John G. Browning News
Legally Speaking: Maybe our teachers were right, after all
The longer I practice law, the more I appreciate the importance of fundamentals—you know, the golden rule, “treat others as you’d like to be treated” kind of principles.
Legally Speaking: Who's teaching your children? You might be shocked
The recently-released movie “The Company You Keep,” directed by and starring Robert Redford, examines what happens when an investigative journalist reveals the hidden Weather Underground past of a mild-mannered Albany attorney implicated in a botched bank robbery in the 1970s during which a security guard was killed.
Legally Speaking: Protecting the furry members of the family
The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that owners of companion animals cannot recover non-economic damages from those who killed their pets.
Legally Speaking: Are faith and professional duty reconcilable?
Recently, a case came to my attention about lawyers embroiled in a national controversy.
Legally Speaking: Not your typical day in court
There are days when things proceed with the same dreary predictable pace in the legal world. Mundane pleadings are filed, arguments made dozens if not hundreds of times before are recited as if by rote, and a judge processes the case in an almost assembly-line fashion before disposing of it with the bang of a gavel.
Legally Speaking: Still more disorder in the court
There seems to be a never-ending flow of weirdness permeating the justice system, as regular readers of “Legally Speaking” know.
Legally Speaking: Free legal advice, from people who learned the hard way
Someday, I’ll be tempted to write a book full of practical advice for young lawyers just starting out in their careers.
Legally Speaking: The lighter side of the law
Sometimes, it seems as though the cases that move through the criminal and the civil sides of the legal system run from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Legally Speaking: Jury service -- doing justice for Texas
As a trial lawyer who makes his living in the courtroom, I know and appreciate the sacrifice made by the people in the jury box.
Legally Speaking: They blazed a trail-The first African American lawyers
In February 2013—African-American Heritage Month—it’s easy to grow complacent about the strides made by blacks in the legal profession. After all, the president of the United States is African-American and a former president of the Harvard Law Review. The U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is African-American, as is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Legally Speaking: You always have the right to remain strange
Last week, we looked at some of the odder laws and lawsuits in courts around the globe.
Legally Speaking: Legal weirdness knows no borders
As many readers know, many of my columns point out the stranger goings-on in our legal system, with an occasional sprinkling of the odder moments in civil and criminal cases in foreign countries thrown in for a little international flavor.
Legally Speaking: Lance Armstrong and the race to the courthouse
Lance Armstrong’s long-awaited confession to Oprah Winfrey that he doped during his years of competitive cycling—years that saw him win the Tour de France seven times—will have far-ranging repercussions.
Legally Speaking: Love at first cite
There are many problems with legal education, ranging from its costs to its lack of emphasis on the practical skills a school’s graduates will need in the real world to the comparative lack of transparency of many law schools’ placement efforts.
Legally Speaking: The Justie Awards of 2012
Another year down, another year to look forward to the good, the bad, the ugly, and the just plain weird of the legal world.
Legally Speaking: Festivus for the rest of us?
Every year, it seems there are high-profile civil liberties lawsuits in which municipalities are criticized for supposedly blurring the lines between church and state with Nativity scenes on government property. But agitating for equal time for “Festivus,” the made-up holiday immortalized by TVs “Seinfeld”?
Legally Speaking: Lawyers are people, too
As a lawyer, you’re a member of a profession that’s held to a higher standard in your work life.
Legally Speaking: Some defenses never rest – even when they should
As I contemplated the bounty of another Thanksgiving, I paused to reflect and give thanks for the many blessings given to me: a loving family, good health, a successful career, and an abundance of idiots and oddballs in the legal system to give me a steady supply of material for my column.
Legally Speaking: That could have gone better
This is a reprint of a "Legally Speaking" column that first appeared in the Southeast Texas Record on Nov. 14, 2011.
Legally Speaking: Lawsuits you just won't believe
As readers of “Legally Speaking” know, I frequently report on some of the more bizarre lawsuits out there.