Posts on ‘October 22nd, 2008’

In a juicy new development in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy case, Evergreen Solar, a Massachusetts power company that loaned Lehman nearly 30 million shares in June, is accusing Lehman of selling 12.2 million of those shares to Barclays as part of a larger $1.75 billion transaction. The problem, according to Evergreen’s legal team at Goodwin Procter, is that Lehman was obligated to transfer those shares back to Evergreen in the event that it declared bankruptcy.

In the midst of a tough economy, a Detroit law firm is using a novel method to lure participants to an employment law seminar: free gas. Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone offered $10 gas cards to participants who registered and paid in advance. At last check, more than 200 people had signed up for Thursday’s event. Chief Executive Officer Michael Hartmann says if all attendees get free gas cards, it’s $2,000 well spent.

Six years ago, Theodore Metzler launched one of the first Supreme Court blogs with predictions of how pending cases would turn out, and he didn’t do well. Metzler, now an associate at Covington & Burling who recently argued his first case before the Court, says he knows better than to guess how it will turn out. Predicting that he would have been arguing at all would have been just as tough. It’s still rare for a nonpartner to argue a high court case. At Covington, it hasn’t happened for more than 20 years.

Montana’s Judicial Standards Commission has recommended that a judge accused of offering female defendants leniency in return for sexual favors be removed from office. The commission found Justice of the Peace Gary D. Hicks’ conduct with eight of the nine women who filed complaints violated Montana’s code of judicial ethics. Hicks has been suspended with pay pending state Supreme Court review of the commission’s recommendation.

Less than two weeks before the case comes before the Supreme Court, lawyers Theodore Olson and Joseph Larisa Jr. are still at an impasse over which one of them will argue the case for the plaintiffs. Each has filed a standard argument form with the Supreme Court clerk’s office, and Larisa wants the choice made by a coin toss. This week, the two received an identical, stern letter from the Court — with a deadline to end the deadlock.