Posts from ‘November, 2009’

As allegations of massive fraud at Canopy Financial surfaced last week, the startup’s outside counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati moved quickly — to scrub its Web site of any mention of the company. It doesn’t mean that the lawyers did anything wrong — but Canopy CEO Vik Kashyap, who resigned last week, may disagree. Kashyap’s lawyer issued a statement saying that Kashyap “relied on financial and legal professionals in accepting the authenticity of the company’s financials.”

When federal prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday in its money-laundering case against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two co-defendants, the Justice Department left in its tracks a string of courtroom failures. Kuehne said his case leaves a legacy that will protect his colleagues. “There is no doubt my case is the most telling reaffirmation of the vital importance of the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel and should stand as a clear monument of the role of criminal defense lawyers,” he said.

For a number of lawyers across the country, a 2005 federal law requiring them to advertise as a debt relief agency — regardless of whether they offer sporadic or regular bankruptcy advice to clients — irritates like a pair of ill-fitting shoes. Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, a 10-lawyer Minnesota firm, has waged a four-year battle against the law’s provisions, which they argue pose ethical conflicts and strike at the heart of First Amendment values. That odyssey culminates at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A recent spate of litigation has showcased the ugly side of what happens when lawyers’ clients, in an effort to protect themselves, “waive goodbye” to both their counsel and the once-inviolate attorney-client privilege, write Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm. The lingering issue for counsel is: If corporate clients don’t hesitate to defenestrate the privilege and abandon their counsel when they find themselves in a bind, where does that leave lawyers?

A receptionist for a Florida law firm that provides legal assistance to low-income customers has been charged with stealing about $232,000 through two separate scams, one involving the receptionist’s use of clients’ Social Security numbers.

Love it or hate it, Microsoft PowerPoint has infiltrated law firms and become a tool for creating everything from courtroom presentations to client pitches. More often than not, a PowerPoint project is a group effort, edited, revised and reviewed by several people. IT writer John K. Waters shows you how to compare different versions of PowerPoint slides with Workshare Compare.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday approved the $9 billion merger of Panasonic Corp. and Sanyo Electronic Co. — on one condition. To satisfy the FTC’s anti-competitive concerns, Sanyo must sell its portable nickel metal hydride battery business, including a manufacturing plant in Japan. The two companies are the world’s largest makers of such batteries, which power products including two-way radios used by police and fire departments throughout the United States.

“Turn out the lights; the party’s over.” Such may be the refrain of the 2009-2010 law school recruiting season, says attorney Steven C. Bennett. For law students, “downsized” associates and other lawyers in transition, these may be stressful times. For law firms, the financial turmoil may herald changes in the recruitment process and a fundamental restructuring of employment in the profession. Bennett provides some steps that job-seekers may consider to help adapt to the new recruitment practices.

Incoming associates at Haynes and Boone will start work Nov. 30 with a starting salary for 2009 of $145,000. That’s below the $160,000 first-year salary that’s been the first-year market rate at Big Texas law firms. Richard Fijolek, a partner in Dallas who is the firm’s financial partner, says the firm hasn’t yet decided what it will pay the first-year lawyers in January. Fijolek says the firm is waiting to see where the BigTex market rate settles before setting its 2010 salary for first-year lawyers.