Posts on ‘July 21st, 2009’

Willkie Farr & Gallagher was sued in federal court in Los Angeles last week by Lamont Dozier, the co-founder of songwriting and production team behind hit Motown acts like The Supremes and The Isley Brothers. At issue: Willkie’s role advising on an issuance of “Bowie Bonds,” the asset-backed security for song royalties once hailed as a new form of IP securitization. The case against Willkie and several other defendants — including Bankers Trust and a group of John Does — was filed on July 15.

The current economic situation is only one facet of a three-pronged attack on the operational side of law firms and how they manage the practice of law. The other issues law firms must face are the changes in the cost recovery landscape and the increase of alternative fee arrangements.

Through previous recessions, general counsel stayed largely untouched. Indeed, the past decade shows a nearly unbroken string of pay raises. No more. While some indexes of GC pay rose, the basic trend was nearly flat. Why? Because executive pay has become inextricably bound with corporate performance. And if the company doesn’t do well, the GC might find a thinner pay packet. How thin? It’s all relative. But it seems that top corporate counsel aren’t immune to market forces anymore.

A law degree wasn’t a requirement last week to participate in the biggest legal spectacle in the nation — even for those asking the questions. The Senate Judiciary Committee includes members who haven’t sat through 1L classes, let alone had the extensive academic training or practical legal experience of some of their colleagues. So how did they prepare to take on the responsibility of grilling U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on complex questions of constitutional theory and statutory interpretation?

New securities class action filings have dropped precipitously, according to a midyear report by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research. The report, released Monday, identifies 87 federal securities class actions filed in the first half of 2009, a 22.3 percent decline from the 112 filings in the first half of 2008. Of the 87 filings, just 35 occurred in the second quarter, the lowest quarterly number since the first quarter of 2007. What’s contributing to the decline?

The mutual disdain between Microsoft Corp. and Linux, an open-source computer operating system, is unrivaled. But new rules for software contracts put out by The American Law Institute have united the enemies as part of a growing protest by tech companies and their lawyers. The most controversial of the guidelines is that software vendors must guarantee buyers that there are no hidden flaws in the software. “Any project that has Microsoft and Linux on the same side, you know there’s something wrong,” says one lawyer.

Cash is scarce throughout the economy, testing some convictions long
held by in-house and outside counsel alike on the need to scrutinize old
litigation habits, writes attorney Michael Cavendish. Some of the most
endangered practices in corporate litigation are, not surprisingly,
among the costliest, measured in price versus progress made in a
lawsuit. But financial difficulty is providing vital new courses in
business education to platoons of litigation managers and their leaders.