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LAW FIRM NOT VICARIOUSLY LIABLE FOR MALPRACTICE BY CONTRACT PARTNER
A law firm has no vicarious liability for alleged malpractice for work done by a contract partner under a private arrangement with a client, a "state appeals court ruled on Thursday. The decision came in a 10-year-old suit seeking millions of dollars from Newark's Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross on account of alleged malpractice by former judge Andrew Napolitano, who was with the firm in 1997 and 1998. The Appellate Division concluded, in Licette Music Corp. v Sills Cummis, DDS No. 04-2-4556, that the representation in question was not within the scope of Napolitano's employment with Sills and he was "not actuated by a purpose to serve the Sills firm." The panel also found no liability based on actual or apparent authority."

PIP INSURER MAY RECOUP ITS PAYOUTS EVEN IF INSURED IS NOT MADE WHOLE
"The state Supreme Court on Thursday narrowly upheld a decade-old doctrine that says PIP carriers are entitled to be reimbursed by a tortfeasor's carrier, even if that means the injured plaintiff will not be made whole. 'Simply because the conclusion diminishes the total amount available to the victim from the tortfeasor's policy of insurance does not produce an unjust result,' Justices Jaynee LaVecchia, Roberto Rivera-Soto and John Wallace Jr. wrote for the plurality in Fernandez v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co., A-54-08. 'Rather, that conclusion advances stability in the insurance marketplace by requiring that the ultimate cost of PIP benefits be borne by the insurer of the responsible party, not be the insurer of the victim.' The Court invited the Legislature to change the law if it wishes, and there are bills in the hopper."

JUDGE NARROWS DISCOVERY FOR 9/11 FEDERAL CLAIMS
"Defendants being sued for negligence in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijackings will not be able to depose six FBI agents on the government's investigation into the attacks, a federal judg ruled on Thursday. Airlines, airline security companies and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey argued that the depositions might show that the government's failure to stop the terrorists was so egregious that the attacks would have happened regardless of any negligence on their part. But Southern District of New York Judge Alvin Hellerstein, ruling in the three remaining wrongful death cases and 19 property damage claims stemming from the attacks, said that he would not allow the depositions for several reasons, including that the suits relate to the acts and omissions of the defendants, not the government."

CORPORATE COUNSEL ARE REDUCING RANKS OF SECONDARY OUTSIDE FIRMS
"Corporations are using fewer law firms because short-staffed corporate legal departments have little time to manage outside firms, not just because consolidating work is cheaper, according to a new law firm consulting survey. BTI Consulting Group's recent research on corporate counsel's use of outside law firms was part of wider periodic research on a variety of legal trends, says Michael Rynowecer, president of Wellesley, Mass.-based BTI. Companies in the survey expect to have on average two primary law firms by 2012, six secondary firms and 23 other firms they sometimes use. That compares with a 2008 average of two primary law firms, nine secondary firms and 32 other firms and, in 2007, two primary, 10 secondary and 40 other firms."

LAW SCHOOLS HOPE MORGAN LEWIS MOVE DOESN'T START TREND
"Morgan Lewis & Bockius' decision, announced Tuesday, to withdraw from 2009 on-campus interviews and forgo a 2010 summer associates program has law schools worried. Morgan Lewis was the first large firm to nix the 2010 summer program, while Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has decided to delay on-campus recruiting for next year's program. All of this, they say, is in an effort to maximize the number of full-time offers they can give to this year's summer associates ? many of whom won't have a start date until the fall of 2011, which is when 2010 summer associates would have traditionally started."

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