Posts from ‘September, 2009’

After years of investigation, three consecutive sets of defense lawyers and several weeks of trial, a California jury found former InterMune Inc. CEO W. Scott Harkonen guilty Tuesday in a high-profile health care fraud case. The government secured a conviction on one felony wire fraud count, while Harkonen was acquitted on a second misbranding charge. Harkonen could face a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

Delaware bankruptcy court judge Mary Walrath appears determined to continue presiding over JPMorgan Chase’s ongoing battle with Washington Mutual Inc. According to a transcript of a hearing last Friday, Judge Walrath called efforts by JPMorgan’s lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell to challenge her jurisdiction “frivolous.” The dispute between the two companies mainly concerns $4 billion in deposits that Washington Mutual Inc. had with Washington Mutual Bank, which was taken over by JPMorgan last September.

In orders released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices granted review in 12 new cases for the fall term, including a major sequel to the D.C. v. Heller Second Amendment decision of 2008. At issue is whether the individual right to bear arms declared in Heller applies against state, rather than just federal laws restricting that right. The Court also granted the first employment law case of its new term, Lewis v. Chicago.

The economy has employers jittery about company secrets getting out, so they’re hiring staff to monitor e-mail use, according to a recent Proofpoint survey. And it’s not just the inappropriate use of e-mail that has companies worried. Social networks are also compounding data leak fears.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced a record $6.2 million Americans with Disabilities Act settlement of a nationwide class action against Sears, Roebuck & Co. over the firing of disabled workers. The agency described it as the largest ADA settlement in a single EEOC lawsuit. While the settlement doesn’t include job reinstatement for former Sears workers, the company has changed its policy to make it easier for workers to return from leave in the future, according to an EEOC lawyer.

It’s hardly a surprise that being a summer clerk this year wasn’t exactly the full five-star experience the summer class of 2009 may have dreamed about in law school. One indication of what a summer intern called “a scary time to be a law student”: The number of summer clerks who said they expected to receive full-time job offers was down sharply, according to this year’s survey of summer associates. But the 2009 summer experience wasn’t all darkness and despair.

The three-year-old controversy over whether New Jersey lawyers can tout their inclusion in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers or other ratings publications is again before the state Supreme Court. Six lawyers have signed up to speak at a hearing today as the court weighs a proposed easing of Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1, which bans advertising that compares a lawyer’s services with others. The revision would allow comparisons if the “basis” for them “can be substantiated.”