Another big bank has entered into a multi-million dollar settlement with federal and state authorities investigating bid-rigging in the municipal bond market. And for once, the settlement isn't likely to draw opposition from plaintiffs lawyers in parallel multidistrict litigation worried that the deal will sideline class claims.

Though it's only filed eight complaints since first turning to the courts a year ago to enforce its massive patent portfolio, Intellectual Ventures has already tapped a varied roster of firms. On Thursday IV added Dechert to the list in a suit claiming that AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile infringe 15 patents related to wireless technology.

Just as they did after officials reached similar settlements with UBS and Bank of America, plaintiffs lawyers in private multidistrict litigation against the banks may argue that the JPMorgan deal sidelines class claims in the MDL.

The proposed settlement still leaves the country's largest fresh egg producer and its lawyers at Gibson Dunn fighting price-fixing claims from indirect purchasers and opt-out direct action plaintiffs.

The defendants claimed that Chinese law compelled them to form a cartel to sell vitamin C, and the Chinese government even hired Sidley Austin to support that argument. But the companies still can't escape class action litigation over the alleged price-fixing, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled Tuesday.

A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed Thursday to certify classes of direct and indirect purchasers in a set of suits accusing four Chinese manufacturers of joining a cartel to fix prices for vitamin C. The litigation has drawn a rare U.S. court appearance by the Chinese government, which hired Sidley Austin to back the companies' defense.

It was inevitable that the collapse of the $300 billion auction-rate securities market in 2008 would trigger securities litigation. But the ARS freeze also spawned a massive antitrust case, after a trio of plaintiffs firms cooked up a theory that the market's demise was triggered by an illegal boycott on the part of major banks.

A consolidated antitrust class action against four Chinese vitamin C makers case got smaller--but no less interesting--when one of the defendants agreed to a $10.5 million settlement. "This is the first shoe to drop in a Chinese cartel case, and it's a $10 million shoe," said William Isaacson of Boies Schiller, co-lead counsel for the direct purchaser class.

For litigators, it pays to be both tenacious and creative. For evidence, look no further than William Isaacson's long antitrust crusade against Chinese vitamin C manufacturers, which culminated this month in an historic $162 million jury verdict.