Taking a Vacation

Let me start out by saying, I love you guys ... I really do.

I love that you check in on my humble little blog and keep us up to date on what's going on in our wild little legal world. I love providing a forum for our legal community to converse about the things that can't be said in public forums.

I love that you provide information that keeps some of our less scrupulous peers on their toes.

But ... I'm tired, real tired. It may not seem like it, but posting on a semi-weekly basis takes a lot out of you. This is especially true once you lose interest in what you are posting about in the first place, which, if you've been paying attention to recent posts, it is obvious that I have.

Additionally, the level of discourse on this blog has, for the most part, dropped below a level that I am comfortable with. This is mostly my fault. I can't expect to maintain an interesting discussion by simply, half-assedly, regurgitating semi-interesting legal news. It's not you, it's me.

I am hoping that some of these issues will be remedied by my taking an extended hiatus from this blog. My thinking is that this will help in a couple ways: (1) by losing some of the riff-raff we seem to have picked up (hard to troll posts that aren't there); and (2) by giving me time to clear my head and relax, possibly rekindle that interest I seem to have lost.

I honestly feel a lot of guilt over this. We have many loyal and fantastic tipsters who are constantly emailing us with the latest scoop, and I feel like I'm letting all of them down. Unfortunately, I feel strongly this is something that has to be done.

Thanksgiving Open Thread

Happy Turkey-Eve!

Enjoy your long weekend (assuming, of course, you're caught up on billables).

Gobble! Gobble!

Pedo-Counsel

Las Vegas attorney Richard L. Crane has been "temporarily suspended" from practicing law after pleading guilty to one felony count of sexually motivated coercion. From the RJ:

Crane was arrested in August 2009 in a Henderson police sting that nabbed men seeking to meet underage boys and girls via Craigslist.com.

According to Crane's arrest report, he believed he was speaking to a 15-year-old girl, and asked when she would turn 16. Crane asked questions about the girl's sexual history and asked on several occasions to "hang out," the report stated.

Crane is was a member of the Willick Law Group, where his bio used to read as follows:

Richard “Rick” Crane

Mr. Crane received his B.S. degree in General Studies from Excelsior University in 1996 and his M.S. degree in Management from Troy State University in 1997 while serving overseas with the United States Navy. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Crane received his J.D. degree in May 2005 from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California. Mr. Crane has represented the Government's interest in administrative hearings and performed an internship with the San Diego Public Attorney's Office prior to retiring from the Navy after 30 years of service.

Crane also authored a letter to the Editor of the June, 2007, Nevada Lawyer magazine entitled,
How Low Does the Bar Go? Surprising a guy like this chose to go by "Rick."

(Full Bio (PDF); LVRJ; Thanks, Tipsters!)

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday everyone!

Don't forget to tip us with your firms' holiday party plans.

Always Name the Rent-A-Cop

Our Supremes reinstated a legal malpractice suit against Las Vegas attorney Dennis Myron Leavitt filed by a woman who accused him of professional negligence. The Court found that Judge Miley erred by finding the disgruntled client failed to file her claim within the two-year statute of limitations.

From the LV Sun:

Hall says in April 2005 she and her boyfriend were in the laundry room at the Casa Rosa apartments when a security guard entered, pulled a gun, cocked the pistol, yelled multiple profanities at the couple and threatened to kill them.

The security guard, employed by Security One, was arrested, says Hall, who alleges she was traumatized and forced to undergo extensive psychological treatment.

Leavitt apparently forgot to name the security guard personally as a defendant. Whoops.

(LV Sun)

The Perfect Gift?

A Tipster sent us the following photo:

For you old seasoned attorneys, the small print reads:

The perfect gift for law students and lawyers

A great gift for law students, both throughout law school and to help prepare for the Bar Examination. With "Passing The Bar" flashcards, your favorite law student will spend more time studying in an enjoyable, fun setting. Fun for lawyers too! The game includes 350 Multistate Bar Examination ("MBE") Cards (featuring legal questions modeled after the MBE), and 100 Justice Cards (featuring celebrity run-ins with the law, movie quotes from notorious and gripping courtroom dramas, outrageous verdicts and alike). Additional game cards (sold separately) includes 450 questions from previous Bar Examinations, released by the NCBE.

All yours for only $69.99 (game) and $59.99 (additional game cards)! Were any of you able to make it through that paragraph without cringing?

(Thanks, Tipster!)

Friday Open Thread

Happy belated Veterans Day everyone!

Hope you all enjoyed the 8.0 (or the odd, mid-week day off ... depending on your circumstances) in honor of the brave men and women who fought for our country.

Where is your firm's holiday party this year?

It's time once again for you guys & gals to report on the holiday shindigs your various firm will be throwing for their ungrateful attorneys and staff to under-appreciate this year!

Let us know where your firm will be holding its holiday party, along with any bonus perks that may be provided (open bar, limos, midget elves, Charo, etc.). We will post the results in a few weeks.

Past holiday party survey results can be seen here and here.

Who would be your top three?

A helpful commenter has provided a list of the names purported to be up to fill the vacancy left after Judge Wall sold his soul. According to our commenter, these are the names up to fill Wall's shoes:

• Lucinda L. Coumou, 47, Las Vegas, Clark County District Attorney’s Office
• Philip J. Dabney, 51, Henderson, Holland & Hart LLP
• Michael D. Davidson, 56, Las Vegas, Kolesar & Leatham
• Michael A. Federico, 39, Las Vegas, of Olson, Conner, Gormley & Desruisseaux
• Craig B. Friedberg, 52, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Craig B. Friedberg
• Bruce L. Gale, 55, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Bruce L. Gale
• Kurt K. Harris, 46, Henderson, Harris Law Office
• Martin Hart, 47, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Martin Hart
• James A. Kohl, 45, Las Vegas, Howard & Howard
• Michael A. Koning, 60, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Michael A. Koning P.C.
• Judge Chris Lee, 36, North Las Vegas, North Las Vegas Justice Court
• Charles J. Lybarger, 48, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Charles Lybarger
• Troy E. Peyton, 50, Las Vegas, Troy E. Peyton, P.C.
• Marc D. Risman, 55, Henderson, Law Offices of Marc Risman
• David J. Rivers, 63, Las Vegas, Leavitt, Sully & Rivers
• Beverly Salhanick, 52, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Beverly Salhanick
• Jerome T. Tao, 42, Las Vegas, Clark County Public Defender’s Office
• Jeffrey J. Whitehead, 50, Henderson, Jeffrey J. Whitehead, Esq.
• Bernard B. Zadrowski, 45, Las Vegas, Clark County District Attorney’ s Office

If that list is accurate, three names will be chosen from it by the Judicial Selection Committee and forwarded to the governor, who will then appoint Wall's replacement.

If it were up to you, who from the above list would make your top three?

(Thanks, Commenter!)

Plaintiff's Powerhouse Building on Hold

Looks like the Mainor Eglet and Vannah Vannah building will have to wait until someone can figure out what to do with the existing home already on the land, which once belonged to Charles P. "Pop" Squires, one of the founders of Las Vegas.

Any chance they'll call it "The Walsh Building?"

(LVRJ; Thanks, Tipster!)

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday everyone!

Now that we have those pesky elections behind us, what else is going on?

Election Post-Mortem

We've already had some talk of this in our previous thread, but let's make it official now that we've had a chance to digest the results.

What are your thoughts on the way the elections turned out? We've previously listed the candidates that most affect our legal community; the results can be found, here. What do you think ... did the voters get it right?

Also, there were two ballot measures that went down in flames, as ATL commented:

In Nevada, the people voted to protect their right to vote for state judges. That’s not surprising, people who have no understanding about what judges do want to pretend like their [sic] not horribly uninformed every two years.

Here's to (at least) two more years of a "horribly uninformed" voting public.

(LVRJ; LV Sun; ATL)

Election Day Roundup

A potpourri of items for you on this fine election day:

• If you happen to be voting in Laughlin, you may actually recognize one of the names running for constable as our frequent, fashion-conscious commenter.


• ATL posted a story last week about Nevada attorney Jonathan Goldsmith's lawsuit over "mean Facebook Comments." Are we really into the upper 11,000's with bar numbers already?


• CPK has posted the pics from its recent annual party.


• U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt granted a TRO and ordered Joanna Kishner's censure to be rescinded. We imagine it may be difficult to un-ring that bell. (PDF of Order)


• Meanwhile, judicial candidate Ron Israel was censured for exposing his political party on a campaign flyer. (LV Sun)

(Thanks, Tipsters!)