Legal profession odds and ends (June 8, 2012)

• Philadelphia Business Journal: “Philadelphia law firm Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young has been accused of malpractice in a lawsuit by former client Sovereign Bank    over alleged errors in setting up $200 million in loans to the subprime lender Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.”

• BNA: "Unfinished client matters of a dissolved law firm remain its property when departing partners complete that business at other firms, even when the cases are billed by the hour rather than on a contingent fee basis, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held May 24 (Development Specialists Inc. v. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, S.D.N.Y., No. 11 civ. 5994 (CM), 5/24/12)."

• Thomsen Reuters: "Law students who graduated in 2011 faced the toughest job market in more than a decade, resulting in one of the lowest employment rates for law graduates on record, according to a report released on Monday."

• Larry Velvel (via Huffington Post): "So it is important that law schools and the law remain open to -- remain a route of advancement for -- the middle and lower economic classes. But such access is increasingly difficult to come by. The reasons have to do with elitism, failure to teach students what they need to know in order to practice, and costs." This has been an issue for me, given the recent run-up in legal tuition and the perceived loss of economic opportunity in law practice. Now that a number of schools are scaling back admissions, it would be interesting to see how the demographics change in law school, if at all.

• Isle News: "The association of Jersey solicitors known as the Chambre Des Ecrivains has recently elected a new President and a new Secretary.  Mr Philip Syvret a partner at Benest & Syvret has been elected to the post of President.  He takes over the role from Malcolm Le Boutillier who has acted as President since 2007."

• Business Day (South Africa): "Critics of the controversial Legal Practice Bill were wrong to claim that it offended the rule of law and compromised the independence of legal practitioners, Department of Justice official JB Skosana told Parliament yesterday."