Posts on ‘February 25th, 2009’

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday that it had better things to do than contemplate whether or not too many patent cases are getting stuck in the so-called rocket docket of the Eastern District of Texas. The high court denied a petition for certiorari in , a product liability suit that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said should never have been kept in the Eastern District.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will make a rare public appearance Thursday at the Newseum, marking the publication of a new book on the landmark 1803 decision . Stevens will moderate a discussion with the book’s authors, who describe an interview with Stevens in his chambers last June, in which the justice confided that he tries to cite in his opinions every chance he can get, explaining that it is “the whole basis for constitutional law” in the United States.

More than seven years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, plaintiffs lawyers and New York City are now following a road map a federal judge hopes will result in settlements next year in the complicated process of determining liability for respiratory damage allegedly suffered by thousands of workers who participated in the cleanup of the World Trade Center site. The judge decided to focus first on the most severely injured workers to produce a sample of trial-ready cases that will set the parameters for settlement.

Proving that a lawyer’s dereliction of duty to a client can come back to haunt him many years later, a New Jersey appeals court has reinstated a malpractice suit against a lawyer over his roles in two land deals two decades apart. The judges reversed dismissal of the suit, finding that where a clause in a 1986 contract was meant to “survive the passage of time,” the lawyer could be found to have a professional responsibility to protect it in a transaction nearly 20 years later.

Hundreds of immigrants were left angry and confused when the man they thought was their legal counsel, Victor M. Espinal, was arrested for allegedly posing as an immigration attorney. Nearly 125 of Espinal’s clients poured into the lobby of the New York City Bar Association on Monday evening to attend a free clinic where 54 attorneys volunteered to help them sort through their legal and immigration options.

Nearly a dozen Petters Group entities have filed for bankruptcy since October, when federal authorities charged Minnesota-based corporate magnate Tom Petters with money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme that may have cost investors north of $2 billion. Now nearly 20 law firms, all with some Minnesota ties, are reaping the benefits of the civil and criminal cases linked to the Petters empire.

The National Association for Law Placement has confirmed what many frustrated law students already know: Getting a foot in the door of the legal industry is especially tough right now. A NALP survey of 2008 law firm recruiting found that law firms offered fewer summer associate positions to current 2Ls for 2009, and fewer 2008 summer associates received full-time job offers. Not surprisingly, the acceptance rate for those summer associate and permanent positions was unusually high.

Consumers and the lawyers who aim to represent them en masse scored a major victory Tuesday when the 3rd Circuit held that arbitration clauses may be struck down — under state law — as unconscionable if they prohibit the class action vehicle in cases where a large number of consumers have claims that would individually yield only small sums — even if the contract included a choice-of-law provision that called for applying the law of a state that is decidedly amenable to such pro-business provisions.

It seems the abrupt end of Ireland’s decade-long economic boom is now squeezing the country’s lawyers. Last week one of the Emerald Isle’s largest law firms, A&L Goodbody, announced that it was seeking to cut 45 jobs — 20 from the firm’s stable of solicitors and 25 from the support staff ranks. With business slowing down at home, many Irish lawyers are looking to Australia for employment opportunities.

Over 20 years, R. Allen Stanford’s companies and his distinctive eagle logo became an established fixture in South Florida, a key outpost of the billionaire banker’s financial empire. But longtime observers say they remained suspicious. Now, in the wake of last week’s SEC lawsuit accusing Stanford of a “massive” fraud, international banking attorneys are being deluged by Stanford clients fearing the worst and hoping that somehow their money can be recovered.