Archive for February, 2012

As the second week of jury selection continues in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex-abuse case, the presiding judge has denied the latest defense motion to dismiss charges of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy against the archdiocese’s former secretary of clergy.

While large firms, faced with an economic climate in which clients are increasingly tightening the reins on their legal spending, are looking to lateral hiring as their primary revenue driver, midsized firms appear to be more focused on gaining additional work from existing clients and trying to attract new clients by promising quality work at a more flexible and often lower cost than the big shops.

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On Monday, when WikiLeaks made public more than 5 million Strategic Forecasting e-mails, one particular thread caught our eye showing work done for the Austin-based global intelligence company and think tank by lawyers from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Jackson Walker, and a small Washington, D.C., firm in connection with an investment fund called StratCap.

A new report from ALM Legal Intelligence finds that after years of showing only tepid interest in social media, the legal industry is beginning to recognize the significant-and multipronged-value that blogs and social networking sites can have.

Having prevailed in his long-running battle to break up telecommunications giant Motorola, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has agreed to sell a large stake in successor Motorola Solutions back to the company for $1.17 billion.

Harvard Law still packs more punch than other law schools in the big-firm marketplace. But where's Yale?

A group of employees working on behalf of a particular client must be organised principally to carry out that client’s requirements in order to be protected by TUPE, a tribunal has ruled.

A cross-party group of Christian MPs has reported that the law must reasonably accommodate those with religious beliefs.

The group wants to see provision included in the Equality Act 2010 extended to cover religious groups in the same way as those with disabilities.

The group, called ‘Clearing the Ground’, have called for the change in the law which would then allow cases of discrimination to be viewed on a case-by-case basis.

The call has come at a time when they say that Christians and others with religious views in society feel heavily marginalised. They say that changes in the law have resulted in religious beliefs being demoted below the common rights which other citizens enjoy.

Critics of the group argue that protecting the rights of Christians and others in this way would allow private prejudice to have the support of national laws. They also argue that under current legislation, Christians and others with religious beliefs have no less legal protection than anyone else.

Cases of discrimination do crop up, and it is these which the group argue lend support to their claims.

Last week a 57-year-old Christian, Celestina Mba, lost a claim at an employment tribunal after she was refused permission by her employer, Merton Council, to take every Sunday off work for religious reasons.

Supporters of a change in the law point to cases such as this as an example of how living out a religious belief can lead to discrimination in modern society.

Muslim peer Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party co-chairwoman, has recently spoken out in support of the rights of Christians in the UK and around Europe.

“[Religion] is being sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere,” she said.

She went on to argue that Europe needed to become “more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity.”

Related links:

Read more on the story (BBC)

Overview of discrimination law (FindLaw)

Find solicitors throughout the UK (FindLaw)

Photographers cannot commercially exploit photographs that feature designer items unless the items only appear incidentally within the image, a court in France has ruled.