Lawyers for auditor PKF New York hoped to use the U.S. Supreme Court's Janus ruling to evade securities claims in a four-year-old class action targeting China Expert Technology, but a Manhattan federal judge wasn't persuaded. Separately, the judge refused to limit the plaintiffs' discovery efforts in China, rejecting the arguments of two Hong Kong-based auditor defendants that permitting widespread discovery would leave them vulnerable to Chinese government sanctions.

It's tough to win a fraudulent conveyance case in bankruptcy court, but last month's creditors' victory against the banks that lent money to the homebuilder Tousa is beginning to reverberate against financial institutions in other Chapter 11 cases. And Kasowitz Benson is on the front lines for bondholder creditors.

In opening arguments in Manhattan federal district court, lawyers for Bank of America and two Cayman Islands companies the bank used to invest in a Parmalat subsidiary clashed over what the bank knew and when.