This week’s Monday post drew attention to a footnote in a legal brief. This got me thinking about footnotes. For those of you interested in trivia, the related Jeopardy answer is: “Footnote 4, Carolene Products.” (The question: What is the most famous footnote in 20th century U.S. legal literature?) (That footnote says, in part, “There may be […]
For years, Analog Techonologies Corp. has been fighting with its former employee Edward Knutson and the company he formed after leaving Analog, Dimation. It has gone badly from Mr. Knutson and for Dimation. And, this week, it’s gone worse. The image you see above is a “ball grid array,” (“BGA”) in part — tiny balls of solder […]
With every decided motion in every lawsuit, there is a winner and a loser. In some cases, one party is the loser serially, in a lot of motions over the span of the litigation. (In some cases, lawyers get the feeling that it’s personal. “The judge hates me,” they might think to themselves. Advice: “It’s […]
In March 2011, a fire of unknown origin destroyed a house located at 724 Margaret Street in Chatfield, Minnesota. Appellants Allison Stoehr and her father, Michael O’Byrne, were the named insureds on Spring Valley Mutual Insurance Company’s home insurance policy covering the house. Bradley Kullot, a claims adjuster for Spring Valley testified about his history with O’Byrne. Kullot stated […]
Updated post (July 8, 2015): In the case described below, the Minnesota Supreme Court recently held that Plaintiff Webb did, in fact, have standing to bring the lawsuit that it brought affirming the district court and the Court of Appeals. (Hurray for Webb!) The Minnesota Supreme Court went on to hold that Webb’s failure to […]
Minnesota lawyers: take out a sample of some of your recent legal writing (a brief, a contract, correspondence). Does it sing? Is it lyrical? Does it reflect your hard-earned erudition, your wit, your passion, and your personality? If so, you might have a problem. I recently had the immense pleasure of interviewing a Minnesota litigator and poet, […]
Michael Gordon was a Fair Isaac executive who left Fair Isaac to become C.E.O. of a direct competitor in England. Fair Isaac sued Mr. Gordon and his new company, Callcredit Information Group, Ltd., which is located in England. Mr. Gordon had signed Fair Isaac’s non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements to protect Fair Isaac’s confidential and proprietary […]
Years ago, in the dead of winter, I toured a wood panel manufacturing facility in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (up North). The lumber yard representative and I had to get into our cars to visit a distant part of the facility (a 15 minute walk in the dead of winter is distant) and, when he saw me […]
I recently posted on how courts discipline (or fail to discipline) lawyers. Tangentially, I am also particularly interested in the impact of “data darwinism,” reputation in the digital age and its implications on professional discipline. A court might sanction a lawyer $X,000 dollars for perceived wrong-doing but maybe a “benchslap,” that is, harsh words in a publicly available legal […]
This is the message I got today when I went to look up information about a Hennepin County Judge on the official government website. What’s that about?