#General Counsel Litigation

[legalfirminindia-blog]

General Counsel Litigation 2023: A Comprehensive Guide for Companies

What is a General Counsel Lawyer?

In today's business world, companies face many legal challenges. From contract disputes to employment law violations, businesses require skilled legal representation to navigate these complex issues. This is where a General Counsel Lawyer can prove invaluable.

As a trusted legal advisor, the General Counsel Lawyer serves as a key member of a company's executive team, providing strategic legal advice and guidance. In addition, they play a critical role in overseeing the company's litigation matters.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the role of General Counsel Lawyer in litigation and provide insights on how companies can best navigate the litigation process.

Role of General Counsel Lawyer in Litigation

The General Counsel Lawyer is responsible for managing the company's legal affairs and providing legal counsel to the company's executives. When it comes to litigation, the General Counsel Lawyer plays a crucial role in managing the litigation process from start to finish.

Their Responsibilities in Litigation Include:

Assessing the Risks: The General Counsel Lawyer must assess the risks involved in a particular litigation matter and provide guidance to the company's executives on the best course of action.

Managing the Litigation: The General Counsel Lawyer will oversee the litigation process, including managing outside counsel, developing litigation strategy, and monitoring the progress of the case.

Negotiating Settlements: In some cases, litigation can be resolved through a settlement agreement. The General Counsel Lawyer will work with outside counsel to negotiate the terms of the settlement and determine if it is in the best interest of the company.

Protecting the Company's Interests: The General Counsel Lawyer is responsible for protecting the company's interests at all times. This includes ensuring that the company is in compliance with all legal requirements and that its rights are protected throughout the litigation process.

Navigating the Litigation Process

Litigation can be a lengthy and complex process, and it is essential for companies to have a clear understanding of the process and the steps involved. Here are some key steps in navigating the litigation process:

Identifying the Issue: The first step in navigating the litigation process is to identify the issue that needs to be addressed. This could be a contract dispute, an employment law issue, or a regulatory matter.

Assessing the Risks: Once the issue has been identified, the General Counsel Lawyer will assess the risks involved and provide guidance to the company's executives on the best course of action.

Developing a Litigation Strategy: If litigation is necessary, the General Counsel Lawyer will work with outside counsel to develop a litigation strategy that best serves the company's interests.

Discovery: The discovery process involves gathering information and evidence from the other party involved in the litigation. The General Counsel Lawyer will oversee this process and work with outside counsel to ensure that all necessary information is obtained.

Trial: If the case goes to trial, the General Counsel Lawyer will work closely with outside counsel to present the company's case in court and protect the company's interests.

Best IPR Law Firms in India

In addition to general litigation matters, companies also need to protect their intellectual property rights. Intellectual property includes trademarks, patents, and copyrights, which are essential assets for many businesses.

The Best IPR law Firms in India provide legal services related to intellectual property protection and enforcement. These firms have skilled attorneys who specialize in the field of intellectual property law and can help companies protect their valuable intellectual property rights.

Some of the top IPR law firms in India include Anand and Anand, Remfry & Sagar, and Khaitan & Co. These firms have a wealth of experience in handling complex intellectual property matters and have a proven track record of success.

Building a Litigation Strategy:

The general counsel is responsible for creating a litigation strategy that aligns with the company's goals and budget. The strategy should involve assessing the potential risks of litigation, evaluating the strength of the case, and analyzing the available resources. The general counsel should also determine whether to settle or go to trial, and if the latter, what arguments to make and how to present the case. They may work with outside counsel to build a winning strategy and provide guidance on the company's position on various legal issues.

Managing Disputes:

The general counsel is responsible for managing disputes and maintaining relationships with external parties, including opposing counsel and regulatory agencies. They may negotiate settlements, participate in mediation or arbitration, and engage in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques to avoid lengthy and costly litigation. They may also oversee the work of outside counsel, ensuring that they are providing high-quality legal representation in accordance with the company's needs and budget.

IPR Disputes:

In addition to general litigation matters, the general counsel may be responsible for managing the company's intellectual property rights (IPR) disputes. These disputes may involve patent infringement, trademark violations, or copyright infringement. The general counsel may work with outside counsel who specialize in IPR litigation to develop and implement a strategy for protecting the company's intellectual property rights.

Conclusion:

General counsel litigation is a critical role in any organization. The general counsel is responsible for managing the company's legal affairs and ensuring that the company complies with applicable laws and regulations. They also help develop and execute litigation strategies and manage disputes. With their expertise, the general counsel plays an essential role in protecting the company's interests and reputation. Companies should prioritize hiring experienced general counsel lawyers to ensure they have the necessary expertise to effectively manage litigation matters.

[kaurwreck]

One of my law professor once said, "You're a lawyer defending your case. There's gotta be blood. It has to be bloody because you're not nice. You shouldn't be nice. You're a lawyer. And you're here to win your case." and although im aware that he said it mostly as a joke—before he said that he pointed one of my classmate to tell him how they'd defend their company in the face of lawsuit and got a little disappointed with how tame my classmate answer was—i can't help but be curious of your thought on that as someone who's working in the field

We are ethically obligated to be zealous advocates for our clients. However, it is immensely difficult to advocate for your client effectively if you've managed to make everyone else involved, including the judge and opposing counsel, angry.

To provide an example, when I was a paralegal at a plaintiff-side workers' compensation firm, opposing counsel once forced our horrifically injured client to travel an hour to our office for a settlement conference, despite not having the authorization to settle for anything close to an amount he should have recognized as reasonable. My attorney, rightfully and righteously furious, laid into him in the middle of our office, humiliating him in front of the parties and our firm. Four days later, my attorney realized we needed a deadline extension, for which we'd have to request opposing counsel's permission. Opposing counsel was gracious enough to agree to the extension, but he very well could have said no after how we spoke to him, and that would have damaged our client's case.

More recently, as a transactional attorney, I was tasked with drafting a disengagement letter addressed to a manufacturer who had failed to design the product my nonprofit client ordered to my client's specifications, which had, for lack of a better term, fucked my client re: my client's other obligations. The law and facts were on our side; if the matter went before a court, we very likely would have won, and easily at that. (For frame of reference, my client serves disadvantaged children. Even the optics were on our side.) But, my client is a nonprofit, and every penny spent on litigation would have been a penny taken from my client's mission. Thus, to zealously advocate for my client, I couldn't go balls to the wall such that the other party became incensed and filed suit or protracted our disengagement process.

You don't have to be nice, but you have to be professional, thoughtful, and strategic. You don't win lawsuits and negotiations from drawing blood. You do so by achieving the outcome that your client asked you to achieve.

[sacastillolaw]

Sergio A. Castillo, licensed Texas attorney.

Commercial and Residential Real Estate Law: Purchase and Sale Agreements, Owner Finance Documents, Foreclosures, Evictions.

Estate Planning, Wills, Probate.

Small Claims, General Counsel, Business Solutions.

[zara-renata]

Sylus makes a deal | ao3 | part 10 of the Sylus series

Summary: Sylus answers some questions, receives dating advice from a dubious source, makes a deal you can't refuse, receives a birthday invitation, and plans to take you home for the night.

Notes:

Sylux x gn!reader, Sylus x mc, second person POV, some Sylus POV, 'wingman' is used as a gender neutral term in this story This story contains: increasing absurdity, an ongoing attempt by the author to fit every single trope into one fanfic series, an agreement to date where only one of the parties knows that it's not fake, an mc with self-esteem issues, mc in deep denial, a socially oblivious mc, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers slow burn, angst, banter, fluff, yet another oc (i'm sorry but i need plot vehicles, people), hyper protective!mc, soft!sylus, and a tank

“Who is Aidan?” you ask.

It takes a moment for you to realize that Sylus is staring down at the scarlet-gold wrist linkage tying his wrist to yours. His body, tense just a moment before as you were flipping the coin, seems to relax as you ask your question—he almost melts back into the couch, and as a result, into your side, his arm still slung over your shoulder, his thigh pressed against yours. You soak up his body warmth like a sponge.

You steel yourself for his answer. You can handle anything he says, because the coin and fate have decided that you will not ghost him forever but have dictated that you will be his friend, and you’re going to be the best friend anyone could ever ask for this morally grey hurricane of a human being.

“My legal counsel,” Sylus finally responds.

“Mister Toothpaste Commercial is your… legal counsel?” you ask, as if you hadn’t heard him perfectly fine the first time.

“Mister… Toothpaste Commercial?” Sylus repeats. He turns his head to look at you, and once again, your faces are so close you can feel his warm breath along your skin. It smells pleasantly of wine, and you would like to think your palate is sophisticated enough to recognize it as one of the wines you tried the other night with him. But maybe you’re mistaken.

You nod, a little embarrassed about blurting that just now.

“Care to share why you gave him that particular nickname?”

“You know… he’s generically beautiful. And his teeth…” You bare your teeth at him, as if he needs a reminder of what teeth are. “So unsettlingly white.”

“I see.” Sylus eyes your bared teeth, face impassive. “You think he’s beautiful?”

“Don’t you?”

Sylus tilts his head. “I think his face is useful for what I need him for.”

“Ah yes, Cryptic Crime Sylus only thinks in terms of cost-benefit and utility when evaluating other humans. Forgive me for asking.” You lean your head back, settling onto his pillowy bicep. If being friends with Sylus means you can still use him as a human pillow, you tell yourself that’s a pretty good deal.

“Yeah. Okay. So Aidan is your legal counsel… is that… all he is?” you ask, hoping Sylus will get the hint without you having to ask this embarrassing question out loud. You’re just curious, that’s all. Learning about your newest friend, and his friends—or lovers.

Sylus considers you for a moment, and then flexes his bicep so that your head is gently jostled toward his shoulder, and you slide even deeper into his side. “Well, he does wet work on occasion, but it’s not his primary function. Just don’t tell anybody I told you that. He would be… displeased.”

Your brain stalls out for a second. “You mean that guy kills for you?”

Sylus nods serenely. “When necessary. He doesn’t like getting his shoes dirty, though, so I rarely ask him. He thinks that because I can remove blood stains with a snap of my fingers, I should be the one to personally handle situations that require elimination, which is a fair point. He’s far better at drafting ironclad non-disclosure agreements and litigation than the other aspects of his position with me.”

You don’t even know why you’re surprised. Why would Sylus have anyone not homicidal in his inner circle?

“Okay… but is he.. anything else to you?” you look up at him expectantly. “Like, is he… your partner?”

Sylus tilts his head again. “Partner? No, he’s not a partner. I have him on exclusive retainer, so he might as well have shares in the business with how much he charges me, but it’s not technically a partnership.”

You grimace. Exclusive retainer? Is that some sort of euphemism? Like a professional, monogamous fuck buddy? Are you being insane by reading way too much into his answers? You can’t bring yourself to ask him outright yet. This line of questioning is getting you nowhere.

“And… the… woman… who was with Kieran and Luke? Who is she? For you?” You cringe internally, but do your very best to appear completely indifferent. You’re just chatting with a friend. Like at a sleepover. But you’re at your friend’s sexy exclusive nightclub and you’re so close to him that you can inhale the scent wafting from his neck and he smells like the safety and security of holding a loaded gun.

Sylus stares at you, and then a light bulb seems to go on in his head. “That’s Noah. She’s my newest hire,” he says slowly.

“Okay, and what does Noah… do for you?”

He narrows his eyes. “She’s a driver.”

“And is she… also on exclusive retainer for you?” You’re a bit squicked out. You don’t want to yuck anyone else’s yum but this is obviously a human resources disaster waiting to happen. And Noah looked so young .

“Kitten, if you have a question, ask.” You feel your leg bouncing up and down. Sometimes that happens when you’re wound up. Sylus lifts your linked wrists and puts his hand on your thigh. You stop jittering. “You can ask me anything.”

Fine. You take a breath. “That other guy kept asking about who your partner was… so I was just wondering. If your partner was in the room with us earlier,” you ask, the portrait of casual. Because that’s all this is. Casual interest in a friend’s romantic life. Tara bugs you enough about your own non-existent love life to the point of harassment, so you’re doing Sylus a favor by asking so discretely.

“So, the motivation behind this interrogation is your assumption that either Aidan or Noah is… my romantic partner.”  Sylus finishes your thought. The relief of him guessing what you were thinking courses through you. He’s such a good friend. You don’t even have to say everything out loud, and he just gets you.

“Yeah, since you said you were dreaming about someone the other morning, and then with the guy asking about your partner tonight, I just thought—”

Sylus interrupts you. “I actually didn’t say I was dreaming about—” but then, another thought occurs to you and you interrupt him in turn. “Or is this a polyamory thing? Sorry, I’ll try to be better about not making assumptions. Are you guys in a crime-lord, wet-work, getaway driver polycule?”

Sylus tries to rub his forehead, but his movement pulls your linked wrist up with his. He lets both of your hands drop, which come to rest on his big thigh, alarmingly close to his lap. His lap that contains certain appendages that you will immediately cleanse your memory of out of respect for your friendship . “Kitten?”

“Yes, Sylus?” You look up at him and smile reassuringly.  You’re his friend, and he can tell you anything . His secrets are safe with you.

“Let me clear up this unfortunate misunderstanding once and for all. I do not have a romantic partner right now,” he says with a gravity that’s endearing. “Do you understand?”

Your pleasure at hearing what he’s saying has nothing to do with the content of his words. You’re pleased simply because he’s fulfilling his end of the bargain and fully answering your questions and he doesn’t have a romantic partner in his life and he’s not taken and that makes you happy only because now you don’t have to feel guilty at all for the friendly position you find yourself in plastered against his big warm body and the nights he has spent with you away from, you now know, a non-existence partner whose feelings can’t be hurt by his strange fascination with interfering in your life.

That’s all. You breathe deeply in relief. Friendly relief.

But you don’t understand. Not yet. “Then why was that guy tonight asking about your partner?”

“I believe that Luke and Kieran may have given him the misinformation that he was to meet my romantic partner tonight to discuss an exclusive wine supplier deal he’s hoping to secure with us for the clubs. I then mentioned to him that you liked the bottle from his winery, and that you would be present during our discussion of the contract. He must have assumed that you were the romantic partner to whom my subordinates had alluded when you made your… dramatic entrance.”

You wince, but honestly? It felt so good to chuck the duffel bag full of feathers at Sylu. Like squeezing a cute little stress relief ball, or knocking some asshole out with just one punch.

“Maybe now you’ve learned your lesson about leaving me with feather messes to clean up,” you grumble.

Sylus plucks one such feather from his lap and lifts it with your linked hands, running it softly along your cheek. “There you go again—you assume I didn’t enjoy your little performance.” You shiver, turning your head to bite the feather. “Unfortunately for you, I’ll keep leaving them because it evokes reactions like the one from tonight.”

He smiles at you, and you jerk your head to pull the feather from his grasp with your teeth, and then puff an exhale through your lips, sending the feather into his face.

“Fine. Fill my place with feathers. See if I care.” You turn your head away from him, but don’t bother sitting up. He can talk to your hair.

“I intend to,” his voice, low and amused, sounds close to your ear.

You are so relaxed now, compared to earlier. You could almost fall asleep, right here and now. It’s late, and you’ve gone through so many emotions, just in the span of what? An hour? Hopefully with your newfound resolve, you can maintain this level of peace, even with Sylus in your life. The coin decided for you. You have nothing to worry about now, because fate has spoken. It’s out of your hands. You can do this job, the job of Sylus’s friend, as you do all the other jobs in your life so well.

Your thoughts drift over what happened earlier, and you suddenly recall  why you’re here in the first place, and wonder who he was talking about, when he was describing his type. Maybe it was just… a theoretical description of a person he’d be interested in? Maybe they don’t actually exist?

“I can tell from your body that your mind has begun to race again, sweetheart. Is there anything else you want to ask me?”

You realize that your muscles have become tense again after his comment, and force your body to relax. It works, sort of. You only feel a faint pinch in your shoulders.

You still refuse to look at him. You try really hard to think of a subtle way of asking what you want to know. You frown. Subtlety is not one of your talents. You’re more of a sledgehammer than a scalpel. Zayne can attest to that.

You know what? It’s fine. You don’t need to know this. You don’t have to know every single detail about the inner lives of your friends. Even best friends are entitled to privacy.

“Or are you too scared to ask?” Sylus sniffs derisively.

You whip your head back around.

“What?”

He slides his hand into yours, your linked wrists pressing together.

“I asked…” he enunciates. “If you are too much of a coward to ask your questions. Are you too afraid of the price for the ones you’ve already purchased?”

You scoff. “Do I strike you as someone who’s afraid of anything?”

“Oh, I don’t know. You’re not afraid of wanderers, or a fight, or getting injured. And you’re not afraid of me,” he offers you a pleased smile. “But I think that there are things that exist that scare you.”

You let a mask of indifference settle on your face. “Bullshit,” you say, lightly. You don’t have a care in the world.

“All right, then ask your questions, if you’re not afraid of the answers.” He runs his thumb down your linked wrist, and back up again.

“Were you talking about anyone in particular tonight, when the wine guy asked if Noah was your partner?”

Sylus brings your linked hands up, and rests his cheek along the back of yours. It’s so soft along your skin, with the faint burr of his stubble causing goosebumps to rise along your arms.

“Ah, is my kitten curious about who may be my type?”

You scowl at him. “Obviously, or I wouldn’t be asking.” Your heart doesn’t ache. You’re just hoping that he can have a happy ending with whoever he has feelings for. That’s what friends do.

“Then I’ll answer. In fact, I’m glad you brought it up. It has to do with why I asked you to come tonight.” He lowers your linked hands again, but tightens his arm around your shoulder.

You look at him steadily in silence. You are prepared for whatever he has to say. You will listen, and keep his secrets, and help him in any way you can, because the coin decided that you will be his friend, and you will be the best friend he has ever had. He just doesn’t know it yet.

“I do have feelings for someone. I was describing that person when I was describing my type,” he says.

You remain very still. Your muscles remain relaxed, your breath steady. You will be his vault, for all the things he wants to tell you. Immovable, and safe. You nod, once.

His pretty, strange eyes drift from yours to your mouth and up again. “Ah,” you breathe. “I thought as much.”

“Of course. Because you’re clever, and observant, and highly attuned to the needs of other people, in most respects.” You can’t help it—you smile. That’s probably one of the nicest things he’s ever said to you. See? You can be of value to him as a friend. And in return, you get to enjoy his chaotic and weirdly comforting presence in your life.

“So what does that have to do with why you asked me here tonight?”

“I think this person may be able to reciprocate my feelings, but I’m worried that they won’t trust my sincerity if I simply tell them how I feel right now.”

You wince. You definitely know, from firsthand experience, that Sylus doesn’t always make the best first impressions. “Ah, I can see how that could be the case,” you say, diplomatically. Because you’re polite .

“I’ve spent most of my adult life singularly focused on my business goals. I haven’t had much time or interest in building personal relationships with anyone.”

“Mmm, yes, of course. Very busy with very serious murdery matters. Too busy for such weak nonsense as human connection,” you nod sagely. “As is normal.”

He lifts your linked hands and gently pokes you in the forehead. “You know, after just one week of rest, you’re a lot less nice to me than the last few times I visited you.”

“I think you mean the last few times you committed breaking and entering, and also less compliant, not less nice.” You poke his forehead in turn.  “Don’t mistake being too exhausted to engage with you as me being nice. I was too tired to really spear you with my wit, but just wait. The longer we’re friends, the more you’ll learn that you need to be on your toes to handle me.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, sweetie.” He catches your finger in his palm, bringing your linked hands back to his thigh. “I guess I’ll just have to ensure that you continue to get enough sleep, then.” He slips his fingers through yours again.

“Okay. So you’ve been far too busy being his highness lord of all shady shit. What does that have to do with what you want from me?”

He sighs. “As a result, I don’t have much experience… pursuing someone. Romantically.” He looks at you expectantly.

“Okay,” you draw out the word, waiting for the request.

“I have to admit, I’ve found myself distracted recently trying to puzzle out how to move forward with this person.”

“Okay, so you’re nervous.” You tilt your head, narrowing your eyes. Is he ever going to get on with his request for you? He looks at you, frowning slightly.

You sigh. “How about you take your own advice and just ask me directly what you need from me? It’s not like you to beat around the bush.”

“I find that my preferred directness may not be the best strategy with this person--they consistently suspect that I have ulterior motives when I show them how much I care for them.”

“Okay," you draw out the word, but he just sits there, watching you carefully. For what, you have no idea. "Sylus, what do you want from me?” You finally lose your patience. “Out with it.”

“I think we can help each other out. I want you to teach me how to date someone properly, in a way that can convince them that I don't have any ulterior motives. That I mean what I say when I tell them directly that I care deeply for them, and don't intend to let them go.”

You stare at him. He stares back at you. You glance out of the corner of your eye to both sides, but the room is still empty. You’re the only one in it besides Sylus. The only one he could possibly be asking to teach him how to properly date someone.

You can’t help it. You howl. This is the funniest fucking thing you’ve ever heard. How is it that this big bad crime boss is asking you, you, who has spent most of your adult life either studying, training, or working so hard that every romantic partner that you ever went beyond a one night stand with fizzled out in either you being ghosted, you being cheated on, or you just being straight up dumped for not being around enough to conduct a proper relationship and meet their emotional needs. Especially because, you can admit, you have about the same emotional capacity for caring for a romantic partner as you do for caring for yourself: which is to say, hardly any at all. To steal Sylus’s comparison, you probably have the emotional capacity to satisfy someone in a relationship as a fucking cactus.

You wheeze, your linked hand clutching Sylus’s. You’re laughing so hard you’re going to throw up. This is the funniest shit Sylus has ever said to you. Sylus, who is asking you for help in wooing some god or goddess, someone amazing enough to attract the attention of such a ‘life is too short to settle for anything less than perfection’ snob as Sylus.

“Are you done?” he asks, sounding slightly indignant, after you manage not to throw up all over him—from the laughing, dammit, and not from the idea of helping this man have a happily-ever-after with someone who is not you. You’re his friend. You can be his wingman if that’s what he needs. You can.

Once you can breathe again, you lean back into the soft leather of the booth. “I am now,” you laugh softly, clearly lying. He glares at you. “I promise.”

“So, what will it be? If you help me with this matter, you can have that favor. No restrictions. No conditions. It might be very useful someday for you, as a Deepspace Hunter, to have the leader of Onychinus owing you an unconditional favor.”

You laugh. “Sylus, that’s very tempting, but I don’t think you understand that you’re asking the absolute worst person on earth for help in this department,” you begin, but Sylus squeezes your hand before you can go on to describe why your romantic history doesn’t inspire much confidence in the odds of success of his little proposal.

“Hmm, I guess you’re not up for the challenge.” He looks down at your clasped hands and fiddles with his thumb. “How boring. Guess I’ll just have to find someone else who can help.”

Okay, you’ve had enough sleep in the last week to realize that he’s baiting you. But you realize that you do want something from him. It's just that that what he is offering in exchange isn't what you actually want. You had already resolved to help him, as his friend. But you can leverage this situation to your advantage too. And if your ‘help’ turns out to be useless because you have no idea how to catch someone’s interest and actually keep it, well, that’s his fault for not thoroughly vetting his chosen consultant. You’ll still get the favor. And absolutely none of these considerations have anything to do with the fact that the thought of him seeking someone else to help him in this, of him replacing you for this job, makes your heart feel weird.

“All right. How do you think I can help you with this little… problem?” You snort. “And just remember, lots of men have problems just like yours, there’s no reason to feel ashamed.” You blink at him with wide eyes, the dictionary definition of sincere reassurance.

“Oh, I can assure you, like the rest of me, this problem is rather extraordinary. I doubt most men find themselves grappling with this level of… difficulty, in acquiring the confidence of their beloved.”

You don’t flinch at the word ‘beloved.’ So what if his crush is not actually a crush, but a soul-deep yearning? It doesn’t affect your role in this. Best, wingman, ever. You smile. You smile, because what else can you do?

"Ha, fine, fine. But I don't want an unconditional favor from the leader of Onychinus," you say. Surprise flickers across his face, but fades quickly into his usual mask of amused indifference.

"Speak."

"I want the slate to be clean between us, when this is over. I took your life. And then I did my best to help you win over your... your beloved. I can't guarantee results. But I promise to try. And afterwards, we'll be even, yeah?"

He watches you closely, as if trying to detect some trap in your condition, without resorting to his aether core. So you poke him in the cheek, but can’t help yourself—you then draw your fingertip down, along his stubbled jawline. It’s late enough now that you can see the slightly darker sheen of silver in his version of a five o’clock shadow, much like his eyebrows are darker than his hair. What a beautiful creature. You’re lucky that you even get to look at him, let alone call him a friend.

He turns his head and catches your finger between his teeth, but doesn’t bite down. You think you feel his tongue ghost longer your fingertip, but it’s probably just your wild imagination. He releases your finger and you drop your hand back to your side.

He slips the pinky finger of his linked hand around yours. Even his pinky is big, for fuck's sake. "I promise, we'll be even. You won't owe me anymore for my generosity in letting you exact your revenge, if you do you best to help me convince my beloved that I care for them."

“Okay then." You take a deep breath. After this is all over, the scales will finally be balanced, and you'll be free. "How can I help you?”

“Be my dating coach,” he finally says.

You have to think very hard to remember what you were just talking about. Oh. What?

“Wut?”

“Allow me to practice dating with you. You can give me constructive feedback regarding whether you think my strategy will be effective in persuading the object of my affection that I mean what I say.”

Your heart squeezes. Damn, is your protocore syndrome acting up again? Maybe you need to visit Akso Hospital before your next scheduled checkup.

You squeeze your eyes shut against the pain, and then force yourself to open them. “Whether or not your crush will like how you date them is dependent on that particular person’s wants and desires. Just because you manage to make me like dating you, doesn’t mean your beloved can be won over with the same strategy. Or vice versa.” You shake your head at him. He can’t be serious. This is why he demanded you meet him tonight? You dismantled, cleaned, reassembled and packed your favorite bazooka for nothing. And you don't even like using the bazooka these days. Still too loud. Still too much like an exploding bomb. But you were willing to bring it, if it meant protecting Sylus.

“I’m pretty sure that your tastes and interests are similar enough to this person that your feedback will be reliable," Sylus interrupts your drifting thoughts.

Huh? He’s interested in someone like you? Impossible. But then a thought occurs to you. Maybe another hunter? Maybe this whole time he’s been getting close to you in order to get close to his crush, who you know?

Fuck. You really do need to make an appointment with Zayne. No healthy heart should feel like this, even one as damaged as yours.

You can’t think about this. You will not consider the possibility that all of his harassment has just been an elaborate ruse to get access to someone close to you. You will not.

Your brain clearly doesn’t get the memo, because your next thought hits you like a train.

What if it’s Xavier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You blink.

What if the hunter he wants to get close to is Xavier? What if he actually has had a crush on your partner this whole time? What the fuck will you do if they fall in love and you never see either of them again except Xavier at work and Sylus at their wedding? That twisting feeling in your guts and the sensation of your stomach dropping into your shoes is simply the result of imagining losing two of your friends at once to each other, and nothing else .

Wait, wait. It might not be Xavier. Maybe it’s Tara? Has he seen Tara? Maybe he saw Tara through Mephisto’s eyes while you went to lunch with her? She’s so cute, you often have to suppress the urge to squeeze her little chipper cheeks, because that’s an HR no-no.

Or Nero? Nero and Sylus probably share similar interests—Nero’s obsession with dangerous creatures would likely result in him being thrilled that a dangerous creature like Sylus would be interested in him. You can almost hear the wedding bells. You heard bells the first time you met Sylus, and now you’re going to lose him to Nero. You are fine .

Wait, wait, wait, what if it’s Jenna? What if this is a star-crossed lovers thing, and Jenna won’t believe him because they’re supposed to be mortal enemies? Jenna is hot as fuck. You can totally see—

Sylus’s voice interrupts the high speed crash in your head. “Oh no. I’ve learned what that look on your face means.”

You cover your mouth, because you’re clearly having a hard time controlling your face.

“What are you even talking about?” you mumble through your hand.

Sylus’s eyes bore into yours. “Don’t play dumb, kitten. Something is happening in your head, and instead of just asking me directly, you’re making wild assumptions and coming to ridiculous conclusions. If you’re curious, just ask. I thought we’ve been over this. Twice. Tonight, in fact.”

You let your hand drop with a wince. His beautiful eyes map your face. He’s right. You should just rip off the bandage. No use torturing yourself wondering which one of your friends he’s been using you to get to.

“Is your crush someone I know?”

Sylus’s face goes blank. He stares at you for a moment, and then casually reaches up to brush hair from your forehead, and your wrist is pulled up awkwardly with his.

“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asks.

You just look at him. He fiddles with your lock of hair.

And here he had told you that you could ask him anything. But he never promised to quit his habit of answering your questions with more questions. Suddenly you realize that he’s buying time. He’s trying to think of how to answer you. That means you do know the person. Maybe it’s asking too much of him, to demand that he tell you who it is. You can survive not knowing. You can survive anything .

You plaster a smile on your face and lean away from his touch. “Never mind. You don’t have to tell me.”

You gaze out the one-way mirror, sifting through possibilities. You can help him. You know your friends enough to know what they’d like, and can suggest dates that each one might like in turn. Going for a hotpot dinner, if Sylus likes Xavier. Going for cocktails, if it’s Tara. Taking Nero to the no-hunt zone for wanderer watching instead of bird watching. You wrack your brain for what Jenna might like. You have no fucking clue. You and your boss have a mutual respect for each other and maintain strict professionalism. You would probably be in danger of falling in love with her, if not. Maybe you’ll wing it: Jenna’s a warrior, and likely has similar interests as you. The shooting range? Oh, you totally want to go to the shooting range with Sylus. To be honest, all the dates you’ve just thought of are dates you’d also like, so you’re feeling even more confident that you can help him with this job. Who cares if you’ve been cheated on more than once? You’ll be judging his performance, not the other way around.

Sylus interrupts your thoughts. “Look at me,” he says softly. You obey. He covers your hand with his. “I can promise you that whomever you’re thinking my 'crush' is, it’s not the person you're thinking of.”

How could he possibly know who you think his crush might be? But he’s looking at you so earnestly, and Sylus doesn’t make promises he can’t keep. He has told you that before, and for some strange reason, you believe him. Okay. Maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe. Maybe he likes someone you don't know.

“Okay,” you breathe. He looks pleased. You try not to think too hard about how happy it makes you when he looks at you like you’ve pleased him. It’s only natural to want your friends to be happy with you, right?

But the thought occurs to you that Sylus might be approaching this whole dating thing the wrong way. What the other person wants is not the only thing that’s important in this equation.

“You know, it’s also not just all about what your crush likes.”

“Oh? Enlighten me.”

“It also matters what you like, and what you like to do. You don’t have to just please them—the point of dating isn’t just to make the other person happy.” You turn your hand so his is no longer covering yours, but your palms are aligned. You entwine your fingers with his and squeeze softly. “Don’t you want your crush to know what you like, and what makes you happy? And then if they like that, you can be assured that you guys will be compatible in the long run. Your happiness is just as important as theirs. And it will be more convincing, if you invite them into your world, instead of just trying to accommodate theirs.”

He squeezes your hand in return, and then runs the back of his knuckles along your cheek, your hand still clasped in his. “Is that so?” he murmurs.

You will not turn your head and kiss his knuckles, rub your cheek along the back of it, unfold his fingers and kiss his palm. Friends don’t do that. You can’t make this weird for him. He’s asking you for help, and you’ll give it without any ulterior motives.

“So you’re suggesting that I take you on dates that I’d like, as well.”

You nod. “Just be yourself, and leave your scary Onychinus leader mask at home, because they probably already know that part of you. Just be the Sylus who brings his friends wine and fruit and carries around stomach medicine for them. I would be willing to bet you that just being able to spend enough time with you like that will be enough to convince them that you’re really great to be with, and since you’re clearly putting in the time and effort to show them who you are, that you’re sincere.”

He pulls his arm from around your shoulder, but turns his body toward you, crossing one leg over the other, resting his head on his hand, elbow on the booth behind you. He sets your linked hands on your leg, and rubs soft circles with his thumb on your thigh. “So, it’s a safe bet for you to assume that another person’s feelings are sincere if that person doggedly invests a lot of time and energy in you despite constant discouragement?”

“Well, yeah. I feel like even the most stubborn people give up after a while if they aren’t actually serious in the face of disbelief or a repeated rejection.”

He leans forward, so close that your noses are almost touching. “I expect you to remember what you just said, when this is over." 

Your heart does that painful limping thing again, imagining this being over, before it’s even begun.

A thought occurs to you. Because he's right. This will be over, someday. With how clever he is, how handsome and persistent, probably sooner rather than later. You don't want to find out that he no longer has a use for you once you realize that you haven't heard from him for weeks. You don't want to find out if you're in the N109 zone on a mission, and see him arm in arm with someone else. "Can you just promise me one more thing?"

He lifts an eyebrow. "It depends on what you're asking for," he asks, ever the shrewd negotiator.

Good, he's taking you seriously. "Once you shoot your shot, and no longer need my help. Can you just send me a text or something? Let me know that it's over? That you don't need me anymore, and we're even?" It's just the protocore syndrome, you tell yourself. You've lived with it for as long as you can remember. You can endure the pain that it's causing you right now, as you always have, as you wait for him to answer, trying to remember to breathe. His face is blank, as blank as the slate you're hoping for when this is all over. He looks away, and you realize that you've gotten so used to his wine bright eyes on you that it feels weird to look as his profile. You follow the line of his long nose with your eyes. Finally, he turns to look at you again.

"I promise that I will tell you clearly when this deal is over," he says quietly. You exhale slowly.

"Thank you." You mean it. You're grateful, knowing that you don't have to be anxious about figuring out the end. You won't have to guess, like you've had to guess so many times before, when someone you care about has walked out of your life without bothering to let you know.

Another thought occurs to you. “But let’s talk about this constant discouragement you mentioned. Has this person clearly and firmly rejected you?”

Sylus laughs, and there’s something in it that sounds just a little self-deprecating. “Like I said before, I haven’t even found a good opportunity to tell them my feelings yet. All of my efforts to show them how I feel through my actions have so far been… unproductive.” He leans back. “So, sensei. Speak. Where would you want me to take you on a date if I were your type, and you deigned to go out with me?”

“Where would you want to take me ?” you counter. You’re starting to look forward to helping him. Allowing him to practice with you will likely be the closest you’ll ever get to experiencing what it’s like to be cared for by Sylus beyond simply being useful to him.

“How about a trade—you tell me what you’d want, and then I’ll spend some time planning what I want. And then you can walk me through each scenario and preference, one by one.”

“Uh, okay. That sounds like a plan.” You finally give into your fatigue and yawn, widely, not bothering to cover your mouth because it’s just Sylus, your friend. “I’m starting to get kind of tired though. And since you clearly are in no danger tonight, maybe we can do the walkthrough another time.”

“All right, kitten. I’ll give you a ride.”

“And just how are you going to give me a ride home with this little problem?” you shake your wrist a little, and the golden-red shackles shimmers in the dim room.

“Did I say I was giving you a ride home?” he asks, gracefully rising to his feet and somehow pulling you gently along with him. He clasps your hand in his, and leads you to the door.

The feathers tumble from his lap and from the back of your pants, wafting up into the air and drifting down again. You wince. “I feel bad now. Some poor employee of yours is going to have to clean this mess up,” you murmur regretfully.

Sylus looks down at you, one sardonic eyebrow lifted, and snaps the fingers on his other hand. The feathers dissolve into scarlet-black cinders and disappear.

You stop, digging in the heels of your boots. “You could have done that. This entire time.”

“I told you sweetheart, I liked your gift. Why would I make it disappear, especially when there were so many people in the room to admire your handiwork?”

You hang your head, the embarrassment of acting like a nutcase slamming into you full force again. What is it about this asshole that makes you lose your mind?

Sylus just laughs softly, runs his thumb along the back of your held hand, and pulls you out into the club again.

 As the two of you make your way down the packed, jet-black granite stairs, your gaze sweeps over the people along the way, cataloging facial expressions and body language, confirming locations of exits and potential obstacles to escape. You’re tired, but you’re still alert enough to be aware of your surroundings. Just because Sylus has a lot of security in this place doesn’t mean that all potential threats to the leader of Onychinus are one hundred percent under control. But you don’t detect anything out of the ordinary. Sylus leads you into the crowd at the edge of the dance floor, and even though you had been up in the VIP room with him for over an hour, dancers are still sensually spinning from hoops above the crowd. You pause, searching for the red-haired one who had smiled so kindly at you, but they seem to have disappeared. You can’t help but let your gaze drift amongst the others though, reminding yourself once again to research how one attains that level of strength and agility.

“As fascinating as the performance is tonight, you did say you were tired. Perhaps you’d be interested in returning on another night–I’ll buy you a drink and you can watch the dancers to your heart’s content,” Sylus’s voice in your ear, close to be heard over the deep bass, interrupts your trance. You realize that of course he had to stop when you did, and has been waiting for you patiently, holding your hand, while you were caught up watching the performances above you.

You turn your head slightly, and his nose brushes against your ear. You lean past him, so that your mouth is against his own ear. “That’s a kind offer, but this place isn’t really my vibe.”

He pulls away a little and seems to contemplate your face under the intermittent lights. Then he leans in again. “Kindred spirits, sweetheart. It’s not mine either. I’ll take you somewhere else instead.”

You’re about to ask him what he means, but you’re jostled from behind, and find yourself face to face with the leader of the club girls from your time waiting in line. Her face lights up.

“Hi again!” She bellows over the music, and sways a little on her feet.

You laugh. “Hi! Having fun?” You shout back.

“Totally! Your tips have already come in handy! It’s much easier to convince guys you’re just on a girls’ night out if they’re afraid of you!” She grins, and then she seems to notice Sylus, because her eyes widen briefly, and then she gives you a sly grin. “But you didn’t need those tips yourself tonight, did you? Nice.” She winks at you.

Sylus leans forward, a big hand sliding over your hip and pulling you close. He leans down and rests his chin on top of your head. “I see you made a friend.”

“That’s right,” the girl beams. She gives Sylus a once over. “We had a really enlightening conversation waiting in line for your club, Mr. Sylus Qin.” She says this like she knows him, and suddenly you stiffen. 

Why would she know who he is? What if she’s his... beloved? Blegh, you're going to have to get used to thinking that word. Out of respect for Sylus's sincere feelings. You shake your head. Again, she seems a bit young. Like. As young as Noah. You try not to grimace. But something about the way she’s looking at him assessingly strikes you as an interest that isn’t necessarily romantic. What if she’s a threat? It would be the perfect cover–who would suspect a silly club girl of being a deadly assassin?

Are you being paranoid? Maybe. You decide to see how Sylus reacts before drawing your knives from your sleeve straps. If she is his beloved, it wouldn’t be nice if you put her on the ground when he’s trying to woo her.

“Enlightening?” he rumbles, somewhere above your head. He’s still draped over you like you’re a human coat rack. “Do tell, kitten.”

You shake him off. She will totally get the wrong idea if he keeps standing like that, but you try to subtly put your body slightly in front of him. If she goes for a weapon, you can take the hit.

“I was just showing her and her friends some basic self-defense moves. They were really fast learners.” You smile, genuinely. Because they were, and it was fun. Even if you do have to take her out now.

“I should have known that you’d use the time you spent in line improving the lives of the good people of the N109 zone,” Sylus sighs, pressing his chest against your back so he’s pretty much leaning on you again. 

“Everyone should know basic self-defense,” you point out, because it’s true.

“Of course,” he says.

“I have to say, you’re not at all like how I pictured you,” the club girl says, giving Sylus a once over again. Oh, maybe she’s about to insult him? You perk up. You’ll throw your body in front of his if he’s in danger, but you’re more than happy to break out the popcorn if someone wants to throw verbal grenades at him.

“And how did you picture me, Miss Victoria Herrera?”

The girl’s eyes widen again, very briefly, before she smirks. “You’ve done your research. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected less, considering how doggedly you’ve been courting Mama. But to answer your question. To be blunt, I pictured you in far worse company.”

“Is that why I’m having such a hard time securing a spot in your mother’s agenda?”

Oh? You’re mentally furiously shoving popcorn in your mouth. Her mother? Maybe Sylus is into MILFs? Does he want to be Victoria’s new daddy? You wrinkle your nose. You will not think of Sylus and the word daddy in the same sentence ever again.

“Your reputation does precede you, after all,” she flicks her hair over her shoulder and scans the club with an alertness that belies how drunk you thought she was earlier.

“And something about meeting my date has you reassessing whether that reputation is reliable as an indicator of my character?” he asks, leaning further into you. He slips his shackled hand back into yours.

“I can’t imagine that your date would put up with you if all the rumors are true,” she returns her big, brown-eyed gaze to his. “I like your date. In fact, I like your date so much that I’d like to invite the both of you to the birthday party that Mama is throwing me this month. Perhaps you can find a quiet moment to discuss what you want with her before I blow out my candles.” She smiles, eyes narrowing, and you get the sense that this beautiful young woman is lethal in a way that has nothing to do with stomping feet with her stilettos or shiving someone in the carotid.

“We look forward to attending,” Sylus responds, and you jolt a little. He squeezes your hand again, as if to tell you to be still. You try to keep your face blank, but inwardly scowl. He has some explaining to do. You really, really want to know who mommy dearest is now.

“Excellent,” she grins. “Now, my friends are waiting for me on the dance floor. You guys have fun tonight! And I’ll be seeing you soon, badass.” She winks at you, wiggles her fingers, and melts into the crowd. Sylus straightens and looks down at you for a brief moment with a neutral look that you have no idea how to decipher. He then turns and leads you through the crowd to the back of the club and into a series of winding hallways. Finally, he opens a back exit that leads into the basement parking garage that is apparently underneath the club. As you approach the rows of vehicles, he reaches into his pocket. Flashing lights and chirruping sound draw your attention to... a tank. Taking up the equivalent of three parking spots at the front of the row of vehicles closest to you.

You stop. "What's with the tank?"

He pauses. Looks at the black monstrosity squatting before you. Looks back at you. "Do you need to get your eyes checked, sweetie?"

You scowl at him. "What else is it, if not a tank?" you demand.

"It's an armored vehicle."

"Planning on waging a single-man assault on the N109 zone tonight? That's a fucking tank. All you're missing is a roof-mounted anti-aerial assault cannon."

"Interesting, how you're assuming it doesn't have a retractable cannon. But how can it be a tank? It doesn't even have tracks. It has wheels and tires. Just because it's a well-fortified SUV, does not make it a tank."

You squint at him. "You realize that tanks can also have tires, right? Like, the difference between a tank and an armored vehicle is not if it has caterpillar tracks or wheels. You sell this shit, right? How do you not know the details of your own inventory?" Sylus just looks bored with this correction.

"It's an armored SUV, kitten. And it's your war chariot for this evening. Get in, General Nit-Picker." You roll your eyes at him. Amazing, you've just learned that he really doesn't like admitting when he's wrong.

Once you’re strapped into his tank—because that is the only term for this oversized monstrosity of a vehicle, no matter what he says—your wrists linked over the center console, Sylus starts the engine and soft classical music fills the space between you. Something soothing, with cellos. Or double bass? You have no idea. The sound is deep and beautiful. The car smells like him. You resist the urge to burrow your ass deeper into the plush black leather seat and to demand that he turn on the seat heating that you're sure this beast has.

He emerges from the subterranean parking garage underneath Amnesia and merges into the late night traffic of the N109 zone. The road is busy, in the middle of what you consider night. You are so curious about what the exchange between Sylus and Victoria was just about, and you’re curious about where he’s taking you with your wrists still cuffed together—you assume some hotel, to wait out the remaining time of the linkage, but you’re so tired, the music is so calming, and you’ve always had the tendency to fall asleep in the car. You’re out like a light in just a few minutes.

Sylus drives through the night, under the red N109 zone moon. His beloved sleeps in the seat next to him, head at an uncomfortable-looking angle against the glass. He reaches over, deeply grateful for the linkage chaining you to him, and gently moves your head from the window, settling it onto the headrest. You snuffle a little in your sleep and make a sleepy noise.

He hasn’t felt the level of fear he felt tonight in a long, long time, as you asked him for the coin, and the energy began to swirl around both of your wrists. He is infinitely relieved that his gamble paid off: you had asked which side of the coin comes up most often, and he knew you wouldn’t trust him, regardless of what answer he gave. So he told you the truth: tails. He had placed all his bets on the hunch that you’d hinge the choice you truly wanted to make, the fear-driven option of whatever you were debating in your head, on heads as a result of your lack of trust in him. And because he said tails, you were convinced that heads had better odds. And because you chose heads, the odds in his favor were slightly improved. He may not have any control over fate, but he will damn sure exploit every sliver of opportunity that appears in fate's facade to wrest a chance at happiness from it.

And the coin came up tails. You stayed, and you asked your questions. You agreed to ‘help’ him with his problem. It’s enough, for now. He feels satisfied, for now. He’s greedy, but he’s not stupid. He will have to maneuver his pieces carefully, much more carefully than he has up to this point. He has already made so  many mistakes when it comes to you, and he can’t afford to make many more. During the three days he spent holding you captive, trying to deal with both his despair at your failure to recognize him and failed resonance, and playing the villain that he thought you so desperately needed, he was also inadvertently driving deeper cracks into what little armor you had left in this world. Every other version of you who he has known would have taken being called a disappointment as a challenge, an ignition to light your spite—such an insult would have ruffled your pride and incited you to fight twice as hard to prove him wrong. Every other version of you would have spit in his face for even daring to imply that there was something wrong with you, when it was his failure that resulted in the terror and disgust rendering you incapable of resonating with him. As he watched your face through the screen while you lifelessly told him that you were surprised that he hadn't gotten used to being disappointed by you—as he listened to your sorrowful, resigned laugh, a pale mockery of the joy he wants to fill your laughter, he wanted to fucking murder someone. But the only person to blame can only look back at him in the review mirror, as it is Sylus himself who had told you that you were a disappointment as he held you captive, and you had absorbed such a lie like a desert absorbing rain. He tightens his knuckles on the steering will until they go white. He had known that he would have to suture the carnage of your first meeting almost from the very beginning. But he hadn't realized that his initial treatment of you would have such awful side effects for you, your ability to trust him, and the end, for his aching heart. Sylus loves you, but he is self aware enough to admit that he is a selfish man. He knew, when he saw you again, that his whole world would change. That his luck would depend on your happiness. Tonight just proved that, again. Just your presence at his side tonight would secure him a business deal that would expand his empire beyond the shadows, and maybe, just maybe, allow him to step into the light with you at the end of everything. Because in the end, he's selfish enough to want to keep you, despite the pain he has inflicted on you. And his empire is the only avenue to secure a future with you at his side: his deepest wish, a wish plain to see if he were to turn his aether core inward and examine his own rotten heart. He will do whatever it takes, even to the point of absurdity, to ensure that future becomes a reality, until he either succeeds or you tell him to walk away and mean it.

Until then, he will deal with the fallout of his mistakes. He knows now, that you are not the same as the versions of you he has known before. Your strength in this life is threaded through with fissures like the gold used to repair broken porcelain. You, his lethal, lovely glass cannon. He will continue to stride forward, knowing this about you now. He will re-calibrate and keep you secured in his life by any means necessary, while he puts in the work until the day you're ready to hear the truth in his words when he calls you his beloved. For now, though, he forces himself to be sated simply by having you in the seat next to him, like a starving man convinces himself that filling his belly with grass is the same as filling it with steak. He will be satisfied, for now, as he drives through the night, on the way to his home with you for the first time since he held you captive for those heartbreaking three days at the beginning of this, your newest life together.

It will have to be enough, for now.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Better call the Human

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

The courtroom was silent as Overseer Mikab slowly scrolled through the petition brought before him. It was still early in the morning so the rest of the courtroom was empty save for a pair of Tenvalen’s who sat in the front row behind the litigate’s table. They had been the ones to capture and hand over the felon now on trial and waited eagerly for Mikab to sign the petition and hand over the felon to their custody for transport back to Tenvalen space.

To the front right of the overseer on the prosecution side were the litigate Ji, and opposite him was the captured felon Wei’ran still shackled to his chair. Ji was fiddling with the latches of his suitcase, indifferent to the situation. He was already thinking about what he would be doing with the payment the Tenvalen’s had fronted him to speed up the hearing. They wanted Wei’ran bad for crimes he had committed against the Tenvalen’s and had hunted him down across three sectors before cornering him. After a short chase through a crowded street they grabbed him and made him confess to his crimes.

“Does the defendant have anything to say before I make my decision?” Mikab asked as he finished scrolling through the request. Before Wei’ran could respond the doors to the chamber opened and a lone figure stepped inside.

“My apologies,” they said as they walked past the Tenvalen’s and stood next to Wei’ran, “I was delayed from representing my client.”

“Your client?’ Ji asked. “I was not aware they had even asked for legal counsel.”

“That is because for the last twenty four hours I have been denied access to my client.” The human retorted as they opened their briefcase and pulled out several papers.

“Honored Overseer, I would like to put forward a motion to deny extradition of my client to Tenvalen and request his immediate release.”

Ji scoffed at the unreasonable request while Overseer Mikab turned an inquisitive eye towards the human.

“On what grounds do you make such a request, litigate…..”

“Horris; Frank Horris honored Overseer.” The human replied when he realized he had not introduced himself yet. “And I would not waste your time unless my request was grounded in clear cut facts.”

Ji was about to speak when Mikab held up a hand to silence him. He was not one for flattery, but the show of respect towards his office was a refreshing change of pace and the Overseer nodded for Horris to continue.

“My client,” Horris began as he motioned to Wei’ran, “was illegally kidnapped, detained, and interrogated by two Tenvalen’s who then coerced my client to make false statements admitting guilt to save his own life.”

“Lies!” one of the Tenvalen’s shouted at Horris. He rose to his full height, an impressive seven feet tall, and looked down at the human as if they were nothing more than a smear across the underside of his boot.

“Silence.” The overseer replied calmly. The Tenvalen glared at the human a moment more before relenting and sitting back down.

“These are serious accusations Mr. Horris.” The overseer said as they clasped their fingers. Horris responded by separating several sheets of paper and handing them to an orderly waiting silently next to the overseer.

“As of this moment there are no extradition treaties between the Tenvalen’s and the Jenharie Republic, which means the two Tenvalen’s who hunted my client through the city streets were acting of their own free will in complete defiance of the law.”

“Counter point!” Ji demanded. “They were apprehending a wanted fugitive who was causing chaos in the city streets.” Pulling out a small device Ji activated it to show the chase of the Tenvalen’s as they rushed after Wei’ran. The security footage caught Wei’ran running away as fast as he could using everything and anything to block his pursuers.

“As you can see he was a danger to the general public that needed to be taken into custody.” Ji finished.

“If that were the case why did they not inform local law officials of their operation and work in conjunction?” Horris countered. “Furthermore, why did they not identify themselves as agents of the Tenvalen government and instead began chasing my client through the streets like madmen?”

The human turned to Mikab. “Dear Overseer, surely you can understand that if two large scary looking aliens began chasing after you without announcing themselves you too would seek to flee for your own safety.”

Mikab surprised Ji by giving a subtle nod in agreement. “I am inclined to agree with your assessment,” he began before cutting of Ji who was about to speak up, “I also would like to know why our local enforcers were not made aware of this detainment.”

“There was no time to inform local enforcers, overseer.” Ji spoke calmly. “Had they taken the time to inform them Wei’ran could have fled to another world and once more elude justice for his crimes.”

 “So they felt that they were above Jenharie laws and could come and go as they please?” Horris countered. “My Overseer this does set a dangerous president for future cases if people can ignore your laws with such audacity and get away with it.”

He stood in front of the overseer and pointed at his client. “What happens when they come calling again and grab another person off the street? Or maybe two people? Or twenty? When do the laws you seek to uphold protect the innocent?”

“Innocent?” Ji laughed. “Wei’ran gave a full confession to his crimes in Tenvalen territory and signed them.”

To Ji’s surprise he saw the human nod in agreement rather than shake in embarrassment.

“Please tell me litigate, was there anyone else present in the room besides my client and the two Tenvalen’s who abducted him?”

“What does that matter?” Ji scoffed.

“It matters because my client was afraid for his life and the only guarantee of his continued survival was to agree with whatever his captors told him.”

Horris turned around and faced the two Tenvalen’s sitting behind Ji who had become increasingly flustered at the course the trial was taking. “He had been chased down, beaten, dragged into a room and questioned by two people he thought wanted him dead. He would have admitted to being the reincarnation of god even if it meant they would cease their torment.”

“Overseer-“ Ji spoke up but Mikab held up a hand.

“The human makes another good point. Was there anyone else present during this confession that can corroborate this confession?”

Ji’s mouth opened and closed as he tried to find a counter argument before relenting and admitting there was not. Horris shook his head at the admission.

“This only further highlight’s the mockery of Jenharie law as it is written in stature 441-74-5698FB that “During any interrogation of a witness or perceived criminal there be a minimum of two to three non-participating witnesses who can observe the questioning to ensure the lack of coercion”.”

“You know our laws?” the Overseer asked with a modicum of respect in his voice. “Not many offworlders take the time to learn them so thoroughly.”

“I do, my Overseer,” Horris nodded, “which is why their flagrant disregard to be so upsetting. For if offworlders like myself cease to respect these laws how can you claim to be the pinnacle of a just and fair society?”

Mikab said nothing as he looked at the human. He was impressed they had been able to so easily dismantle the case against his client after only just entering his courtroom. From the corner of his eye he could also see Ji fuming behind the ears as he wanted to no doubt curse out the human and demand the extradition be pushed through.

“What would you recommend instead?” Mikab asked Horris.

“I would never seek to impose over you, but since you have asked my opinion I would respectfully ask for a dismissal of not only the notion of extradition but also all charges that have been brought against my client here today.”

He waved a hand to Wei’ran as he still sat silently in his chair. “My client did cause a commotion which frightened several innocent people as he fled, so I find it would be more than fitting to sentence him to an extended period of community service to repay the debt he has incurred upon the people you protect.”

The two Tenvalen’s were now glaring daggers at Ji whom had assured them this case would be a speedy trial but now looked to be unfolding around them.

“I am inclined to agree.” Mikab admitted, much to the dismay of Ji. “I hereby state the evidence brought against Wei’ran has been corrupted and is no longer admissible in my court. Extradition request is denied and I sentence the defendant to serve a period of seven rotations of community service.”

With a bang of a loud gong the court session came to an end. The Tenvalen’s rose to their feet and looked as if they were to pluck Wei’ran and run when the orderly stepped between them and unholstered his electro-maul. They were sure they could easily overpower the orderly, but more would come and the pair would be trapped inside the court building. They instead chose to leave and report their situation up the chain and look for a more diplomatic solution.

When finally it was just Wei’ran and Horris Wei’ran spoke.

“I didn’t request a litigate.” He said softly. He eyed up the human who was replacing the papers back into his suitcase. “I didn’t even get a phone call after they nabbed me.”

“No, but you have some important friends that like to keep an eye on you.” Horris admitted, locking up his briefcase with a loud click. “When they saw you taken they gave me a call and told me to get you out of trouble.”

“You call this getting me out of trouble?” Wei’ran laughed. “Seven rotations of community service?”

“It beats being locked in a Tenvalen maximum security lockup, guarding your holes every time you drop the soap in the shower.”

Wei’ran paused at this and said nothing. “The trick is not to admit you are free of guilt; just not the guilt you are being accused of. You muddy up those waters enough and before you know it you’ll be swimming to freedom again in no time.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

NYT: Harris Campaign’s Legal Team Takes Shape as Election Battles Heat Up

Nick Corasantini at NYT:

Amid threats of certification battles and mass voter challenges, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has assembled an expansive senior legal team that will oversee hundreds of lawyers and thousands of volunteers in a sprawling operation designed to be a bulwark against what Democrats expect to be an aggressive Republican effort to challenge voters, rules and, possibly, the results of the 2024 election.

The legal apparatus within the Harris campaign will oversee multiple aspects of the election program, including voter protection, recounts and general election litigation, and it is adding Marc Elias, one of the party’s top election lawyers, to focus on potential recounts. The legal group is headed by Bob Bauer, who served as personal counsel to President Biden for years, and Dana Remus, the general counsel to the 2020 Biden campaign, and also includes Maury Riggan, the general counsel for the Harris campaign. Josh Hsu, formerly from the vice president’s office, will join the team, and Vanita Gupta, a former director of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and a top Biden Justice Department official, is an informal adviser. The campaign will also lean on the top lawyers at three prominent law firms — Seth Waxman, Donald Verrilli and John Devaney — to handle litigation, and deploy local counsel to eight battleground states and four other states of interest.

Mr. Elias, who has had tensions with Mr. Bauer and other Democratic lawyers in the past, will also bring lawyers from his growing firm, Elias Law Group. He has also previously worked for Ms. Harris, serving as general counsel for her primary campaign in 2020. Ms. Remus said in a statement that the legal team had been working “uninterrupted over the last four years, building strategic plans in key states, adding more talent and capacity, and preparing for all possible scenarios.” “This year, like in 2020, we have the nation’s finest lawyers at the table, ready to work together tirelessly to ensure our election will be free, fair and secure — and to ensure that all eligible voters will be able to cast their ballots, knowing their votes will be counted,” Ms. Remus said.

The origins of the effort date back to July 2020, when Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general, called top officials on Mr. Biden’s legal team saying they needed to create “something we’ve never created before,” because the Trump campaign and its allies were beginning to bring cases and lay the groundwork for litigation. With the lessons of 2020 still fresh in Democrats’ minds, Harris advisers claim that the legal team is about 10 times the size of the 2020 operation. The expansive new Democratic legal team, and the opposing group at the Republican National Committee, is a reflection of the legal arms race that is the new reality of American elections since Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2016. The battle over whose votes count — not just how many votes are counted — has become central to modern presidential campaigns.

[...] Democrats have been highlighting recent wins in many of the court battles as part of their effort to get ahead of voting issues. In Nevada, a judge dismissed a lawsuit in July filed by Republicans challenging a state law that allows ballots arriving up to four days after Election Day to be counted. In Mississippi, a judge rejected a similar challenge from Republicans that ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive five days later should not be counted. And in June, a federal judge rejected an argument from Republicans that voter rolls in Nevada had significant inconsistencies, finding that the R.N.C. and the voter who filed the lawsuit did not have legal standing. Core to the Democratic legal effort is the party’s voter protection program, which operates as both a traditional assistance program to voters as well as the eyes and ears of the legal team to help counter any false claims of fraud or malfeasance.

Helmed by Meredith Horton, the program is focused on eight battleground states (Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire) as well as four states of interest (Florida, Virginia, Minnesota and Maine). The program has more than 100 staff members across those 12 states, they said, buttressed by hundreds more volunteers and thousands of poll monitors recruited by the party. “This program is one that we are building to meet this moment,” Ms. Horton said in an interview, calling it the largest of its kind in Democratic presidential campaign history.

The New York Times reports that the Kamala Harris campaign’s legal team has begun to form in anticipation for post-Election Day battles akin to 2020.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Liberty Counsel, a legal organisation that engages in litigation to promote Christian values

Full offence intended to the nauseating oxygen thieving neo-nazi trash that are these 'people'?

Liberty Counsel and all those like them are a fucking DISEASE and everything they are and everything they do is a fucking repulsive plague upon the earth in general and upon America and the human species specifically

If I had to choose between a world without cancer and a world without 'people' like Liberty Counsel, I'd make peace with living in a world where cancer exists because cancer is far less destructive, monstrous and evil than 'people' like these fucking cattle are

[rjzimmerman]

Many of you know that I'm a lawyer, retired, but still a member of the bar. I don't practice law (can't), but I still read professional articles and media reports about environmental law and other laws that interest me. From my humble perspective, some of the recent decisions of the US Supreme Court are invalid because the decisions were issued by the Court acting not in its constitutional capacity of a court of appeals, but acting as a court of original jurisdiction. If I'm correct (and I'm sure I can find a slew of right wing lawyers who are laughing at me), then the executive branch of the US government, i.e., the President, is not obligated to enforce those decisions. Plus, the ethical issues of Justice Thomas.......what the fuck is he doing participating in a decision on trump's January 6 sins when Thomas' wife was furiously clicking away on e-mails encouraging the rioting and insurrection? Wishful thinking, but somehow sometime somewhere something dramatic has to happen to smack down the Supreme Court, or at least create some sense of doubt in their tiny little pointed heads.

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

A spate of decisions over the past two years by the Supreme Court has significantly impaired the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit pollution in the air and water, regulate the use of toxic chemicals and reduce the greenhouse gasses that are heating the planet.

This term, the court’s conservative supermajority handed down several rulings that chip away at the power of many federal agencies.

But the environmental agency has been under particular fire, the result of a series of cases brought since 2022 by conservative activists who say that E.P.A. regulations have driven up costs for industries ranging from electric utilities to home building. Those arguments have resonated among justices skeptical of government regulation.

On Friday, the court ended the use of what is known as the Chevron doctrine, a cornerstone of administrative law for 40 years that said that courts should defer to government agencies to interpret unclear laws. That decision threatens the authority of many federal agencies to regulate the environment and also health care, workplace safety, telecommunications, the financial sector and more.

But more remarkable have been several decisions by the court to intervene to stop environmental regulations before they were decided by lower courts or even before they were implemented by the executive branch.

On Thursday, the court said the E.P.A. could not limit smokestack pollution that blows across state borders under a measure known as the “good neighbor rule.” In that case, the court took the surprising step of weighing in while litigation was still pending at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The court also acted in an unusually preliminary fashion last year when it struck down a proposed E.P.A. rule known as Waters of the United States that was designed to protect millions of acres of wetlands from pollution, acting before the regulation had even been made final.

Similarly, in a 2022 challenge to an E.P.A. climate proposal known as the Clean Power Plan, the court sharply limited the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, even though that rule had not yet taken effect.

That kind of intervention has little in the way of precedent. Usually, the Supreme Court is the last venue to hear a case, after arguments have been made and opinions have been rendered by lower courts.

“This court has shown an interest in making law in this area and not having the patience to wait for the cases to first come up through the courts,” said Kevin Minoli, a lawyer who worked in the E.P.A.’s office of general counsel from the Clinton through the Trump administrations. “They’ve been aggressive on ruling. It’s like, we’re going to tell you the answer before you even ask the question.”

Collectively, those decisions now endanger not only many existing environmental rules, but may prevent future administrations from writing new ones, experts say.

“These are among the worst environmental law rulings that the Supreme Court will ever issue,” said Ian Fein, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “They all cut sharply against the federal government’s ability to enforce laws that protect us from polluters.”

The march of environmental cases is not over: The court has agreed to hear a case next term that could limit the reach of National Environmental Policy Act, the 1970 law that requires federal agencies to analyze whether their proposed projects have environmental consequences. Businesses and industries have long complained that the reviews can take years, inflate costs and be used by community groups to block projects.

[beardedmrbean]

September 12, 2024, Elk Grove, Ca.—California teacher Isaac Newman has won a judgment just three months after he alleged in a federal civil rights lawsuit that his teachers’ union discriminated against him on the basis of race. Newman, who is white, was unable to run for a union executive board position because the union required candidates to “self-identify” as a racial minority.

Following Newman’s lawsuit, the union quickly folded by ending the segregated board seat and committing to non-discriminatory practices in other union positions. A judge also entered an order requiring the union, the Elk Grove Education Association (EGEA), to pay Newman $12,000 and to pay his attorneys’ fees.

“I’m delighted that my lawsuit forced union officials to admit something every high school student knows: Racial segregation is wrong,” said Newman, who teaches history at Elk Grove Unified School District in suburban Sacramento. “I hope this victory returns union officials’ focus to representing all teachers, rather than dividing us based on race. I plan to donate every penny I receive from the union to a local scholarship fund for Elk Grove students.”

Newman’s lawsuit cited Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, both of which prohibit unions from racial discrimination.

“Based on union officials’ immediate capitulation to Isaac’s demands, it’s clear that they thought they didn’t have a legal leg to stand on to defend their segregated board seat,” said Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel for the Fairness Center. “Isaac’s win affirms that unions don’t get a pass on anti-discrimination law.”

The EGEA has created a new board seat open to all members to replace the one for which only non-whites were eligible.

“After this major victory, I will continue my fight to hold the union accountable to the letter and the spirit of the law by running for the union’s new board seat on a platform of true fairness and equal representation for all members, regardless of race,” responded Newman.

Background

In 2023, EGEA officials created a “BIPOC At-Large” seat on its executive board with the approval of its statewide affiliate union, the California Teachers Association. Newman, a decade-long union member, resolved to run for the board seat, but the union’s nomination form required him to check a box confirming that he identified as a member of one of several racial minority groups. Newman could not in good conscience check the box and was, therefore, unable to run for the board position.

[folkdances]

professional timelines for ace attorney characters that i cooked up last month:

edgeworth: starts off working under von karma at the german public prosecutor's office and then moves to the states and becomes a deputy district attorney. sometime during the 7yg he becomes the district attorney to los angeles county and then, post-canon, becomes attorney general for california. that's right guys my version of future miles edgeworth has had to deal with merrick garland.

phoenix: things stay largely the same until aa5 in which he acts more as a counsel for athena and apollo in big cases and distributes smaller ones amongst the trio. post-aa6 he hires a few more associates and promotes athena to junior partner.

apollo: declines phoenix's offer to become a junior partner after aa6 and instead informally leaves the waa to open his own practice in khura'in. will come back to l.a. to assist on bigger cases when phoenix isn't available or if he thinks the case is interesting. in khura'in he doesn't take murder trials, instead focusing almost exclusively on civil litigation.

athena: went to law school in greece and moved to l.a. at phoenix's request after the 7yg. the waa was her first experience working as a proper lawyer instead of interning or acting as a judicial assistant. she's the main lawyer on most of the cases in dd and beyond, excluding the khura'in trials. she gets promoted to junior partner post-aa6 and, given her background in psychology, starts taking on labour and family law cases.

franziska: starts off the same way as edgeworth by working beneath von karma before becoming an official public prosecutor in germany. her stint in california during jfa was some kind of protracted exchange or consultation program and she continued to work in germany after the game. after aai2 she pursues a job working alongside interpol and begins prosecuting largely moderate- to high-profile international cases.

generally i believe they were taking other trials between the trials shown in game (more of an issue for the waa than the prosecutors; obviously the prosecutors were taking cases).

[follow-up-news]

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new government rule that would slash credit card late-payment charges, a centerpiece of the Biden administration's efforts to clamp down on "junk" fees.   Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Friday granted an injunction sought by the banking industry and other business interests to freeze the restrictions, which were scheduled to take effect on May 14. In his ruling, Pittman cited a 2022 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that found that funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal agency set to enforce the credit card rule, is unconstitutional.  The regulations, adopted by the CFPB in March, seek to cap late fees for credit card payments at $8, compared with current late fees of $30 or more. Although a bane for consumers, the fees generate about $9 billion a year for card issuers, according to the agency. After the CFPB on March 5 announced the ban on what it called "excessive" credit card late fees, the American Bankers Association (ABA) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a legal challenge.  The ABA, an industry trade group, applauded Pittman's decision. "This injunction will spare banks from having to immediately comply with a rule that clearly exceeds the CFPB's statutory authority and will lead to more late payments, lower credit scores, increased debt, reduced credit access and higher APRs for all consumers — including the vast majority of card holders who pay on time each month," ABA CEO Rob Nichols said in a statement.  Maria Monaghan, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center counsel, echoed the sentiment, called the ruling "a major win for responsible consumers who pay their credit card bills on time and businesses that want to provide affordable credit."  Consumer groups blasted the decision, saying it will hurt credit card users across the U.S. "In their latest in a stack of lawsuits designed to pad record corporate profits at the expense of everyone else, the U.S. Chamber got its way for now, ensuring families get price-gouged a little longer with credit card late fees as high as $41," Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said in a statement. "The U.S. Chamber and the big banks they represent have corrupted our judicial system by venue shopping in courtrooms of least resistance, going out of their way to avoid having their lawsuit heard by a fair and neutral federal judge." According to consumer advocates that support the CFPB's late-fee rule, credit card issuers hit customers with $14 billion in late-payment charges in 2019, accounting for well over half their fee revenue that year. Financial industry critics say such late fees target low- and moderate-income consumers, in particular people of color. Despite Pittman's stay on Friday, analysts said the legal fight over late fees is likely to continue, with the case possibly heading to the Supreme Court. 

[fatehbaz]

Updates on Sauk-Suiattle Tribe and the Skagit River: The owner of the three major dams on the Skagit, Seattle City Light, is currently petitioning the US federal government and moving to extend its operation of these dams for the next 30 to 50 years. This re-licensing would allow Seattle City Light to continue operating for decades in the future, just as they have, without protecting salmon, basically. Almost every other dam in the Pacific Northwest has installed “fish passage infrastructure” which allows migrating salmon and other species to continue traveling along the river course. However, Seattle City Light has not installed the fish passage infrastructure on the Skagit. The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe has repeatedly asked for this installation. So the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe launched a lawsuit against the city of Seattle, with the tribe saying that Seattle is deliberately turning public opinion against Indigenous people while also “greenwashing” its reputation by promoting the city and its dams as “green.”

---

The water sustains life here, in spawning grounds and rearing habitat for native salmon and steelhead. But some 20 miles upstream, the Skagit is quiet. It’s been replaced by the soft crackle and hum of high-tension power lines carrying one-fifth of Seattle’s electricity generated by three century-old dams. Almost 40% of the river is locked up for cheap [...] hydropower. Now, as a fight over the river’s future simmers, a question about the value of life itself is being revisited: Does this river have inherent civil rights?

Seattle City Light is moving to extend its use of the dams for another three to five decades, and tribes and other environmental groups have been pushing the utility to do more for salmon.

The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, one of the smallest and poorest in the region, and its one-person legal team asked its own courts to recognize the rights of the salmon. A tribal court struck down the request over jurisdictional concerns, but it brought attention to the way governments, utilities, the legal system and landowners perceive their nonhuman neighbors. [...] The 19-acre Sauk-Suiattle reservation is nestled in the foothills of the North Cascades. It’s bound by mature-growth forests [...] and the Sauk and Suiattle rivers. [...]

“This is where nature is,” said Jack Fiander, a member of the Yakama Nation, and longtime legal counsel for the Sauk-Suiattle tribe. “Where we’re at is sort of like the Amazon is to South America. We’ve got to constantly watch and comment on when somebody wants to harvest timber or something, and it’s getting more and more difficult to protect it.”

When the dams went in the Skagit River, there was no consultation with the people who lived there for generations — the ancestors of the modern day Upper Skagit, Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes and Canadian First Nations, Fiander said.

And the tribes didn’t have the resources then to fight for fish passage.

As the city’s latest re-licensing process ramped up, the Upper Skagit tribe asked for fish passage at the Gorge Dam, the lowest of the three. The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe challenged the electric utility’s “green” power claims, and asked for salmon to have an equal shot at life in the Skagit and its tributaries.

---

Headline, photos, captions, and text published by: Isabella Breda. “’Rights of nature’ movement gains steam in Pacific Northwest. Can it help species on the brink?” Seattle Times. 11 February 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

---

The Washington State Court of Appeals gave the green light for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe to proceed in its “greenwashing” litigation against the City of Seattle. In September 2021, the Tribe, based in Darrington, filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging City Light’s claims that it’s the “Nation’s Greenest Utility,” and that its hydro-electric operations on the Skagit River have improved conditions for salmon are misleading and harmful to the tribe. The Tribe said the city couldn’t claim its dams are green because they lack fish passage, like nearly every other dam in the Pacific Northwest. [...]

In the original complaint, the Tribe alleged when Seattle took credit for improving conditions for salmon species on the Skagit, it “wrongfully shifted blame” for dwindling fish populations from the city’s dam operations to the tribes. The “public misperception,” wrote the Tribe, makes them a target of “public ire, harassment, and vandalism.” “Seattle has done the worst for salmon while claiming to be the best, meanwhile pointing the finger at everyone else for Skagit salmon decline,” said Jack Fiander, attorney for the Sauk-Suiattle. “Seattle says their greenwashing is harmless puffery, but when you’re turning neighbor against neighbor to improve your corporate bottom line, it is harmful to our community as well as the fisheries resource.”

The legal proceedings come as Seattle City Light is in the process of relicensing its Skagit River dams with the federal government. A new license would last between 30 and 50 years. Negotiations have been underway for four years, with fish passage being the most hotly debated issue. [...]

Last year, the city of Seattle was successful in getting the Sauk-Suiattle’s lawsuit dismissed by a King County Superior Court Judge. [...] Monday’s ruling reverses the dismissal and allows the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe to proceed. The suit seeks to keep Seattle from advertising themselves as being fish-friendly until fish passage is installed over all three dams.

Seattle City Light was the first public utility in the country to earn a green power certification from the Low Impact Hydropower Institute. The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe said the utility used misinformation to gain the green status.

Skagit River Chinook salmon, steelhead and Bull Trout are all listed on the Endangered Species List and are threatened with extinction. [...]

---

Headline and text published by: Susannah Frame. “Court of Appeals sides with Sauk-Suiattle Tribe in ‘greenwashing’ case against Seattle City Light.” King 5 News. 6 March 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

---

Italicized first paragraph in this post added by me.

[mariacallous]

Lawfair, founded by the well-known litigator Adam Mortara, is a boutique right-wing firm currently engaged by the state of Tennessee to provide counsel on a contentious Supreme Court case that could affect the availability of gender-affirming care for transgender minors across the country. Aside from Mortara, the only other lawyer known to have worked or done work for the firm is a project-based contract attorney named Christopher Roach. He no longer does so, after WIRED asked questions about his apparent ties—revealed exclusively in this story for the first time—to online accounts with a long history of posting white supremacist and antisemitic content.

“America, frankly, would be a much more civilized, safe, wealthy, and orderly place, but for its minorities,” wrote one of the accounts.

Mortara, a former Clarence Thomas clerk and current lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, founded Lawfair in 2020. While working with a different firm, he was the lead trial lawyer representing Students for Fair Admissions in its case against Harvard, which later advanced to the Supreme Court—a ruling that gutted affirmative action. He is also, according to an appointment letter provided to WIRED by Tennessee’s attorney general’s office that was addressed to him through Lawfair LLC, currently being retained for $10,000 a month by Governor Bill Lee to “assist the State and the Office of the Attorney General with complex and sophisticated litigation, regulatory matters, and client advice.” Specifically, the firm is working on a case about whether the state's ban on gender-affirming hormone care for transgender minors is in violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. If the court sides with Tennessee, it would significantly impact access to treatments like puberty blockers and hormone treatment. The case was picked up by the Supreme Court in June, and arguments are set to be heard this fall.

Aside from Mortara, the only other lawyer known to have done work for or with Lawfair—and the person tied to the online accounts with a history of racist posting—is Roach, a University of Chicago–educated attorney and an adjunct fellow at the Center for American Greatness, a prominent conservative group. (Its publisher has been a fellow at the hugely influential Claremont Institute, which is listed as a member of the Project 2025 advisory board.) According to Florida’s bar registration website, Roach is based in Tampa, Florida.

In response to a request for comment from WIRED for this story, Mortara told WIRED that he was “not aware of these abhorrent statements, which do not reflect our values,” adding that following WIRED’s revelations, Roach is “no longer affiliated with the firm.” He also said that Roach did not work on the gender-affirming-care case for the state of Tennessee and was not involved with the Students for Fair Admission case. Roach’s online résumé, which up until then listed Lawfair as his employer, was quickly changed to omit mention of it. Roach himself did not respond to WIRED’s phone calls, text messages, and emails.

The questions WIRED asked Mortara about Roach concerned a decades-old online trail of deeply racist and antisemitic writings and social media posts by accounts linked to Roach. Those links were shown in research provided exclusively to WIRED by software engineer Travis Brown, who previously helped reveal that former Brooklyn real estate broker Chaya Raichik was the person behind the hate-filled, anti-trans LibsofTikTok account.

Brown’s research, which WIRED independently confirmed, ties Roach to a Twitter account that used different names over the years, such as “Roman Dmowski,” a reference to an antisemitic Polish nationalist, and “Blessed Groyper,” a reference to the name used by followers of notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

The account, which appears to have been suspended in 2022, is littered with openly racist, white supremacist, and antisemitic comments.

“You’re a zero empathy monster,” the account wrote in a 2020 post in response to a Black mother asking who would protect her children from gun violence.“You are a disgrace to the human race. Actually white lives matter the Most and are the most important bc we are the most productive and innocent ppl on this planet.”

In another response to the same post, the account added: “I’m making sure my kids are white and that they don’t encounter any more minorities than absolutely necessary bc 13do50.” This last term is coded language used by white supremacists. The number 13 falsely references the percentage of the American population that’s Black; the 50 refers to the supposed percentage of all murders committed by Black people in the US. The Anti Defamation League has described the term as “racist propaganda.”

In another post from 2019, the account dismissed the death of a counter protester at the Unite the Right rally in 2017, writing: “​​One chick died in a car accident in Charlottesville and they act like it's Anuddah Shoah”—a phrase popularized by white supremacists to mock Jews and the Holocaust. In another post, the account complained that “any exploration of Jewish wrongdoing as a source of German hostility is verbotten [sic].”

Brown was able to link the anonymous Twitter account to Roach through an email address. Using data from a massive leak in 2022 in which over 200 million email addresses of Twitter users were posted online, Brown found that the Twitter account was registered with a Yahoo email address that features Roach’s surname and a location where, according to his LinkedIn account, he worked for four years at the beginning of the 2000s.

WIRED was able to independently link this same email address to Roach via records found in public databases and further confirm its connection to Roach. A “Chris R.” using the Yahoo address to post reviews on Google, for example, included a photo of his house alongside a favorable review of a Tampa-area housepainter. That house, according to Hillsborough County property tax records, belongs to Roach.

The Yahoo email address ties Roach to repeated postings of racist material. It was used, for instance, in a 2007 email sent to and published on VDare, a notorious site that according to the Southern Poverty Law Center acts as a bridge between the mainstream Republican Party and the fringe white nationalist right, by a user named “Chris Roach.”

Roach was writing to VDare to complain about being “unceremoniously dumped” from writing for the online magazine of the America’s Future Foundation (AFF), a young conservative group in Washington. (While Roach’s posts on AFF are now deleted, WIRED has reviewed archived material on that website with the byline “Chris Roach.” In a biography on the site, he writes that he “studied the Great Books at the University of Chicago under some really great professors … I stayed for Law School and am now an attorney in private practice.” This biography lines up exactly with Roach’s, according to his LinkedIn profile.)

In his VDare email, Roach alleges that AFF’s executive director, David Kirby, fired him for comments Roach made on a post at the paleoconservative blog Eunomia, claiming Kirby told him, “There's no place in AFF's mission to provide space for someone who posts comments and content like this.” (AFF and Kirby did not respond to a request for comment.)

Roach didn’t say what the comments were, but an archived copy of the comment section to which his email linked reviewed by WIRED shows deeply racist remarks from a user named “Roach.” “America, frankly, would be a much more civilized, safe, wealthy, and orderly place, but for its minorities,” the author of the comment wrote, asserting there is “something deeply evil in the culture of black America and the souls of black Americans.” The poster denied being racist, but advocated for “special black schools, higher rates of discipline for black students, different standards of discipline for black young people, black colleges, segregation in prisons, much higher rates of black imprisonment, racial profiling, and, most important of all, simply a willingness to say, ‘We will control blacks when they get out of control.’”

The VDare email also asked readers to click on a link to Mansizedtarget.com, a site described as “paleoconservative observations” written by an author whose name was displayed, according to archived copies, first as “Mr. Roach” and then as “Roman Dmowski.” (At one point, the Google reviews account tied to Roach and to the Yahoo email address evidently used “mansizedtar” as a screen name, given a response to a review in which a business owner addresses the user of the account by that name. After WIRED contacted Roach about the online posts, archived copies of the Mansizedtarget website on the Wayback machine were removed.)

Over the years Roach’s name, or a variation of his name, has appeared on a range of different right-wing and extremist sites.

The “Blessed Groyper” Twitter account shared links on several occasions to articles written by Christopher Roach for the website American Greatness. Roach, whose image appears next to his byline, has been a prolific contributor, writing 337 articles over the last seven years. In the past 12 months, Roach has covered major right-wing culture-war topics from opposing gun control measures to pushing election conspiracies, defending the January 6 insurrectionists, and labeling those concerned about the spread of Covid-19 as “fanatics.”

Roach describes himself as an “adjunct fellow” at the organization that publishes American Greatness, the Center for American Greatness—a right-wing think tank that has been funded by dark money. Neither the Center for American Greatness nor its publisher, Buskirk, responded to a request for comment.

Roach, as noted in his author bio at American Greatness, has also written for Taki’s Magazine, another paleoconservative blog that has hosted content from far-right figures like Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes as well as white nationalists Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer.

An account called “Roach” was also extremely active in the comment section of extremist website Occidental Dissent, which is run by Brad Griffin, a prominent member of the neo-Confederate, secessionist group League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group.

Accounts using Roach’s name or his known aliases, such as Mansizedtarget and Roman Dmowski, have also posted on the gun-focused forum Sniper’s Hide and a Jeep Wrangler fan site known as Wrangler Forum.

Roach was, until recently, one of just two people who stated they worked for Lawfair LLC, according to LinkedIn. The other person is founder Mortara, who is based in Tennessee, where the company is also registered.

Mortara, who graduated from the University of Chicago Law School after earning an undergraduate degree there and a masters in astrophysics from Cambridge, is formerly a clerk for Clarence Thomas. The justice’s clerks have over the years created a powerful network of conservative leaders in the legal system, media, and at the highest levels of government.

In one comment section on a 2008 blog about Michelle Obama’s college thesis, a user identified as mansizedtarget.com said they had worked on the “Gratz/Grutter Michigan affirmative action cases.” Both cases were argued in front of the Supreme Court during the period Mortara clerked for Thomas.

Following almost two decades at the high-profile Bartlit Beck firm in Chicago, where he specialized in intellectual property cases, Mortara formed Lawfair LLC, which he describes as a “civil and voting rights” firm. Mortara has also been a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago, which did not respond to a request for comment, since 2007. In the past decade-plus, he has been involved in litigation concerning redistricting efforts amongst the state legislatures of Texas and Wisconsin. In the latter, he teamed up with the firm that had represented former president Donald Trump and the RNC, and pocketed what was projected to be nearly $200,000 in fees.

Lawfair LLC has virtually no online presence, including no website and no social media presence, which Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, tells WIRED is not unusual.

“It's a boutique firm from a connected attorney,” says Caraballo. “They basically only litigate culture war cases (hence the name lawfair). It works through political connections.”

Earlier this month, The Tennessean reported on an August 2023 letter signed by Tennessee governor Bill Lee approving payment of $10,000 a month for up to two years to Lawfair LLC for its work on the gender-affirming-care case.

“The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office retained Adam Mortara, one of the finest litigators in America, as outside counsel and has not ever had a relationship with any other attorneys from Lawfair, LLC,” Amy Lannom Wilhite, the director of communications for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, tells WIRED.

Roach is not named counsel on any of the Supreme Court cases. Mortara did not respond to questions about how many lawyers have worked for or done work for Lawfair and what Roach was working on at the firm after he joined, according to his online résumé, in 2020—the same year the firm was founded.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Julie Rikelman is arguably the nation’s preeminent attorney representing the cause of abortion rights. She is almost certainly the most important pro-abortion rights litigator of her generation. And now she will serve as a federal appellate judge.

Among other things, Rikelman made a doomed effort to save Roe v. Wade from a hostile Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). Two years earlier, in June Medical Services v. Russo (2020), she unexpectedly convinced conservative Chief Justice John Roberts to preserve abortion rights for a few years before the Court’s new 6-3 Republican majority eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 51-43 to confirm Rikelman to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, making her one of the few lawyers with significant experience representing abortion rights causes to be confirmed to the federal bench. Prior to her confirmation, Rikelman served as senior litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights for about a dozen years.

That said, it is far from clear that Rikelman will have much impact on abortion jurisprudence as a federal judge. Abortion-related cases make up a tiny percentage of the federal docket. And the First Circuit hears appeals from federal court decisions in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island — which means that Rikelman will not have jurisdiction over red states known for their hostility to abortion rights.

Still, her appointment is an important symbolic win for abortion rights advocates. For a long time, a history of abortion rights advocacy was toxic to presidential nominees so long as Republicans had enough votes in the Senate to block such a nominee.

During President Barack Obama’s first term, for example, Republicans successfully filibustered Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, a powerful position that interprets the Constitution and federal laws for executive branch agencies and the White House. Johnsen had previously served as a lawyer at NARAL Pro-Choice America. Republicans took issue with a footnote in a brief she authored, which said that forcing a woman to bear a child against her will is “disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment.”

In 2013, however, the Senate largely eliminated the filibuster for most presidential nominees, allowing those nominees to be confirmed by a simple majority of senators — previously, a 60-vote supermajority was required for confirmation. That allowed presidents of both parties to confirm judges over the opposition of the other party, at least when the president’s party also controlled the Senate.

Former President Donald Trump, for example, appointed many outspoken opponents of abortion to the federal bench, including former lawyers at Christian right advocacy shops, such as Kyle Duncan and Matthew Kacsmaryk, who’ve continued to engage in such advocacy from the bench.

Still, few of Trump’s judges were as prominent as Rikelman, who argued some of the most consequential abortion-related Supreme Court cases of the last decade.

[tearsinthemist]

As Death Rate Surges, Texas Asks Supreme Court to Let It Keep Denying Care to Pregnant Women

Tessa Stuart

Thu, September 26, 2024 at 9:30 AM CDT·4 min read

The state of Texas is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to continue denying emergency medical care to pregnant women, pretty please. The request, which the justices will consider at conference on Monday, September 30, comes on the heels of a new report that shows the state’s maternal mortality rate has spiked dramatically since the state’s first ban on abortion went into effect in 2021.

Across the United States, maternal mortality rose 11 percent between 2019 to 2022; in Texas, over the same period, the maternal death rate surged 56 percent, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data conducted by the Gender Equity Policy Institute.

“There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,” Nancy L. Cohen, the institute’s president, told NBC News. “All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.”

Five weeks before an election that could hinge on outrage over abortion restrictions, officials in Texas are nevertheless charging ahead with their effort to ensure that the state can continue blocking doctors from providing emergency medical treatment to pregnant residents. The state sued the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that the Biden administration violated the Medicare and Administrative Procedure Acts when it issued guidance clarifying that hospitals are required to provide emergency abortions if necessary to preserve a woman’s health — even in states that, like Texas, ban abortion.

Texas won with this argument in the Fifth Circuit earlier this year, allowing the state to continue prohibiting emergency abortions. The Biden administration is now appealing that decision, and Texas is asking the high court to let the Fifth Circuit decision stand.

If all of this sounds familiar, it is because a case that pivoted on a very similar question came before the Supreme Court last session; the court dismissed that case — Moyle v. United States — without ruling on the merits. The fundamental question at the heart of both cases is the same: Should doctors be allowed to treat pregnant women with health- and life-threatening conditions, or should those women be forced to grow sick, and in some cases, die because of a state law banning the specific treatment they need?

At least one Texas woman may have already died because of Texas’ ban. Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick, 27, died of complications from her pregnancy in 2022; four experts who examined her case told the New Yorker she likely would have lived if she had been offered, and accepted, an abortion. She was never given the choice.

Texas, for its part, denies that this case is about whether or not women in the state will be able to access abortion care. Instead, Attorney General Ken Paxton — assisted by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian law firm that helped engineer the destruction of Roe v. Wade — insists he and his co-counsel are simply trying to ascertain whether Joe Biden’s HHS violated the law by issuing its clarification without the “appropriate notice and comment” period and/or without proper “statutory authorization.”

Republican attorney generals like Paxton have increasingly begun outsourcing their culture war litigation to ADF, as Rolling Stone has previously reported. The group, which claims it helped draft the Mississippi abortion ban the Supreme Court used to knock down Roe, was tapped by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to defend that state’s abortion ban at the Supreme Court in the previous case involving emergency abortions before the court this year.

Some background on that case: After the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion in 2022, Idaho imposed a near-total ban on pregnancy terminations in the state. The ban included one exception: Abortions could be provided to save a pregnant person’s life. But the language presented doctors and nurses with a difficult challenge — especially when it came to treating conditions like ectopic pregnancies and PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membrane), both of which can be fatal if left untreated — and they had to decide how sick a woman needed to be before they could legally intervene.

Last year, a lower court halted, in part, enforcement of the Idaho ban, allowing emergency abortions at hospitals if needed to protect the health of the mother. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court intervened to block that decision, preventing doctors from treating their patients, in some cases forcing them to fly those patients to a neighboring state for treatment. In June, a majority of justices admitted the court should not have gotten involved in the case prematurely, dismissing the case and allowing doctors to begin providing emergency abortions in Idaho again.

Now, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is asking the court to hear the Texas case, vacate the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, and remand the case to the lower courts to be re-considered in light of the court’s decision in Moyle. Ken Paxton and ADF meanwhile have insisted to the justices: “This is not Moyle 2.0.”

The justices will consider both arguments in conference next week, and, in the meantime, pregnant women in Texas will likely continue dying at higher rates than their counterparts in states with reasonable governance.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kyle Cheney at Politico:

Donald Trump is on the cusp of emerging unscathed from his four criminal prosecutions — thanks almost entirely to the decisions of four judges he appointed. Trump’s three Supreme Court picks formed a decisive bloc to declare presidents immune from prosecution for official conduct — freezing the charges he faces in multiple jurisdictions for trying to subvert the 2020 election and putting his New York conviction in doubt. Then his nominee to the federal court in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, handed him another victory by dismissing the charges he faces for hoarding classified documents and concealing them from investigators.

Her decision earned a shout-out from Trump as he accepted the Republican nomination on Thursday. “A major ruling was handed down from a highly respected federal judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon,” he said. Trump’s string of victories reflects what experts say is extraordinary luck and timing. He’s the first president since Ronald Reagan to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court, and the first to ever face criminal charges that, soon thereafter, landed in front of the very judges he put on the bench. “This is a perfect example of serendipity, how the occurrence of events and trials and tribulations of the judicial process have all combined to work in favor of Donald Trump,” said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator.

But it’s also a function, those experts say, of the fact that Trump rose to power in an era when conservatives — who had been burned in the past by judicial picks that later broke ranks — had begun perfecting a strategy of appointing judges who would more reliably rule in their favor. President Joe Biden, too, has appointed judges whose backgrounds appear more reliably liberal, though it’s not yet clear whether he will have the same impact on the judiciary as his predecessor. “Today, given that politics are so important in securing a judicial appointment, I can see how that sort of concern can spread,” said David Zaring, professor of legal studies from the Wharton School of Business. “[Trump] got so lucky — people don’t usually get a chance to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court in one term. Trump got it and then the Supreme Court gave him a very favorable ruling after that.”

Cannon’s ruling in the documents case had nothing to do with the substance of the charges — widely considered to be the most clear-cut case Trump faces. Cannon found that Attorney General Merrick Garland overstepped his authority when he named Smith special counsel, invalidating the entire prosecution. But the decision — which legal experts suggested would likely be reversed on appeal — nevertheless put Trump’s already-slim odds of facing trial this year effectively out of reach. [...] Cannon, in particular, represents a stark example. She was confirmed to the bench in November 2020, days after Trump lost reelection to Joe Biden. And she drew widespread criticism two years later after she slowed the investigation by granting a longshot push by the defense to require that an independent monitor review materials the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.

[...] Not all of Trump’s appointees have ruled uniformly in his favor throughout his yearslong odyssey through the criminal justice system. In 2022, the Supreme Court rebuffed his effort to shield his White House papers from the Jan. 6 select committee, and it declined to consider his Cannon-backed effort to keep the documents investigation frozen.

This Politico article details the influence that the judges Donald Trump appointed are helping him evade legal trouble.