Posts on ‘February 5th, 2010’

When an earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, Big Law quickly began raising money for the long-suffering country in a big way. But for Venable managing partner Karl Racine, the effort was personal. Racine was born in Haiti and moved to the U.S. in 1965, when he was 3 years old. He says that within a week of asking firm lawyers and employees to donate to relief efforts, Venable raised $75,000. The firm chipped in an additional $50,000 from its charitable arm, the Venable Foundation.

Environmental law, which saw the same slowdown in transactional work other practices did, along with decreased enforcement under the Bush administration, is showing signs of life in both lateral movement and practice niches. Attorney Kevin J. Bruno, who recently moved to Blank Rome, says government enforcement, particularly at the federal level, is going to pick up. And Manko Gold Katcher & Fox managing partner Robert D. Fox expects emerging areas like climate change and sustainability will continue to grow.

John Cline, a San Francisco white-collar defense lawyer who has made headlines for work in national security cases and has represented clients such as Oliver North and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, is leaving Jones Day to start his own firm. Cline cited a desire to focus solely on individuals charged with crimes. He said he decided late last year the time was ripe to try and build a firm from scratch. “I really am moving in a somewhat different direction than Jones Day or any big firm would want to go,” Cline said.

Yahoo is paying dearly for its decision to take its chances at trial against Creative Internet Advertising Corp. Yahoo lost before a jury and was penalized to the tune of $6.6 million for infringing on Creative’s IP. Then in a final judgment signed this week, the Eastern District of Texas court awarded enhanced damages for willful infringement of $4.5 million, and another $1.1 million in prejudgment interest, plus supplemental damages. That brings the total haul to $12.4 million for Creative.

A Senate report on foreign officials’ use of U.S. intermediaries to
circumvent money-laundering laws has put the spotlight on Sidley
Austin’s relationship with Teodoro Nguema Obiang, son of Equatorial
Guinea’s president and a person the U.S. government has accused of
earning his wealth from corruption. Sidley didn’t break any laws and did
plenty of due diligence, getting the Justice Department’s OK on work
that the firm did for Obiang — but Senate investigators hope the report
spurs stricter rules on money laundering.

One of the side benefits of the Supreme Court’s long winter recess is
that justices head out of Washington for speaking engagements, and
Justice Clarence Thomas in particular gets to prove yet again that he is
incapable of giving a dull speech. In appearances at two Florida law
schools this week, Thomas fielded questions from students, quoted the
likes of Garth Brooks and Clint Eastwood, revealed his movie preferences
and said he had “zero tolerance” for mistakes or tardiness from his law
clerks.

A South Carolina man was distraught over drawn-out divorce proceedings and a recent order to sell a home he co-owned with his ex-wife when he killed the woman’s attorney and then himself, authorities said Thursday. Jerry Dean Crenshaw shot J. Redmond Coyle Wednesday in a parking lot behind Coyle’s Pickens, S.C., office, the local police chief said. Crenshaw’s wife had hired Coyle after the pair filed for divorce, according to court filings.

A New Jersey suit alleging Accutane caused a 19-year-old’s suicide is back on track, thanks to an appeals court ruling that gives the plaintiffs another shot at admitting expert testimony that the acne drug causes depression. The court found that a flawed study, which led the trial court to dismiss the case, made up only a small part of the basis for the expert’s opinion, and remanded the case for the trial court to consider whether the expert “should be allowed to testify on causation, without reference to the study.”

An American Bar Association report appears to confirm fears expressed by diversity advocates since the recession began: Spending on law firm diversity initiatives has dried up and layoffs are undoing the gains the profession has made. The ABA’s first comprehensive diversity study since the economic collapse hit the legal profession offers no hard numbers on spending cuts but does declare the recession is “creating downsizing and cutbacks that may disproportionately and negatively affect lawyer diversity.”

A Washington, D.C., solo practitioner with extensive experience before the Supreme Court will argue in defense of Chicago’s strict handgun ordinance in a closely watched Second Amendment case next month. James Feldman, a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, got the nod to argue in what is widely viewed as an uphill battle for gun control advocates. At issue in the case is whether the individual right to bear arms, as articulated in D.C. v. Heller, applies against local restrictions on firearms.