MBIA may have landed a major blow in its multi-round fight with Bank of America, but neither side is about to go down for the count.

Fifteen banks asked the Second Circuit to intervene in their mammoth legal battle with the Federal Finance Housing Agency, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, arguing that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote is unfairly determined to cripple their defense.

In the latest development in the Chapter 11 of WaMu's parent, a judge refused to appoint an examiner but told Susman Godfrey it can probe the estate's deal with JPMorgan Chase. That doesn't bode well for a settlement--and a plan of reorganization--that's already imperiled.

Could anything be worse for alien tort claimants than arguing before a hostile Supreme Court on corporate liability, as the plaintiffs in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell did last month? Yes: arguing before a hostile Supreme Court on extraterritoriality, as those plaintiffs will have to do next term, thanks to a surprise procedural order on March 5.

The state of Vermont has struck out a second time in its two-year effort to halt the relicensing of its aging Yankee nuclear power plant.

Clients from Intellectual Ventures to LinkedIn want their outside counsel singing from the same hymnal.

Patent reform is coming to Europe. The E.U. is establishing a new patent regime that will allow inventors to file for a single patent valid in almost all of its member states, and that will set up a new patent court with venues in London, Munich, and Paris.