Posts on ‘October 16th, 2009’

When Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Barbara Becker works late, she doesn’t fret about her four children waiting at home. Her husband, Chad Gallant — a former associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore — takes care of the home front. Gallant and Becker represent a new twist on a familiar model: hardworking breadwinner and supportive spouse. The shift in roles is often due to practicality, and with statistics showing that layoffs have hit men harder, more female lawyers may be getting “the wife” they want.

“Runners” who contact accident victims, and the people who hire them — including personal injury lawyers — will now be under more scrutiny from a new anti-runner state law in Connecticut that went into effect recently. Connecticut is among 10 states that have enacted such a law. Lawyers will face as much as a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 if they’re caught hiring runners to drum up personal injury litigation business, and the same penalties apply to the runners themselves.

Judges are allowed to needle lawyers — but that’s pretty much a one-way street. That’s why some patent lawyers have been scratching their heads over the pointed criticisms of a Texas judge in an appellate brief written by big-name patent lawyer Matthew Powers of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. And the question is: Will Powers’ brief make the Eastern District of Texas, with its tight-knit judiciary, an unfriendly place for the California attorney in the future?

Verizon Wireless and AT&T do not need performance licenses for ringtones they sell to customers, a judge has ruled. Noting the companies already pay licensing fees to download the 30-second snippets, the judge said the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers cannot demand additional royalties for times the ringtones go off at a public place. “Verizon does not ‘recite, render, play, dance or act [the ringtone] either directly or by means of any device’ and thus does not ‘perform’ the music,” the judge wrote.

Foley & Lardner is letting go of 39 lawyers throughout its 21 offices, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Chairman Ralf-Reinhard Boer told the newspaper that decreased client demand for legal services was the reason for the layoffs. Milwaukee-based Foley has aggressively expanded in recent years, adding eight offices and hundreds of lawyers to become the nation’s 24th-largest law firm, and Boer said the firm would continue to recruit at the partner level.

A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a former lobbyist caught up in the Jack Abramoff affair, the biggest setback in the government’s prosecution of the influence-peddling scandal. The jury deadlocked over allegations that Kevin Ring lavished thousands of dollars worth of tickets and meals on DOJ officials and employees of then-Republican Reps. John Doolittle of California and Ernest Istook of Oklahoma in return for congressional appropriations and other assistance for Abramoff’s clients.

Is having a uterus a pre-existing condition? The insurance companies seem to think so, says the National Women’s Law Center, an advocacy group for women’s legal rights that is on a mission to end the practice of charging women higher insurance rates than men for the same services. On Thursday, Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the center, took the fight to Capitol Hill, testifying before a Senate committee.

An Atlanta attorney has sued Capital One on behalf of a potential class of credit card holders, challenging the bank’s decision to raise interest rates on some accounts in good standing. The suit opens up a second front in a legal war E. Adam Webb and his law partners are waging against the banks on behalf of consumers who claim they have been subjected to excessive finance charges and fees. Last year, Webb began filing a series of complaints challenging banks’ practices governing overdraft fee charges.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday declined to hear a workplace retaliation case en banc, letting stand the panel’s decision that the Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t protect “unwritten purely verbal complaints.” But three judges dissented. Judges Ilana Rovner, Ann Williams and Diane Wood said their colleagues were wrong not to hear the case because the decision departs from other circuits’ decisions and “the long-standing view of the Department of Labor.”

Queen Elizabeth II formally opened Britain’s new Supreme Court Friday in a ceremony attended by several U.S. Supreme Court justices. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and top judges from Canada, India and Europe attended, alongside U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia. Earlier this month the U.K. judges shed their wigs and robes and moved to a new home across the street from the Houses of Parliament. The court has been hearing cases since Oct. 5.