Legal ethics odds and ends (February 29, 2012)

• Patent Math (David Healey) looks at some recent disqualification cases in patent law.

• Bloomberg: Lynne Stewart's appeal of her 10-year jail sentence was heard yesterday. Stewart argued that she was being punished for exercising her free speech rights.

• ABA Journal: Howrey trustee needs a plan to manage huge collection of client files.

• Thomson Reuters: "Lawsuits against law schools weak: legal ed experts"  Further down in the article are some insightful comments from Douglas Rush and Mark Gergen, both law professors.

• Texas Tribune has an interesting story about a one-man operation that generates challenges to race-conscious policies. “I find the plaintiff, I find the lawyer, and I put them together, and then I worry about it for four years,” [Edward Blum] said. Blum's recent case is the challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas, which has been taken up by the SCOTUS.

• Lawfare looks at the recent ruling on the screening of mail and other attorney client communications between detainees and their lawyers.