Posts on ‘November 5th, 2009’

U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared torn Wednesday over whether prosecutors deserve total immunity from lawsuits for their official acts, even when they fabricate evidence in pursuit of a murder indictment and conviction. At issue in the case — brought by two men who were freed after serving 25 years in prison for murder — is the scope of immunity for prosecutors who are performing police-like duties before trial and then either participate or don’t participate in the trial where they would acquire full immunity.

Can employees retain attorney-client privilege for e-mails sent to their lawyers using employer-provided e-mail and computers? Attorney Anthony E. Davis seeks to reconcile apparently inconsistent decisions, and to aid in advising clients on avoiding the risks such communications pose.

We’re betting that no one was more relieved by Verizon’s defeat of a $1.67 billion ERISA class action than former Bell Atlantic in-house lawyer Barry Peters, who was responsible for the typographical error in the Bell Atlantic pension plan that was the basis of the class claims. A federal judge granted Verizon’s request to order that the mistake be corrected as a harmless “scrivener’s error.” In an exhaustive 105-page ruling, he found that no evidence exists to suggest that any plan participant relied upon the error.

During several weeks last year, when crucial legal decisions affecting not only Bank of America shareholders but the nation’s economic system were being made, the bank fired its GC and replaced him with Brian Moynihan, a business executive who hadn’t practiced law in years and wasn’t even actively licensed as a lawyer when he was named. Moynihan served as the bank’s GC for only 37 days, but it was a critical time for BofA, which was smack in the middle of its controversial merger with Merrill Lynch.

A complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Boston alleges that Troutman Sanders real estate practice chair Leonard Grunstein participated in a scheme to accept $50 million in kickbacks from pharmaceutical vendor Omnicare in order to provide services to a nursing home company in which he and two other defendants are principals. The allegations were revealed when Omnicare agreed to pay $98 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it engaged in kickback schemes with nursing homes and drugmakers.