Posts on ‘November 15th, 2008’

For U.S. companies and counsel involved in civil litigation in Ontario, Canada, aspects of local procedure and practice may be unfamiliar. Although every case presents unique features, Torys partner Stuart Svonkin describes certain key characteristics of Ontario litigation procedure and practice that might be different from what a U.S.-based company or counsel would expect.

Deborah Garza has been named acting assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. She succeeds Thomas Barnett, who announced a week ago that he was stepping down from the role effective this Wednesday. Garza is currently the deputy assistant attorney general for regulatory matters in the Antitrust Division, where she oversees transportation, energy and agriculture matters; telecommunications and media enforcement; and litigation.

Dennis Kozlowski, the former head of Tyco International who was convicted of looting the company of hundreds of millions of dollars, says his infamous $6,000 shower curtain doesn’t look so bad in light of what’s happening on Wall Street now. In a jailhouse interview on the Fox Business Network, Kozlowski says his actions as Tyco’s chief executive officer pale in comparison to those of AIG, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is scheduled to participate in deciding 16 cases and hearing four oral arguments this week as a visiting judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The first lawyer to argue before O’Connor — Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s Mark Perry — will be a familiar face because he clerked for O’Connor during the 1993-1994 high court term. Joining Perry on a brief will be Eugene Scalia, son of O’Connor’s former Court colleague.

The first of what is expected to be many lawsuits stemming from the collapse of a Minnesota freeway bridge into the Mississippi River was filed last week. The suits were brought by the Minneapolis firm of Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben on behalf of three people who were injured and the family of one person who was killed when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007. The collapse killed 13 people and injured 150.

A Texas criminal defense attorney challenging his conviction for contempt of court for making an obscene gesture during a March appearance before a judge faces a new hurdle: The State Bar of Texas has filed a grievance against him. The Bar-initiated grievance alleges that solo Adam Reposa’s actions while representing his client in that court appearance, including arguing with his client over whether to take a plea deal, violated state professional conduct rules. Reposa calls the grievance “fascism.”

Robinson & Cole has agreed to absorb more than 30 Thelen lawyers from New York and Connecticut offices, adding heft to the firm’s construction, real estate, employment and finance practice groups, among others. The addition is in line with “many of our key objectives,” which include strengthening the firm’s New York office and adding to the firm’s intellectual property and technology law capacity, says Robinson & Cole managing partner Eric Daniels.

President George W. Bush nominated Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Barofsky on Friday to be the special inspector general overseeing the $700 billion federal economic rescue plan. Barofsky has handled white-collar prosecutions as a member of the securities and commodities fraud unit, including winning the convictions of Tone Grant, the ex-president of Refco, and Phillip Bennett, its former CEO.

The National Geographic Society is challenging a photographer’s U.S. Supreme Court petition for review, which, if granted, could revisit the high court’s 2001 landmark copyright ruling that said publishers can’t sell previously published freelance contributions for use in computer or online databases without renegotiating publication rights with the authors. Writing for the National Geographic, Kenneth W. Starr said the 11th Circuit’s en banc ruling resolved the conflict between the 11th and 2nd Circuits.

A New York appeals panel has thrown out a breach of contract claim against a deceased attorney, citing the well-established principle that the dead cannot be sued. Initially allowing the case against the late lawyer to proceed was the first of many mistakes by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara R. Kapnick, according to the unanimous reversal. “This matter arrives before this Court as a result of a volume of errors rarely seen in this Department,” Justice James M. Catterson wrote for the panel.