By JK
I am really excited to announce a huge change to the Habeas Corpus Blog! It is now going to be bigger and, dare I say, better.
But, before I lift the curtain on all of it, first I should cover the personal. Anybody who has stopped by the blog recently may have noticed an extended period of inactivity. There was a big reason for that: After 20 years in NYC, I moved out west. I took a job with the Non-Capital Unit of the Federal Defender's Office in Las Vegas (see the updated about page). It's a big change.
The immediate impact on the blog is that my job responsibilities no longer focus on the Second Circuit. I am now a Ninth Circuit denizen. Still trying to digest that one. More relevant to here, it means that I can't really justify spending any time covering the Second Circuit happenings. My daily opinion check is the Ninth Circuit webpage (which by the way is far and away the best of the Circuit Court webpages; it's a truism, and not just because I work in the Ninth Circuit; I hand-wrote a whole post comparing all the different webpages long before I took this job and the Ninth Circuit came out on top).
Never fear, though. The blog will still cover the Second Circuit. The change has actually presented an opportunity for the blog to be bigger in scope. The goal will be to cover both the Second and Ninth Circuits. I know, you are asking yourself, didn't you just say that you won't be following the Second Circuit. Yes, I did. But this is how the blog will get bigger.
The blog's Second Circuit's presence will be covered by two really incredible NYC-based attorneys: Alan Lewis and Matt Keller. I have added their bios to the updated About page and they will be included at the bottom of this post. They will tag team the Second Circuit. I will cover the Ninth Circuit as much as I can. I worry that the blogosphere is a little saturated with Ninth Circuit blogs, and I don't want to step on toes or be redundant. But blogging is the best way to keep up-to-date on habeas corpus stuff. And the Ninth Circuit is a huge, heavy-habeas place. I think a new voice will not over do it. Finally, I believe that all three of us will offer opinions on Supreme Court stuff.
I am going to place an important disclaimer right here: any of the views I express on here are my own and not the views of my employer. Phew, got that out of the way (it's also on the about page, for good measure).
So, a new continuation for the Habeas Corpus Blog. Expect some great work from Alan and Matt. It's gonna be fun to see how this whole experiment develops.
Stay tuned for Matt's and Alan's first posts . . .
Here are the bios:
Matt Keller is a criminal defense attorney in New York City. In
addition to several years of private practice and teaching, he has
clerked in the Eastern District of New York and in the Staff Attorney's
Office for the Second Circuit, where he was deeply involved in
evaluating habeas petitions filed by state and federal prisoners. In
addition to habeas law, Mr. Keller is interested in sentencing policy
and pretrial diversion experimentation and reform. Mr. Keller's
comments represent his personal views only and not those of his
employer.
Alan Lewis has been representing Habeas Petitioners and Respondents for
most of his 25 year legal career. Since 2006, Alan has been a partner
at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, a mid-sized general practice firm
in lower Manhattan, where he co-heads the White Collar Defense Practice
Group. Alan has been a criminal defense lawyer for fifteen years and,
for nearly a decade before that, served as an Assistant District
Attorney in Kings County where he was the Homicide Bureau’s chief
appellate attorney. Alan’s criminal defense practice includes trial,
appellate and post-conviction representation in both federal and state
courts.
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