Posts on ‘June 10th, 2009’

Marc Kadish had just graduated law school in 1968 when the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia, launching one of the most brutal genocides of the 20th century. As a war crimes tribunal opened in Phnom Penh in March, Kadish traveled to Cambodia to teach classes on trial advocacy as part of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. The director of pro bono activities and litigation training at Mayer Brown explains what Atticus Finch can teach lawyers working in any country.

The old saw about the propensity for Asian electronics manufacturers to imitate, rather than innovate, still makes the rounds. Only now it is leveled by Japanese companies against Koreans and vice versa, with both sides also trying to slap down the Taiwanese. But it’s not just chauvinistic trash talk: These companies are taking each other to court in patent infringement suits across the globe, including in the United States.

Summertime … and the law students are uneasy. Summer associates can no longer look forward to the more leisurely law firm summer programs of yore. But while the summer experience may be changing, one of the best methods summer associates can use to extract the most out of their summer has not: networking. Consultant Christy Burke finds that both law firm and law school personnel emphasize the importance of networking, and are providing creative training with programs like the “Legal Mocktail.”

James K. Robertson Jr. thrives on conflict and disputes as a litigator at Connecticut’s Carmody & Torrance. But away from work, he focuses on cooperation and tolerance among a group of people probably more at odds than any of his clients: Christians, Jews and Muslims. For 15 years, Robertson has been involved with the Hartford Seminary, a non-denominational think tank, working to improve interfaith relations, a goal that has taken him to Turkey, Syria and Libya. Next year, Iran is on his schedule.

A New York judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit by a major league baseball player-turned-attorney against a law firm that claims the former Cleveland Indian and Montreal Expo pitcher struck out in his efforts to recruit fellow athletes as clients of the firm. The firm of Lawrence & Walsh claimed that it gave Richard N. Thompson written notice that it would not extend his one-year contract to develop a sports law practice. Thompson claimed he never received that notice and sued the firm.

The Indiana pension funds that represent something of a last man standing in the Chrysler bankruptcy are carving out a piece of historical lore as self-proclaimed defenders of traditional bankruptcy rules. That fight, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, has not come cheap. The pension funds have paid White & Case $2 million so far in legal fees for the firm’s work protesting a deal to sell Chrysler’s best assets to a group headed by Fiat.

New York City cannot use the state’s consumer fraud statute or a common law public nuisance claim to sue cigarette vendors to recover revenues lost when untaxed cigarettes are shipped into the city, the New York Court of Appeals determined Tuesday. The legislative intent behind the two statutes does not provide for their employment in the city’s longstanding attempts to sue cigarette vendors and distributors to recover sales tax revenues, a unanimous court ruled.

An apparent internal battle for leadership of Reed Smith seems to have been quickly nipped in the bud. Philadelphia labor and employment partner John DiNome will no longer run against nine-year incumbent Gregory B. Jordan to serve as the firm’s global managing partner and chairman of its executive team. The now uncontested race has Jordan focusing on working through a challenging economic environment while preparing the firm to handle what he said will be fundamental changes to the legal industry.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal was hit with a lawsuit Friday accusing the firm of illegally recruiting several lawyers from Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group, where a Sonnenschein partner used to work, court records show. The suit, which seeks injunctive relief and $30 million, accuses Lisa Murtha, a partner in Sonnenschein’s health care practice, of orchestrating the recruitment of three employees at Huron, which describes Sonnenschein as its “direct competitor” in the health care consulting business.

Ahmed Ghailani — the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to meet face-to-face with the U.S. criminal justice system since President Barack Obama took office — arrived in a Manhattan federal district courtroom Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges that he played a role in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. But who will represent the defendant in his criminal proceeding remains a matter of confusion — not because he doesn’t have a lawyer, but because he has too many.