People often ask us “what is the difference between a ‘lawyer’ and an ‘attorney?'” (with the cheeky answer being “about $400 bucks per hour”). But the more accurate response might be this small hill and field, pretty much.
Continue Reading Celebrating 960 Years Of Calling Lawyers “Attorneys”
We’re in England for the upcoming Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, and instead of heading directly to London from Heathrow, thought it would be a good time to take a short diversion to nearby Runnymede for what must be the O.G. Property Rights Pilgrimage (those visits we do from time to time to the actual sites of well-known cases).
Continue Reading Property Rights Pilgrimage, Runnymede Edition
So here’s the story. A long time ago, one Walter Glenn Primrose stole the identity of a deceased child named Bobby Fort. The usual thing: Primrose got himself into some financial hot water, and claimed that “someone came to his home and threatened him at gunpoint,” after which he and his wife assumed new identities. Primrose obtained baby Fort’s birth certificate, and used that to get a drivers license and a SSN. Dude even enlisted in the Coast Guard as Fort, and after separating from the service worked for the DOD as a civilian contractor.
Continue Reading No, You Can’t Adversely Possess Someone’s Identity
Programming note: On the weekend we’ve set aside to remember our nation’s war dead, we thought we’d repost this one, about how Arlington National Cemetery came to be. And yes, there’s a takings story there.
Continue Reading Memorial Day 2026: Arlington National Cemetery And Takings
Here’s the latest in our continuing series of dirt law pilgrimages, where we visit the site of some of the more important cases in our favorite area of law. As every dirt lawyer knows, you can see photos, read descriptions, and study plat maps. But when it comes to understanding about the property at issue, nothing substitutes for getting your shoes in the dirt on-site, seeing the area for yourself, smelling the air. Walking the earth.
Continue Reading Property Pilgrimage: Nectow v. City of Cambridge (1928)