Posts on ‘August 3rd, 2009’

On Thursday, Pfizer announced a $75 million settlement with Nigeria’s Kano state government to resolve claims that the pharmaceutical company was responsible for the death or disabling of dozens of children in a 1996 clinical study of the Pfizer antibiotic Trovan. The state — which initially sought more than $5 billion — agreed to drop all civil and criminal charges against Pfizer. But Pfizer hasn’t bought peace in all of the litigation stemming from the Trovan study.

Much of the recent legal press has been focused on the plight of new and junior attorneys in this economic downturn, but senior lawyers have been impacted as well. And for older attorneys, there often may be the added stress of facing age discrimination. In a series of articles, consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass will be providing tips and advice for more seasoned attorneys who are in the job market. This first article discusses the importance of taking inventory of yourself as one key to success.

One of the little-known paths a lawyer can take to achieving the goal of arguing before the Supreme Court comes when a party decides it no longer wants to argue in favor of or against a lower court decision that is on appeal. When that happens, half the case falls away, so to speak. The Supreme Court, if it still wants an airing of the issue at stake, then appoints a lawyer to advance the now-orphaned argument. It happens only once a year or so, and it happened again Thursday.

What was conceived as a friendly boat race between nations is now the sporting world’s version of “Kramer vs. Kramer.” The America’s Cup has seen endless delays as billionaires Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli bicker over date, location and challenger for the title held by Bertarelli’s Alinghi syndicate. Alinghi, sponsored by Swiss-based Societe Nautique de Geneve, promises to reveal this week the location for the February 2010 race, but is still trying to disqualify the U.S. contender, the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

A closely watched criminal trial begins Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court involving two Beverly Hills film producers — a husband and wife — who are accused of bribing a Thai government official with $1.8 million in payments in order to obtain $14 million worth of lucrative contracts, including management of the Bangkok International Film Festival. The case is one of the few to go to trial involving violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, particularly in the entertainment industry.

The federal judge responsible for overseeing the sentencing of two former Luzerne County, Pa., judges who have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges has rejected their plea agreements in light of their refusal to accept responsibility for their crimes. In his order, Judge Edwin M. Kosik said he will hold a hearing, during which Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. can withdraw their guilty pleas or accept a potentially stiffer sentence.

A federal appellate court recently focused attention on a rare method of obtaining review by the U.S. Supreme Court when it certified a question to the justices in the high-profile prosecution of James Ford Seale for the 1964 kidnapping-murder of two black teenagers. The question that troubled the 5th Circuit: Though Seale committed the crime in 1964, he was not prosecuted until 2007. Did the law require the prosecution for kidnapping within five years of the crime, or is there no time limit?

Chicago-based KamberEdelson filed a class action Thursday that alleges Amazon violated the terms of use for its Kindle product when it deleted copies of George Orwell’s “1984″ and “Animal Farm” from Kindle users’ electronic libraries. The complaint, filed on behalf of two plaintiffs in federal court in Seattle, claims Kindle’s terms of use gives owners “the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times.”

The former general counsel of Take-Two Interactive Software, the maker of the popular “Grand Theft Auto” series, was suspended last week from the practice of law for three years for covering his boss’s tracks in backdating stock options. A hearing panel had recommended only a one-year suspension for Kenneth Selterman — but an appeals court ruled that he should receive a more substantial penalty in light of his position, “level of sophistication and legal experience and his apparent lack of remorse.”

The lawyers were paid millions of dollars. Ford Motor Co. put behind it a costly lawsuit connected to the Explorer rollover scandal of the 1990s. And the judge closed out a complex case that clogged a California court’s overburdened calendar for more than seven years. Everyone seemingly got some tangible benefit — except for nearly all of the 1 million consumers covered by the class action lawsuit filed in their name. None of the consumers got money, only discount coupons toward new Ford purchases.