Delaware

Ex-Partners’ Suit Says Law Firm Leader’s Affair with Another Practice Group Lawyer Forced Them Out

Two attorneys have sued a well-known Boston law firm and its managing partner, contending that his alleged affair with one plaintiff’s wife, who is also a lawyer there, cost both their jobs. Now partners at Nixon Peabody, estate planning attorneys Lawrence Cohen and Jay Rosenbaum say they were forced out…

Jan 14, 2012 12:07 AM CST

Big Payday for Shareholder Suit Lawyers: Del. Chancery Court Awards $285M Attorney’s Fee

A near-record verdict for Southern Peru Copper Co. in a Delaware shareholder derivative suit has resulted in a monster payday for the company’s counsel. The $285 million earned by Pennsylvania-based Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and Prickett, Jones & Elliott of Wilmington, Del., may be the highest amount ever awarded…

Dec 19, 2011 7:34 PM CST

New Smartphone Suit re Data-Sharing Software Targets Apple, Wireless Cos., Device Makers, Carrier IQ

In at least the third would-be class action filed since technology blogger Trevor Eckhart last month reported that smartphones are providing carriers with private information about individual users, eight major defendants are accused in a federal lawsuit (PDF) filed Dec. 2 in Delaware of violating wiretap law via their common…

Dec 6, 2011 1:44 AM CST

Fed. Circuit: Incorporating in Delaware Doesn’t Force a Company to Defend a Federal Suit There

Granting a writ of mandamus, a federal appellate court has rejected the notion that incorporating in Delaware is a controlling factor in determining whether a company must defend a lawsuit there. And, finding that a district court judge abused her discretion by holding otherwise, the appellate panel directed that a…

Dec 5, 2011 8:21 PM CST

Bankruptcy Trustee Sues Foley & Lardner, Says Legal Work Aided Client’s Massive Ponzi Scheme

Contending that legal work performed by Foley & Lardner helped a former client perpetrate a claimed Ponzi scheme that stripped some investors of their life savings as insiders looted assets, a trustee in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case for that client, DBSI Inc., has sued the law firm. Filed in…

Nov 4, 2011 2:53 PM CDT

Del. AG Alleges Deceptive Practices in Latest MERS Suit, Seeks Temporary Court-Ordered Shutdown

In an apparent new wrinkle among a growing wave of government litigation over a national electronic registry that circumvented the traditional system of recording mortgage assignments in county offices, the Delaware attorney general has filed suit against Merscorp Inc. alleging deceptive practices by its Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, according to…

Oct 27, 2011 8:29 PM CDT

Del. Chancery Court Violated Law with ‘Secret’ Business Arbitration Program, Fed’l Suit Says

A new corporate arbitration program hosted by what many consider the nation’s top business court violates the U.S. Constitution by holding “secret” judicial proceedings, contends a lawsuit that was filed today in federal court in Wilmington, Del., by the Delaware Coalition for Open Government Inc. Naming all five justices of…

Oct 25, 2011 10:55 PM 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

News Corp. Board Knew a Decade Ago About Computer Hacking By US Subs, Amended Suit Says

An amended lawsuit filed by News Corp. shareholders in Delaware Chancery Court today says the company’s board knew a decade ago that its U.S. subsidiaries were hacking competitors’ computers, Reuters reports. In addition to phone hacking on behalf of some of its journalists in the United Kingdom that is the…

Sep 13, 2011 10:53 PM CDT

Judge’s Holiday-Weekend Civility Class is Cancelled, But Attorney Manners Remain a Contentious Topic

A Delaware Superior Court judge’s plan to hold a holiday-weekend civility course on Sept. 4 for warring counsel in asbestos litigation was canceled by President Judge James T. Vaughn Jr., who reassigned the case to himself, according to the Wilmington News Journal. However, the issue of appropriate attorney manners clearly…

Sep 9, 2011 12:16 AM CDT

Judge Sets Mandatory Civility Course for Lawyers on Holiday Weekend Sunday, Says to Bring ‘Jammies’

It didn’t take long for another jurist to top a mandatory “kindergarten party” invitation made by a federal judge in Texas to apparently squabbling attorneys. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks scheduled the kindergarten party (since canceled) in his Austin courtroom on Sept. 1, a Thursday. But Del. Superior Court Judge…

Sep 2, 2011 7:57 PM CDT

Heirs of Frank Sinatra Step Up to Plate, Seek Role for Season Ticket Holders in Dodgers Bankruptcy

A judge overseeing the Delaware bankruptcy case of the Los Angeles Dodgers now has a new issue to resolve, reports Reuters: Should season ticket holders, to whom the heirs of Frank Sinatra, a famous fan of the baseball team, have added their voice, be allowed to speak for themselves in…

Aug 16, 2011 11:33 PM CDT

Thorp Reed Opens New Office, Its 5th, in Wilmington, Del., With Bankruptcy Focus

A venerable Pennsylvania-based business law firm has opened a new office in Wilmington, Del. It is expected to have a bankruptcy focus, a law firm press release announces. It will be the fifth office for the 100-attorney Thorp Reed & Armstrong, which was established in Pittsburgh in 1895. Thorp Reed…

Aug 15, 2011 6:53 PM CDT

Police Find $838K in Storage Locker of Disbarred Lawyer Who Sued over Past Cash Stash

Delaware police say they found $838,000 and two guns in a disbarred lawyer’s storage locker and $12,000 in his Chevy Tahoe on Saturday. The former lawyer, 66-year-old John Kennedy, was arrested at a Motel 6 after Wilmington police learned he was wanted in Texas on a charge of practicing law…

Aug 15, 2011 12:11 PM CDT

Embattled Widener Law Prof Suspended for 1 Year Without Pay, Ordered to Get Psychiatric Treatment

Twice exonerated by faculty panels of making racist and sexist statements, a Widener University law professor was, however, found by the second panel to have retaliated against the students who made the accusations against him. Now Lawrence Connell, who taught at the school for 26 years, has been suspended for…

Aug 9, 2011 2:46 PM CDT