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The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a class action suit against the manufacturer of Chicken-of-the-Sea brand tuna brought by consumers who say they were never warned that excessive consumption could lead to mercury poisoning. The unanimous three-judge panel found that a lower court improperly dismissed the suit on the grounds that it was pre-empted by U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulations.
The 2nd Circuit has vacated a witness-tampering conviction on the
grounds that the defense lawyer may have been conflicted through his
apparent law partner. In appealing his conviction, James Ventry claimed
Anthony J. Lana gave ineffective counsel because he was law partners
with Thomas J. Eoannou, whose improper advice led to the
witness-tampering charge. The court ordered the case remanded for an
evidentiary hearing on the nature of the professional relationship
between Lana and Eoannou.
Six weeks after the Rhode Island Supreme Court freed four paint companies of billions of dollars in liability for lead paint cleanup, lawyers for the companies argued that the state and plaintiffs counsel must cover court fees in the case. Several large teams of Am Law 100 Lawyers and local counsel have clocked time on the matter since Rhode Island became the first state to win a public nuisance claim against the lead paint industry.
A Mississippi attorney must pay $1.5 million for having an affair with a former client's wife. The Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed a jury verdict finding solo practitioner Ronald Henry Pierce liable to a former client for intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and alienation of affection. Pierce said he expected an unfavorable outcome because the state high court had denied his bid to present oral argument on appeal. "I knew I was going to get screwed," he said.
A man accused of human trafficking under the guise of a consensual sadomasochistic relationship will get a new trial because of the ex post facto clause to the U.S. Constitution, which bars Congress from passing a law that makes an act a crime that was legal when committed. Glenn Marcus was convicted in the Eastern District of New York of sex trafficking and forced labor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act for forcing a woman into beatings, sex acts and working on his bondage Web site.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change accuses two of the late civil rights leader's children of misusing their positions as officers and board members of the center for personal gain. The suit appears to be the response of the King Center's chairman, Dexter S. King, to his siblings' claims that he took money from their late mother's estate without authorization and did not provide details about how he is managing their father's estate.
Torys attorneys Timothy Martin and Richard Willoughby discuss proposed regulations released by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and recommend proactive management of the CFIUS approval process in a time of heightened sensitivity to foreign investment review.
A federal appeals court ruled that software developers who give away the programming code to open source projects can sue for copyright infringement. Programmers must credit the original authors and release modifications, a cycle that's critical for free software to keep improving.
The feud between Taylor Wessing's French office and Nixon Peabody is getting nastier. As first reported by The Am Law Daily, Taylor Wessing's 55-lawyer Paris outpost sued Nixon, claiming the U.S.-based firm violated a 2007 agreement not to recruit Taylor Wessing attorneys if merger talks between the two firms fell apart. Those talks ended in November. Now, in an attempt to halt a dozen lawyers' departures, Taylor Wessing has filed a new motion and is also asking the Paris Bar Association to step in.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has shot down class action law firm Milberg's bid to boost its attorney fees from the settlement of shareholder litigation against Nortel Networks Corp. On appeal, Milberg said the lead plaintiff in the case had consented to an 8.5 percent award -- or about $101 million -- and, citing a 2005 decision by the 3rd Circuit, the firm argued that the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act holds such negotiated fees to be presumptively reasonable.
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