On the Record

It used to be a running joke among the Supreme Court bar that the scariest sentence a high-court advocate could write in a petitioner’s brief was “the decision of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should be overturned.” Such was the rarity of disagreement between the conservative high court and the like-minded appellate panel.

But this accord between the courts has been decreasing gradually during the past few terms. The justices, in their October Term 2006, disagreed with the 4th Circuit in one of the two appeals they heard; in the October Term 2007, the number was two out of three.

And during this Supreme Court session, October Term 2008, the justices rejected the 4th Circuit’s decision in all five written opinions they issued in appeals from the Richmond, Va.-based court. The high court reinstated a firearms conviction (United States v. Hayes); overturned an order for arbitration (Vaden v. Discover Bank); reversed a felony drug conviction (Abuelhawa v. United States); vacated the denial of an asylum seeker from Cameroon’s motion to stay a federal removal order (Nken v. Holder); and vacated the sentence in a drug conviction (Nelson v. United States).

In a sixth case, the justices issued an order vacating the 4th Circuit’s decision upholding the continued detention of a suspected Al-Qaida agent without trial in the United States and dismissing the case as moot. The high court took the step at the request of the Obama administration, which told the justices that the suspect, Ali Al-Marri, will face trial on federal charges of conspiracy and providing support to terrorists.

Anyone who delights in predicting how the Supreme Court will rule should take heed.

Hat tip: SCOTUSBlog.

NALP has done a survey of lawyer starting salaries and has discovered that the median salary for new lawyers in 2008 was $72,000 and the mean was $92,000. This tells us… approximately nothing.

Almost nobody is actually making these salaries. Instead, starting salaries are clustered around $50,000 and $160,000, giving NALP’s accompanying graph the look of a weird stylized two-humped camel. (You don’t see it? Not even a little?)

2008 actually had the widest bimodal salary distribution of any previous year, meaning that the pay gap between those working at white-shoe firms and those doing almost anything else was bigger than ever.

As the National Law Journal points out, this graph may look different next year. While in 2008, the going rate for a first-year associate at a top firm was $160,000, in 2009, many big firms have scaled back pay in a nod to the terrible economy. In Maryland alone, DLA Piper, Miles & Stockbridge, McGuire Woods and Venable have all decreased starting salaries, and I’ll be shocked if some of the other big firms here don’t follow suit.

Of course, there’s a limit to how much the look of this graph will change from this year to next. While the big firms are lowering salaries, they’re not really going below $120,000 or so, and you can bet other entry-level lawyers are not seeing their salaries increasing.

ON THE COVER: (Un)true Confessions — Payday lender’s illegal, but successful, use of confessed judgments leads to a call for change.

Baltimore police sergeant sees $2.5 million settlement as a catalysist for change.

In Breaking News: Second judge opts out of the race; CSA affirms a lawyers’ win in suit by client; 4th Circuit says inmate can’t sue individuals; and C. William Clark is ready for his role as BCBA president.

Read about how a part-time dancer settled her lawsuit over nude photos in Verdicts & Settlements.

In Profiles in Leadership, Legal Affairs Writer Danny Jacobs catches up with Alexander Gordon IV, author of Gordon on Maryland Foreclosures.

Andrew H. Baida writes about tricks appellate lawyers can learn from dogs in The Art of Appellate Advocacy.

In The Big Picture, Jack L.B. Gohn says that ‘just following orders’ has not been an excuse for war crimes since the Nuremberg trials.

Stay up-to-date with our Legal Briefs and Law Digest, with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals and Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Happy Monday! Here are some law news links to start your day:

• Jon Katz writes about the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts last week.
• Massachusetts has admitted its first lawyer who had an exclusively online legal education. Can you learn to be an effective lawyer without venturing into the classroom? (Some say you don’t really learn to practice law until your first job anyway.)
• Will the Supreme Court’s reversal of the 2nd Circuit in the New Haven firefighter case affect Sonia Sotomayor’s chances of confirmation? One early opinion, from Jonathan Adler on Volokh Conspiracy: “Yet even if her handling of this case reflects poorly on her judgment, I do not see it as disqualifying, and I do not believe it will prevent her from being confirmed.”
• Michael Jackson’s death has raised all sorts of legal issues.
• Driving naked in Georgia is apparently not a crime. I just thought you should know.
• Is this what a concurring opinion might say if its author was being honest?

With all of the various tributes to Michael Jackson, I was reminded this morning of one of his more underappreciated roles: preventer of gang violence.

I’m of course referring to his rad ’80s music video to “Beat It,” one of many hits from “Thriller.” I know the music video to the album’s title track is the piece de resistance, what with dancing zombies and a Vincent Price cameo all directed by John Landis. But it always felt a bit too high-concept for my tastes.

“Beat It,” on the other hand, tells the gripping story of two rival gangs whose leaders plan to settle their differences one night in an abandoned warehouse. The source of their anger is unknown, but you see it in every gang member’s face as he walks menacingly (but in rhythm) toward the battlefield.

Enter our hero, Michael Jackson, and his piano-key T-shirt. He leaves his sparse apartment (maybe he’s working undercover) and traces the gangs’ footsteps from an empty diner to an empty pool hall. It appears he might be too late, however, as the gang members have already assembled in the warehouse, the leaders with switchblades drawn and linked by a bandana tied to one of their wrists.

The leaders spin in a circle (my favorite part) and swipe at each other, their underlings cheering all around them. Suddenly, MJ appears out of nowhere, perhaps finding the warehouse location by following the strains of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo. The fighting ceases as Jackson makes his way toward the leaders. Two quick punches straight up in the air later and everyone is following his dancing lead and, I assume, lives happily ever after, proving that dance auditions should become part of any police department’s application process. 

(Then again, maybe not, as MJ appears to become leader of his own gang five years later in the video “Bad.”)

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It was only a matter of time.

Our 2009 incoming associate salary chart showed earlier this month that Venable was still planning on paying the current crop of incoming associates–well, the crop that was supposed to start in September but now will start in January 2010–last year’s going rate of $160,000. According to Above the Law, an in-house memo says that first-years will now earn a mere $145,000, in line with what other big firms, such as DLA Piper, are doing.

That’s just the beginning of the cuts. Everyone, possibly even up to equity partners, will see their numbers go down, effective July 11.

Deep in today’s WaPo story about the deadliest crash in Metro history is this nugget:

The first lawsuit against Metro as a result of the crash was filed yesterday, and more are expected. The parents of Davonne Flanagan, 15, of the District sued in federal court, charging “negligent operation” and “negligent maintenance” on the part of Metro and the train’s operator.

Imhotep Yakub and Dawn Flanagan are seeking $950,000 for Davonne’s fractured leg and his pain and suffering. They are represented by Lawrence Lapidus, of the D.C. office of Karp, Frosh, Lapidus, Wigodsky & Norwind. (The firm also has offices in Rockville and Alexandria.)

A search of the PACER system shows no other suits filed against WMATA this week in D.C. or Maryland’s federal courts.

We’ve documented the struggle for funding of legal services in Maryland, but there’s been news in the last week about federal funding for legal services.

It began Thursday when the House approved $440 million in funding for the Legal Services Corp. for Fiscal Year 2010, a $50 million increase from the current fiscal year. The bill passed after an amendment to eliminate LSC was defeated 323-105, according to LSC.

Rep. Allan B. Mollohan, D-W. Va., said the amendment was “the wrong place to try to balance the budget,” echoing Maryland Sen. Bobby Zirkin and Del. Jon Cardin, the Baltimore County Democrats who led the fight to prevent a $500,000 cut to the Maryland Legal Services Corp.

The U.S. House measure also removed a restriction barring lawyers paid by legal services from collecting attorneys’ fees from opposing parties. As the U.S. Senate begins discussing LSC this week, the The Washington Post and The New York Times editorial boards both urged the Senate to lift two additional restrictions: one prohibiting legal services clients from participating in class-action lawsuits; the other extending the federal restrictions to money legal services providers receive from other sources. 

Incidentally, the Senate subcommittee that will be first to take up LSC funding is chaired by Maryland’s own Barbara Mikulski. Stay tuned. 

A Rockville special-education attorney, advocate and mother is lauding the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision Monday that parents may be reimbursed for sending their youngster to private school without first trying a public-school curriculum they believe would not meet their child’s special-ed needs.

“I hope school districts sit up and take notice” of the decision and ensure their special-ed programs meet the students’ requirements, thus eliminating the desire of a number of parents to send their children to private school, said Lyda L. Astrove, a solo practitioner.

“The vast majority of families do start out in the public school system,” she added. Parents who opt for private school generally do so “only after years of failure and frustration” with a public school curriculum that did not meet their child’s needs, Astrove said.

The high court’s ruling permits families to avoid what they fear will be that failure and frustration by opting for private school at the outset, she added.

Under the court’s decision, parents seeking tuition reimbursement for private school must still show that the public school’s proposed curriculum would not meet their child’s needs.

Astrove’s two children have attended public and private special-ed programs in Montgomery County, and she said she has nothing but praise for the education and support the county has provided.

* Disclosure: This reporter also has two family members in Montgomery County Public Schools’ special-education program.

Baltimore County’s lawsuit against the architect of its detention center expansion continues in county Circuit Court. The county rested its case Friday, and a lawyer for DMJM H&N was questioning the project designer when I popped in this morning.

One of my favorite parts of the trial has been indulging my inner “Art Vandelay” and learning some design terminology. Today, for example, I learned that the striking glass facade above the addition’s main entrance is called a “shadow box,” so drivers passing by on Bosley Avenue can see the inside …but not actually see inside, if that makes sense.

The explanation reminded me of the term I learned last week, “Muffin Monster,” that came up during an at-times contentious cross-examination of the county’s architectural expert. The Muffin Monster is brand-named grinder that eats anything thrown out with wastewater. It’s used in jails in case inmates flush foreign objects down the toilet.

Discussion of the Muffin Monster brought smiles to the faces of everyone in the courtroom.

“I believe we all learned something today,” Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. said.

For a fantastic display of the Muffin Monster’s power, check out this video. You will not be disappointed.

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