Posts on ‘November 10th, 2008’

DLA Piper has recruited veteran securities litigator Christopher P. Hall from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Hall led the Morgan Lewis team that won dismissal in 2006 of claims against Wachovia over its alleged payment of kickbacks to broker-dealers who pushed its mutual funds.

A paralegal who assisted San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi with an ongoing, gang-related assault case has admitted to police inspectors that she carried on a yearlong affair with the defendant. The relationship, which came to light last month, hasn’t derailed Adachi’s case, though it complicated his efforts to persuade a San Francisco Superior Court judge to release the defendant on his own recognizance and nearly led to a conflict of interest for the public defender.

Change was in the air among the country’s state judicial races last week as the Wall Street meltdown and a growing frustration about private interest group money helped unseat several incumbents — particularly those with business supporters. And whether they were backed by businesses or plaintiffs attorneys, judicial candidates exploited the message, more so than ever before, that their opponents had been “bought” by their donors, says a bipartisan group that tracks state elections.

Superior Court Judge John Watson was publicly admonished on Thursday by California’s Commission on Judicial Performance for making rude comments during a protracted case involving warring neighbors. Watson, now retired, repeatedly told the litigants and their attorneys that their battle was foolish and a waste of time and money. The commission had disciplined the judge on four prior occasions for actions ranging from making sarcastic comments to using his courtroom clerk to help run his rental properties.

The legal services sector shed 1,100 jobs in October, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest numbers reflect a series of layoffs in recent months, made worse by the dissolution of Heller Ehrman and the expected closure of Thelen. The last time so few people were employed in legal services was in December 2005, according to bureau figures.

Winston & Strawn is planning to open offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, using eight former Heller Ehrman partners it hired to help build its new Asia practice. The firm has hired Simon Luk, the former chairman of Heller’s Hong Kong practice, as well as ex-Heller partners David Hall-Jones and Michael Phillips, to anchor its Hong Kong office, the firm said. The partners, already in Hong Kong, will come with associates and legal staff.

A law firm that failed to clearly sever its relationship with a client cannot invoke the statute of limitations to bar a legal malpractice action, a New York state appeals court has ruled. “[W]hat may seem crystal clear to a lawyer may be utterly lost upon the client. If the attorney-client relationship has come to an end, that fact should be absolutely clear to all parties involved,” the judge said in denying summary judgment to the Handwerker law firm, Michael Handwerker and two of his former partners.