My wife says this blog is boring.

Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin resigns

The DBR has the scoop here. First Judge Korda, and now Seidlin...

You remember Judge Seidlin -- the one who cried during the Anna Nicole litigation. State court, especially in Broward, seems so much more exciting than the Southern District, no?

I'm sure lots of commentary to follow from the Broward Blog.

Back to the Padilla trial

The Padilla trial was back in action yesterday.

According to the AP, "William Swor sought to prove his client Kifah Wael Jayyousi was driven to charity by his compassion for his fellow Muslims, not to supporting terrorism, a defense that began last week."

The Herald also covered the defense cross of the agent here:

''It's clear from Dr. Jayyousi's state of mind that he was concerned about getting relief to the Chechnyans in Russia,'' said defense lawyer William Swor, citing one FBI-intercepted phone call in March 1995.
''He made such statements,'' FBI Special Agent John T. Kavanaugh Jr. acknowledged under cross examination.
Kavanaugh has been on the witness stand for the past two weeks in the terror trial against Jayyousi, Adham Amin Hassoun and Jose Padilla, asserting the three Muslim men used code words such as ''tourism'' for ''jihad'' to conceal their true militant mission.

And Vanessa Blum has this very interesting article about Jose Padilla's conversion to Islam, which occurred while he was in the Broward County Jail. After he converts and is released, he gives a radio interview which Blum obtained and covers. Definitely worth a read, but here's a snippet:

Upon his release from jail, Padilla called Islamic organizations out of the Yellow Pages seeking a Koran, the holy text of Islam.He also took a job at a Taco Bell in Davie. The manager, Mohammed Javed, who was Muslim, finally gave him a copy of the Koran, Padilla says. Javed could not be reached for comment.
"I stuck to the book and just read and read and read," Padilla says. "I read it once and then I went back and read it twice."Javed invited him to attend a South Florida mosque. When Padilla saw the clothing and the worshipers' turbans, he recalled his vision."I said 'yes' this is it," Padilla says. "This is what the Almighty wants me to be."At the end of the interview, the host asks Padilla for his advice to non-Muslims."Don't believe all the propaganda that is being portrayed out there about Islam, about terrorism and extremists," Padilla replies.

"How did you know Judge Paine was on vacation? He wore a plaid shirt to work."

That's from the Palm Beach Post's coverage of Judge James C. Paine's retirement from the Southern District of Florida. Judge Paine is a President Carter appointee and has been a favorite among SDFLA practitioners because he judges from the old school. More from the article:

If you ask a passel of South Florida lawyers about Paine - winners or losers in cases from all quarters - many will mention his impartiality and demeanor. That he is the perfect persona of a judge, and still a humble human being.
Paine, of Palm Beach, spoke at the reception, saying he was flabbergasted by the number of people who came out on the rainy day. "You folks are awfully nice to be here," he said in the genteel way the lawyers speak of.
That is not to say that he demurred from bold statements, very bold.
In 1991, Paine called for controlled substances to be legalized. Drugs. Marijuana. Cocaine.
In a speech to lawyers, he described how the federal courts were overwhelmed with drug prosecutions and that he believed the war on drugs was lost.
"Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s and '30s, Prohibition did. And drugs do not cause today's alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does," the judge said then.
South Florida's chief federal prosecutor at the time recalls it was a stunner. Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said Paine's comments started legitimate debate on the topic. "When a person with that high level of respect makes those remarks, they continue to resonate," Coffey said.

All the best to Judge Paine. We'll miss having you on the bench.

I have no idea what to title this post...

This week's Neighbors section in the Miami Herald profiled a local lawyer, Carolyn Kellman, AKA CK (pictured at left, from the Herald article). She works at Adorno & Yoss. From the article:

Passions du jour: I love accessories because they make an outfit. They don't have to be expensive but it should be coup de coeur (love at first sight). Fabulous stiletto shoes and soft, smooshy, large leather bags. I love black clothes, which I think has to do with being a New Yorker. You can take the girl out of New York but you can't take New York out of the girl.

Look: I like to mix high and low with new and old. Sophisticated, yet fun. I want to stand out for my unique fashion flare.

Here's her bio on A&Y. Her experience: Collections, Landlord/Tenant disputes, and workouts.

More: "Carolyn Kellman is a Partner in the Firm's Miami office and member of the Collections Department. Ms. Kellman focuses her practice in large-scale commercial collections with an emphasis on stipulated settlement workouts and landlord tenant workout and lease issues. She represents numerous national collection agencies, assisting them with resolutions with South Florida debtors. She also acts as a "lawyer-liaison" for clients who want their countrywide collections administered by a sole source."

Rumpole has been saying that I'm stealing his stuff, so I've moved away from his state court coverage to this piece, which is more like, say, AboveTheLaw..... I guess I'll go back to Padilla tomorrow. Hope everyone had a nice Father's Day weekend.

You can't make this stuff up...

Pot smoking judge resigns.

Judge of 50 years resigns for sexual comments.

Lawyer really really really sorry for happy meal comments to judge. (previous coverage here).

And police officers arrest man for asking them for warrant before cutting down his tree during the citrus canker days.* Then they make him watch the cutting down of said tree before throwing him in the slammer for 18 hours. Happy ending -- After a trial before Judge Lenard, a jury awards man some money.

Keep laughing Mr. Lat!!

*The cutting down of our fruit trees was perhaps the dumbest policy decision ever in this State. Is everyone still enjoying their $50 giftcards? (But I'm biased: See Markus v. Department of Agriculture, 785 So.2d 595 (3rd DCA 2001)).

News and Notes

1. There's a bunch of reaction in the comments and in articles this morning to the life sentence recommended by the jury in the Kenneth Wilk case. Here's the Herald article and the Sun-Sentinel article. Both mention that the majority of jurors were against the death penalty. I'm not sure what that means because the jury had to be "death qualified." I think Wilk's jury consultant will be getting a bunch of calls soon.

2. Julie Kay covers an interesting case where a NYSE company asked that its directors' addresses be removed from an animal rights' website. Judge Hurley denied the motion. So, you can get these addresses from websites, but we still can't get plea agreements online. Explain! (And to be clear, I'm not saying that I disagree with Judge Hurley's decision. What I really cannot understand is our District's policy of keeping public documents offline.)

3. Rumpole has been following the strange circumstances surrounding Judge Gerald Klein's recent resignation in state court. The DBR has lots of coverage today, including the resignation letter.

Big firm salaries in Miami

Above the law covers Miami salaries here.

From an April DBR article:

Playing its hand in the South Florida associate pay stakes, Greenberg Traurig raised the starting base salaries of its rookie lawyers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale to $135,000 and their total compensation packages to more than $150,000....
The base salary of Greenberg’s first-year lawyers now will match that of White & Case, which in February announced that it had raised first-year salaries to $135,000 in Miami.
Holland & Knight, Hogan & Hartson and Akerman Senterfitt recently raised salaries for rookie lawyers to $130,000 in South Florida.
Hunton & Williams has raised its first-year salaries to $145,000 in Miami. Two New York-based firms, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Boies Schiller & Flexner, pay first-years $160,000 in their South Florida offices.


Any thoughts?