Posts on ‘March 30th, 2009’

Skadden Arps’ Washington, D.C., office and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s U.S. offices confirmed layoffs last week. Due to economic reasons, Skadden’s D.C. office cut 25 staff positions and Gibson Dunn laid off 36 staff members across its nine U.S. offices. Also, 11 Skadden attorneys have left for new boutique Buckley Sandler, which was co-founded this month by the former head of Skadden’s consumer financial services enforcement and litigation group.

In a memorandum sent to associates on Thursday, Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced it is reducing its summer program from 12 weeks to 10 weeks and deferring its incoming associate class to January 2010. Associates deferred until January will receive a $15,000 stipend in September from the firm. Weill is also extending to associates the option of taking a one-year deferral at a “firm-approved public service or pro bono position” — for an additional $75,000.

A student loan company accused of hiding fees in loan agreements cannot force the lead plaintiff in a putative class action into arbitration, a New York federal judge has ruled, finding the terms of the loan unconscionable. Joshua G. Fensterstock, a 2003 Hofstra University School of Law graduate and now an associate at Isaacs & Associates in Manhattan, sued the lender and a loan processing company in 2008 over terms in his student loan that he claimed would cost him thousands of unforeseen dollars.

Chadbourne & Parke bankruptcy partner Joseph Smolinsky has agreed to move to the high-powered bankruptcy unit at Weil, Gothshal & Manges, say sources familiar with the move. Smolinsky is said to have a book of business in the millions, and sources say his move is a significant blow to Chadbourne’s bankruptcy group. Smolinsky has represented such high-profile debtors as Orion Pictures and has advised Citicorp, a lender/creditor in one of the 10 largest Chapter 11 bankruptcies of 2008.

Two major publishers of health care data filed a petition Friday at the Supreme Court, raising cutting-edge questions about whether increasingly widespread data mining that is used for commercial purposes is protected by the First Amendment. The petition is an appeal of a controversial ruling last November by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. One of the amicus groups planning to file a brief in the coming weeks says the law could threaten all forms of data collection and publishing.

Rumors that many Wolf Block attorneys may have carved out a deal to join Cozen O’Connor before the firm’s dissolution vote have caused ire among some Wolf Block attorneys and caused many in the community to describe the deal as the merger the two firms couldn’t get done in previous attempts. Leadership at both firms say there was never a deal in place prior to the vote, and sources have said there was in fact a commitment on behalf of Cozen O’Connor not to recruit from Wolf Block prior to any dissolution vote.

Like a pack of hounds, the Heller Ehrman estate and its creditors teamed up Friday to go for the jugular of the banks blamed for the firm’s bankruptcy. The creditors, with the estate’s support, are asking for standing to sue Bank of America and Citibank to get back $50 million Heller paid them in the months leading up to its bankruptcy. And while lawyers for both sides begged, cajoled and argued for more than an hour, the bankruptcy judge in the case said he was still “on the fence” and didn’t rule on the motion Friday.

In a case involving an employer’s theft of e-mails from the personal account of an employee suing for sexual harassment, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a plaintiff must prove actual damages to be eligible for statutory damages under the Stored Communications Act.