Posts on ‘November 3rd, 2008’

It’s not the $949 million that ICO Global Communications’ lawyers had asked for, but a Los Angeles trial jury late Friday hit Boeing with $236 million in punitive damages on top of the $370.6 million the same jury ordered Boeing to pay after finding that it breached a contract to build and launch 12 satellites for ICO. Even without the punitive award, the $370.6 million verdict was already the third-largest of the year, according to one source.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. has turned his desk at the Court into a mini-shrine to the Philadelphia Phillies. In a rare in-chambers interview Friday to convey his enthusiasm about the World Series victory after a 28-year drought, Alito, who has been a fan since the age of 4 or 5, spoke about “living and dying with every pitch” and whether or not he yells at the TV during games. As for Supreme Court matters, Alito explained his decision last summer to jump out of the “cert pool.”

A high-profile court battle over an allegedly “unconscionable” contingent fee agreement has taken a strange turn following the elderly client’s death. Alice Lawrence sued her former Graubard Miller lawyers over a 40 percent fee agreement executed in 2005, only a few months before the settlement of a mammoth estate case for $105 million. Now a court referee has recommended a possible sanctioning of Lawrence’s estate, just one week after New York’s high court heard arguments in a related proceeding.

In another blow to Chicago’s legal market, Bell Boyd & Lloyd on Thursday laid off 10 associates. The announcement comes just two weeks after Katten Muchin Rosenman cut 21 attorneys and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal dropped 25 associates. Both those law firms have their largest offices in Chicago. As with the other firms, Bell Boyd & Lloyd said the attorney cuts are in response to the slowing economy.

In an era when employees change jobs frequently, your most important witness in a suit against your company is often a former employee. At best, a former employee may be ambivalent toward your company. At worst, he or she may be downright hostile. Should you contact a former employee? If so, what should you tell him? Attorney Linda L. Listrom offers some suggestions on how to handle the situation within the limits of ethics rules.

Under the dual provider approach to outsourcing, the customer splits the volume of outsourcing services between the existing vendor and either a second vendor or an in-house source. W. Carter Santos, an outsourcing transaction counsel, discusses the primary benefits of this method.

When Army Reserve Capt. Brian Farlow was called up for duty in Afghanistan, leaving his family and work was difficult. But Elrod, a six-lawyer Dallas trial boutique, spent months planning for the 400 days Farlow would be overseas. “With a small firm such as ours … everything we do is from a team perspective,” says the firm’s founder. From case transition to maintaining Farlow’s cigar humidor, the whole firm banded together to make sure Farlow’s absence was as smooth as possible.

The United States’ legal community is on the alert in key voter hot spots as the clock ticks down to Election Day. Amid new charges of voter fraud and still-fresh memories of old recount battles, lawyers are drawing on lessons learned from past elections. And as lawyers mobilized and judges weighed in on disputes around the country, a mock Supreme Court panel ruled in favor of Barack Obama.

Diana Levine says that before the Supreme Court agreed to hear , she thought her case was about how to compensate her for losing her right arm to gangrene after the improper administration of a Wyeth company drug. But Levine has since learned that her case is about something bigger and yet less tangible: federal pre-emption. It has become a major political flash point that could be influenced as much by the presidential election on Tuesday as by the Supreme Court argument today.

On Jan. 1, Powell Goldstein will become part of 945-lawyer Bryan Cave. PoGo’s partnership unanimously approved the deal Thursday and an overwhelming majority of Bryan Cave partners approved it on Friday. PoGo will give up its name and cede leadership to Bryan Cave. In return, PoGo’s 220 lawyers gain both a national and an international platform that will help expand their practice groups. PoGo partner W. Scott Sorrels says, “It’s like winning the Super Bowl and the World Series all in one.”