LexBlog webinar for their clients to be held May 22 at 9 PDT. More details and sign-up on their blog.

1. Lawyer Zafer Akin dealt with a turbulent case this week. His client Gokhan Mutlu is suing JetBlue after an unfortunate flight he took in February from San Diego to New York. He flew standby on a full flight and was told to go stay in the bathroom for the second half of the flight so the flight attendant could rest comfortably. “This is something you wouldn’t do to your worst enemy,” Akin said. “This is an outrage.” Mutlu is suing for $2 million.

2. Attorney David Mourick represents Robert Hezzelwood, better known as “Beach Bob”. Bob recently filed a lawsuit against the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for violating his civil rights. You see, Beach Bob received a “trespass warning” from the sheriff’s deputy. What does trespassing have to do with anything? The notice read “exposed scrotum” and “Never return to Bonita Beach Main Access”. Mourick said “It is a good case in that it showed these deputies can’t just go in there and trespass people just because they don’t like what they’re wearing.”

3. What would you do if you won the lotto? Probably hide it from your spouse. At least that’s what Arnim Ramdass did after he won the jackpot of $19 million. He split the winnings 16 ways with his coworkers and kept it a secret from his beloved. Yes, they are still married. When his wife, Donna Campbell, found out about his secret, she felt “emotionally drained and financially desperate”. She hired Attorney Bruce Baldwin to help her get what’s rightfully hers, half of the jackpot, as it was purchased with their marital assets. Ramdass is represented by Robert Puzio. The couple, who is still together, are staying in different sides of the house. Occasionally they run into each other, but they don’t interact.

4. Speaking of marital issues

1. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr: I read this book straight through when it came out in 1995. It is a page-turner about a personal injury lawyer (and fellow Cornell grad) Jan Schlichtmann and his representation of eight leukemia victim families against W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. It is a David versus Goliath story, set in the modern day of complex litigation against large corporations.
2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I read this book as summer reading when I was in high school. The character of Atticus Finch was one of the reasons I aspired to be a lawyer: “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
3. Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough: This is the story of KKR’s leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. Though the chief characters are not attorneys (no one could compete for attention with Ross Johnson, the then CEO of RJR Nabisco), there are many transactional attorneys who feature prominently in the book.
4. U.S. v Microsoft by Joel Brinkley & Steve Lohr: Brinkley and Lohr were New York Times journalists who covered the trial from the beginning, and they write a compelling, highly readable book. Their reportage includes the incriminating emails, damning documents and verbatim transcripts that played such a key role in the trial.
5. Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald: This is an engaging, riveting read about the rise and fall of Enron. It features key players such as Stuart Zisman, corporate counsel in Enron’s wholesale division – who warned the company in an early memo about the creative accounting and the legal entities being created.

Are there any great books we have left out? Leave feedback in the comments.

Avvo has a new Legal Community Manager, and her name is Shalini Gujavarty. Shalini and I have two things in common: She is both a lawyer and an ex-Expedian. However, Shalini and I never worked together at Expedia — she was in the supplier relations group being an account manager rather than a lawyer.

Shalini is also taking over the Avvo blog. You will still see Conrad and me posting fairly regularly; but I have been managing the blog for the last couple of months and I was doing it poorly. I was deleting comments, taking too long to get them posted, etc., etc. Hopefully Shalini will be able to give the blog the attention it needs.

Not surprisingly, I am very excited to have Shalini on the Avvo team. Here she is in her own words:

I am originally from New York and began my career as a public interest lawyer working with battered immigrant women. Since relocating to Seattle in 2000, I have worked as a business attorney working initially in business immigration and then in drafting and reviewing employment agreements, supplier contracts and licensing agreements. As the new Legal Community Manager at Avvo, I will focus on building and developing relationships with lawyers both here in Washington and across the United States. More about me here and please email me with feedback on the site or the blog at shalini@avvo.com.

Welcome Shalini!

Mark

1. Judge Sherman Ross presided over a bunch of potheads last week. In Texas a woman accused of possession of marijuana was on trial. A member of the jury took the case a little too seriously, as she was caught blazing a doobie outside the courthouse during a break. “I’ve had prospective jurors get lost before, but it never occurred to me that they might be getting ready for a marijuana trial by, allegedly, smoking marijuana,” Ross said.

2. Adidas Lawyer Paul Ehrlich is feeling pretty good this week. Payless Shoesource Inc. had to pay $304.6 million for infringing on Adidas America Inc.’s three-stripe trademark and shoe styles. This is believed to be the largest award in a trademark lawsuit. That’s 100 million for every stripe!

3. Everyone’s favorite ex-judge is back in the news

Round up of Northwest Legal news for the week:

• Ballmer/Griffin group’s Machiavellian plan for the Sonics to remain secret
• Behold the Wild Sky Wilderness
• Summit Law and EEOC opine on Video Resumes (spoiler alert they’re legal)
• Amazon cries foul (decries unconstitutionality) over New York tax law
• Word to A.M. Best: Holland & Knight no longer has a Seattle office
• $40M to Singh family is the largest civil jury award in Snohomish history

I’m proud to announce that Avvo is powering Washington CEO’s first annual “Top Lawyers” issue. Washington CEO is Washington’s top business magazine, and this issue (their June issue) will hit newsstands at the end of this month. You can see the WA CEO press release here.

It is gratifying to have a top-notch publication like Washington CEO partnering with us. Even though we are young, the editorial staff at WA CEO intuitively understood the value of the Avvo Rating, and all of the other great information and guidance we assemble for consumers. We share the mission of helping Washington’s businesspeople choose the right lawyer.

A big thanks to the Avvo and Washington CEO teams that helped bring this to fruition. I look forward to hearing all of your compliments and complaints later this month. :-)

Be well.

Mark

1. Susan Marie LeFevre, Austin, TX
What brings this Susan LeFevre to the top of the list? Confusion over another person of the same name who is still battling jail after 32 years of life on the outside.

2. Alani Golanski, Brooklyn, NY

3. Okorie Okorocha, Los Angeles, CA

4. Alec Rose, Santa Monica, CA

5. Jon Zimmerman, Seattle, WA

6. Roni Deutch, North Highlands, CA

7. William Head, Atlanta, GA

8. John Andrew Campanella, Vallejo, CA

9. Abraham Lincoln

10. Sandra Dee Munoz, San Dimas, CA

1. Uma Thurmans lawyer, George Vomvolakis said “Do you see how this could have scared her?” in court this week. He was referring to a strange card the actress received from a stalker. “I was completely freaked out,” Thurman said of the drawing, which was on a religious confirmation card. One of the pictures in the card was of a bride with her head torn off. Jackson William Leslie Jordan was charged with stalking and aggravated harassment, and faces up to a year in jail, if convicted. He claimed that “in a misguided way I was trying to give her an opportunity to meet me and give myself an opportunity to meet her.” Maybe he should have just tried myspace.

2. Lawyer Blair Berk has her hands full with client Lindsay Lohan. A full page ad in USA Today from interlockfacts.com used Lohan’s mug shot to promote drinking and driving responsibly without the help of interlock ignition devices. Lindsay has her lawyers looking into whether or not the ad violates trademark laws. Berk had this to say, “Drunk, old, white businessmen, drunk cougars out for girls night out, and drunk wedding parties should be kept off the roads of America. Lindsay Lohan fully endorses ignition interlock devices that have been well-proven to save lives”.

3. Judge Richard Berman thew out a case against Jennifer Lopez this week. Jack Bunick, a television writer, claimed J-Lo stole his idea for a TV series. The show “South Beach”, which aired in 2006, was too similar to a series pilot he wrote in 1999 called “South Beach Miami”. Berman said there was inadequate evidence to take the case to trial. The lawsuit named UPN and CBS Television as well as Jenny from the block.

4. A shocking video was released this week of a courtroom attack in which defendant Victor Wright lunges at attorney Carolyn Pokorney. Apparently Wright, who was on trial for drug dealing, hid a razor blade in a body cavity. In the video you can see how all the other lawyers and law professionals jump to pull Wright off Pokorney. Except for the judge who simply gets up and exits the Brooklyn courtroom.

On page 18 of this week’s Newsweek, there is an article titled “An Algorithm for Mr. Right“, covering the online dating service, eHarmony. The site’s 20 million users complete a detailed 256 question survey, “then, with the help of a complex algorithm, it matches people with much in common.” Sounds familiar.

We’ve often fielded (heated) critique that boils down to: “an algorithm is not the way to choose an attorney.” True, it should never be the only tool someone uses to choose an attorney. But, can an algorithm serve as a great starting point to help narrow down the immense potential field to a useful shortlist based on an individual’s specific requirements, just like our friends over at eHarmony? Absolutely.

According to eHarmony, every day 236 of their users get married not always to the number one on the match list and presumably after six coffees, three movies and one long walk on the beach.