Posts on ‘September 23rd, 2009’

It hasn’t been an easy month at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Since the beginning of September, lawyers there have been under fire for their work on Bank of America’s merger with Merrill Lynch by both the SEC and Manhattan Federal District Court Judge Jed Rakoff. Now this: Last Friday, Wachtell client Satyam Computer Services Ltd. asked to substitute Jones Day for the firm in the software services provider’s shareholder lawsuits in the U.S.

A transformation at law schools and firms is altering the nature of careers in the profession, says consultant Ari L. Kaplan. Self-reflection is essential in an era where employers are looking for an individual who already holds the foundation for many of the qualities that they are expecting a few years in the future. For that reason, students — and now-licensed alumni of the past few years — need to immediately begin developing the techniques that rainmakers have honed over their careers.

Richard Kendall’s clients — mostly major Hollywood studios and media companies — were increasingly chafing at the rates charged at litigation giant Irell & Manella. So Kendall and two fellow media-focused Irell partners took a leap of faith in May and started their own litigation boutique, Kendall Brill & Klieger. Kendall insists that the recession created the ideal conditions to start a new firm, thanks to the growing thriftiness of clients. Five months in, the trio’s gamble seems to be paying off.

Back in May, the European Commission hit chip-maker Intel with a record $1.45 billion fine for unfairly limiting competition with rival Advanced Micro Devices. This week the EC finally made the reasoning behind its decision public, releasing a “provisional nonconfidential version” of its May decision. The decision released Monday provides specifics on deals that Intel allegedly made with Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and NEC in order to limit the release of PCs running AMD products.

Two provisions of the Railway Labor Act do not create a private right of action for flight attendants to challenge the reworking of their labor agreement to avoid an American Airlines bankruptcy, the 2nd Circuit ruled Tuesday. Addressing a case of first impression, the circuit said the first and seventh provisions of the act do not empower individual flight attendants to challenge the validity of a Restructuring Participation Agreement reached between their union, American Airlines and its parent company AMR Corp. in 2003.

DLA Piper has snagged former Florida Sen. Mel Martinez as a partner in its Washington, D.C., and Tampa offices. Martinez, who left the Senate earlier this month with more than a year remaining on his first term, starts at the firm on Oct. 1. His hiring fills a hole on the roster at DLA Piper, which has seen some high-profile departures recently, such as former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that they will explore updating their horizontal merger guidelines, the first such change in 17 years. Christine Varney, assistant attorney general for the DOJ Antitrust Division, said the government would hold a series of public workshops to assess whether the current guidelines accurately reflect agency practice. Varney said there was an urgent need to update the guidelines because, over time, judges have pointed to them as “persuasive authority.”

The trial of a blogger who allegedly threatened on his Web site to assault and murder three 7th Circuit judges has been moved from the Northern District of Illinois to Brooklyn federal court. Visiting District Court Judge Donald Walter granted the defense’s request for a change of venue. In agreeing to move the case, Walter cited the 2005 murders of Chicago federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow’s mother and husband. “Memories are not so short as to erase the event from the public mind,” he said.

Facebook users angered about Beacon, a service that broadcasts users’ transactions with partner Web sites, have settled their class action suit claiming Beacon disclosed personal information for advertising purposes without their consent. As part of the deal, Facebook has agreed to terminate Beacon. In addition, Facebook pledged to pay $9.5 million to set up a foundation devoted to studying online privacy, according to court records.