Posts on ‘December 19th, 2008’

The number of subprime-related court filings has reached an unprecedented level and is expected to continue skyrocketing as economic conditions worsen, according to a new report by Navigant Consulting Inc. The Chicago consulting firm released a report Thursday showing the number of subprime mortgage and related cases filed in federal court during the first nine months of 2008 already exceeds by more than 50 percent the total for all of 2007.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorney is offering a glimpse of his client’s unfolding legal strategy, saying he’ll challenge the lawfulness of court-ordered wiretaps at the heart of federal corruption allegations against the Democrat. But the two-term governor may go public to defend himself first. With Blagojevich saying he’s itching to talk, Chicago attorney Ed Genson continued bashing what’s gotten his client in a legal bind: the FBI wiretaps.

About 200 former Thelen and Heller Ehrman lawyers remain unemployed and face the prospect of pursuing jobs at smaller firms or relocating from major metropolitan areas. An estimated 130 of the 400 lawyers at Thelen, which dissolved on Dec. 1, and 80 attorneys at the defunct Heller, which had 550 attorneys when it dissolved on Sept. 26, have not found a place to land. And it’s getting more difficult, according to legal recruiter Avis Caravello, who says most big firms have finished hiring for the year.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges has been hit with a malpractice lawsuit that claims the firm botched a $48.8 million settlement even as it took in some $12 million in contingency fees. Former client Todd Kurtin, a one-time principal at the real estate concern SunCal Cos., is accusing Quinn Emanuel of negligence for failing to advise him of “the meaning and ramifications of all terms of the settlement agreement” he reached with a former business partner that unwound their co-ventures.

A Paul Hastings associate was among four people charged Thursday in a $4.8 million insider trading scheme involving a former Lehman Brothers representative and his wife, who worked at a public relations firm that had information on impending corporate deals. The Lehman Brothers representative allegedly referred to his wife as the “golden goose” for the information, which the SEC said he used to curry favor from acquaintances and get cash, “luxury items and other benefits” in return.

In good news for in-house lawyers and tax managers, a federal jury acquitted former Bechtel global tax manager Mark Muntean on Thursday on charges of causing Bechtel to file a false tax return. Prosecutors argued that Muntean, an attorney, knew that a $3.3 million credit claimed by Bechtel was improper when he pushed for it. The case is rare. Jay Weill, who was the longtime tax chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for California’s Northern District, said he had never seen a similar prosecution.

Some of the world’s largest banks are offering waivers allowing their external legal advisers to act against them in certain disputes between financial institutions, in a bid to quickly resolve issues arising from the current economic turmoil. The move could lead to law firms acting against longstanding clients in mediations on simple financial institution disputes, but more complex disputes such as negligence or fraud cases would remain out of bounds.

Whole Foods Market is firing back at the Federal Trade Commission in a high-profile antitrust case, striking at the agency in court, in Congress and in the press with a three-pronged strategy. Leading the effort is Lanny Davis, head of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s strategic and crisis communications group, who bolstered the attack by tapping a lobbying firm loaded with former advisers in the Clinton administration. But lawyers in Washington, D.C.’s antitrust bar question whether the strategy will work.

Two of the biggest threats to individual Internet users are phishing and botnets. During the 2008 Black Hat events in Las Vegas this year, the elite of the computer security community focused their efforts on a better understanding of the economics and technology behind these threats.