Legal fees for white-collar defendants have been an increasingly contentious issue, with disputes breaking out all the time between companies and indemnified former executives. On Wednesday we got an idea of what may happen to officials of companies that have gone bust: They'll go after insurers.

There are quite a few surprises in the lineup of white-collar lawyers amassed to defend Stanford executives. Here's one: What happened to those reports that Sir Allen had hired Brendan Sullivan?

Thanks to some fundamental but seldom invoked provisions of the Patent Act, Life Technologies Corp. has reversed its fortunes in a DNA patent fight with Promega Corp.