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LAW.COM Newswire Highlights July 2, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

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Has Pro Bono Become Recession-Proof?

The American Lawyer

A year ago, Lehman Brothers appeared solvent, Bernard Madoff was a trusted name and the global economic crisis was still called a downturn. Even then, pro bono advocates worried that altruism would be a casualty of hard times at the country's top law firms. Judging by firms' performance last year, those fears may have been unfounded. As a group, the nation's 200 highest-grossing firms devoted more hours to pro bono than ever.

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? See the full Am Law Pro Bono 100 project for an in-depth look at law firms' pro bono matters.

Orrick Breaks Lockstep in Response to Clients' Cost Concerns

The Recorder

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe dumped lockstep associate promotion on Wednesday and began assigning associates to one of three tiers within its partner track: associate, managing associate or senior associate. Orrick will also create a nonpartner-track option for associates, and boost the number of staff attorneys doing more routine work like document review. Orrick Chairman Ralph Baxter Jr. said the moves are meant to create a system in which clients aren't paying for unnecessary costs.

Tweeting, Texting, Googling Banned for Mich. Jurors

The National Law Journal

The Michigan Supreme Court has come down hard on gadget-happy jurors, banning all electronic communications by jurors during trial, including tweets on Twitter, text messages and Google searches. The ruling, which takes effect Sept. 1, will require Michigan judges for the first time to instruct jurors not to use any hand-held device, such as iPhones or BlackBerrys, while in the jury box or during deliberations. The state's high court issued the new rule on Tuesday in response to prosecutors' complaints.

Alston & Bird Cuts Associate Pay

Fulton County Daily Report

Alston & Bird is cutting associate pay by $5,000 across the board for the remainder of the year -- a reduction equal to about 7 percent of annual starting pay. The cuts, effective July 15, follow other cost-saving measures undertaken by the firm since the end of last year, including staff and associate layoffs, early retirement packages for senior staff, a reduction in its summer program and a deferred start date for its new first-year class.

Judge Enjoins Publication of 'Meditation' on 'Catcher in the Rye'

New York Law Journal

A federal judge has enjoined the publication of a purported meditation on J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." New York federal Judge Deborah Batts said Wednesday that "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye" by Swedish author Fredrik Colting violated Salinger's copyright. She found that Colting borrowed liberally from "Catcher," and his work did not amount to a critique or commentary on the original. The book was billed in Europe, but not in the United States, as a "sequel" to "The Catcher in the Rye."

Man Burned by Burning Man Can't Sue Festival

The Recorder

Walking into the 60-foot Burning Man effigy isn't a safe thing to do. Just ask Anthony Beninati, who literally got burned in 2005 after venturing too close to the giant wooden figure while on his third trip to the Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. He sued for damages. But on Tuesday, a California appeals court doused his hopes after finding that the "college-educated" man had assumed the risk of harm by walking directly into the effigy while remnants of it were still burning.

N.Y. Federal Judge's Ruling Rejects Attempt to Use Recent High Court Recusal Decision

New York Law Journal

A New York federal judge has rejected a recusal motion filed by former Bonanno family acting boss Vincent Basciano, marking perhaps the first citation of the Supreme Court's recent Caperton ruling. The judge rejected the argument that Caperton created a new standard for recusal motions, writing, "What was new in Caperton was not the objective standard, but the application of that standard to the area of judicial elections -- something utterly irrelevant to an appointed federal judge with life tenure."

Firm Accused of Duping Malpractice Claimants

The National Law Journal

Former clients of a Cleveland-based law firm have convinced an Ohio appeals court to revive their claim that the firm duped them into a low-ball settlement in a legal malpractice case. Reversing a lower court, the three-judge panel threw out summary judgment in favor of Javitch Block, finding that the lower court needed to sort out whether the law firm intentionally failed to disclose that it carried professional liability insurance that may have covered the former clients' malpractice claim against the firm.

Witnesses Tie Reputed Mobster to Pa. Judge

The Legal Intelligencer

A pair of witnesses testified at a court hearing Wednesday that reputed Pennsylvania mob boss William "Billy" D'Elia had envelopes delivered to disgraced former Luzerne County President Judge Conahan at the courthouse and that Conahan met repeatedly with D'Elia and another admitted felon to discuss fixing cases. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the hearing after a local paper argued that a defamation case against it -- handed down by Conahan's colleague, another indicted former judge -- should be vacated.

Appeals Court Rejects Disappointed Buyer's Suit Over Used Mercedes Touted as 'Gorgeous'

New York Law Journal

An eBay ad's claim that a used Mercedes was "gorgeous" was not enough to sustain claims of fraud and breach of warranty filed by a disgruntled buyer after problems surfaced, a New York court has ruled. "While the advertisement did describe the car as 'gorgeous,' this generalized expression was merely the seller's opinion ... and constitutes 'no more than puffery,' which should not have been relied upon as an inducement to purchase the vehicle," especially since the transaction involved a used car, the court found.

Mayer Brown Taps Litigation Co-Head as Partner-in-Charge of N.Y. Office

New York Law Journal

One month after a management shake-up at Mayer Brown, the firm announced that Richard Spehr, co-head of its New York litigation group, will take the helm of the firm's 200-lawyer New York office. The appointment comes amid a raft of changes at Mayer Brown, including its adoption of a new governance structure approved in April, shortly after former Mayer Brown Chairman James Holzhauer stepped down. Two weeks ago, three Mayer Brown partners, including the vice chairman, Paul Maher, joined Greenberg Traurig's new London office.

Judge Names Receiver in Madoff Feeder Fund Suit

New York Law Journal

Goodwin Procter partner David Pitofsky was appointed Monday as receiver of the $1.7 billion Ascot fund put together by financier J. Ezra Merkin, almost all of which was invested with Bernard Madoff and lost. Pitofsky was appointed receiver in a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general's office seeking recovery from Merkin of $2.4 billion in his client's funds which he had "recklessly" invested with Madoff despite "clear warning signals" that the funds were being mishandled.

Commentary: Supreme Court's Unexpected 'Judicial Minimalism' in Voting Rights Case

Special to Law.com

In recent years, the Supreme Court has been quick to nullify federal and state laws, agency rules and presidential actions, say Jenner & Block's Paul M. Smith and Joshua Block. They write that it was thus an unexpected -- but welcome -- development for the Court to rely exclusively on statutory interpretation and to avoid the hotly contested constitutional question at the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

KM Implementation at Reed Smith

Legal Tech Newsletter

Reed Smith hadn't invested enough in information infrastructure and processes such as document retrieval were taking too long. To take control of its data before it took hold of them, the firm implemented Recommind's MindServer Search platform as its knowledge management base.

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In Survey, GCs Say Firms Are Bluffing When It Comes to Service, Cost

The Legal Intelligencer

For all the talk about change, corporate counsel are finding it hard to believe that outside firms are serious about rethinking their approach to client service and billing. In a survey by Altman Weil, 75 percent of the responding chief legal officers rated their law firms between zero to four on a 10-point scale, indicating their opinion that firms had little or no interest in change. "This is a dramatic vote of no confidence from chief legal officers," Altman Weil Principal Daniel J. DiLucchio Jr. said.

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Hiring Partners: What's So Bad About Spring Recruitment?

The National Law Journal

Should on-campus recruiting at law schools be delayed until the spring? That question was a major topic of discussion during a recent roundtable on the future of legal hiring that brought together law firm leaders, law school officials and general counsel in Washington, D.C. Many of the participants agreed that it would make more sense to recruit in the spring rather than in the traditional late summer or early fall. But several law school representatives worried the move would create logistical problems.

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Maintain a Web Presence to Help Your Job Search

Fulton County Daily Report

Lawyers seeking employment must have a Web presence, said speakers at a recent seminar for unemployed lawyers hosted by the State Bar of Georgia -- but their ideas varied on which avenues to take. Lawyer and social media enthusiast David A. Barrett advocated spreading one's name far and wide on the World Wide Web through "open networking," while other speakers discussed blogging or maintaining a professional Web site. The speakers also had several ideas for self-promotion that didn't involve the Web.

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Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).