Posts on ‘September 10th, 2009’

Pfizer’s GC will no longer oversee the company’s compliance program, under the terms of a $2.3 billion settlement agreement resolving allegations that Pfizer’s executives and sales staff illegally marketed Bextra and several other drugs. Instead, the chief compliance officer at the world’s largest drug maker will report directly to the CEO. The move is required by Pfizer’s corporate integrity agreement, an administrative alternative to excluding Pfizer from participating in federal health care programs.

Smaller summer associate classes haven’t brought an increased offer rate this year as firms try to balance a drop in work and attrition rates with the number of incoming associates. Drinker Biddle & Reath has a higher percentage offer rate this year than many of its counterparts, but the rate has dropped for the firm compared to 2008, along with its class size. The firm gave offers to about 68 percent, or 25, of the 37 2L summer associates it had firmwide in 2009.

Partisanship surrounding the federal judiciary briefly melted away during the last Congress when Democrats and Republicans supported a bill to increase the number of judgeships. This year, the polarization is back. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced legislation Tuesday that would add nine permanent seats to the circuit courts and 38 to the district courts. The bill has 17 co-sponsors — all Democrats. Last year, a similar bill from Leahy drew 21 co-sponsors, including six Republicans.

Considering the partisanship and mudslinging involved in approving a
nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, many people might find it surprising
that most Americans think the high court is doing a fine job, and that
the Court is neither too liberal nor too conservative. A new Gallup poll
shows an approval rating that’s among the most positive for the Court in
the past decade. What’s the reason for all the love?

A federal grand jury has handed down a 48-count indictment against two former Luzerne County, Pa., judges, alleging the men engaged in racketeering and related charges, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. The indictment comes about five weeks after a federal judge rejected the conditional plea agreements of Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella Jr. and two weeks after the men withdrew their conditional guilty pleas in the matter. Each charge is related to the judges’ ties to two juvenile detention facilities.

A prominent St. Louis businessman has filed a legal malpractice suit against Bryan Cave, alleging that the firm botched his prenuptial agreement, causing him $10 million in losses tied in part to the appreciation of his high-profile modern art collection, which includes works by Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns. Donald Bryant claimed that Bryan Cave partner Lawrence Brody failed to factor in the capital gains tax on the marital estate that Bryant shared with his former wife.

The hospital chain operator Tenet Healthcare has dished out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle investigations and litigation related to allegations that it manipulated the Medicare billing system. But one group of plaintiffs that has not received any money is a collection of several thousand competing hospitals. And after an 11th Circuit decision that affirmed a summary judgment in favor of Tenet in a class action that sought damages of nearly $2 billion, it looks more doubtful that they will ever get any money.

In its third round of dismissals in the past 18 months, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal has cut about 30 lawyers this month, including 10 income partners, according to sources familiar with the firm’s cost cutting. The firm eliminated most of the attorney positions in the real estate and corporate practices areas, cutting those lawyers who have remained idle because of the ongoing slowdown in banking, capital markets, real estate development, and mergers and acquisitions, the sources said.

Judges testifying before the U.S. Sentencing Commission in Chicago told the panel on Wednesday that the sentencing of people convicted for possession of child pornography, as opposed to its manufacture or commercial distribution, has become too severe and may need to be changed. Much of the discussion is centering on the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2005 Booker decision, which made federal sentencing guidelines advisory rather than mandatory.

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America disagreed Wednesday over whether there was any wrongdoing in advance of BofA’s takeover of Merrill Lynch, they also argued that New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff should approve the $33 million settlement over bonus pay to Merrill employees. Rakoff has held both sides’ feet to the fire on the settlement because of unanswered questions over disclosure of the bonus plan and the role that attorneys for Bank of America might have played.