Mark Rubin: Problem Solver / Attorney / Fiduciary

September 14, 2022

Mark Rubin: Problem Solver / Lawyer / Fiduciary

problem solver lawyer fiduciary

Mark Rubin

I’m 65 – and a day (as I have finished editing, having forgotten about this piece) – and I’ve been a lawyer for just about 41 years. People ask me what I do, regularly. They’re often other lawyers or legal services consumers. Usually, they’re looking for a cubbyhole. (Employment lawyer. ERISA expert. Estate planner. Etc.) Almost always, I fail them, for I do too many things. (Many years ago I talked with a large Phoenix firm about employment. After a wasted day the very rude managing partner said “We’re not interested. You don’t fit in anywhere.”)

Problem Solver

Tired of failing people, 60+ years old, and having spent 62.93% of

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Special Masters

September 2, 2022

Special Masters

Special Masters

Mark Rubin

Former Guy wants a new shiny object: a Special Master! A what?

Special Masters

Judges appoint special masters to assist them with some part of a case. Their role depends on the case but every special master acts subject to the limits of the order appointing them. Always, the judge makes final decisions.

Let’s start here: We are dealing with criminal proceedings, albeit at an early stage. Nothing in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides for appointing a special master. But, federal and state courts believe judges have inherent authority to appoint a special master.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide for appointing masters expressly in Rule 53. The rule provides for lots

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The Activist U.S. Supreme Court

June 30, 2022

The Activist U.S. Supreme Court

supreme court

Mark Rubin

The activist U.S. Supreme Court brought down the curtain on its shameful, disgraceful, truly mind-bendingly awful 2021-22 Term. Lots of bad, bad decisions: and many more that show a work-a-day Court that resolves complex disputes that get little attention.* Here are the highlights:

Guns

In New York Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, No. 20-843, the Supreme Court issued its 6-3 opinion, setting aside as unconstitutional a law in effect in New York for more than 100 years. It took the majority and three of its six Justices 77 pages to explain why that 100 year old law was unconstitutional.

The Second Amendment is an abomination as a drafted statement.

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Conservatorship Inventories and Accountings

June 30, 2022

Conservatorship Inventories and Accountings

inventories and accountings

Mark Rubin

Really? Really??? You want to tell us about conservatorship inventories and accountings. And you think anyone will read this piece?

Conservators for adult Protected Persons – different rules exist for certain minor conservatorships – must account for their actions. An accounting starts months beforehand, with an inventory. Arizona law requires inventories in all conservatorships. The Conservator must file certain forms with the court. The Conservator must identify assets “with reasonable detail and indicat[e] the fair market value of each asset as of the date of appointment.”

The relationship between the accounting and the inventory? Here’s a simple example: I am a Conservator. I am accounting from September 15, 2021 through May 31, 2022.

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Defending Mark Zuckerberg, Et Al.

June 1, 2022

Defending Mark Zuckerberg, Et Al.

defending zuckerberg

Mark Rubin

I feel the need to put pen to paper – fingers to keyboard, truth be told – to defend Mark Zuckerberg and a bunch of billionaires I admire not at all. Not. At. All. (I do use Facebook to promote my blog posts, but I’d be very happy if the site did not exist. As for Twitter, etc., a pox on all of them.)

Texas passed a law that takes from social media platforms the right to regulate content. Takes it away, plain and simple! (The issue comes up now because the U.S. Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the law for the moment.)

I am no expert on the First Amendment, although I

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Affirmative Action and the Court

February 3, 2022

Affirmative Action and the Court

affirmative action and the courts

Mark Rubin

I don’t get angry often. No, really, I don’t. Pissed and quick-triggered, sure, but really angry. Nah!

On January 26, word slipped that Associate Justice Stephen Breyer intended to retire. The following day, Justice Breyer notified the president that he will leave the Court at the end of the 2022 Term. Of course, his departure assumes a successor gets nominated and confirmed.

Then former Vice President Joe Biden told us he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court if we picked him. We did. He will.

Of course, confirming those intentions brought out the naysayers. I like, best, Senator Roger Wicker, (R – Miss.), who said, on January 28: ‘The

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The Supreme Court and COVID: Depressing

January 8, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court and COVID: Depressing

supreme court covid

Mark Rubin

The Supreme Court and COVID: Depressing

Let’s be clear: the U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled in NFIB v. OSHA, No. 21A244 and Biden v. Missouri, No. 21A240. Pigs might fly, too – like the one who lives in the wooden frame on the wall in my family room – and and the Court might uphold the OSHA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations. (Leigh’s known the pig longer than I have – polite-speak for, It’s hers – and she assures me, from time to time, that it’s not a photo.)

The NFIB Case

The NFIB case involves an OSHA regulations that requires vaccines or a masks

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Basic Failures: USPS and IRS

November 28, 2021

 

new office

We’ve moved! Rubin & Bernstein PLLC and Southern Arizona Fiduciary Services LLC reside at 1004 N. 6th Ave. in Tucson. (85705, for mailers.) We’re still getting settled, but we’re in.

The move and this fall have brought a heightened awareness of our failings as a nation. No, I am not discussing the crew who diss the vaccine and the fact that President Joe Biden has not brought the virus to heal. (That Venn diagram looks like one circle.) Or the inflation, seemingly generated by too many dollars chasing goods we can’t get to market because of supply chain upheaval and a whole lot of people who’ve stopped working for substandard wages. Etc.

No, I write about basic stuff.

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Files and the Lawyer

October 10, 2021

Files and the Lawyer

files

Mark Rubin

Hey there! Yes, you. Lawyer? Client? (Both?) Doesn’t matter, for if you fall into either category, my words about files and storage matter.

When I started practicing law, 40 years ago this Friday, we had carbon paper, with Olivetti 351s on the near horizon. (A screen about three-eighths of an inch high and maybe three inches long, affording a typist a brief opportunity to correct a typo before the print hit the page.) And, everything that mattered got saved in a manila folder.

The firm with which I practiced from 1983 until 1999 had off-site storage, along with an interior room – Purgatory, to me – where we kept finished matters until the room

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News from the Work Front

October 8, 2021

News from the Work Front

2021

Lawyers and the Canine Corps

I work from home, mostly. I went home on March 15, 2020 and when someone asked me why, I said, “Because my government recommended it.” I was 62 and I have residual lung issues. So, why now, fully vaccinated and only around vaccinated people? Working from home lets me think I am semi-retired. From attire to the nature and length of breaks, my days feel different in kind from the days – Days? Decades. – when I dressed up every morning, went to an office, stayed there until late afternoon, etc.*

So, the news? Rubin & Bernstein PLLC and our sister entity, Southern Arizona Fiduciary Services LLC move into new

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