That was quick. On Wednesday, Bank of America and its counsel at Hunton & Williams sued Colonial Bank for $1 billion in mortgage loans that the beleaguered Alabama lender was holding in trust for a BofA subsidiary. On Thursday, Miami federal district court judge Adalberto Jordan granted BofA's motion for a temporary restraining order to keep Colonial from selling or otherwise disposing of 6,000 disputed mortgages.

Stockman's lead defense lawyer says a hasty Davis Polk internal investigation led to a prosecution that was doomed from the start. In a December meeting with the government, the former Reagan official's legal team apparently proved that point to prosecutors.

After Joseph Wayland led the Justice Department antitrust team that scuttled H&R Block's proposed $287.5 million TaxAct acquisition last October, we named him Litigator of the Week and The American Lawyer dubbed him a Newsmaker of the Year. Now the former Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner has picked up another title: acting head of the DOJ's Antitrust Division.

Who's afraid of Florida state court? Not Big Tobacco--after going five for five in the most recent Engle progeny cases.

John Quinn--crazy, or crazy like a fox? As the Apple/Samsung trial enters its third week, much of the buzz continues to center around the famously aggressive trial lawyer's clashes with the judge. What's he trying to accomplish?

Five years ago, a qui tam case brought by one of London & Mead's whistleblower clients ended when PeopleSoft, which Oracle had just acquired, agreed to a $100 million settlement with the Justice Department. And now another London & Mead whistleblower case has hit Oracle even harder.

Do banks have the right to charge huge penalty fees for checking account overdrafts? A senior judge in Florida ruled that 15 cases raising such allegations can proceed to discovery in litigation that could cost the banks hundreds of millions of dollars.