Posts on ‘August 3rd, 2009’

Besides reinforcing New Jersey’s corrupt image, the FBI’s arrest of 44 officeholders, political operatives and rabbis two weeks ago is providing work for several of the state’s well-known criminal defense lawyers. And as the investigation widened last week with the service of new subpoenas, the resignation of two mayors, the death of a suspect and punitive action against two assemblymen, some of the lawyers began hinting at defenses.

Bloomberg reports that three London-based private equity firms are looking at purchasing significant stakes in U.K. law firms once laws allowing those firms to accept outside investments go into effect in 2011. The Legal Services Act of 2007 will allow outside investors to acquire stakes in British law firms and allow firms to publicly trade shares. With partner profits at U.K. firms dropping noticeably last year, more firms across the pond could be receptive to the idea of embracing outside investors.

Could your customer relationship management database be doing a lot more of the leg work for you? Simon McNidder of Pinsent Masons says your CRM could do much of your marketing admin and ensure you target the right people with the right information at the right time in the right way.

The dismissal of the SEC’s complaint against billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks NBA team owner Mark Cuban marked the first time a court has analyzed specifically what kind of an agreement can give rise to insider trading liability based on the “misappropriation” theory. Attorneys Harold K. Gordon, Tracy V. Schaffer and Julie A. Rosselot analyze what the decision means for public company and investor clients.

With an evidentiary hearing looming, the Justice Department said Friday the Swiss and U.S. governments had an “agreement in principle on major issues” to substantially resolve an IRS demand for the names of 52,000 U.S. citizens suspected of tax evasion on assets secretly held at the Swiss bank UBS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Gibson’s announcement came as something of a surprise, since Gibson had told a federal judge just two days earlier that the two sides were far apart.

Double-digit tuition increases loom for students at some of the country’s top public law schools. Administrators say that the unusually large tuition hikes for the coming academic year are spurred, for the most part, by cuts in public funding — with endowment losses, initiatives to improve schools and pressure to keep up with competing institutions also playing a part. The shrinking public/private tuition gap has led some to worry about whether public institutions are fulfilling their mission of remaining affordable.

A jury in a high-profile federal copyright infringement trial on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student to pay $675,000 to several record companies for illegally downloading and distributing 30 of their songs. Joel Tenenbaum appeared stoic as the jury announced that each of the 30 counts of willful infringement would cost him $22,500. Though steep, the tab is far less than the $4.5 million that the companies could have received had the jury imposed the maximum per-song damages allowed under law.

Attorneys are responding to recent studies that show a big chunk of the work force is saying no to vacation this year, worried that a short break from work may lead to a permanent one. Not only are employers at risk of having burned-out employees coming to work during this downturn, but many are also going to get stuck cashing out millions of dollars in unused vacation days at the end of the year, says Littler Mendelson’s Brian Dixon, who offers tips on how to make sure vacation is taken.