Jason Dearen

January 30, 2003 | Law.com

In a deal the firm describes as one of its biggest ever, Morrison & Foerster helped Japanese electronics giant Hitachi Ltd. acquire IBM Corp.'s hard disk drive operations for $2.05 billion. Attorneys in the Tokyo, San Francisco and Palo Alto offices of the firm represented Hitachi in the deal, which closed on Dec. 31. IBM's in-house attorneys handled the deal for the company.

By Jason Dearen

3 minute read

April 03, 2003 | Law.com

At a Bar Association of San Francisco conference with a list of panelists that read like a who's who of the Bay Area legal world, 16 GCs and 16 law firm leaders discussed the changing relationship between inside and outside counsel. Charles James of ChevronTexaco Corp. and other GCs agreed that current outside counsel firms will have to provide more bang for the corporate buck to keep business.

By Jason Dearen

4 minute read

August 26, 2002 | Law.com

Gov. Gray Davis appointed four attorneys with a range of backgrounds to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlaine Olmedo, UCLA School of Law professor John Shepard Wiley Jr. and civil litigators Mark Juhas and Steven Kleifield were named to the bench.

By Jason Dearen

2 minute read

May 15, 2003 | Law.com

The San Francisco chapter of the Northern California Innocence Project and the S.F. public defender's office are teaming up on the murder case of Ludrate Burton. Golden Gate University law school's Susan Rutberg, who runs the local office of the Santa Clara-based project, hopes to take advantage of a 2001 state law allowing for post-conviction DNA testing in cases like Burton's. The project also gives law students an opportunity to employ the hypothetical situations they study in the classroom.

By Jason Dearen

6 minute read

February 05, 2003 | Law.com

Want to be dean of a law school? If so, there are plenty of rings to throw your hat into. Some 20 percent of the nation's law schools are in the market for new deans. And as law schools search for new leaders, the skills they're looking for have changed as well. The skill needed to succeed as a dean today -- fund raising and more fund raising -- is not what most academics spend their careers honing.

By Jason Dearen

5 minute read

September 03, 2002 | Law.com

Those seeking to dismiss a suit using California's anti-SLAPP law don't need to prove the suit is intended to chill their First Amendment rights, the state supreme court has held. In one of three SLAPP law rulings, the justices said an intent-to-chill requirement "would contravene the legislative intent" behind the law, which allows for quick dismissal in meritless cases that could chill speech and petition rights.

By Jason Dearen

4 minute read

January 23, 2003 | Law.com

Law professor Robert Talbot heard story after story about small investors hit with devastating losses who didn't have the legal savvy or financial wherewithal to fight. Talbot, who teaches at the University of San Francisco School of Law, felt that he could do something about it. In the fall, he launched the Investor Justice Project, in which students and faculty members work on behalf of people with household incomes of $50,000 or less.

By Jason Dearen

5 minute read

December 03, 2002 | Law.com

Administrators at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, still reeling from Dean John Dwyer's departure after allegations of sexual harassment, have begun scrambling to fill the void. While Dwyer says the encounter was consensual, the lawyer for the complaining student said "Dean Dwyer sexually assaulted" the student. The charges also call into question Boalt's compliance with sexual harassment laws.

By Jason Dearen

4 minute read

July 22, 2003 | Law.com

Attorneys who leave behemoths to start boutiques cite everything from a desire for greater control to hopes for a friendlier culture. But for some women, the flexibility to fit in some family life is a large part of the allure. This may help to explain why a number of women-founded boutiques have sprouted up in the San Francisco Bay Area in recent years.

By Jason Dearen

6 minute read

April 10, 2003 | Law.com

Santa Clara-based Network Associates Inc. has been on a buying spree of late. The network security company recently purchased Entercept Security Technologies for $120 million in cash and IntruVert Networks for $100 million in cash. Attorneys in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Network Associates on both deals.

By Jason Dearen

3 minute read