Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
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What’s Wrong with Minnesota Lawyer Discipline and the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility?
[Editor’s Note: See the comment, below. It is worth noting that Mr. Capistrant’s discipline took a long time but it is not as if he was practicing law during the drawn-out process. The question still remains: why did it take as long as it did?] Joseph Michael Capistrant was a Minnesota lawyer whose misconduct was bad […]
Recommended Discipline For Repeated Egregious & Intentional Misconduct…
Update (January 19, 2018): In the original post below, we decried the soft discipline of a Minnesota lawyer for serious misconduct. Although we are not trained in mental health diagnosis, in our view, the extraordinary misconduct could only be excused by mental illness. Therefore, in the post below, we advocated for a stiffer penalty than […]
Minnesota Legal Malpractice Statute of Limitations Case Law is in Disarray.
Update (January 11, 2018): Yesterday, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard argument in the Savoie case, described below. It was not very illuminating and so, to us, it was disappointing. A key problem in the case is that the Court appears to be of the opinion that, under Minnesota law, a personal representative (“PR”) of a […]
Minnesota Litigator Profile: Emily McNee
We recently profiled retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Keys, and he pointed out what we already knew: it isn’t just older lawyers who have a lot of interesting things to say about the practice law. Mentoring flows both ways from junior lawyers to senior lawyers as well as senior to junior. Minnesota Litigator (“ML”): Given the […]
On Alleged Racism and the Regulation of Mobile Home Parks
Update (January 8, 2018): Should any governmental body have the power to regulate mobile home parks? To impose rules as to fences, garbage receptacle visibility, permitted neighboring structures (car parks, sheds, etc.)? Presumably few of our readers spend much time in this area of governmental regulation but all of us know that the government imposes […]
MINNESOTA LITIGATOR HIATUS FOR TRIAL (AND THE HOLIDAYS)
Normally, we have a holiday season hiatus at the end of every calendar year, a bit of R&R, stepping back from the relentless demand of a full time legal practice and legal blogging. This year is different. We are spending our holiday season preparing for a trial scheduled to start on January 2, 2018. Talk […]
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from Minnesota Litigator
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the Year to Come from Minnesota Litigator!
Can a Company Shield Information from a Muckraker Counter-Party in Litigation?
Updated post (December 18, 2017): We knew that the case discussed below, St. Jude v. Muddy Waters, would be a hard-fought lawsuit given the personalities of the litigants and their lawyers. We have not covered the lawsuit’s first year because, really, it’s just getting started. The lawsuit is brought by a medical device maker against […]
Dropped Balls and the Blame Game…
Communication is the foundation of all agreements. Miscommunication lurks at the foundation of most contract disputes. When a person or a business (say, a business owner) hires intermediaries to help negotiate a complex agreement (say, a commercial lease) and, in the end, a material term failed to make its way into the final agreement, who’s […]
A Defamation Defense Win for a LEVENTHAL pllc Client (for now, at least)
It is infrequent that we use the Minnesota Litigator blog for downright self-promotion because (1) attorney-client confidentiality concerns often prohibit it; (2) we assume our readers are not interested; or (3) “other reasons” (for example, the “win” is too complicated to explain, publication is inconsistent with our business/marketing strategy, etc.). On the other hand, from […]