In a 4-3 decision by the Georgia Supreme Court, Atlanta blogger Matthew Cardinale, who is not a lawyer, won a case before the Georgia Supreme Court challenging the Atlanta City Council’s vote-recording process.

We will have more on the court’s decision later in the day. You can watch the oral arguments by Cardinale and the city’s lawyer  here (or click the picture).

“Sesame Street” viewers on Thursday got to see something almost unheard of on TV: a Supreme Court justice deciding a case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was having coffee with her friend Maria when Baby Bear showed up with a complaint against Goldilocks. Sotomayor quickly changed into her black robe and heard the arguments.

Baby Bear said Goldilocks came into his house–”uninvited, mind you”–sat on his chair and broke it. Goldilocks responded she was sorry, she had been tired, the chair fit just right and it broke by accident.

“Accidents do happen,” Sotomayor mused, and suggested a settlement in which Goldilocks would help Baby Bear fix the chair with glue.

Before Maria and the justice could resume their coffee, three little pigs and a wolf showed up seeking certiorari.

There was no word on whether “Sesame Street” will get to televise March’s arguments on the health care case.

Memorial services are planned for this week for Barry Phillips, who first joined the firm that became Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in 1954 and was later its chairman. Phillips died Monday at the age of 82.

According to the firm, the family will receive friends at H.M. Patterson Spring Hill Chapel, on Wednesday, January 25th, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.  Funeral services will be held at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church on Thursday, January 26th, at 3 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Scholarship Fund, in honor of Barry Phillips at the University of Georgia Law School, 120 Herty Dr, Athens, Ga. 30602, in care of the Development Office. Donations may also be made to the American Heart Association P.O. Box 840692 Dallas, Texas 75284-0692 or www.heart.org.

Online condolences may be made at H.M. Patterson & Son-Spring Hill Chapel.

A full obituary released by the firm is below: Read more »

For the 13th year in a row, Fortune magazine has listed Atlanta-based Alston & Bird among the 100 best companies to work for.

The firm came in 24th place, tops among law firms.  Among special categories, the firm was 3rd in salary for the “most common job title”–$201,233 for associates. It was 21st in the pay  common hourly employees–$71,211 for legal secretaries. It also got a nod for an unusual perk–”learn espanol.”

“When the success of a business is predicated on the service its employees provide, it is paramount to create a workplace that rewards employee dedication – personally, professionally and financially,” said firm managing partner, Richard R. Hays, in a statement.

Update: here is a story on all four law firms that made the list, from our affiliate, the Blog of Legal Times.

This column in The New York Times tells the story of Joseph Hartinger, who in 1933 was a prosecutor for the region surrounding the new Nazi concentration camp near Dachau. After investigating suspicious deaths of Jews at the camp, he indicted the camp commandant and three others for murder.

Author Timothy Ryback, who read Hartinger’s journal, writes, “The murder indictments had a surprising impact. The commandant was removed. The killings stopped. Hartinger had hurled a legal wrench into the Nazi bureaucracy and singlehandedly paralyzed its homicidal impulse.”

The Nazis found a way around Hartinger by transferring him to another jurisdiction.

“[H] had there been more Germans like Hartinger to hold individual Nazis personally accountable  … the course of history could have taken a very different turn,” Ryback adds.

Carolyn Hax, the advice columnist for the Washington Post,  got a question from a woman who said her fiance is a 28-year-old up-and-coming lawyer at a big firm with suspended driver’s license. Read Hax’s advice, and that of her peanut gallery, here.

While the world at large remembers today as the 70^th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, it is also the 65^th anniversary of the fire at Atlanta’s Winecoff Hotel in which 119 people perished.

A search for the words “Winecoff” and “fire” on Lexis shows that the 1946 disaster prompted a flurry of litigation over insurance coverage, the appointment of a receiver for the hotel and negligence claims. Many of the cases were decided in 1947 and 1948—suggesting how fast litigation moved in those days.

Two other cases in the database show that Fulton County prosecutors ran into a tough Supreme Court of Georgia when pursuing criminal charges against the operators of the 15-story hotel (which was refurbished as The Ellis Hotel not long ago.) Read more »

The Judicial Nominating Commission has released the names submitted for openings on Superior Courts in the Stone Mountain (DeKalb), Conasauga and Eastern Judicial Circuits. These lists may include names of lawyers who decide not to go forward in the process by filling out a JNC application.

The commission typically interviews nominees and forwards a short list of candidates for consideration by Gov. Nathan Deal.

The nominees for the Stone Mountain seat are: Michael L. Rothenberg, Rebecca Crumrine, Scott Bonder, Ronald Ramsey, Tunde Akinyele, Greg Lohmeier, Leonora Grant, David R. Hughes, Claire Bradley Jason, Claudia Saari, Charles L. Webb, Lynne Borsuk, Deborah A. Johnson, La Tisha G. Dear, Brian K. Ross, Matthew McCord, W. Cliff Howard, William T. Hankins, Daryl W. Queen, Juwayn Haddad, Phyllis R. Williams, Jason Graham, Asha Jackson, Christina Cooley Smith and Celeste Findlay Brewer. Read more »

This article from The Washington Post tells how George Mason University law school is using puppies to help stressed-out students during exam period. Enjoy.

The Supreme Court of Georgia today issued the following release.

GEORGIA SUPREME COURT AMENDS FILING RULES

Atlanta, November 21, 2011 – Chief Justice Carol Hunstein announced
today that the Supreme Court of Georgia has amended two of its court rules. The
changes affect the deadlines for when documents sent by mail or commercial
carrier are considered officially filed and when “motions for reconsideration”
must be received. Read more »