Posts on ‘March 12th, 2009’

While many industries have streamlined their marketing and sales efforts with various online platforms, pharmaceutical companies are still trying to tackle social networking. Whether it is the fear of increased adverse event reports or FDA regulation of patient and physician interaction, pharmaceutical companies are still weighing the positives and negatives of Web 2.0. Attorneys Frank Vellucci and Eddie Huang discuss Web 2.0 and the issues pharma faces if it chooses to embrace the platform.

George Orwell’s state-run surveillance society did not predict a time when people would voluntarily publish private chronicles for public consumption. Online social networks are part of an age of unprecedented self-surveillance, pushing criminal evidence into uncharted waters.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed a new Asia managing partner with London corporate partner Simon Marchant set to take up the position. The firm has been without a managing partner in the region since Perry Noble stepped down from the role in 2006. Marchant is a senior figure in Freshfields’ London corporate department, and in recent years has been head of both the firm’s energy and natural resources sector group and its telecoms, media and technology group.

The Snark notices that Big Law is getting much smaller these days, literally. Which is not surprising, given the state of the economy. But what The Snark does find surprising is that many of these incredibly shrinking firms refuse to fess up to the reality that the tough economy is hurting them. Big Law firms, don’t blame the poor Cogs who were once the objects of your affection by secretly firing them one at a time, once a week, for eight months, admonishes the Snark. That is just silly.

The headhunting industry is seeing its most violent retrenchment in recent history, with shops huge and small laying people off or watching as recruiters hard up for commissions leave the business. Those that remain are retooling their practice to focus on partners and firm mergers, leaving thousands of laid-off associates with fewer recruiters to turn to for help.

If ever a case could be counted on to create the classic 9th Circuit contretemps, surely the one involving a man in an armed standoff with the police, who turns around and sues the police, qualifies. An en banc court ruled 6-5 that police didn’t need a warrant to arrest the plaintiff in his home after he had holed up for 12 hours and threatened to shoot police with his collection of Great War-era bolt action rifles. In dissent, Judge Stephen Reinhardt protested the majority’s “lack of respect” for the Fourth Amendment.

As businesses face greater and greater economic threats and challenges, it may be tempting to cut corners or to turn a blind eye to potentially questionable practices. But the multifaceted doom that False Claims Act violations can invite is a stark deterrent. The prospect of learning about a pending whistleblower case from the Justice Department can be among a company’s worst fears. Attorney John L. Sinatra Jr. offers eight simple suggestions to help avoid false claims problems.