Posts on ‘October 14th, 2008’

The U.S. Treasury Department has chosen Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as its lead legal adviser on the $700 billion bailout plan, Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari said in a speech Monday. Six law firms were asked to consider taking the job. As of Monday, the department was refusing to name the other firms it had approached, but sources say two of the firms that did not take up the offer are Davis, Polk & Wardell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

The theory goes that litigation work jumps when the economy sours. That hasn’t been true so far at 2,800-lawyer Clifford Chance, which today laid off 20 associates in its U.S. litigation and dispute resolution group. The attorneys, all in the New York and Washington, D.C., offices, will receive some severance package and outplacement services, the firm said. The firm also plans to lay off staff in the business services division after the fourth quarter.

While the presidential race attracts the most attention, it doesn’t draw the biggest campaign contributions. The Democrats are well ahead in the contest for nonpresidential contributions from 100 legal chiefs, according to a review of Federal Election Commission data. At the same time, the GOP has received some of the biggest individual contributions from general counsel.

With e-discovery taking an increasing bite out of the bottom line — 2007 commercial expenditures on EDD topped $2.7 billion — corporate America is looking toward India. The review part of the process is a key area where outsourcing can be an attractive, cost-saving option.

Credit crunches and gas shortages don’t hit just Wall Street and Main Street — they steamroll into law firms, causing associates to worry they won’t have enough work to earn their keep if the crisis continues. Because big firms always show a good face to the outside world, how can one tell if times are tight there? Signs of a slowdown are easy to spot at law firms if you know what to look for, says humor columnist The Snark, who lists the top five ways to know your firm is affected by the economic crisis.

To get a fix on what doctrinal change may occur at the Supreme Court in the aftermath of the elections, asked legal scholars to discuss what they see as happening in their area of expertise if Justice John Paul Stevens leaves the Court in the near term and is replaced by a successor picked by the new president, whether Barack Obama or John McCain. Stevens was singled out because, at 88, he is considered to be the most likely to depart in the next president’s first term.

Companies being sued for patent infringement just got a get-out-of-the-Eastern-District-of-Texas-rocket-docket-for-free card, thanks to an en banc ruling from the 5th Circuit. Although the case has nothing to do with patent law, the circuit’s decision will have big implications for the flood of infringement suits regularly filed in what has come to be known as the country’s most plaintiff-friendly venue.

Call it McAfee day at the San Francisco federal building. As the jury concluded its second day of deliberations in the stock option backdating prosecution of the company’s former general counsel — without reaching a verdict — Judge Susan Illston sentenced McAfee’s former CFO in connection with an unrelated revenue recognition scheme. Federal prosecutors asked for a 46-month prison term for Prabhat Goyal, but the judge went with the probation office’s recommendation: a year and a day in prison.