Corporate Law

Starbucks clone claims to be a parody; will mocked coffee chain laugh or call its lawyers?

Observers in Southern California are scratching their heads over a clone of a popular coffee cafe that has seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Calling itself “Dumb Starbucks”on a logo that otherwise appears identical to the green, white and black design made famous by the real Starbucks, the look-alike upstart…

Feb 10, 2014 1:25 PM CST

Socialized law? Cap legal spending by rich and subsidize it for poor, essay says

The complaint is oft repeated: The rich can afford more justice than the poor. Now a New Republic essay by senior editor Noam Scheiber offers a solution: Socialize the law. Boost spending on lawyers for those of lesser means, and cap spending by the affluent. Scheiber says ensuring adequate procedural…

Feb 5, 2014 11:50 AM CST

Will bank suits against Target in $1B-plus customer data breach help spur security enhancements?

It isn’t just individuals who are taking legal action over a massive data breach in November and December that reportedly involved at least 40 million and perhaps as many as 110 million Target Corp. customer accounts. Contending that banks may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of Target’s…

Feb 3, 2014 11:20 PM CST

Judge sanctions Samsung and counsel over release of confidential info in big-bucks Apple patent suit

Saying that a major law firm handled proprietary information covered by a confidentiality order in big-bucks patent litigation over smartphone technology as if it were “a trapeze artist flying high without a net,” a federal magistrate judge in California has imposed sanctions on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and its…

Jan 31, 2014 5:30 PM CST

NY Giants, Eli Manning, team lawyer face civil RICO suit in claimed sale of fake ‘game-worn’ items

A collector and reseller of sports memorabilia has filed a civil racketeering suit in state court in New Jersey against the New York Giants, star quarterback Eli Manning and the team’s general counsel William J. Heller, Newsday (reg. req.) reports. The suit (PDF) contends they and other defendants, including a…

Jan 30, 2014 8:00 PM CST

K&L Gates OKs settlement of $23.7M in LeNature’s legal malpractice case

A major Pittsburgh-based international law firm and one of its top attorneys have agreed to pay $23.7 million to settle a malpractice lawsuit brought by a bankruptcy trustee winding up the affairs of a former client. The agreement by K&L Gates and Sanford Ferguson did not involve any admission of…

Jan 29, 2014 10:35 PM CST

Family sues Uber over death of girl, 6, says smartphone app violates state distracted-driving law

It hasn’t taken long for a test case to arise concerning the potential liability of technology companies for smartphone apps that connect private drivers with paying passengers. The family of a six-year-old girl killed in New Year’s Eve auto accident filed a lawsuit against both the driver and Uber on…

Jan 28, 2014 3:25 PM CST

Judge nixes ex-wife’s civil racketeering claim against billionaire Steven Cohen, but OKs fraud case

A federal judge in New York on Monday dismissed a civil racketeering count in a fraud case filed against billionaire Steven Cohen by his ex-wife, Patricia Cohen. However, U.S. District Judge William Pauley gave a green light to her fraud case against the hedge fund manager even though Pauley nixed…

Jan 27, 2014 6:30 PM CST

Lawyer takes plea in money-laundering case linked to convicted ex-client’s Ponzi scheme

A Las Vegas lawyer has pleaded guilty to a felony after admittedly helping a client from Montana conceal the source of $2.3 million used to purchase a company in 2007. Attorney R. Christopher Reade, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas on Wednesday to being an accessory after…

Jan 24, 2014 4:54 PM CST

Are secret arbitration panels illegal? Del. Chancery asks SCOTUS to nix 3rd Circuit ruling

In an unusual case pitting one of the nation’s most respected corporate law tribunals against a federal appeals court, the Delaware Court of Chancery is seeking a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a recent ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that banned…

Jan 22, 2014 9:30 PM CST

Proposed bill would limit consumer lawsuits against retailers who comply with data-security rules

In the wake of massive security breaches that reportedly took place in recent months at Target, Nieman Marcus and, security experts say, probably other retailers as well, federal lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that would impose new requirements on companies concerning the protection of confidential information related to credit…

Jan 21, 2014 7:00 PM CST

ABA urges federal lawmakers to nix draft provision requiring law firms to adopt accrual accounting

The American Bar Association is urging federal lawmakers to rethink a possible plan to require businesses to use the accrual method instead of traditional cash accounting in the discussion draft Tax Reform Act of 2013. Accrual accounting would be more complex and expensive, the ABA’s president writes in letters to…

Jan 15, 2014 11:50 PM CST

Suspended lawyer is accused of stealing $1M from client settlements

A suspended Nevada lawyer was criminally charged Tuesday with stealing more than $1 million from client settlements, primarily in personal injury cases. Barry Levinson faces four felony theft counts under an amended state-court complaint filed Tuesday. It says the money was taken between 2007 and 2012, the Las Vegas Review-Journal…

Jan 15, 2014 9:10 PM CST

FCC lacked authority to impose ‘Net neutrality’ on broadband carriers, federal appeals court rules

In a victory for Verizon Communications Inc., a federal appeals court has ruled that a government agency does not have the power to require broadband carriers to comply with so-called Net neutrality regulations concerning Internet traffic. Having opted “to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment…

Jan 14, 2014 8:55 PM CST

Federal judge rebukes Apple for its conduct to court-appointed monitor, defends his $1K hourly rate

Weighing in for the first time on a long-simmering dispute between Apple Inc. and a court-appointed monitor, a federal judge in New York on Monday rebuked the company for its treatment of the monitor and defended his $1,100 billable hourly rate. The computer Goliath had sought an order removing Goodwin…

Jan 14, 2014 5:10 PM CST