Posts on ‘May 28th, 2009’

Connecticut personal injury lawyers Michael Stratton and Joel Faxon are suing Google, claiming that it improperly sold advertising rights to the New Haven-based firm’s name to Stamford competitor Silver, Golub & Teitell. Stratton Faxon filed an action Wednesday to place a $50,000 pre-judgment lien against Google. The lawyers also seek an injunction to prevent Google from selling law firm names in Connecticut as so-called adwords. “I don’t think Google should make money selling my law firm’s name,” said Stratton.

Recessions often bring a heightened temptation on the part of businesspeople to engage in cartel behavior. This fact, along with the ever-increasing risk of detection by energized and global anti-cartel enforcers, can create a perfect storm of criminal antitrust risk. Reducing or deferring compliance efforts, antitrust audits and investigations of potentially questionable behavior may come at a very high price, warn attorneys Janet L. McDavid and Megan Dixon.

Feel like you’re drowning in a flood of information? The constant stream of law firm content through stories, press releases, alerts, blogs and tweets can seem a little overwhelming. Consultant Nicholas Gaffney points out some proven shorcuts to help channel the information deluge.

State officials in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana are objecting in bankruptcy court to the sale of Chrysler’s assets to Italian automaker Fiat in an effort to protect workers in their states. Attorneys general in Illinois and Ohio said in separate filings that they oppose terms of the sale because it would allow Fiat to avoid assuming the workers’ compensation liabilities of injured Chrysler workers in their states, leaving the states to pick up the slack.

In a one-two punch Wednesday, the 5th Circuit recommended that U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent be impeached and ordered that he not be given disability status. Kent was sentenced to 33 months in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with an investigation into charges that he sexually harassed court employees. Claiming alcoholism and mental illness, Kent sought disability status so he could continue drawing a salary while in prison.

Longtime conservative lawyer Theodore Olson and liberal colleague David Boies stole the post-Prop 8 spotlight Wednesday by holding a press conference to announce the filing of a suit challenging the measure on federal equal protection grounds. Olson said that he and Boies wanted to “present a united front and tell the courts this is not about right or left, conservative or liberal.” The two men are defying gay-rights lawyers’ long-held view that a federal court challenge could hurt the cause more than help it.

Is patent litigation waxing or waning? As evidenced by dueling conclusions in recent reports and surveys, it’s almost an impossible question to answer. There is a lot of turmoil and little consensus about what’s happening now and how the business will look in two or three years. Meanwhile, prospective patent reform legislation, with its threatened caps on damages and potentially major changes to the patent system, hangs over the litigation landscape like a big gray cloud.