A plaintiff who alleged that a rival corporation lured away some of its employees in violation of their employment agreements is entitled to learn the details of the rival's contact with those employees through a direct examination, the Delaware Court of Chancery has ruled. The court said it tailored the plaintiff's request to prevent undue prejudice or oppression to the employees at the center of the litigation.

Unless you have your head embedded so deeply in sand that you're now growing ostrich feathers, you've heard about the unprecedented Big Law layoffs/massacre that took place last Thursday. Firms axed at least 700 lawyers and legal staffers, and rumors are swirling that many more may lose their jobs in the days and weeks to come. We wondered how badly our people--the litigators--had suffered. Conventional wisdom has it that litigation is a counter-cyclical practice area, but these are not conventional economic times.