Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground

WESTLAW OR LEXIS? . . . A reader writes:

Hi, I was doing a search on google for Westlaw v. Lexis I and came to your blog. I am looking for good research on why one is better than the other and facts to back it up. If you can help me can you contact me? Thank you kindly.

Personally, I'm happy with either for their research capabilities, but I favor Lexis because it includes Nexis, the news database. Other opinions?

WHAT'S WORSE THAN BEING A BIGLAW ASSOCIATE? Being a biglaw partner:

Unhappy with what they perceive as corporate bureaucracy, impersonal treatment and fewer chances for career growth, some partners are defecting from big-box firms and heading for smaller practices, where, they say, they have more input and opportunities.

Link: "More Lawyers Flee Megafirms," by Leigh Jones.

DOES SADDAM DESERVE GOOD LAWYERS? In an article in the June Atlantic, William Langewiesche explains why it's in the interest of the U.S. to make sure Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants have good lawyers for their upcoming trials:

There is no doubt about the guilt of Saddam Hussein and his men. They will be convicted, and it is likely that some will be sentenced to die. But they need to be well defended if it is ever to be believed that they were well tried.

According to Langewiesche, Saddam is "playing to history" on a "thousand-year plan." If the trial seems like a sham, it's more likely a conviction will make him a martyr to his cause. The trouble is that Saddam's lawyers--2000 volunteers, most of them ignored by the lead lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh of Jordan--do not inspire much confidence. Ziad himself, who Langewiesche says is "probably intelligent enough," is portrayed as being in way over his head. He's also being ignored by American and Iraqi officials at the special tribunal in Baghdad.

It's an interesting article which unfortunately isn't available in full online. If you're interested, you'll have to visit Barnes & Noble. And don't miss the few paragraphs about an American on Saddam's defense team: former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, who agrees that "fair trials in Baghdad are now in America's interest, and that Saddam and his lieutenants must be well defended."

HUMOR FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE . . . Over the weekend at The Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr wrote about his latest article project, titled "From Critical Theory to Abu Graib: Akhil Amar, Paris Hilton, and the Reconstruction of Due Process in Cyberspace."

Later, in response to reader mail, Kerr had to confess the article was "just a joke." Were you able to figure it out without being told? If so, you have a law professor's sense of humor. Please don't consider stand-up as a vocation!

MORE BLOGROLLING THANKS . . . Here are some other weblog proprietors I'd like to thank for adding this weblog to their blogrolls: Construction Owners & Builders Law Blog; Lawyers and Business Executives in the news; RichardZ.com; and The Peoria Pundit.

BLAWG REVIEW #8 is up at Crime & Federalism. Good job, Mike!

ANSWER YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS this Memorial Day by reading free magazines online. . .

(1) Will the XBox 360 define the "new era of high-definition gaming"? [Wired]

(2) Can Starbucks dominate music like it does coffee? [The Village Voice]

(3) Will the housing market ever crash? [Business Week]

(4) When did the campaign to take down Tom DeLay begin, and will it succeed? [Rolling Stone]

THE ASBESTOS COMPANIES OF THE WORLD THANK YOU, MA'AM . . . In an amazing story, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Paul Hampel, came across a juror after last week's asbestos trial in Madison County, Illinois, celebrating with the defense team who'd held the verdict to an amount much less than had been requested by the plaintiff, who was dying of mesothelioma.

In the reporter's presence, the juror lifted a glass and toasted the defense attorney. "This man is awesome," Hampel quoted her as saying. The woman said that before the trial, she'd known "all about the bad reputation" of Madison County and was "tired of people saying we're the lawsuit capital of the United States." That's why she helped convince the other jurors not to award as much as they'd wanted to award.

Wow. That's a woman with some strong opinions. I wonder if she thought to share them during jury selection. I bet we'll find out soon enough.

Hampel's article is here.

THANKS FOR BLOGROLLING ME* Thanks to the proprietors of Lady Themis, a weblog from Quezon City, Philippines; Your Mom goes to Law School, whose author just finished law school; Another Law Student Blog, a weblog which is (apparently) just getting started; and mythago, a weblog that's been around for quite awhile.

*Blogroll (1) n. A list of favorite weblogs, typically found in a column on another weblog; (2) v. To add a weblog to a blogroll.

NOTES ON THE LAW PRACTICE AT SCHAEFFER & LAMERE . . . Yesterday I settled a class action--specifically, the case for which I went to Atlanta a few weeks ago to take three depositions. (The "Random Notes" from that trip, by the way, were what started me thinking about changing this weblog's posting style.)

In a personal injury case, it only takes about a month from settlement to the time the plaintiff signs a release and gets his settlement money. In a class action, by contrast, the settlement is just the start of another long process: the parties must negotiate a lengthy agreement incorporating the terms of an earlier memorandum of understanding; must seek preliminary approval from the court; must supervise notice to the class in which class members can opt-out and objectors may emerge; and finally, after many months, must seek final approval of the settlement at a final approval hearing. (Strangely, the lawyers from both sides work closely together in the class-action settlement stage, after having fought huge battles for months or years.)

So even though I settled the case yesterday, there's still a lot of work ahead.  Maybe I'll write some more about the process as it proceeds. It's not a bad case to write about. Not only will the class members receive 100% of their alleged damages, but just about everyone would agree, I think, that the attorneys fees are reasonable.

Finally, in a nakedly self-serving marketing plug for Schaeffer & Lamere, I'm happy to report that this marks our third class action settlement for firm clients in two years. The other two cases, which I filed in 2000, involved 400,000 and nearly 1 million class members respectively.

Not a bad track record, although tort actions--and specifically, mass tort actions-- remain my first love.