Brian Katkin reports that some real estate lawyers forecast a boom in business from the financial crisis. Venture capitalists looking for bargains have already dumped millions into investment funds designed to capitalize on real estate prices. The thinking is, when commercial real estate bottoms out, the VC's will strike hard, and that means they'll need lawyers -- lots of them -- to put together deals to snatch up distressed properties.
When Supreme Court Justices die, they get to choose what to do with the heaps of official and private papers they accumulated while on the bench. Hugo Black burned many of his. Thurgood Marshall's were made public soon after his death, infuriating some of his colleagues. Warren Burger refused to allow his papers to be released until 21 years after his death (2026). As Tony Mauro reports, last week the family of William Rehnquist handed over the former chief justice's papers to the Hoover Institution at Stanford. Under the institution's rules, his early cases --including Roe v. Wade -- and all his correspondence will be made public within weeks are months. His more recent cases files will be socked away until all the justices who served on this high court with him are deceased.
The trial of Sen Ted Stevens has been nothing if not weird, reports Michael Scarcella: A federal judge sanctioning prosecutors for misconduct; jurors complaining of "violent outbursts" from one of their peers; another juror leaving suddenly to be with her family after hearing news of her father's death. It's been an unusual ride, and today, the jury begins its deliberations anew. (The parties decided to replace the grieving juror with an alternate.) Here's Scarcella's post on the issue this morning. Check back with BLT today for more updates.
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