Checking In: Sept. 4, 2018

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Ann Marie Holder has joined Colombo, Kitchin, Dunn, Ball & Porter, LLP in Greenville, N.C., as an associate attorney. Holder has worked in big and small firm practices, public counsel service, and the Governor’s Legal Counsel Office. Holder will practice in the areas of administrative law, estate and trust planning and administration, contract disputes and commercial litigation. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.

 

 

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Checking In: Aug. 18, 2018

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James King has joined Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP as an associate based in its Raleigh office. King will join the firm’s Medical Malpractice Practice Group. King previously worked in the general litigation practice of a law firm in Greensboro. Prior to joining CSH Law, he worked on a variety of matters including the defense of medical malpractice claims and professional licensing board investigations.  King is a North Carolina native and a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, with honors.

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Avoid a Benchslap: Four Writing Tips You Ignore At Your Peril

By Abigail Perdue

Above the Law’s founder, David Lat, has been credited with coining the term “benchslap” in 2004.[1] It generally refers to a particularly scathing insult from a judge to an attorney, litigant, or on occasion, another judge.

Benchslaps occur in many forms and for many reasons. For example, in Mannheim Video v. County of Cook, a Seventh Circuit panel “benchslapped” counsel by pointing out that the “ostrich-like tactic of pretending that potentially dispositive authority against a litigant’s contention does not exist is as unprofessional as it is pointless.”[2] Likewise, in denying a motion for disqualification, a U.S. District Court Judge concluded that the Defendants “aspire[d] to be magicians. . . . [L]ike David Copperfield’s tricks, their motion [was] nothing but smoke and mirrors.”[3] He expressed doubt that counsel had “adequately research[ed] the case law”[4] and warned them to “think twice before filing such a baseless motion” or “risk being sanctioned.”[5]

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