Q & A
Reshaping The Way Towns Do Business
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, April 12, 2010 | by THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Connecticut's municipal lawyers are feeling the pressure of the recession. It comes in the form of shrinking town budgets, pressure from residents to lower assessed property values, and less financial help from the state. The president of the Connecticut Association of Municipal Attorneys, John "Jack" Bradley of Rome McGuigan in Hartford, said members of his group are under pressure to "do more with less, and do it faster."
An Informal Approach To Solving Problems
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, February 22, 2010 | by Thomas B. Scheffey | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Grains of sand can foul up great machines - and bring down great organizations. Problems that don't rise to the level of a crime or tort can afflict organizations to their serious detriment. Charles Howard, a partner in Hartford-based Shipman
The Year That The Estate Tax Vanished
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, February 15, 2010 | by THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY | The Connecticut Law Tribune
It's a complex time to die. Congress surprised most lawyers when it simply allowed the federal estate tax to disappear at the end of last year. How did this happen? A tax-cutting plan endorsed by then-President George W. Bush was phased in beginning in 2001. That year, the value of an estate had to top $1 million before any federal taxes kicked in. By last year, the threshold rose to $3.5 million.
Collection Lawyers Fleeced In Check Scams
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, November 30, 2009 | by THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY | The Connecticut Law Tribune
At least two sizeable Connecticut law firms have fallen victim to sophisticated international swindlers posing as major European or Chinese companies in need of debt collection help. The initial inquiry is often in an e-mail, which offers the law firm a chance to work for a large foreign corporation with several million dollars in unpaid bills in the U.S. An attorney signs a formal-looking retainer agreement. Suddenly, he receives a six-figure "debt payment" sent by one of the so-called client's customers, in the form of an authentic-looking bank check.
Breaking Away Before You Break Down
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, August 3, 2009 | by DOUGLAS S. MALAN | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Summer weather is here, but apparently not everyone feels comfortable enough to kick back and relax. A recent annual vacation survey by CareerBuilder.com indicates that more than one-third of American workers don't plan on taking a vacation this year, mainly because of lack of money and feelings of guilt and anxiety about their jobs in a shaky economy.
Ethical Pitfalls Of Secret Settlements
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, July 20, 2009 | by THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The Latina factory worker who was fired for speaking Spanish on the job won an acceptable settlement - in financial terms - with the help of the University of Connecticut Law School clinic headed by Professor Jon Bauer. But the company's lawyers required her to forfeit half the settlement money if she ever talked to other potential litigants about the case. Not long after the settlement, however, a fellow worker at the same factory was fired for the same reason, and Bauer's client wanted to talk to her. "Our client's lawsuit had been about her right to speak out against perceived discrimination, and it was painfully ironic that the settlement was now silencing her on the same subject."
Is Your Client A Ticking Time Bomb?
Monday, July 13, 2009 | by THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY | The Connecticut Law Tribune
In the wake of a murder-suicide at the Middletown courthouse four years ago, a number of bar groups asked Sidney S. Horowitz, Ph.D what lawyers can do to protect themselves -and others-from unstable clients. He has plenty of ideas that don't involve spending a lot of money, playing "amateur shrink" or asking overly invasive questions. He spoke with Senior Writer Thomas B. Scheffey last week following a murder-suicide in Vernon that appeared to have been triggered by a divorce filing, and the melodramatic July 7 kidnapping and arson in South Windsor, also triggered by a man angered by his own divorce proceedings.
The ABC's Of Performing Public Service
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, June 8, 2009 | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Like other commencements, law school graduation ceremonies are often long on inspirational messages and short on nuts-and-bolts advice. That wasn't the case with the speech U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz made to Quinnipiac School of Law graduates last month. Like other law school commencement speakers, Kravitz, an appellate practice group chair at Wiggin and Dana before being named to the bench in 2003, extolled the virtues of public service for lawyers. Unlike others, Kravitz spelled out exactly what graduates might do and how it would help them. "Of all the lawyers [I] have known, those who were the most fulfilled by their work and by their lives were those who were active volunteers and participants in the life and work of their communities and their profession," Kravitz told the Quinnipiac grads.
'The Opposite Of An Activist Judge'
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, November 5, 2007 | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The obituaries for Thomas Meskill Jr. have largely focused on his time as Connecticut governor and congressman. But the legal community knew Meskill as a longtime judge on the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Appointed in 1975, he was still serving as a senor judge when he died last week at age 79.
'Fundamental Workers' Rights Stuff'
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, October 15, 2007 | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Peter Goselin wasn't always a lawyer. From 1985 to 1993, he was a hospital worker for the Department of Mental Health. During that period, he served as a union shop steward, working nights and spending daylight hours dealing with personnel grievances and contract negotiations.
