Posts on ‘September 14th, 2009’

Interviews are awkward enough as it is without the additional challenges facing the more mature job seeker, note consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass. They suggest that you anticipate and prepare to handle tough questions and situations with grace. Use humor whenever possible to diffuse uncomfortable situations. Fontaine and Kass discuss ways of handling some specific questions or issues that could come up in your interview, such as questions about a resume gap or facing a much younger interviewer.

The bitter dispute between an investment banker and his ex-wife has consumed Hogan & Hartson’s Robert Cave for nearly 12 years, driving his practice into the ground and leading him to withdraw from Hogan’s partnership. Now, the woman’s sons are suing Cave and Hogan for malpractice, alleging the firm pursued unnecessary legal action that drained their inheritance. The suit claims Cave developed a “crush” on Colleen Boland, noting that he had referred to her as the best friend he’s ever had.

Judge Frank Easterbrook is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to loosen federal sentencing guidelines so judges waste less time determining ranges that may not matter anyway. Easterbrook, chief judge of the 7th Circuit, said the commission’s “most important” task is revamping the guidelines’ structure in light of Supreme Court decisions that made them advisory. Now that judges can sentence outside ranges set by the guideline tables, he said, they shouldn’t be spending so much time calculating ranges in the first place.

When a federal judge in Alabama overturned a ruling by a bankruptcy judge last month, lawyers at the firm that used to be Powell Goldstein got dragged back into a complicated and hard-fought malpractice battle launched against them by the bankruptcy trustee for former client Verilink Inc. The trustee claims that the firm attempted to conceal documents that showed its lawyers took part in a series of civil transgressions perpetrated by Verilink’s officers and directors that ultimately led to Verilink’s bankruptcy.

Sanofi-Aventis SA has taken its share of licks in its long-running battle with drug makers selling generic versions of Eloxatin, a drug used to treat colon cancer. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the generic drugs for sale despite an appellate ruling granting Sanofi a stay of a district court order that found the generics did not infringe Sanofi’s patents. But Sanofi finally got some good news on Thursday when the Federal Circuit vacated the lower court’s ruling and remanded the case.

Supreme Court scholars and others have pointed to some statistical research about oral arguments that seems too simple to be accurate. Namely, if you want a good predictor of how a case will turn out, count up the questions from justices aimed at each side. Much more often than not, the party that gets the most questions loses. The National Law Journal tackled the transcript of the closely watched argument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. So what did the numbers say?

Does Yahoo’s top lawyer know something about the company’s future that investors don’t? General counsel Michael Callahan has sold more than $2 million in company stock over the last two years, and investors are asking why. Callahan isn’t the only top executive at Yahoo cashing in. Others, including CEO Carol Bartz, have sold more than $232 million in stock in the past two years as the Internet search engine struggled to compete against rivals Google and Microsoft Corp.