After a landmark win in the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama's push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed. On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama's top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles. Political strategist Brad Bannon (Bannon Research in Washington) is interview by Scott Drake
Tax law expert Robert Wood discusses simple ways to avoid an IRS audit
After a landmark win in the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama's push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed. On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama's top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles. Political strategist Brad Bannon (Bannon Research in Washington) is interview by Scott Drake
Tax law expert Robert Wood discusses simple ways to avoid an IRS audit
When we last spoke with Jeremy Blachman, the man behind Anonymous Lawyer, he was working on a television pilot and his wedding. The pilot fizzled but the new marriage is going strong. He's back to writing and thinking about the future. Scott Drake get's an update from Jeremy Blachman
When we last spoke with Jeremy Blachman, the man behind Anonymous Lawyer, he was working on a television pilot and his wedding. The pilot fizzled but the new marriage is going strong. He's back to writing and thinking about the future.
Scott Drake get's an update from Jeremy Blachman
A federal district judge in Houston recently issued a permanent injunction against factoring company Rapid Settlements, enjoining them from using arbitration clauses in contracts to circumvent the court approval process.
Matt Bracy explains in this interview with Scott Drake
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, introduced herself to the nation Monday by speaking about how her journey from public housing in the Bronx to the federal bench has shaped her philosophy and made her a jurist whose philosophy is guided by “fidelity to the law.”
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, introduced herself to the nation Monday by speaking about how her journey from public housing in the Bronx to the federal bench has shaped her philosophy and made her a jurist whose philosophy is guided by “fidelity to the law.” Scott Drake interviews Brad Bannon president of Bannon Communications Research. Bannon Communications Research is a full-service independent political consulting firm.
ALR Industries, which manufactures sports supplements, recently settled a lawsuit Former Arizona cardinal player Obafemi Ayanbadejo brought against the company, claiming it did not properly label a supplement called Max LMG which resulted in his failed test. Scott talks with his attorney Jim P. Miller in El Cajon.
ALR Industries, which manufactures sports supplements, recently settled a lawsuit Former Arizona cardinal player Obafemi Ayanbadejo brought against the company, claiming it did not properly label a supplement called Max LMG which resulted in his failed test. Scott talks with his attorney Jim P. Miller in El Cajon.
Hoping to enlist support for his campaign for health care reform, President Obama told the American Medical Association this week that he would work with doctors to limit their vulnerability to malpractice lawsuits. Mr. Obama did not specify which malpractice reforms he favors, but he wisely rejected placing caps on malpractice awards, the preferred solution of Republicantort reformers. Such caps would be unfair to people grievously harmed by physician errors who need substantial compensation to live with their injuries. There is a variety of ideas worth exploring. Some analysts have called for setting up tribunals of neutral experts to hear malpractice claims. Others suggest requiring mediation, or granting doctors presumptive protection in malpractice lawsuits if they have followed recommended clinical practice guidelines, or encouraging doctors to confess error promptly, apologize to patients forthrightly, and offer them fair compensation for their injuries. (Source: NY Times) Scott Drake discusses medical malpractice and health care reform with attorney Barry MacBan at MacBan Law in Tucson, Az. He handles both plaintiff and defense in medical malpractice cases.
No area of the law or regulation creates more controversy and passion then anything linked to dogs, cats and other domestic pets and the lawsuit brought by Concerned Dog Owners of California (CDOC) against the City of Los Angeles over their mandatory spay and neuter regulations is no exception.
Dog regulations run amok? The CDOC vs The City of Los Angeles.
No area of the law or regulation creates more controversy and passion then anything linked to dogs, cats and other domestic pets and the lawsuit brought by Concerned Dog Owners of California (CDOC) against the City of Los Angeles over their mandatory spay and neuter regulations is no exception. Last year they filed a lawsuit to over turn the mandatory spay and neuter regulations imposed on all dog owners in the City, in which set dates for spay and neuter are established, civil and administrative penalties are outlined and entire categories of dog breeders, owners and hobbyists now fall under increasingly strict laws and oversight.
In this interview Scott Drake Interviews chairperson of Concerned Dog Owners of California Cathie Turner
Jerome Kowalski, a legal consultant
who tracks the New York Market discusses why major law firms are shrinking with Scott Drake. Kowalski says “The mood at White & Case — and at probably 15 or 20 more firms in New York — is kind of like sitting at a deathbed and watching a close relative wither away. It’s like you’re right there in the I.C.U. with the patient and you know that the condition is terminal.”
Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor for "Slate" writes:
If the Republican attack on Sotomayor is really going to consist of scattershot claims that she is too female and ethnic to be truly fair or impartial, it will be a losing demographic battle. Recall that 67 percent of Hispanics and 58 percent of women voted for Obama in 2008, along with 96 percent of blacks. Folks across the political spectrum may wish that Obama hadn't opened the door to discussions of the complicated connection between experience and judicial "empathy." But now that we are there, it simply has to be a mistake for her opponents to attack Sotomayor as someone who is just too darn human to sit on a court.
Scott talks with Dahlia Lithwick
A Montgomery County judge has declined to cap the non-economic damages in a multimillion-dollar medical malpractice verdict, saying the state's limit on such awards applies only to lawsuits that were first submitted to arbitration.
Scott talks with the plaintiff's attorney Patrick Malone
Pilot training and fatigue were the focus of an unusual public hearing on Tuesday into safety issues raised by the February crash of an airliner near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation has found that the pilot of the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop, didn't received hands-on training on a critical safety system aboard the aircraft. Pilot fatigue may have also played a part in the crash.
Source: AP
Scott gets analysis from aviation lawyer Charles Brewer in Phoenix.
When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008, Washington learned the hard way that some firms are just too tangled up in the global financial system to fail. The government has since doled out $5 trillion to keep the remaining players alive. But mostly policymakers have focused on treating the symptoms of the financial crisis rather than the underlying cause. They've been trying to find the perfect pharmaceutical cocktail, fashioning a mix of programs with offputting names like TALF, TLGP, and PPIP—and changing them on the fly. Do any of these plans do more than temporarily relieve the pain?
Scott Drake talks with CNBC's Jordan Kimmel (Magnet Investment Group)
Clifford Chance has partnered with the Georgetown University Law Center to establish the Clifford Chance International Public Interest Summer Fellowship Program.
The Clifford Chance Fellowships are committed to providing outstanding JD students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds with the ability to serve others in the international community.
The fellowships will be offered to 15 first-year Georgetown Law students, selected through a competitive application process, who will undertake unpaid summer internships with international non-governmental and governmental organizations. The program will be overseen by an Advisory Committee, which will be comprised of Law Center administrators and Georgetown faculty, as well as two representatives of Clifford Chance.
In 2006, Clifford Chance became the first law firm to partner with New York University School of Law on its ground-breaking An-Bryce Program, which provides full scholarships to disadvantaged JD students who are the first in their immediate family to pursue a graduate degree. In addition, the firm is supporting an annual faculty research and lecture series at Columbia University Law School on the study of diversity and its implications within the legal community.
Scott Drake talks with Brian Hoffman fron Clifford Chance