Posts on ‘September 10th, 2009’

New York law student Andrew Samuels, who sued Bernard Madoff’s brother for depleting his trust fund in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, has settled for less than his original claim, according to his attorney, Steven Schlesinger of Jaspan Schlesinger. Samuels sued Peter Madoff for depleting Samuels’ $475,000 trust fund by paying out “fictitious returns” to other investors in the scam. Schlesinger declined to provide a specific amount, but said the settlement was for less than the $475,000 sought.

Already battling a rash of private lawsuits, employers are bracing for yet more scrutiny over their pay practices in light of a new report that shows wage-and-hour violations are running rampant in the workplace. The report is just one blow to employers as the U.S. Department of Labor has recently announced that it is hiring 250 additional investigators to snare wage-and-hour scofflaws. According to this latest report, there are plenty of them.

Objections have been filed to a $195 million fee request from plaintiffs
attorneys who achieved a $586 million settlement in a massive federal
initial public offering litigation. In papers filed Tuesday by counsel
for objectors, four attorneys argue the request for $195 million is
“outrageous” and say that “a fee of 33.33 percent is not permissible in
a mega-fund case like this.” The objectors also argue against $50
million in expenses sought by the plaintiffs firms.

The heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and a movie studio that produced “The Lord of the Rings” blockbuster trilogy have settled a lawsuit over the films’ profits, clearing the way for a prequel based on Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit.” Tolkien’s heirs had sought to rescind New Line Cinema’s rights to make films based on the book, claiming the studio owed them millions in profits from the trilogy, which earned an estimated $6 billion. One of the main beneficiaries of the settlement is The Tolkien Trust, a British charity.

Stuart Maue, the company serving as the court-appointed fee examiner in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case, is being so thorough that Chadbourne & Parke — counsel for the creditors committee — is taking the rare step of challenging the fee examiner’s call to cut $13,639 from the firm’s $1.68 million fee request. The dispute highlights the growing importance of fee oversight, a practice which is not outlined specifically in the federal bankruptcy code and varies wildly between courts and judges.

After nine months of negotiations, the 258-lawyer Ice Miller called off a planned merger with Kentucky’s Greenebaum Doll, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal. An unnamed source at Greenebaum told the paper the firm’s partners were concerned that a merger with a larger rival would result in higher billing rates at a time when clients are cutting their legal budgets.