Corporate Law

Company sues former law firm, says failure to detect issues before IPO cost millions

A Florida-based company that sells health products over the Internet has sued its former law firm, contending that it lost millions because Shefsky & Froehlich failed to detect and inform its leaders, prior to going forward with an initial public offering, of corporate governance and capital structure issues. In the…

Apr 16, 2013 5:35 PM CDT

New litigation funding company will advance money to corporate defendants

There’s a new entrant in the litigation funding market that will focus on commercial and big-bucks matters. The new company, Gerchen Keller Capital, includes former lawyers from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, report the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and the National Law Journal.…

Apr 8, 2013 1:38 PM CDT

Booted from big enviro case, Covington blames ex-client for not protesting conflict earlier

A Minnesota judge last year agreed with 3M Co. that its longtime counsel, Covington & Burling, could not continue to represent the state in a big environmental lawsuit against the corporation. But even if a legal ethics rule would otherwise have prohibited the representation, Covington should be allowed to continue…

Apr 5, 2013 9:36 PM CDT

Ex-client sues Shearman, says firm didn’t warn of $76M pension shortfall before deal closed

A former client has sued Shearman & Sterling, contending that the law firm failed to warn him about $76 million in underfunded pension liability before a deal went through as part of a corporate reorganization plan concerning two of his companies. Newsprint magnate Peter Brant alleges that as a result…

Apr 3, 2013 9:37 PM CDT

SEC greenlights social media sites for company news, won’t pursue Netflix chief over Facebook post

Because the rules for corporate use of social media websites weren’t clear, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission won’t seek to impose regulatory sanctions on the CEO of Netflix Inc. over a Facebook post last July about the company’s booming business. But the SEC released a copy of its investigation…

Apr 2, 2013 10:23 PM CDT

4 lawyers exit top local firm to open new Wilmington, Del., office for K&L Gates

K&L Gates is the only Pittburgh-based BigLaw firm without an office in Philadelphia. But it now has one a short distance away in Wilmington, Del., which is opening with a four-lawyer corporate group from one of the city’s longtime top law firms. Partners Eric Feldman, Nicholas Froio, Christina Houston and…

Apr 1, 2013 10:01 PM CDT

Expert in legal-fee fight blasts ‘make believe’ game over cost of contract lawyers to do doc review

Even in the New York metropolitan area, the reasonable cost of hiring a contract lawyer from a staffing agency to do document review work in a securities class action case is, at most, $50 to $75 an hour, an expert said in a declaration (PDF) filed last month in federal…

Apr 1, 2013 5:38 PM CDT

Set a schedule to dump useless info

Law firms in the looming shadow of their dark data—collected information with no discernible value—may find a bright solution by developing a formal protocol to systematically destroy it. The approach, dubbed a records retention schedule, should enable law firms and their clients to regularly jettison the burgeoning morass of irrelevant…

Apr 1, 2013 6:49 AM CDT

Baker Botts gets another $5.2M in litgation over $142M fee award in $6B bankruptcy case

After years of litigation, Baker Botts was awarded another $5.2 million in legal fees on Tuesday for defending its earlier $142 million fee award for representing a copper mining operation in a bankruptcy case. The law firm’s representation of Asarco LLC was part of a long-running legal battle that began…

Mar 28, 2013 6:13 PM CDT

Attorney and law firm must pay $67K in legal fees for ‘vexatious’ suit challenging airline merger

In an unusual move, a federal appeals court has sanctioned a prominent San Francisco plaintiffs law firm and its name partner by ordering reimbursement of $67,495 in opponent legal fees for pursuing what opponents called “unreasonable and vexatious” litigation over an airline merger. Joseph Alioto and the Alioto Law Firm…

Mar 25, 2013 5:53 PM CDT

EEOC sues Toys ‘R’ Us, says company failed to provide interpreter for deaf job applicant

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodation to workers, unless doing so would be an undue hardship. What exactly is required, in a given case, can be open to interpretation. But for a big company like Toys “R” Us there’s virtually no question that…

Mar 20, 2013 5:22 PM CDT

White & Case opens Madrid office with team of Latham lawyers

The Latham & Watkins lawyer in charge of the firm’s corporate work in Spain has led a team to White & Case. Juan Manuel De Remedios, who will serve as executive partner in Madrid for his new firm, is a capital markets and mergers and acquisitions specialist licensed to practice…

Mar 19, 2013 8:21 PM CDT

FTC can serve foreign defendants via Facebook, federal judge rules

The Hague Service Convention doesn’t expressly authorize service on foreign defendants by email or social media accounts. But, saying that a U.S. court has the power under the treaty and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to approve supplemental means of service, a federal judge in Manhattan has OK’d a…

Mar 13, 2013 4:58 PM CDT

Google to pay $7M over Street View data scoop, critics call huge sum a pittance for Web giant

In one of the largest settlements ever reached over an Internet privacy violation involving unauthorized access into consumer accounts, Google has agreed to pay $7 million to a coalition of state attorneys general over what the search engine goliath has called an inadvertent data scoop during the compilation of photographs…

Mar 12, 2013 7:31 PM CDT

‘Girls Gone Wild’ company files for bankruptcy to deal with ‘frivolous and burdensome legal affairs’

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company that produces the racy Girls Gone Wild videos was apparently prompted by large judgments in several tort cases. However, GGW Brands LLC said in a written statement that its Wednesday filing in federal bankruptcy court in Los Angeles would not prevent the…

Mar 1, 2013 6:27 PM CST