Dee McAree
A Chicago judge has ruled that a husband and wife will be allowed to proceed with a wrongful death suit against a fertility clinic that allegedly inadvertently discarded their fertilized egg. Lawyers say courts have previously considered cases involving embryos to be property rights or negligence claims, but a wrongful death action presents a new issue that could affect abortion law, stem cell research, genetic testing and a wide range of other issues. "Calling this a wrongful death is a new frontier for the judiciary," said Andrew Worek, a medical malpractice defense lawyer with Philadelphia's Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby. Worek has written about the legal issues surrounding pre-embryonic human cells. "In the past, they have been handled as property or negligence cases."
ALM Staff
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Law Journal Newsletters
National news of interest.
ALM Staff
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Law Journal Newsletters
Recent rulings you need to know.
Features
Brion Bickerton
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Natasha Ciancutti
Cravath, Swaine & Moore, one of New York's elite law firms, recently hired its first lateral partner in over 60 years. While an exception at Cravath, hiring lateral partners has become an indispensable strategy for law firms in achieving important business objectives and in thriving in hotly competitive markets.
Phyllis Weiss Haserot
Last month, Part One revealed some of the significant findings of a study released in October 2004 titled "Generation & Gender in the Workplace." The study documents many things that change the equation regarding workplace attitudes. It was conducted by the Families and Work Institute and sponsored and funded by the American Business Collaboration (ABC), a group of eight major businesses, including two accounting/consulting firms, that believe collaboration can accomplish more than working alone. In Part Two, we present results on ambition and taking on responsibility ' at work and at home.
Jeff Blumenthal
Cozen O'Connor to Acquire Most of Fischbein Badillo's Lawyers
Features
Marci M. Krufka
As I work with partners in law firms throughout the country, I continue to be surprised at how little, if any, formal training they have had in the business of law ' leadership, management, profitability, and business development. <br>Lawyers are largely extremely bright and talented people. Most, however, do not have MBAs, did not study business in college and do not devote sufficient non-billable time each year to ongoing leadership and management training courses.
ALM Staff
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Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Jonathan Bick
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Jonathan E. Von Kohorn
Timely and accurate knowledge of all the relevant facts is essential to successful matrimonial litigation. The proper use of the Internet helps give litigants access to relevant information; the Internet has been recognized by matrimonial attorneys as promoting a variety of goals: identification and substantiation of claims and defenses; discovery of data that permits the parties to evaluate their respective positions better; the simplification and narrowing of issues; and assistance in the conduct of the trial.
Features
Mark Momjian
Can the subject matter jurisdiction of a family court extend beyond divorce and annulment into the broader realm of dissolution of the family? Does a family court have equity jurisdiction to dissolve a Vermont civil union and to adjudicate the division of property and ancillary economic claims? Does an out-of-state family court have jurisdiction to dissolve a Vermont civil union based on its power to enforce contracts and to adjudicate contractual disputes, including express or implied contracts between unmarried cohabitants? How does a state's version of the Defense of Marriage Act (referred to as a mini or junior-DOMA) factor into this analysis, if at all? Family lawyers are closely monitoring an emerging body of case law that seeks to answer some of these questions. In all likelihood, at some point in 2005, a state's highest court will weigh in on these issues, and that decision may potentially affect the degree to which family lawyers will succeed in securing out-of-state decrees on behalf of clients seeking to dissolve Vermont civil unions.
