Posts from ‘April, 2010’

Despite the recession, the sabbatical is not dead at law firms, although some law firms may have developed more short-term policies. SJ Berwin real estate partner Bryan Pickup actually found that the financial slump in the summer of 2009 made it easier for him to take time off.

Armed with affidavits from 11 jurors, the Manhattan district attorney’s office fired back at a post-trial motion by Anthony Marshall, the son of socialite Brooke Astor, to set aside his conviction because the judge refused to conduct an inquiry after the 12th juror complained she felt personally threatened by another juror. The affidavits demonstrate that “no one was threatened in any way,” the D.A.’s office wrote. Marshall and lawyer Francis X. Morrissey were convicted in October of looting Astor’s $132 million estate.

A Philadelphia jury has awarded a total of $30 million to plaintiffs in three separate asbestos cases that were tried together last month, though the plaintiffs attorneys say their clients will see a fraction of that money because of prior settlements with the bulk of the defendants.

A New York attorney who secured an $18.3 million verdict in a case stemming from the 2003 Staten Island Ferry disaster is entitled to the full one-third fee called for in his retainer agreement, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Jack B. Weinstein’s decision marks the latest in a series of ups and downs for attorney Evan Torgan, who has fought for nearly two years to have his retainer agreement upheld. In 2008, Weinstein cut Torgan’s fee to 20 percent from the 33 percent set forth in his retainer.

A plaintiff whose $1.3 million asbestos claim was no-caused by a New Jersey jury has asked for a new trial because a juror confessed he switched his vote at the end of the 10-hour deliberation, saying that otherwise, “we would’ve never gotten out of there.” The e-mail, sent to plaintiffs lawyers six days after the verdict, included expressions of sympathy and sorrow and barbs against other members of the jury panel, though it’s hard to glean from the message exactly what did happen.

A federal judge has cleared the way for a lending dispute between the nation’s top plaintiffs lawyers group and Wachovia Bank to go to trial. In a redacted opinion issued last week, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled there were valid questions as to whether Wachovia acted legally when it terminated an $89 million real estate loan it had negotiated with the American Association for Justice.

The trustee charged with liquidating the estate of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm has recovered some $1.5 billion in assets and hopes to begin distributing the money to customers before the end of the year, according to court papers filed Friday. As of March 31, Irving H. Picard has allowed 2,011 of 12,249 claims, and committed $668 million in cash advances from the Securities Investor Protection Corp. Despite Picard’s progress, he has come under fire from investors due to his “cash-in/cash out” approach to claims.

It’s not the traditional law professor career path, but disgraced securities plaintiffs attorney Bill Lerach might make the transition from prison cell to ivory tower. The University of California, Irvine School of Law is considering having Lerach teach an upper-level course in 2011, the school confirmed Monday. Lerach told the San Diego Union-Tribune last weekend that he is developing a course called “Regulation of Free Market Capitalism — Why Have We Failed?”

When M.R. and E.R. decided to call it quits after more than 20 years of marriage, they had no trouble agreeing on how to split the marital home or how to handle custody of their children. But when it came to figuring out how to divide more than 7,000 photographs, the picture got blurrier. The issue in M.R. v. E.R. was finally brought into focus by Nassau County, N.Y., Supreme Court Justice Vito DeStefano, who awarded the husband 75 percent and the wife 25 percent of the photos.

Eight months ago, Simpson Thacher partner Philip Culhane was hoping there was some way he could resolve a deeply troubling and traumatic matter without going to court. The football coach at his Brooklyn prep school had sexually abused Culhane when he was in 5th grade, plunging him into a nearly 20-year battle with depression. But when the talks with Poly Prep fell through, Culhane became one of nine plaintiffs suing the school for allegedly covering up decades of sex abuse by the coach, who died in 1998.