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Thursday, January 17, 2008

By John C. Coffee, Jr.

"John C. Coffee, Jr., the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, writes that securities litigation has gone through a series of rapid and wrenching changes, as filings first fell drastically for two years and then rebounded this last quarter as the subprime mortgage debacle brought a new class of defendants within the plaintiffs' bar's crosshairs. But a quieter, more destabilizing change has been surging beneath the surface . . ."

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Lawyers on Major Transactions

Thursday, January 17, 2008

By Tyrone Richardson

"Bank of America has purchased the troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial for $4 billion in stock. The acquisition of Countrywide's $1.5 trillion, nine-million loan portfolio will make Bank of America the nation's largest mortgage lender. Also, Aluminum manufacturer Alcoa has sold its packaging and consumer business to New Zealand-based Rank Group Limited, a global packaging company, for $2.7 billion in cash.