Posts on ‘February 20th, 2009’

Despite reassuring statements by Attorney General Eric Holder on attorney-client privilege waivers in corporate probes, Sen. Arlen Specter is moving forward with legislation to put protection for the privilege and the work-product doctrine into law and throughout government. The bill would prohibit the government from conditioning charging decisions or any adverse treatment on the payment of employee legal fees, invocation of the attorney-client privilege or agreement to a joint defense agreement.

Tweets on Twitter failed to impress Kelly D. Talcott of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge until the legal blogosphere began singing their praises. Talcott now finds Twitter to be an effective content delivery system for law firms, well worth the time if you employ a few key tools and tactics.

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York threw out two derivative shareholders lawsuits against Merrill Lynch & Co. executives and directors and ruled that Bank of America Corp.’s acquisition of Merrill strips Merrill’s shareholders of the standing to bring such suits. The claims include breach of fiduciary duties and waste of corporate assets for risky investments in mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.

More than 65 attorneys from defunct Thacher Proffitt & Wood, many of whom specialize in structured finance and real estate, are still looking for jobs. The attorneys, including eight partners, represent over one-third of the total who remained at the New York firm before it announced its dissolution a few days before Christmas. One unemployed former partner said big firms aren’t looking at partners who make less than $1 million in an annual book of business. And smaller firms require over $500,000 of work.

While the deferred prosecution agreement reached between Swiss banking giant UBS and federal prosecutors on Wednesday might have initially looked like a great deal for the government, in reality the Zurich-based bank isn’t disclosing nearly as many client names as law enforcement officials are suggesting, says Miller & Chevalier tax partner George Clarke III. Clarke says the Justice Department’s decision to file suit against UBS on Thursday in Miami is evidence of this.

Morrison & Foerster has frozen associate salaries and rejiggered its associate discretionary bonuses to as low as $6,000 for 2008. A memo to of counsel and associates from Chairman Keith Wetmore on Wednesday said all 2008 bonuses will be paid on Feb. 27, but “evaluation-based bonuses” are being revised. Hours-based bonuses for everyone and discretionary bonuses for New York-based associates will stay the same. The memo said the firm based its bonus decision on market trends.

In one of the sharpest drops in revenue and profitability among Am Law 100 firms, Cravath, Swaine & Moore saw 2008 gross revenue fall 13 percent, while profits per partner tumbled 24 percent to $2.5 million, according to Am Law Daily’s reporting. The firm signaled last November that 2008 was a tough year, when it announced in an internal memo that it was cutting associate bonuses, and that the firm would not do as well as in 2006 and 2007.

In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department on Thursday released antitrust amnesty agreements that it has signed with some 100 corporations since August 1993. The release was part of a settlement of a FOIA suit against the government, which also agreed to pay $40,000 in attorney fees to White & Case. Some juicy details have been edited out, but the release could still help other corporations that want to negotiate an amnesty agreement with the DOJ to avoid prosecution for violating federal antitrust law.