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LAW.COM Newswire Highlights December 22, 2008

By David Badertscher, PLL

font size=1#13; pfont size=2If you are already an online subscriber to the LAW.COM service you should be able to click on any of the links below, sign in, and access the full text of all articles listed. A subscription to LAW.COM is needed for online access to this service./font/p#13; pfont size=2'Commingling' Concern Raised Over Dreier Assets; Judge Authorizes Trustee/font/p#13; pfont size=2New York Law Journal/font/p#13; pfont size=2A New York federal bankruptcy judge authorized the appointment of a trustee for the Dreier LLP Chapter 11 proceeding at an emergency hearing on Friday, after being warned by receiver Mark F. Pomerantz that there was a huge amount of commingling between the assets of the firm and its founder, Marc S. Dreier. The judge also authorized the expenditure of $666,000, including payments for the firm's malpractice insurance and for wages for the remaining 17 Dreier employees./font/p#13; pfont size=2King amp; Spalding Out of Proposed Thacher Acquisition/font/p#13; pfont size=2The American Lawyer/font/p#13; pfont size=2King amp; Spalding has been reported to be in talks for weeks to acquire some or all of beleaguered Thacher Proffitt amp; Wood, whose once-thriving structured finance practice has been eviscerated by the ongoing financial meltdown. But now King amp; Spalding is out, since Sonnenschein Nath amp; Rosenthal has entered into talks with Thacher lawyers, a partner at a firm involved in the negotiations says. The loss of King amp; Spalding as a merger partner raises the possibility that Thacher faces dissolution./font/p#13; pfont size=2Wilmer Cutler Partner Tops the List for No. 2 Slot at DOJ/font/p#13; pfont size=2Legal Times/font/p#13; pfont size=2President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff has declined to discuss potential Justice Department nominees, or even reveal who on the transition team is mustering names. But Washington lawyers have been speculating for weeks that Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr's David Ogden, who is heading the DOJ transition team, is the likely pick for deputy attorney general. One Washington lawyer close to the transition says his nomination is all but assured./font/p#13; pfont size=2 /font/p#13; pfont size=2NLJ Lawyer of the Year: DOJ's Glenn A. Fine/font/p#13; pfont size=2The National Law Journal/font/p#13; pfont size=2The National Law Journal has named Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine as lawyer of the year. During a year in which the DOJ's reputation suffered several black eyes, Fine emerged as a beacon of nonpartisanship and independence. Fine's investigation into the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys may be the flagship report of 2008, notes former boss Michael Bromwich, but Fine's investigations of partisan hirings within the honors and intern programs had a very deep impact on the department./font/p#13; pfont size=2Thacher Loses Litigation Chief to DLA Piper/font/p#13; pfont size=2The American Lawyer/font/p#13; pfont size=2Amid talk of a merger or possible dissolution, Thacher Proffitt amp; Wood's litigation head has quietly decamped to DLA Piper. Richard Hans, who joined Thacher two years ago from DLA Piper and became head of litigation in January, declined to say whether others would follow him. Hans' return to DLA Piper comes as chatter swirls about the possible collapse of Thacher Proffitt, a heavy hitter in securitization that saw profits fall and partners leave with the collapse of the real estate and credit markets./font/p#13; pfont size=2Supervision Eased for Arent Fox Partner Charged With Obstruction in Murder Case/font/p#13; pfont size=2Legal Times/font/p#13; pfont size=2The government will no longer electronically track the travels of Arent Fox's Joseph Price, domestic partner Victor Zaborsky and roommate Dylan Ward, all three of whom are charged with obstructing a police investigation of the death of Robert Wone in 2006. Police say Wone, GC for Radio Free Asia, was restrained, sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed in the home of Price and Zaborsky. D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg also eliminated the three men's 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew./font/p#13; pfont size=2Next Release of Rehnquist Papers Delayed/font/p#13; pfont size=2Legal Times/font/p#13; pfont size=2The Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University announced Thursday that release of the next batch of papers in the collection of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been postponed from the scheduled date of Jan. 5. No explanation was given, nor any hint of when the release would be rescheduled. Scholars are eagerly awaiting the next group of papers, which includes correspondence, copies of opinions and manuscripts of the four non-fiction books Rehnquist wrote while on the Court./font/p#13; pfont size=2N.Y. Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Malpractice Suit Against Herrick Feinstein/font/p#13; pfont size=2New York Law Journal/font/p#13; pfont size=2An investor's malpractice suit claiming that the Herrick Feinstein firm had botched the handling of an $18 million arbitration claim was properly dismissed because an arbitration panel had correctly measured damages from the time of the breach rather than the value at the time of the offering, a unanimous New York appeals court ruled Thursday. The appeals panel found that, whatever the claim's merits, there was no legal basis upon which to attack the level of the $344,000 award./font/p#13; pfont size=2Circumstantial Evidence May Prove Lack of Informed Consent, Says Pa. Supreme Court/font/p#13; pfont size=2The Legal Intelligencer/font/p#13; pfont size=2Pennsylvania's high court has ruled that the testimony of a medical malpractice litigant's spouse may be sufficient to help prove the litigant's claim when the litigant is capable of testifying but does not testify. The court said that a plaintiff-patient can rely solely upon circumstantial evidence like a spouse's testimony to show to a jury or a trial judge that a physician failed to disclose information that would have been a substantial factor in the patient's decision to agree to a medical procedure./font/p#13; pfont size=2Ruling Holds U.S. Government to Higher Standard When Seeking to Track Cell Users/font/p#13; pfont size=2New York Law Journal/font/p#13; pfont size=2Two weeks after an Eastern District of New York judge held that the government may use a pen register to track a cell phone holder's movements, a magistrate judge from the same courthouse has held the government to a higher standard when seeking permission to employ such devices. The decision marks the second foray in less than a month by an Eastern District judge into the nascent realm of pen registers, which are used by investigators to record information sent by electronic devices such as cell phones./font/p#13; pfont size=2The Long Arm of Eminent Domain Reaches Into Neighboring Town/font/p#13; pfont size=2New Jersey Law Journal/font/p#13; pfont size=2Giving a novel twist to the government takings debate, a New Jersey town is trying to condemn property half a mile beyond its border. Cliffside Park is trying to gain ownership of a private property in Fairview to create a joint Department of Public Works facility. The property owner and Fairview concede that extra-territorial condemnation is permitted by law, but claim the practice is restricted to limited circumstances, and only with the permission of the town where the property is located./font/p#13; pfont size=2Muslim-American Files Bias Suit Against Wal-Mart/font/p#13; pfont size=2The Associated Press/font/p#13; pfont size=2An Arab- and Muslim-American man filed a $12 million lawsuit Thursday against a Wal-Mart store that caters to his community -- saying employees discriminated against him and fired him because of his background. Louay Kezy accuses Wal-Mart and three employees at its Dearborn, Mich., store of violating his civil rights through threats, harassment and dismissal after he complained about the employees' conduct. The store opened in March with the area's large Arab and Muslim population in mind. /font/p#13; pfont size=2Economic Crisis Shifts Asian Spotlight to Litigation/font/p#13; pfont size=2The American Lawyer/font/p#13; pfont size=2The story of international law firms in Asia has long been all about transactions -- infrastructure financings, foreign investment and, especially in recent years, blockbuster public offerings of mainland Chinese companies. But with capital markets in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai now as moribund as those in London or New York, a number of firms are finding an unexpected bright spot in the region: litigation./font/p#13; pfont size=2Visit Law.com's expanded International News section/font/p#13; pfont size=2Take Heed of the Legal Risks of Web 2.0/font/p#13; pfont size=2Law Technology News/font/p#13; pfont size=2Web 2.0 provides new ways for users to communicate and collaborate, such as blogs, wikis, social networks and file-sharing sites, and increasingly, it's part of the workplace. In addition to the benefits of Web 2.0, law firms and companies are beginning to realize its legal risks./font/p#13; pfont size=2Visit Legal Technology/font/p#13; pfont size=2Will Tough Economy Push Companies to Outsource Legal Work?/font/p#13; pfont size=2Corporate Counsel/font/p#13; pfont size=2Offshoring has been widely adopted by many companies when it comes to back-office operations. But LPO -- legal process outsourcing -- is different. Despite the early hype, companies have not been as quick to sign up. Some are worried about the quality of the work, and cite cultural differences and security concerns as reasons for the reticence of some legal departments to send work abroad. What about 2009? Will recessionary pressure to reduce legal costs push more companies to ship work overseas?/font/p#13; pfont size=2Visit In-House Counsel/font/p#13; pfont size=2New Clients and Enhanced Fee Opportunities in Today's Market/font/p#13; pfont size=2The Legal Intelligencer/font/p#13; pfont size=2In this down market, small firm president Gavin Lentz sees an opportunity to generate new clients and to build an upside into his fee agreements. By offering types of flexible fee agreements, he has been able to take on new clients who could not or chose not to agree to other attorneys' typical fee structures. Lentz provides some basic examples of arrangements that he uses, which he says may actually generate better fees in the long run by rewarding the lawyer for sharing some risk with the client./font/p#13; pfont size=2Visit Small Firm Business /font/p#13; pfont size=2 /font/p#13; pfont size=2Law.com®/font/p#13; pfont size=2120 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10271-1101 (877) 256-CIRC/font/p#13; pfont size=2Customer Service Phone: (877) 256-CIRC/font/p#13; p /p/font

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).