Law School

If the horrific garment factory collapse last month in Bangladesh has any silver lining, it is the response from more than 30 of the world's leading apparel companies - including Benetton, PVH, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, Inditex (Zara), Marks & Spencer and Tesco - to sign an agreement to protect the safety and lives of that nation's workers, who make the companies' products. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is a historic advance over the voluntary private factory monitoring that has tragically failed to prevent the recent disasters in Bangladesh and in places around the world where clothes are stitched for the global market.

WASHINGTON - President Obama urged graduates of a celebrated historically black college Sunday to use their education to help others and to work for "something larger than yourself," citing the example of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In the commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Obama urged graduates headed to law school to make sure they "defend the powerless" during their careers. He said new physicians should find ways to "heal folks in under-served communities," and business school graduates should consider "putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.

It's strange how "scandal" gets defined these days in Washington. At the moment, everyone is screaming about the "scandal" of the Internal Revenue Service scrutinizing conservative nonprofits before granting them tax-exempt status. Here are the genuine scandals in this affair: Political organizations are being allowed to masquerade as charities to avoid taxes and keep their donors secret, and the IRS has allowed them to do this for years. The bottom line first: The IRS hasn't done nearly enough over the years to rein in the subversion of the tax law by political groups claiming a tax exemption that is not legally permitted for campaign activity.

Leo Branton Jr., a civil rights and entertainment lawyer whose stirring defense of '60s radical Angela Davis brought him his most celebrated victory in a six-decade career often spent championing unpopular cases, died of natural causes Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91. His death was confirmed by his son Tony Nicholas. Branton, the only African American graduate of Northwestern University's law school in 1948, helped singer Nat King Cole integrate an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood, defended Communists in McCarthy-era Los Angeles and won misconduct cases against the Los Angeles Police Department decades before Rodney King became a household name.

WASHINGTON - President Obama urged graduates of a celebrated historically black college Sunday to use their education to help others and to work for "something larger than yourself," citing the example of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In the commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Obama urged graduates headed to law school to make sure they "defend the powerless" during their careers. He said new physicians should find ways to "heal folks in under-served communities," and business school graduates should consider "putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.

Supreme Court justices are people too, and they make mistakes like any other mortals. That was the conclusion of a high-powered gathering of legal scholars who on Friday examined the high court's "Supreme Mistakes" — five decisions widely considered the worst in the court's history. The high court Hall of Shame has taken its toll on American society but also provided cautionary tales about trading principle for society's fickle approval, the experts said. "One of the worst aspects of American history is that at times of crisis we compromise our most basic constitutional rights, and only in hindsight do we recognize that it didn't make us safer," Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine's law school, said of Korematsu vs. United States, the 1944 high court ruling upholding the evacuation order against Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Paul Zuckerman was sifting through resumes when he paused, "astounded," over a particularly strong applicant for a law clerk opening: Ivy League undergraduate, top-notch law school, legal work for two judges in Washington. Zuckerman's Los Angeles County firm handled personal injury cases - auto accidents and slip-and-falls. He figured the applicant, whose credentials marked him for a prestigious "white shoe" firm, had applied to the wrong place. Then he read the cover letter. Stephen Randall Glass wrote that he was a disgraced former Washington journalist.

Pepperdine University on Thursday named a federal appeals court judge from Kansas to succeed former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr as dean of its law school. Deanell Reece Tacha has been a federal judge on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since her 1985 appointment by President Reagan. She also has served on the Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal court system's policymaking body, as well as on the U.S. Sentencing Commission that sets guidelines and punishment ranges for those convicted in federal courts.

The California Supreme Court ordered the State Bar on Monday to permit a quadriplegic law school grad to take the bar examination today, even though her application for the test had not been processed. The court acted in response to a petition from Sara Granda, 29, who had asked it to intervene. The State Bar of California also wrote to the court and asked for guidance after Granda's plight attracted media attention and sympathy from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I was pleased to see such positive and comprehensive coverage of an important opportunity for those wishing to undertake the challenging study of law ("Local Law School Boasts Alumni of Consequence," Feb. 2). The Ventura College of Law undoubtedly offers an affordable and worthy alternative to a less affordable, less attainable education and has developed its place in the community over a period of 20 years. But I am happy to inform you that Ventura County offers not just one choice to prospective law students, but two. Southern California Institute of Law is in the Appellate Courts building in Ventura.

California needs to strengthen regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a UC Berkeley Law School report that identified a number of shortcomings in state oversight of the controversial practice. Although not new to California, fracking has come under increasing scrutiny recently as states such as Pennsylvania and New York experience a boom in the technique, which involves the high-pressure injection of chemical-laced fluids into the ground to crack rock formations and extract oil and gas. Environmental concerns center on potential groundwater contamination from fracking fluids and disposal of saline wastewater.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dozens of law graduates across the nation have joined class-action lawsuits alleging that law schools lured them in with misleading reports of their graduates' success. Instead of working in the law, some of the graduates were toiling at hourly jobs in department stores and restaurants and struggling to pay back more than $100,000 in loans used to finance their education. Others were in temporary or part-time legal positions. Michael D. Lieberman decided to enroll at Southwestern Law School after reading that 97% of its graduates were employed within nine months.

SAN FRANCISCO - Michael D. Lieberman decided to enroll at Southwestern Law School after reading that 97% of its graduates were employed within nine months. He graduated in 2009, passed the bar on his first try but could not find a job as a lawyer. He worked for a while as a software tester, then a technical writer, and now serves as a field representative for an elected official. Lieberman, who earned his undergraduate degree at UC San Diego, is one of dozens of law graduates across the country who have joined class-action lawsuits, alleging that law schools lured them in with misleading reports of their graduates' success.

When Tony Tolbert turned 50 last year, he marked the occasion by moving in with his mother. The decision wasn't about money. He's a Harvard-educated attorney, on the staff of UCLA's law school. And it wasn't because his mother wanted or needed him home. It was Tolbert's response to the sort of midlife milestone that prompts us to take stock. Instead of buying a sports car, he decided to turn his home - rent free - over to strangers. He'd been inspired by a magazine article about a family that sold their house, squeezed into a tiny replacement and donated to charity the $800,000 proceeds from the sale.

The gig: Hal Rosner is a partner at San Diego's Rosner, Barry & Babbitt, one of the largest law firms in the country specializing entirely in consumer auto fraud cases. Founded by Rosner in 1985, the firm employs 10 full-time attorneys and reviews 200 to 400 potential cases a month, taking on about 10% of them. To date, Rosner has handled more than 1,000 auto fraud cases in the Golden State, winning millions of dollars for his clients. It has won him begrudging respect from the auto industry; last year the head of the California New Car Dealers Assn.

The gig: David Nevins, 46, is president of entertainment for cable network Showtime, home to some of the hottest shows on television including "Homeland," the spy thriller that won Emmy Awards for best drama, actor and actress. The executive also oversees such series as the critically acclaimed comedy "Episodes" starring Matt LeBlanc and "House of Lies," a dark spoof of corporate consultants. Pass the popcorn. The son of a lawyer-lobbyist, Nevins grew up in Bethesda, Md., a suburb of Washington.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University plans to open a law school to train conservative lawyers who will defend religious rights. "It is high time that we create a law school that will produce men and women who are committed to the Judeo-Christian ethic, the preciousness of human life and the defense of the Judeo-Christian values that formed this great nation," Falwell said.

Chapman University officials have announced the start of construction on an $18-million law school in a historic building across from its campus. The move to build the 130,000-square-foot law school is an attempt to garner national accreditation. Nearly 60 law school students recently accepted tuition refunds due to the lack of national accreditation. Some students sued over the accreditation status.

BOSTON - When Mitt Romney decided to tackle a universal healthcare system for Massachusetts, he wasn't motivated by a campaign promise or a heart-wrenching story. He was inspired instead by an intriguing set of numbers. During his first two years as governor of Massachusetts, Romney had spent much of his time slashing the state's budget deficit, a tedious exercise that left him with little flexibility. With his political legacy at stake and a presidential campaign looming, he zeroed in on healthcare, noting that it was consuming a third of the state's $23-billion budget, with $1 billion directed each year to cover the costs for 460,000 state residents who were uninsured.

Stuart Taylor Jr. was in my law school class. Or, more accurately, I was in his law school class, since he graduated at the top of the class and I graduated. Now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Taylor has co-written, with Richard H. Sander, a professor of law at UCLA, an influential book highly critical of affirmative action. I am hesitant to write about it, first because he is a friend I'd like to keep, and second, because the book is intimidating, both in its statistics and in its evident goodwill.