Lawyers from Quinn Emanuel, Debevoise & Plimpton, and Goodwin Procter descended on the packed Manhattan courtroom of New York state supreme court justice Eileen Bransten Wednesday to battle over a crucial question: Can monoline insurers MBIA and Syncora claim damages from Countrywide over mortgage-backed securities they insured without showing that the underlying loans went into default?

A federal judge tossed claims by Footbridge Limited Trust and OHP Opportunity Limited Trust, ruling that the Quinn Emanuel clients didn't prove intent to deceive.

Bank of America has taken its lumps in the past week over the subprime meltdown. But Rosenberg offered BofA a bit of welcome relief when he convinced a judge overseeing nationwide federal mortgage-backed securities litigation against Countrywide to toss fraud and successor liability claims against the bank.

JPMorgan wanted to sell a loan it made to the cable unit of Grupo Televisa to a bank controlled by Grupo's billionaire telecom rival, Carlos Slim. But after losing key preliminary injunction and summary judgment rulings, JPMorgan agreed not only to buy back the $225 million credit agreement, but also to broad restrictions on the loan going forward.

A FINRA panel awarded Rosen Capital $63.7 million over "unexpected margin calls" that Merrill made on two hedge funds as the markets roiled in the fall of 2008.