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Law firm merger activity picks up
Lawyer News |
2010/07/05 09:52
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| pLaw firm merger activity picked up after a sluggish first quarter in part due to a renewed increase in transatlantic marriages between large domestic firms and those headquartered in England. /ppAmong the 10 mergers reported last quarter by legal consultancy Hildebrandt Baker Robbins -- one more than during that time frame last year -- was the union of Washington stalwart Hogan amp; Hartson and London-based Lovells to form Hogan Lovells, which the report characterized as the second-largest since Hildebrandt began tracking quarterly merger activity. /ppA second cross-border marriage of equals, between Chicago-based Sonnenschein Nath amp; Rosenthal and London's Denton Wilde Sapte, was announced last quarter but is not included in that figure because the merger will not be completed until later in the year. /ppIndustry analysts say that after a period of caution, U.S. firms are once again looking for markets in which to expand -- and the obvious one for some is London, where many firms specialize in the kind of corporate transaction work that has long been the bread and butter of New York. /p |
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Ore. trial court to reconsider $100M tobacco case
Lawyer News |
2010/06/28 08:59
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| pThe Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that Philip Morris does not have to pay $100 million in punitive damages to the family of a smoker who sued the tobacco giant over its low-tar cigarettes./ppThe case, however, is going to another jury to decide just how much the death of Michelle Schwarz from lung cancer in 1999 will cost Philip Morris — and legal experts say it could easily be another big award./ppA Multnomah County jury in Portland originally awarded the Schwarz family $150 million in March 2002 before the trial judge reduced it to $100 million./ppOn Thursday, the Oregon Supreme Court vacated the $100 million award and sent the case back to the trial court to reconsider the punitive damages after ruling the judge failed to properly instruct the jury./ppThe court said the judge should have told the jury it could not punish Philip Morris directly for harm caused to others besides Schwarz./ppBut the court also supported the trial judge, who had rejected jury instructions the tobacco company had requested./p |
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Securities Fraud Liability May Hit More Defendants
Lawyer News |
2010/06/21 09:05
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pPeter J. Henning follows issues involving securities law and white-collar crime for DealBook’s White Collar Watch. As Congress works on the final version of the financial regulatory bill, a major change in liability for corporate law firms, accounting firms and investment banks has been inserted into the measure. House members of the conference committee agreed to add a provision offered by Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, to restore aiding and abetting liability for private securities fraud cases./ppThe impact of the amendment is significant because it expands the potential defendants in securities fraud class actions to include more than just the company accused of making misstatements or omissions, and these are defendants with deep pockets.
/p |
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Law firm: BP claims form flawed
Lawyer News |
2010/06/16 10:07
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| pBP said Tuesday it has accelerated its process of approving payments for commercial claims related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but two Miami law firms representing fisherman said the oil company’s claim forms are flawed./ppBP said it approved initial payments toward 90 percent of commercial large-loss claims that have been filed as a result the ongoing oil disaster. The U.K.-based oil giant said it approved payment of 337 checks for a total of $16 million to businesses that have filed claims in excess of $5,000./ppThis week, the two firms, Grossman Roth, P.A. and Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price amp; Axelrod LLP, began representing 600 fishermen from the Florida Keys Commercial Fisherman's Association. They warned that BP’s oil spill claim forms are seriously flawed./pp“The claim form that BP put on its website is inadequate under the federal Oil Pollution Act,” said Andy Yaffa of Grossman Roth./p |
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Court OKs Calif. city's day laborer crackdown
Lawyer News |
2010/06/10 10:37
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| pA federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the city of Redondo Beach's ordinance allowing for the arrest of day laborers who approach automobiles soliciting work./ppA divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision./ppThe appeals court said the city's ordinance, modeled after a Phoenix law upheld by the same court, was a reasonable response to traffic problems that officials said day laborers soliciting work caused at two city intersections. The 2-1 majority noted that Redondo Beach allowed the day laborers an alternative forum to seek work such as passing out literature on sidewalks and in parking lots./ppJudge Sandra Ikuta wrote for the majority that we conclude that the Redondo Beach ordinance is narrowly tailored to serve Redondo Beach's significant interests in traffic flow and safety./p |
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Appeals court rules against Bagram detainees
Lawyer News |
2010/05/24 03:04
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| Detainees at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their imprisonment the way detainees in Guantanamo Bay have, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a victory for the Obama administration.pThree appeals court judges said in an unanimous decision that because Afghanistan is a war zone and that the United States in effect has sovereignty over Guantanamo Bay swing the balance against the detainees./ppUnlike Guantanamo Bay, it is undisputed that Bagram, indeed the entire nation of Afghanistan, remains a theater of war, the judges said in turning aside the requests of a Tunisian and two Yemeni prisoners./ppIn the case of Guantanamo Bay detainees, who do have the right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts, the United States has maintained its total control of the Guantanamo Bay facility for over a century, even in the face of a hostile government, the court noted./p |
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