Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines January 21, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, January 21, 2009.

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FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  Squire Sanders is latest firm to trim staff
"Squire, Sanders & Dempsey is the latest firm to lay off support staff. Alvin Davis, managing partner of Squire Sanders' Miami office, said on Friday that Miami employees laid off at the firm on Thursday include "a couple runners, some staffers and a few people in accounting." A firm spokesperson said no lawyers were laid off, but sources inside the firm said that lawyers indeed had been laid off, though they are still working at the firm until they find jobs elsewhere."

FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  High-profile Michigan attorney loses his 'right to criticize judges' lawsuit
"Geoffrey Fieger, the one-time lawyer to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, has lost his right-to-criticize-judges lawsuit in a federal appeals court. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that Fieger was not wrongfully punished for lambasting three judges in a 1999 radio show, during which he called them "jackasses" and compared them to Nazis for overturning a $15 million verdict he had won."

WEB-ONLY  |  First suit tied to peanut butter-related salmonella outbreak is filed
"The first lawsuit tied to the recent salmonella outbreak in certain brands of peanut butter was filed on Tuesday against a supplier to Kellogg Co., which has recalled several of its products in recent weeks. So far, six people have died and more than 470 were sickened by the outbreak."

WEB-ONLY  |  City of Detroit's top lawyer resigns after 'ghetto court' remark
"The city of Detroit's top lawyer has resigned amid a controversy in which she referred to one of the city's courts as 'a ghetto court.' Attorney Kathleen Leavey, former head of the Detroit Law Department, adamantly denied allegations from a city judge that her words were racist and insulting to the predominantly black court."

WEB-ONLY  |  Defense groups lose bid to challenge standard for holding corporations criminally liable for their agents' acts
"Business and white-collar defense groups have lost an effort to convince a federal appellate court to reconsider the "erroneous" approach of lower federal appellate courts to the issue of vicarious corporate criminal liability. "

WEB-ONLY  |  A quarter of last year's embezzlement cases involved financial institutions
"Nearly one-quarter of last year's major embezzlement cases involved perpetrators targeting financial institutions and nearly half of the perpetrators were finance professionals or accountants, according to a new white-collar crime study"

WEB-ONLY  |  Who will represent 'Blago' at his Senate impeachment trial? Maybe no one.
"Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has yet to name an attorney to represent him at his Jan. 26 Illinois Senate impeachment trial and may simply let the proceedings go on without someone to speak on his behalf."

COLUMNS

COMPLEX LITIGATION  |  Cert standards of proof
"The 3d Circuit recently issued an opinion articulating standards of proof likely to have a tremendous impact on all class litigation. In In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litig., the court clarified three key aspects of certification procedure that heighten judicial obligations. A district court must make findings that all Rule 23 requirements are met; resolve all disputes relevant to certification, even if that determination overlaps with merits questions; and consider all conflicting expert testimony."

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).