Legal Research

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N.Y. Attorney General Sues Financier Over Madoff Losses

New York Law Journal

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Monday sued J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent financier who sat on the boards of many well-known charities, for feeding his investors' money into the "largest Ponzi scheme in history." Cuomo's complaint, which raises six civil claims under the state's securities and not-for-proft laws, tallies the losses at $2.4 billion and accuses Merkin of collecting $470 million in fees for placing with Bernard L. Madoff, in whole or in part, assets from three funds Merkin managed.

Law Firms Slash Summer Associate Programs

The Recorder

Big law firms across the U.S. have dramatically cut the number of associates attending their 2009 summer programs. Observers say it's another sign that firms may be backing away from the high-leverage staffing models typical of the boom days. Cuts to the summer program, which is an expensive but important recruiting tool for most top firms, mean big savings in times of economic uncertainty. But they also mean firms have fewer people for their talent pipeline, and risk not having enough attorneys if demand picks up.

U.S. Supreme Court Reverses 3rd Circuit Over Federal Agents' Delay Tactics

The Legal Intelligencer

A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declared that federal agents cannot use unreasonable delay tactics to secure confessions. Reversing the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the justices voted 5-4 in holding that even a "voluntary" confession obtained by federal authorities may be deemed inadmissible if more than six hours elapse between an arrest and a suspect's first court appearance.

Long-Running IPO Action Settles for $586 Million

New York Law Journal

A settlement has been reached in the long-running litigation over the gaming of initial public offerings by investment banks and issuing companies. In papers released Monday, lawyers said they have agreed to settle for $586 million. The suits alleged that underwriters drove up the price of new issues by requiring clients to buy blocks of stock at ever-higher prices -- and failed to disclose this fact to investors who were later burned by the collapse of the market in tech stocks.

Mayer Brown Moves Toward Discarding Troika Leadership Structure

The National Law Journal

Herbert Krueger has been selected to replace James Holzhauer as Mayer Brown chairman in June, pending a partnership vote later this month. Krueger will become chairman under a new governance structure if the partners approve the changes, the firm said in a statement. The new, single-chairman structure would replace a troika-style leadership that Mayer Brown has had since June 2007. Holzhauer said in March he would step down from the post for health reasons and because of the job's heavy travel schedule.

High Court to Hear Attorney Fees Case

Fulton County Daily Report

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear Georgia's appeal of an order requiring it to pay more than $10.5 million to attorneys who challenged the state's foster care system. The Court agreed to consider whether a fee awarded under a federal fee-shifting statute can ever be enhanced based solely on the quality of the lawyers' performance and the result they obtained.

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Abu-Jamal New Trial

The Legal Intelligencer

Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his final appeal for a new trial Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the issue of whether blacks were unfairly excluded from the jury. But the justices have not yet had their last word in Abu-Jamal's case. When they do, which may not be until next term, they could be gearing up to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence. The outcome might hinge on what the justices decide to do in a different case involving a cross-dressing, neo-Nazi triple murderer.

Judge Looses Hounds on Heller's Banks

The Recorder

A suit against Heller's banks is imminent now that a bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for its creditors to try to reclaim more than $50 million that the law firm paid leading up to its bankruptcy. Less immediately certain is whether anyone will sue the firm's former partners. The creditors' committee is scheduled to meet this week to discuss its plan and to approve the suit against the banks, according to the committee's lawyer.

Two N.J. Judges Face Ethics Charges Over Derogatory Comments From Bench

New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey trial Judges James Convery and James Citta are in hot water for belittling litigants with remarks from the bench that an ethics prosecutor calls discourteous, undignified and discriminatory. The state Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct accuses Citta and Convery of derogatory comments touching on litigants' alienage, ethnicity, race, honesty, language ability or physical ailments. The judges are charged, among other things, with creating an appearance of racial or ethnic bias.

Madoff's Yacht Seized on French Riviera

The Associated Press

Another of Bernard Madoff's trophy assets has been seized, this time in the south of France. French authorities on the Cote d'Azur have chained up his $7 million yacht "Bull" at a port in the exclusive Mediterranean enclave of Cap d'Antibes. Bailiffs threw a heavy chain around the boat's propeller after a court granted the request by French investment firm Meeschaert, one of the many former investors in one of Madoff's funds that are now suing to get some of their clients' money back.

Federal Judge Orders Preservation of Evidence in Stevens Case

Legal Times

Note to the Justice Department, FBI and IRS: Don't destroy any evidence in the Ted Stevens prosecution. That order came from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, acting on his own, on Sunday. Sullivan demanded the immediate preservation of e-mails, notes, memos, investigative files, audio recordings and electronically stored information. The judge didn't provide any context to the order.

Cozen O'Connor Replies to Simpson Partner's 'Worst Advice Ever' Crack

The American Lawyer

Simpson partner Barry Ostrager's unflattering assessment of Cozen O'Connor's recent counsel to Chubb Insurance as "the worst advice any lawyer ever gave a client" has drawn a reply. In a strongly worded letter to The American Lawyer, name partner Stephen Cozen calls the remarks attributed to Ostrager "unseemly at best and downright defensive at worst," adding: "The notion that Chubb ... would not have thought through all possible ramifications of their position is just plain silly."

White House Counsel's Law Firm Earnings Released

Legal Times

It's not all that surprising, but Gregory Craig, President Barack Obama's White House counsel, brought home quite a bit of money from Williams & Connolly last year. According to financial disclosure forms released by the White House late Friday, Craig earned about $1.7 million in 2008 as a partner at the firm. Perhaps the oddest income reported by Craig comes from stock he owns in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Justice Souter's Concise Concurrence

Legal Times

As often happens on the final Monday of an argument cycle, several justices had already left town when the Supreme Court handed down two opinions Monday, so both decisions were announced by other justices in the majority who were in attendance. In U.S. v. Navajo Nation, the tribe suffered a defeat in a dispute over royalty rates under a 1964 coal lease. Justice David Souter's concurrence, filed in absentia, was among the shortest in the Court's history.

Clifford Chance Set to Cut 10 Associates From Amsterdam Office

Legal Week

Clifford Chance is to make a number of layoffs in Amsterdam, with 10 associates set to lose their jobs. The cuts represent a 6 percent reduction in lawyer numbers in the office, which has slightly more than 160 lawyers in total -- including 28 partners. The affected associates are spread across a number of departments, with the Dutch redundancies following extensive cuts in London and New York, as well a reduction in headcount in Moscow.

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Open Source After 'Jacobsen v. Katzer'

Intellectual Property Strategist

Before Jacobsen v. Katzer, commercial software developers often avoided incorporating open source components in their offerings for fear of being stripped of ownership rights. Following Jacobsen, commercial software developers should be even more cautious.

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Dead Companies Can Tell Tales

Legal Times

What happens to the attorney-client privilege when a corporation enters bankruptcy or receivership? As the current economic crisis spawns criminal investigations into sinking companies, corporate officers -- and their counsel -- need to remember that waiver of the privilege may ultimately be decided by a trustee or receiver and that prosecutors still have considerable freedom to seek this material despite recent policy changes at the Justice Department, say attorneys Paul N. Monnin and R. Joseph Burby IV.

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Looking for Opportunity in Crisis at NALP's Annual Conference

Special to Law.com

Every spring, law school career services professionals join their law firm counterparts in recruiting and professional development for the Association for Legal Career Professionals' Annual Education Conference. Last year's event featured conversations about attorney attrition and managing millennials. Those days are over. This year the agenda's 100-plus sessions included titles for more austere times, like "Responding Nimbly to Economic Change" and "Managing Student Expectations."

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Don't Stay Pigeonholed if You Want Job Security

Legal Times

It's no secret that law firm decision makers typically focus on associate productivity when determining who stays and who goes. And it's also no secret that lining up regular and varied work assignments can produce substantial billable hours. But many motivated and well-qualified associates may still fail to obtain quality projects that could save their careers in the near term, because they become too specialized, says Special Counsel's Ronald E. Quirk Jr. He has some advice: Get out of your pigeonhole.

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