Today I participated in a discussion on KPCC's "AirTalk" about a fascinating case in Arkansas that demonstrates how difficult it can be to apply established First Amendment precedent to new technology. Arkansas police have obtained a search warrant for Amazon's records of a murder defendant's...
Today Brown White & Osborn LLP announced a $3,700,000 settlement in a Section 1983 lawsuit it brought on behalf of the Downey Firemen’s Association and 14 firefighters against the City of Downey and its former Fire Chief Lonald Croom. The City retaliated against the 14...
It is (well, was) my secret shame that I follow the Kardashians—I’m not religious about it, but they’re a nice diversion from the gravitas of my criminal defense practice. But even the sanctuary of Kardashian gossip is no longer safe; they have recently been victims...
Last week I offered my first lesson gleaned from defending clients in 2016: investigate faster and more thoroughly than the government. It's time for Lesson Two: File better written work product than the government. You can win or lose a case based on the quality of...
To start off 2017, I thought I’d offer a few reflections from some cases I’ve completed over the past year, on what it takes to be successful as a criminal defense lawyer. Over the next few days, I’ll post on a few of those lessons. ...
Two late-year 2016 federal administrative and judicial pronouncements combine to raise concerns about the future of non-judicial dispute resolution fora. On November 28, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, adopted rules which, among...
A recent FINRA administrative action against Merrill Lynch sanctioned the firm when “several hundred” customers of its Puerto Rico office invested in Puerto Rican government bonds and Puerto Rican closed-end funds, some using borrowed money and some buying on margin. When the value of the...
Last week Brown White & Osborn LLP partner Ken White spoke at the Cato Institute's "The State of American Criminal Justice" conference. His panel discussion, "Inside the Courtroom," can be seen here....
How is this as a “reward” for cooperation: you’re a financial institution who learns that some of your customers have violated the terms of their loan agreement with an affiliate and used borrowed funds to invest in the stock market, some even having invested on...
21st Century Fox recently made news when it filed suit against Netflix for poaching two of Fox’s top executives. Fox claims in its suit filed on September 16, 2016, that its executives were still under contract and Netflix’s poaching constituted tortious interference with those contracts....