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LAW.COM Newswire Highlights July 7, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

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Baseball Manager La Russa Pulls Twitter Suit

The Recorder

Famed baseball manager Tony La Russa has quietly dropped his high-profile and much-maligned lawsuit against Twitter over a snarky impersonator on the microblogging Web site. La Russa's lawyer wrote in a court filing that his client was dismissing the case, adding that "No payment was made by Twitter to La Russa in exchange for this dismissal." Legal observers were skeptical of the merits of the case, which appeared to be the first legal challenge to the popular San Francisco startup.

Roberts Court Takes Narrow Road to Right

The National Law Journal

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. led a Supreme Court this term that often served up half-loaves for liberals and conservatives, businesses and consumers alike. The justices faced momentous shifts in Court doctrine on issues ranging from the Voting Rights Act to the constitutionality of workplace affirmative action, and then stepped back from the precipice. But are Roberts and his conservative allies just pacing themselves, slow-walking their juggernaut in hopes of effecting change quietly, without triggering a backlash?

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sHxSaEKYURVaRld

Heller May Sue Covington Over IP Group's Departure

The Recorder

The Heller Ehrman estate is considering suing Covington & Burling and 14 partners who defected to the firm last September for breach of fiduciary duty, according to court filings and other sources. To many, the partners' defection was the straw that broke Heller's back. Many blamed the move for the collapse of merger talks with Mayer Brown. More to the point, the departures caused Heller to default on a bank covenant that restricted partner losses. The banks froze the firm's accounts, and the firm called it quits Sept. 26.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sHAanPEeLId3NpE

 

Texas Firms File $1 Billion Suit Against Stanford Financial's Insurers

The American Lawyer

Two Texas law firms opened a new front Thursday in the legal battles over Stanford Financial Group, the company R. Allen Stanford allegedly used to chisel billions of dollars from unwitting investors. In a federal class action filed in Dallas on behalf of Mexican investors, the lawyers accused U.K. insurance giant Willis Group Holdings and smaller Texas insurance broker Bowen, Miclette & Britt of aiding Stanford's alleged fraud by vouching for his investments. This is the first case to target Stanford's insurers.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sHEKObqKtoMPFyw

European Authorities Join in Madoff-Related Probes

The Associated Press

U.S. and British investigators have joined Austrian prosecutors in examining possible ties between a Vienna fund manager and disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, whose multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme wiped out thousands of investors and charities worldwide, an official said Monday. Also Monday, the French prosecutor's office said it has opened a preliminary inquiry into losses the Credit Industriel and Commercial bank says it suffered due to dealings with Madoff, who was sentenced on June 29 to 150 years in prison.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sHH31mk0kf4IBCX

Mayer Brown Loses Top Finance Lawyer to Dewey

The American Lawyer

A top lawyer in Mayer Brown's global finance practice is leaving the firm to join Dewey & LeBoeuf. Marshall Stoddard, who served as co-chair of Mayer Brown's global finance practice and was the relationship partner to Bank of America, will become the U.S. head of bank and institutional finance at Dewey, resident in the New York and Los Angeles offices. Stoddard, who is leaving Mayer Brown following a high-profile management shake-up, says he was attracted by Dewey's more stable leadership team.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIaRMDUkpcPeMyC

Who Is the Prominent Plaintiffs Lawyer Helping Sarah Palin?

The American Lawyer

As the political buzz continues over the significance of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's surprise resignation announcement this past weekend, the Am Law Daily takes a closer look at John Coale, the noted trial lawyer and Washington, D.C., plaintiffs firm name partner who set up Palin's political action committee.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sId9ZONAg377ID3

Questions Arise After Law School Dean's Resignation in Wake of Prostitution Investigation

The Legal Intelligencer

When alumni learned the dean of Pennsylvania's Villanova Law School was resigning, they reacted with surprise but had only positive things to say about Mark Sargent's 12-year tenure. However, over the holiday weekend, a new picture emerged of Sargent's decision to step down, as newspaper reports described him as a one-time customer of an alleged prostitution house who was cooperating with police in a case against the owner of the house and two alleged prostitutes. Sargent has not been charged with any crime.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIfscZGQ6Tp0EHu

Prosecutors in Child Pornography Case to Seize Residence

The National Law Journal

Kentucky federal prosecutors don't just want to put Joseph Robert Leitner in prison for years -- they want his house. Leitner pleaded guilty last week to charges that he possessed more than 30,000 images of child pornography, and agreed to give up his home, which he used "as a protective shield to allow his criminal activity to go undetected," said a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. It's the first time that prosecutors in the Eastern District of Kentucky have seized a home in a child pornography investigation.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIhKqaA5XJGTALV

Bondholders Give Up GM Fight, Citing Lack of Resources

The American Lawyer

Patton Boggs' Michael Richman tells The Am Law Daily that the group of bondholders who oppose the plan to sell General Motors out of bankruptcy will not appeal a judge's ruling Sunday approving that sale. With that, there may be no remaining obstacles to the controversial plan to sell most of GM to a consortium backed by the U.S. Treasury, which will take a 60 percent stake in the new company. Richman said the bondholders simply lacked the resources to continue fighting the case.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIk2DltlOzYMwQm

Lawyer Charged With Forging Brother's Will Pleads Guilty to Tax Charges

The Legal Intelligencer

Pennsylvania attorney John P. Karoly Jr. pleaded guilty Monday to charges of dodging $1.9 million in federal taxes by hiding more than $5 million in income. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop all charges relating to an alleged fraud scheme in which Karoly was accused of fabricating wills after his brother and sister-in-law died in a plane crash. The deal came on the day that jury selection was set to begin in the first of two trials.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sImkQwmBFqgFsUN

Juvenile Adjudications Count Toward 'Three Strikes' Tally for Adults, Calif. High Court Rules

The Recorder

The California Supreme Court on Thursday held that juvenile adjudications can be used to increase adults' criminal sentences, reversing an appellate ruling that had stunned the prosecutorial community. Justice Marvin Baxter, writing for the 6-1 court, ruled that enhancements are permissible "where the juvenile proceedings included all the constitutional protections applicable to such matters, even though these protections do not include the right to jury trial."

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIoD3HfRwgyyoZe

Loan-Modification Work May Flout Ethics Rules, N.J. Panels Warn

New Jersey Law Journal

Attorneys who represent customers of mortgage-modification companies are at risk of losing their law licenses if they split fees with the financiers, two New Jersey Supreme Court committees say. In a joint opinion, the committees state that accepting legal fees from such a company, or dividing with the company a fee paid by a homeowner, constitutes impermissible fee-sharing, and an attorney who engages in such a practice "imperils his or her license to practice law."

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIqVgS97n6Qrl3F

Revenues Up, Profits Flat at Freshfields

The American Lawyer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer released its 2008-09 financials on Friday, reporting a 9 percent increase in revenues and a slight increase in profits per equity partner. Revenues for the fiscal year were 1.287 billion pounds ($2.387 billion), up from 1.178 billion pounds ($2.359 billion) in the previous year. Notably, Freshfields' revenues eclipsed those of Clifford Chance which, in recent years, has been a constant fixture at the top of the Global 100.

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Visit International News

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Watch What You Say to New Media

The National Law Journal

Any unfortunate comment by an attorney can be caught in new media devices and spell disaster for a pending case. Attorney Ernest Teitell and consultant Susan Heller prime attorneys for what to watch for and help them overcome instincts to provide all possible background and context to a case.

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Visit Legal Technology

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When Workers Steal Data to Use at New Jobs

The National Law Journal

Terminated employees sometimes steal vital data to improve their job opportunities with a new employer. Employers have been increasingly using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act's civil remedies to sue such employees, but there has developed a body of district court opinions that refuse to apply the CFAA. Attorney Nick Akerman explains why these opinions are not likely to survive appellate review, and also provides a strategy to avoid the application of these decisions.

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Visit In-House Counsel

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Fewer Employers Will Hold On-Campus Interviews

Texas Lawyer

Fewer employers will descend on Texas law schools this year for on-campus interviews, say career services officials at seven of Texas' nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools. And it looks like the prospects may be even tougher for third-year students than for 2Ls. Arturo Errisuriz, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law's assistant dean for career services, says his office has been warning students that employment may not be immediate. "We have to teach our students to be a little patient," he said.

http://editorial.incisivemedia.com/c/19sIJgYhhabR9wPD9

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Federal Circuit to Rehear 'Tafas' Case

The Federal Circuit has agreed to rehear en banc the closely watched Tafas v. Doll, a hard-fought battle over patent regulations that would restrict sharply the number of continuations, claims and requests for continued examination that patent applicants may file.

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Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).