Legal News

The AM Roundup ? A Former Paul Hastings Associate Pleads, More . . .

By Ashby Jones

Let us say first off that we’ve scoured every corner of the Web this morning in search of Souter/Next Justice news, and we have authoritatively concluded that there isn’t any. A good bit of commentary, yes, much of which is feeling a bit repetitive at this point, but no hard news. So, defeated, we move on to other topics, like:

A Former Associate Pleads: A former Paul Hastings tax associate fought back tears Thursday as he admitted to securities fraud as part of an insider trading conspiracy. Eric A. Holzer, 34, admitted to earning trading profits of $119,347 from tips on pending corporate mergers and other transactions he received from a friend in 2005. “I knew my trading was wrong,” he said, his voice choking with emotion. “I deeply regret my conduct.” He faces 12 to 18 months in prison. Click here for the New York Law Journal story; here for the Dow Jones Newswires story.

SEC Going After JP Morgan: JP Morgan Chase & Co. said Thursday that the SEC had approved the filing of an enforcement action against it for securities law violations over bond and swap sales for Jefferson County, Ala. The bank said in a regulatory filing that it was in discussions with the S.E.C. staff to resolve the matter before the agency filed a civil complaint. Click here for the Bloomberg story.

Rehabbing at the DOJ? A week after shutting down the criminal case against former Senator Ted Stevens, Eric Holder (pictured) delivered a pep talk to Justice Department lawyers. Despite the talk, the DOJ’s public integrity unit, once the pride of the Justice Department, is badly in need of rehabilitation, writes Charlie Savage of the NYT.

A Husker Takes on Some Heavies: Video gamers and college sports fans alike should check out Elie Mystal’s great screed over at Above the Law, from Wednesday afternoon, on a putative class-action lawsuit filed by Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller against the NCAA and Electronic Arts. Click here for Mystal’s post; here for the complaint, filed by Seattle’s Hagens Berman.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).