Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

Weekly Case Digests - September 24 - September 28, 2018

Ray Haynes was employed as an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Indiana University. At the end of his six-year probationary contract, he lost his bid for tenure. Haynes, who is black, alleges that the University denied his tenure application because of his race in violation of federal law.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Digest Civil Digest

Family wealth disputes are not confined to the estates of entertainment superstars.

Tagged with: estate planning Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren

In all the years I have practiced law I have seen many lawyers run for public office and often win.

Tagged with: Ethics Hupy & Abraham Michael Hupy

It’s 11 a.m. on a due date and I’m procrastinating, staring at my phone instead of my computer. This past month has been a mess, between deadlines and family health issues and summer school, with weddings and day trips and a conference thrown in for good measure. A three-hour hearing turned into six yesterday in a windowless basement room, and my lower back is screaming at me for sitting in the same wobbly government-issue chair in the same position for too long. Still, a stupid phone game is what I’m capable of handling right now.

Tagged with: Halling & Cayo Stacie Rosenzweig

Tagged with: marijuana

The U. S. Supreme Court sidestepped the issue of whether a Colorado baker discriminated against a gay couple seeking a wedding cake and instead decided that the baker had been treated unfairly by the commission adjudicating the discrimination charge.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto

Mount Pleasant officials slapped a blighted designation Monday on thousands of acres of land near the site of Foxconn Technology Group’s new $10 billion factory, a step that could allow the village to use eminent domain to obtain property from holdout landowners.

Tagged with: Eminent domain Foxconn

The Wisconsin Legislature has made important new rules for civil litigation, implemented new periods of limitations and repose, and made other significant changes to state law.

Tagged with: Civil Procedure

Truth is stranger than fiction. The compelling facts in State v. Torres arose in Sheboygan County in 2014. Dorian Torres was the son of divorced parents, Emilio and Shelly.

Tagged with: Search and Seizure

Shortly after Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011, he and his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature passed sweeping legislation touching on many corners of the state’s tort laws. Since then, scarcely a year has gone by without Republican ...

Tagged with: Closing Arguments tort reform

Despite last week’s mass murder in Florida and its many predecessors, I don’t want to take away your gun.

Remember when you were a kid and tattling was an art form? Perhaps you were the tattle-tale, never hesitating to rat out a classmate for flooding the sink again, or to throw your brother under the bus for breaking a ...

Tagged with: office of lawyer regulation OLR

Over two short days in mid-December, the National Labor Relations Board issued four historic decisions that will make a difference in workplace law for years to come.

Tagged with: prison

Kenosha County criminal defense attorney Michael Cicchini is on a quest to revise what he considers Wisconsin’s deeply flawed jury instruction concerning the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof.

Tagged with: Michael Cicchini Michael Griesbach Steven Avery

On Oct. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Gill v. Whitford.

Tagged with: Gill v. Whitford redistricting U.S. Supreme Court

Whether we practice as litigators or transactional attorneys, we have all dealt with convoluted statutes and regulations which, at times, seem deliberately contorted to frustrate the legal practitioner, or perhaps, penned with the intent of making certain that we will ...

Tagged with: heroin

In an effort to improve well-being in the legal profession, the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs has released a report detailing ways to help lawyers lead healthier, more-fulfilling lives.

Corporate counsel need to keep their eyes open and fixed on the big picture.

Tagged with: Corporate Counsel Wells Fargo

Attorneys should expect no relief in the great game of catchup being played with business clients intent on reducing their legal expenses. From every corner of the country, corporations are finding only more innovative ways to rein in spending on outside counsel.

Tagged with: Corporate Counsel

The property is idyllic. It consists of two parcels in a cove on the St. Croix River along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border where the river widens and flattens to form Lake St. Croix.

Tagged with: Eminent domain U.S. Supreme Court William Murr

This practice can be risky because internal IT teams are often unable to monitor personal computers and may not have an opportunity to update them with the latest security software

Tagged with: cybersecurity

The clause was ultimately found to violate First Amendment free-speech rights. The decision is already making itself felt.

Tagged with: First Amendment Lanham Act Samuel Alito U.S. Supreme Court

A Milwaukee judge has raised nearly $271,000 in her bid for the state Supreme Court.

Tagged with: Michael Gableman Michael Screnock Rebecca Dallet Tim Burns Wisconsin Supreme Court

Attorney joins Murphy Desmond Murphy Desmond has hired Connor Valentyn to work in its Madison office. The firm made the announcement July 7. Valentyn’s practice centers on business law and helping start-up companies. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin ...

Civility, niceness, and more specifically incivility and meanness, are big news today.

Tagged with: Ethics Stacie Rosenzweig