Thomas Scheffey

April 27, 2012 | Law.com

Yale Law School professor Amy Chua ignited a controversy about parenting last year with her memoir The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and has since visited some of the countries where the book became a best-seller. In this Q&A she shows herself to be iconoclastic and insightful in discussing the reaction to the book and her love of the law.

By Thomas Scheffey

6 minute read

April 08, 2002 | Law.com

Connecticut lawyer Beth Ann Carpenter has said she feared courtroom work, finding it "very intimidating." But last week she was in the thick of it -- sometimes in tears -- as the star witness at her own murder-for-hire case, joining the battle to keep her from a life prison sentence. Carpenter is accused of convincing her former law office boss and lover to hire a hit man to kill her brother-in-law in 1994.

By Thomas Scheffey

6 minute read

October 23, 2006 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Eight years ago, under the state Supreme Court's ruling in Ireland v. Ireland, divorced parents with custody of their children gained new freedom to leave Connecticut and pursue more promising opportunities. But effective this month, Ireland has been replaced by a statutory test that some family lawyers believe will make it harder for the custodial parent, typically the mother, to relocate to a distant state.

By THOMAS SCHEFFEY

5 minute read

May 17, 2002 | Law.com

A lawsuit involving a Shell Oil marketing company may push the envelope of ordinary civil litigation before the case even goes to court. At issue is a "prejudgment remedy" lien -- a legal tool used in New England states to make property illiquid, but easy to seize to pay a judgment, when there's probable cause the court action will succeed. Now a New Haven, Conn., judge must decide whether to allow discovery during PJR proceedings.

By Thomas Scheffey

5 minute read

November 29, 2010 | Connecticut Law Tribune

'Ugh. Not another committee....' The year was 1977. Yale Law School Professor Ellen A. Peters had a phone call from Jay W. Jackson, Gov. Ella Grasso's counsel. Jackson wouldn't say precisely why he wanted to meet with her, but Peters thought she had a pretty good idea. In those days, she says, "there were not so many women who were lawyers, and academics in particular were eligible for lots of committees." The idea of adding a new obligation had little appeal. "I really came within a hair of saying, 'Thanks but no thanks,' without talking to him,'" Peters admits.

By THOMAS SCHEFFEY

8 minute read

March 05, 2002 | Law.com

The very phrase "Rule Against Perpetuities" strikes fear in the hearts of law students -- an arcane common law rule limiting how long an interest in property can remain in trust limbo. While you can't live forever, and you can't take it with you, in more and more states the rich can leave money to "dynastic" trusts that take on lives of their own. And to keep the business of the ultra-rich, Connecticut may be ready to modify the rule.

By Thomas Scheffey

5 minute read

January 19, 2001 | Law.com

For plaintiffs' lawyers across the country, Allstate Insurance's aggressive "Do I Need an Attorney" campaign discourages accident victims from hiring lawyers. So far, 47 plaintiffs in 22 states have filed lawsuits against the company, claiming they trusted Allstate and are worse off for doing so. Now, a federal judge in Hartford, Conn., is considering granting national class action status in one such action.

By Thomas Scheffey

5 minute read

June 07, 2013 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Jeffrey A. Meyer, a former federal prosecutor who teaches constitutional and environmental law, has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for Connecticut. Meyer, on the faculty of Quinnipiac University School of Law, will fill the vacancy created by the death of Judge Mark R. Kravitz, upon confirmation.

By Thomas Scheffey

3 minute read

January 31, 2002 | Law.com

Lawyers representing Pakistani-born Arif Durrani are attempting to have his arms-dealing conviction overturned so he can rejoin his American wife and children in the U.S. During his 1987 trial in Connecticut, Durrani's lawyers weren't allowed to present his most dramatic defense -- that he was working for Lt. Col. Oliver North in a covert arms-for-hostages deal.

By Thomas Scheffey

5 minute read

June 04, 2001 | Law.com

Clarence Burns was furious when he found his son and three other boys making bombs in his Bristol, Conn., basement. He yelled at the boys to "find something else to do," and that somebody could have a hand blown off. The boys went to another house. There, 15-year-old Ryan DiBiase detonated a bomb and later bled to death. DiBiase's mother is now appealing a ruling that no judge or jury could find Burns willfully caused the boy to be injured.

By Thomas Scheffey

4 minute read