We called Mendelsohn after reading about a newly disclosed, eight-country probe of four pharmaceutical companies and noting the rapid upward spiral of recent FCPA settlements. His prediction: FCPA defense is only going to get hotter.

A Federal Circuit panel has upheld a summary judgment that dismissed an infringement suit brought by Johnson & Johnson and Wyeth LLC and invalidated the cardiac stent patents at issue. The ruling is a win for defendants Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic, represented by McAndrews, Held & Malloy and McKool Smith, and defendant Boston Scientific, represented by Arnold & Porter.

On Tuesday, Denver federal district court judge Robert Blackburn granted UBS's motion for summary judgment in a case involving a fundamental way banks make money. The ruling was welcomed by UBS's lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis and Holland & Hart--but it's being greeted just as warmly by defense counsel in a putative class action in New York in which five other banks face allegations similar to those UBS defeated.

After an eight-year odyssey through the California courts, San Francisco antitrust lawyer Joseph Alioto may have finally reached the end of the line in a sprawling price-fixing case against Big Pharma.