Posts on ‘June 23rd, 2009’

A case brought by the SEC last month accusing a Deutsche Bank Securities bond salesman and a former Millennium Partners hedge fund manager of insider trading in credit default swaps — the derivatives blamed for much of the economic meltdown — has kept a low profile but could prove to be significant. The case marks the first time the SEC has gone after trading in credit default swaps, and it comes as debate rages over how to regulate them and other increasingly creative and complex financial products.

Apps — those easy-to-download, seamlessly installed, usually cheap add-ons available at Apple’s App Store — are a powerful way to customize an iPhone (or iPod Touch) to do just the things you want it to. Here are some of Alan Cohen’s favorite apps: some useful, some just plain fun.

In what plaintiffs lawyers are calling a landmark case, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has agreed to reimburse at least 100 families for costs involving treatments for their autistic children. The $1 million class action settlement comes as more and more states pass laws requiring insurance companies to pay for autism treatments and screenings. The settlement has autism advocates hopeful that insurers will stop claiming that behavioral therapy for autistic children is experimental, and start paying for it.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee in charge of liquidating the investment firm of Bernard Madoff, on Monday filed suit against broker-dealer Cohmad Securities to recover what he alleged were decades worth of “ill gotten gains” received as a result of the firm’s “symbiotic relationship” with Madoff. Meanwhile, the SEC filed suits against Cohmad and three of its executives, as well as Stanley Chais, a California-based investment adviser who advised three funds that invested their assets with Madoff.

If you’re arguing that Bernard Madoff should be given a break, you work with what you have. Attempting to mitigate a maximum sentence of 150 years for a client whose name has become synonymous with greed, defense attorney Ira Lee Sorkin asked a federal judge Tuesday morning to set aside the “hysteria” generated by of the largest Ponzi scheme in history and give Madoff only 12 years in prison.

Top 20 U.K. firm Pinsent Masons has signed an outsourcing deal to send litigation work to South Africa. Pinsent has launched a litigation support service in cooperation with global legal processing outsourcing provider Exigent, with the work to be undertaken by qualified lawyers in Exigent’s outsourcing center in Cape Town. The firm has outsourced document processing to Exigent for several years, but Exigent will now also provide data review for Pinsent’s 360-lawyer litigation practice.

Starting this fall, Howrey will begin selling recruits on a new, two-year “apprentice” program. In their first year, associates will take classes on legal writing and research and will work on pro bono projects. In the second year, they’ll be embedded at client sites for several months at a reduced billing rate and continue with classes on litigation skills. While associates will be paid less in their first two years, managing partner Robert Ruyak said the new approach is not a way to save the firm money.

Barnes & Thornburg, an Indianapolis-based firm that’s been growing rapidly this year, will combine with the Parsinen law firm of Minneapolis on July 1 to open a new office in that city. Through the merger, Barnes & Thornburg will add 22 lawyers who specialize in business litigation, employment, real estate, corporate, energy and trusts and estates law. The firm expects the Minneapolis market to be a good fit for its intellectual property practice in particular.