Thomas Scheffey

October 05, 2001 | Law.com

The trouble started the day a Meriden, Conn., newspaper reporter noticed on-duty highway workers watching a video by "shock jock" Howard Stern, replete with references to genitalia. The all-male crew joked about it with the one woman in the office. At the time, it didn't seem like the kind of incident that would lead to a three-day federal trial and a jury award of $275,000 for gender-based discrimination and retaliation.

By Thomas Scheffey

4 minute read

February 15, 2002 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Advocate Michael D. O`Connell, of Hartford`s O`Connell, Flaherty & Atmore, had a daunting task, convincing the Supreme Court that its own prior decisions prevent it from drawing the lines for sex discrimination in a hot case.

By THOMAS SCHEFFEY Law Tribune Staff Writer

3 minute read

September 22, 2000 | Law.com

In the words of Marybeth Peters, the U.S.'s Register of Copyrights, "today we find ourselves in a situation where states can infringe copyrights, patents, and trademarks with impunity." While college students feverishly download music from the Internet -- with questionable legality -- state universities suddenly have the power to publish textbooks on Web sites and not have to pay for the infringement.

By Thomas Scheffey

3 minute read

December 11, 2001 | Law.com

The courts may be open to all, but sometimes they're no place for children. For example, a fourth grade class on a field trip was waiting to hear arguments at the Connecticut Supreme Court, but an upcoming case was "very sexually explicit," according to the court's marshal. What's a court to do? Connecticut took to posting warnings about the cases' content outside its public courtrooms.

By Thomas Scheffey

4 minute read

April 05, 2000 | Law.com

Federal prosecutors dropped their prosecution of Connecticut criminal defense lawyer M. Donald Cardwell on money-laundering charges. They took two months to do so after a stinging rebuke from the bench, and never conceded that criminal witnesses with powerful motives to lie may have misled them.

By Thomas Scheffey

5 minute read

April 18, 2000 | Law.com

Over the past decade, no Freedom of Information case was more widely publicized in Connecticut than the election-eve battle by The Hartford Courant for the police report of an April 1994 domestic disturbance involving soon-to-be governor John G. Rowland and his ex-wife. Despite Rowland's personal FOI battle, as governor he's been a consistent force for open government.

By Thomas Scheffey

3 minute read

July 25, 2000 | Law.com

The DeWALT name made history in the 1990s with the surging popularity of its rugged yellow power tools. As its yellow turned to gold, DeWALT began to jealously guard its trade dress, sending warning letters to perceived competitors, including Stanley Tool Works. After much saber-rattling, Stanley struck first, asking for a declaratory judgment that its use of yellow and black did not infringe DeWALT's intellectual property.

By Thomas Scheffey

4 minute read

January 28, 2002 | Connecticut Law Tribune

In the precious metals room at Bloomfield`s J.M. Ney Com-pany, chemist Hue Hoac fills three beakers, each the size of a drinking glass with gold, silver and platinum shot, to show a visitor how strangely dense these heavy metals are.

By THOMAS SCHEFFEY

10 minute read

August 20, 1999 | Law.com

In big national cases, local counsel are often figureheads -- left with little or no role in the actual trial. But while Los Angeles and New York lawyers played the leading roles in Bristol Technology's federal antitrust suit against Microsoft this summer, the Connecticut "seconds" on both sides of this duel did a lot more than simply pass the ammunition. Though the roles of the seasoned lawyers were parallel, their views of the trial diverge diametrically.

By Thomas Scheffey

9 minute read

June 21, 2002 | Connecticut Law Tribune

This fall, Connecticut bankruptcy lawyer G. Eric Brunstad is scheduled to argue a case at the U.S. Supreme Court that could be worth billions to his client, NextWave Communications, in its battles with the Federal Communica-tions Commission.

By Thomas Scheffey

4 minute read