Murder ...

Today was interesting, I got to walk past a large group of reporters hovering the entrance to my firm.

My firm Kabateck Brown and Kellner shares the historic Engine Co. No. 28 building with Geragos & Geragos. This firm has done many high profile criminal cases including the Michael Jackson case I posted about before. Because of the firm's reputation, celebrities have been know roam the building at random times.

Today's press attention deals with an alleged murder that occurred 27 years ago. Kazuyoshi Miura is Japanese businessman who has been recently arrested in the United States. In 1981, his wife was shot and killed in a downtown LA parking lot. He claimed that street muggers were the culprits. It was latter found out that he took out a large life insurance policy on his wife. Eventually he was tried and convicted for the murder of his wife in a Japanese courtroom and sentenced to life in prison. He served 13 years in prison, but the Tokyo High Court overturned the conviction for technical legal reasons. In the interest of justice, American authorities decided to prosecute Miura and arrest him as soon as he set foot on U.S. jurisdiction. This happened on February 22, 2008.

Senior Partner Mark Geragos recently joined the defense team and will be working on squashing the original arrest warrant.

This brings me back to today. As Margarita and I left for lunch a group of reporters were waiting around for Garagos to make a statement, but were disappointed to see only two lowly law clerks leaving the building. Part of me wanted to gather the reporters and tell them that I was the official spokesman for Geragos, just to get on TV. That would of probably got me fired, good thing I didn't.

Making News ...

The firm I work for is again making news. Sadly this time it had nothing to do with me.

The Los Angeles Times reports that lawyers for Michael Jackson were awarded $20 million in a civil case against XtraJet. The company operates chartered planes and in 2003 was hired to transport Jackson and his attorneys to Los Angeles where the pop star was scheduled to turn himself in for child molestation charges. A secret camera was installed in the plane and recorded conversations protected under attorney/client privilege. The invasion of privacy resulted in large punitive damages against XtraJet.

Brian Kabateck, senior partner where I work represented Jackson's attorneys. Maybe this means I can get a new flat screen for my office.

Random Updates for This Week

My Flickr account reverted back to basic for a couple of days and many pictures were inaccessible. I finally gave up on trying to get Andy to pay his bet and purchased an extension to my pro account myself. All pictures should be back up.

New week's resolution. Don't miss any classes (missed way too many last week). Go to gym at least five times, I have been slacking.

J.D. has his birthday bash yesterday. Since I live 0.7 miles from the party, I walked, which allowed for greater freedom in the night's festivities. Pictures here.

I purchased my plane tickets for Nicaragua. I will be gone from June 22 to July 5th 2008. This should prove to be fun. I will be meeting up with many of the women in my life Becky, Rita, and Carmen. Oddly enough, Carmen will also be in town for a wedding. I am also having a hard time finding a good deal on car rentals down there. I will post a separate entry about this later.

Found this great quote:

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

- George Orwell

So true, plus bonus points for mentioning cuttlefish. I find myself using big words whenever I want to conceal some truth. This post included. Oh well.

My first lawsuit ...

Today at work I got to finish writing my first draft of a complaint against a technology company. This is the first time I have written a lawsuit. Suing people is fun.

Humorous enough while I was accompanying my co-worker on a coffee run, I saw a car from the company we are going to be suing. I wanted to run up and serve the driver a copy of the complaint I been working on the entire day. Proper procedure aside, it was just fun to think about it.

In other news, my firm is making news with a recent filing of class action against Network Solutions and ICANN for practices related to domain front running. Here is the press release from my firm and some coverage from PC World.

This is exciting because I got to work on the complaint before it was filed. Sadly I cannot discuss the case any further. This also explains my previous use of generic terms like "technology company." Gerrr... but fun gerrr.. =)

Monday Night Party ...

Last night was fun. I decided to check out the Ivy Plus Society gathering in LA. Basically this is a group of young Ivy League and other additional elite schools alumni getting together every month at some random chic location. This month it was the Falcon.

My friend Carmen was kind enough to join me. We had dinner at Bossa Nova, a Brazilian restaurant next door to the bar. They had the best shrimp ever and Chimay beer, which made me happy. The restaurant even had a wonderful view of a strip club across the street, haha.

Afterwards we walked over to the bar and met some really interesting people. For some reason I thought that the atmosphere was going to be stuffy and dull, but people were cool and fun. My only complaint is that male/female ratio leaned towards males. Just like the old Caltech. We left a little bit before 11pm. Remember that strip club? We ended up going and spending another hour there before going home. Her idea not mine, but I didn't complaint.

I got back home late and was very tired at work the next day, but it was worth it. Carmen now owns me dinner.

It's a bitey!

Cordylus cataphractus or the armadillo girdled lizerd is endemic to the SW cape of South Africa. Dedicated to ... well you know who.





SOURCE

Wii Quest ...

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get a Nintendo Wii for my brothers. I figured that since this game console has been out for over a year it should be no problem. I was wrong.

Every single online retailer has been sold out. I was on the phone with tens of stores in the last couple of weeks with no luck. I signed up at wiialerts.com, they promise to text me when ever wiis become avaliable at a major online retailer. A couple of days ago Amazon.com has some consoles available and I was texted. It took me me 10 minutes from the time Amazon put the consoles for sale and i was able to add one to my account, too late, they sold out on 8 minutes! But I do recommend the wiialerts site.

This morning all the Targets had Wiis in stock. I woke up at 10am, in the store by 10:30am, too late. Some of the stores I went to had over 80 units, which were sold in less than an hour. You snooze, you lose. I guess I only have myself to blame.

I eventually went on to Craigs List to find somebody nearby who was selling a Wii that they surely they got this morning. They were asking $340 ($70 above retail), I caved. I felt like I was buying drugs. We met in a parking lot at a half way point from our respective homes. He inspected the cash, I inspected the console. Transaction was a success.

Since he paid for the console with cash I went back to Target returned the console and repurchased it with my credit card. Now the console has accidental insurance and extended warranty via my Amex card. I also picked up an extra remote + numchuck + game for an extra $75. Overall I spent $400 on this Wii. Supply and demand sucks, but at least I have the satisfaction of hearing them play and be merry.