Notable & quotable

Legal dispatches from all over

By Jeffrey Miller

Free expression — Extra-legal relief — Her constitution proved stronger than theirs

What saved me is not the law I study in university, but my screaming.

A law student at Beijing University describes her run-in with police after she used her cell phone to snap photos in the Tianjin railway station. The student tweeted (on the Chinese version of Twitter) that there was a bottleneck in the station which had left her and other passengers standing in the biting wind.

Meanwhile, government officials sashayed directly to their “soft-berth” car down a path cleared for them. “This,” the student said, “was the so-called ‘traffic control.’”

Outraged, she started taking photos of the privileged “cadre.” Police confiscated her phone and tried to detain her. The student resisted, prompting an officer to scoff,“You are a law student? Don’t make me laugh. In my opinion, you don’t even know law. I tell you what, even the journalists here have to get my permission first in order to take pictures.” He grabbed the student’s hand and she screamed, “The police are beating me!” This prompted an outcry from other passengers and the police retreated.

As any good barrister will tell you, good advocacy has only a little to do with law.

Firearms — Regulation — Bringing back the Wild West ... to the Midwest

“We believe Mr. Tribble’s suit reflects the fact that the fundamental right of self-protection does not end at an arbitrary boundary.”

Al Baker, Legal Liaison and Idaho State Director for Students for Concealed Carry, supports a law student’s attempt to strike down
a handgun ban in student housing.

On his lawsuit website (UIguncase.com), Aaron Tribble, 36, explains he was surprised to learn that the University of Idaho in Moscow requires students to store their firearms in the campus police station. Claiming the rule contravenes his right to bear arms under the U.S. and Idaho’s constitutions, Tribble says he wants to live in on campus housing “while being able to lawfully possess a firearm in defense of [my] family without the threat of expulsion or other academic sanctions.” His pleadings rely on recent U.S. Supreme Court cases striking down gun regulations in Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

Legal profession — Good charcter — Because you didn’t admit it when we admitted you but you admitted it to them, we won’t re-admit you so they can admit you too

“Have you ever, either as an adult or a juvenile, been cited, arrested, taken into custody, charged with, indicted, convicted or tried for, or pleaded guilty to, the commission of any felony or misdemeanor or the violation of any law, except minor parking violations, or been the subject of any juvenile delinquency or youthful offender proceeding?

Question on the application form for the law school at St. John’s University, a New York institution affiliated with the Catholic Church

About to enter the winter term of his second year in the school, David Peters contacted the state bar’s character and fitness committee to determine if a 1999 conviction for drug possession would stymie his call to the bar. When he asked the university for a letter of support, it refused and expelled him, explaining he had not disclosed on his admission application that he’d pleaded down to the possession charge from a charge of selling LSD.

Powers is no ordinary law student. At 32, he is a certified public accountant who, while on leave from the law school (where he had an annual scholarship worth $20,000 U.S.), managed a $2-billion investment fund for a Hong Kong accountancy. He completed his sentence of in-patient rehab in 2000 and served three years of probation, after which his criminal conviction was expunged. Now he is suing the university for the student equivalent of wrongful dismissal.

Legal profession — Good character — Board battle banishes budding barrister’s bar bid

“Y ou might as well paint targets on your back and hide because if you ever leave your unit again, you run the risk of being shot by the residents in the building.”
A would-be lawyer e-mails his condo board about a proposed fee increase.

While advocacy can call for extreme measures (see above, Free expression — Extra-legal relief), an officer of the court should mind the law’s margins. A 29-year-old all-but-called law grad found this out the hard way, after completing law school near the top of his class and articling at a well-known Toronto firm.

During law school, as president of his condominium board, the man waged war with other board members over condo fees. He sent them scary e-mails and forged a
letter, supposedly from a private eye, alleging that, among other things, they had committed crimes and taken favours from condo management. Police charged him with criminal harassment, intimidating a witness, threatening death, and failure to comply with an undertaking.
 
The charges were diverted after the man apologized and made a $250 charitable donation in his victims’ names. But a Law Society of Upper Canada fitness panel found, 2:1, that it was premature to consider him for admission to the Ontario Bar. (He denied the forgery until five days before his conduct hearing.) The man has taken anger management courses, repudiated his condo advocacy, and appealed the panel’s ruling.

Writer/translator/lawyer Jeffrey Miller (jeffreymiller.ca) teaches law and literature at the University of Western Ontario. His latest book (in preparation) is Stan of Green’s Bagels: A Novel in Eight Recollections.

 Published in National Magazine's 2011 Student Edition. More articles from this issue:
http://www.cba.org/cba/PracticeLink/careerbuilders_students/