Daily News Summary
An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department. Electronic links are only active in today's edition. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.
Oct. 29, 2009
SURVEY SHOWS LARGE FIRMS HAVE FEW WOMEN AMONG TOP RAINMAKERS-- Law.com, http://www.law.com, Oct. 28, 2009.
The article is by Gina Passarella of The Legal Intelligencer. In the four years that National Association of Women Lawyers has conducted its National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms, there has been very little change in the data. Nearly the same number of women are on management committees and in leadership positions as when the survey began and the numbers are small compared to the numbers of women entering the profession in the last two decades, according to the survey released Monday [Oct. 26]. For the first time this year, NAWL asked firms about their key rainmakers and found very few were women. According to the survey results, 46 percent of large law firms have no women at all among their top 10 rainmakers. Almost another third, or 32 percent, have only one woman on that list. About 72 percent of large firms have no women at all among the top five rainmakers in the firm, the survey results showed.
--Lawyer Ethics/Legal Discipline--
CORAL GABLES CITY ATTORNEY CLEARED OF ETHICS CHARGES-- The Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Oct. 29, 2009.
Coral Gables City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez did not violate ethics laws when she suggested that an employee hire a specific lawyer in a case involving the city, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust ruled Monday [Oct. 26]. Procurement Supervisor Danilo Benedit -- who last year wore a wire to help police catch the former city manager's attempt to cover up credit card charges and then filed a lawsuit against the city claiming retaliation -- filed ethics complaints earlier this year against Hernandez. He alleged that her suggestion to hire a lawyer to defend him was not in the best interest of the city. Benedit also had filed a complaint with The Florida Commission on Ethics for the same charges, but the state commission dropped the charges in January.
--Judiciary--
CRIST PUTS HOLD ON GADSDEN COUNTY COUNTY APPOINTMENT-- Tallahassee Democrat, http://www.tallahassee.com, Oct. 29, 2009.
Gov. Charlie Crist has placed a hold on a recent appointment to the Gadsden County Court, according to a news release from his office late Wednesday [Oct. 28]. Staff recommended the hold because of a personal financial question, Erin Isaac, the governor's communications director said. On Tuesday [Oct. 27], Crist announced the appointment of Kathy Garner, 50, of Quincy as the newest Gadsden County judge. When contacted Wednesday night, Garner said she was unaware of a hold. The news release did not use Garner's name, but rather said, "Gadsden County Court appointee."
--Civil Justice Issues--
APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS $24 MILLION ASBESTOS DECISION-- The Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Oct. 29, 2009.
A Florida appeals court Wednesday [Oct. 28] overturned a 2008 decision to award a Weston doctor more than $24 million for exposure to brake pads made with asbestos and ordered a new trial. A Third District Court panel reversed the judgment against Honeywell International, the parent company of Bendix, which made the brake pads that were blamed for causing Stephen E. Guilder's rare and fatal cancer, peritoneal mesothelioma, an ailment which affects the abdominal lining. Before Guilder's days as surgeon, he worked with those pads as a teenager on his stepfather's farm in the 1970s and '80s. In April 2008, a Miami-Dade County jury awarded him and his family $24.2 million, saying that Honeywell was negligent in selling the pads. Guilder died in September at the age of 52. The panel found four reasons to reverse the case, one of which involved the $10.4 million of the award that would go to Guilder's children for the loss of a parent. The panel found that the statute regarding this only applied to negligent acts after Oct. 1, 1988, and said the children shouldn't be compensated since Guilder's last known exposure to asbestos was 1982.
--Criminal Justice Issues--
FLORIDA JUSTICES STAY EXECUTION OF POLK TRIPLE-KILLER-- The News Chief, http://www.newschief.com, Oct. 29, 2009.
The article is from The Associated Press.The Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution of a triple killer from Polk County on Wednesday [Oct. 28] after expressing frustration over a death warrant Gov. Charlie Crist signed in response to the Polk sheriff's request and a petition campaign. Crist signed the warrant while Paul Beasley Johnson still had appeals pending. That put the high court in a "difficult position," Justice Barbara Pariente said at the start of oral argument in one of those appeals just a week before Johnson's scheduled Nov. 4 execution. The justices did not immediately rule on the appeal. They ordered the indefinite stay seven hours after the argument, writing that it's needed to give the high court time to "consider significant issues raised" in the appeal. Johnson, 60, was convicted of fatally shooting Polk County sheriff's Deputy Theron A. Burnham and two other people - William Evans and Darrell Ray Beasley - 28 years ago.
TOO FAT TO KILL? FLORIDA MAN USES WEIGHT AS A DEFENSE-- Central Florida News 13, http://www.cfnews13.com, Oct. 29, 2009.
A Florida man accused of killing his former son-in-law in New Jersey says he was too fat to have committed the crime. When Edward Ates takes the stand in his own defense today, he's expected to tell jurors he didn't have the energy to accurately shoot Paul Duncsak and make a quick getaway. Ates was 62 years old, 5 feet 8 and 285 pounds when Duncsak was killed in 2006. Duncsak and Ates' daughter were involved in a bitter custody dispute after their divorce.
[Revised: 10-30-2009]
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