Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney reported flat revenues with a small decrease in profits per partner for 2008. Gross revenues were just over $367 million and profits per partner were $661,000, a 1.6 decrease from the prior year. The firm’s activity was fairly even across practice areas, with litigation accounting for about 35 percent of the [...]

When partners at Dreier LLP heard in early December that the firm’s
jailed sole equity partner, Marc S. Dreier, might have been dipping into
escrow accounts, many quickly abandoned ship. But, according to ethics
experts, the departed partners might be held liable for any of the
firm’s debts and face disciplinary action for any missing escrow funds.
Further, they might [...]

As their nominations move forward for attorney general and deputy AG, Eric Holder Jr. and David Ogden, who have split their time since the mid-’90s between the Justice Department and Big Law, are drawing on that experience to recruit their top assistants. Holder and Ogden are preparing to surround themselves with lawyers from Covington & [...]

Invited to compare the American and Jewish legal traditions of privacy when speaking at a conference last week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reached out to criticize the European tradition, arguing that under a proper conception of the judicial role, judges have little to say about privacy. Author Michael D. Goldhaber writes that Scalia’s remarks [...]

On Jan. 1, Florida-based Gordon Hargrove & James merged with San Francisco-based Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold. That merger is one of 20 around the country that are scheduled to close in 2009’s first quarter. Sedgwick’s chair says the economic downturn played a minimal role in the firm’s decision, but that may not be the [...]

The founders of one of the Northeastern U.S.’s largest lemon law practices are trying to stave off disciplinary action in Pennsylvania and New York following their suspension in Maryland. Craig T. Kimmel and Robert M. Silverman were suspended indefinitely for failing to adequately supervise a new Maryland satellite office and failing to properly communicate with [...]

Olswang has kicked off a layoff consultation that could see around 8 percent of the firm’s 618-strong U.K. workforce lose their jobs. The firm told staff on Friday that up to 42 staff in the U.K. will be affected by the cuts, with salaried partners, fee earners and support staff all included in the consultation. [...]

Some of Wall Street’s banking titans are not there and many of President Barack Obama’s top advisers and cabinet members have taken a pass, but a handful of lawyers were rubbing shoulders with the great and the good last weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mingling with the likes of Russian Prime [...]

A vulnerability in virtual private networks using secure socket layer encryption can allow a hacker to take over a computer via an ActiveX control. Brian Dykstra grilled Mike Zusman of Intrepidus Group to uncover this little-known weakness in a common corporate security tool.

As the financial downturn grew in intensity through 2008, a number of high-profile general counsel took proactive steps in response to drive down costs, including renegotiating outside counsel fees. With the legal profession facing the most uncertain outlook for a generation, will in-house legal teams ride out the storm and drive innovations that prove their [...]

In a sign that lateral movement has become a matter of course among attorneys in private practice, the American Bar Association will consider competing amendments to its ethics rules governing firm-to-firm movement and conflicts of interest. The recommendation calling for the most significant change allows a law firm to “screen” an incoming attorney from the [...]

African families’ damage claims for billions of dollars against Pfizer for allegedly secretly testing a new drug in a Nigerian hospital during a 1996 meningitis outbreak were revived Friday by a divided 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling — notable partly for its numerous barbed comments — allows 88 Nigerian families to pursue [...]

Shredding evidence cost Rambus its patent infringement case against memory chip maker Micron Technology last month. But it won’t hurt Rambus in a similar patent case against three other defendants, at least for now. A federal judge has tentatively denied motions for summary judgment from chip makers Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung and Nanya Technology — just [...]

A federal appeals court on Friday revived a securities fraud suit against Pfizer brought by investors who claim the company hid the truth about the outcome of a clinical study on possible side effects of Celebrex, an arthritis drug. In the suit, investors claim that Pharmacia — which has since been acquired by Pfizer — [...]

Bingham McCutchen lawyers are fighting for correspondence from the Young & Thompson law firm in a dispute on appeal that explores the scope of attorney-client privilege between a lawyer and a patent agent. Bingham lawyers argued that correspondence between Young & Thompson attorneys and Norway-based employees of ABC-Patent is not protected because none of ABC-Patent’s [...]

The law firm that filed the first lawsuit tied to the recent salmonella outbreak in certain brands of peanut butter has added claims for punitive damages in light of the Food and Drug Administration’s recent report concluding that the Peanut Corporation of America knowingly released a product that could have been contaminated. Bill Marler, a [...]

Todd Boulanger, a former associate of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty to corruption charges Friday, admitting that he had handed out tens of thousands of dollars in illegal gifts to congressional staffers who in turn helped push his firm’s lobbying agenda. So far, 17 people have pleaded guilty in the course of the Abramoff [...]

In her first opinion as a visiting judge on the 3rd Circuit, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has ruled that a conviction in Puerto Rico is a valid predicate for a charge of illegally possessing a gun as a felon. O’Connor, joined by two 3rd Circuit judges, found that the appeal by [...]

Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney reported flat revenues with a small decrease in profits per partner for 2008. Gross revenues were just over $367 million and profits per partner were $661,000, a 1.6 decrease from the prior year. The firm’s activity was fairly even across practice areas, with litigation accounting for about 35 percent of the [...]

Even as he sits in a federal prison, former HealthSouth Chief Executive Officer Richard Scrushy is fighting to protect his pocketbook from a securities fraud settlement approved by an Alabama federal judge in 2007. A panel at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday heard Scrushy’s arguments, along with those of AIG Global [...]