Posts on ‘November 19th, 2009’

With news media organizations cutting back on their coverage of courts and other institutions, an effort was launched Wednesday to help the press and public identify important federal appeals court rulings and cases. The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements has created a new site that will flag and summarize some of the most interesting or newsworthy recent decisions and pending cases before federal appeals courts.

In a softening of U.S. hostility to the International Criminal Court, the American war crimes ambassador Stephen Rapp said in a speech Thursday in the Hague that the U.S. is committed to ending impunity for crimes against humanity. The comments marked the first time a U.S. diplomat has addressed the 110-nation Assembly of State Parties, which oversees the court’s work and budget.

The performance right, protected by the Copyright Act, has been fertile ground for disputes. If a trend is emerging in recent decisions, it’s that courts won’t charge twice for what appear to be the same bundles of rights: Either it’s a digital download or a performance, but not both.

The resignation this week of Henry “Hank” White Jr., the American Bar Association’s executive director since October 2006, follows other recent staff departures amid a reorganization set in motion by the ABA’s new president, Carolyn Lamm. The chief financial officer, Kenneth Widelka, left in September after just over a year in the job. Lamm said the central thrust of the reorganization has been to winnow the number of people reporting to the executive director in an effort to increase management impact.

On Tuesday, in a huge win for shareholders, a New York federal judge took the unusual step of lifting the statutory discovery stay in a securities class action suit against Bank of America. His order will give the plaintiffs access to the mountains of documents that BofA and related defendants have already turned over to Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York attorney general and other government entities scrutinizing the bank’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

Wells Fargo & Co. will buy back an estimated $700 million in troubled auction-rate securities from California investors under terms of a settlement announced by Attorney General Jerry Brown on Wednesday. In a separate deal reached with the North American Securities Administrators Association, the San Francisco-based bank has agreed to repurchase nonliquid auction-rate securities totaling approximately $700 million from non-California residents.