ABA Journal Top Stories

Mayer Brown Practice Co-Chair Defects to Dewey

2009-07-06T18:18:53-06:00

Dewey & LeBoeuf has plucked a new head of bank and institutional finance from Mayer Brown's ranks. Marshall Stoddard, who was co-chair of Mayer Brown's global finance practice, told the Am Law Daily that he was drawn by Dewey's stable leadership. Mayer brown eliminated its "troika" management structure featuring a chair and two vice chairs to one with only a chairman, managing partner, a six-member management committee and 12-member partnership board. Former chairman James Holzhauerhttp://www.abajournal.com/news/mayer_brown_chair_to_step_down/ stepped down in March, and vice chair Paul Maher left in May; it was announced in June that Maher will be launching a new London…

Music Industry Wants File-Sharer Barred from Downloading

2009-07-06T16:38:58-06:00

Lawyers for the Recording Industry Association of America want a federal judge to bar Jammie Thomas-Rasset—who was ordered last month to pay $1.92 million in damages for sharing 24 music files online—from downloading music and to destroy all of the music files she has downloaded. RIAA attorney Timothy Reynolds wrote in his request to U.S. District Judge Michael Davis that Thomas-Rasset distributed more than 1,700 songs to millions of people, the Associated Press reported. "Absent an injunction, there is nothing to stop defendant from downloading and distributing more of plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings through an online media distribution system," Reynolds…

RIAA Wants Harvard Prof to Take Case Recordings Off the Web

2009-07-06T15:25:56-06:00

The Recording Industry Association of America says that Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson is violating court orders and privacy laws by posting recordings of pretrial hearings and depositions to his blog and to the Berkman Center for Internet and Society website. Wired's Threat Level blog provides links to examples of what the RIAA is referring to: a deposition of Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued by the RIAA and represented by Nesson; a phone conversation between RIAA lawyers and U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner “without the prior consent of participants"; and two expert depositions taken last week. Threat Level notes…

Bingham McCutchen, McKee Nelson to Merge on Aug. 1

2009-07-06T11:48:27-06:00

Bingham McCutchen announced today that its firm leaders and those of McKee Nelson have signed a letter of intent to merge as of Aug. 1 under the Bingham McCutchen name. "The opportunity for us to add McKee Nelson’s market-leading practices in financial institutions litigation, capital markets and tax is extraordinary," Bingham McCutchen chairman Jay Zimmerman said in a press release. "These are quite simply some of the finest lawyers in the profession.” This is Bingham's 10th merger in the firm's last 15 years under Zimmerman, the release says. Bingham has 1,000 lawyers in 12 offices, and McKee Nelson has 120…

Dallas Law Firms Better Poised to Weather Recession

2009-07-06T11:09:11-06:00

Some Dallas law firms are laying off lawyers, but on the whole they are faring better than counterparts in other cities. The firms are doing well in part because they have energy and intellectual property practices that do better in an economic downturn, the Dallas Morning News reports. John Attanasio, dean of Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, told the newspaper that the strong market has helped his school’s graduates obtain jobs. More than 70 percent of the school’s most recent graduates found jobs, the second-best results ever for the school. "The Dallas firms have been very conservative with…

Villanova Law Dean Resigns; Name Surfaces in Prostitution Probe

2009-07-06T09:41:49-06:00

Villanova law dean Mark Sargent, who abruptly resigned last week, had been identified in a police report as a prostitution customer, according to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sargent and another customer provided information to police after a raid of the prostitution business, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports in a story that relies on police records of the case. As a result of their help, the man behind the enterprise later pleaded no contest to promoting prostitution and conspiracy, according to the story. Sargent was Villanova dean since 1987 and had written a 2004 law review article called "Lawyers in…

Jenner & Block Ranked Top Pro Bono Law Firm

2009-07-06T08:54:25-06:00

Jenner & Block is the top pro bono law firm, according to a new survey of lawyer hours devoted to free legal services. Jenner & Block was top-ranked by American Lawyer for two years in a row, according to a law firm press release. The average time devoted to pro bono was 169.5 hours per lawyer, the highest of any law firm. Nearly 91 percent of the firm’s lawyers contributed at least 20 hours to pro bono matters. The American Lawyer ranked the nation’s top 200 law firms based on their devotion to pro bono services for legal groups or…

Law Profs on Clout-Influenced Admissions: Everybody Does It

2009-07-06T08:12:27-06:00

A group of law professors at the University of Illinois is taking exception to a Chicago Tribune series showing Illinois politicians and fundraisers used their clout to pressure the university and its law school to admit students. The letter to the Tribune, posted by law professor Larry Ribstein at Ideoblog, says the story overlooks the fact that clout-influenced admissions aren’t all that unusual. The Tribune series reported that U of I compiled an applicant clout list based on lobbying by government officials. Some on the list won admission despite protests by some U of I officials that they didn’t meet…

Smaller Law Firms Get More Big-Company Work, Survey Finds

2009-07-06T07:07:58-06:00

The nation’s largest companies are increasingly turning to smaller and midsized law firms to perform legal work for less money. The survey of 550 large companies found that 38 percent hired law firms last year outside of the nation’s top 200 law firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2007, only 25 percent of the companies surveyed hired law firms outside the top 200, according to the survey by BTI Consulting Group. The story identifies a couple companies that hired smaller law firms: • AutoNation hired seven-lawyer South Florida law firm Angelo & Banta to do legal work for a…

Legal Costs Spurred Palin’s Resignation, Official Says

2009-07-06T06:48:45-06:00

Alaska’s lieutenant governor says Sarah Palin is resigning from her post as governor because of the mounting legal costs of defending herself in ethics investigations. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell of Alaska told FOX News Sunday that Palin told him of her resignation on Wednesday, the New York Times reports. “I think what I heard from the governor,” Parnell said, “really had to do with the weight on her, the concern she had for the cost of all the ethics investigations and the like—the way that that weighed on her with respect to her inability to just move forward Alaska’s agenda…

Judge OKs Sale of GM Assets to US-Owned Company

2009-07-06T06:27:28-06:00

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of General Motors’ assets to a new company partly owned by the federal government. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber of Manhattan approved the sale late Sunday, after a three-day hearing, the Associated Press reports. "As nobody can seriously dispute, the only alternative to an immediate sale is liquidation—a disastrous result for GM's creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence, and the communities in which GM operates," Gerber wrote in a 95-page ruling. Under the restructuring plan, GM will sell its good assets, including its Chevrolet, Cadillac,…

Even Routine Law Practice is Difficult and Dangerous in Russia

2009-07-05T10:00:57-06:00

The courtroom gallery brimmed with lawyers during the trial in January of four men accused of murdering Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta who was gunned down in 2006 at the elevator of her Moscow apartment. The newspaper had paid a high price for its investigations into political corruption. In 2000, another Novaya reporter had been beaten to death with hammers on a Moscow street. Three years later, the paper’s managing editor died mysteriously from something that caused his skin to peel off. For the lawyers gathered to watch it, the trial of those accused in…

Border Town Becomes Murder Capital, While Mexico Pushes for Rule-of-Law Changes

2009-07-04T10:00:08-06:00

In the early morning hours of May 17, 2008, Willy Moya had just closed the V-Bar, one of several popular nightspots he owned in the Pronaf section of Ciudad Juarez, when a couple of friends wandered in and told him they were hungry. Moya decided he could use a bite, so he offered to send one of his bodyguards out for pizza. Even in ordinary times, Moya had a few bodyguards. But this was no ordinary time in Juarez. The Mexican city of 2 million was averaging more than 100 murders per month. Storefronts, markets and restaurants were reducing their…

Law Trails Behind as Disputes Over Genetic Patents Intensify

2009-07-03T09:00:19-06:00

After being diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer, Lisbeth Ceriani had a double mastectomy last year followed by chemotherapy that caused her hair to fall out in clumps. Just when she thought the worst was over, she learned that some of the genes in her body that led to the cancer were patented. Myriad Genetics, based in Salt Lake City, holds patents on two genes and their mutations that have been linked to hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer. As a result, the private biotech company offers the only genetic screening tests for the diseases. Ceriani, a…

Google Books Settlement May Violate Antitrust Law, DOJ Contends

2009-07-02T16:33:15-06:00

A pending settlement between Google Inc. and groups representing authors and publishers could violate antitrust law, the U.S. Department of Justice says in a letter to the federal judge in the Southern District of New York who is overseeing the case. Although the DOJ has made no finding that antitrust law would, in fact, be violated by the planned settlement concerning Google's plan to make a large number of books available online, it is investigating the settlement, reports the New York Times. “This is the next step in the notion that this is a serious issue, so serious that the…

Counsel for Accused Lawyer Must Be Given Control of Claimed Child Porn

2009-07-02T15:52:40-06:00

Defense counsel for an attorney and former New Jersey lawmaker accused in a child pornography case must be given access to the images allegedly found on Neil Cohen's computers, a state appeals court has ruled. Prosecutors had argued that Cohen's defense team should only be allowed to view the evidence on state-controlled computers. But "the need for defense counsel to have unfettered access to the images and the need for defense experts to maintain anonymity will be compromised by the presence of the state representative who controls the computer," the court said in a written opinion yesterday. The court imposed…

Federal Judge Plans to Acquit Mom Convicted in Landmark Cyberbullying Case

2009-07-02T14:40:36-06:00

A federal judge in Los Angeles reportedly has said he intends to acquit a Missouri mother accused of helping to drive a neighboring teen to suicide by participating in a hoax on the MySpace social networking site. Lori Drew was cleared of more serious charges but convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles last year of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. However, interpreting the federal law under which she was found guilty in this manner, says U.S. District Judge George Wu, would mean that anyone who has ever violated a website's terms of service could be found…

Disgraced Pa. Judge: I Didn’t Discuss $3.5M Libel Case

2009-07-02T13:20:11-06:00

A Pennsylvania lawyer initially portrayed by his counsel as a victim has now pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to a $2.5 million juvenile detention judicial kickbacks case that has already resulted in guilty pleas by two senior Luzerne County jurists. But yesterday's plea by Robert Powell is just the latest milestone in an ongoing inquiry into the extent to which the two judges, while they were still on the bench, may have been improperly influenced in rendering their verdicts. At a hearing ordered by the state supreme court to look into a newspaper's claim that a $3.5 million libel…

Alston & Bird Chops $5K Off ‘09 Pay for Associates, Says ‘Market is Shifting’

2009-07-02T11:47:51-06:00

Joining a growing number of law firms that are cutting associate pay, essentially, because they can, Alston & Bird has announced that it will reduce the salaries of all 451 of the firm's associates by $5,000 for the rest of the year. "It is no secret the market is shifting," managing partner Richard Hays tells the Fulton County Daily Report. However, the Atlanta-based national firm apparently hasn't yet decided what to do concerning associate salaries in 2010 and thereafter. The firm's salary range for Atlanta associates presently ranges from $145,000 for first-years to about $190,000 for those at the other…

Appeals Court Rules MySpace Not Liable for Teens’ Rapes

2009-07-02T11:38:40-06:00

A California appeals court has ruled that MySpace isn’t liable for the rapes of teenage girls who were assaulted by men they had met on the social networking site. The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled that MySpace is protected from liability by the federal Communications Decency Act, which protects websites that post materials written by others, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and Reuters. The sexual assault victims were between the ages of 13 and 15 when they posted their profiles online, according to the Chronicle. Two assailants have already been sentenced to prison for the…

Probe Finds Kozinski’s Sexually Explicit Photos Were ‘Judicially Imprudent’

2009-07-02T09:39:30-06:00

A federal judicial council has admonished Judge Alex Kozinski for keeping sexually explicit materials on a personal website, concluding an ethics investigation spurred by a June 2008 Los Angeles Times article. How Appealing reported on the June 5 opinion (PDF), released yesterday. The judicial council of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was appointed to investigate after the Los Angeles Times reported that images and videos on Kozinski’s personal website included "a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal."…

‘Catcher’ Ruling Will Discourage Other Would-Be Parodies, Lawyer Says

2009-07-02T08:42:27-06:00

A federal judge has enjoined publication of a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, saying the new book is an unauthorized infringement of the copyright held by the original novel’s author, J.D. Salinger. U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts of Manhattan issued the injunction yesterday, rejecting claims that the new book, 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, was transformative and thus a fair use of Salinger’s original book, the New York Law Journal reports. She said the new book simply rehashed themes of the original and was not a parody. The new book features a 76-year-old man known as…

Unpaid Student Loans Derail Law Grad’s Quest for NY Bar Admission

2009-07-02T08:00:36-06:00

Robert Bowman managed to pass the New York bar exam after the fourth try, but there is one more obstacle keeping him from getting a license to practice law: about $430,000 in student debt and penalties. A New York appeals court ruled (PDF) in March that Bowman had not established his character and fitness to practice law because of his failure to make substantial payments on the debt and his inflexibility in discussions with loan servicers. The opinion doesn’t name the lawyer; the New York Times reveals he is Bowman, a persistent individual who overcame a troubled childhood and bounced…

SEC Lawyer Warned About Madoff in 2004

2009-07-02T07:06:49-06:00

A lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission had sounded a warning in 2004 about irregularities at the financial management firm run by Bernard Madoff, but her superiors asked her to put aside concerns to work on an investigation of the mutual fund agency. The lawyer, Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, found inconsistencies in information provided by Madoff, and sent her superiors an e-mail suggesting questions that should be posed to his firm, the Washington Post reports. The questions zeroed in on activities that turned out to be elements of his fraud. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison last week for…

IP Boutique Day Casebeer to Merge with Howrey

2009-07-02T06:28:04-06:00

The rumors are true: Intellectual property boutique Day Casebeer Madrid and Batchelder will merge with Howrey, a law firm with 17 offices and more than 725 lawyers, including more than 300 in the IP field. The merger was effective yesterday, according to a press release. Nine partners and 16 associates from the Cupertino, Calif., IP firm will join Howrey. Howrey has aggressively expanded in the Bay area, according to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Last year it took on most of the construction practice group from Thelen. Day Casebeer’s clients have included Sun Microsystems, Symantec and Amgen. Robert Ruyak,…