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New SEC Suit Alleges BofA Hid 'Extraordinary Losses' at Merrill

Corporate Counsel

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a new lawsuit Tuesday against Bank of America, claiming the bank failed to disclose billions of dollars in losses at Merrill Lynch before shareholders voted on a merger in December 2008. An SEC press release notes that the agency doesn't seek charges against any individuals. The new suit will be heard by New York federal Judge Jed Rakoff, who is also handling an earlier SEC suit alleging the bank misled shareholders about billions in Merrill bonuses.

Great Responsibility Comes With Great Pay, GC Survey Shows

Corporate Counsel

A survey by executive compensation firm Equilar finds that general counsel earned on average about $1.4 million in 2009, thanks to trends toward more responsibility, higher pay and more focus on the GC role. But not every general counsel was equally fortunate on the compensation front. Differences in reporting structure, region, experience and industry were big influences on individual GCs' financial well-being.

Mortgage Lender Hits Latham and Manatt With Malpractice Suit

The American Lawyer

Latham & Watkins and Manatt Phelps & Phillips are the targets of a malpractice lawsuit filed by ECC Capital, which accuses the firms of botching a deal to sell its mortgage-origination business and a subprime-loan portfolio to Bear Stearns. The deal in question closed in 2007, but the two companies battled over it in court until reaching a settlement and finalizing terms last July. Now that the legal wrangling with Bear Stearns is over, ECC Capital is going after the law firms that represented it during the transaction.

McDermott Joins Big Law's Shift to Merit-Based Pay

The National Law Journal

McDermott, Will & Emery has joined Big Law's latest bandwagon: It announced on Tuesday that it will be shifting its associates to a merit-based pay system and will end lockstep advancement. A minority of associates will see their pay cut as first-year salaries drop to $145,000 this year, said Jeffrey Stone, chairman of the firm's management committee. Associates who started last year will see a reduction from $160,000 to $145,000 on April 1, but those starting this year came in at $145,000, he said.

Slew of Client, Fee Details Found in Proposals From Fla. Pension Fund Beauty Contest

The American Lawyer

Thanks to the transparency of the Florida pension fund's selection process for picking plaintiffs firms for securities class actions, a veritable treasure trove of details has emerged on leading law firms' histories, partners' hourly billing rates and more. Among other tidbits: One firm describes its patented portfolio system in such extensive detail that the Am Law Litigation Daily concludes that "wannabe copycats should pounce."

Expert Battle Comes Early in Proposition 8 Case

The Recorder

The second trial day in the federal challenge to California's Proposition 8 featured two professors giving expert testimony on behalf of the same-sex plaintiffs. The Yes on 8 campaign used a similar cross-examination strategy for both experts: attempting to discredit their scholarship by laying bare their policy preferences.

House Panel Subpoenas New York Fed's AIG Documents

Corporate Counsel

A House panel issued a subpoena Tuesday to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for more documents related to payments made by American International Group to other financial institutions during the 2008 financial crisis. These would be in addition to some thousand pages of documents received earlier from AIG as part of an ongoing investigation into the federal government's use of bailout funds. At issue is why AIG paid $62 billion, or 100 percent, on the credit default debt to certain banks.

High Court Struggles With Child Custody, Sex Offender Cases

The National Law Journal

In two starkly different challenges Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court vigorously questioned the federal government's power to detain sexually dangerous prisoners beyond their federal prison sentences and appeared sympathetic to arguments that a treaty requires a divorced American mother to return her child to Chile. Solicitor General Elena Kagan argued the government's position in the first case, defending a section of the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

Pfizer Gets Split Decision in Neurontin Third-Party Payer Litigation

The American Lawyer

Plaintiffs attempting to capitalize on Pfizer's 2004 guilty plea for promoting off-label uses of the epilepsy drug Neurontin have had a tough go of it. Boston federal district court Judge Patti Saris last week granted summary judgment against third-party payers Aetna and Guardian Life, ruling that only Kaiser had offered sufficient proof that it paid for Neurontin as a result of Pfizer's alleged fraud.

Solicitor General Gives Justice Scalia a Promotion, Briefly

The National Law Journal

With no ruling in the closely watched Citizens United case and only one opinion issued, the highlight of the Supreme Court's day on Tuesday may have been a funny -- though momentarily pointed -- exchange between Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. During arguments in United States v. Comstock, as Scalia was peppering Kagan with hostile questions, she began to address Scalia -- who sits next to the chief justice -- as "Chief ..."

Jackson Lewis Snags Four DLA Partners for New Office

The American Lawyer

Jackson Lewis has lured away four Baltimore-based DLA Piper employment partners and will open an office in the city, according to three sources with knowledge of the move. The Baltimore office will be the 45th in the United States for the employment firm and will give Jackson Lewis an office in 30 states, according to its Web site. The firm, which now has approximately 600 lawyers, has opened about a dozen offices in the last two years.

Pa. Court Revives Plaintiff Verdict in State's First Precedential Hormone-Replacement Case

The Legal Intelligencer

In Pennsylvania's first precedent-setting decision regarding mass tort litigation involving hormone replacement therapy, the Superior Court has revived a plaintiff's lawsuit by finding that the plaintiff was entitled to an exception to the two-year statute of limitations because she couldn't have reasonably known of an alleged link between her breast cancer and HRT drugs before the publication of a widely publicized study. The case is one of about 1,500 HRT cases filed in Philadelphia courts.

Judge Allows Insurer to Cancel Rothstein's Policy

Daily Business Review

Scott Rothstein's life insurance carrier can file a default judgment to cancel the alleged fraudster's $14.8 million policy, a Miami federal judge has ruled. Massachusetts Mutual sued Rothstein the day after he was arrested for allegedly orchestrating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. The insurer claimed Rothstein lied on his insurance application by saying he earned $8 million annually as the head of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler and had a net worth of at least $12 million.

Obama Poster Battle and the DMCA

New York Law Journal

Litigation over Shepard Fairey's well-known image of Barack Obama reopens the debate on whether protectable copyright management information under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies only to an automated, technological process, say attorneys Richard Raysman and Peter Brown.

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Lawyer Moves Herald Lateral Season

The Recorder

Lateral season is officially in swing, after not showing up last year at the usual time. Four moves were announced Monday in the Bay Area, following a busy first week of the year. Recruiter Lawrence Watanabe said Silicon Valley is the hottest area in California for lateral activity right now. According to recruiter Avis Caravello, "What you are seeing right now is lateral movement based on pent-up demand by both law firms and candidates, combined with a more optimistic outlook for 2010."

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Grow Your Legal Business by Using a Personal Touch

The Connecticut Law Tribune

Irrefutably, solo and small firm practitioners need to embrace some of the marketing gems of this technology-laden society. However, solo Renee C. Berman suspects that solo practitioners' marketing efforts are actually being diluted when technology is the only strategy used to market their practice. Berman discusses why relying less on technology and more on traditional networking techniques, like face-to-face communication, may help considerably in building relationships and getting work.

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