Posts on ‘January 13th, 2009’

Michael Sage, the co-head of restructuring at O’Melveny & Myers, joined Dechert on Monday. Sage, who joined O’Melveny in 2007, has represented creditors and bondholders in the Chapter 11 proceedings for Refco and Ziff Davis Media. He bills $895 an hour, according to an August filing in the latter’s bankruptcy. He’s the latest in a series of high-profile moves in the bankruptcy bar.

As the 2009 recession takes hold, juries are expected to stick it to employers in workplace disputes, with the economy weighing heavily on their minds amid a growing mistrust of corporate management. Lawyers on both sides of employment litigation say they expect juries this year to be more sympathetic to employee plaintiffs than to employers, holding management to higher standards and doling out larger verdicts in cases involving everything from wrongful termination to retaliation to discrimination.

In Supreme Court action Monday, the justices asked the solicitor general to weigh in on a major dispute over development of remote recording services by cable television operators. The order in the case, , also is important because it is the first time the justices made public a vote on the case — and two justices recused. That means that if the high court eventually grants review, only seven justices will participate, changing the dynamics of an already unpredictable case.

Courts have made it clear that electronic discovery misconduct can result in severe sanctions even when the offending party prevails on the merits. Counsel and clients who believe that being right on the merits relieves them of the duty to comply with e-discovery do so at their peril.

Do you know where your interns blog? A blog written by a former intern to the San Francisco Public Defender’s office has prompted the San Francisco Superior Court to look into whether a PD used peremptory challenges to dismiss potential jurors solely because of race or ethnicity.

Performance excellence means more than winning a trial or doing thousands of deals, if you have responsibility for the growth and development of an entire law firm. If you are, or plan to be, a law firm leader, your skill set must be much broader. How do top leaders develop the necessary skills and improve their abilities to lead? Coaching may be one key to success, according to consultant and lawyer Susan Letterman White, as long as you do your research first and find a skilled and compatible coach.

A wrongful termination action filed by a former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith nonequity partner can press ahead following a California appeals court decision that rejected an attempt to block the suit under the state’s anti-SLAPP law. On Dec. 31, the court upheld a lower court’s denial of the defendants’ motion. Plaintiff Gary Effron claims he was fired after he told clients that their insurer, AIG, had directed that he not prepare for a trial scheduled in 10 days and instead focus on settling the case.

A man who says his 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid is more gas-guzzler than green can sue the automaker for false advertising, a California appellate court has ruled. The court reinstated state law claims that American Honda Motor misleadingly told potential Civic Hybrid buyers that they could achieve great gas mileage by driving the model just like any other car. Honda is already the target of a federal class action claiming the company inflated the savings and mileage figures Civic Hybrid drivers could achieve.

The government has lost its bid to have Bernard Madoff jailed while
awaiting trial for a Ponzi scheme in which losses could reach $50
billion. New York Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis recognized an expansive
reading of the Bail Reform Act to include economic damage caused by a
defendant while free on bail, but the judge said on Monday that the
government fell short of showing that Madoff posed such a risk. However,
Ellis did impose several new requirements as added protection.