Posts on ‘May 22nd, 2009’

Lawyers for three men charged in the Robert Wone murder case are expected to hash out discovery and evidence disputes in D.C. Superior Court on Friday. A key lingering dispute is the misuse of a forensic chemical at the crime scene. Prosecutors have admitted in court papers that police erred, potentially making it harder to detect blood and DNA. Wone, former GC of Radio Free Asia, was stabbed to death in August 2006. The defendants have denied involvement in the homicide and alleged cover-up.

On-call employees are turning into a growing liability risk for employers, as some are claiming that companies are restricting their freedom too much, and not paying them for it. Employment lawyers say that such claims are popping up in larger wage-and-hour class actions, with on-call employees suing for unpaid overtime, alleging that their freedom has gotten so limited that they may as well be hourly employees.

At Sheppard Mullin, CIO Donna Paulson needed a disaster recovery infrastructure that could live up to the strictest data protection and business continuity standards. After intensive product testing, Paulson’s team chose InMage’s DR-Scout for its continuous data protection technology.

The use of “secondments” — arrangements where law firms send associates out on full-time assignments with corporate clients over a period of six months or more — isn’t new, but the economic downturn has changed the practice dramatically, according to several law firm higher-ups in New York. For one, firms are sending more associates out on secondments since there’s so little work to do right now. And, the corporate clients who adopt the “secondees” are pushing harder to get them on the cheap.

Is RealNetworks a cutting-edge company willing to fight off Hollywood lawyers who use IP law to slow their competitors and squelch innovation? Or is it a “ripping company,” willing to blow off entertainment companies’ copyrights in the name of bigger profits? Lawyers with starkly different views on the company’s DVD-copying software faced off Thursday in federal court. The Motion Picture Association of America is seeking a preliminary injunction that would keep RealDVD software off the market while litigation moves ahead.

Although its attorneys engaged in some “marginally” vexatious litigation tactics, Hewlett-Packard should not be forced to pay some $12 million in attorney fees incurred by Cornell University during a protracted patent infringement battle over computer technology, a federal judge has ruled. “Litigation by its nature is adversarial,” Judge Randall R. Rader held, finding that the actions of HP’s counsel “did not stretch beyond the bounds of civility.” Both Cornell and HP have filed notices of intent to appeal the ruling.

The Heller Ehrman estate and three former partners have reached a settlement over an estimated $9 million in fees they accrued for a favorable judgment in a Massachusetts whistleblower case. The settlement is one of two reached this month with former partners in the Heller bankruptcy, but they are not indicative of negotiations with other former partners, according to counsel for Heller’s creditors.