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Giuliani's son sues Duke over golf team dismissal
Lawyer Blog News |
2008/07/24 17:28
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The son of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is suing Duke University, claiming his golf coach manufactured accusations against him to justify kicking him off the team to whittle the squad. Andrew Giuliani, a 22-year-old rising senior, contends he had dreams of becoming a professional golfer and was dismissed without cause from the golf team in February without a chance to defend himself. He said in a statement Thursday that he sued "to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else at Duke." Giuliani was dismissed because coach O.D. Vincent III wanted to cut the team from 13 players to about half its size, the lawsuit said. He claims a breach of contract because he was recruited by Duke's previous coaching staff. "This has been heartbreaking," Giuliani's mother, Donna Hanover, said in a statement. "We tried for many months to convince members of the Duke administration that this situation should be corrected and we are sad that we have now had to turn to the court." The coach said Giuliani "flipped his putter a few feet to his golf bag" and drove fast while leaving a golf course parking lot, according to the lawsuit. Giuliani also was accused of playing a team football game harder than the other players liked and of being disrespectful to a trainer. |
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Alleged SF computer saboteur's bail request denied
Criminal Law Updates |
2008/07/24 14:30
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A judge on Wednesday refused to reduce the $5 million bail of a San Francisco technology expert accused of rigging the city's computer system to malfunction during routine maintenance. Terry Childs has been jailed since July 13 on four felony counts of computer tampering. He is accused of creating secret passwords that gave him exclusive access to the city's new multi-million-dollar computer network, which stores records such as officials' e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail bookings. Authorities said Childs initially refused to reveal correct passwords to them, but that he turned them over to Mayor Gavin Newsom during an unusual jailhouse visit Tuesday. The city is still experiencing computer problems, said San Francisco Deputy District Attorney Conrad del Rosario. He told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe that the Sheriff's Department is "locked out" and that other city departments are having problems. Defense attorney Erin Crane said her client was the subject of a smear campaign by co-workers jealous of Childs' computer savvy and work ethic. In arguing for reduced bail, Crane said in a motion that Childs was merely trying to protect the network after "co-workers and supervisors had in the past maliciously damaged the system themselves, hindered his ability to maintain it ... and shown complete indifference to maintaining it themselves." Crane also said Childs, 43, posed no danger to the public. She declined to comment outside court other than to say she was disappointed about the bail. She said his incarceration before trial will hinder her preparation of a complex case. |
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Williams Mullen law firm moving to RBC Plaza
Law Firm News |
2008/07/24 12:32
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Law firm Williams Mullen has signed a 75,000-square-foot lease to relocate to downtown Raleigh's RBC Plaza. The building's owner, Raleigh's Highwoods Properties (NYSE: HIW), announced the lease Wednesday. It said the office space in 293,000-square-foot RBC Plaza, which is under construction, is now 95 percent preleased. Williams Mullen will relocate from Highwoods Tower I in north Raleigh, where the law firm occupies 51,000 square feet. The company plans to move to RBC Plaza in the third quarter of 2009. "We are excited to be moving to RBC Plaza and the heart of downtown Raleigh," Williams Mullen director Keith Kapp said in a statement. "This is a great opportunity for us to be in a central location in the newest office building in the city. We have been customers of Highwoods for many years and are very pleased to be able to extend this mutually beneficial relationship." Triangle Business Journal first reported that Williams Mullen was looking to take space in the RBC Plaza. The RBC Plaza, a 29-story tower that is the tallest building in the Triangle, is scheduled to open this fall with a mix of office, retail and condominium space. All 139 condominiums are under contract with non-refundable deposits, Highwoods says.
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Law firm appeals ruling on campaign donations
Headline News |
2008/07/24 10:32
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The Philadelphia law firm to which U.S. Rep. Bob Brady owes nearly half a million dollars has appealed a judge's ruling that threw out its suit against the city Board of Ethics. Cozen O'Connor has asked Commonwealth Court to reconsider its argument that the Ethics Board is wrong in requiring that donations to Brady's mayoral campaign committee, for the purpose of retiring his debt, comply with the city's limits on donor contributions. Brady incurred nearly $450,000 in legal fees during his successful fight to stay on the ballot during last year's mayoral primary. He would be able to pay that debt off faster and easier if donors now were permitted to exceed the city caps in that race, which were $5,000 per individual, and $20,000 per political committee. But in a ruling last month, Common Pleas Court Judge Gary F. DiVito dismissed Cozen O'Connor's lawsuit, saying the firm lacked the legal standing to challenge the city law |
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Court affirms online content law unconstitutional
Lawyer Blog News |
2008/07/23 16:59
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A federal appeals court Tuesday agreed with a lower court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional a 1998 law intended to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet. The decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia is the latest twist in a decade-long legal battle over the Child Online Protection Act. The fight has already reached the Supreme Court and could be headed back there. The law, which has not taken effect, would bar Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet. The act was passed the year after the Supreme Court ruled that another law intended to protect children from explicit material online — the Communications Decency Act — was unconstitutional in the landmark case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU challenged the 1998 law on behalf of a coalition of writers, artists, health educators and the publisher Salon Media Group. ACLU attorney Chris Hansen argued that Congress has been trying to restrict speech on the Internet far more than it can restrict speech in books and magazines. But, he said, "the rules should be the same." Indeed, the Child Online Protection Act would effectively force all Web sites to provide only family-friendly content because it is not feasible to lock children out of sites that are lawful for adults, said John Morris, general counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a civil liberties group that filed briefs against the law. |
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HP-EDS deal price at issue in court hearing
Business Law Info |
2008/07/23 10:59
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A shareholder group is trying to pressure Electronic Data Systems Corp. into demanding more than the $13.2 billion that Hewlett-Packard Co. has offered for the technology services company. The group said Monday it intends to ask a judge in Collin County, Texas, to postpone the shareholder meeting EDS has scheduled for July 31, when investors are scheduled to vote on whether to approve HP's takeover of the Plano, Texas-based company. A hearing is set for Thursday on the group's request. The group believes that the EDS board agreed to sell the company for too little money. HP is offering $25 per share for EDS, a nearly 33 percent premium over where EDS stock stood before the proposed acquisition was announced in May. Including debt held by EDS, HP values the acquisition at $13.9 billion. |
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Recent Lawyer News Updates |
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