Celia Cohen

February 14, 2001 | Law.com

"America is still two nations -- one black, one white, separate and unequal," said University of Delaware law professor Leland Ware. In a speech last Thursday, Ware lambasted Delaware's Neighborhood Schools Act. While legislators say it is intended to let students attend schools close to home, Ware warned it could lead to resegregation if a Wilmington-only school district is created.

By Celia Cohen

3 minute read

August 24, 1999 | Law.com

Drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. has won a case to keep rival SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals Co. from selling a chicken pox vaccine in the United States and Canada for three years. It's just hard to know why. Trade secrets were at stake, so the opinion filed Aug. 5 was sealed. Merck went to court almost three years ago to complain that SmithKline, located in Philadelphia, had misappropriated and misused trade secrets, thereby damaging its marketing prospects for the vaccine sold under the name Varivax.

By Celia Cohen

2 minute read

September 07, 1999 | Law.com

Venturing into terra incognita on computer-assisted crime, a federal judge last week pronounced a sentence for a fired chemistry researcher, convicted of downloading hundreds of child pornography images onto his office computer. U.S. sentencing guidelines call for a harsher sentence for anyone convicted of child pornography and possessing 10 or more "books, magazines, periodicals, films, videos or other items." The judge decided to consider each computer file as an item, which surpassed the 10-mark.

By Celia Cohen

2 minute read

October 23, 2000 | Law.com

Voluntary mediation has gained the support of both judges and attorneys in Delaware Chancery Court, where it has been on the books for about two years. It potentially saves the enormous time and cost of a trial and, for attorneys, has the added attraction of being subject to a judge's guidance, rather than the capricious whims of a jury.

By Celia Cohen

6 minute read

July 31, 2001 | Law.com

A federal judge in Wilmington, Del., found that First Union Corp. manipulated the bank's severance plan to deny benefits to an employee who lost her job in a merger. Although First Union contended that Janet D. Frieberg wasn't eligible for severance because she wouldn't accept a comparable position, the bank had planned to reduce the salary for the position three days after the severance plan closed.

By Celia Cohen

4 minute read

October 26, 1999 | Law.com

A maximum 18-month sentence for breaking supervised release set off Joseph E. Funk, a suspended attorney with a gun-and-drug record, against a federal judge. "I made one little mistake," Funk said. "I don't think that's justice. I don't think this court's been fair to me. I think this court has treated me like Nazi Germany treated the Jewish people." The judge told Funk he was welcome to his opinion. Then he went to his chambers, and Funk in his white prison jumpsuit and handcuffs went to jail.

By Celia Cohen

3 minute read

August 16, 2000 | Law.com

The wig jokes can stop now. William Prickett finally got the message that his fellow lawyers really, REALLY are against the one-man campaign he has been conducting behind the scenes to persuade them to wear robes when they appear before the Delaware Supreme Court.

By Celia Cohen

7 minute read

March 01, 2001 | Law.com

"We don't usually invite parties to litigation to come talk [about their cases]," said Alan Garfield, a Widener University School of Law professor. But students and faculty were eager to hear from one of the most famous litigants to appear on last year's U.S. Supreme Court docket, and invited James Dale, famous as "the gay Boy Scout," to speak on campus and add a human face to legal theory.

By Celia Cohen

6 minute read

January 07, 2002 | The Legal Intelligencer

U.S. District Judge Roderick R. McKelvie, a mainstay of the intellectual property docket that flourishes in Delaware, said yesterday that he would leave the bench at the end of May and return to private practice.

By celia cohen

5 minute read

May 31, 2000 | Law.com

The Delaware Supreme Court came out firing on a question of how to protect the rights of parents seeking programs for disabled children. The issue before the court: Should special-education advocates be able to represent parents during state Education Department hearings, or should the representation be banned as the unauthorized practice of law?

By Celia Cohen

5 minute read