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The CFAA remains a powerful tool that provides for injunctive and equitable relief that may be useful when a business is threatened by loss of critical data and information. However, warns Ganfer & Shore partner Mark Berman, the statute is exacting and state courts narrowly construe it.
California's Judicial Council on Wednesday ordered the state's courthouses closed once a month starting Sept. 16, despite ongoing complaints from labor groups, sheriffs and some judges that the closures are unnecessary and potentially dangerous. "I hate it," said council member Richard Hoffman, a justice on the 4th District Court of Appeal. The third-Wednesday-each-month closures will save an estimated $85.3 million and are a key part of the judicial branch's overall plan to close a $393 million deficit.
After President Barack Obama wins confirmation of his first Supreme Court nominee, the Court will still lean conservative -- and it will still decide only a handful of cases each year. The lower courts, in contrast, will have the final word in more than 99 percent of federal cases. These courts are up for grabs, and Obama's impact on them could be sweeping, says Jenner & Block's Eric R. Haren. He describes how Obama may be able to completely reshape a conservative-dominated judiciary -- even in a single term.
Stephen Lamb, who left the bench of the Delaware Court of Chancery this week, will join Paul Weiss as a partner, the firm said Wednesday. Lamb, who served as the court's vice chancellor, oversaw numerous corporate legal skirmishes during his 12-year term. He will split his time between New York and Wilmington, Del., where Paul Weiss plans to open an office this fall.
One of the many typical personalities you encounter as a Cog in Big Law Land is Mr. Big Law Boss Man or Ms. Big Law Boss Lady, notes the Snark. Rather than referring to real bosses, these titles are ones that these Big Law lawyers give themselves in their minds, regardless of their actual status as the "boss" of anyone. The Snark likes to think of this as a personality disorder -- Boss Man Syndrome -- and warns Cogs to be wary of those who have it. The Snark helps us spot those who are afflicted.
While Big Law leaders and recruiters seem to agree that a closed-compensation model is the best fit for large firms, midsize firm leaders appear to have a very different philosophy. Many midsize firm leaders and experts believe that an open-compensation system is the best way to avoid conflict and maintain positive morale. Consultant Jeff Coburn says more and more firms these days have a "glasnost" philosophy when it comes to firm financials, a trend toward transparency that has existed for the past 20 years.
Jenkens & Gilchrist shut its doors more than two years ago, but the firm just won a jury verdict valued at more than $4 million in a breach of contract suit it filed in July 2007 against a former IP client, Asure Software. Jenkens alleged in a second amended petition filed in June that Asure had agreed in 2004 to pay the firm a certain percentage of fees stemming from a patent licensing program -- which netted the company nearly $100 million between 2001 and 2004 -- but Asure stopped making payments after the firm closed.
Attorneys for Swiss banking giant UBS and the U.S. Justice Department differed Wednesday on how close they are to settling a dispute over an IRS demand for 52,000 names of American account holders who may have skimped on their taxes. Bank attorney Eugene Stearns, of Stearns Weaver, told Judge Alan S. Gold he felt a settlement between the Swiss and U.S. governments could be "minutes away." But Stuart Gibson, an Assistant U.S. Attorney representing the IRS, said he wasn't optimistic a settlement could be reached.
A confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be one of the last things the Senate does next week before it adjourns for its August recess, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday. Reid insisted Republicans will have plenty of time to debate the meaning of speeches Sotomayor has given and her involvement in the reverse-discrimination case Ricci v. DeStefano.
A woman who was arrested after she returned to the house she had shared with her estranged husband to retrieve personal belongings cannot sue for false arrest even though she shared title to the former marital residence, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Vacating a lower court ruling, the court concluded that a deputy sheriff had probable cause to arrest Geneva Finigan for trespass when he responded to a report of a burglary at the upstate New York home occupied by her husband, who was away on vacation.
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