Posts on ‘December 10th, 2008’

A county judge described as a bully on the bench was stripped of her office Tuesday in the longest and most costly judicial ethics investigation in Pennsylvania history. Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Ann H. Lokuta was also banned from holding any state judicial office in the future. A scathing October opinion outlining her misconduct said that Lokuta failed to perform her judicial duties, terrorized courthouse workers and had her employees run personal errands. It also accused her of lying under oath.

Ballard Spahr has lost John P. Lavelle Jr., the head of its products liability and mass tort department, to Morgan Lewis, where he will be a partner. Ballard Spahr Chairman Arthur Makadon said the firm had never really built out its products liability group, adding, “I think John was a bit frustrated by that.” Makadon said the firm would keep its products liability practice and that talks are continuing with a group of about 25 attorneys, located outside Philadelphia, that focuses on products liability.

Citing the power to supervise tort awards to minors, a New York appellate court has cut a lawyer’s fee to 25 percent of her clients’ recovery — down from the 31 percent blended rate in her retainer agreements. The panel noted that lawyer Kerry E. Connolly had handled the products liability case with “skill, diligence and expertise,” but found that the trial court properly decided to reduce her fee because the core issues in the case were the same for all persons who sought damages.

The 8th Circuit has become the first circuit in the country to rebuff efforts by a hedge fund to call in a debt based on an alleged technical violation of bond terms in a dispute over an $850 million note issued to United Health Group. The circuit noted that at least three other federal judges and a New York state court have come down the same way. An attorney for United Health derided the investment practice as a “shakedown strategy” that takes from shareholders and gives to bondholders.

Three-quarters of corporate legal departments are facing an average budget cut of 11.5 percent next year, according to a new Altman Weil survey. Nearly 16 percent of the remaining respondents to the “Flash Survey on Law Department Cost Control” expected smaller budget increases in 2009 compared with 2008. Bills from outside counsel top general counsel’s list of worries.

In a Fourth Amendment case argued Tuesday at the Supreme Court, the justices considered whether, during a traffic stop, a police officer may conduct a pat-down search of a passenger if the officer believes the passenger to be armed and dangerous, but does not have reasonable grounds to believe he or she is engaging in criminal activity. During the argument hour, several justices questioned the breadth of the standard advocated by the government for determining the reasonableness of pat-down searches.

Marc Dreier wrote a story last year touting his model of a law firm in which only one person had an equity stake. But in the wake of his arrest for trying to swindle some $150 million from three investment groups, experts say the Dreier model is likely dead. The reason is simple: When one equity partner falls, the whole firm goes down with him. Dreier’s sole ownership raises another question: Are the firm’s other lawyers shielded from suits that angry clients are apt to bring if the firm owes them money?

The U.S. Supreme Court has closed the book on an 11-year-old copyright case that, in its final form, granted The National Geographic Society — and by extension, other publishers — the right to reproduce its magazine archive in digital format without paying additional royalties to freelance contributors. The high court on Monday denied a petition for a writ of certiorari from Florida undersea photographer and former magazine contributor Jerry Greenberg.

On Tuesday, the Am Law Daily reported that the 250 or so attorneys in Marc Dreier’s former firm, Dreier LLP, might not be safe from liability even though Dreier controlled all of the firm’s equity — especially if it turned out that client funds are missing in connection with Dreier’s financial scams. It now appears likely that client funds are indeed missing, according to a sworn statement Dreier partner Joel Chernov gave the SEC.

Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this year had a high-powered criminal defense attorney at Winston & Strawn working for him to fend off a five-year federal probe. But he showed up Tuesday in court to face charges in a criminal complaint alleging fraud and bribery alongside a little-known Chicago criminal defense lawyer from a small firm, attorney Sheldon Sorosky of Kaplan & Sorosky.