Posts on ‘January 9th, 2009’

Bad economic times create opportunities for strong companies to poach good employees from a weakened competitor. Attorney David Walton offers steps that companies and their counsel can take to prevent trade secret theft and to act effectively if they believe a departing or new employee has stolen critical information. Whether you’re the company losing the employee or the new employer, these steps could improve your legal position and ultimately minimize the threat to your business.

Presenting proposed rules for law firm Web sites to the state Supreme Court, the Florida Bar’s attorney contended lawyers should be allowed to post client testimonials and past successes. But the justices did not seem too keen on less stringent rules for online legal advertising.

Big Law partners often get a bad rap for being mean, evil, whip-crackers whose sole purpose is to dampen the hopes, dreams and spirits of little innocent Cogs. The Snark tells us that the generalization is simply unfair. Not all partners are evil and they are not the only source for spirit-crushing behavior. Some of the meanest spirit-crushers are other Cogs. In particular, crusty old crotchety senior associates. Take The Snark’s test to find out if one of the Crotchety Cogs in your firm is you.

Bernard Madoff had sitting in his desk about 100 checks totaling some $170 million ready to send to family, friends and employees when he was arrested for a Ponzi scheme that cost investors tens of billions of dollars, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt told Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis the checks were further proof the disgraced financier was likely to dissipate assets if he is allowed to remain free on bail until he is tried in the most spectacular fraud in Wall Street history.

Early last autumn, for a very short while, the credit mess looked as though it was just an American problem. Europe sat back and prepared to enjoy a little schadenfreude. But banking failures quickly spread across the Atlantic, and it became painfully clear that Europe was not immune to the impact of the crisis that began in the United States — neither were the European offices of American law firms.

Jailed attorney Marc S. Dreier is seeking an exception to a freeze on
his assets that will leave him enough money to cover defense costs in
what the government says is a $380 million fraud case. Defense lawyer
Gerald Shargel added that he may need to “engage professionals who will
aid me in my effort,” but didn’t comment on whether he would try to
present a defense of insanity or diminished capacity.

Economy-driven corporate cutbacks in holiday celebrations this year could be good news in at least one sense for legal and human resources departments: fewer party-related harassment claims. The gift for ACC’s 25,000 members is a free two-minute phone message on “holiday party ethics” — including an overview of acceptable party behavior — for in-house lawyers and HR executives to share with employees.