Spring 2012, Silver Linings

Litigation & Trials

Making the Best of Being an Appellee

Andrea Ambrose

Knowing how to maximize your position on appeal can make the difference between a winning brief and a losing brief.

Litigation & Trials

Sua Sponte

Hon. Kathleen McDonald O'Malley

A judge provides advice on appearing before an appeals court.

Judicial Mediation: Two Judges' Philosophies

Steven J. Miller

Two federal judges outline the philosophies on which they ground their judicial settlement efforts.

Government Investigations Under Fire in a Mega-Trade Sanctions Case

Trip Mackintosh

An examination of some key aspects of the complex, multifaceted litigation served up by a government investigation.

Litigation & Trials

Litigating In-House: Silver Linings and Clouds

Mark Hermann

The author shares the reasons a lawyer might--or might not--prefer an in -house position to that of a litigator at a law firm.

Montana’s Vigilantes: Crime and Order

Robert Aitken, Marilyn Aitken

Memoirs have painted a sometimes sympathetic picture of the frontier justice that accompanied that Montana Territory's lawlessness, but history provides a harsher account.

Opening Statement: Error, Finality, and Fairness: Have We Got It Wrong?

Ron Marmer

There are good reasons to believe that the U.S. legal system has relied too heavily on process as a measure of fairness.

From the Bench: Mentoring—What is Our Message?

Hon. Joseph A. Greenaway Jr.

If the legal profession is to take on a different aura, part of that change must be in how lawyers relate to their mentees.

iWitness: Eight Google Skills All Litigators Should Master

Don MacLeod

Some tools that can quickly improve the quality of Google searches are hiding in plain sight.

On the Papers: Whose Story Is this Sentence? Directing Readers’ Perceptions of Narrative

George D. Gopen

As a writer, you can control whose story a reader percieves you to be telling in any given sentence.

Global Litigator: Germany’s Increasingly Robust Anticorruption Efforts

T. Markus Funk, Jess A. Dance

Those doing business in Germany or with German companies need to need to learn about Germany's tough anticorruptions laws.

Advance Sheet: Gaining Perspective from Abroad

Robert E. Shapiro

The French and British legal systems feature different standards of guilt and innocence than the American systems, and different standards for how the accused may be treated.

Sidebar: Saints

Kenneth P. Nolan

In a world of war, hatred, and suffering, goodness exists.

Scruples: When Pled Allegations Hit the Newspapers

Michael Downey

Normally, allegations in a pleading cannot support a vaiable defamation claim.

Legal Lore: Tried for Treason: The Amazing Case of Private Dale Maple

Fred L. Borch

On April 24, 1944, at a court-martial convened deep inside the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Army Private Dale Maple was found guilty of desertion and aiding the enemy. His sentence: to be hanged by the neck until dead. But Maple did not know that he had been sentenced to death, because the court-martial jury, which had conducted its proceedings in secret, had been ordered by the Army to keep its verdict secret as well—even from the defendant. What follows is the true story of the trial of Dale Maple, the first American-born soldier in the history of the Army ever to be found guilty of a crime that fits the constitutional definition of treason.

Government Investigations: Is There Any Good in a Government Investigation?

George B. Curtis

Most respondents on the receiving end of a government investigation would rank the experience somewhere between a root canal and a train wreck, depending on the outcome, with the root canal at the preferred end of the range. Generally, the investigation extends for years, takes up a vast amount of time, imposes considerable stress as well as financial cost, and can threaten the professional future of an individual and the corporate existence of an entity, independent of whether the investigation is justified.

Criminal Law: Invoking the Client’s Right to Remain Silent

James J. Duane

Consider the following question, which comes up rather frequently. Suppose you represent a client who is scheduled to be questioned—perhaps at police headquarters, or at a hearing, trial, or deposition—and you have advised your client to assert the Fifth Amendment right to refuse to give testimony. Just what words should you advise your client to speak when the moment comes and it is time to invoke that right?

Litigation & Trials

Freedom of Speech: OMG, "Twibel" Claims? R U 4 Real?

Charles D. Tobin

Can you imagine trying to tweet an argument supporting a motion to dismiss in a defamation action brought by, say, a restaurateur?