Lawyer - News

A New York City lawyer has sued Delta Air Lines for nearly $1 million, claiming that incompetent and rude employees made his 80-year-old mother's birthday trip to South America a stressful, costly horror. Attorney Richard Roth says not only did he and his family arrive in Argentina almost three days late, he had to spend unplanned thousands of dollars on food, hotels and transportation, and buy tickets for another airline. No comments

More than four years after a Miami-Dade police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Leonardo Barquin during a burglary attempt, a string of interoffice memos from the state attorney's office has surfaced on the Internet, thrusting the open investigation of the shooting back into the spotlight. In the memos, Assistant State Attorney David Ranck claimed he was pulled off the investigation by office brass after he raised questions about whether the shooting was justifiable homicide. No comments

At least 16 partners have parted ways with Bingham McCutchen this year, including several practice leaders and firm managers. Also, the firm confirmed last week that it laid off a total of 17 staff in two California offices. Some former partners say they've simply seized a better opportunity, but many cite poor integration of past mergers, a top-down management style stemming from chairman Jay Zimmerman and the firm's unwillingness to let newer partners build a practice with initially lower-margin clients. No comments

In a pair of workplace discrimination cases, the Supreme Court on Tuesday made it easier for workers to sue employers who retaliate against them for reporting bias. One ruling, affecting private employers, will give employees more time to file suit and larger potential damage awards when they claim employer retaliation than they had before. In the other case, the justices ruled that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act also covers retaliation claims brought by federal workers against their employers. No comments

Prosecutors have further charged a former Baker & McKenzie partner, indicted last fall on securities fraud charges, with stealing from a client escrow account. Martin E. Weisberg, then a corporate partner in Baker & McKenzie's New York office, was charged in October with participating in an illegal short-selling scheme. Tuesday, prosecutors said they had since uncovered Weisberg's involvement in a separate fraud scheme. At his arraignment Tuesday on the new charges, Weisberg pleaded not guilty. No comments

...at the Federal level at least.  We already have one of these here in New York.  Bus for the rest of you, this is big news.  The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (H.R. 493) or "GINA"   prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants and employees based on genetic tests or genetic information.  It was just signed by President Bush and goes into effect 18 months after enactment.  The EEOC will now also have a year to draft regulations under the new law.

The new law also has some amendments to the the child labor provisions of the the Fair Labor Standards Act - imposing some hefty fines for violations - and these go into effect immediately.

For the complete text for this link to:  Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

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On May 15, 2008, in a 4-3 decision, California's Supreme Court ruled in favor of plaintiffs-comprised of gay rights group Equality California, almost two dozen gay couples and the city of San Francisco, who argued that the 2000 law banning same-sex marriage in the state was discriminatory. Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Tara Borelli, Staff Attorney in the Western Regional Office of Lambda Legal and Brian S. Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage to discuss this ruling. In this show, we will get specifics on the ruling, reaction from opponents, legal issues behind same-sex marriage and explore this controversial debate on gay marriage. No comments

There was a time when E-Pass Technologies had Palm on the defensive, accusing the company of infringement on its handheld devices and seeking huge royalties. But the tables have turned: Palm and other defendants that E-Pass sued are going after the inventor's patent holding company for millions of dollars after a judge scolded E-Pass for its conduct and awarded attorney fees to the defendants. A Ropes & Gray attorney who represents a Palm spin-off in the case said it may become a more popular tactic. No comments

Merck has agreed to pay $58 million as part of a multistate settlement of allegations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks. As part of the agreement Merck must submit all new TV commercials for its drugs to the FDA for review before they can be aired. Another provision bars the company from "ghostwriting," a practice in which academic scientists were allegedly paid to take credit for positive research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers. No comments

Holland & Knight, one of only three law firms on this year's Am Law 100 to report a drop in revenue, is laying off 70 legal secretaries firmwide in a cost-cutting move. Firm brass say the firm has been affected more directly by the economic slowdown than other national and international law firms because its roots are in Florida, which has been more acutely affected by the housing downturn than many other parts of the nation. No comments