Stroock & Stroock's Joel Cohen

Katherine A. Helm

Harvard professor Marc Hauser rocked the science world last month when evidence surfaced indicating that he may have committed the ultimate sin of fabricating data. Given that Hauser is a leading expert in the field of moral psychology and author of the book "Moral Minds," the academic community is bewildered by his actions, including his tight-lipped admission of some "mistakes" (but not misconduct) in response to the scientific misconduct charges. Only if he were to remorsefully give a full and frank account of the his errors could the process start of repatriating him into the community in some form, his colleagues tell The New York Times.

The same U.S. Supreme Court precedent that bars discrimination against potential jurors due to their race, gender or ethnic background can be used to protect the right of hunters to serve on juries, an upstate New York judge has suggested.

Sullivan County Judge Frank LaBuda called a halt to the trial of a Long Island hunter charged with assault for shooting another hunter after the defense attorney issued peremptory challenges to six of 35 potential jurors who had identified themselves as hunters.

LaBuda concluded that the challenges amounted to a "systematic exclusion" of hunters that ran afoul of the Supreme Court's 1988 ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, to which he repeatedly referred in his oral ruling ordering a mistrial in the case.

Superior Court Judge Max Baker, who last December launched into a tirade against a pro se litigant that an ethics tribunal calls "disrespectful and insulting," has apologized for his behavior. But he says he acted out of his "desire to do justice to children."

Baker, in his Aug. 26 answer to a disciplinary complaint filed Aug. 4 by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, says his remarks to litigant Dana Pilla were intended to be "didactive [sic] and instructive in imparting to Mrs. Pilla that denying Mr. Pilla's access to their child would in the long run prove detrimental to the child."

A financial services company has defeated class certification in a Manhattan federal court lawsuit against it involving subprime securities. The defendant, First American subsidiary eAppraiseIT, conducted home appraisals in connection with Washington Mutual mortgage loans. First American shareholders, led by the Berks County, Pa. Employees' Retirement Fund, alleged that eAppraiseIT routinely overvalued homes so WaMu could close mortgage deals. The arrangement, according to the plaintiffs, allowed First American to report inflated financial results.

By all accounts, it was a stroke of marketing genius.

A line of flavored bottled water named for the benefit the drinker wanted to achieve, whether health, relaxation or focus.

The beverage was even endorsed by hip-hop star 50 Cent.

But a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami federal court under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act states the Vitaminwater claims by Coca-Cola and subsidiary Energy Brands are all bunk.

"Vitaminwater has been marketed as a 'nutrient-enhanced water beverage' that proclaims 'vitamins+water=all you need,'" the 15-page complaint reads. "In truth, Vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar."

In what could be a first, an Arizona attorney may face disciplinary action after an investigation found that she told a client she was channeling his dead wife, then lied about it during an unrelated disciplinary proceeding.

An Arizona Supreme Court hearing officer recently filed a report on the conduct of Charna Johnson, who began representing the client in 1999 in divorce proceedings after meeting him in a ballroom dancing class. The client's wife committed suicide the following year and Johnson handled the probate matters.

When she was up for confirmation, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan provided the Senate with a list of 11 pending cases in which she would recuse because of her participation as solicitor general. In a routine order list issued Friday, Kagan indicated she was not participating in an additional case -- the vaccine liability case of Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, set for argument Oct. 12.

Kagan signaled her recusal, as often happens at the high court, by stating she was not participating in a routine action on the case -- in this instance a motion for divided argument and argument time for the acting solicitor general.

In a ruling that could have a significant impact on proceedings involving failed banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was rebuffed in its attempt to assert a $905 million priority claim against the holding company of the failed Colonial Bank. On Sept. 1, federal bankruptcy Judge Dwight Williams Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama ruled that the bank's bankrupt holding company, Colonial Bancgroup, could not be held liable for the shortfall in the bank's assets. (Here's an article about the ruling from Law360.)

Claiming breach of contract and other charges, five former partners from the defunct Boca Raton, Fla., office of Hodgson Russ are suing top partners of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based law firm.

Read the lawsuit.

Immediately after an April 2, 2009, meeting when law firm president and chief executive officer Gary M. Schober told the Boca Raton partners they were out, Hodgson Russ circulated a news release stating the office would close to focus on "markets that support its overall strategy" and insisting the move was in the best long-term interests of the firm.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly employment report for August was released early Friday and the news was still a bit glum overall -- the U.S. economy lost a total of 54,000 jobs. But the news for lawyers and legal industry employees was a bit brighter.

The legal sector handed out 1,000 jobs last month, marking the second straight month of improved numbers for the industry.

The BLS originally reported that the field lost 800 jobs in July, but that number has since been readjusted to show an increase of 300 positions. While those numbers lag behind reports from August 2009 by more than 14,000 jobs, they still represent an improvement over the previous two months. In June and May combined, legal services positions declined by almost 4,000. (See our jobs reports for July, June and May.)