Posts on ‘May 27th, 2009’

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was ousted from office after federal corruption charges were lodged against him, has lined up two more of his three allotted attorneys and may seek approval of a fourth at next month’s hearing in the Northern District of Illinois. The ex-governor has hired Chicago criminal defense lawyer Samuel F. Adam and his son Samuel E. Adam, said attorney Sheldon Sorosky, who has served as Blagojevich’s lead attorney since the federal complaint was filed in December.

The financial reporting season for British firms got under way Friday when CMS Cameron McKenna became the first major London practice to release numbers for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which for most U.K. firms runs from May 1 to April 30; the majority of the U.K.’s major practices will release figures from now through early July. Cameron had a 2 percent increase in turnover to 240 million pounds ($445 million) and a 14 percent drop in profits, bringing net income to 72 million pounds ($133.5 million).

Investors came out of hiding late in the first quarter, so things aren’t looking too shabby in the venture capital world for the rest of 2009, according to several top deal lawyers. The recession is driving prices low enough to entice investors, but the types of deals and their financing have changed from 2008. With leveraged financing practically gone, investors are having to be more creative, these lawyers say. Also, investors are eyeing different kinds of companies.

A special master for electronically stored information is a court-appointed technical expert who manages and resolves e-discovery disputes. Although being tech-savvy is important, being people-savvy, cost-conscious and keeping your ego in check matter more, says trial attorney Craig Ball.

A suit accusing Robert J. Ivanhoe, chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s New York office and head of its real estate group, of breaching his fiduciary duties to clients he represented in connection with a multibillion-dollar real estate project is on hold pending the outcome of an arbitration in California, a New York appeals court has ruled. A unanimous panel held that the lower court should have stayed the New York suit pending an arbitral determination “in the interest of judicial economy.”

In a ruling that gay-rights leaders called a “terrible blow” and a step “backward,” the California Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 6-1 to uphold a state ballot measure that restricted marriage to heterosexual couples. The ruling likely ends state court litigation that has raged since San Francisco began marrying same-sex couples in 2004. But in a surprise move Tuesday, attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, who opposed each other in Bush v. Gore, announced they’re teaming up to mount a federal challenge to Prop 8.

Within minutes of President Barack Obama’s announcement Tuesday that he
will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit to the U.S.
Supreme Court, conservative groups vowed opposition or tough scrutiny,
calling her a liberal whose votes will be even further left than the man
she would replace, retiring Justice David Souter. But supporters said
her lengthy resume and her lesser-known qualities of collegiality and
persuasiveness could make her a powerful force on the Court for years to
come.

As layoffs surge, employee laptops are being turned back in with signs of foul play. According to a recent study, some 60 percent of employees who quit or have been fired or laid off admit to stealing company data. And it’s not just rank-and-file employees doing it, but executives as well.