Posts on ‘September 24th, 2009’

One of the most common pitfalls of working at Big Law is the temptation to become romantically involved with a colleague, says The Snark. The allure flourishes early on when Big Law throws groups of over-achieving, mostly good-looking law students together for weeks of booze and bonding as summer associates. Then, more romances are sparked during the early associate years. Later, more tawdry affairs ignite in taboo unions between junior associates and married partners. The Snark says just don’t do it.

A New Jersey judge held Monday that a former couple must share possession of a six-year-old, pedigreed pug they bought for $1,500 when they were engaged and living together. The ruling, which allows Doreen Houseman and Eric Dare to spend alternating, five-week stretches with the dog, is the aftermath of a groundbreaking appellate decision last March that pets have a subjective value that transcends their monetary costs.

Two U.K. lawyers formerly with McDermott Will & Emery and Dorsey & Whitney will stand trial on insider trading charges. Ex-Dorsey corporate partner Andrew Rimmington and ex-McDermott corporate partner Michael McFall, along with a former Neutec Pharma financial director, were charged in June with insider trading related to Novartis’ $589 million acquisition of NeuTec in June 2006. On Tuesday, a Westminster Magistrates Court judge ordered the men to appear on Oct. 28 to enter pleas and discuss case management.

Drugmaker Wyeth on Wednesday sued regulators at the FDA in an attempt to block the sale of a recently approved generic version of its intravenous antibiotic Zosyn. In the complaint filed in D.C. federal court by Wyeth’s lawyers at Sidley Austin, the company alleges that the generic is not an equivalent product and could harm critically ill patients. The complaint also names as defendants the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The federal government is suing a North Carolina employer for what it calls a pervasive problem in the workplace: discrimination against employees with mental illness. In the federal suit filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contends that the Smith International Truck Center relied upon “myths, fears and stereotypes about mental impairments” when it unlawfully terminated an employee who took leave for a mental health issue.

A felony charge was filed Wednesday against an attorney who is accused of bribing hospital employees for confidential medical information that he allegedly used to solicit clients in a no-fault insurance scam. New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said the charge against William R. Hamel and seven hospital employees expanded his investigation of the filing of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent medical claims and bodily injury lawsuits on behalf of people involved in minor auto accidents.

Lawyers for AT&T have won a court battle with the Federal Communications Commission over whether corporations are entitled to assert claims of “personal” privacy. The FCC argued that when Congress crafted the exemptions clauses of the Freedom of Information Act, it intended the phrase “personal privacy” to extend only to human beings. But AT&T claimed that FOIA specifically defines the term “person” to include corporations. The 3rd Circuit has ruled that AT&T had the better argument.

The former general counsel of Intermune Inc. isn’t on trial. But he wound up figuring large in a rare health care fraud prosecution that Northern District of California Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has sent to the jury. During closing arguments Wednesday, both sides used evidence from former GC Steven Rosenfeld to debate whether former CEO W. Scott Harkonen crafted a deceptive press release designed to boost sales of a controversial, but ineffective, drug.

An expanding corruption investigation being conducted by federal law enforcement officials in Ohio has the FBI seeking documents from Columbus firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. The subpoenaed documents relate to legal work the firm did for public officials in the Cleveland area implicated in a long-running corruption probe. A firm spokeswoman said that former partner Anthony Calabrese III, six of whose former clients are being investigated, is “no longer associated with the firm in any capacity.”

The topic du jour in the corporate world is securities disclosure, what with the Bank of America controversy making headlines nearly every day. The law isn’t always crystal clear on just what a company needs to disclose, and how. An opinion this week gives some guidance on disclosure issues that were raised by shareholders of The Blackstone Group after its $4.5 billion IPO in 2007. The ruling was a resounding win for Blackstone and its lawyers at Simpson Thacher, with the court dismissing the complaint with prejudice.