Posts on ‘May 21st, 2010’

Despite word that the state-owned holding company Dubai World has reached agreement with lender banks to restructure $23.5 billion in debt, lawyers familiar with the talks say there is still work to be done before the deal can be finalized. Sources tell The Am Law Daily that Dubai World and the coordinating committee must hammer out the documentation and convenants — and more importantly, both sides must agree to a formal term sheet memorializing their agreement in principle that must also be blessed by a larger lender group.

Chadbourne & Parke has brought in Rajappan Balagopal from The Walt Disney Co. in Los Angeles and Stephen Manetta from General Electric Co. in New York, the latest in a series of hires from in-house legal departments to augment its growing intellectual property department.

Starting and maintaining a law firm is a tough task, notes attorney Richard A. Roth. Presumably, you are in business not just to tread water, but to make money. Taking a small firm to the next level is far from easy. Nor is there a scientific formula that works for everyone. Having started three successful law firms throughout the years, Roth provides several tips on making more money — bringing in more clients, multiplying revenues and, as they say in the business world, increasing the “top line.”

The Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force says a Sacramento man stole Mill Valley, Calif., attorney Mohamed Salem’s identity and posed as a lawyer to prey on a dozen people who were desperate to keep their homes. After an investigation this month, Nicolas Moscouplos charged with felony counts of personation of another and identity theft. Why Moscouplos chose Salem’s name and Bar number is unclear — Salem said he’s never met the man — but authorities suspect he accessed it on the State Bar’s website, Salem said.

A split federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a 2008 injunction barring a Kentucky business owner from using the names “Victor’s Secret” and “Victor’s Little Secret” on an adult novelty and lingerie shop. In a 2-1 vote, the 6th Circuit ruled that, under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, the use of those names by the Elizabethtown, Ky., business cast an unflattering shadow on the Columbus, Ohio-based chain Victoria’s Secret and potentially hurts its business.

For 97 years, neither California legislators nor the courts ever clarified who qualified as an employer under the state Industrial Welfare Commission’s wage orders. That changed on Thursday when the California Supreme Court decided, in part, who doesn’t qualify — at least in business relationships where employees work for independent contractors. The ruling shot down the hopes of farmworkers, janitors, food service workers and others dependent on jobs in which employers contract with third parties for services.

Warner Bros. has sued Marc Toberoff, the lawyer for Superman’s co-creators, accusing him of trying to wrongfully seize control of a substantial chunk of the Superman property. The suit is based, in part, on an anonymous letter that Warner characterizes as a detailed accounting of Toberoff’s efforts to attach himself to the Superman franchise. Toberoff says the source of the letter is a disgruntled attorney who worked at the Toberoff firm for less than three months and “disappeared on his lunch break” without notice.

President Barack Obama has decided to nominate Susan Carney, who spent two decades as a Washington lawyer before going to work for Yale University, to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the White House said Thursday. Carney will be Obama’s fifth nominee for the 2nd Circuit, which has emerged as a top priority for the Obama administration after a rash of vacancies.

California’s Supreme Court dived into the growing pool of state worker furlough litigation Thursday when it reopened a challenge brought by attorneys employed by the State Compensation Insurance Fund. In March, the 1st District ruled in CASE v. Schwarzenegger that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not have the authority to order 500 SCIF attorneys in 2009 to take two unpaid days each month because state law expressly protects the fund’s employees from “staff cutbacks.”

The Justice Department is studying Monday’s Supreme Court ruling barring life sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes, possibly with an eye toward improving rehabilitation programs for juveniles in prison. “We have this decision very much on our radar screen,” Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson told an ABA conference Thursday. Robinson was asked about Graham v. Florida, in which the high court said life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles for crimes short of murder are unconstitutional.