When antitrust lawyer Joseph Saveri left Lieff Cabraser earlier this year to found his own small firm, he held onto a price-fixing case against a group of leading chemical companies. He must be glad he did, because the litigation has now survived a key test and is moving toward trial.

The suit that Susman Godfrey brought for bond insurer Assured Guaranty Ltd against Flagstar Bank over $1 billion in mortgage-backed securities may have a lower profile than MBIA's $3 billion case against Countrywide. But Assured v. Flagstar may turn out to be a another crucial test case in the monolines' ambitious litigation.

Wyeth has long bucked the trend of reducing the number of outside firms it uses. Pfizer, meanwhile, has cut off 80 percent of its outside counsel in the last two years. Should Wyeth firms be worrying?