Legal Research

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DAY PITNEY RECASTS ITS SUMMER PROGRAM AS APPRENTICESHIP
"Summer associate programs are usually just two-way beauty contests, giving firms and their recruits the opportunity to check each other out with a view to a long-term relationship. But they're expensive and ? especially in these lean times ? firms may not be able to extend many permanent offers. Faced with that reality, some firms have scaled back or even eliminated summer programs, but Day Pitney has a better idea. Starting next year, the New Jersey-Connecticut firm will replace its typical languorous summer retreat with a short and intensive 'apprenticeship.' Through concentrated assignments, pro bono activity and workshops on law firm finances, client development and networking, interns will learn about the nuts and bolts of lawyering."

DELAWARE LAWYER TO HEAD McCARTER & ENGLISH
"McCarter & English has a new chairman, the first in its history to be based outside Newark. Michael P. Kelly, 52, a toxic tort, products liability and intellectual property litigator in the firm's Wilmington, Del., office, takes over the post held for 12 years by Andrew Berry, who died on July 24. Managing partner Eric Wiechmann says Kelly, a member of the executive committee, won unanimous approval from other members because he is well-regarded by clients and by the Delaware bar. An affable sort, he is quick with a joke and is often asked by judges and politicians to speak at events."

SCHOOL BOARD AND INSURER MUST SHARE COST OF DEFENSE
"A school board that put its defense in the hands of a longtime lawyer at Greenberg Traurig and an insurance company that bowed out because it felt the lawyer had a conflict must share the responsibility for legal fees in a long-running federal case, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Zurich American Ins. Co. is partly responsible for what it cost the North Plainfield Board of Education to defeat a count of a builder's multimillion-dollar contract claim, U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper in Camden ruled. Zurich argued that its responsibility for the costs ended in 2005 when the board refused to accept a demand that a conflict required the replacement of Robert Epstein of Greenberg Traurig's Florham Park office in the construction case."

BLANK ROME SETTLES MALPRACTICE CLAIM FOR $20 MILLION
"Blank Rome has entered into a $20 million agreement with the trustee of a former client that is now in bankruptcy to settle a complaint that alleged breach of fiduciary duty, professional malpractice and breach of contract claims against the firm. The settlement was approved on July 28 by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath for the District of Delaware, who is overseeing the bankruptcy of American Business Financial Services, which is involved in a string of litigation in both state and federal court stemming from its bankruptcy and business dealings. Blank Rome does not admit any liability or wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, according to the agreement."

2ND CIRCUIT REBUFFS ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN SPITZER WIRETAP DATA
"The New York Times has lost its bid to obtain wiretap information related to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring. The federal law that permits disclosure of wiretap information on a showing of good cause does not allow disclosure based solely on the news media's interest in publishing the information, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday. In a case where the Times sought wiretap information on Spitzer and the Emperor's Club prostitution ring, the circuit agreed with the government that general journalistic interest in the information does not amount to good cause within the meaning of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968."

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