Lawyer - News

The authors of anonymous online posts that accused a former congressman of paying $25,000 to the mayor of Mamaroneck, N.Y., in connection with a home renovation project may soon find themselves the named defendants in a defamation action. By requiring a plaintiff to make a heightened showing before obtaining the identity of anonymous posters, the ruling sets forth "important safeguards" for the entire online community, where speech sometimes gets "wild and wily," one attorney said. No comments

For the first time, a California appellate court has said that when a conservator seeks court approval of an estate plan, while the subject is living, any challenge to the will must be raised at that hearing -- not when the person dies. The appellate decision is the first in the country to say attacks on wills would be barred after the estate owner dies, if there has been a court-approved substituted judgment, according to an attorney in the case, David Baer of Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos & Rudy. No comments

For more than a decade, Andrews Kurth partner Raymond Cook represented Howard Hughes in his business dealings -- including the 1965 sale of Hughes' shares in TWA to the air carrier, which netted the eccentric Texan more than $500 million. Now Andrews Kurth's relationship with Hughes' heirs -- and the impact it is having on Cook's heirs -- is the subject of a suit scheduled to go to trial this week in Houston. No comments

Discipline charges filed against California lawyers have been public record for more than two decades, but it took phone calls, letters or visits to State Bar headquarters to get the details. No longer. State Bar governors voted 18-4 Friday to post pending charges on the organization's Web site for the world to see and for search engines to archive for years -- despite critics' allegations that it violated the principle of innocent until proven guilty. No comments

The maker of recalled heart drug Digitek faces at least nine federal lawsuits in New Jersey that allege the drug was dangerous and defective. The lawsuits, including one by the estate of a deceased patient, were filed against Actavis Totowa and its parent company, Iceland-based Actavis Group. The two companies that distribute the pills, Mylan Pharmaceuticals and UDL Laboratories, are also named as defendants. Similar lawsuits have been filed in West Virginia and California. No comments

An executive who worked at IBM Corp. for nearly a decade pleaded guilty Friday to stealing trade secrets about the company's pricing and trying to pass them off to his superiors at rival Hewlett-Packard Co. when he took a job there. Atul Malhotra faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the single count of theft of trade secrets, prosecutors said Friday. No comments

In a rare full-court decision, the 6th Circuit said Friday the owner of a company that distributes male sexual enhancement pills had no legal standing to challenge government efforts to obtain his private e-mails. The owner had claimed that the government illegally obtained his e-mails in 2005 while investigating wire fraud, money laundering and other charges against him. He was seeking protection from any future government efforts to access his e-mail. No comments

Two of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children have sued their brother for taking money out of the estate of their late mother without authorization, and for not providing details about how he's managing the MLK estate. As Bernice King is administrator of the Coretta Scott King estate, Dexter King must obtain her permission before taking out funds, according to an attorney for Bernice and Martin Luther King III. No comments

Is it possible that, for once, pro bono will be safe from a recession? Nationally, 2007 was a banner year for pro bono work. The average Am Law 100 firm logged 25,893 hours, up 13.2 percent from 2006. Total hours grew to 4.8 million -- a record. A number of reasons explain why firms saw their pro bono numbers grow. But many say the slowdown helped, as a drop in transactional work freed up time for lawyers to pursue pro bono projects. No comments

Law firms didn't slow down their march to the altar in the second quarter of 2008, but just how many mergers occurred depends on whom you ask. Altman Weil announced a sharp increase, pegging law firm mergers at 26, compared with 18 in the first quarter. At the same time, competitor Hildebrandt International announced steady merger activity, with a total of 14, compared with 12 mergers in the first quarter of 2008. The discrepancy stems from how the two consultancies count the pairings. No comments