Posts on ‘November 4th, 2009’

When attorney Robert Bonsignore filed his first class action against Wal-Mart Stores in 2004, wage-and-hour claims weren’t all the rage like they are now, and few attorneys wanted in on the action. Now, a federal judge has granted final approval to a settlement under which Wal-Mart will pay between $65 million and $85 million to resolve 39 consolidated wage-and-hour class actions involving more than 3 million Wal-Mart employees — the largest wage-and-hour class on record.

At least two New Jersey law firms that were victimized by phony check scams have gone to court seeking to get the money back from the banks that handled the checks. Freedman & Gersten claims it wired $236,659 to a company in South Korea based on a check that turned out to be fake, while Levitan & Frieland has lodged similar allegations. Freedman is suing Bank of America, on whose assurances it says it relied when it deposited a client check in its attorney trust account and wired most of the money overseas.

The federal court trial of an El Paso County state judge accused of offering to trade sex and cash for help with felony cases has been postponed until January. State District Judge Manuel Barraza faces four counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud and lying to a federal agent. His trial was set to start Monday, but was delayed until Jan. 19 after his defense lawyers argued that they haven’t had enough time to review evidence turned over by the government less than two weeks ago.

Like a bad Hollywood thriller, law firm technology has a villain: the economic downturn. Budget constraints and demands for efficiency are forcing law firms — not known for embracing cutting-edge gear or immature software — to look for new, more nimble and cost-effective technologies.

Stearns Weaver’s e-mail system was hobbling their digital transition. The system did not integrate well with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server and was buckling under the massive amount of messages sent between attorneys, staff and clients. Then came Azaleos’ Managed Exchange Services.

A California jury handed Keker & Van Nest and semiconductor giant TSMC a clear victory in a hard-fought trade secrets trial on Tuesday. The jury found that rival semiconductor manufacturer SMIC, represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, misappropriated trade secrets and broke a 2005 settlement between the two companies by continuing to use the information. The case will now proceed to the damages phase, at which Keker lawyers could ask for as much as $2 billion.

Opponents of patenting human gene sequences were handed a rare court victory on Monday, when a federal judge refused to dismiss a suit challenging patents for two genes tied to cancers in women. The patents are owned by the University of Utah and licensed to Myriad Genetics. The plaintiffs claimed that the patents are invalid because they cover “products of nature,” and they alleged that Myriad’s attempts to enforce the patents by limiting genetic research violated First Amendment protections.

The accountant who helped conceal Bernard Madoff’s record-breaking Ponzi scheme pleaded guilty Tuesday, admitting in Manhattan federal court that he rubber-stamped financial statements used to deceive regulators and investors. David G. Friehling entered guilty pleas to single counts of securities fraud and investment adviser fraud, four counts of making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and three counts of obstructing or impeding administration of the Internal Revenue laws.