Just when it seemed that the Federal Trade Commission and private plaintiffs would never succeed in upsetting a pharmaceutical "pay-for-delay" deal, the Third Circuit has thrown the plaintiffs a lifeline.

Thomas Engel of Howrey and John Cooney, Jr., of Davis Polk worked together as federal prosecutors and became such good friends that they now serve as godfathers to each other's daughters. They always wondered what it would be like to practice together. Now they'll find out.

It's not every day that a law firm is sued for antitrust violations. Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy has survived to tell the tale.

Remember the story of the in-house Verizon lawyer who forgot to delete a phrase from a single sentence in the company's ERISA plan when he redrafted it? A class of pension beneficiaries claimed the mistake meant Verizon owed members $1.67 billion, but the Seventh Circuit agreed with a lower court: No one's perfect, not even ERISA drafters.

Plaintiffs in the "no poach" litigation against tech behemoths including Google Inc. and Apple Inc. suffered a setback Friday when they lost their bid for class certification.