Hearsay

• Pages: 15-15

SHUTTERSTOCK (2)

45%

Opening Statements

MAY 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 15

Hearsay ... is the percentage di erence in rates that

partners at the largest law fi rms are able to charge

compared with slightly smaller fi rms. According to

CounselLink, LexisNexis’ legal pricing data service ,

partners at bigger law fi rms are able to get away with

ever-higher hourly billing rates compared with their

smaller-fi rm counterparts. CounselLink analyzed

2017 partner billing rates at fi rms with 750 or more

lawyers and compared them with fi rms of 501 to 750

lawyers. The study found that the gap between the

two groups widened by 11 percentage points over

2016. And beyond raising rates by a larger margin,

the largest fi rms also have the largest share of the

highest-priced work.

Source: law.com (March 1).

$6.75 Million

The amount awarded to a group of s treet artists for the

destruction of gra  ti. The “aeros ol art” gallery at the

center of the lawsuit had been cur ated at a group of

abandoned warehouses in Queens a nd had become a

tourist destin ation. The street artists sued af ter the build-

ing was whitewashed by t he property owner—10 months

before the structur es were demolished. U.S. District Judge

Frederic Block found that 45 of the 49 works at issue

in the lawsuit were art wor thy of protection under the

Visual Ar tists Rights Act of 1990, and that the ar tists

had su ered fi nancial loss a nd harm to their reputations.

Source: law.co m (Feb. 13).

LOSING PROPOSITION

Law professors often lose when they sue over empl oyment matters

such as not getting hired , tenure denials or pay disputes, according

to an article by Rober t Jarvis in the latest issue of the Alban y Law

Review. Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeaster n University’s Shepard

Broad College of Law, wrote that thr ee issues are at the root of these

lawsuits: dissatisfa ction with, and professional jealousy of, facu lty

colleagues; disag reements with, and distrust of, ad ministrators; and

feeling that others are rec eiving better, and undeserved, treatment.

In what appears to be the fi rst study of its ki nd, Jarvi s also found that

law professor suits are far more common in re cent years.

Source: A lbany Law Review, Volume 81, No. 1.

Say What?

The United States Citizenship a nd

Immigration Serv ices has changed its mis-

sion statement, dropping a phrase saying t he

U.S. is devoted to securi ng “America’s promise

as a nation of immigrants .” The federal agency

that grants vi sas and citizenship now refers to

itself as an organi zation that “administers the

nation’s lawful immigration sys tem.” The new

mission statement also elimi nates use of the

word customers in referr ing to visa applicants.

In a letter to employees, the agency’s direc tor,

L. Francis Cissna , said the changes were a

“straightforward st atement [that] clearly

defi nes the agency’s role in our country’s

lawfu l immigration system and the commit-

ment we have to the American people.”

Source: usatod ay.com (Feb. 23).

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