Posts on ‘August 18th, 2009’

Consultant Debra L. Bruce says that when she is contacted by laid-off lawyers who are looking for help in augmenting their job search efforts, or attorneys whose business has dropped off, one of her first questions is about what kind of networking they do. The frequent response is that they haven’t done much networking because they aren’t comfortable with it. For reluctant networkers, Bruce provides four tips to make the essential activity of networking more enjoyable — or at least less painful.

A federal class action alleges that lawyers in Texas and California conspired to defraud debtors by “masquerading as attorney referral services, unregulated debt negotiators and exempt attorneys.” The plaintiffs allege that the defendants run a nationwide operation “promoted by television and internet advertising” to defraud individuals who are “drowning in credit card and unsecured debt.”

The Supreme Court has agreed to expand the time allotted for the much-anticipated argument Sept. 9 in Citizens United v. FEC. In addition to 30 minutes for former Solicitor General Theodore Olson on behalf of Citizens United and 30 minutes for Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the FEC, 10 minutes will go to Seth Waxman to argue for the sponsors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and 10 minutes to famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams to represent Sen. Mitch McConnell in support of Citizens United.

In a limited victory for publishers, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state’s single-publication rule applies to the tort of appropriation of likeness. The ruling came in the case of a model who said Nestle USA used his face — without his knowledge — to sell Taster’s Choice instant coffee for years. The model had won $15.6 million at trial, but the Supreme Court sent the case back to determine whether his claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

Dawn Johnsen is making a tentative return to the classroom after seven months of waiting for the Senate to confirm her as head of the Office of Legal Counsel, one of the most politically sensitive posts in the Justice Department. Johnsen will teach a seminar this fall at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law while she continues to wait for confirmation. The seminar will focus on sexuality and the law, so it will likely touch on one of the same topics — abortion — that has led Republicans to filibuster Johnsen.

When faced with allegations of manipulations of the auction-rate securities market by New York’s attorney general, most firms have decided to settle up and keep quiet. Not Charles Schwab. Last month, in anticipation of the fraud suit that AG Andrew Cuomo filed on Monday, Schwab’s outside counsel sent a letter to David Markowitz, who heads the Investor Protection Bureau at Cuomo’s office. The letter, which responds to an earlier report that a suit was coming, was made public Monday by Schwab. It makes for juicy reading.

Two former attorneys have been sentenced to decades in federal prison and ordered to pay $127 million in restitution for defrauding hundreds of clients in a diet-drug settlement. A federal judge on Monday also ordered William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. each to pay another $30 million forfeiture to the government. The men were convicted of scamming more than 400 clients out of $94.6 million while representing them in a case involving a $200 million settlement involving the diet drug fen-phen.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed 131 of the 140 pieces of legislation that had been on hold pending the resolution of his protracted budget negotiations with the state Legislature, including two that affect personal injury lawsuits. One piece of compromise legislation, the so-called “Good Samaritan” bill, protects people who are not in the medical profession from being sued after they help someone at the scene of an accident, unless their actions rise to the level of gross negligence.

The 9th Circuit has thrown out Gregory Reyes’ conviction for stock option backdating while he was CEO at Brocade Communications. The court ruled that Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves committed prosecutorial misconduct by saying during closing argument that the entire Brocade finance department was ignorant of the fraud. The decision is a huge blow to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as Reyes and Brocade’s HR director were the only executives convicted at trial for stock option backdating.

If approved, Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ second application for legal fees and expenses in the Lehman bankruptcy will propel the firm over the $100 million mark in total billings — if one includes so-called hold back payments the court will distribute at a later date. The application covers four months — Feb. 1 through May 31 — and it comes just a few days after Judge James Peck of federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan approved Weil’s initial request for about $55 million in fees and expenses.