Posts on ‘November 14th, 2008’

Three years ago, when Alcoa was looking for a law firm to handle its IP work exclusively and at a fixed fee, Greenberg Traurig beat out nearly three dozen firms. To win, Greenberg went through several interviews, submitted a lengthy written proposal, and agreed to bring in several in-house Alcoa attorneys the company was preparing to let go. Then came the real test: Would the contract pay off for Greenberg? Apparently it has, because the firm and Alcoa have renewed their deal.

The SEC’s interpretive guidance on the use of company Web sites for compliance with disclosure requirements highlights the need to include Web site review as part of a public company’s corporate governance program. What methods are necessary to establish effective compliance?

A federal judge has rejected a seafood company’s request to rewrite a plan for dividing punitive damages to be awarded from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Barring an appeal of the ruling, lawyers hope to begin handing out punitive damages to fishermen, cannery workers, landowners, Alaska Natives and other claimants in the yearslong legal battle with Exxon Mobil Corp. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court reduced Exxon’s punitive damages from $5 billion to no more than $507.5 million.

What does the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing by General Motors mean for law firms that depend on Detroit’s business? The big question for law firms is which will be left standing in the wake of “massive consolidation,” says one law firm CEO, adding that, in the meantime, the turmoil creates a lot of legal work. Another CEO notes that the auto industry downturn has existed for the past several years. “Right now we’re just trying to stay the course.”

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced Thursday that it’s laying off 40 associates and counsel and 35 staff. The cuts come in practice areas most affected by the slowdown: structured finance, real estate and corporate. “This is the most significant financial crisis in my lifetime,” said Orrick Chairman Ralph Baxter Jr. “It is something that happened relatively suddenly: It dropped and stayed down, and it produced a need to do this.” Baxter emphasized that none of the cuts is performance-based.

Trademark enforcement isn’t unusual for companies with famous marks like Intel. But the number of suits sets the company apart. So far this year, it has sued 15 companies with the word “intel” in their names in federal court. Only some of Intel’s targets are computer-related businesses, and few if any manufacture or sell microprocessors like the ones that made Intel so famous. By comparison, McDonald’s, known to pursue any fast-food restaurant with the same prefix, has filed only one such suit this year.