Posts on ‘February 3rd, 2010’

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the nation’s immigration courts — both overwhelmed by exploding caseloads and inadequate resources — are ensuring fair decisions and due process for noncitizens, according to a top-to-bottom investigation of the system for removing aliens from the United States. A pro bono team of 50 lawyers and legal assistants at Arnold & Porter spent more than a year examining the removal adjudication system at the request of the ABA’s Commission on Immigration.

The number of lawyers who commit suicide each year in the United States may be six times greater than the national average, according to some studies, notes Ann D. Foster, the director of the State Bar of Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program. She discusses some steps lawyers can take if they sense a colleague may need help. As members of one of the original healing professions, Foster says, lawyers may be in a unique position to help friends, colleagues and clients out of a mental health crisis.

From October 2008 through September 2009, according to The American Lawyer’s Lateral Report, 114 partners left The Am Law 200 to start or join small practices, up from 70 in the previous 12-month period. Some might think it’s insane to leave a large firm to hang up a shingle in the midst of an economic downturn, but those who’ve done it think it’s crazy to stay put. The founding partners of these new boutique firms seem to be relishing their new autonomy, and say their firms are doing well financially.

Taylar Nuevelle, the woman accused of stalking a D.C. magistrate judge, was convicted of all three counts against her Tuesday, and was ordered held without bond until sentencing on April 7. Prosecutors alleged that Nuevelle broke into the home of her former girlfriend, Magistrate Judge Janet Albert of the D.C. Superior Court, in an attempt to harass her after their breakup, and inundated her with e-mails, text messages and phone calls. Nuevelle could face a maximum of 16 years in prison.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that would expand the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, allowing it to review petitions filed by military service members challenging courts-martial decisions. Under current law, a service member is barred from petitioning the high court if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has refused to review his or her court-martial appeal or has denied a writ for extraordinary relief. The only exception is when someone is sentenced to death.

In an opinion reducing punitive damages awarded to a breast cancer survivor by almost $70 million, Senior Judge Norman Ackerman has become the first Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge to uphold a jury finding that drugmaker Wyeth failed to warn a plaintiff’s prescribing physician of the dangers of breast cancer from using Wyeth’s hormone therapy drugs. Both the plaintiff and the defendant in the case could claim wins and losses from Ackerman’s opinion.

White & Case’s 2009 revenue fell 11 percent, one of the largest drops so far reported by an Am Law 100 firm. Total gross revenue for the firm was $1.3 billion compared with $1.46 billion in 2008. Profits per equity partner were largely flat at about $1.6 million. In 2009, the firm opened an office in Doha, Qatar, and played a key role on the Chrysler bankruptcy. However, White & Case let go 200 attorneys and 200 staff last year due to the global economy, and recently saw 12 partners defect to Latham & Watkins.

A New Jersey federal judge has ruled plaintiffs can pursue a class action suit alleging that Johnson & Johnson and Wal-Mart baby bath products are unfit for sale because they contain a banned chemical that could cause cancer. The judge denied the companies’ motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, saying the plaintiffs had made a good enough case to seek economic damages on theories that the companies committed deceptive trade practices and breached an implied warranty.

With the legal sector seeing signs of economic improvement, Cravath, Swaine & Moore has informed law students who summered at the firm last year that some of them can start this fall. The move is a step back from a plan announced in June to delay start dates for the 120 students until 2011 in exchange for $65,000 each.

Allen J. Gross, a partner at Los Angeles-based Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, pleaded not guilty on Monday to five felony counts of failing to file his state income tax returns from 2003 through 2007. Gross was arrested last week at his home in West L.A. According to the district attorney’s office, Gross made $2.3 million in income during the period. The DA’s office is seeking $850,000 in back taxes, penalties, interest and costs. If convicted, Gross faces more than five years in prison.