"A FUNDAMENTAL LACK OF UNDERSTANDING" 
The New York Law Journal reports that Brooklyn Acting Supreme Court Justice Michael A. Ambrosio has assessed over $400,000 in surcharges against one of several lawyers whose mishandling of an elderly former judge’s finances left him virtually bankrupt. Emani P. Taylor’s performance as guardian to the estate of former Civil Court Judge John J. Phillips reflected “a fundamental lack of understanding of what her role as a guardian entailed.” Among other things, Taylor spent over half the proceeds from the sale of one of Phillips’ properties to cover legal fees she said she performed for him before becoming his guardian. “What exactly she purports to have done to earn $2,500 a week in counsel fees from [Mr. Phillips’] funds for seventy-four straight weeks remains a mystery,” Ambrosio wrote. “In paying herself counsel fees without any prior court approval, Taylor made herself final arbiter of the reasonableness of her fees. This self-dealing conduct clearly conflicted with her obligation as guardian.” Click here for Judicial Reports coverage of the Phillips guardianship debacle.

TANKLEFF OFF THE HOOK (SORT OF) 
The State of New York will not retry Martin Tankleff for the murder of his parents, The New York Times reports. Tankleff spent 18 years in prison for the crime but was exonerated after new evidence surfaced that implicated his father’s former business partner and three ex-convicts. Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle granted the state’s motion to dismiss “in the interest of justice.” (The state, however, did not fully exonerate Tankleff, maintaining that there was “some evidence” of his guilt, but not enough to convict.) Said Tankleff: “It’s 20 years overdue. I’m just looking forward to getting on with my life.” (He is studying to become a defense lawyer.)

RENDITION RIGHTS
The New York Sun reports on a compelling Second Circuit ruling yesterday. The court upheld Eastern District Judge David Trager’s 2006 decision that dismissed Canadian Maher Arar’s lawsuit related to his extradition to his native Syria, where, because of his presumed allegiance to Al Qaeda and his place on a U.S. terror watch list, he was tortured and interrogated for 10 months. But despite the fact that Arar was never a member of Al Qaeda, the court held that Congress has not allowed “inadmissible aliens” to sue American officials for making decisions leading to their deportation. “The worst part is that the court defers to the executive and decides that even if what Maher says happened is true, which most of the world now agrees is true, then the court is not going to hold officials responsible,” said Maria Couri LaHood of the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of Arar’s attorneys. “The court said it's not going to provide a remedy because of national security and foreign policy concerns and that's outrageous.”

THE "BLOGGERSPHERE" AND CHRISTY BRINKLEY 
The Law Journal also reports on the circus behind the upcoming Christy Brinkley divorce trial. Despite pleas from her architect husband about the “new age” of media, and particularly the “bloggersphere,” that require that the court be “more attuned to the rapid dissemination of potentially damaging information,” Acting Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Mark D. Cohen has decided to keep the trial open to the public. He deferred to a 2000 Appellate Division decision in Anonymous v. Anonymous, a matrimonial case between what Cohen called “well-known public figures of great wealth and prominence” who have each been “covered extensively by the media.” In that case, the panel wrote that “The unsupported speculation by … counsel as to the deleterious effect that media coverage might have on the child is simply inadequate to overcome the strong presumption that court proceedings be open to the public.”