Minnesota Lawyer articles from March 2007

Minnesota Lawyer archives from March 2007

Climbing the partnership ladder.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore Many students enter law school dreaming of one day becoming a partner at a large Twin Cities law firm. With hard work and determination, some of them make it -- usually between six and 7 1/2 years after entering big...

Bill in Minn. seeks to allow direct actions against insurance companies.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Perhaps it's the national news over allegations of nonpayment of claims to victims of Hurricane Katrina, or perhaps it's the Democratic majority that has ascended in the Legislature, but the time has been judged...

Hiring diversity managers -- a new law firm trend.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Right or wrong, many people have a perception of law firms as ivory towers, bastions of power that represent wealth, exclusivity and -- most crucial -- whiteness. Battling that perception often requires more than paying...

Air traffic controllers' suits landing in courts.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Discrimination claims based on a failure to hire are rare but one type of plaintiff is having some success, at least in federal courts in Minnesota. Two cases are set for trial in the coming months involving former...

Prosecutors, defense lawyers discuss corruption cases at forum in Minneapolis.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Compared to many other metropolitan areas, Minneapolis-St. Paul is squeaky clean when it comes to public corruption. But that doesn't mean priority shouldn't be placed on keeping close tabs on public officials and...

Law firm management liability on the rise.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson Law firms are coming under increasing fire from their own members as lawyers become more mobile and firms emulate corporations. Claims of management liability are definitely on the upswing compared to five...

Minnesota Lawyers in the News: March 5, 2007.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff John T. Trout and Klay C. (KC) Ahrens have been named partners at Hellmuth & Johnson, PLLC. Trout practices in the areas of construction law and litigation. Ahrens practices in the area of insurance defense....

Bar Buzz mentioning Gore not greeted warmly.(Letter to the editor)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Letter to the Editor To the editor: I enjoy Bar Buzz, but I'd like to point out an inaccuracy. There is a thinly veiled accusation that Al Gore claims to have invented the Internet in the item on President Lincoln. (See Happy...

Commentary: Higher interest rates may mean more revenue for Legal Aid.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Cassie B. Hanson On Dec. 21, 2006, the Minnesota Supreme Court adopted an amendment to Rule 1.15 of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct, requiring that IOLTA accounts earn comparable interest rates or dividends generally...

An eventful ending to February.(Editorial)
March 5, 2007... Byline: mark.cohen@minnlawyer.com As the editor of Minnesota Lawyer, it is one of my distinct privileges to be involved every year with the paper's annual Attorney of the Year recognition. In a special supplement (inserted in this issue)...

Finalists announced for 1st District bench vacancies in Minnesota.(Brief article)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Governor Tim Pawlenty announced the finalists last week for two 1st Judicial District trial court bench vacancies. The first vacancy occurred with the disability retirement of Judge Michael A. Young on...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Due to incorrect information provided to us, Minnesota Lawyer incorrectly reported that the Minnesota Department of Health ordered massage therapist LaRae Lundeen Fjellman not to have sex with any...

Commentary: What is your unique selling proposition?(Column)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll A consultant who teaches the principles of networking was conducting a seminar dressed as a clown. This was his way of "breaking the ice" when first meeting people. The costume gave him a topic to open the conversation...

Commentary: Bill offers solution to drain on criminal justice system.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Karen J. Mathis A bill introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinos, provides a winning solution for all of us concerned that low wages paid prosecutors and public defenders, along with the high cost of law school, are undermining...

Minnesota Legal Briefs: March 5, 2007.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Bill would remove judges, lawyers from board A bill to dramatically alter the Board on Judicial Standards has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids. The...

Minnesota Bar Buzz: March 5, 2007.(Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services)(Bruce Beneke )
March 5, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff After 30 years, the torch passes at SMRLS Longtime legal advocate for the poor Bruce Beneke will step down as executive director of Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services in St. Paul effective Aug. 1....

Mandatory retirement, an ongoing point of controversy in the legal field.(Pemberton, Sorlie, Rufer and Kershner)
March 12, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman At age 74, Fergus Falls attorney Dick Pemberton is in no hurry to retire. But as a longtime partner of the Pemberton, Sorlie, Rufer & Kershner law firm, he's confident that nobody's plotting to push him out, either. In...

Should you hand off your appeal?
March 12, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore You are a busy trial attorney with more work than you can handle. You recently obtained a successful result for a client at trial, but the other side has appealed the verdict. Should you handle the appeal yourself?...

Minn. Supreme Court rules neutral medical exam mandatory when requested in comp cases.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen When a party to a workers' compensation proceeding requests that a neutral physician be appointed to review a claim, the judge is statutorily mandated to grant the request, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled. ...

Ex-Minnesota U.S. attorneys weigh in on recent firings.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore Several of Minnesota's former U.S. attorneys are closely monitoring the controversy surrounding the recent departures of eight U.S. attorneys nationally. Seven U.S. attorneys were asked to resign in December of...

Some lawyers deployed in Iraq have difficult homecomings.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman When Mankato attorney Walter J. Gates, III, was deployed with his Army unit in October 2005, he had no illusions about what he would come home to. As a litigator with a solo practice, Gates knew there would be no...

Employers move to ban camera phones in the workplace.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher Concerned about workplace confidentiality and privacy, employment lawyers are urging their clients to restrict employees' use of personal cellphone cameras. It seems that almost all cellphones now come with...

Hennepin County Bar Association invites public participation in the prom.(Brief article)
March 12, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The New Lawyers Section of the Hennepin County Bar Association is sponsoring "Wish Upon a Prom" to assist local high school students. Businesses and individuals are invited to create magic for a...

Minnesota Legal Briefs: March 12, 2007.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Court upholds discipline in restricted status case The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld disciplinary action against a lawyer who failed to inform a client that another lawyer she was supervising on the...

Minnesota Lawyers in the News: March 12, 2007.(appointments)(brief)(Brief article)
March 12, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Mark Lee, of Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, LLP, has been elected chair of the board of directors for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. Lee is a partner and the head of Maslon's Litigation Practice...

Commentary: Marriage matters: Eighth Circuit addresses immigration cases.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Marshall H. Tanick Immigrants lose most of the deportation cases that make it to the judicial system. Administrative rulings generally favor government authorities trying to remove immigrants from this country, and the courts tend...

Commentary: Apprenticeship can give lawyer a practical edge.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll A few months back I wrote in this column that law schools really don't teach the day-to-day aspects of being a lawyer -- interacting with clients and running a practice -- because such skills are seen as too...

Minnesota Bar Buzz: March 12, 2007.
March 12, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Spot on Briggs and Morgan shareholder John B. Lunseth is on point -- not just in the legal community, but the canine community as well. Lunseth and his dog Spot took home the National German...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Daniel'la Deering.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Jane Pribek Daniel'la Deering led the effort to take Minnesota Women Lawyers to the next level -- from a year-to-year survival mode, to one where the organization has become rooted in the state's legal community. How did she...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Charles E. Spevacek.(Interview)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Akeem Soboyede Not many successful attorneys look back on their careers and declare it a "distinct privilege" that when starting out as an associate, they were allowed to carry the briefcase of a senior partner. But Charles E....

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Gail Chang Bohr.(Children's Law Center of Minnesota)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michael Krieger It may sound trite, but the Children's Law Center of Minnesota was founded with a simple vision: "There was a dream that we would get attorneys involved in helping kids," says the center's executive director, Gail...

Minn. Lawyer recognizes Attorneys of the Year and recipients of Service to the Profession award.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen Minnesota Lawyer is once again pleased to recognize 15 members of the bar who have distinguished themselves as Attorneys of the Year for 2006. Nominations were made by bar groups, lawyers, judges and other...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Terrance W. Moore.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore Entertainment is in his blood. Movies, sports, radio -- you name it and Edina business lawyer Terrance W. Moore is probably involved in it. Last year was particularly entertaining for Moore. He saw the nationwide...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Thomas H. Boyd.(8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen Arguing a case before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is an honor. Arguing two the same day is a challenge. Arguing a third within a 24-hour span is plain exhausting. Just ask Thomas H. Boyd, the lead...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Tim Groshens.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen When Tim Groshens joined the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1978, he was one of a dozen or so staffers working there. A student of William Mitchell College of Law, Groshens was brought on part time to help the...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Michael A. Zimmer.(M. A. Zimmer Law)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Akeem Soboyede Michael A. Zimmer has made a name for himself trying personal injury lawsuits and getting juries to award his clients hundreds of thousand of dollars -- sometimes millions -- in compensation. But early in his...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Sue Dosal.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Twenty-four years ago, there was no Court of Appeals, the trial courts were segmented and funding was dependent on county boards. The Supreme Court was housed at the Capitol and plans for a new building were moving...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Roy A. Ginsburg.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen While top plaintiffs' lawyers are relatively easy to spot by the size of the verdicts they obtain, excellent defense work is much harder to quantify. One way to gauge a defense lawyer's performance is by the amount a...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Rita A. McConnell.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michael Krieger A company like Medtronic has dozens of in-house lawyers roaming the halls. What makes Rita A. McConnell stand out are her abilities as a tactician. McConnell is an eight-year veteran with the world's leading...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Patrick J. Kelly.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Akeem Soboyede In more than 30 years of legal practice, Patrick J. Kelly has served as counsel for many public-sector employee unions in arbitration proceedings with municipal entities. In this role he has helped workers wrongfully...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Norman L. Jones.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michael Krieger The next time you swing by the Midtown Global Market for one of Manny's tortas or some sweet potato pie from Deep Roots, consider this: it took 27 different sources of funding to bring the market into being. ...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Michael W. Unger.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Jane Pribek Usually the term "repeater" brings negative connotations to mind, when that mind is a lawyer's. But attorney Michael W. Unger is both happy and humbled to be a repeater. This is the second time he has been honored as an...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Jeremy Lane.(Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones After more than 25 years directing Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance, Jeremy Lane knows that lawyers don't save Legal Aid clients -- the clients save them. The dignity, generosity and strength that the most vulnerable...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Hank Shea.(Thomas E. Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Trading the heady, high-profile life of a federal prosecutor for one in academia turned out to be everything Hank Shea hoped for. He can't say enough about the warm reception he has received from the University of...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Gregory P. Bulinski.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore A small-town boy turned big-city lawyer, defense attorney Gregory P. Bulinski has made a name for himself in Minnesota's legal community. In 2005, after 25 years with the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association,...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Annamarie A. Daley.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Akeem Soboyede When Annamarie A. Daley was a teenager living on a Minnesota farm, her father let her repair his 2-ton truck. Soon she was driving that truck, and during winter, she would ride Arctic Cat snowmobiles. ...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Douglas J. Nill.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones In the movie "A Civil Action," an attorney risks it all on a lawsuit against an international corporation. He and his law firm sink everything into the case, go deep into debt and end up settling it at a loss just...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: Dick Martin.(Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association)
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore The public image of trial lawyers has taken a beating over the years. For more than a decade, however, Minnesota trial lawyers had a strong advocate on their side, Dick Martin, who became executive director of the...

Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year recipient: David E. Baer.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Jane Pribek As the chief legal officer of Petters Group Worldwide, David E. Baer prides himself on hiring lawyers with business experience. "To succeed [as an in-house lawyer], you need to be able to sit alongside the...

Internet makes mock juries fast and affordable.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Natalie White Adam Rosen has devised a way to use the Internet to make mock juries faster, cheaper, more responsive and nearly as realistic as their live counterparts. The idea came to him a few years ago when his father sent...

Minnesota Supreme Court rules on dog-sniff evidence.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones With adequate foundation, dog-sniff evidence, particularly a dog's "alert" to drug odor on cash, may be admitted in a civil forfeiture proceeding as substantive evidence that the cash is connected to drug...

Minnesota Court of Appeals takes away affirmative defense as a discovery sanction.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Defense lawyers who keep plaintiff's counsel waiting too long in responding to discovery requests for more specificity beware -- you may lose your affirmative defense. That's the message sent out by the Court...

Minnesota trial judges remain skeptical of proposal for retention elections.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's the response of some of the state's District Court judges to a proposal to amend Minnesota's judicial election system. Late last month, an independent citizen's panel, known...

Audio discovery: the next frontier.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson Still trying to cope with the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the world of electronic discovery? Add audio discovery to your to-learn list. More than just voicemail, audio discovery encompasses all...

Minnesota Bar Buzz: March 19, 2007.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter FYI: 3M and CLC get award in D.C. The Children's Law Center and Minnesota-based 3M recently picked up their 2007 Corporate Pro Bono Partner Award for their sustained partnership representing...

Bills introduced in Minnesota House affect judicial retirement age, contributions.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Judges would be able to work until age 75 instead of 70 if legislation recently introduced by Assistant House Majority Leader Steve Simon, D-St. Louis Park, is passed. The bill would raise the...

Gates Foundation donates $1.75M to ABA project to advance rule of law in U.S. and abroad.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The American Bar Association's charity fund has received a $1.75 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help underwrite a project to advance the rule of law in the United States and...

214th Legal Support Organization changes its command.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The 214th Legal Support Organization recently held a change of command ceremony that was notable for being attended by eight of the 11 unit's past commanders. Held earlier this year at Fort...

Will law firms open up to Open Source?
March 19, 2007... Byline: Dennis Kennedy Even as computer hardware prices continue to decline, the cost for the software needed to run them is increasing dramatically. It is now common for the costs of loading a lawyer's computer with standard software to...

Minnesota Lawyers in the News: March 19, 2007.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Scott M. Hagel has been named a partner at Henson & Efron, P.A. He is a member of the firm's Corporate Practice Group, advising and representing individuals and companies on a full spectrum of...

Commentary: A 'super' day at the University of Minnesota Law School.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Mark A. Cohen I had thought about writing my column about something a little bit more on the serious side this week by tackling the whole flap over the U.S. attorneys' departures. But the former U.S. attorneys from Minnesota who...

Commentary: Facing up to the potential for embezzlement.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll I am a firm believer that running a law firm in a businesslike way improves the professionalism of legal practice. A profitable law practice is much more likely to avoid ethical problems regarding client funds. ...

Recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision sparks some concern among workers' comp bar.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore A recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision mandating appointment of a neutral physician has some workers' compensation practitioners concerned. In Reider v. Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11, the court...

How valuable is getting an M.B.A. to an attorney?
March 19, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman You can always go back to school, our parents used to tell us; it never hurts to have another degree to fall back on. More frequently, attorneys are taking that advice to heart by complementing their juris doctorate...

Mock trials can lead to real-world benefits, say Minneapolis attorneys.
March 19, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore Trial is fast approaching. You've come up with your theme, but you're not sure it packs the punch you want it to. One way to test the strength of your trial theme, as well as determine how the case will be...

The Generation Gap in law firms.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Every generation has generalized, often stereotype-based perceptions of the generations that came before and after it. Those views are often most vividly on display in the workplace, where older employees often despair...

Judgment interest rate hike sought in Minnesota Legislature.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones The interest rate on judgments will double if a bill currently introduced in the Legislature is passed. The judgment rate is determined by Minn. Stat. sec. 549.09 and is based on the monthly one-year constant...

Bill in the U.S. Senate aims to aid public-sector lawyers with student loan debts.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Minnesota's public prosecutors and defenders don't have any trouble attracting talent fresh out of law school; it's keeping that talent that proves difficult. "The quality of the people we get here is amazing, but...

Quie Commission releases report on Minnesota's judicial election system.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman The first step has been taken toward a state constitutional amendment that would put the retention of state court judges to an automatic public vote. The Citizens Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial...

Vacancies announced on Minnesota Supreme Court's rules advisory committee.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The Minnesota Supreme Court seeks to fill a handful of vacancies on the General Rules of Practice Advisory Committee. The three-year term of service will begin in August 2007 with an opportunity to be...

Minnesota Legal Briefs: March 26, 2007.(William R. Sieben inducted as Fellow of the International Society of Barristers)(Kari Berman appointed to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission)(Dennis Puzz Jr. rejoins the Native American Law Section of Best and Flanagan)(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter William R. Sieben, an attorney and shareholder with the law firm of Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben, was inducted as a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers at its annual meeting at the Four...

Commentary: Customer abuse cases underscore need for compliance function.
March 26, 2007... Byline: James J. Eccleston Financial advisers often are the subject of customer complaints, arbitrations and regulatory actions in connection with mishandling their customers' accounts. It happens despite the fact that financial services...

Commentary: Federal, state appellate courts split on retaliation claims.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Marshall H. Tanick There's an old saying: "Don't get angry, get even." The aphorism suggests that the best response is retaliation against the wrongdoer. But reprisal by an employer in the workplace can invite litigation. The...

A blank slate for Minnesota's newest Senate Judiciary Committee chair.(Mee Moua)(Interview)
March 26, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore It's always good to be first. The first president of the United States, the first person on the moon, the first person in line at the deli during the lunch rush. Mee Moua has a big "first" on her resume. In 2002,...

Podcasting: A new way to communicate with clients.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore Clients want information. They want it quickly and they want it as conveniently as possible. In an effort to respond to this quest for convenience, Minnesota law firms are entering the world of podcasting. Last...

Good-faith bill stumbles in Minnesota Senate commerce committee.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones A bill to create a private cause of action against an insurer who fails to act in good faith stumbled at the Legislature last week, but proponents say it is not out of the race. The Senate Commerce and Consumer...

Minnesota Bar Buzz: March 26, 2007.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Mediation at sea We don't know about you, but we find it much easier to concentrate on the latest trends in mediation when we're soaking up the sun on a chaise lounge, sipping a frozen strawberry...

Judicial campaign contribution bill advances in Minnesota House.
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A bill to limit judicial campaign contributions to $2,000 in an election year and $500 in other years has passed through a House of Representatives committee and was on its way to the floor at press...

Tribal member can be required to register as a predator, rules Minn.Supreme Court.(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A member of an Indian tribe living on a reservation is subject to prosecution for failure to register as a predatory offender, the Supreme Court has ruled in a divided opinion. The court found...

Same-sex partner hospital visitation bills advance in Minnesota Legislature.(bill at Committee on the Judiciary)(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Bills that would give same-sex couples more visitation rights in health-care facilities are advancing through the state Legislature. Last week, legislators in both houses heard stories of lesbian...

Commentary: Is the client always right? Not necessarily.(lawyer-client communication )
March 26, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll I came across a post from lawyer and blogger Norm Pettis, who related his experience when he asked a legal ethics panel if a lawyer could withdraw a client's claim if the lawyer concluded the claim was without merit....