Posts on ‘February 17th, 2010’

Kenneth Starr, always to be remembered as the independent counsel who oversaw the Whitewater investigation that led to impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, has been named president of Baylor University just as a new book about Whitewater is hitting the bookstores. Will Starr’s move to Baylor mean that he is saying goodbye to Kirkland Ellis and the courtroom?

If the government has its way, a defense lawyer’s media statements will be used against former Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes in his retrial for backdating stock options. The quotes came from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Richard Marmaro, who represented Reyes during his first backdating trial. Even though Marmaro is no longer representing Reyes at trial, prosecutors will seek to introduce Marmaro’s press release statements by calling to the stand PR man Michael Sitrick, whom Reyes employed before his first trial.

A student who set up a Facebook page to complain about her teacher — and was later suspended — had every right to do so under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate has ruled. The ruling not only allows Katherine Evans’ suit against the principal to move forward, it could set a precedent in cases involving speech and online social networking, experts say. In 2007, Evans, then a high school honors student, created a page on the popular social networking site where she vented about “the worst teacher I’ve ever met.”

The most practical issue raised by the FTC’s updated guidance to advertisers is the liability risk corporate advertisers face with social media, such as blogs in word-of-mouth campaigns. Attorney Shari Claire Lewis discusses steps corporations might take to meet the FTC’s requirements.

The scene has become familiar in the U.S. Senate: A nominee for a federal judgeship lingers for months without a confirmation vote, held up by an anonymous objection, but, when the roll is eventually called, not a single senator votes against the nominee. It’s a strategy that’s proven effective in part because Democrats haven’t pressed the issue, so Republicans haven’t needed to take a public stand in order to delay nominees. But the White House is hoping to change that by picking up the pace of nominations.

Lawyers for Airgas and its former law firm, Cravath, didn’t show up Tuesday for a preliminary injunction hearing because the firm removed the case to federal court. Cravath struck back Tuesday at Airgas’ claims the firm possessed confidential information that could be used against it in Air Products’ $5 billion offer to acquire Airgas, arguing if Airgas was so concerned, it would have sued months ago when Cravath terminated its relationship with Airgas and told the company it was representing Air Products.

A federal judge in Iowa has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission to pay $4.56 million in attorney fees and expenses to a Cedar
Rapids trucking business after dismissing a sexual harassment lawsuit
brought by the agency on behalf of approximately 270 female drivers. The
fee award against the EEOC, while not unprecedented, is unusual,
according to one of the attorneys who defended the trucking company, and
may be among the largest imposed by a federal court.