Posts on ‘May 26th, 2009’

At Goodwin Procter, partner David Hosp works on trademark and copyright litigation matters. But during his ferryboat commutes, he focuses on something else: writing mystery novels. Moonlighting as a mystery writer carries its own unique set of hazards. From the critics, Hosp gets plenty of praise. But from his partners, he gets a lot of good-natured ribbing. “In Dave’s spare time he’s a best-selling author,” says colleague Mark Puzella. “To my mind that’s just remarkable — and deserving of a lot of abuse.”

A federal judge has blocked South Carolina’s attorney general from making any move to prosecute Craigslist executives for ads that lead to prostitution arrests while the company pursues its lawsuit against the state. Last week, CEO Jim Buckmaster filed a federal lawsuit against the prosecutor after the state AG threatened to go after the Internet advertising company for allegedly aiding and abetting prostitution if the site leads to a prostitution case in South Carolina.

Four Am Law 200 firms are busy preparing General Motors for bankruptcy. GM had already retained Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Dewey & LeBeouf to handle its negotiations with lenders, union members and the U.S. government. Now sources tell The Am Law Daily that GM is also being advised by corporate/M&A partners Joseph Gromacki and Michael Wolf from Jenner & Block in Chicago, and bankruptcy and reorganization chair Robert Weiss from Detroit’s Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.

A Boston federal judge has sentenced Lawrence Novak, a lawyer and former Massachusetts Republican State Committee officer, to seven years and three months in prison for obstruction of justice and money laundering. The indictment charged Novak with attempting to launder $107,000 of his client’s profits from drug sales. Novak was also sentenced to two years of supervised release, a $20,000 fine and an order to pay $107,000 in forfeiture. Novak’s attorney has filed a notice of appeal.

The California Supreme Court will rule Tuesday on the validity of a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, a decision that will end months of speculation over whether gay couples can resume marrying in the state. The high court announced the pending opinion on its Web site Friday morning. Justices are considering a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November that overruled a 4-3 court decision that briefly legalized same-sex unions.

Government lawyers trying to fend off a warrantless wiretapping case now face sanctions and the possibility of a judgment that the U.S. committed illegal surveillance, following an order filed by California federal Judge Vaughn Walker. Bringing to a head months of volleying between the government, the plaintiffs and himself, Walker ordered DOJ lawyers to explain why he should not essentially enter a default judgment against the government for violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

A Dorsey & Whitney lawyer facing charges of insider trading has been removed from the law firm’s partnership, according to a statement from the firm, which describes U.K.-based Andrew Rimington’s position as “terminated.” The statement says that Dorsey & Whitney is cooperating fully with any requests for information made by the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority and adds that the firm has “no reason to believe that any other lawyer or staff members is implicated in these events.”

Big Tobacco suffered a big loss in the D.C. Circuit on Friday. The court, upholding a trial judge’s landmark ruling, found tobacco companies liable in a decades-long conspiracy to deceive consumers about the adverse health effects of smoking, a substantial win for the Justice Department in a closely watched RICO case. The appeals court, however, rejected the government’s request to seize billions of dollars in corporate profit from companies that include Altria Group, Reynolds, and Brown and Williamson.

The billable hour is not dead and probably never will be. But a shift is afoot in terms of how firms work to provide value for clients — whether it be through contingency fees or any of a multitude of other alternative fee arrangements. In this movement, the billable hour is the antithesis of efficiency and value. Duane Morris, for example, has spent up to 5 percent of its billable time on matters with alternative billing structures. Throughout that time it has cultivated a process for assessing risk and potential rewards.

Two lawyers who worked at Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George, a California-based affiliate of now-defunct Dreier LLP, could be subpoenaed for allegedly interfering with a trustee’s efforts to marshal assets of Marc Dreier’s estate. New York bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein has granted the Chapter 7 trustee’s request to examine Peter Rho, who joined Snell & Wilmer in the wake of the Dreier affiliate’s collapse, and John Kirkland, now at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.