Posts on ‘June 8th, 2009’

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.

Odyssey Marine Exploration believed it had one of the most lucrative shipwreck discoveries in history on its hands in May 2007 when the Tampa, Fla.-based treasure hunter announced it had recovered 17 tons of gold and silver artifacts from a secret Atlantic Ocean site. The government of Spain disagreed. Claiming the Odyssey had actually discovered a 19th-century Spanish frigate that had been sunk by a British warship, Covington & Burling helped Spain sue Odyssey for violating its heritage laws.

Among international law firms in China, “outbound” work — representing Chinese companies looking abroad for investments and acquisitions as opposed to multinationals entering the Chinese market — has long been hailed as the next big thing. But the rejection last week of the largest such outbound China deal yet highlights continuing challenges to growth in the practice. Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Group pulled out of a deal with China’s state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China on Thursday.

Law school graduates eager to charge full-speed ahead are running into yield signs and detours. In Connecticut, like the rest of the country, firms are delaying start dates for many incoming associates, sometimes into 2010, and are also reducing incoming class sizes. The economy is to blame, not the quality of the candidates. Pullman & Comley’s hiring partner Lee Hoffman says, “The thing that gives me pause is that the resumes coming to me now are superior to my own and these are all people looking for jobs.”

Attorneys S. Fenn Little Jr. and Jonathan Crumly earn most of their money from construction law and criminal defense cases. But their passion is pressing litigation involving religious issues. The two are pursuing litigation against an Atlanta-area abortion clinic that has gained nationwide attention among abortion foes. The case concerns how diligent health care providers must be in complying with a state law requiring parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion.

Plaintiffs law firms are sinking their teeth into product liability lawsuits alleging that denture cream products cause zinc buildup in the body and neurological problems. A dozen cases pending in federal courts in California, Colorado, Florida, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee are awaiting the result of a May 28 multidistrict litigation panel hearing in Louisville, Ky. The cases target PoliGrip denture adhesive maker GlaxoSmithKline and Procter & Gamble, which manufactures Fixodent.

The U.S. legal sector shed 1,300 jobs in May, according to statistics released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. While the industry has lost jobs every month so far in 2009, May’s losses mark the smallest drop in legal jobs this year. All told, 14,400 legal-services jobs have disappeared since the start of the year.