Posts on ‘November 10th, 2008’

Former Covington & Burling partner Thomas Barnett is stepping down later this month from his post as head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the DOJ announced Friday. During Barnett’s tenure, the division secured $1.8 billion in criminal fines against 50 corporations and 91 individuals. “Tom Barnett has been an effective enforcer of the antitrust laws and a strong advocate for consumers,” Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in a statement.

Drug makers may now have to provide safety warnings not just for their own products but also for those of companies piggybacking on their success. A California appellate court stunned drug makers Friday, in what the court called a case of first impression, by ruling that name-brand drug makers can be held liable for harm caused by competing companies’ generic versions. Product liability lawyer Mark Herrmann said the 1st District broke from several other states to reach its conclusion.

The 2nd Circuit has rejected an attorney’s bid to circumvent restrictions on class actions under New York law to bring a federal claim against telecom equipment company Avaya under a law banning unsolicited fax ads. The court said attorney Todd C. Bank used an “inventive” approach in trying to bring a class action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in federal court, but that Bank’s 10,000 purported class members would have to bring individual actions.

Steve Appleton of Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow recognized that his firm’s network was no longer supplying quick, secure remote access to resources. The firm chose Windows Server 2008 to improve access to online data and eliminate redundant, offline data on mobile computers.

Leaders at smaller law firms say they’re trimming costs, but the hatchet’s staying in the shed — for now. And while small firms are keeping retreats closer to home or eyeing operating costs more carefully, the turbulent economy is actually making some feel optimistic. Some managing partners say they’re hoping that the economic downturn — which is making some giant firms shudder — will generate recruiting and business development opportunities, based partly on the appeal of small firms’ lower rates.

A squad of lawyers is waiting for President-elect Barack Obama and
President George W. Bush to finalize the rules for information-sharing
and access during the first Justice Department transition in the
post-9/11 world. Obama’s first task: selecting the next attorney
general. The most-discussed candidate for the top spot is still
Covington & Burling’s Eric Holder Jr., one of Obama’s top campaign
advisers. Others possibly in the running include two governors, a
Harvard law professor and a D.C. Circuit judge.

The Am Law Daily asked prominent legal ethics experts to determine just how strict the Treasury Department’s client conflict rules are for the law firms lucky enough to win its multimillion-dollar bailout contracts. The answer? Very, very strict. Said one: “They are putting the fear of God into these law firms.”