Posts on ‘March 4th, 2010’

After eight years of litigation in a breach of contract case, a California jury returned a defense verdict last week for semiconductor equipment company Novellus Systems and another defendant. Nearly $200 million in damages was at stake in the case, in which Linear Technology sued over equipment it bought from Novellus. Irell & Manella’s background in patent litigation helped make Novellus’ argument even though it wasn’t a patent case, said Jonathan Kagan, trial counsel and a partner in the firm’s L.A. office.

The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was usually a stickler during Supreme Court oral arguments, cutting lawyers off in mid-syllable when the red light went on at the end of their allotted time. To the relief of advocates, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has relaxed those standards, often letting lawyers finish their thoughts after the red light goes on and adding extra rebuttal time if he feels it’s needed for fairness. This approach was on display during the dense and complex arguments in Samantar v. Yousuf.

Both sides in the age discrimination suit against Crowell & Moring agreed Tuesday to dismiss the case with prejudice. In a joint stipulation of dismissal, Crowell’s lawyer, Michael Stevens of Arent Fox, and Ardra O’Neal, who represented former Crowell employee Mona Saunders, agreed to drop the matter. Saunders had accused Crowell of firing her after she had worked there for 18 years because of her age.

Thanks to Kenneth Goldman, California lawyers have a better understanding of their free speech rights, but it might not sit well with clients. A state appellate court ruled Wednesday the Reed Smith partner committed no ethical violations when he spoke out against a Beverly Hills construction project he had previously helped a client set in motion. “We cannot find,” the court wrote, “that by representing a client, a lawyer forever after forfeits the constitutional right to speak on matters of public interest.”

New York Gov. David A. Paterson, already reeling from charges that his administration intervened in a domestic violence case involving an aide, has been charged with ethics violations for accepting five free tickets to a World Series game last fall. In addition to alleging ethics violations, which could carry fines of tens of thousands of dollars, the state Commission on Public Integrity has asked the district attorney and state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo to investigate potential criminal violations.

Many people are unaware of the potential copyright issues associated with posting original works to social networking sites. Once the work is on the internet, what legal remedies are available if someone copies a photograph or video for his or her own purposes without the owner’s consent?

The last step in what to do with a litigation hold after it has been implemented, enforced, and modified (if necessary) is often ignored, say Howett Isaza partner John Isaza and Goldberg Segalla partner John J. Jablonski. Now is not the time, however, to rest on prior accomplishments.

A California appeals court has snatched away $5 million in fees from attorneys at Loeb & Loeb, Jones Day and Greenberg Traurig in a dispute over the riches of a deceased shopping mall magnate. The panel said the former trustee of Daniel W. Donahue’s estate, Patrick Donahue, had embarked on a “spare no expense strategy” by hiring the three firms at once. “Did Patrick demand a Rolls Royce defense when a prudent trustee could have arrived at the same destination in a Buick, Chrysler or Taurus?” the court wrote.

The family of the man whose Aug. 28 death spurred the first recall of Toyota vehicles for unintended acceleration has filed a products liability and negligence lawsuit against the Japanese automaker. Mark Saylor, a California Highway Patrol Officer, was killed along with his wife, their daughter and his wife’s brother after the 2009 Lexus he was driving suddenly accelerated out of control, according to the complaint. The crash prompted Toyota in September to begin recalling 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus models.

Good luck trying to burn a copy of your favorite DVD now. RealNetworks has agreed to kill DVD-copying software that raised the hackles of movie studios in Hollywood. The company will also pay $4.5 million to cover the studios’ legal fees and costs for the copyright fight that ensued in California federal court. RealNetworks threw in the towel after Judge Marilyn Hall Patel repeatedly sided with the major movie studios and the DVD Copy Control Association.