Browse >
Home / Archive: October 2009
As part of their commentary on the 24-hour news cycle, celebrity status and ethical constraints on lawyers' speech, Joel Cohen and Katherine A. Helm examine the unfolding events surrounding the alleged extortion of late-night talk show host David Letterman. Cohen and Helm conclude that a little push back or pot-stirring by counsel to refute what amounts to attacks in the press on one's client may not only be permissible behavior under law, but may well be required in some cases.
Cost-conscious Big Law clients want more bang for their buck these days, like the legal fee equivalent of 20 percent more Fritos for free, notes the Snark. One way to get it is through a system called "task-code billing." The Snark is confident this system saves clients some money because it makes the timekeeper self-conscious about everything they do and every second they spend doing it, probably yielding some freebies for clients. Just for fun, the Snark imagines coding some non-work activities.
A Manhattan judge has rejected New York state's bid to collect $15 million from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for allegedly violating a 1998 settlement agreement prohibiting the use of cartoons and non-tobacco-related merchandise to sell cigarettes. At issue was a 2007 nine-page ad for independent music that depicted "flying radios with propellers" and a tractor "made of film reels" in Rolling Stone magazine.
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith plans to open offices in Houston and Beaumont, Texas, through the acquisition of Adams & Heald, an insurance defense law firm with 11 attorneys. The two additional offices, scheduled to open the first week of November, are the latest locales for the Los Angeles-based Lewis Brisbois, which has been expanding in recent years. Robert Lewis, founding partner of Lewis Brisbois, said that he is talking to firms about potential additional expansion in Louisiana and Atlanta.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a sweeping order vacating nearly all of the records for juveniles who appeared before a former Luzerne County judge, criticizing former Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. for running a courtroom with "a disturbing lack of fundamental process, inimical to any system of justice." Ciavarella and another judge have been charged with taking $2.8 million in kickbacks from a former owner and the builder of two juvenile detention centers to which Ciavarella had sentenced children.
News spread fast through the legal community about the death of plaintiffs attorney John M. O'Quinn, named one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" by The National Law Journal in 1997. Known for winning billions of dollars in verdicts against makers of breast implants and tobacco products, O'Quinn, 68, died Thursday in a car accident. A longtime partner remembered O'Quinn as being much like Houston, "the city that created him," adding that O'Quinn "thought there was nothing he couldn't do."
A California appellate court has referred a lawyer to the State Bar for investigation, disturbed that she might have manipulated a now-deceased elderly client into marrying her and changing his trust documents for her benefit. At issue in the case was whether Linda Lowney's "confidential marriage" to octogenarian Thor Tollefsen was valid. Tollefsen's relatives contend that Lowney swept into Tollefsen's life, married him illegally and then induced him to give her access to an account valued at about $350,000.
The 11th Circuit on Thursday heard arguments in a case that involves some of the heaviest issues in the area of obscenity law, such as whether the government should criminalize adult films purchased over the Internet and viewed in the privacy of the home, and whether a Florida jury should apply its own mores to materials available all over the country. But the judges on the panel seemed interested less in hot-button issues than in sentencing matters and a personal problem experienced by a juror during the trial.
Kaye Scholer plans to split up its incoming first-year deferred associates, with half working on pro bono work for a reduced salary. The 500-lawyer firm had already delayed start dates for its 40 incoming associates to January. Now, 20 of the new lawyers will work in its pro bono program at the firm for a $60,000 salary, managing partner Barry Willner said Thursday.
William Lerach and Melvyn Weiss, two former kings of the securities class action bar, went down in a federal racketeering probe. Lerach cut a deal before indictment, while Weiss pleaded guilty after litigating for a spell. So a judge sentenced Weiss to six months more in prison. But now, thanks to participation in a treatment program, Weiss is scheduled for release a month sooner than Lerach. Both prisoners eased into halfway houses six months before their release dates, per a change in federal law.
Next Page »
