Posts on ‘October 21st, 2009’

Baker & Hostetler announced Tuesday that it has hired three litigators as partners for its New York office as part of a continuing push to build up its presence in the city. They are Mark Kornfeld, previously at Hogan & Hartson; Deborah Renner, a former partner at Sonnenschein; and Gonzalo Zeballos, who had been an assistant general counsel for AIG. The law firm’s New York growth stems in part from partner Irving Picard’s work as SIPC trustee in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

In January, Seth Bryant, of counsel in DLA Piper’s corporate securities group, left to start his own transactional boutique, joined by several others who had also worked at big firms. And Bryant Burgher Jaffe & Roberts has continued to attract big-firm refugees, adding seven new lawyers last week. The firm is certified as a minority-owned business, and Bryant is trying to expand its transactional focus by recruiting litigators. Being able to provide lower rates is a major draw for big-firm lawyers.

Drake University Law School professor Melissa Weresh is on a mission to get law students and young attorneys to think twice about their e-mail, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. New technology has led to a widening gap in the way younger and older generations communicate, and differing opinions on what is professional and appropriate. So Weresh has been holding seminars at Drake and across the country to help young attorneys and would-be attorneys avoid mistakes in their electronic communications.

Rosen, Bien & Galvan doesn’t specialize in pro bono, but its lawyers do believe that taking on public interest matters is important and devote significant time and resources to such cases. The pay, however, isn’t always stellar, or predictable. Though there has been at least one year when partners made less than associates, there have also been multimillion-dollar awards at the end of long cases. The firm’s model only works, managing partner Michael Bien says, because its caseload is highly diversified.

A Texas judge has upheld a jury verdict totaling more than $182.5 million in damages and interest against NL Industries and its officers. The case concerns a deal negotiated 11 years ago by the plaintiffs to invest in an NL subsidiary that was created to clean up NL’s environmental liabilities. The plaintiffs had an option to sell back their stock to NL after seven years. But by that time, they allege, NL had stripped the subsidiary of its assets in an effort to value the stock below what it was really worth.

Prosecutors said Monday they are worried about what ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich might say on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” TV show that could taint the jury pool for his federal corruption trial. The show is likely to air just as jurors are being qualified for the trial, which is scheduled to start June 3, and anything Blagojevich might say about the evidence could cause complications, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Tuesday that he has sued State Street Bank over markups allegedly extracted from the CalPERS and CalSTRS pension funds in connection with foreign currency trades executed since 2001. Brown is seeking about $200 million in penalties and refunds from the bank.

A former student is entitled to make a case that he was unlawfully expelled from Florida A&M University College of Law after being falsely admitted in 2007, a Florida appeals court has ruled. The court said the student, Brian Morris, had been denied due process of law, and ordered a lower court to consider Morris’ arguments. An admissions director, whom the school alleged knew Morris and his family, admitted fabricating the documents that allowed Morris to enroll. Morris asserted that he was unaware of the fraud.

If lawyers representing Shepard Fairey in his copyright fight with The Associated Press do intend to drop him as a client, The AP isn’t going to make it easy for them. The news organization included that nugget in court papers filed Tuesday on the heels of Fairey’s admission that he inaccurately identified which AP photo served as the genesis of his iconic Obama “Hope” poster — and then destroyed and fabricated evidence to cover up the truth.