Posts on ‘October 14th, 2009’

Despite the sluggish economy, top billing rates at most South Florida law firms showed modest increases in 2009, with more partners charging hourly rates exceeding $500, according to the Daily Business Review’s fourth annual survey of lawyer compensation. In spite of the robust hourly rates, though, many managing partners said their firms are facing pressure to discount billing rates. And the economic pinch is encouraging GCs and outside counsel to consider alternatives to hourly billing, industry experts said.

Houston’s Lanier Law Firm is bullish on international arbitration work, particularly because the plaintiffs firm sees an advantage to handling it on contingency. The 40-lawyer firm announced that Los Angeles office managing partner Dana Taschner, along with founder Mark Lanier, would lead the four-attorney group, and that the firm plans to open a London office in 2010. Taschner acknowledged that handling arbitration on contingency is a risky way to go, but at least it keeps competition minimal.

When litigation arose between the wife and son of a deceased lawyer, the lawyer’s old firm found out there may have been some referral fees taken for personal use that they alleged should have gone to the firm. And they wanted their money. But a Pennsylvania judge has found that the state’s Dead Man’s Statute prohibits the firm from testifying about the oral agreement the firm said it had with the lawyer because he isn’t alive to rebut the testimony and representatives of his estate aren’t knowledgeable about the issue.

Bucking the Florida Supreme Court, a federal appellate panel has waded into the battle between condo developers and buyers over the use of a consumer protection law to void contracts. The 11th Circuit sided with developers, giving them wide latitude in claiming an exemption from the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act. The unanimous panel said buyers have disingenuously used ILSA, which one judge called “an increasingly popular means of channeling buyer’s remorse into a legal defense to a breach of contract claim.”

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. is attempting a legal smackdown against a wine school that it says is violating its trademark. WWE is opposing the Philadelphia Wine School’s attempt to register the name Sommelier Smackdown for the food and wine pairing competitions it has held since 2007. The WWE’s “SmackDown” program has aired on television since 1999. “This is just a standard bully tactic. It’s impossible for them to claim that smackdown is not a generic term,” the wine school’s owner says.

With two cases on its docket already addressing the federal law on
“honest services” fraud, it’s fair to wonder why the Supreme Court added
a third, but that’s what the justices did Tuesday, granting review of an
appeal filed by one-time Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. One possible
explanation is that Skilling’s case raises another issue unrelated to
the honest services law: whether massive pretrial publicity and
“community passion” surrounding Skilling’s trial created a presumption
of juror prejudice.

A federal district court judge in Georgia has issued a $20,000 sanction
for misconduct in a case involving California lawyer and dentist Orly
Taitz, a leader of the “birther” movement whose members have challenged
President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship. “The absolute absence of any
legitimate legal argument, combined with the political diatribe in her
motions, demonstrates that Ms. Taitz’s purpose is to advance a political
agenda and not to pursue a legitimate legal cause of action,” the judge
found.

A Philadelphia jury found Tuesday that GlaxoSmithKline failed to properly warn doctors and pregnant women about risks associated with its blockbuster antidepressant Paxil. The jury awarded $2.5 million in damages to the family of Lyam Kilker, who was born with heart defects after his mother took Paxil during her pregnancy. As the first trial of more than 600 suits claiming Glaxo hid knowledge of birth defect risks allegedly tied to Paxil, the case was closely watched as a test of Glaxo’s vulnerability.