Posts on ‘February 11th, 2010’

Some lawyers think the way to get a “name” is to give presentations at conferences. They’re right, but they might be surprised at the nature of that name, says anonymous columnist The Rodent. Presenting is much better than being a lobby lizard, but make sure your speech is a good one.

A federal judge has denied the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s motion to dismiss an antitrust class action over the use of student athletes’ images and likenesses. “We think it’s a historic ruling because no one, to our knowledge, has ever been able to look at the financial records of the NCAA and all of its hundreds of member schools and conferences to total up the value of the merchandise they’re selling,” said Jon King, the players’ lead attorney.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius saw declines in revenue and profits in 2009 as a general economic slowdown and a hiring spree impacted the firm’s bottom line. As of Sept. 30, the end of Morgan Lewis’ fiscal year, 2009 revenue declined by nearly 5 percent to $1.07 billion from $1.12 billion in 2008. The firm’s 2009 financials contrast sharply with 2008; that year, Morgan Lewis saw an 8 percent boost in PPP. “We knew we dodged the bullet [in 2008], but we knew the hit was coming later,” said managing partner Thomas Sharbaugh.

Ideally, en banc decisions by the 11th Circuit give lower courts clear guidance on dealing with muddled areas of the law. But in an en banc argument Tuesday, the appeals court judges wrestled with which way the court should point. Pushing to one side were judges who were uncomfortable second-guessing a Florida judge who sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison a man who admitted recording his sexual abuse of children. On the other side: judges who seemed to agree with prosecutors challenging the sentence as too lenient.

A Republican state legislator in Colorado is proposing a bill to restrict the ability of the state’s executive branch to hire outside counsel. The bill comes after an imbroglio arose last summer when Gov. Bill Ritter, a former Hogan & Hartson partner, allegedly awarded his old firm a no-bid contract to retain the firm’s lawyers — at six times the cost of the $75 per hour offer by the state AG’s office — to handle legal matters related to the disbursement of federal stimulus funds.

Counsel at public companies have a new task: Figure out how climate
change is likely to affect their businesses. That’s the message from the
Securities and Exchange Commission, which published new disclosure
guidance Monday. “It’s important for companies to understand that it’s
not just about disclosing the impact from emissions regulations. It goes
way beyond that,” said Jane Kroesche, head of the West Coast
environmental transactions practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &
Flom.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed New Jersey federal judge Joseph Greenaway Jr.’s appointment to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ending four months of limbo for a candidacy buffeted by Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominees. Greenaway, who has been on the federal district court in Newark for 13 years, will take the appeals court seat vacated in 2006 when Samuel Alito Jr. was named to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Public finance lawyer Timothy Carson has resigned as a vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission over revelations about two past drunk driving incidents involving the use of state vehicles. It also turns out the lawyer is no longer employed by his law firm, Saul Ewing. Reasons for Carson’s departure from Saul Ewing are not clear, but he said in an interview that his resignation from the commission is “totally unrelated” to his departure from the firm.