Lawyer - News

The California wildfires ripped through parts of Southern California last week destroying anything in their path and leaving many homeless. Join Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, as they get first-hand accounts from three San Diego Lawyers affected by the fires: Attorney Mark C. Zebrowski and Katherine L. Parker both from Morrison & Foerster LLP and Attorney Dan Hull, from Hull McGuire PC. On Lawyer2Lawyer, we will take a look at Morrison & Foerester’s, “Helping Handbook”, which provides legal information for victims of the fires, discuss how law firms are coping with this disaster, the legal issues surrounding the fires, and take a look ahead at what is next for firms affected by the fires and how they are dealing with the aftermath of the fires legally. No comments

The existence of millions of blogs proves that everyone has an opinion. But you won't often find the general counsel of a major tech company shooting his mouth off about ongoing patent litigation. Yet, Sun Microsystems' GC and CEO have been blogging about their company's IP battle with Network Appliances, trading barbs with a NetApp co-founder, who has been commenting on the case on his own blog. Some of the comments have turned personal. No comments

Boston-based Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge has sealed a merger deal with London firm Kendall Freeman to forge a 600-lawyer transatlantic practice, it was announced Tuesday. Under the terms of the merger, which is effective Jan. 1, Kendall Freeman managing partner Laurence Harris will become London chief of the combined practice, with senior partner David Kendall named co-chair of Edwards Angell's insurance and reinsurance division. No comments

The Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with a challenge to the constitutionality of a federal child pornography law, with counsel for both sides fielding tough questions that included hypotheticals involving popular mainstream movies -- including "Traffic," "American Beauty" and "Lolita" -- and what Justice Stephen Breyer described as "schoolboy behavior" such as children "looking [at] and presenting to schoolmates dirty pictures." No comments

EDD offers the opportunity to unduly burden an opposing party with overbroad requests for the production of electronically stored information. Ganfer & Shore partner Mark A. Berman advises practitioners to limit their discovery requests to only "material and necessary evidence." No comments

Gone are the days when in-house counsel send out major projects to outside counsel, pay vague bills "for services rendered," and remain uninvolved while outside counsel determine what is necessary, according to the results of the 2007 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey. "In-house counsel are taking note of the rise in hourly rates and associate salaries, and are holding their outside firms accountable," explains Association of Corporate Counsel President Fred Krebs. No comments

The supplier of the buttery substance used in microwave popcorn must pay a minimum $50,000 deductible for every worker at a Missouri plant who successfully asserts a claim that the flavoring caused lung problems or other respiratory ailments, a unanimous New York appeals panel ruled Tuesday. The panel rejected the argument of International Flavors & Fragrances that only one deductible applied to each of eight liability insurance policies issued by two companies owned by the American Insurers Group. No comments

After securing permission from the French Bar to practice, Field Fisher Waterhouse has launched an office in Paris, the firm's third international outpost, by taking on seven partners from historic alliance partner Dubarry. The defections leave Dubarry with five remaining partners, although it is currently unclear whether they intend to continue to practice together. No comments

In a rare move, the Philadelphia Bar Association has issued a statement against a ruling in a rape case by a municipal court judge. Although the letter doesn't suggest that the bar reverse its "recommended" rating of Judge Teresa Carr Deni, it comes pretty close. In the case at issue, Deni ruled there wasn't enough evidence to move forward with rape charges against a man accused of raping a prostitute at gunpoint. Instead, Deni said the appropriate charge was armed robbery for "theft of services." No comments

Michael Mukasey, the president's nominee for attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday he does not know whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal. He pledged to study the matter and to reverse any DOJ finding that endorses a practice that violates the law or the Constitution. It was not immediately clear whether that reply would satisfy panel members enough to win the votes Mukasey's nomination needs to go to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. No comments