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Trial Consulting Nationwide Since 1990
Commentary from legal news makers.
Jury verdicts.
Legal trends and important rulings.
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Today's Legal NewsAt DOJ's Request, Judge Dismisses FCPA Sting CaseA federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a high-profile foreign bribery prosecution as he questioned the government's litigation tactics and legal theories underpinning the case. "This appears to be the end of a long and sad day in the annals of white-collar enforcement," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said in court, several hours after prosecutors asked him to dismiss with prejudice the largest-ever Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case against individuals. Simpson Helps BC Partners Raise $8.6 Billion for AcquisitionsSimpson Thacher & Bartlett is acting for London-based private equity giant BC Partners on one of the largest fundraising efforts in Europe since the global financial crisis began in 2008. BC has closed its BC European Capital IX fund after surpassing its target of raising $8.6 billion for leveraged buyouts. D.C. Circuit Upholds SEC's Permanent Bar Against Investment AdviserThe D.C. Circuit has refused to erase an SEC order permanently barring a lawyer from associating with an investment adviser or an investment company. The court said the commission didn't step out of line when it issued its permanent bar in 1998 against John G. Black. MGA's revived antitrust claim fails to persuadeAn attorney for MGA Entertainment, citing a "last effort" to prove that Barbie maker Mattel has monopolized the fashion doll market, has vowed to appeal a federal judge's final dismissal of his client's $1 billion antitrust suit. Court wades back into affirmative actionThe Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would revisit the divisive issue of affirmative action in higher education. But it will do so without Justice Elena Kagan, who recused herself, and without Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired in 2006 after rescuing affirmative action from conservative attack three years earlier. Littler Mendelson's Weiner, McGuire on BigLaw E-DiscoveryLittler Mendelson's Paul D. Weiner, national e-discovery counsel, and Michael J. McGuire, chief information security officer, speak to LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about how the firm manages e-discovery, and compare its efforts to other BigLaw models. DLA Piper's Browning Marean on E-Discovery ProportionalityBrowning Marean, senior counsel at DLA Piper, speaks to LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about the challenges of fashioning responses to discovery requests that are appropriate -- and proportional -- to a case. Judge John Facciola on E-Discovery Training at a CrossroadsD.C. District Judge John Facciola speaks with LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about how e-discovery training is at a crossroads, constrained by limited financial resources at the governmental level. He proposes several solutions to address these challenges, particularly when individuals are unable to meet face to face. Litigator of the Year Winner - David BoiesThe Boies, Schiller & Flexner founder explains how he prepared for the key cross-examinations in the Proposition 8 case. Prop 8 Backers Seek En Banc Review of Gay Marriage DecisionInstead of heading straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, backers of the Prop 8 ban on gay marriage are seeking rehearing by an en banc panel of the 9th Circuit, arguing that the court's holding in Perry v. Brown conflicts with the Supreme Court's Baker v. Nelson, which let Minnesota deny same-sex couples the right to marry, and other cases. D.C. Circuit Rejects Suit Over Gitmo Detainees' DeathsThe D.C. Circuit on Tuesday rejected a suit that demanded the government pay damages to the representatives of two Guantanamo Bay detainees who died in custody. The panel did not reach the merits of the case but said the trial judge did not have jurisdiction to hear the dispute in the first place. Conflicts Arise When Complying With U.S. and E.U. LawsCompanies that collect employee information to comply with U.S. laws may find themselves running afoul of European Union regulations that guard employee privacy even in the case of information stored on company devices. And a new E.U. data protection proposal may make that information even harder to obtain. Court returns from recess with a rush of activityThe Supreme Court returned from its traditional February recess with a flurry of activity ranging from its grant in a major affirmative action challenge to a decision on Miranda warnings to a proposed bet between a justice and a lawyer. Judicial pay challenge clears hurdle at Federal CircuitFederal judges challenging a congressional blockade of judicial cost-of-living pay increases have cleared a key procedural hurdle that ultimately may return their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Said the attorney for the judges: "We won -- sort of." Reluctant Facebook Plaintiff Ordered to TestifyDespite her efforts to avoid it, Seattle seamstress Angel Fraley will have to testify in a lawsuit accusing Facebook of violating her privacy. On Tuesday, a California judge denied Fraley's motion for a protective order that would have kept her from testifying in the purported class action. The Global Lawyer: Treaty Arbitration Clashes with Human Rights (or at least with Ecuador's Courts)Last week, Chevron won an arbitral award neutralizing the $18 billion Ecuadorean judgment now on appeal in that country. But the next day the intermediate Ecuadorean appellate court rejected the arbitrators' order as offensive to Ecuador's Constitution and the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights. No RespiteState courts across the U.S. are bracing for another year of austerity as a new budget cycle threatens once again to limit their funding. Despite glimmers of hope in the economy as a whole, court funding is unlikely to rebound right away, said an analyst at the National Center for State Courts. Justices Greenlight Priest Abuse CaseWith jury selection slated to start this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has given the green light to what may be the first-ever prosecution in the country of an official in the Catholic Church leadership for harm allegedly done to youths because of alleged sexual abuse by priests. Ex-Wife's 'Thirst for Litigation' Over Divorce Leads to SanctionA woman with what a New York state judge called an "unrelenting thirst for litigation" in her unsuccessful efforts to vacate a six-year-old divorce judgment has been ordered to pay $60,000 in sanctions and costs for her "frivolous conduct." Copyright 2008 © Jury Focus, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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