Posts on ‘December 4th, 2008’

Sometime in the next decade, an economic historian will write the definitive account of the 2008 credit crisis. The extent to which there was a regulatory failure is a critical issue that such a history must face. Indeed, this issue is sufficiently pressing that even at this early point it needs to be addressed. What responsibility does the SEC bear for not resisting the steady slide of the major investment banks into insolvency? Law professor John C. Coffee Jr. examines the issue.

Sometime in the next decade, an economic historian will write the definitive account of the 2008 credit crisis. The extent to which there was a regulatory failure is a critical issue that such a history must face. Indeed, this issue is sufficiently pressing that even at this early point it needs to be addressed. What responsibility does the SEC bear for not resisting the steady slide of the major investment banks into insolvency? Law professor John C. Coffee Jr. examines the issue.

New York Gov. David A. Paterson said Wednesday he was “outraged” he has not been given the option of considering a woman to succeed Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and said at a news conference that he had asked the state’s attorney general if he has legal options other than selecting a chief judge from the all-male list of seven candidates sent to him by the Commission on Judicial Nomination. However, Paterson conceded that he is probably bound by the state constitution and statute to pick one of the seven.

Secrecy must be lifted over how much a stadium vending company paid last year to a girl who suffered paralyzing injuries from a crash with a drunken fan, a New Jersey appeals court said Wednesday. The court agreed with an advocacy group that moved for the unsealing, finding that public interest trumps privacy concerns. The case of Antonia Verni — who was rendered a quadriplegic in a 1999 crash a few hours after a football game — resulted in a record $105 million dram shop verdict in 2005.

Mark Zaid, who represents victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist bombing in 1988, was stunned when he unsuccessfully tried to deposit nearly $8 million in settlement funds into his Interest on Lawyer’s Trust Account at Bank of America. BofA refused to accept the deposit even though Zaid presented the bank with a notarized and double-witnessed power of attorney. Expressing concern about the extent to which lawyers at smaller firms are enduring similar obstacles, Zaid is demanding answers from the bank.

A cigarette maker and a smoker’s widow squared off for the third time at the Supreme Court on Wednesday over a $79.5 million punitive damages award, but the real battle was between the justices and their counterparts on Oregon’s high court. In its latest appeal, Philip Morris contended the Oregon judges were essentially thumbing their noses at the Supreme Court. “We’re here today because the Oregon court failed to follow this Court’s decision,” Philip Morris’ lawyer, Stephen Shapiro, told the justices.

A former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota retaliated against a top prosecutor in her office who reported her for careless handling of classified homeland security reports, a watchdog agency said Wednesday. The independent Office of Special Counsel said its investigation found that Rachel K. Paulose retaliated against John Marti by taking steps to remove him as her first assistant. Under the settlement, Marti will get back pay and a lump sum payment from the Justice Department.

Linklaters’ high-profile role on Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy is set to become one of most lucrative mandates in European legal history with the U.K. giant now regularly billing more than 1 million pounds a week. The Magic Circle firm has confirmed that its role advising U.K. administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers is currently engaging “several hundred” of its fee earners. PwC itself has already confirmed that its 300-strong Lehman team is generating weekly fees of 4 million pounds ($5.9 million).

The rowdy Bratz dolls have been evicted. Barbie has regained control of the dollhouse. Toy giant Mattel Inc., after a four-year legal dispute with MGA Entertainment Inc., touted its win in the case Dec. 3 after a federal judge banned MGA from making and selling its pouty-lipped and hugely popular Bratz dolls. The ruling, issued in federal court in Riverside, Calif., followed a jury’s finding that Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed the concept for the dolls while working for Mattel.

Passage rates for the July bar examination rose in several states with historically high numbers of applicants, including California, Massachusetts and New York, and in the Multistate Bar Examination portion of the test used in most jurisdictions. In California, the percentage of applicants passing the bar exam rose by 5 percent despite a magnitude 5.4 earthquake that hit the Los Angeles area and briefly disrupted the first day of the exam.