Not Guilty! Not Guilty! Not Guilty!

Got my client off with a "not guilty" verdict today.  Yeah!  Of course, I was the client, and it was a bogus traffic ticket, but...still.  Not Guilty! 

Moore & Leviant LLP

I didn't anticipate all the twists and turns that led to this day, but here it is.  I'm excited (and nervous) to see what comes next.  You can find our new firm at www.mllawyers.net.

The biggest move...

After four years at Spiro Moore (formerly, Spiro Moss), I have decided to take the biggest step of all and chart my own course.  There are still some things to sort out, but in short order I will have an announcement about my landing spot and my partner in this venture.  Until then, let me say that it was a privilege to work at Spiro Moore, but I am very excited by what is to come.

I won't be leaving the class action field, but I will be re-tooling my focus a bit.  Much more of my time will be devoted to union corruption cases, and much less will be focused on wage & hour.  There will be some other things to work on, but why spoil every good surprise, right?

If you don't respect the privacy rights of others...

your privacy rights might be treated in a similar fashion.  Fair is fair.

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from The Complex Litigator.  Best wishes to you and your kin, friends, agents, assigns, predecessors, successors, affiliates, insurers, attorneys, fiduciaries, officers, directors, parents, etc.

Perhaps a name change for a controversial plaintiff-side class action law firm is in the works... (Bumped)

It appears that attorneys at Initiative Legal Group are starting to appear at a "new" firm named Capstone Law, APC.  But Capstone is in the same building as Initiative Legal Group, so, fishy.  Perhaps its is just a coincidence, but maybe it has something to do with the problems Iniative Legal Group is having in Lofton v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Case No. CGC-11-509502 (see also, Maxon v. Initiative Legal Group APC, App. Ct. Case No. A136626).  Nothing like a change of name to shake off the taint of allegations like those, right?

Update on 2012-11-10 01:07 by The Complex Litigator

Would you look at that?  What was once a three-laywer firm now has 38 lawyers!  My, Capstone, how you've grown...in the last two weeks.

Update on 2012-11-10 01:17 by The Complex Litigator

Maybe Orders like this are contributing some urgency to the effort to shuffle ILG attorneys to a "new" firm, but I'm just going out on a limb and speculating there.

Update on 2012-11-16 21:59 by The Complex Litigator

Holy smokes!  Capstone must be the fastest growing law firm in the state of California.  Capstone now has 50 lawyers, according to the state bar records on November 16, 2012, at about 1:14 p.m.  At this rate, they may be at 51 or 52 lawyers by the end of the day!  Strange thing though - it looks like Capstone's growth continues to come almost exclusively from ILG, which has dwindled to around 17 lawyers.  So odd that attorneys abandoning ILG would all choose to work with the exact same people that seem to have gotten into a few tough scrapes lately...  Errr, unless, maybe, just speculating here, this is a turnkey firm to carry on where ILG leaves off.

Update on 2012-11-28 18:31 by The Complex Litigator

And with ILG down to 13 unique attorneys (removing two duplicate entries) and Capstone up to 54 entries (not checked for duplicates), I think I see a trend starting to develop.

United States of America, Requiescat in Pace: 1776 - 2012

Once the grand experiment, a land where everyone was free to dream, America is now just a fading memory of past greatness and exceptionalism.  We have damned ourselves.

Some people still have honor

While there are plenty of examples to the contrary, honor is not dead.  Via Instapundit.

Ted Frank sure loves all class actions...

I just haven't found an instance yet where he actually commended the outcome of one.  But I'm looking.  Still looking...

I was going to link to a very recent example of his affection for a particular class action settlement by directing reader to a post on the blog he edits for publisher Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute.  However, his post is, arguably, defamatory and/or slander per se.  If I link to it, I could, theoretically, be construed as a republisher.  So, my apologies; I can't supply authority to support my sarcasm.

Update on 2012-08-15 17:07 by The Complex Litigator

Mr. Frank was kind enough to respond in the comments section!  I'm very excited.  Mr. Frank is something of a celebrity in the world of class actions.  I consider myself honored.

As an aside, due to the increasing volume of comment spam (things like shoe ads and mortgage refinance options), commenting on this blog goes into a hold queue until I can release the comment.  I will approve any substative comment that is not spam, even if it is highly critical of my post.  I will not approve profanity, spam, or any comment that advocated any unlawful or violent activity.  I will not respond to specific requests for legal advice about a specific fact pattern.  If a practitioner wants to debate a theoretical fact pattern as a way of testing a case holding or proposed alternative holding, that is entirely acceptable, but the theoretical nature of the discussion needs to be clearly stated.

The best line of the day award

I was at a hearing today.  I will omit all names and locations, but this exchange (recounted to the best of my recollection) between a Clerk and a purported objector to a class action settlement is too important to withhold from the world:

CLERK [to objector sitting at counsel's table]: Are you an attorney?

OBJECTOR:  Yes, yes I am.  I am a private attorney.....general.

The exchange went on a little longer, but, really, what more is there to say?  I think we are all, at heart, private attorneys....general from time to time.