Posts on ‘February 4th, 2010’

An Austin judge granted Texas solo attorney Adam Reposa’s request to modify the manner and means in which he serves a 90-day sentence for criminal contempt on Wednesday, citing the upcoming birth of Reposa’s child. Senior District Judge Paul Davis of Austin ordered that Reposa remain in jail through Feb. 12 instead of for the entire 90 days. Davis had originally sentenced Reposa for making an obscene gesture simulating masturbation during a court hearing in March 2008.

Are $127 million and some oversight provisions enough to placate Judge Jed Rakoff? Last September, Rakoff rejected a settlement agreement under which Bank of America would have paid $33 million fines to settle an SEC lawsuit charging the bank with failing to notify shareholders that Merrill Lynch, which BofA purchased under pressure in late 2008, was going to pay as much as $5.8 billion in employee bonuses in early 2009. On Thursday, the SEC announced that it had struck a new proposed settlement.

A key question facing IT departments is how to make sure outsourcing is done correctly while keeping the due diligence involved in vendor down-selecting and transaction costs under control. Attorneys Adam Chernichaw and Howard Wettan have six suggestions to help strike this balance.

Covington & Burling asked a federal judge on Tuesday to grant summary judgment in the closely watched race discrimination suit against the firm filed by former staff attorney Yolanda Young. The judge last month dismissed one of Young’s claims as time-barred but let another claim move forward. In its motion for summary judgment, Covington says that Young lacks the proper standing to file a discrimination suit because she was not personally affected by any of the firm’s alleged discriminatory policies.

Securities defense lawyers at large law firms have noticed an uptick in shareholder lawsuits over mergers and acquisitions, even those worth under $100 million, a reflection of both increased deal activity and eroded share values that have lowered sale prices. Says Kevin Muck, head of securities litigation at Fenwick & West, “It’s a sign of the economy improving. As more companies do deals, these lawsuits follow, inevitably.”

Legal attacks against Toyota Motor Sales USA are escalating, following fresh reports of product safety defects afflicting some of the most popular vehicles in the automaker’s fleet. Some 15 law firms working on a case seeking $1 billion in damages on behalf of a nationwide class of consumers say they plan to file another three dozen suits in at least 25 states. As of Wednesday, there was no word on whether litigation lies in store over Toyota’s latest headache: reported brake problems in its Prius hybrid vehicle.

Greenberg Traurig opened an office in San Francisco on Monday with two prominent litigators: Kenneth Steinthal from Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Samuel Shepherd from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. The firm will continue to hire “opportunistically” in San Francisco, and the office will have 12 to 15 attorneys within two weeks, said Greenberg President Matthew Gorson. Greenberg, which has 1,775 attorneys worldwide, now has five offices and more than 200 attorneys in California.