Chicago IP Attorney & Lawyer : R. David Donoghue : Chicago IP Litigation Blog

The Chicago Tribune has set up a live blog, written by Bob Secter and Jeff Coen, of the government's criminal case against Tony Rezko.  The blog promises daily, "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of the Rezko trial -- click here for background on the case from the Tribune.  This case does not have an intellectual property angle that I am aware of, but it provides an excellent view of a trial as seen through the eyes of non-lawyers, a very important perspective for litigators.  Additionally, Judge St. Eve gets at least her share of IP cases -- click here for discussion of Judge St. Eve's opinions in the Blog's archives.*

Here is some of the Tribune's coverage of the voir dire from yesterday, largely performed by the Court:

Another potential juror, No. 475, teaches cooking classes, often on Fridays. St. Eve sounded as if she was ready to work with the cooking teacher to accommodate her schedule. "If we structured the trial so that it would go Mondays through Thursday and not have trial on Fridays, the days you have cooking classes, would that be good for you?" the judge asked.

Some of St. Eve's questions were more chatty than legal. The cooking teacher, for example, was asked what was on the menu at her next class. The answer: Beef Bourguignon and mashed potatoes.

Another juror was asked where she liked to go snowboarding. Still another was asked about her desire to learn Spanish. "Have you learned any words yet?" the judge asked.

"Just the bad things," the woman responded.

St. Eve also complimented No. 475 on an answer the prospective juror gave to a presubmitted question about whether people who contribute to a campaign should expect something in return. "A thank-you would be nice," the woman wrote.

I will keep an eye on the Tribune's blog and will highlight other especially interesting items from it.

*  Judge St. Eve also gets her share of high profile cases.  She must be tired of the publicity after having the Conrad Black trial and now the Rezko trial within twelve months of each other.

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As I pointed out early this week, the Conrad Black trial has little or no intersection with IP, but I could not resist posting about Neil Steinberg's column in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times.  Steinberg spent a day observing the Black trial and provided his impressions of the jury system and Judge St. Eve.  Two of his observations were particularly interesting.  First, he found the trial very boring.  As IP lawyers and particularly patent lawyers, this is something we have to struggle with.  Making technology analysis and damages interesting is a difficult job and keeping jurors who only see a portion of the litigation proceedings awake and attentive can be difficult.

Second, Steinberg notes that "pay all that money to lawyers for a reason."  I would like to believe he meant because of the immense skill involved, but I am afraid it is because of how boring and complex he found the trial.

Finally, my wife, who clerked for Judge St. Eve, assures me that I will not suffer Steinberg's potato peeler fate when I say that while Judge St. Eve is very attractive, her most important judicial attributes are her intellect and her kind, but strong command of her courtroom.  Here is a brief quote from Steinberg's column:

"Oh dear." Spoken by a pal in Judge Amy St. Eve's courtroom. There is not enough tedium in our daily lives, apparently, so we are visiting a trial revolving around complex issues of accountancy.

I wish the limits of journalistic candor allowed me to explain the meaning of that "oh dear," uttered as the jury returns to the courtroom after lunch.

The contrast could not be more stark, between Lord Conrad Black, the grandiose publishing patrician, in his deep blue, subtly pinstriped bespoke suit, and the floral burst of middle American casualness sitting heavily in judgment. It was as if a line waiting for corn dogs and cotton candy at Great America had somehow blundered into a state funeral.

Sitting in court, I scour the language, searching for terms that adequately describe the colors the jury are wearing. Canary yellow. Soft bubble gum pink. Bright blue. Muddy teal. Electric poached salmon. Two women wear an identical shade of aircraft-landing paddle green.

And those are the easy ones. One lady has on what I finally decide is tiger print. A man sports what appears to be big polka dots on olive green.

A trial is also going on. The testimony centers around "Generally Accepted Accounting Standards" and overhead projections with titles such as "Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 57."

And hell is typically envisioned with flames. ...

After an hour I am ready to chew off my leg to escape. I would here launch into a tribute to the pixie good looks of Judge St. Eve -- I'm sure that the occasional glance in her direction is all that keeps some forced to be here from slipping into madness -- were it not for the certainty that my wife would calmly set down the paper, reach over to the kitchen drawer, remove a potato peeler and then skin me alive with it.

Three thoughts, which came as I fled the courtroom, a drowning man breaking the surface and filling his lungs with sweet, sweet air.

1) The cynical assumption is that these working-class Americans will throw Black into prison for the crime of being rich. Perhaps true, perhaps a snooty, unfair insult to the average American, considering that we managed, in our waddling, oafish way, to invent computers, land on the moon and kick the Germans out of France.

2) They pay all that money to lawyers for a reason.

3) Whatever you are doing today, even if you are kneeling in muck, gathering crushed aluminum cans and tossing them into a shopping cart to sell later, count your blessings. You could be in court.

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Michael Sneed's Tuesday Chicago Sun-Times column included an entry entitled "Ring.  Ring."about the Northern District.  She rarely covers Northern District happenings, but the Conrad Black trial is major international news.  Sneed reports that during the Black trial, an attorney's cell phone "erupted" with a ring tone from The Exorcist.  The always gracious Judge St. Eve reportedly responded to the ring, saying "I hope you didn't program that ring just for this trial." 

While the Black trial is not intellectual property-related, I am blogging about Sneed's piece because it highlights an important practice tip:  If you cannot turn off your phone when you enter a courtroom, at least put it on vibrate.  Everyone has made the mistake of forgetting to silence your phone (mine was in church, very embarrassing), but to avoid it altogether leave your phone on vibrate permanently.

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