Judicial Notice (02.12.22): Things Fall Apart
A top plaintiffs' firm gets taken to the woodshed, a $40 billion acquisition gets taken down by regulators, and other legal news from the week that was.
This weekend, Zach and I had our first overnight guests since moving out to the suburbs last July: my former Above the Law colleague Kashmir Hill, now at the New York Times; her husband Trevor Timm, co-founder and executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation; and their two daughters. It was wonderful to catch up and hear about what they’ve been up to, including Kash using location trackers to monitor Trevor’s every move, as well as her forthcoming book.
Ahead of their arrival, I baked up a storm. I made blueberry-chocolate muffins, as well as two batches of chocolate chip cookies. Protip: chill the dough before baking.
Now, on to the news—such as it was in this relatively slow week.
Lawyer of the Week: Samuel Bickett.
In 2019, Samuel Bickett, then a lawyer for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, came to the aid of a teenager he saw being beaten by a man with a baton. Unfortunately, the attacker turned out to be an undercover police officer, and Bickett was convicted for assaulting a police officer—even though he was simply defending himself when the officer turned on him. (That’s a short summary; the complete facts are more outrageous.)
Bickett’s fight to overturn his conviction has been watched around the world as a bellwether for the future of democracy and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Alas, the outcome of his case so far does not bode well.
On Tuesday, a Hong Kong High Court judge dismissed Bickett’s appeal to overturn his conviction, sending him back to prison to serve the rest of his four-month sentence. Even though he has just a few weeks left on his sentence, meaning he could finish his sentence soon and try to move on with his life, Bickett announced that he intends to appeal today’s ruling as a matter of principle.
Good luck to Bickett as he continues to do what lawyers around the world are bound to do: stand up for justice and the rule of law. His plight is a reminder that we can’t take democracy and the rule of law for granted. If interested, you can follow his case—and help defray his legal costs—through his Twitter feed.
Runner-up for Lawyer of the Week: Professor Franz Werro of Georgetown Law, who addressed an Asian-American student in his class as “Mr. Chinaman.” Werro issued an apology, and I agree with Chris Williams of Above the Law that Professor Werro, a non-native English speaker, appears to have spoken out of ignorance rather than animus. But I also agree with Williams that video of the incident is jarring, and I share his curiosity about why these controversies always seem to involve Georgetown Law. See also Sandra Sellers and Ilya Shapiro.
I still think my alma mater is the number-one law school for over-the-top drama. But Zach’s is giving mine a run for its money….
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Original Jurisdiction to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.