Posts on ‘June 5th, 2009’

The California State Bar’s top prosecutor, who in recent months has angered both county prosecutors and discipline-defense lawyers with a tougher stance on attorney misconduct, has been let go. Officials announced Thursday that Scott Drexel, who has served as chief trial counsel for four years and worked at the State Bar in other capacities for more than three decades, won’t be reappointed when his term expires. No explanation was given for the decision, which the bar’s Board of Governors reached Wednesday.

Continuing its search for a transatlantic union, Am Law 100 firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey has held merger discussions with Denton Wilde Sapte. The two firms have held discussions regarding a merger at management level with expectations a deal could be put together this autumn if the talks proceed well. Denton Wilde has been looking to broaden its coverage in emerging markets while Squire Sanders is looking to widen its U.K. and European capabilities.

Among the speeches and writings by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor released Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, one talk she gave in 2000 to the Litigators Club in New York stands out as an interesting appraisal of the differences between her then-new job on the 2nd Circuit and her prior position as a U.S. District Court judge. Her speech also offers insight into what she may have meant in 2005 when she made the now-controversial statement that appeals courts are “where policy is made.”

Kilpatrick Stockton has announced that it will cut associate salaries by 10 percent, effective July 1. Starting pay will drop from $160,000 to $145,000 in the firm’s New York and Washington, D.C., offices and from $145,000 to $130,000 in Atlanta and North Carolina. All associates in the firm’s U.S. offices are affected, except for some hired this year, said the firm’s co-managing partner. “The reduction was motivated by looking at what the market is doing,” she said. “It appears that a market correction is occurring.”

A group of former George W. Bush administration officials turned white-collar defense lawyers gathered in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the current enforcement environment as well as changes across federal agencies in response to the financial crisis. While one lawyer likened the pro-enforcement era to “a walk in the woods with a very hungry grizzly bear” and another warned it was “2002 on steroids,” the bottom line was: Be afraid, Corporate America. Be very afraid.

With so many electronic discovery products on the market, buyers need a tool to navigate the sea of information. Consultant Ari L. Kaplan looks at The E-Discovery Application Matrix, a publicly available resource that contains features and functions for 56 e-discovery software apps.

Two former Alaska state representatives who were convicted on corruption charges in the probe that ended the political career of Sen. Ted Stevens should be released from prison because the Justice Department has found information that should have been disclosed to the defense prior to trial, government lawyers announced Thursday. The acknowledgement that prosecutors were negligent in the two cases is a fresh embarrassment for the DOJ, which is already reeling from the collapse of the Stevens prosecution.

Two lawyers and the chief executive of the Quellos Group investment fund face 18 counts related to tax evasion and fraud for a scheme that netted them $86 million in fees and allowed six clients to avoid paying about $400 million in taxes, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. The indictment accuses executive Jeffrey Greenstein and the other defendants of lying to firm lawyers in order to get them to bless the tax shelters in letters indicating to taxpayers that they were legal and would withstand IRS scrutiny.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is going after its highest-profile target yet as it sorts through the wreckage of the subprime mortgage meltdown: former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo, who has been charged with securities fraud and insider trading. Also charged are Countrywide’s former COO and president and its former CFO. The SEC accuses the three senior executives of misleading the market by falsely assuring investors that Countrywide was primarily a prime-quality mortgage lender.

The failure of nations to meet their anti-bribery commitments under the 1997 OECD Convention creates a substantial disadvantage for corporations subject to U.S. jurisdiction because the United States has the world’s strongest enforcement program, says former General Electric GC Ben W. Heineman Jr. This disadvantage is especially troubling during a world recession, but a new administration in Washington creates an opportunity to have U.S. business voices heard and acted upon.