Posts on ‘November 12th, 2008’

San Francisco-based Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold has announced plans to merge with Gordon, Hargrove & James and open a Florida office on Jan. 1, 2009. Sedgwick has been on something of a new office spree lately, having opened three other offices since the start of 2006.

The husband-and-wife duo of John A. Chandler and Elizabeth V. Tanis have left Sutherland’s Atlanta office. Tanis, a professional liability litigator who became one of the highest-ranking women at the firm, has accepted a partnership at King & Spalding. Chandler, who led Sutherland’s pro bono representation of six Yemeni detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo, acknowledged some interest in a potential role in the Obama administration working on detainee matters but said his plans are still shaping up.

The maker of Barbie dolls is taking new action to sweep the rival Bratz line from store shelves after winning $100 million in a copyright suit this year. Attorneys for Mattel asked a federal judge on Monday to ban MGA Entertainment from making the Bratz products, which they asked the court to impound and destroy. The current dispute centers on whether the jury in the earlier suit found that only the first generation of Bratz dolls infringed on Mattel’s copyright or whether all the line’s dolls are in violation.

Lawyers who engaged a retiring judge in discussions about a future business relationship while he was ruling in one of their cases have been sued for damages — specifically, the other party’s attorney fees. The suit against Herten, Burstein, Sheridan, Cevasco, Bottinelli, Litt & Harz and partner Thomas Herten claims that the firm’s actions amounted to professional negligence, and advances a third-party legal malpractice cause of action. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Pursuing allegations of fraud under the False Claims Act, the federal government secured $1.34 billion in settlements and judgments in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008, with the largest share coming from health care lawsuits — in particular, from pharmaceutical companies and related entities. The fiscal year recoveries bring the amount of total recoveries since 1986 amendments to the act to more than $21 billion.

During argument at the Supreme Court on Monday in a confrontation clause case, the justices and attorneys engaged in some spirited exchanges concerning whether defense lawyers — especially those “repeat attorneys” who appear often before the same judges and prosecutors — would be likely to take undue advantage of a rule requiring forensic technicians to testify when lab reports are admitted as evidence in drug cases.

A prosecutor asked the New Jersey Supreme Court’s judicial ethics tribunal on Monday to censure former municipal Judge Richard Sasso, and to bar him from the bench, for allegedly being drunk in court, unruly in public and overly harsh to litigants and lawyers. In testimony before the committee, Sasso testified that during the alleged drunken appearances, he was taking medications including the painkiller Vicodin for back and knee injuries from a car accident and Ambien for sleep apnea.

Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has filed a $34 billion lawsuit against importers of cigarettes from international tobacco companies, including U.S. firms, for costs of medical treatment of smoking-related illnesses, the first such action in the Arab world and one of the world’s biggest damage claims. The health and economic costs of tobacco-related illnesses in the kingdom total more than $1.3 billion a year, according to the health minister.

The U.S. Supreme Court is lifting restrictions on the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises in the Pacific Ocean, a defeat for environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales. The court, in its first decision of the term, voted 5-4 that the Navy needs to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by enemy submarines. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by three other conservative justices and the swing vote of Anthony Kennedy.

Eversheds has launched its second redundancy consultation this year in a move likely to affect 45 transactional fee earners. The consultation, which began Wednesday, will focus on the firm’s M&A, finance and insurance teams and will have an impact on up to 45 fee earners and additional support staff across the firm’s U.K. offices. The firm is still in the process of an ongoing consultation in regards to its real estate group, launched Sept. 4, which could see 33 lawyers laid off.