Posts on ‘October 27th, 2008’

The minority owners of the reigning racehorse of the year have been permanently disbarred by the Kentucky Supreme Court for their handling of a $200 million diet-drug settlement. William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. face a federal trial in February on wire fraud charges. Prosecutors say they conspired to bilk clients out of $94 million in a settlement over the diet-drug fen-phen.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has ended its exclusive strategic alliance with Italian “best friend” firm Chiomenti after seven years. The two firms said that the mutual decision was based on changes in client needs. News of the split comes after White & Case earlier last week became one of the first major law firms to announce it is pulling out of the Italian market.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave a late reprieve Friday to a Georgia man, who was due to be executed this week for the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer. It was the third time since July 2007 that Troy Davis has been spared by a late court decision. A death penalty expert called the court’s decision “extraordinarily rare,” especially given that the 11th Circuit is “a very conservative court. It’s just not something that one would expect from this court.”

The 2nd Circuit has refused to adopt a bright-line rule barring so-called “foreign-cubed” securities transactions, in which foreign plaintiffs sue in U.S. courts foreign issuers of securities for violations of U.S. securities laws based on transactions in foreign countries. The court cited the shared goal of governments around the world to combat securities fraud as one policy reason for largely adhering to its precedent in determining that jurisdiction should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

As retaliation claims against employers reach record levels, management-side lawyers are encouraging employers to fight back, stressing that shoddy work or unethical behavior shouldn’t be ignored just because a retaliation suit could follow. But employee-rights attorneys say retaliation is still a far bigger problem for employees than for employers.

A Quaker church-formed social justice group can’t rely on a “ministerial exception” to avoid an employment bias suit because its jobs are not “pastoral or ministerial,” a federal judge has ruled. Jerry Leaphart, an attorney and Quaker representing himself, claims he was passed over for several jobs because he is black. In court papers, Leaphart said a “spiritual transformation” resulted in his “eschewing a lucrative corporate career path as an international attorney” to focus on social justice and activism.