawyer from across the pond has got hearts racing with his social media courtroom selfies. Caesar told Legal Cheek he is an assistant state attorney in Broward County who graduated from NSU Shepard Broad College of Law in Florida last year. He has a whopping 100,000 followers on Instagram and 50,000 on Twitter, a total that’s been growing “for years”. A quick scan of some of his pics will show you why:
When Caesar’s not posing for the camera, he’s always on hand with some motivation. Spirit-lifting tweets from the twenty-something lawyer include: “starve your distractions and feed your focus”; “say less, work harder”; and (one for the aspiring corporate lawyers out there) “prioritize your passion, not your paycheck.” Whatever he’s doing, it’s working. A tweet from one fan asking Caesar what type of lawyer he is went crazy viral:
Much to Caesar’s amusement… Are you the City’s answer to Caesar? Drop us a line. Previously:9 young lawyers to follow on social media for a glimpse into the glamorous side of law [Legal Cheek] For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Suited and booted lawyer with 150k followers sets pulses racing across the globe appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/08/suited-and-booted-lawyer-with-150k-followers-sets-pulses-racing-across-the-globe/ Sights set on the City In the latest instalment in our Career Conundrums series, a City-chaser turns his nose up at his Midlands training contract offer.
If you have a career conundrum, email us with it to [email protected]. The post London via the back door: Do I accept my Midlands training contract offer? appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/08/london-via-the-back-door-do-i-accept-my-midlands-training-contract-offer/ University of Edinburgh says it’s investigating ‘complaints alleging misconduct’ An Edinburgh law student has claimed he’s currently under investigation for “mocking” the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). Robbie Travers, who is studying law at the top Scottish university, told his 19,000 plus Facebook followers late last week (post embedded below) that someone had made a complaint against him in relation to comments he made about ISIS. Travers appeared to quote the unnamed complainant when he said his comments had made Muslim and ethnic minority students feel “threatened” and “unsafe”. He told his army of Facebook followers that he has taken “legal advice to dismiss this nonsense.” Twenty-four hours later and Travers was back on Facebook, and made a post which is again embedded below. This time the LLB-er claimed he was also being investigated for a blog post he had written criticising female Islamic dress and a further Facebook post praising Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision not to wear a hijab during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Travers, who writes regularly for right-wing think tank the Gatestone Institute, told Legal Cheek that the post in question appeared in the blogs section of The Times of Israel. Continuing, he revealed to us that the blog, along with several others, has been “temporarily removed” until the investigation concludes. A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh — confirming an investigation into Travers’ alleged misconduct had been launched, but denying it was in connection with “mocking ISIS” — told us:
Travers insists this is “false” and that a Facebook post cited in the complaint expressly referenced ISIS. This isn’t the first time Edinburgh’s big name on campus (BNOC) has featured on the pages of Legal Cheek. We reported earlier this year that Travers had claimed to have been Twitter blocked by President of the United States, Donald Trump. For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Edinburgh law student in massive row with his uni over ‘mocking ISIS’ claim appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/08/edinburgh-law-student-in-massive-row-with-his-uni-over-mocking-isis-claim/ The morning’s top legal affairs news stories Katie Hopkins’ attempt to shame barrister on Twitter for having an Etonian father backfires [Independent] UK police broke law in case of British backpackers murdered in Thailand [The Guardian] Grammar school faces legal challenge on A-level places [BBC News] Law firms put legal departments under scrutiny [Global Legal Post] The fun’s over! Tiffany Trump hits the books on her first day at Georgetown Law after a summer of European travels and Hamptons hangouts [Mail Online] Man gets retrial over sleeping lawyer [news24] Law School Posts Job Listing Seeking ‘Wives’ Of Students [Above The Law] BPTC & LPC graduates sought for County Court Advocate roles: September start [Legal Cheek Hub] “My most used law book was a 1970s law French et law Latin dictionary. This allowed me and the elderly judges (High Court and above) to have conversations that excluded the baby barristers and their silly solicitors.” [Legal Cheek comments] For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Morning round-up: Wednesday 30 August appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/08/morning-round-up-wednesday-30-august/ Houston officials on Tuesday confirmed the death of police Sgt. Steve Perez, who drowned in his car on Sunday after being trapped by Harvey floodwaters as he was attempting to drive to work. Perez, 60, was a 34-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, and a "sweet, gentle public servant," police Chief Art Acevedo said at an emotional news conference Tuesday. Acevedo said Perez had departed his home for work at 4 a.m. on Sunday amid torrential rains, and struggled for roughly two and a half hours to find a route to his duty station in downtown Houston. "In the darkness, Sgt. Perez drove under an underpass ... and drove into the water," he said. Perez's vehicle wasn't found until Monday night, The Houston Chronicle first reported. Acevedo said the floodwaters remained too treacherous to attempt a recovery, but that officers kept watch over the area. A dive team eventually recovered his body on Tuesday morning. "Sometimes you find a way to make it happen, or you die trying," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the news conference Tuesday. "Sgt. Perez lost his life because he tried to make it happen, he tried to get at his post … That's the ultimate sacrifice." Turner added that Perez had been so determined to report for duty that morning, that when his wife urged him to reconsider leaving home, he responded, "I've got work to do."
Perez's death is the 15th Harvey-related fatality, with the toll expected to rise as the floodwaters recede. Officials have said more than 17,000 people have sought refuge in shelters and hundreds of thousands will likely seek some form of disaster assistance. Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast Friday night, bringing heavy rains and dangerous flooding across southeastern Texas that is expected to continue throughout the week. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, and continues to pummel Texas and Louisiana with record-breaking rains. Forecasters predict the Houston area could receive up to 50 inches of rain by Friday, and the floodwaters should persist for days. DON'T MISS: Houston police chief: 'I'm really worried about how many bodies we're going to find' Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Pilots flew straight into Hurricane Harvey and caught this incredible first-hand footage from http://www.businessinsider.com/houston-police-officer-sergeant-steve-perez-drowned-harvey-floodwaters-2017-8 The US Justice Department is reportedly investigating whether Uber violated foreign-bribery laws8/29/2017 The US Department of Justice is looking into whether Uber violated laws involving the bribery of foreign officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The DOJ is examining allegations that Uber, the privately-held ride-hailing giant, may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the WSJ reported. The law makes it illegal for invidividuals and organizations to pay foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business. Uber did not immediately return a request for comment. This story is developing... Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 8 easy ways to fix common iPhone problems from http://www.businessinsider.com/doj-examining-whether-uber-violated-foreign-bribery-laws-2017-8 Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times was thrown out Tuesday by a federal judge. The former Alaska governor had sued the newspaper this summer after its editorial board drew a link between an ad from her political action committee to the deadly shooting that left Rep. Gabby Giffords injured in 2011. But as Manhattan federal judge Jed Rakoff wrote in an opinion dismissing the case, Palin did not have a "plausible factual basis" to claim that the paper had defamed her. "Responsible journals will promptly correct their errors; others will not," Rakoff wrote. He continued: "But if political journalism is to achieve its constitutionally endorsed role of challenging the powerful, legal redress by a public figure must be limited to those cases where the public figure has a plausible factual basis for complaining that the mistake was made maliciously, that is, with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard of its falsity." The Times editorial, which it published in June after a shooting at a congressional baseball game practice, suggested that Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the 2011 Tucson shooting, was incited by the ad from Palin's PAC, which showed crosshairs over Giffords's congressional district and other Democratic districts. There is no evidence to suggest that Loughner saw the advertisement. The Times issued a correction the next day and amended the text of the editorial online. Palin filed her defamation suit two weeks later. In dismissing the case, Rakoff cited a lack of proof that The Times had acted with "actual malice" — a crucial element of defamation — when it published the editorial. "What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected," Rakoff wrote. He added: "Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not." Read the judge's opinion here.SEE ALSO: Sarah Palin just endorsed a primary challenger to one of the most vulnerable Republican senators Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'What about the alt-left?': Trump melts down and blames both sides for Charlottesville from http://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-palin-lawsuit-new-york-times-dismissed-2017-8 Violence in Rio de Janeiro has gotten so bad a newspaper is covering it in the 'war' section8/29/2017 Nearly 5,000 troops and police were sent into favelas around Rio de Janeiro during the first weekend of August, deployed in an operation responding to a wave of commercial-truck robberies around the city. The 3,600 soldiers and 1,300 police were dispatched to five of the city's favelas — economically mixed but underdeveloped communities — exactly one year after Brazilian President Michel Temer opened the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The Olympics, along with the 2014 World Cup, were the high point of a decade of expansion and optimism for many in Brazil, a sentiment buoyed by high commodity prices that boosted the economy. But that economic boost has faded, and in the year since the the Olympics — which left an increasingly ugly legacy — violence has returned in full force to Brazil's second-biggest city. Though the city is still below violence levels of the 1990s, official data shows homicides in Rio de Janeiro state rose to 3,755 in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period a year earlier — a 14% increase. One Rio de Janeiro newspaper, Extra, has begun covering crime and violence in a section titled "Rio War," an expression it said it had long avoided. The paper said it would continue to cover crime common in large cities but document more serious cases under its new section. "A fetus shot in the mother's belly is not just a police case," the paper said, referring to a recent case in which a pregnant woman was hit by a stray bullet and lost her child. "It is a symptom that something very serious occurs in society." Drug-trafficking groups and other gangs now control large swaths of the city, as they have in the past, and confrontations between rival gangs and police leave people dead every day. "We've counted 197 days of shootouts through July," Thainã de Medeiros, a resident of Alemão favelas, told PRI. "So many lives lost, including both residents and police." Bystanders are often struck by stray bullets — 632 of them between January 1 and July 2. Recently, a doorman was killed by a grenade near Copacabana beach. One-third of the city's 1,500 public schools are in areas considered to be at risk of violence; just seven of the first 120 days of the academic year went by without at least one school closing because of violence. During the last half of 2016, there were 68,000 armed robberies in the city — about 340 a day. A federal legislator from the right-wing DEM party said Rio's struggling economy was driving insecurity, but he also pointed to issues farther afield, at the country's borders and failures to stop arms flowing across them. "We got to today's situation because of unguarded borders," he said. Arms imports have been intercepted at Brazil’s borders and on roads leading into Rio. A shipment of assault rifles from Miami was recently stopped at Rio’s international airport. Heavier weapons make criminals more ambitious; robberies of targets like trains, trucks, and boats have jumped 150% over the past three years. Drugs have also long powered gangs, providing them with resources as police face a lack of funding, training, and weapons, according to a former captain in Brazil's elite military police, the BOPE. In 2015, Rio police made three times as many drug arrests as they did in 2008 and seized 22 tons of marijuana, four times what they seized in 2010. This year is on pace to be the deadliest for the military police — street cops charged with patrolling and arresting suspects and who are formally part of the military — since 153 were killed in 2006. A police officer slain in a suburb of Rio on August 26 was the 100th officer killed in the state so far this year. A growing number are being killed while off-duty, either because they get involved in altercations without backup or because they're targeted. Rio's 99th slain officer, killed on August 24, was gunned down after pulling into his garage; the 100th officer killed was shot multiple times while visiting his father. A study by the state military police reported that a police officer in Rio was more likely to be killed on duty that a US soldier during World War II or Vietnam. "The criminals know where the police live ... and if they kill one it raises their standing in the favela," retired officer Sergio Luiz da Silva, a friend of the officer killed on August 26, told AFP. Police operations in Rio have also been hindered by corruption. Arrest warrants were issued in June for 185 officers who were accused of working with drug gangs — even renting automatic weapons to gunmen. A 19-year-old soldier was arrested in August on suspicion of tipping off gangs just hours before an operation against them started. Rio's police have a history of abuses; about 8,000 people have been killed during police actions over the past decade. The use of excessive force has reportedly grown considerably, and many victims are young, black men from marginalized areas, according to rights groups. In 2015, 920 people were killed in confrontations with police, more than twice the 416 killed in 2013. Over the first half of the year, the number of people killed by Rio’s police increased more than 45% to 581.
The spike in violence comes alongside increasing unemployment in the wake of a recession and amid a deepening corruption scandal ensnaring the government and industry leaders. The state has struggled to pay workers, powerhouse oil company Petrobras has laid off thousands, and Rio's tourism sector has shed more jobs than it added for the Olympics. At the end of 2016, there were 14,279 homeless people, triple the number in 2013. "Unemployment has consequences and one consequence is violence," Metalworkers' Union policy director Manoel Sales said after a tourist family was attacked in a Rio favela. "It is the reflection of all this." While Rio state is not the worst in the country in terms of violence — in 2015 it was 16th of Brazil's 27 states in homicide rate and none of its municipalities were among the 30 most violent — the federal government has stepped in to shore up security as its financial distress (it faces a $6.73 billion deficit this year) prevented it from putting more police on the streets. The deteriorating security situation in Rio comes less than a decade after the state embarked on an ambitious campaign against criminality. In 2008, after close to 30 years of heavy criminal influence there, the state government was convinced to try Pacification Police Units, or UPP. The plan sent elite police units into communities were gangs and violence were problems. They were to be followed by social programs meant to reincorporate the community into the city and establish a bulwark against criminal influence. Initially it was effective and greeted with praise. But the program faltered as Rio's economic stability deteriorated, budget cuts hamstrung programs, and criminal groups resisted. Police were also criticized for failing to adapt, as was the state for failing to fully implement social programs. As the state's credibility and commitment were called into question, public trust eroded. High-profile cases of police violence helped break the relationship. Between July 2016 and July 2017, eight of the 10 favelas with the most shootouts had UPP units. Brazil flooded Rio with 85,000 soldiers and police officers for security during the 2016 Olympics. In their absence, the security situation has worsened, and security forces have been repeatedly dispatched to quell violence. The troops who raided five favelas during the first weekend of August — one of several such operations this month — were part of a 10,000-man force in the city, including 8,500 troops deployed at the end of July and several hundred members of various police forces. They are slated to remain there until the end of 2018. The force in the city now will differ from previous deployments — rather than occupying problem areas, the operation "aims to use intelligence to reach organized crime ... to reduce its operational capacity and to strike at it," Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said in July, adding that the current operation would look to avoid mistakes of previous ones. Extra's coverage of the conditions in Rio as a kind of "war" have earned it criticism for echoing and legitimizing the aggressive rhetoric used by the state in response to violence in the state and elsewhere in the country — a charge leveled at other outlets. The federal government's latest move to militarize of law-enforcement and crime-prevention efforts in Rio have been criticized, as such a strategy has become common in Latin America and is generally regarded as ineffective and counterproductive. For some, the deployments stir memories of the country's military dictatorship and anti-democratic acts that occurred during it. That Brazilian authorities are again relying on such an approach "clearly signifies" there is "no strategic plan" to address crime and violence in Rio, Brazil-based journalist Cecilia Olliveira told Insight Crime. Military personnel were "being used to contain the immediate circumstances, but not resolve them," she added. "If this were an effective strategy, we would not need the army on the streets again." SEE ALSO: Mexico's deadly narco violence is creeping into its most popular tourist areas Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The Rio Olympics were only a year ago, but the venues look like they've been deserted for decades from http://www.businessinsider.com/violence-in-rio-de-janeiro-military-police-deployed-2017-8 Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist and frequent advisor to President Donald Trump, is apologizing for racist and misogynistic remarks he made after cannabis activists and executives threatened to boycott his keynote speech at an industry conference in September. The calls for a boycott initially came from the Minority Cannabis Business Association earlier this month in response to Stone's praise for Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, as well as Stone's history of outlandish and offensive statements about minorities, women, and more generally those who disagree with him. "There is no doubt that some of my tweets are too pungent and politically incorrect for my critics," Stone wrote in his apology, obtained by The Daily Caller. "In retrospect, I see that this attempt at sarcasm can be seen as a slur therefore I heartfully apologize to all this gentleman." Stone was specifically referring to remarks he made calling journalist Roland Martin a "negro" and remarking on NBC host Megyn Kelly's "nice set of cans," among other slurs and epithets he's used for his rivals on his often-offensive Twitter account. Stone called his Twitter feed "lively," and "not for the faint of heart." "This bogus claim I am a racist, anti-Semite or misogynist is based on old tweets that are either taken out of context, twisted or in some cases simply fabricated," Stone wrote in the letter. "I don’t expect this apology to appease my critics because, like the President, nothing I say can please them," Stone wrote. "Like Trump I don’t apologize as a general principle. I am violating one of my own Rules." "In this case it’s the right thing to do," he continued. "I am hopeful some of these gentlemen will accept my apology as it is sincere." Stone, who spoke at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in New York City in June, announced a new initiative he was heading — with a bipartisan group of strategists, including John Morgan, a prominent donor to Hillary Clinton's campaign — to convince Trump to "uphold states' rights" to legalize marijuana. He's also serving as an expert witness in a lawsuit filed against the federal government to change cannabis's Schedule 1 status.
Stone is set to keynote the CWB Expo in Los Angeles on September 14. For his part, Morgan told Politico earlier this month that "sometimes politics makes strange bedfellows." The controversy around Stone's speech is indicative of a larger trend in the cannabis community, where prominent libertarians find themselves advocating for a common goal with social justice advocates and Wall Street power players. A close advisor to Trump during the campaign, Stone believes that he's the right person to convince the federal government — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a noted cannabis opponent — that all Americans should have legal access to cannabis. "You don’t need to agree with me or my politics nor do I need to agree with yours to work together in this vital effort," Stone wrote in his apology. "I will not be deterred from my efforts to persuade the President of the folly of launching a new 'War on Drugs' considering the expensive and unjust failure of the last one and to keep his promise to protect the access to cannabis by millions of Americans including many veterans who are using it for medicinal purposes," he continued. Dan Humiston, the head of the CWB Expo, told the Cannabis Industry Journal in August that Stone's speech will continue as planned. The CWB Expo runs from September 13 - 15 in Los Angeles. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Steve Bannon is out — here are all the casualties of the Trump administration so far from http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-apologizing-for-past-racist-comments-over-cannabis-speech-2017-8 |
AuthorHi I am Alana Smith 35 years old living in New York. I am working as an assistant in local law office. I like to share legal news with people to educate them. Archives
April 2019
Categories |