Today the June issue of Washington CEO hits newsstands. Make sure to pick up a copy to see the list of top business lawyers in Washington.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Avvo prepared this list for Washington CEO, and it is truly unique. For the first time, you are seeing a corporate-centric “top lawyers” list that includes big firm and small firm lawyers, as well as both corporate lawyers and trial lawyers.

“Trial lawyers?” you ponder. Why would they be on the list? Well, the reality is that trial lawyers are very important to corporate America in that they are always suing corporate America. As a corporate counselor (both in-house and private practice), it was important for me to understand who the highly regarded trial lawyers were. If their name was on a complaint, it could affect how I and others perceived the quality of the case.

So enjoy the list. If you have any comments, please let us know. We can only improve with your feedback.

Be well.

Mark

1. Premier Exhibitions Inc. settled with the Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, this week, over their controversial “Bodies… The Exhibition”. Allegedly the cadavers, who are plasticized and formed in various positions, were Chinese prisoners, who were tortured and executed. The terms of the settlement are that the exhibit cannot obtain new bodies without proving the cause of death. “Respect for the dead and respect for the public requires that Premier do more than simply assure us that there is no reason for concern,” Cuomo said. “This settlement is a start.”

2. MGA, who created the Bratz doll, is now immersed in a lawsuit with the Mattel’s Barbie. Mattel claims that the rights to Bratz should be theirs, since the designer created the concept while he was a Mattel employee. Barbie sales have been down recently, even though they have done their best to revamp her during her mid-life crisis. People argue that Bratz is the more hip of the two choices… but who’s to say who will reign as queen in this battle of the plastic, pouty, hourglass figured, scantily clad dolls. Barbie is represented by John Quinn, and Bratz is represented by Tom Nolan.

3. The Rat City Rollergirls are up against Starbucks in a trademark scuffle. Starbucks has requested that the Rat City Rollergirls alter their logo, as it’s too similar to theirs. Yep, they both have circles within circles and a female in the middle and two stars. Rat City’s Lawyer, Quinn Heraty, asked Starbucks to support their local Seattle team, however the Rollergirls look a little too scary for Starbucks to associate themselves with. “Let’s resolve the issue, but that doesn’t mean that Starbucks owns all of the concentric circles in the world,” Heraty said. “It’s not like the word Starbucks is even unique. “They took that from ‘Moby Dick.’

On a lighter note than yesterday’s post about the rating of state supreme courts, I’ve got to pass along this effort to rank the 50 worst album covers of all time. Sure, the approach may be just a little less scientific, but these examples of album cover art(?) are not to be missed.

Those who recall Avvo’s launch, nearly one year ago, will no doubt remember the chorus of lawyers aghast that we would dare to rate members of the legal profession. We hear little of that these days, as our approach has become accepted - if not always welcomed - within the legal community.

In the spirit of those appalled that legal practitioners could be rated, I was amused to come across this University of Chicago Law School paper that sets forth a methodology for ranking state supreme courts (and compares it with the surprising number of other recent rankings of such courts).

Quelle horreur - How can one possibly rank the complex work undertaken by these lofty collectives of jurists? Easy, if you’re a bunch of law and econ guys: Create a ranking algorithm based on productivity (number of opinions published), influence (on other courts and academia) and independence (from partisan pressures).

Interestingly, the authors had this to say about the utility of rankings:

“The alternative to rankings is, as a practical matter, virtually no information, and public institutions that are not carefully monitored and evaluated will rarely have strong incentives to perform well. Rankings, however imperfect, serve an important information-forcing function. Institutions that do poorly on rankings should have the burden of coming forth with an explanation for their performance; but if the explanation is plausible, then the ranking should be discounted.”

That’s lot like how we think about the Avvo Rating - a good place to start one’s search for a lawyer, but not the end-all-be-all in making the decision.

So how did the states do? Our authors’ top 10:

Arkansas
California
North Dakota
Montana
Ohio
Georgia
Mississippi
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
New York

Sad to see our Washington court, which finished no worse than seventh in the other three rankings, didn’t make the list. Read the paper for the in-depth discussion of why using an unbiased algorithm provides a more balanced picture than the traditional ratings, which typically focused on only one of the algorithm’s three factors.

Stories floating around the blogosphere:

• Seattle Trademark Lawyer reports from the INTA Blogger meetup and manages to sneak in some legal advice to a Seattle Gary Busey look-alike
• “Jason Gambert” tries to trademark the term “SEO” and SEOmoz has a problem with that
• Insurance Coverage Law Blog discusses the excellent New Yorker article on John Grisham friend, Trent Lott in-law, and tobacco settlement billionaire(?) lawyer Dickie Scruggs
• K&L Gates argues that Bennett’s sincerity in trying to keep the Sonics in Seattle is no longer the issue (Enter, Center Stage Howard Schultz via Richard Yarmuth)
• Spam Notes begs to be harassed via Twitter

1. Julie Michele Balovich, Alpine, TX
Legal Aid attorney Julie Balovich gets her 15 minutes and tops our list this week, as she and her colleague Amanda Chishom prevailed in representing the Yearning For Zion’s mothers in their suit against Texas Child Protective Services.

2. Okorie Okorocham, Los Angeles, CA

3. Robert Rosepink, Paradise Valley, AZ
Phoenix Estate Planning attorney Robert Rosepink appears for the first time – no doubt because he is being sued by prominent East Valley families for introducing them to an alleged Ponzi scheme.

4. Roni Lynn Deutch, North Highlands, CA

5. Judy Jade Lee, Houston, TX

6. William Head, Atlanta, GA

7. Sandra Munoz, San Dimas, CA

8. Alec Rose, Santa Monica, CA

9. Benjamin Echols, Barstow, CA

10. Shelly Crocker, Seattle, WA

Here at Avvo, we’re sad to note the death of Sydney Pollack.  Pollack directed two notable legal dramas: The Firm and Absence of Malice (included in NYT’s book of 1,000 best films).  In addition, he acted and produced last year’s legal thriller Michael Clayton.  Interestingly, he had also been slated to direct Recount, a finely-crafted HBO Film that I saw this past weekend - but had to withdraw because of his illness.

1. “There’s an expression that somebody broke every bone in his body,” said attorney Mark Manus. “Well, this is pretty close.” He was referring to a fall his client took on the set of “The Little Mermaid”. Adrian Bailey fell ‘under the sea’ through the bottom of the stage (through a trap door built in the set’s sailboat) 30-40 feet which is how he broke his back and several ribs, shattered his pelvis, fractured his sternum and foot, and broke both his wrists. It looks like Disney is trying to make him look like he is less injured. They are saying that he only suffered two broken wrists after falling only 20 feet. Bailey has filed a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court to preserve the boat scenery to make it available during his lawsuit.

2. Boy band mogul Lou Pearlman was sentenced this week to 25 years in prison for fraud. He is best known for making the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC famous, which we are all so very grateful for. Pearlman allegedly stole more that $300 million dollars from investors and major U.S. banks. Judge G. Kengdall Sharp gave Pearlman the “chance to cut his prison time by offering a one-month reprieve for every $1 million in cash he helps a bankruptcy trustee recover for his victims.” This means, in theory, he could take care of his entire 300 months sentence by repaying off the $300 million debt. Look at that… he could kiss his prison time bye bye bye…

3. In Chattooga County, Georgia, Judge Carlton Vines presides over traffic violations and DUI’s. The local paper, The Summerville News, is investigating the rise in the number of DUI arrests. Ironically, Judge Vines has become a statistic in this research, as he was arrested last November for driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident after swerving into another car. Apparently “he was trashed, slurring, and stumbling… though still cogent enough to refuse the breathalyzer.”

I had a great day in San Francisco yesterday. I did a number of local and national interviews. The interest in Avvo grows. Here is a link to a TV interview I did with Forbes.com. For our San Francisco readers, I will also be on San Francisco’s KPIX (CBS) Saturday morning at 8:40.

Cinematically Yours,

Mark

Update 5/28 by Shalini (If you could not get enough of Mark on Forbes, check him out on the KPIX Interview)

Around the blogosphere:

• ‘N Sync Svengali Lou Pearlman sentenced to 25 years for swindling $300M from investors and banks
• D.C. Circuit Court rules that U.S. currency discriminates against the blind, because it is all the same size
• Californians are confused about their state’s privacy laws
• Doctors learn to apologize to mitigate lawsuits
• Fourth Circuit rules that Virginia’s ban on late-term abortions is unconstitutional
• Via Jezebel, Farmworker Olivia Tamayo’s 1M sexual harassment award against Harris Farms upheld