Law.com's weekly US Briefing brings you the pick of this week's news, analysis and comment from the States

The Recorder

Few plaintiffs have gone after companies' outside lawyers in backdating lawsuits. But a new derivative case against directors and officers at Brocade Communications Systems also targets the company's law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Filed in California federal court by a small San Diego firm, the suit accuses Wilson Sonsini of legal malpractice for allegedly blessing backdating at Brocade, a company that saw two of its former executives convicted of criminal charges.

The American Lawyer

At a time when some firms are cutting back their summer programmes, Cravath Swaine & Moore is taking the opposite approach, boosting its program's size by more than 75%. Cravath is bringing in 161 summer associates, up from 91 last year. The additional recruits are part of an expansion plan, says managing partner Evan Chesler. While it may seem odd that Cravath is doing this during a recession, Chesler says the economy had no bearing on the expanded programme. "This is a long-term decision," he says.

The National Law Journal

Rudy Giuliani, having cast off his presidential ambitions for the moment, is targeting a new goal: creating a name for his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, in the appellate practice area. "The appellate practice has always been something of great interest to me," says Giuliani. The effort by Bracewell & Giuliani, which has its biggest office in Houston, falls in line with the emergence of large appellate practices in Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the past 20 years.

Fulton County Daily Report

The legal tabloid abovethelaw.com sparked a firestorm of rumors when it reported Friday that Sutherland Asbill & Brennan was laying off 30 to 40 associates firmwide. Sutherland's managing partner, Mark Wasserman, acknowledged that the 480-lawyer firm has cut its associate ranks. But he said the firm has asked fewer than 15 associates to leave. He said the firm's summer associate class is "absolutely not" affected by the cuts, nor are next fall's incoming associates.

The Recorder

Peter Brown – the Brown in Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner – will be leaving the firm's New York office for Baker & Hostetler. His move is the latest in a string of departures, particularly from the firm's office in New York, home to the legacy Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner firm. The Brown firm merged with San Francisco's Thelen Reid & Priest in December 2006. Thelen co-chairman Julian Millstein called the recent departures "to some extent… a normal shake-out of the merger".

New York Law Journal

A woman who claimed that she is allergic to her estranged husband's cat cannot prevent their two children from visiting their father's home, a New York judge has ruled. The judge analysed the issue in terms of harmful activities in the presence of children restricted by courts, such as smoking, but found that the cat's presence offered no legal or factual basis for similar restrictions.

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