Posts from ‘February, 2010’

A local bar association’s victory in court this week should be welcome news for all 270 of California’s voluntary bar associations. In a suit involving a disbarred lawyer trying to get his mediation business off the ground, a state appeals court unanimously held that such groups don’t violate the state’s Unfair Competition Law if they reject requests to buy their membership mailing lists. And that’s true, the court said, even if the associations simply want to protect some of their members from price competition.

An Atlanta federal judge’s dismissal of the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust claims against several pharmaceutical companies that delayed a generic drug’s market rollout through a settlement is a setback for the agency’s opposition to such deals. Pharmaceutical companies claim the ruling affirms that patent settlements are pro-competitive and pro-consumer. But the FTC’s Richard Feinstein says the ruling “underscores the need for a legislative solution.”

A lawsuit against SmithKline Beecham over the suicide of 23-year-old Tricia Mason, who ended her life two days after taking the antidepressant Paxil, can go forward, the 7th Circuit ruled this week. In a unanimous decision reversing the lower court, the appeals court said that the drug manufacturer now known as GlaxoSmithKline didn’t meet its burden of showing with “clear evidence” that the FDA would have rejected a change in the drug’s labeling to warn about the enhanced possibility of suicide in young adults.

We don’t know The Snark’s identity, but we do know The Snark hails from Atlanta. Reaction to recent snow in Atlanta may have played into regional stereotypes, leading The Snark to discuss certain conceptions about Southern lawyers — including some that are grounded in reality.