Posts on ‘February 3rd, 2010’

Before a standing-room only courtroom, a New York federal judge heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit questioning the patentability of human genes. The dispute centers on whether genes, once separated from the lengthy DNA sequence, are sufficiently “new and useful” to be deemed patentable under federal patent law. Multiple amicus briefs were filed on behalf of both sides of the case, which has become a lightning rod for the issue of genetic patenting.

One mortgage fraud prosecution has shown, once again, why the feds just love wiretaps. Judy Yeung, the former head of American Educational Foundation International, was found guilty Tuesday on several counts of wire fraud and witness tampering. According to juror Ken Hughes, the government’s key witnesses had varying credibility issues because of their history of deception before cooperating with prosecutors. Yeung sounded extremely savvy and knowledgeable about the fraud on recorded phone calls, he said.

On the last morning of LegalTech New York 2010, “Blink” author Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times medical columnist Dr. Lisa Sanders and Thomson Reuters Chief Strategy Officer David Craig pondered the value of intuition during a discussion involving the work of lawyers and technologists. In “I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information,” the three speakers recounted myriad ways in which technology can be used to help supplement experts’ innate decision-making capabilities.

Justice Department lawyers who handle extradition requests are arguing that a D.C. federal judge’s ruling that compels the government to search for and turn over favorable evidence to lawyers for a fugitive creates damaging precedent that hurts foreign relations. DOJ lawyers handling the extradition of Zhenli Ye Gon, who had been charged in the United States in a drug trafficking conspiracy, contend that the ruling gives international fugitives more rights than domestic defendants have at the probable cause stage.

New technology at LegalTech is used to improve, or remove, human interaction with machines to make lawyers more effective. But the show is not just about the latest tech — make sure you get the full value of products that you already own or lease, says Sean Doherty, Law.com’s technology editor.

The attorney for the trustee recovering Bernard Madoff’s assets argued before a packed courtroom Tuesday that “no one in their right mind” would use financial statements concocted by Madoff as a basis for distributing the funds. David Sheehan urged the judge to accept trustee Irving Picard’s approach, under which investors who withdrew less cash from their accounts than they deposited would share in what Picard recovers, now about $1.5 billion, while investors who withdrew funds exceeding what they invested would get nothing.

Dechert on Monday added two restructuring partners from Goodwin Procter, including the co-head of that firm’s practice. Allan S. Brilliant and Craig P. Druehl joined Dechert in an effort to enhance the firm’s New York business restructuring and reorganization capabilities. In the last two years, the pair have represented ad hoc bondholder groups in the CIT Group Funding Co., Builders First Source and Motor Coach Industries bankruptcies.