Posts on ‘June 26th, 2009’

Arguably one of the most transcendent performers in the history of music, the late Michael Jackson also had his fair share of legal troubles during his lifetime. One of Jackson’s many lawyers, noted New York criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman, spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Thursday night about his time representing the King of Pop on charges he sexually molested a teenage boy. A Southern California jury acquitted Jackson of those charges four years ago this month.

A group of six young Chicago-area lawyers just landed a singular career opportunity: joining the legal defense team of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as pretrial contract lawyers, meaning they’re likely to spend the next several months poring over 3.5 million pages of documents turned over by the prosecution. Following a status hearing at which the judge set a June 3, 2010, trial date for the ousted governor, the young lawyers said they were attracted to the case by its challenge and prominence.

As the make-or-break patent trial between Tivo Inc. and EchoStar Corp.
got under way in Marshall, Texas, Tivo’s top brass had an idea: Let’s
buy a cow. Tivo’s lawyer bid on and won the Grand Champion Steer — the
most prized farm animal at the Farm City Week auction. Did buying the
animal help Tivo win? Companies look for every possible advantage when
they head down to the small towns of the Eastern District of Texas, but
not everyone thinks friendly community gestures are the best strategy.

You suspect an employee is leaking inside information. An investigation reveals that the employee accessed a personal Web-based e-mail account from a company computer and that the login information has been recovered. Can you log into that account and read its e-mail content?

Quinn Emanuel, that scourge of banks across America, emerged smiling on Wednesday from the latest round in Washington Mutual’s knock-down, drag-out fight with JPMorgan Chase. After four hours of argument, a federal bankruptcy court judge denied requests by JPMorgan Chase and the FDIC to stay two adversary proceedings tied to Washington Mutual’s attempted recovery of $10 billion it says was fraudulently transferred to JPMorgan when it acquired Washington Mutual Bank.

Ruling in a case that struck a chord with families nationwide, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that the strip search of a middle school girl in pursuit of drugs was a violation of her Fourth Amendment right against improper search and seizure. The justices also issued rulings in a Sixth Amendment case concerning forensic evidence, a dispute regarding the adequacy of programs for English language learners and a maritime law matter. The Court indicated that Monday will be the final decision day of the term.

Former New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie told a House subcommittee Thursday that he did nothing wrong when he steered a multimillion-dollar contract to the firm of former Attorney General John Ashcroft. He said controversy over the no-bid contract — worth as much as $52 million — has been exaggerated by Democrats looking to derail his bid as a Republican running for New Jersey governor. Telling lawmakers he had a train to catch, Christie walked out of the hearing in frustration after 2 1/2 hours.