Posts from ‘November, 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.

Citigroup’s board is apparently fighting over which Am Law 100 firm it should retain as counsel. With Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Sullivan & Cromwell possibly conflicted out of the running, Cravath, Swaine & Moore may now be under consideration for the plum assignment of representing Citi’s 15-member board. Beyond what’s going on at the board level, sources say there appears to be a legal shakeout occurring in the M&A ranks as well.

In an expanding probe of investment giant UBS, the Justice Department on
Wednesday announced the indictment of the Swiss bank’s chairman of
global wealth management, accusing him of playing a key role in a tax
evasion scheme to shelter secret U.S. account holders from income tax
bills and drive up bank revenue. Raoul Weil, who oversaw the Swiss
bank’s cross-border private banking business serving 20,000 U.S.
clients, helped conceal a combined $20 billion in assets from the IRS,
the indictment charged.

In a case of first impression, a Brooklyn federal judge has ruled that the ethnicity of two Arab plane passengers cannot serve as a factor in determining whether the government had probable cause for their “de facto arrests” at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Tarik Farag and Amro Elmasry initiated the action after armed police officers met them as they de-boarded a flight in 2004, and brought them in for questioning. The two men later filed the present suit, which the judge allowed to go forward.

Prominent Hollywood attorney Terry Christensen was sentenced Monday to three years in prison in a wiretapping scheme that targeted the former wife of MGM mogul Kirk Kerkorian to disprove her claims that he was the father of her young daughter. Christensen was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer after being convicted of one count each of conspiracy to commit wiretapping and aiding and abetting a wiretap.

A committee of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility has recommended that Claude Allen, a former assistant to President George W. Bush for domestic policy issues, have his law license suspended for 90 days in connection with a series of thefts from Target stores. The report says Allen should face a “modest sanction” because, as an adviser to Bush during Hurricane Katrina shortly before the thefts, he internalized some of the suffering he witnessed during the crisis.

Automakers were not the only ones left empty-handed at the end of last week’s lame-duck session of Congress. The federal judiciary’s long quest for salary increases made little progress — though hope remains that the post-Thanksgiving session will bring some results. Judges are walking a difficult line, not wanting to appear selfish when the populace at large is suffering as a result of the financial crisis, but judicial pay has lagged for years.

A trio of London firms has seen a mega-mandate come to an end, after the collapse of the $66 billion hostile takeover of Rio Tinto by BHP Billiton. BHP pulled out of its bid to take over its rival mining company Tuesday, citing risks to shareholder value in the wake of the economic crisis. Slaughter and May, Linklaters and Allen & Overy had all taken headline roles on the multibillion-dollar bid, which was set to become the second-largest M&A deal of all time.

Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich will teach a course at the University of Georgia School of Law this spring. Gingrich will teach a course on judicial review as a Carl E. Sanders Political Leadership Scholar, along with frequent lecturer and author on government ethics and politics, J. Randolph “Randy” Evans.

Just in time for the holidays, the U.S. Department of Justice has released a new model leniency letter for companies that want to avoid being criminally prosecuted for antitrust violations. But the companies may not be so thankful. In the letter, the government tightens up its amnesty program for corporations and individuals. Deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust Scott Hammond calls the changes “clarifications,” made “to clear up any perceived ambiguities.”