Some defendants blink when they're facing the prospect of an ugly discrimination class action. For his client, Merrill Lynch, Klein instead collected affidavits from around the country to show that every purported class member faced highly individual circumstances. The hard-line defense paid off when a Chicago judge refused this week to certify a class of African-American financial advisers and trainees.

The bankruptcy British division had to fend off claims from other Lehman entities, which asserted that securities bouncing around in internal transfers were merely held in trust by Lehman UK.

W.R. Grace and five former executives are accused of exposing thousands of people to deadly asbestos particles via Grace's mining operations near Libby, Montana. Can Kirkland's David Bernick successfully defend the company from what's been called the most significant criminal case ever filed against a polluter?

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.

In two separate rulings this week, federal district court judges in North Carolina called a halt to federal suits blaming Blackwater for the deaths of employees and civilians in Iraq. Plaintiffs lawyers in the two cases, however, had very different reactions to the rulings.