Posts on ‘August 24th, 2009’

In these troubled economic times, fixed fees for particular legal matters have appeal for law firms and their corporate clients. Ben W. Heineman Jr., former GC for General Electric, and William F. Lee, co-managing partner for WilmerHale, strongly believe that this is an idea whose time has come. Fixed fees provide reduced billing hassles, more predictable cost to the client and more predictable payments to the firm. Heineman and Lee address how to set price with quality and achieve cost and value alignment.

The definition of “product” has grown to include such varied items as electricity, blood, sperm, medical devices, information technology and computer software. As a result, products liability litigators are litigating cases involving matters far more complex and varied than years past.

A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a $1 billion fraud and conspiracy case against AIG brought by a group of insurers alleging that AIG had shortchanged workers compensation funds. Judge Robert Gettleman found that the plaintiff, an organization called the National Council on Compensation Insurance, lacks standing to bring the case. If the 600 insurance companies NCCI represented want to continue to pursue claims against AIG, they will have to do so individually. Several have filed putative class actions.

A federal judge in California has enforced a $6.5 million judgment imposed by a Chinese court on an American aircraft manufacturer following a deadly crash of one of the company’s helicopters in the Yangtze River. The ruling is a turning point in a long legal saga pitting two Chinese companies that owned the helicopter against its manufacturer, Robinson Helicopter of Torrance, Calif. The ruling might open the door for more Chinese companies to enforce monetary judgments in the United States.

Poignant letters from Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s colleagues, written after his 2004 announcement that he was suffering from thyroid cancer, are among the latest Rehnquist papers to be released by the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University. The papers paint a picture of a Supreme Court under distress, even adrift, in the absence of his leadership after 18 years as chief justice. The archived materials also reflect a down-home style that won Rehnquist admirers across the political spectrum.

The Department of the Treasury recently issued its much-awaited proposal, “Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation.” Attorney George B. Hefferan III discusses the compliance workload implications of the proposed FRR and other new federal regulations, and suggests that one offshoot of our interconnected global economy — legal process outsourcing — may in part be a strategic solution to the increased regulatory climate.

Clifford Chance is facing an employment dispute in Germany as two former salaried partners accuse the firm of unfair dismissal. The partners left the Magic Circle firm’s Dusseldorf arm as part of its global partnership restructuring, which was launched this spring. The duo claims that, as non-equity partners, they were employees rather than shareholders, which would grant them additional protection under local law.