Posts on ‘May 28th, 2009’

What exactly do law firms want in their new hires? A survey asking law firm practice chairs, hiring partners and recruiters about the things law schools could do to better prepare students for law firm life provides some concrete answers: business acumen, a greater focus on global issues, management skills and the ability to write well. While the survey targeted law schools, its results can provide some insight for attorneys seeking law firm jobs or those who want to succeed in the job they have.

MGA Entertainment has asked a federal appeals court to halt the transfer of its Bratz dolls to Mattel while it appeals a judge’s ruling. In an emergency motion, Mattel contends that a court order to give trade secrets and its most popular product to its biggest rival before an appeal is reviewed would be “devastating and irreversible.” Last month a federal judge upheld a $100 million jury verdict against MGA following a legal battle in which Mattel accused the Bratz designer of creating the concept while working for Mattel.

Being drunk behind the wheel of a parked vehicle, even with the engine running and the parking brake off, can’t carry a DWI conviction without proof of intention to drive, a New Jersey appeals court held Tuesday. The Appellate Division said the trial court ignored evidence that the defendant, found asleep in his idling pickup truck, had no intent to move the vehicle. The ruling is a departure from New Jersey courts’ tendency to uphold DWIs based on observational evidence of any form of operation of a vehicle.

A New York attorney’s pro se federal action over a $35 fee for a bounced check, among other issues, has been dismissed. The dismissal represents yet another defeat for plaintiff Todd C. Bank in his battle with his landlord’s collection agency. New York federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein described Bank’s filings in the present case as “highly contentious” and “concerned with largely frivolous arguments about the Federal Rules and practice.”

Searching for child pornography on the Internet and following links to make such images appear on a computer screen constitutes knowing possession or control of that material, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled. The decision comes in the case of a Delaware County man who argued that although he admitted to searching the Internet for pornographic images of underage girls, the presence of the images in his Web browser’s cache file did not support his conviction for possession of child pornography.

Previously faulted by a magistrate judge for not having “learned his lesson” from earlier sanctions, New York attorney Mitchell A. Stein and his client have been ordered to pay $94,854 in costs and attorney fees for knowingly bringing a time-barred securities fraud claim. In court papers, Stein said the magistrate judge’s report was based on “Machiavellian logic” that automatically dismissed the complaint without actually examining each claim on its merits.

If Judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed to the Supreme Court, she will be only the 12th Roman Catholic justice in history. But what is remarkable is that six of those 12, if you include her, will be on the Court that convenes in October. But Sotomayor, who is said to attend church for family events, may not be easily lumped together with the Court’s other five Catholics, all of whom are on the conservative wing on the Court.

Long before President Obama thrust Sonia Sotomayor into the spotlight by nominating her for the U.S. Supreme Court, she was a corporate attorney with an interesting specialty: designer handbags. Fake designer handbags, to be exact. Sotomayor spent eight years at New York firm Pavia & Harcourt, where she represented Italian luxury goods retailer Fendi in its fight against knockoff handbags. Fendi was one of Sotomayor’s major clients when she was an associate and later a partner specializing in IP litigation.

Fenwick & West is cashing in on its new relationship with Facebook, advising the popular social networking site on accepting $200 million from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment group. Facebook “defriended” its original corporate counsel — Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe — early last year and steered that work to Fenwick. Goodwin Procter advised Digital Sky, which has about 30 tech-related investments in Eastern Europe, including Russia’s largest Web portal.

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday opposed the $1 million bail application of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Bergrin, who has been indicted on charges of leading a racketeering conspiracy that included the murder of a drug-case witness and the attempted murder of an informant. Bergrin, accused in a 14-count indictment of witness tampering, wire fraud, money laundering and drug trafficking, asked a U.S. magistrate judge in Newark, N.J., to allow him to remain on 24-hour home detention until trial.