Posts on ‘October 5th, 2009’

The average law student who graduated from a private university in 2008 borrowed more than $91,500 on the way to earning that degree, according to the nonprofit Equal Justice Works. Combine that with leftover undergraduate debt and the shrinking job market, and you’ve got a surefire recipe for financial fright. Law school grads may often come out of school with an extra-heavy debt, but like other borrowers, they have several options that can help. For those with debt worries, here are four questions to ask.

A trial over whether Graubard Miller is entitled to a $42 million contingency fee from the estate of a real estate tycoon’s widow is set to begin today in Manhattan, after four years of litigation. The firm’s former longtime client, Alice Lawrence, refused to pay Graubard attorneys what her estate called an “unconscionable” $42 million after the firm in 2005 won a $104.8 million settlement just four months after agreeing to switch to a 40 percent contingency fee after two decades of billing hourly rates.

A New York federal judge ruled Wednesday that Bank of America’s $4 billion suit against Bear Stearns Asset Management and two former Bear hedge fund managers can proceed, granting Bear’s motion to dismiss two counts but keeping the other three claims alive. BofA claimed Bear and the two since-indicted execs committed fraud and breach of contract when they allegedly misled the bank about the health of two failing hedge funds in connection with a complicated $4 billion deal supported by mortgage-backed securities.

A federal judge is demanding an explanation from a patent holding company after it asked her to dismiss its trade secrets suit against Foley & Lardner. SPH America filed a voluntary motion to dismiss its complaint, which accused the firm of revealing in court documents confidential information it had gleaned while defending a client SPH had sued. The judge has threatened to dismiss the case with prejudice, writing that “this plaintiff has an unusual record of filing complaints in this district and then dismissing them.”

A West Virginia federal judge’s dismissal of a shareholders derivative suit against the board of Massey Energy was bad news for plaintiffs firm Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, but worse may be yet to come. The judge is set to decide a Rule 11 motion for sanctions filed by defense counsel, including Cravath, Swaine & Moore, who claim that Barroway’s federal court complaint essentially copied a state court complaint that preceded the federal suit by a couple of weeks and added “trivial” new allegations.

Bernard Madoff’s brother, sons and a niece used the family finance business like a “piggy bank,” a court-appointed trustee charged Friday as he demanded in a lawsuit that they return almost $200 million in money to be distributed to cheated investors. The trustee, Irving Picard, sought $198.7 million from Madoff’s brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoff’s Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons Mark and Andrew. Also sued was Shana D. Madoff, Bernard Madoff’s niece and Peter Madoff’s daughter.

Six Supreme Court justices, two Cabinet members and Vice President Joe Biden were on hand along with dozens of other judges and public officials Sunday at the traditional Roman Catholic Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., the unofficial start to the Supreme Court’s fall season. The cardinal giving the sermon at the Mass called on lawyers to give “radical support” to the unborn. With the arrival of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, two-thirds of the Court’s nine justices are Catholic.

Britain’s most powerful judges take up their first case this week with new robes, new titles, a new courtroom and — some argue — more power. Monday marks the hearing of the first case by Britain’s new Supreme Court, a group of 12 justices who were until recently known as the Law Lords. They are to hear an appeal by five unnamed terror suspects who have had their financial assets frozen by the British government.

In an extremely rare move, the Supreme Court has postponed the first oral argument scheduled for its new term Monday, South Carolina v. North Carolina. An announcement from the Court came Sunday night. The official reason given was that “family illness” has left Eric Miller, assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, unable to argue in the case. The case is an important dispute over which parties are entitled to intervene in so-called “original jurisdiction” cases.