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As smaller firms have become increasingly specialized, is there still something to be said for housing a diverse array of practice areas under one small-to-midsize roof, especially following a year of economic turmoil? The heads of many of Pennsylvania's small and midsize general practice firms certainly think so. It's true smaller general practice firms can't satisfy every need of every type of business, they say, but they can offer businesses of all sizes an array of affordable services.
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 recent decision in Kansas federal court stands at odds with a major goal of Federal Rule of Evidence 502 -- reducing the cost of electronic discovery through the endorsement of "quick peek" and "clawback" agreements in those cases were the parties jointly agreed to such procedures.
Usually, the longer a guilty defendant fights his case, the longer his time behind bars. Or so William Lerach may have thought. 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, Weiss is scheduled to breathe free air a month sooner than Lerach.
The elderly are increasingly filing complaints against their brokers for conning them into bad investments, say securities fraud attorneys, noting that bad times reveal the truth of shoddy deals. The latest alleged victims are the Carmels of Florida -- an 82-year-old man and his 75-year-old wife -- who claim their Bank of America broker cozied up to them, gained their trust and then stuck them with a bad investment that cost them more than $1.4 million.
The Securities Investor Protection Corp. will advance more than $500 million to victims of Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, the trustee charged with liquidating Madoff's investment firm said Wednesday. The amount is a fraction of the $4.43 billion in claims approved since Madoff's arrest in December, the trustee, Baker Hostetler's Irving H. Picard, said. Picard, who so far has recovered $1.4 billion for the estate, said the balance "will have to be paid out of the pro rata distributions we get."
Prohibiting someone from making money for donating an irreplaceable kidney is one thing. But what about donating bone marrow, which replenishes itself within weeks? That question is at the heart of a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. Citing a "desperate shortage of unrelated marrow donors," patients and health care advocates are suing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. to enjoin enforcement of provisions that criminalize the compensation of donors.
In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court asked Solicitor General Elena Kagan to weigh in on the 2nd Circuit's precedent-setting "F-cubed" ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, it looked like the high court was getting securities litigation fever. Just days before, it had decided to take on Merck v. Reynolds, which raised the issue of how the statute of limitations should apply in shareholder cases. But in a brief filed Tuesday, the SG seems to be trying to cool the Court's ardor.
Firms across South Florida slashed expenses this year by cutting attorneys and staff, renegotiating with vendors and eliminating lavish firm dinners and retreats, according to a Daily Business Review survey of 76 area law firm leaders. Revenue per lawyer dropped or remained flat at 48 percent of firms last year, with large firms hardest hit, according to the survey. And just 34 percent of managing partners expect increased partner profits this year compared with 70 percent last year.
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