Posts on ‘December 8th, 2008’

It looks like Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is going to have to revise its report on early trends in subprime fraud litigation. Two crucial rulings that came at the end of last week — denying motions to dismiss class actions against onetime mortgage giants Countrywide and New Century — show that the plaintiffs bar isn’t giving up and going away. In fact, you could say that the plaintiffs in Countrywide and New Century right now have the bases loaded with no outs.

Jury research is a staple of trial preparation, yet most corporate counsel are not getting good value on their investment because they delay such research until close to trial. But postponing these expenses until they are seen as unavoidable can ultimately be far more costly, say consultants Nancy L. Neufer and Robert S. Duboff, who suggest that conducting jury research at the onset of a big case can help make early decisions that are critical to achieving the best possible outcome for your company.

Are you thinking about a foray into the world of law blogging? Don’t jump onto the bandwagon with a half-baked blog. Instead, focus on creating a blog that’s insightful, interesting and represents a resource to the legal community. C.C. Holland has some guidelines to get you going.

According to law professors Marc S. Galanter and William D. Henderson, many large law firms are plagued by structural problems that are both serious and difficult to solve. Their grim pronouncement is that the long-standing “promotion-to-partnership tournament has been transformed into a perpetual tournament,” where the “only finish line is retirement or death.” Thankfully, Galanter and Henderson move on to discuss three methods that could help save threatened large firms from toppling over.

We’re betting there aren’t too many mopey faces at Boies, Schiller & Flexner. Unlike their friends at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, who have seen year-end bonuses slashed, Boies’ lawyers can party like it’s 2007. That’s because the firm announced Monday it will be paying associates bonuses commensurate with last year’s largesse.

Despite the economic downturn, attorney billing rates continued their escalation trend in 2008, with nearly 71 percent of law firms reporting an increase in the amount that they charged clients compared with 2007. Also this year, partner billing rates broke record highs. In another key finding, ’s annual billing survey showed that alternative and variant billing systems were popular among many law firms.

While much is known about Eric Holder Jr.’s time in government, supporters and critics of his nomination to be AG have said relatively little about his years with one of D.C.’s top law firms. His private practice — which focused on criminal and ethical investigations and defending major companies from discrimination claims — reveals some of the qualities he would bring to his next job and the conflict-of-interest challenges he’ll likely think about as he goes through the confirmation process and if he becomes AG.

When Novafora announced last week that it was buying Transmeta for $255.6 million in cash, it seemed like a straightforward deal. But it turns out that the giant, secretive patent holding company Intellectual Ventures is putting $11.6 million into the venture, regulatory filings by Transmeta indicate. The deal gives a fleeting glimpse into what exactly IV is doing — a matter of keen interest to many big tech companies in Silicon Valley that are wary of the company’s powerful patent portfolio.