For the first time, Corporate Counsel has chosen four Best Legal Departments as winners in its annual competition. The winners range from a department with 140 attorneys to a department with just one. This year, size really didn't matter. What did count: strong leaders who are passionate about what they do; the creation of systems to make legal departments more efficient; and a shared belief and teamwork on the part of committed colleagues.
Skechers USA has agreed to pay $45 million to settle Federal Trade Commission and state charges that it made unfounded claims that its toning sneakers would help people lose weight while strengthening and toning their legs, buttocks and abdominal muscles.
The so-called "smartphone wars" involving patent lawsuits are just part of the "natural ebb and flow of technology development" and not a fundamental problem with patents or the patents system, the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told a congressional committee today.
Some of the last remaining lawyers at Dewey & LeBoeuf packed up their belongings and turned in their BlackBerries and security passes Tuesday. Meanwhile, lawsuits against Dewey are starting to pile up. So far, suits have been filed over the firm's pension plans, a lack of termination notice and payment for janitorial service. See also:Dewey Makes New York Headquarters Closing Official With Notice to State
Maxim Integrated Products' former CFO illegally backdated stock options, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, giving the SEC a win in one of the few backdating cases to go to a jury. Carl Jasper will have to repay the semiconductor company about $1.8 million in bonuses and profits from the sale of Maxim stock, plus a $360,000 penalty.
The sculptor of the Korean War Veterans Memorial could potentially receive millions of dollars as a result of the U.S. Postal Service's infringement of his work on a stamp, the Federal Circuit has ruled in a case of first impression in the circuit about copyright damages in a suit against the government.
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a qui tam suit alleging that Education Management, which runs more than 100 campuses, defrauded the federal government of $11 billion in student aid by violating the terms of the Higher Education Act, which bars the distribution of incentives to college recruiters based on how many students they draw.
When Facebook debuts Friday on the Nasdaq, thousands of company employees will become instantly rich. Also reaping the rewards of the high-profile IPO: Facebook's lawyers from Fenwick & West. Facebook lists legal fees and expenses related to its hotly anticipated IPO at $2.6 million, according to an SEC filing Tuesday.
Oracle v. Google became Alsup v. Boies for a few momentous minutes Tuesday, as the tough judge and the famed litigator fought over tricky issues involving damages in a case that has gotten messier as the trial has progressed. After a colorful hearing, U.S. District Judge William Alsup seemed open to a proposition by Oracle attorney David Boies.
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss claims that Apple conspired with Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Macmillan, and HarperCollins to break Amazon's dominance in the electronic book market and engineer a wholesale increase in e-book prices.
Bank of America shareholders who want to scuttle a proposed $20 million settlement of derivative claims arising from the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch have been thwarted again. On Monday a New York federal judge rejected objectors' requests to intervene and replace the lead plaintiffs and their counsel.
The Ninth Circuit and the state of Arizona are on a collision course over execution protocols. On Monday, the court upbraided a lawyer for that state's department of corrections, threatening to order a trial on the department's frequently shifting protocols for administering lethal injections.
Cravath said Tuesday that Francis "Frank" Barron is rejoining the firm as a litigation partner two years after leaving to become Morgan Stanley's top in-house lawyer. Barron, who spent 32 years at Cravath advising such clients as CBS, Citigroup, and General Electric, will also be a member of the firm's board advisory practice.
Insisting that trial courts "have largely been held harmless from budget reductions" in recent years, California Gov. Jerry Brown has unveiled a revised budget that would slash $544 million in funding to the judicial branch. One-time reductions account for $419 million; the remaining $125 million would consist of permanent cuts.
The chances of convincing the Supreme Court to grant review in a criminal case are astronomically low. So an increasing number of petitioners are making their pitch to the Court with high-powered amicus curiae groups on their side. The latest example is a full-court press that has been mounted in a high-profile immigration case.