Posts on ‘November 4th, 2009’

With corporate America itching for the Supreme Court to rein in use of the Alien Torts Statute for suits alleging overseas wrongdoing, the case that may redefine the parameters of the ATS is shaping up as a battle of ex-Harvard law professors. On Monday the Court asked U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to weigh in on Pfizer Inc. v. Rabi Abdullahi, in which the 2nd Circuit revived the claims of Nigerians who allege they were grievously harmed by a Pfizer drug in a government-approved clinical trial.

Naomi Gray was an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker when she took maternity leave more than a year ago. Not ready to return to the 2,000 billable-hour grind, she resigned at the end of March. Her return to work this month, to IP litigation firm Harvey Siskind as a partner, came as the result of good contacts and lucky timing. Gray says conversations with Lawrence Siskind, name partner at the six-lawyer firm, began informally over lunch at the start of the year.

Lawyers have begun noticing some unfamiliar faces in their area of specialty. And given the state of the economy, they don’t think it’s a coincidence. They say solo practitioners and small firm lawyers have been forced to branch out in order to stay afloat financially during lean times. Yona Gregory is a solo attorney in Connecticut with a real estate law practice who has taken on more criminal defense work as housing values have plummeted. “I have seen a lot of solo real estate people in the criminal courts,” she said.

It’s unclear just how far courts will let receivers go in pursuing investors in clawback litigation arising out of Ponzi schemes. But the 5th Circuit gave some clues when it heard oral arguments in the clawback case initiated by the receiver of Stanford International Bank. One judge asked what gives Stanford receiver Ralph Janvey the authority to sue people that the SEC did not: “It seems to me that the plaintiff or defendant ought to be the ones … Frankly, in a sense, you’re nobody. You are neither one.”

Georgia’s defense bar has welcomed a state Supreme Court decision confirming that legal fees paid to two attorneys by an estate’s executor prior to her subsequent guilty plea for her husband’s murder could not be clawed back to the estate. The court ruled that Georgia’s “slayer statute,” which forbids a murderer from profiting from the death of his or her victim, could not be used to bar access to the deceased’s assets until there has been a guilty plea, conviction or other “clear and convincing evidence in any judicial proceeding.”

A former acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said Tuesday he is “not opposed” to a criminal investigation of the office, which was at the center of the Bush administration’s internal debate about torture. At the same time, Daniel Levin defended the motives of former OLC officials who have drawn criticism because of their involvement in so-called “torture memos.” Levin’s comments were unusual because other former Republican appointees have opposed additional investigations of the OLC.

Trial began Monday for Rudy Lim, a former DLA Piper partner who left the firm in 2006 to open a Singapore office for Duane Morris. Lim is charged with falsely inflating his DLA salary to get Duane Morris to match it. He is accused of forging a payroll statement to show that his monthly draw at DLA was $65,000 instead of $25,000, which would boost his annual compensation from $300,000 at DLA to $780,000 at Duane Morris. In Singapore, a forgery conviction carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison and a fine.

New details are emerging concerning accusations raised Monday against lawyer Scott Rothstein by his partner, Stuart Rosenfeldt, in a request for a court-appointed receiver to run Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler and audit its finances in the wake of accusations that Rothstein may have misappropriated $200 million to $500 million in a scheme tied to structured settlements. Rosenfeldt says none of the settlements involved firm clients, but the Review has obtained sample forms that intertwine the settlement business and the law firm.

Berkshire Hathaway announced on Monday that it is acquiring 77 percent of railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $34 billion in cash and stock. Berkshire, the holding company for the assets of Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man, already owns the other 23 percent. Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Munger, Tolles & Olson and Sullivan & Cromwell worked on the deal — the largest in Berkshire’s history.

The federal government has agreed to settle for $3 million a long-running suit in federal district court that alleged a former CIA officer and a State Department official unlawfully eavesdropped on a drug enforcement agent in Burma. The terms of the agreement were detailed in court papers filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit, filed by former DEA agent Richard Horn, was filed in federal court in 1994. The litigation had been under seal until this summer.