Posts on ‘July 30th, 2009’

Skadden, Sheppard Mullin and Perkins Coie have landed key advisory roles on the 10-year Internet search deal announced Wednesday between Microsoft and Yahoo that seeks to scuttle Google’s market dominance. Under the terms of the deal, Yahoo will use and promote Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its site. Yahoo will also keep 88 percent of revenue from all search ad sales for the first five years and have the right to sell ads on select Microsoft sites. The deal is a clear shot across the bow of Google.

Even if Ruth Madoff did not know about her husband’s massive Ponzi scheme, she “lived a life of splendor” and received tens of millions of dollars as a result of the fraud, alleges a suit filed Wednesday by the trustee charged with liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. The action seeks to recover nearly $45 million in funds transferred to Ms. Madoff by Mr. Madoff’s firm in the six years preceding its liquidation.

These days, little is of more concern to a company’s legal function than its ability to control the cost of outside legal services. The person who serves as the top manager of a company’s outside lawyers and law firms is often the law department business manager. If performed well, such a position will add significant value to the management of a company’s legal function, says consultant James Wilber, who describes how a manager with the proper skills and authority can be cost-effective.

If your law firm has five or more users, it’s time for a server. But how do you get Big Law servers on small firm budgets? Hunt for a server with both price and performance in mind. Toward that end, technology editor Sean Doherty tries out Hewlett-Packard’s Proliant ML350 G6.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused Republicans on Wednesday of stalling the confirmation of nominees for top legal jobs. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., expressed frustration that the Senate has not confirmed any nominees to the federal judiciary this year. In all, he said, there are 17 nominations that the Judiciary Committee has sent to the full Senate and that are still awaiting confirmation. “There’s actually no excuse for not having moved yet,” he said.

The family of Susan Bulger, who took the anti-epilepsy drug Neurontin before killing herself in 2004, has dropped a suit against Pfizer after the first day of trial. Plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier, who had called Bulger’s case “near-impossible,” says an anonymous “friend of the family” heard how much money the plaintiffs planned to seek and said that if Lanier spared Bulger’s 10-year-old daughter the ordeal of the trial, the friend would donate a large percentage of that amount to a trust for the girl’s care and education.