Posts on ‘November 12th, 2009’

Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance are negotiating with regulators around the world to get antitrust clearance for what is suddenly among the more controversial deals of 2009 — Oracle’s $7.4 billion proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Given the concern EU regulators have over Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL database software, Thomas Vinje, the Brussels-based Clifford Chance partner handling the antitrust work in the EU, may have the toughest job on the Oracle legal team.

Here are the top 10 tips to transition seamlessly a successful legal career, provided by members of the editorial board for The Legal Intelligencer’s Young Lawyer. The tips range from practical work tips, like learning the rules of civil procedure, to office-savvy tips, such as making sure to ask questions at the right time and of the right people. And perhaps in a nod to these tougher economic times, the board advises young lawyers not to live lavishly and try to save one-quarter to half of their income.

Off the Supreme Court bench, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. can be disarmingly modest about the role of the chief justice. He is only one of nine justices, he’ll say in public appearances, and he has no authority to tell his eight colleagues what to do — even though he gets blamed when things go wrong. On Tuesday, that self-deprecating posture was on display on the bench during a brief exchange at oral argument, when a lawyer asked an unusual question that seemed to startle Roberts.

Seyfarth Shaw is advising Playboy in a lawsuit against an attorney who once posed nude for the magazine and wrote an advice column before she was terminated amid allegations of sexual harassment. The complaint accuses Corri Fetman of breaching her contract by trying to trademark the phrase “Lawyer of Love,” the name of her column. Fetman landed the post after advertising her law practice on a billboard featuring herself in lingerie with the tag line: “Life’s short. Get a divorce.”

Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli has petitioned the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider reinstating his rejected plea bargain with the federal government in a criminal investigation of stock options backdating. Samueli’s attorneys argue that his appeal should be reheard because it “presents an important issue of first impression in this Circuit — whether a district court’s attempt to coerce a defendant to waive his fundamental Fifth Amendment privilege is immediately reviewable.”

Plaintiffs attorney Pierce O’Donnell has filed an appellate petition disputing claims that dismissal of the government’s campaign contributions violations case against him would create a “loophole” in federal elections law that would render contribution limits “meaningless.” O’Donnell rebuffed what he called the “falsely alarmist policy arguments” of the Federal Election Commission and two good-government nonprofits who argued against the dismissal of two of three counts against O’Donnell.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act gives federal judges the unequivocal power to appoint lead plaintiffs in securities class actions. But are judges also empowered to appoint lead counsel? Not according to the 9th Circuit. A circuit panel found that the judge in a consolidated action against Nvidia made a “clearly erroneous” decision when he appointed Girard Gibbs as co-lead counsel instead of Kahn Swick & Foti, even though he had picked Kahn Swick’s client — and not Girard Gibbs’ — as co-lead plaintiff.

Singer-actress-celebrity Beyonce and her father-manager Mathew Knowles have parted ways — at least in their choice of lawyers — in defending a copyright case set for trial in Chicago next month. Over the past month Beyonce and Destiny’s Child Inc., the company named after her famous trio and run by her father, have tapped new and separate counsel. The case arose over the song “Cater 2 U,” which Beyonce recorded as part of Destiny’s Child and released in 2004 in conjunction with the group’s reunion album.

The State Bar of California’s crackdown on attorneys for alleged loan modification misconduct has claimed five more lawyers in Southern California, three of whom have resigned. The other two attorneys have been placed on involuntary inactive status. Since the Bar launched its Loan Modification Task Force in April, 14 attorneys have resigned or been placed on involuntary inactive status. About 250 lawyers are under investigation.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee launched the Federalist Society’s annual convention Thursday morning with a call to oppose President Barack Obama’s most liberal nominees for the federal bench. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said that the confirmation process this summer of Justice Sonia Sotomayor showed that conservatives have a superior approach to interpreting the law. He said conservatives should keep pursuing a freewheeling, public debate on the role of federal judges.