Posts from ‘February, 2009’

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14-5 on Thursday to endorse David Ogden for the No. 2 position at the Department of Justice, sending the nomination for deputy attorney general to the full Senate for a vote. All Democrats voted in favor of Ogden’s nomination. Among the Republicans in opposition, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called the nomination a “close call,” saying he was troubled by Ogden’s representation of the pornography industry and other controversial clients in private practice.

Even a tiny law firm whose bread is buttered by relatively recession-proof patent litigation has had to lay off lawyers. As of last summer, Day Casebeer, the Silicon Valley firm of high-end IP boutique fame and Qualcomm discovery fiasco infamy, was 38 lawyers strong. Today, the firm has 27 lawyers. So what’s the deal with cutting lawyers when most every layoff has been blamed on a slowdown in corporate work? The guy who makes the sun rise at the firm explained that there were two causes for the cuts.

Two Pennsylvania judges charged with taking kickbacks to send youth offenders to private detention centers are facing another civil suit tied to the scandal. The suit, filed Thursday on behalf of juvenile offenders sentenced between 2003 and 2008, claims the judges perpetrated “what ranks as one of the largest and most serious violations of children’s rights in the history of the American legal system.” Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan pleaded guilty to fraud earlier this month and face more than seven years in prison.

Chicago’s Much Shelist Denenberg Ament & Rubinstein has cut pay for its lawyers and top administrators by 10 percent to adjust to a slowdown. While the firm had a record December in terms of financial performance, “January was eerily quiet,” and February has been difficult, according to Chairman David Brown. The firm has also started loaning out some of its idled lawyers to corporate clients at no charge to give the companies more legal help and align the interests of the firm and the client, he said.

Is the U.S. Supreme Court Twitter site another sign of the Court venturing into the modern era or just an impostor? The site looks official enough — but any thoughts you might have had of the high court’s justices fast-forwarding themselves into the BlackBerry Age will have to wait. A Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed that the Twitter site is not connected to the high court. Recently, a Twitter site that appeared to belong to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. also turned out to be a fake.

To avoid layoffs, many employers are instituting mandatory furloughs as a means of cutting costs during the current recession. Mandatory furloughs, which require employees to take time off without pay, are occurring more frequently in recent months across several industries and employers, including the states of California and Maryland. Littler Mendelson’s Alison Hightower discusses the complicated legal issues involved in furloughs, such as the impact on salaried employees, vacation time and 401(k) plans.

Barry Bonds’ trainer may be heading to court for a much-publicized appearance this morning, but the only suspense will come from the prosecutors. Since Judge Susan Illston excluded key government evidence of Bonds’ steroid use last week, legal observers have been guessing as to whether Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella and his team will ask the 9th Circuit to step in, which would push back the perjury trial for months. Jury selection is currently scheduled to begin Monday.