Corporate Law

Cotton Price Free Fall Puts Trade Group Arbitration at Center of Arguable Force Majeure Situation

Updated: Earlier this year, cotton was $2.15 a pound on the wholesale market. Now it’s down 54 percent from that high, to less than $1 a pound for December delivery. As a result of the precipitous price drop, some buyers are reneging on earlier contracts. That has led to a…

Oct 25, 2011 12:01 AM CDT

Peter Mullen, Skadden Partner Who Built Megafirm With Joseph Flom, Is Dead of Heart Attack at 83

Peter Mullen, a New York lawyer who worked with Joseph H. Flom for many years to build Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom into a powerhouse megafirm, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 83 years old. When Mullen joined Skadden in 1961, after being refused a partnership at…

Oct 20, 2011 12:30 AM CDT

New Del. Chancery Chief Awards $1.26B in Stock Suit, Raps Wachtell Ex-Partner re ‘Unfair’ Valuation

Saying that a special committee used “a series of economic contortions” to justify a Delaware corporation’s plan to pay a premium $3.1 billion price to purchase a company owned by a majority shareholder, the new chief judge of the state’s chancery court has awarded $1.26 billion to the purchaser, Southern…

Oct 17, 2011 10:55 PM CDT

Supreme Court Accepts Two Cases Involving Reach of Liability Laws for Overseas Human Rights Abuses

The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted two cases seeking to hold corporations and organizations accountable for overseas human rights violations. One case considers whether subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell can be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute, according to SCOTUSblog, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal…

Oct 17, 2011 4:49 PM CDT

Hertz Fires 34 Drivers at Seattle Airport, All Somali Muslims, for Praying on Company Time

Two years ago, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission helped unionized shuttle drivers for the Hertz rental car company work out a settlement under which they were allowed to clock out to pray during their two 10-minute breaks. But that clock-out policy was never enforced, the drivers, who work at Seattle-Tacoma…

Oct 7, 2011 11:21 PM CDT

$18B Enviro Case a ‘Donnybrook’ for Parties’ Law Firms; ‘Both Sides Hate Each Other,’ Law Prof Says

It’s not unusual to see opposing attorneys become friends again the moment a hard-fought case or courtroom argument is over. But unlike many counsel for whom the war of words is something of an act, corporate attorneys at two prominent United States law firms engaged in pitched battle over an…

Oct 7, 2011 12:15 AM CDT

UK Consumers Could Buy Legal Services With Bread, Milk and Eggs as Soon as January, Under New Law

A much-anticipated new law that will revolutionize the provision of legal services to consumers in the United Kingdom and allow non-attorneys to invest in and help run “alternative business structures” expected to operate much like law firms takes effect this month. But it will still be a while before the…

Oct 6, 2011 11:52 PM CDT

Pork Producers Threaten Litigation Over Prison’s Response to Muslim Inmates’ Meal Lawsuit

In an effort to address complaints by Muslim inmates that the Ohio prison system doesn’t provide them with halal meals prepared in accord with their religion’s dietary laws, administrators decided simply to ban pork from the menu. But that didn’t derail the halal-meal litigation, reports the Associated Press. And now…

Oct 5, 2011 11:03 PM CDT

Federal Judge Fines NY Lawyer $6,400 for Rambling Depositions in Losing Case

Warned last year by a federal judge in New York that he would face sanctions if his discovery rambled on at length or didn’t elicit relevant information, an attorney has now been sanctioned “$400 per wasted hour.” Attorney Michael Q. Carey was fined a total of $6,400 by Judge Paul…

Oct 5, 2011 9:23 PM CDT

Lawyer and Ex-Client Charged in Perjury and Obstruction Case re Failed Hospital and Offshore Trust

An Indiana lawyer and his former client have been federally indicted in Chicago in a perjury and obstruction case related to the demise of an Illinois hospital in which both formerly had an ownership interest. Attorney Frederick M. Cuppy and Peter G. Rogan are accused of standing in the way…

Oct 4, 2011 5:13 PM CDT

Red-Flagging China: Regulators Eye Chinese Companies Using Reverse Mergers to Enter US

Illustration by Viktor Koen There’s more than one way for a company to get listed on U.S. public exchanges. The most traditional is the initial public offering, where a private company works with an underwriter to determine what type of security to issue, the best offering price and when to…

Oct 1, 2011 8:40 AM CDT

Blended to Perfection: Mixing Legal Skills with a Penchant for Startups

Photo of J. Eric Davis by Wayne Slezak Entrepreneurial expertise and legal skills are a rare mix. They’ve proven to be a successful combination for J. Eric Davis, a corporate lawyer and venture capitalist who has carved a niche helping university technologies morph into commercial ventures. “I’m a hybrid because…

Oct 1, 2011 7:30 AM CDT

October 19, 1982: John DeLorean Arrested

At the age of 40, John DeLorean became the youngest person to ever head a division at General Motors. Seven years later, in 1972, he was named a vice president. With his stylish dress and jet-setting lifestyle, he was scarcely the standard-issue organization man; nevertheless, he seemed destined to take…

Oct 1, 2011 5:40 AM CDT

In Latest Misclassification Suit, Interns on Hit Movie Black Swan Seek Pay for the Work of 100s

Under labor laws, for-profit companies generally can’t legally replace a paid worker with an unpaid intern. But some employers nonetheless do so, and there’s no shortage of young people eager to get a foot in the door in a down economy who are willing to work for free. There a…

Sep 29, 2011 12:44 PM CDT

The Point Man: Steven Berrent, WilmerHale

Forecasting where technology can take litigation and understanding the steps needed to get there are great strengths of Steven Berrent’s, say those who know the managing director of WilmerHale’s Discovery Solutions. The in-house document review program uses technology that searches and organizes information. “The old way of doing document review…

Sep 28, 2011 1:54 PM CDT