Posts on ‘June 16th, 2009’

In 35 years of practice, Jeffrey Colman of Jenner & Block has represented clients in the most dire legal and physical circumstances imaginable. But trying to represent four inmates imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay has been the “most depressing, difficult, frustrating experience of my legal career,” he said. To Colman’s relief, this chapter is now over. On Thursday his last Guantanamo client, Jawad Jabbar Sadkhan Al-Sahlani, was transferred to the custody of the Iraqi government.

Greenberg Traurig is launching a London office with the hire of former Mayer Brown heavyweight Paul Maher, who joins the Miami firm with two other Mayer Brown partners: corporate partner Fiona Adams and former European environment head Cate Sharp. Maher will take up a role as chairman of a separate U.K. limited liability practice to be called Greenberg Traurig Maher, and will also co-chair the U.S. firm’s global M&A practice. Sharp and Adams will serve as co-managing partners of the London practice.

Here’s a fundamental truth: Being a lawyer is about being a human being. The practice of law, like the art of making movies, deals with archetypal themes: failing and forgiving, the dangers and rewards of idealism, the search for meaning through justice, and losing and finding our way. So says attorney and Work Matters blogger Michael P. Maslanka, and that’s why his list of favorite movies that can provide some informative viewing for lawyers includes some surprising choices, like “Hoosiers.”

Chicago Title Insurance has filed a malpractice claim against a homebuyer’s attorney, saying he acted without diligence and owes a piece of the $300,000 the company paid to save a policyholder’s home. The suit alleges the attorney failed to investigate a previous sale in the chain of ownership to ensure there was no potential federal estate tax lien. Real estate lawyers say this is the first suit they know of that alleges failure to research previous sales — a job usually thought to be the role of title professionals.

If you’ve forgotten that the Constitution contains a clause barring states from imposing “any duty of tonnage” without congressional consent, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer forgives you. As Breyer announced a ruling Monday in Polar Tankers Inc. v. City of Valdez, which is all about the clause, his tone was almost sheepish, as if he did not want to bore the spectators in the Court. At the end, he told the audience, “You know now more about the tonnage clause than many.”

As the first day of trial in Huntsman’s $4.65 billion showdown with Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse Group came to a close, two things were already clear. It’s going to be tough to walk the jury through the excruciatingly complex history of Huntsman’s doomed merger with Hexion Specialty Chemicals. And with Huntsman’s lawyers at Gibbs & Bruns taking gleeful advantage of the public’s current anger at Wall Street, it’s going to be especially tough for the banks.

A Pennsylvania federal judge has dismissed a securities fraud suit accusing executives at health insurance giant Aetna of making false statements about the company’s “disciplined” pricing strategies to drive up stock prices and cash in $61 million in stock. The judge found that the allegedly false statements were protected by the “safe harbor” in securities law because they amounted to “forward-looking” statements accompanied by “meaningful cautionary” statements that put investors on notice of the risk.

A New York bankruptcy judge has dismissed attorney Robert Steinbuch’s claims that an adversary — a lawyer for an ex-congressional staffer who described her sexual activities in a notorious blog — improperly used metadata to trace the authorship of an electronic filing. Steinbuch is seeking a determination that claims underlying his prior filings against debtor and “Washingtonienne” blogger Jessica Cutler are nondischargeable due to her “malicious injury” of Steinbuch, who claims that Cutler’s blog invaded his privacy.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, addressing the 2nd Circuit’s annual conference, signaled her admiration for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, saying that the nominee will bring to the Court “a wealth of experience in law and in life.” She said she will be “so glad no longer to be the lone woman on the Court.” Ginsburg also dropped some clues about big rulings to come, and revealed a reason why the profanities at issue in the so-called “fleeting expletives” case last fall weren’t actually uttered at the high court.

The economy has family law attorneys working double-time as hard financial times are wreaking havoc on America’s broken families. Lawyers who specialize in divorce and custody disputes say they have witnessed a flood of activity in family courts in recent months. “This is a great time for wealthy people to get divorced because their assets are down,” says Lynne Gold-Bikin, who heads the family law practice at Philadelphia’s Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby.