Corporate Law

‘Certifiable saint’ but for indirect role in $2.4B fraud, ex-BigLaw partner gets 1 year in club fed

A former partner of Mayer Brown was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in federal prison for his role in a $2.4 billion fraud on investors in Refco Inc. Joseph P. Collins, 62, was allowed to remain free pending his appeal in the Manhattan federal court case, reports…

Jul 16, 2013 3:45 PM CDT

Debt collector agrees to pay record FTC fine of $3.2M, stop calling individuals multiple times daily

The world’s largest debt collection agency has agreed to pay a record $3.2 million civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission and eliminate abusive and harassing practices such as calling debtors multiple times daily. Expert Global Solutions, which is based in Texas, and its subsidiaries, have over 32,000 employees and…

Jul 10, 2013 2:10 PM CDT

Feds enforcing anti-harassment rules against banks, other creditors, closing debt-collection law gap

For decades, federal law has protected consumers from being harassed by debt collectors, including law firms. But there was one big loophole in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: It doesn’t apply to the actual debtors, such as banks with credit card operations, only the third parties that collect delinquent…

Jul 10, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

Post office photocopies envelopes of all mail sent in the US, says NY Times

It isn’t just when using the Internet and making cellphone calls that Americans should assume what used to be considered private information may be known by corporate and/or government entities. In what started as an effort to combat anthrax threats, the U.S. Postal Service photocopies the envelopes of all mail…

Jul 3, 2013 6:40 PM CDT

Day starts at 5:30 am for top lawyers at two gambling companies

Tim Donovan and Brian Larson are top lawyers for two well-known gambling companies. Each starts the day at 5:30 a.m., partly in order to have time to focus on work before the day’s onslaught of email, phone calls and issues begins. But the phone still rings, with calls from those…

Jul 2, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

Appeals court disqualifies BigLaw firm in big enviro case, says it can’t simply switch sides

Agreeing with a Minnesota trial judge who found a conflict of interest with a former Covington & Burling client could not be waived, a state appeals court has upheld its disqualification of the law firm from representing the state in a big environmental case against 3M Co. Although Covington argued,…

Jul 1, 2013 7:14 PM CDT

‘Patent privateers’ do legal legwork for big-time tech companies

Large companies cleaning out virtual storage rooms filled with dusty patents are finding new ways to monetize that old intellectual property—and smaller companies are quickly sprouting to help them. Dubbed “patent privateering,” the practice involves small companies whose only business operation is purchasing patents from megacorporations for the sole purpose…

Jul 1, 2013 8:30 AM CDT

SCOTUS limits the Alien Tort Statute, slowing suits against U.S. companies for action overseas

The case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., which sought to hold Dutch, British and Nigerian companies liable in U.S. courts for alleged atrocities in Nigeria, spent the better part of two years gestating at the U.S. Supreme Court. In April, the justices issued a decision sharply limiting the…

Jul 1, 2013 8:20 AM CDT

Shrinking legal spending: Corporate clients cut back on outside representation

A survey of in-house law departments shows corporate clients netting major savings by using certain tactics to reduce spending on outside law firms. Huron Consulting Group’s 2013 report, the Huron Legal Impact Benchmarking Survey, found participants realizing up to 54 percent lower external legal spending as a percentage of company…

Jul 1, 2013 7:29 AM CDT

Prominent law grad takes plea in $13M securities fraud, civil case against him and lawyer ongoing

A prominent graduate of an Oregon law school who once headed the state’s Republican party and was a candidate for governor has taken a plea in a criminal securities fraud case. Craig Berkman, 71, sobbed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday as he apologized and pleaded guilty to one…

Jun 28, 2013 12:25 PM CDT

Top regulatory counsel is off controversial case; four ‘reassigned’ lawyers are back on it

Following weeks of controversy over a disagreement between the general counsel for California’s utility regulator and four subordinate lawyers over the handling of an administrative case over a fatal gas explosion and fire in San Bruno, there has been a reversal of fortune. General counsel Frank Lindh, who at one…

Jun 27, 2013 6:30 PM CDT

1st Circuit upholds $675K award against Tenenbaum in long-running RIAA file-sharing case

Still fighting a $675,000 verdict awarded in 2009 in a copyright suit spearheaded by the Recording Industry Association of America, onetime Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum asked a federal appeals court to find that the hefty sum—which amounted, he said, to $22,500 for each illegally downloaded song—violated his due-process…

Jun 26, 2013 8:40 PM CDT

City sues both owner and supplier of fertilizer plant that exploded

The city of West, Texas, has filed a product liability lawsuit against both the owner of a fertilizer plant where a fiery explosion detonated with the force of an earthquake in April and the chemical company that supplied it with ammonium nitrate, Courthouse News reports. Defendant CF Industries and two…

Jun 26, 2013 7:30 PM CDT

Patton Boggs says 17 partners are exiting; some may open a Dallas office for Holland & Knight

Patton Boggs confirms that 17 partners of the firm announced last week they will be leaving. Most worked out of the firm’s Dallas office, but others were in Denver and Washington, D.C., the Washington Post (reg. req.) reports on its Capital Business page. At least some of the Dallas lawyers…

Jun 25, 2013 11:30 AM CDT

ACC hails virtual law firm Axiom among its ‘value champions’

More corporate legal departments are cutting costs through greater use of nontraditional legal service providers and boosting in-house capabilities, the Association of Corporate Counsel reported this week. The ACC announced the 12 winners of its 2013 ACC Value Champion initiative, honoring innovative legal departments and in-house counsel/law firm client service…

Jun 20, 2013 9:06 PM CDT