Introducing The Irreverent Lawyer

I am pleased to introduce Legal Watchdog readers to The Irreverent Lawyer—a gun-slinging civil attorney out west who brilliantly criticizes, among other things, mandatory state bar associations and continuing legal education (CLE) requirements.  (And he does it with wonderfully illustrated posts.)  Now, I always knew that, notwithstanding my state bar’s hyper-positive spin, I wasn’t getting anything for my nearly-$500 check that I sign every year.  And I always knew that after taking most CLEs I was frustrated and drained of money, time, and energy.  But I was never angry about any of this until I started reading some of his posts. 

Knightly welcomes the students of Columbus State Community College!

Knightly (pictured) takes a break from his legal research to welcome Professor Cathy Ritterbusch's students to The Legal Watchdog. Cathy's class, Criminal Law & Procedure in the paralegal program, will be splitting time between substantive criminal law and criminal procedure. After the jump are some recommended posts to get the ball rolling. The posts are organized by substantive law and procedural law, although in practice, the two areas often overlap and are difficult to separate.  In any case, enjoy!

Why isn’t there a major in “college athletics”?

I’m kind of torn on the so-called student-athlete.  On the one hand, I like to joke about the title — for the most part, we all know that they’re athletes and not really students, right?  But on the other hand, the student-athlete probably isn’t much worse than the typical student at many schools.  (It’s just that non-athlete students aren’t thrust in front of the camera every Saturday afternoon after the game, so we don’t get to see and hear them.)  And then, when I saw an article about what some kids are able to study in order to earn a degree, I started to appreciate the student-athlete even more.

Breaking the bank: JP Morgan Chase needs to stop paying off the government

JP Morgan Chase just agreed to pay another $1.7 billion to the government as part of a criminal settlement agreement.  So what was Chase’s alleged crime this time around?  The government alleges Chase violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to file a “suspicious activity report” for certain “suspicious transactions” in Bernie Madoff’s bank account. (Source: WSJ.)  I find this absolutely hilarious, given that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did absolutely nothing to stop Madoff, even though a Wall Street Analyst named Harry Markopolos did all of the SEC’s work for it, mathematically proved that Madoff was running a ponzi scheme, notified the SEC repeatedly in writing, and begged the SEC to put a stop Madoff’s then ongoing crimes.