My original reporting on legal events and trends:
Reporting
Reporting
November 17th, 2015
I wrote a piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune about how telecommuting and taking conference calls from home can make lawyers run afoul of the unauthorized practice of law rules:
There are probably hundreds of lawyers who are licensed in New York and living in Fairfield County in Connecticut. It's become commonplace for these attorneys to log onto their home computers to work on legal documents on behalf of New York clients, to... Continue Reading
November 3rd, 2015
Laura Elliott-Engel (1/25/47—11/2/2015)
My mother took the next step on her spiritual journey Monday morning, passing away at 3:15 a.m. after a diagnosis with late-stage cancer a brief 32 days ago. My brother, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, husband, Jason Rearick, and I were with her, holding her hands as she passed. As we returned to Mom’s home on a valley hillside after she passed, the sun was rising, mist was... Continue Reading
October 25th, 2015
Here's my latest piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune:
Connecticut lawyers can now be paid by clients for their services in chickens and eggs. Well, not quite.
But an opinion issued by the Connecticut Bar Association's Standing Committee on Professional Ethics seems to have opened the door for lawyers to engage in barter.
The committee was asked to offer an opinion on whether an attorney may barter his or her legal services... Continue Reading
July 27th, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about the mysterious death of a black attorney and the NAACP's call for further investigation into his death:
Abe Dabela was 35 years old and life seemed to be going well. He had come to the legal profession late, after a series of jobs in the health care industry, and had recently completed a stint as an associate at a major law firm. He loved riding motorcycles and was... Continue Reading
July 21st, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about a lawsuit alleging a police officer in Connecticut went too far when stopping two black men:
When two black brothers were pulled over by a cop in the city of New London, the officer frisked them both, allegedly touching their genitals and their buttocks. When one of them protested and turned around during the pat down, he was arrested for interfering with the police officer... Continue Reading
June 16th, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about a lawyer's law school debt:
Law school students learn how to argue over contracts. But that doesn't necessarily mean they can litigate their way out of a contract to pay their law school loans. One Branford-based attorney is facing this reality after a federal judge ruled that, more than two decades after receiving his law degree, he owes the federal government more... Continue Reading
May 26th, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about an unusual sentencing request:
The normal drill for punishment in federal court is prison time, fines or probation. But a North Branford-based construction company that ran afoul of the law is asking U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton to consider sentencing the company to build two homes.
The hook is that the houses wouldn't be sold for profit. They would be... Continue Reading
March 16th, 2015
J. Jean Johnson was delivered into this world by a Mississippi midwife, and he never did have a birth certificate or photo ID.
All he had was a social security card and his identification card from his job as a city garbageman. But that was not enough for Memphis Light, Gas & Water, which denied Johnson electricity, heat and air conditioning because he did not have state-issued photo identification. In August 2011, Johnson, an... Continue Reading
March 15th, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding a Connecticut financier who alleges his Manhattan art dealer defrauded him:
The art world has become a big business, with more than $6 billion in modern art and $1.26 billion in contemporary art sold in 2011. And with big business comes big litigation.
Multiple lawsuits filed by a Connecticut financial executive alleging that his Manhattan art dealer defrauded him... Continue Reading
March 15th, 2015
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding a Connecticut financier who alleges his Manhattan art dealer defrauded him:
The art world has become a big business, with more than $6 billion in modern art and $1.26 billion in contemporary art sold in 2011. And with big business comes big litigation.
Multiple lawsuits filed by a Connecticut financial executive alleging that his Manhattan art dealer defrauded him... Continue Reading
March 9th, 2015
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that death-row inmates in Missouri don’t have a First Amendment right to learn the identities of the pharmacies that compound the drug used in executions.
The Eighth Circuit, sitting en banc, noted that there has not been a history of public access to the identities of the pharmacies that supply the drugs used in lethal injections.
Second, the court... Continue Reading
February 15th, 2015
After a period of long delays, the highly anticipated rules for the use of unmanned aircraft systems was released for public comment by the Federal Aviation Administration today.
The proposed rules for drones weighing 55 pounds or less include:
* requiring operators to pass a safety certificate test, although operators would not need to have a pilot’s license;
* suggesting that there be a separate category of rules for... Continue Reading
January 11th, 2015
Here's an article I recently did for the Connecticut Law Tribune about a novel lawsuit: can the government take through eminent domain certificates that authorize bus companies to operate on certain routes?
Connecticut is no stranger to landmark eminent domain disputes, with the U.S. Supreme Court having ruled in 2005 that the city of New London could shift from one private owner to another in order to further economic development... Continue Reading
November 21st, 2014
A humane society is not a government agency subject to freedom of access laws, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.
Gina Turcotte sought to get access to records regarding her cat from the Humane Society Waterville Area under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, arguing that the society is the functional equivalent of a public agency and provides animal-shelter services to the city.
In a ruling earlier this month, Justice Warren M... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2014
I wrote a guest column for the Connecticut Law Tribune about the 14 months I spent as the Media Law Resource Center, how lawyers can use their law degrees in non-traditional ways and the need for lawyers to take on advocacy for public access to information:
For the past year, my byline has appeared in the Connecticut Law Tribune atop freelance news articles. But this time, I'm writing to discuss how the day job I've held for the... Continue Reading
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
